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beefromanoff · 10 months

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Going Under Ch. 5

summary: Bucky Barnes is assigned to head the security detail of an internationally beloved singer named Gianna as his next mission.

characters: Bucky Barnes x OC

soundtrack: sleeping with a friend - neon trees; phantoms and friends - old man canyon

warnings: fluff, pop star fantasy x love story, set in an AU where the Avengers reunite after Civil War, pre-infinity war, slight angst, hurt/comfort, lonely reader/OC.

author’s note: realizing this story combines all my favorite things right now...the Anakin/Padme dynamic of love interests/assigned protection, the Taylor Swift eras tour content all over my FYP, and of course, James Buchanan Barnes.

chapter list/links - xo

Standing backstage, Bucky shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his dark jeans, watching as Gianna took the stage. Tonight’s show would be the first time she was performing the song they had written together live in concert, and he was nervous. Since it wasn’t recorded or released yet, she planned to sing it in the encore as a special acoustic version for her fans. He’d seen dozens of her shows, and every single one went to at least one encore, sometimes even more. The time she chose to do a third encore, Bucky had been tempted to walk out onstage, throw Gianna over his shoulder, and force her to leave the show. He’d held back, seeing the light in her eyes that didn’t seem to dim as she sang to a stadium full of people who adored her. He did, however, give Tom and the tour staff a very pointed warning that anyone who woke her up before noon the following day would risk losing the hand that knocked on her hotel room door.

Several hours later, the final song faded out and all Bucky could hear were the screams of the crowd. He wondered if he’d ever get used to the deafening roar of tens of thousands of screaming teenage girls, made even more unbearable by his heightened super soldier hearing.

“Great job, doll. Took my breath away.” Bucky winked, handing Gianna a glass of water as she walked offstage. She gulped the glass down, too parched to respond, but the look she gave him over the top of the plastic cup made his stomach turn. Her green eyes didn’t break eye contact with him as Kate dabbed her brow and another stage hand checked the settings on her earpiece. Gianna didn’t seem to notice anything but Bucky, and he almost felt himself shrink under her undivided attention. Especially knowing what she was about to do.

Just like all the nights before, not one person had left the stadium. The chants of encore, encore echoed throughout the arena, only growing louder the longer Gianna held out.

Tucking her hair back over her earpiece, she remained locked on Bucky. “Are you ready for this?” Her eyes showed genuine concern. “I don’t have to sing this one, if it’s too soon, if you’d rather not -”

Bucky cut her off, tilting her chin up to look at him as he stood inches from her face. The cool vibranium felt heavenly against her hot skin as he did so.

“I’ve been waiting for this all night.”

He looked back and forth between her eyes, shoving down the nerves he felt at something so vulnerable about to be shared with thousands of people. He reminded himself that no one would know what the song was about, or the circumstances it was written under. No one would know about that rainy day in the hotel room that changed their relationship from contracted security to something deeper and not yet defined.

Gianna nodded, a smile spreading across her pink glossed lips as she reached for her microphone from the stage manager standing beside her, parting the curtain. She took a deep breath, her chest twinkling with the sweat beads still illuminated in the neon lights.

Turning on her heel, Gianna walked back to the stage, taking a seat at the piano on the far side. She was facing the side of the stage where Bucky stood in the wings, shifting his weight as he waited for her to begin.

“If it’s alright with everyone tonight, I thought I’d play a little something I haven’t gotten to share with the world yet.” Gianna’s eyes twinkled as she teased the fans. The crowd erupted and lit up with tiny pinpricks of light from every phone rising into the air. It looked like she was singing to a sea of stars. Bucky swallowed nervously, trying to focus on the beauty of the moment and not the prospect of this song being played for millions of people via the internet. He always seemed to forget about it, no matter how many different iterations of it were scrawled down in his notebook.

“Okay, okay,” Gianna laughed, quieting the crowd down. “This song was written on this very tour, with someone who has come to mean a great deal to me.” If it weren’t for his super soldier eyesight, Bucky would never have noticed Gianna’s eyes searching for him in the wings. He took a step forward, letting the light illuminate him while remaining hidden from the crowd. Her eyes softened when she spotted him.

“This song is about strength, struggle, and coming back to ourselves on the other side. I hope you all feel a little of yourselves in this one. It’s called…Going Under.”

The crowd roared and then quickly quieted down as she began to play, fingers dancing over the keys. Bucky stood stiff and still, soaking in everything from the sound of her voice echoing through the room to the fans in the front row wiping their eyes on their sleeves.

Blurring and stirring the truth and the lies (so I don't know what's real)

(So I don't know what's real and what's not)

(Don't know what's real and what's not)

Always confusing the thoughts in my head

So I can't trust myself anymore

Gianna sang the lines that had gutted him the first time he heard them. After such a vicious struggle reclaiming his own mind, endless hours of work and therapy to find himself in his own mind, and years of brainwashing convincing him of what he was and what he wasn’t…these words sank heavily into his skin.

Her powerful voice filled the arena, stronger and bolder than the soft rendition he’d heard in the hotel room, and the words they had written together based on his history as the Winter Soldier took on new meaning.

For the first time, Bucky was able to see his horrific past as something other than shameful. He felt a sense of pride and gratitude that Gianna had been able to take his experiences and turn them into something beautiful. Everyone backstage had paused their closing duties to listen to her sing. He heard a chorus of soft voices saying “wow” and “this is her next hit” from the team gathered behind him.

As the encore came to a close, Bucky stood ready to escort Gianna offstage. Instead of the usual hand outstretched to guide her to the green room, he greeted her with the tightest hug Gianna had ever felt. Typically the extent of their physical contact was Bucky’s hand grazing her back as he guided her through crowds, and that was mostly unintentional. This was different. Warm, firm, assuring, full of gratitude, and something else Gianna wasn’t sure if she was imagining. She closed her eyes and relaxed into him, feeling her sheer exhaustion for the first time all day.

They stood like that for several moments before a sharp voice yanked them from their own world.

“Hey! Stop! You can’t go back there!” Bucky opened his eyes to see a thirty-something man in a mask running towards Gianna, having hopped the barrier and evaded the preoccupied security. The man was barreling towards them with a crazed look in his eye, but didn’t appear to be armed. Bucky rolled Gianna behind him and took two powerful steps forward, left arm rearing back. There was a resounding thud as Bucky’s metal hand collided with the man’s skull, and a second one as the man landed on the stage, unconscious.

Gianna gasped, unable to process what had happened in a matter of seconds, but Bucky didn’t hesitate. He put his arm around her shoulders and began weaving her purposefully through the backstage chaos. Her vision blurred with fear, confusion, and exhaustion as Gianna struggled t keep up with Bucky’s long strides. She heard him talking into his earpiece, but her ears were still ringing with the sound of the man’s head smacking the hard stage floor.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the warmth of Bucky pressed against her side and the weight of his arm resting on her shoulders. She heard a whoosh of the sliding door, felt the cool night air on her skin, and hear sirens in the distance.

Gianna opened her eyes to see the black SUV parked right outside the back entrance to the stadium, but the bus was nowhere to be found.

“Get in. We aren’t taking any chances.” Bucky growled, eyes scanning everything around them. Gianna nodded and climbed in through the door he was holding open for her. Bucky joined her in the backseat and the private driver peeled out of the parking lot. Glancing over at him, Gianna noticed that Bucky’s hand was firmly resting on his right hip, where she assumed he had a gun holstered.

He must have felt her eyes on him, because he tore his eyes from the window and looked to his left where Gianna was sitting. His eyes softened, seeing her trembling from a mixture of fear, adrenaline, and cold sweat from the show.

“Hey, don’t be scared, this is what I’m here for. We haven’t had an incident so far on this tour and nothing happened.” Bucky tried to keep the angry edge out of his voice. Reaching for her hand, he spoke softly.

“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise you, Gianna. That guy never had a chance.” He squeezed her hand and she smiled sheepishly.

“Thank you, Buck. It all happened so fast, I didn’t even…and you moved so quickly…it was weird to see you like that, so intense…” She fumbled over her words, eyes glossing as she recalled the events playing out. Bucky stiffened next to her, worried that she was afraid of him.

“It was cool, you know, seeing you like that.” She flipped her hand over to squeeze his. “You’re kind of a badass.” Bucky looked up and locked eyes with her again.

“Just doing my job.”

At that moment, with her green eyes locked on Bucky’s, it hit him how important his role on the tour was. He wasn't just there to protect Gianna physically, which proved to be more necessary than he’d originally thought, he was there to provide emotional support and comfort to a scared and lonely girl. Whether or not that was in the contract that Stark had given him, Bucky didn’t care. If he was all she had, he was determined to be everything she needed.

They took a service elevator back to the room and crept through the halls, Bucky remaining glued to her side as Gianna walked along. They got to her room and she slid the card into the door with trembling hands.

“Your bag should already be on the bed, Tom gathered it for you. The room has already been cleared, but I can do it again if you’d like.” Bucky stood in the doorway, one hand above Gianna’s head to prop it open.

“I’d appreciate that…y’know, can’t be too safe.” Gianna mumbled, flipping on every light switch in her reach. Bucky nodded and walked into the room, combing it for anything unusual. He ran his fingers over every door frame, checked each closet, and found nothing.

“Alright doll, you’re good to go. You gonna be okay?” Walking over to where Gianna sat on the edge of her king sized bed, still in full sequin leotard and heels, he tilted her chin up to look at him. Bucky felt a pang in his chest when he saw the streaks where her tears had torn through her makeup.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m all good. Thank you again.” She stood, mustering a smile. “Knight in shining armor and all.” Gianna reached for his hand, weaving her soft fingers through his metal ones. “Literally.”

Bucky chuckled, relieved she still had her sense of humor after a rough night.

“I guess that would make you a princess, which doesn’t seem like too big of a stretch.” Bucky’s voice was low and soft, gentler than she’d heard it before. He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and regarded her for a moment. Gianna couldn’t read him if she tried.

“If you need anything tonight, anything at all, just ring my room. I’ll be here before you can even get my name out.” He squeezed her hand.

Gianna felt a lump in her throat and hot tears welling up. Not wanting to seem childish or weak for being so upset over something that almost happened, she didn’t speak. She fixed her eyes on the ground and nodded, standing to walk him to the door.

As Bucky walked through and pulled out his keycard from his back pocket, he heard Gianna’s voice, barely above a whisper.

“Don’t go.”

He hesitated, unsure if he heard what he thought he did. He looked over his shoulder, still holding the room key in his right hand.

“Stay with me. Please.”

She stood in the doorway, illuminated from behind with all the lights in the hotel room left on. The way the rays of light shone around her made her look like some kind of angel. Some kind of sad, scared angel. Bucky let the door fall shut behind him and crossed the hall towards her.

“Whatever you need.”

She let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, unsure how he’d respond to her asking him to stay the night with her. Even given the circumstances, there wasn’t any way around the fact that her room only had one bed.

“Give me two minutes to get my stuff, I’ll be right back.” Bucky gave her a reassuring look. “You can time me if you want.”

Gianna smiled at the super soldier’s attempts to be goofy, and slunk back into her room. She wiped off her makeup, throwing her lashes in the garbage and running the hottest shower the hotel pipes had to offer. She heard Bucky let himself back in and set his bag down outside the bathroom door.

“I’m here, doll. Take as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere.” He rapped his metal knuckles softly on the door, a random but comforting thing he’d taken to doing when he had to retrieve her from her hotel room in the morning or green room before the show.

After scrubbing her skin and rinsing all the hairspray and most of the glitter from her hair, Gianna emerged from the bathroom in the hotel’s plush robe and slippers. Her feet ached from the extended time in her heels tonight. The excess cushion in the slippers felt like heaven. She rounded the corner into the bedroom to find Bucky pacing, talking on the phone.

He’d turned off the overhead lights but left all the lamps on, and even pulled back the covers so the bed was prepared for her to collapse into.

“I gotta go, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Bucky said to whoever was on the other end of his call. “Yeah, send me any details you can come up with. Thanks Nat.”

Bucky shoved his phone into the pocket of his sweatpants, a look Gianna couldn’t help but appreciate. He was typically in slight variations of the same outfit every day. Leather jacket, dark jeans, tactical boots, various holster buckles visible from different angles when he moved.

Tonight, he looked softer, more human. He wore dark grey sweats with a black t-shirt that read Stark Enterprises across the chest. She let her eyes wander over him, soaking in this unfamiliar look. The shirt was snug across his chest and even more so on his arms. The short sleeves revealed more of his metal arm than she was used to seeing, and it caught the lamp light when he moved. Bucky ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath, turning to face Gianna. The dog tags hanging around his neck clinked as he lowered his hand.

Tousling her damp hair with the towel, Gianna sat down on the bed. “Who’s Nat?”

“Natasha, she uh, works with me. She’s good, we should know this guy’s blood type and childhood stuffed animal’s name by the time we wake up in the morning.”

“Natasha, she’s Black Widow right? I’ve seen her before, online and on the news, and wow - I can’t believe you just called her up, you are way, WAY cooler, than me…” Gianna gushed.

Bucky couldn’t help but notice how young she looked. The excitement over Natasha, her bare face and wet hair, the way she was swallowed up by the robe and the giant bed, she seemed so small. So innocent. So undeserving of tonight’s circumstance. Selfishly, part of him was glad it had happened. He wasn’t sure there was really a need for him on this tour or if Tony had just given him this assignment to throw him a bone and keep him busy.

Now, after tonight, he knew he was there for good reason. He tried to force away the small part of him that was thankful for the scare, because without it, he wouldn’t be crossing the room to spend the night with Gianna Cruz.

He perched on the edge of the bed, giving her a sympathetic smile. “Feel better?”

She nodded and widened her eyes to show how serious she was. “Oh, god, yeah. The attempted assault, or whatever that was, that was bad, but those heels were the real crime.”

“You’re a real trooper.” Bucky teased. “I figured I’d just sleep on the chair, I don’t want -”

“No!” Gianna startled him with her abrupt response. “Sorry, I uh, I just really want…I want to be held tonight.” Looking down at her hands in her lap, she fidgeted with the belt of her robe.

“It’s just been lonely, I guess, and tonight was so scary, and sometimes I have nightmares anyways, and you’re already here so I just thought…maybe you wouldn’t mind…” As she trailed off, she looked up to meet Bucky’s eyes. When he saw the way she looked up at him, his heart melted and turned to stone all at once. He knew he would do anything this strawberry blonde little thing asked him to do, hell, he’d throw himself off another train if it meant keeping her safe. He knew that he’d stop at nothing to protect her, and that scared him. He knew what he was capable of without having someone dear to him to protect…but now? He pushed the thought out of his mind and smiled.

“Whatever you need.” He sat down beside her, sliding his legs underneath the plush white comforter. Propping his back against the wall, Bucky lifted his arm so Gianna could crawl underneath it. She rested her head on his chest and nuzzled in, her hair leaving a damp spot on his shirt. He felt her sigh and then relax, as if she hadn’t taken a deep breath all day. Her shoulders rose and fell with her breathing, and Bucky used his left hand to stroke her hair out of her face.

Her eyelids fluttered open and looked up at him one more time. Wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, Bucky knew that he couldn't erase the trauma of what had just happened, but he could be there for her in that moment. He could stay through the night and until she didn’t want him there anymore.

As they laid together, Bucky realized that he had come a long way since he first started working with Gianna. He had gone from being a distant and cold bodyguard, reluctantly assigned to protect a twenty-something singer, to being the one holding her as she fell asleep.

“G?” Bucky asked softly, wondering if she’d drifted off yet.

“Mm-hmm?”

“Your song was incredible tonight. I never got to tell you.”

Her cheeks turned the slightest bit pink, and he saw her smile into his chest.

“Our song.”

#bucky barnes #bucky fluff #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes x oc #james bucky barnes #avengers #winter solider x reader #winter soldier fluff #winter soldier

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blueberry-lemon · 2 months

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When trailers outshine themselves

I like watching trailers. Maybe even more now than I used to.

I’m well aware that the purpose of a trailer is to build hype and interest. It’s a commercial, to get you to buy something. In some cases, they spoil or ruin the very story they’re advertising. In some cases, it’s way better to go in “blind” than to look at marketing materials.

But, like many of us, I can’t help myself.

I really love a good trailer. It’s a cool artform. Somewhere between an advertisement and a music video. And because the trailer is such a different artform than the actual movie or game that it’s advertising, sometimes the trailer itself is even better than the final product. Sometimes I’ll go back and rewatch a trailer over and over, even after I’ve completed the actual thing it was hyping it.

I write this post not to complain about being disappointed about films or TV shows or games, but rather to give a shout-out to the trailer teams who I think did a fantastic job with their assignment.

The first examples that always jump to my mind are from Marvel Studios. I think they’re pretty great at trailers. I started noticing this when they started making their Disney+ shows.

WandaVision: Both the initial trailer and the mid-season trailer are fantastic. I’ve watched them over and over. They do a good job of being charming, romantic, and lovesick. They do an even better job of being mysterious and unsettling. It’s a pitch-perfect way to get you to buy into the concept and want to check out the show. I enjoyed watching the full WandaVision show, maybe moreso than any other MCU Disney+ show, but I wouldn’t hesitate to admit that I like these two trailers even more than the show. Kudos to the editors that put these together.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier: I had absolutely no intention of watching this show. I’m not particularly interested in this genre or either of these two characters. But the trailer sold me on it, with its hype music choices and intense cutting. I ended up enjoying the show enough in the end, but definitely not as much as this hype trailer.

I thought Marvel did a great job again with Loki’s trailer and Hawkeye’s trailer. Loki’s trailer makes the show seem a lot more mysterious and surreal than it actually ended up being, haha. Hawkeye does that classic “sweet Christmas music juxtaposed with action sequences” trick.

They got me again with Moon Knight, a character I didn’t know anything about. Although I’ll give credit, I feel like Moon Knight was about as weird and wild as the trailer hyped up it would be. So in this case I think it was a satisfying match.

Another satisfying match? The trailers made for Undertale. The release trailer and Nintendo Switch trailer come to mind. They’re fun, funny, and show off how the game works. I love this unique version of the Bonetrousle track that they use, which becomes very dramatic and grandiose. They’re also good examples of including original material into trailers that aren’t actually in the final product. That practice, generally speaking, doesn’t bother me. I don’t mind if trailers “lie” or show different footage, so long as it’s effective and doesn’t feel misleading.

There are other trailers that I feel like match pretty well. I didn’t feel any gulf in expectation or emotion between the trailers for Avengers Infinity War + Endgame versus their final movie versions.

The trailers for Pixar’s Turning Red made me blubber and tear up, and the full film completely lived up to that and even exceeded it. So for me, that was a great film where the trailer editors captured it perfectly.

And for an example of one where I felt mixed on the end product, both the trailer for Pixar’s Elemental and the full Elemental film felt pretty equivalent to me. It wasn’t my favorite movie in the world, and I feel like I got that vibe accurately from the trailers.

But now, finally, for the trailers that brought me to writing this.

I really love the trailers for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

I’ll include two here. One is the “release date announcement”, and the second was the “theme song announcement” that was aired at The Game Awards.

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This is great. It’s moody. It moves into one of the game’s fantastic battle themes (which is itself a sweeping battle rendition of the original game’s main theme.) It’s shows off how the combat works beautifully, intercut with tantalizing plot snippets. The trailer builds up mystery and adventure. It confirms that Yuffie and Cait Sith are playable. It shows cool Synergy combo moves. It manages to somehow transition gracefully into Golden Saucer minigame mayhem. Love it.

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Another fantastic one. And the last piece of marketing material I would ever need to see to sell me on getting the game.

The trailer is split into two halves. The first half establishes the plot of the game. It gives us Cloud and Zack’s stories intertwined. It shows us weird, confusing story stuff that sets the Remake trilogy apart from the original. It shows us different environments you’ll travel through. Gives us a heartfelt conversation between Cloud and Tifa. Snippets of Barret’s story too.

The second half is the new original song for the game, No Promises to Keep, which was performed live at The Game Awards along with the footage. I really adore this song, to be blunt, so maybe that’s doing a lot of heavy lifting here. But it really makes me emotional and ties a lot of these disparate clips together. The animation of Aerith singing is beautiful, and it ends on a heart-tugging cliffhanger.

Now….my partner and I have been playing Rebirth. I’m early on, but they’ve only got about a quarter of the game left. We’re enjoying it, it’s great.

But…

…would it be out of line for me to say that the trailers are more effective than the game itself?

Much like WandaVision, the trailers for Rebirth sew all of the different scenes and emotions together into a seamless tapestry. It makes everything feel intentional, beautiful, well-paced, and packing an emotional punch. When my partner and I play the game itself, it feels harder for that intentionality and emotion to come through. Of course your mileage will vary. But, for me, it’s hard for the minigames to live up to the frantic montage when playing them in-game isn’t super fun. It’s hard for the emotional storytelling of the game to live up to the trailer when it’s spread out thin over hours and hours. Nothing in the game itself as made me feel as emotional or hooked in as these two trailers have, at least so far.

Again, this is not a knock on Rebirth. It’s the reality of how much easier it is to move hearts with a 2-minute trailer versus a 60-hour video game. A completely different artform.

And, most of all, it’s kudos to the trailer teams who work at Square and at all these companies for knowing the assignment and knocking it out of the park. I really love what they did with it.

#blogofkylelab #blog #final fantasy vii rebirth #ff7 rebirth #Youtube

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xb-squaredx · 6 months

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The Avengers Game: The Surefire Hit That Misfired

With the stronghold that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had on pop culture for the past decade, it was all the more puzzling that they didn’t capitalize on that in the realm of video games. Superhero video games have been a thing since the medium began, but for the longest time Marvel’s gaming efforts were few and far between, outside of the rare Spider-Man title. But in 2017 a collaboration between Square Enix and Marvel was announced, with a variety of game products teased, among them being a project centered on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. On paper, this seemed like a complete slam dunk. A prolific AAA game developer, a hot IP that hadn’t had a lot of game action in a while, and it would be landing right when the MCU hype was at its peak with the back-to-back hits of Infinity War and Endgame. But that wasn’t what happened. Something went wrong, and the surefire hit….misfired. Just before the game’s delisting at the end of September 2023, I ended up purchasing the game on a deep discount, curious at what all the fuss was about. So let’s talk about how this game ended up the way it did.

A FALSE START

Marvel’s Avengers launched in September of 2020, and to say the launch was rough would be an understatement. Broken matchmaking, a litany of bugs and performance issues, and a deeply unsatisfied fanbase. While it’s clear the pandemic had played a huge part in the game’s lackluster release state, the fact it was allowed to release like this at all was worrying. Only a month later player numbers on PC had dropped significantly and the game seemingly was in its death throes. In March of 2021 the next-gen console versions of the game released, and with it a multitude of fixes and additional content. It was clear this was an attempted re-launch of the game, but you know what they say about first impressions…

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Now, to give the developers some credit, there were legitimate attempts to improve the game and add more worthwhile content. They didn’t just cut and run and leave players holding the bag. Effort was put in to making the game better and trying to right the ship, though the damage had already been done with the game’s reputation. Even as someone who got the game far after every patch and fix went out, I still encountered a ton of issues and on my last-gen PS4 console the overall experience was still rough. It feels like a game that really should have been next-gen only, but was pushed out to the last-gen systems to get as much profit as possible, in a manner similar to the ill-fated launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The sad truth here is that regardless of patches and additions to the game, no matter how many bugs they fixed and feedback they implemented, there were problems with the very core of the game, and in order to properly address these issues…they would have been better off making a new game from scratch.

THE GEAR SCORE MAKES THE HERO

One of the most hotly debated aspects of Marvel’s Avengers was its status as a live-service game. At a time when the “games as a service” bubble was about to burst, fans had largely grown intolerant of more games coming out competing for their time and money, and if you are going to market yourself as a “forever game” with tons of ways to spend money and get players to log in every day, you have to make it worth it for them and…well, I think the game’s overall reception and failure speaks for itself.

So much of Marvel’s Avengers is grinding for grinding’s sake. Everything takes longer to unlock and build up than it should, clearly designed in such a way to squeeze money out of the playerbase. After a certain point, the goal is no longer to make a satisfying game for players and instead to make it into an infinite revenue machine. At the game’s launch you had TONS of cosmetics that could only be gotten through a tedious grind of in-game currency….or you just pay up with real money. At one point the developers even tried to market an experience boosting item for players, before it was removed due to protest. Keep in mind this was a full-price game. Just a few years prior we had Marvel’s Spider-Man as a solid single-player game that had NO microtransactions at all, and a TON of costumes you could unlock by…playing the game. How novel! Speaking of Spider-Man, let’s not forget that one of the most popular superheroes of all time was made into a PlayStation exclusive for no other reason than greed. Now, I’ve played the game long after the final update just unlocked all cosmetics for players to enjoy for free, and what few things I have to unlock from in-game vendors shows me that this grind must have been awful to live through, and it must be even worse if you HAD paid for stuff without knowing that one day it would be made free with the flip of a switch.

On top of all of this, there was also artificial bloat inserted into the game’s progression systems with the focus on loot and raising your player’s Power Level. Over the last few years I’ve seen a lot of games worship at the altar of “gear score” and I hate it every time. They completely miss the forest for the trees regarding what makes loot and loadouts work in other games. Often times your own abilities as a player are downplayed in favor of forcing you to micromanage your gear, and it unfortunately infects the Avengers experience. Despite the fact that you’re playing as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, you don’t feel all that powerful unless you have the right arbitrary number attached to the endless loot you sift through during missions. Hulk Smash….but only if you put on the wrist guards that give him plus 5% damage when it’s raining outside. Remember how in Spiderman: Homecoming Peter has to grapple with being a hero despite Tony taking away his fancy suit with all those gadgets? Or how this game’s own campaign is constantly touting the platitude that “Good isn’t a thing you are, it’s a thing you do?” Yeah well actually the gear makes the hero, so get to grinding if you want to actually embody these characters!

You constantly have to deal with gear you get from enemy drops, finding them in strong boxes, or completing missions. While you do on occasion find some gear with some tangible effects that you can tuck away for a specific mission, the bulk of gear is garbage and exists almost purely just to sell off to get a pittance of currency in exchange, or later on to feed existing gear and make it stronger. But with each mission you’ll get better and better gear, constantly having to replace what you already had, so don’t get attached. So many of the modifiers and stat bonuses to gear are so minor they don’t even feel noticeable, and what’s more, it’s all there to keep up the illusion of progression.

There’s no actual progression from the gear system; the game automatically scales to whatever your Power Level is when selecting most missions. There are SOME missions that have a higher Power Level by default that you can’t take on until you’re at that level, but they didn’t feel noticeably more challenging than other missions. Now, I never hit the Power Level cap with any character, and I’ve seen evidence that some missions are hidden from view unless your Power Level is high enough, so I can’t quite speak for the pure endgame content, but the bulk of the game showcases just how horrible the gear system is as a progression system. It’s worth noting that there’s also individual levels for each character, which actually works FAR better as a real progression system. Each level up gets you a skill point that can be put towards multiple skill tress that further expand each character’s moveset and allows for experimentation to suit different playstyles and strategies. Gear systems CAN be down well, but it doesn’t work in this game, and I can say with confidence the entire experience would have been better without its inclusion. Getting off of my soapbox then, we should probably discuss the actual contents of the game itself, starting with what many touted as the best part of the whole game….the single-player campaign.

AN INHUMAN CAMPAIGN

A fair bit of the pre-release coverage of this game was focused around the story. Well before we saw any gameplay or even know what type of game Marvel’s Avengers was going to be, they were hyping up the voice cast as if it was a movie. Despite all of that focus, the single-player campaign didn’t exactly live up to my expectations for more than a few reasons, despite a decent start.

The premise is an interesting one for starters. The Avengers are blamed for a tragic accident and forcefully disbanded but years later a superhero fangirl, Kamala Khan, sets out on a journey to help clear their names and get the gang back together. Kamala is one of a few newer Marvel characters that has gotten a fair amount of buzz, similar to the likes of Miles Morales, and it’s undoubtedly great to see her take on a major role in a game like this. The early bits of the game put you in her shoes as she struggles to come to grips with her new found super powers, and the dynamic she has with the Avengers is endearing. That said, over time it started to feel like the story was being stretched thinner and thinner, and more problems started to emerge that sadly weren’t solved by the ending.

For starters, Kamala takes up the bulk of screen time. I don’t mind her being the main focus of the narrative, but for a game named after the Avengers…the team itself actually doesn’t do as much as you’d think. While we get to Hulk and Iron Man early enough, and Black Widow has a decent behind-the-scenes impact on the plot, I really feel like the narrative didn’t know what to do for Thor or Captain America. By the time the whole team is back together the game is about over, and any fun banter or moments they could have had together was mostly relegated to how they all feel about Kamala. There are times when the game’s narrative almost feels like it was written like Kamala’s fan fiction, where she is the center of everything and the other Avengers seem far too trusting and supportive of her right away, not to mention she faces little to no consequences for her actions at times. I want to stress I DO like Kamala and I think Sandra Saad does a good job portraying her, but the game gets awfully close to being a game about Ms. Marvel, featuring the Avengers, and that’s not exactly how the game was advertised.

Outside of that, I take issue with the game’s focus on the Inhumans, or rather, the lack of focus. In the comics, Inhumans are descendants of humans experimented on by the alien race known as the Kree. When exposed to “Terrigen Mist” they develop superhuman abilities, and there’s also a lot of political stuff with a royal family of Inhumans that live on the moon. In this game however, the alien aspects of Inhumans are severely downplayed, and the event that ends up releasing the Terrigen Mist and creating Inhumans here is more or less implied to be completely manmade, with no mentions of the royal family either. While it’s possible the game would have delved into the Inhuman’s alien origins later on (as certain missions do tease the Kree quite a bit in the postgame), all we’re left with in the base game is…effectively bootleg X-Men. There’s this guy, Theo, who can teleport people here and there, and he’s also bright blue…and he kind of just comes across as a less-cool Nightcrawler in every way. When you meet the Inhuman resistance later in the game, they end up being led by…Ant-Man? Because I guess they couldn’t think of or use any other prominent Inhuman character aside from Kamala. For the last few years, as Marvel began really pushing the Inhumans in the comics, TV shows and now games, it was largely as a response to not having the X-Men film rights and not wanting to promote them once the MCU took off. Many fans likewise dislike the Inhumans and view them as poor replacements for the X-Men .While I think both could have their place in the Marvel world and the premise does have potential, this particular game doesn’t really do ANYTHING of note with them.

Then there’s the lack of notable villains. While on the one hand I appreciate that the developers weren’t just reusing villains already seen in the MCU like Loki, Ultron or Thanos, their use of A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.K. leaves a lot to be desired. I’m sorry, but M.O.D.O.K. isn’t a strong enough villain to carry the rest of the game, and while there are a FEW other notable Marvel villains in here, I find they’re not used well. Taskmaster is a tutorial boss fight, and Abomination is fought early on…and then that’s about it in the base game. With both of them copy and pasted into post-game missions with a vague “oh, they’re just clones” justification. It wouldn’t be until the other story expansions that we’d get a few more villains like Maestro, an evil version of the Hulk from the future, or Ulysses Klaue, a notable Black Panther villain, but at that point it felt like too little too late. And that’s not to mention that most of the basic enemies in the game are just robots with no real personality or designs that really pop, or else fighting waves and waves of “guy with gun.” What a notable roster we’re working with here.

For all of the potential that the early hours of the campaign showcased, the cracks started to form quickly and my opinion of the story only went down with time. We started with nice cinematics and character banter, some intrigue with how it was all going to come together…but steadily it became apparent that most of the Avengers were being sidelined, the villains were weak, and the emphasis on hand-crafted single-player levels and setpieces would dwindle with time, revealing the game’s true colors.

AVENGERS: AGE OF REPETITON

For as negative as I’ve been so far, I do want to stress that I DID enjoy the moment-to-moment playing of the game and it’s clear a lot of time and effort was put into making a fun action game with Marvel characters. Now, there IS a certain level of balance here to make sure everyone is equally viable, which leads to some characters not quite living up to the power fantasy. Black Widow can take on enemies just as effectively as Hulk can, while Thor and Iron Man’s flight is slow to keep them from leaving everyone in the dust. Despite that, every character has enough tools to make them pop. Hulk can grab minor enemies and use them as weapons. Kamala’s stretchy attacks let her be a menace from any range. Smacking enemies with Thor’s hammer, or flinging Captain America’s shield at multiple opponents never got old. Even the non-powered characters like both of the Hawkeyes or Black Widow were plenty fun to use, armed with a lot of tools to take on enemies and get around the giant levels. From the intricate takedown animations for each character (Thor having a penchant for wrestling, while Kate Bishop uses teleporting to take out enemies in style) to the heavy amount of customization with everyone’s skill trees, there was a lot to like about the combat…but that can’t save a game that is so dull and repetitive elsewhere.

After the first few hours of the campaign I was suddenly forced to start selecting missions on the War Table and saw the game for what it truly was; the same handful of maps, enemies and objectives repeated over and over and over again. Compared to the curated single-player levels, the main missions, designed around multiplayer, are filled with massive maps that honestly felt way too big for their own good. You have to wander about as you look for small enemy outposts dotted here and there, fighting a pretty pathetic roster of enemies along the way. Not only are most enemies rather uninspired robots, but so many of them are just annoying to fight. Snipers that teleport away from you the instant you get close, endless turrets and drones that are always picking at you from far away, and more “elite” enemies that have tons of health to chew through in lieu of being more challenging to fight most of the time. Bosses are especially bad about this; most are huge damage sponges and play similarly to each other, completely shrugging off any attacks you land and taking forever to take out. I understand they’re balanced around four players but even so they would take so long to defeat and required barely any real engagement. Just dodge the big telegraphed attacks, sneak a few hits in and run, then rinse and repeat for several minutes.

Outside of just fighting enemies, your main mission objectives rarely change up in a meaningful way and just a few hours in I had seen most of what the game had to offer with objectives. Save some Inhuman hostages by opening up their cages, or defend some allies from waves of enemies. Maybe you need to use JARVIS to hack into A.I.M.’s database, so defend those computers from enemy hackers! There is on occasion some “puzzles” that would require a BIT of coordination, hitting switches or stepping on pressure plates to open doors for more loot but ultimately that was about as advanced as it got. Most level design would vary from gigantic open environments to linear corridors that are repeated so often I knew them like the back of my hand after just a handful of missions. Now, again, maybe that endgame stuff does change things up, but I’d rather not wade through so much of the same content over and over to see for myself.

And that’s the real shame here…for all the potential I see in this game, it gets exhausting quickly. It takes so long to actually flesh out your character movesets and try everyone out, but by that point you’ll have done the same handful of missions to the point of getting sick of them. Even with the expansions there just isn’t enough meat here to justify the grind. Sad as it is to say, it was painfully clear just why this game failed after just a few hours of playing.

AN UNENVIABLE LEGACY

The domino effect of Marvel’s Avengers’ failure is arguably just as interesting as the game itself. The poor showing for the game cost Square Enix a LOT of money, and was likely a factor in their decision to sell off their Western developers, including the developers of this game, Crystal Dynamics. The year after this game’s launch, Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy game ended up getting the cold shoulder from fans…despite the fact that it was exactly what many fans had wanted; a solid single-player experience with a great story that had a lot of love for the source material. But fans saw a Marvel game with Square Enix publishing it and assumed it would follow in Avengers’ footsteps. Elsewhere, the frosty reception to DC’s live-service superhero efforts with Gotham Knights and the yet-to-be-released Suicide Squad game can be at least partially attributed to this game’s poor performance. While Gotham Knight’s full release was devoid of microtransactions, the grindy nature of player progression and multiple in-game currencies to juggle points to it possibly being removed later in development. Meanwhile, the instant the word “gear score” was uttered at the gameplay reveal for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League the game was attacked by fans and the game has suffered multiple delays and as of now, it’s not clear what state that game will release in. All due to one poorly-received game!

(One screenshot was all it took for people to turn on this game)

It’s clear that the live service bubble has burst; you can only get so many people to sign up for so many “forever games” before something gives. While your mega hits like Fortnite might continue on, it’s clear by now that you can’t quite compete with that and I wouldn’t be shocked if major game releases start to pivot away from this model. It’s also been argued that the superhero bubble might have burst in mainstream pop culture. Several superhero films over the last few years have not done particularly well with fans OR at the box office. From MCU misses like the third Ant-Man movie, or the latest Thor release, to DC’s extremely costly failure with The Flash, it’s possible that superhero games might also be on the way out. That being said, Marvel does still have SEVERAL other games in the pipeline, such as the next game from Insomniac, Spider-Man 2, so it’s possible this game’s failure wasn’t enough to scare them off.

It’s sad to see how poorly this game performed in the end, even if it’s easy to see why things went this way. In another world, this game could have been a smash hit, creating a platform filled with fun things to do and multiple Marvel heroes added over a very long life. I can only imagine how they might have made certain characters work if they had only gotten the chance. Had the game launched in a better state, or hadn’t gone the live-service route, things might have been very different, but regardless the damage has been done. With Square selling off Crystal Dynamics and Eidos to Embracer, and mass layoffs hitting multiple Embracer entities, Crystal Dynamics included, there’s no hope of a second chance with this title. I can only hope the best for the people involved that they can use their talents on a better game down the line

With Marvel’s Avengers officially delisted from all major storefronts and the future of the game’s online services somewhat uncertain, I thought it important to talk about this game before it is lost to the annals of history. For all the problems I had with the game, I was happy to at least play it before it was too late. I can see that this was far from a cheap cash-in title, and a lot of talented people gave their all on a game that just didn’t work out for a multitude of reasons. I can only hope that someday we can get a more successful spin on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and game developers can look at this game as a cautionary tale for how to somehow ruin what should have been a guaranteed success.

Excelsior!

-B

#blog #xb-squaredx #review #video game #avengers #marvel's avengers #ps4 #ps5 #spider-man #marvel #captain america #kamala khan #ms. marvel #square enix #Youtube

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agirlunderarock · 2 years

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Hi, for the character opinion bingo, how about Brunnhilde?

OH HELL YEAH!!! LETS GOOOOOOOO

My dude I have not talked about this King in so long and with the release of the Thor Love and Thunder trailer I'm so excited to see her on screen again. I've missed her so much. I almost got a bingo on this card, because I really do like her in a team dynamic, but Brunnhilde is also one of the few characters that I can read for that absolutely does not need any of the other lead characters in the fic. I don't know if I've really talked about how much I love her arc here. I know I've done so in the past- but Brunnhilde and Thor's character arcs are nearly the same. We just didn't get to see her's play out on screen. I mean we sorta did. We know she was the leader of the Valkyries and helping to carry out Odin's conquest, at least thats the impressions I've always gotten from the flashback sequences. But then of course that all goes south and I can only assume she exiles herself until she stumbles into Sakaar, but it takes Thor desperately asking for her help to give her the push to start getting back to herself. She's still not the same person, she probably doesn't even give her real name to Thor, Bruce and Loki (Thats the only reason I can think of that no one adresses her by name after two movies and over 5 years passing since their first meeting), but she's making progress. She steps into this new version of herself, maybe more suspicious and jaded than before, but a leader and probably a compassionate and determined one at that. Dude I think about those five years she spent building New Asgard and watching Thor slip into that depressive state he found her in so much. Their relationship is so important to me and I know its not going to come up in the new movie, but I wish we could see some of that. How important their friendship has been for both of them recovering from their past traumas and overcoming new ones. I trust Taika to give us hints of it, but I still remember how many of the fans seemed to cut her out of the narrative completely when Thor Ragnarok came out. Brunnhilde is a character that I pay close attention to how people critique her, and write her in fanfiction. If the complaint is that she's introduced as the Strong or Angry Black woman stereotype, then absolutely go off, I feel that is a valid criticism, especially because the only way we see her addressed other than by Scrapper 142 is Angry Girl. However, I like to think that she herself has moved away from that, and Professor Hulk calling her that in Endgame speaks more to how out of touch with everyone he is (guy didn't bother to check in on Thor either so like???? but I also don't think the writers thought that through and I am absolutely giving them too much credit). This is quickly going to turn into me getting frustrated with the way friendship is shown with the Avengers so I'm going to move on to the fanfiction and how fans do her dirty. I am INCREDIBLY picky when it comes to Brunnhilde fanfic, and theres a handful that I constantly go back and read- (Go read Better Laté than Never on AO3 I promise you will not be disappointed) but a lot of the ones I find either end up making her seem preditory, or just straight up a bitch and its so exhausting and frustrating to come across. I trust very few people to write Brunnhilde with nuance and accuracy. She's such an interesting character with such an interesting story, and the parallels between her struggles and Thor after Infinity War are so nice and I can literally talk about her for ever. Theres a shot of her in the new trailer fighting the main antagonist and let me just say, I have never felt so much fear for a character than in that moment. I trust Taika, and I know I need to chill, but the last thing I want is for her to get so roughed up she's taken out of the plot and used as motivation for Thor and Jane, or worse killed for their development. I did not mean to ramble this much, I don't even know if any of this makes sense, but I feel like the MCU is just setting her to the side so often, and fans are even worse.

I'm sorry this was so long- but if anyone would like to hear me ramble and rave about other characters feel free to send me some characters for Character Bingo. MCU, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings/Hobbit and Avatar the Last Airbender and Game of Thrones is all fair game

#character bingo #brunnhilde #Valkyrie #MCU Brunnhilde #mcu valkyrie #thor love and thunder #I swear if no one adresses her by name I'm going to blow a gasket

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jsaunderswrites · 5 months

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Watching the Yostverse; or, the X-Men problem

With Spider-Man being in my head lately (between Across the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man 2 on PS5) I realized I wanted to rewatch The Spectacular Spider-Man and see if the ending has value as is or if it's entirely ruined by being cut short. And that lead me to remember I never finished The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! despite enjoying the first season a ton. It's been like a decade since both and I am much better at reading media than I was so I'm curious what'll hit different.

Now according to Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol.10, Wolverine and the X-Men takes place in Earth-8096. Then The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe lists that Wolverine and the X-Men, Hulk vs. Thor, Hulk vs. Wolverine, Planet Hulk, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!, and Thor: Tales of Asgard all take place on Earth-8096. This also means the Marvel Universe: The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes! and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! (2011) comics are set there.

Now the Planet Hulk film is also set on Earth-10022 as well, so if it can take place in multiple universes, I felt that there's no reason that The Spectacular Spider-Man couldn't also have happened here. According to Christopher Yost the AEMH episode Along Came a Spider was, in spirit, a Spectacular episode. The episode was also initially recorded with Josh Keaton as Peter Parker/Spider-Man before being redubbed as Drake Bell (at the time the upcoming voice for the lead in Ultimate Spider-Man). These details lead me to include the show.

So I compiled a list of all these episodes, movies and comics in release order. I've made it through most of The Spectacular Spider-Man and just began Wolverine and the X-Men, and despite being hopeful about a series I haven't watched before, I've already started to be caught up on how it is beginning to present things.

But maybe the problem is that the X-Men are a very flawed concept.

I was never into the X-Men as a kid, never saw the cartoon, the comics, or the movies. But the concept sounds cool. An oppressed people, proudly expressing their identity as members of that group while fighting against their oppressors! But the problem is how it is not a good metaphor for reality.

Whether based on racism, homophobia, or any other form of prejudice, oppressed peoples are not themselves inherently more dangerous than anyone else. The fearmongering about them is entirely artificial or unjustified paranoia. But even the nicest most considerate version of Scott Summers could trip and accidentally kill an entire room of people. Mutants in this series can actually be incredibly deadly to everyone around them! But the ones that have no deadly powers and just kinda look weird aren't treated any better. They aren't propped up to deflect criticism "we aren't anti-mutant, we are kind to the good ones!" And what makes the Brotherhood bad? In the show so far they smash a cop car (the cops are shown to still be fine) and this is portrayed as villainous. Contrasting Wolverine leaving the MRD guy in the automatic torture chair.

I just feel like X-Men can't get past its initial concept, where the good guys defend themselves from attack but don't actively fight back against their oppressors. That's villainous behavior. The heroic thing is to behave respectably until you are deemed worthy of rights.

The cops are good, and are also the law, which is good, and as part of the law they arrest mutants, who are all automatically criminals and hand them over to the MRD, who are bad, and SHIELD also hands over mutants to them, and SHIELD is good and works with the Avengers, who Wolverine joins, and the Brotherhood are bad because they're criminals.

I don't know if there are any good versions of the X-Men out there, but I feel it would only be so if they changed enough that the established fans would be unhappy with how different it was.

I did like one thing, when Angel turns down rejoining the X-Men because living as his father's shameful secret gives him access to a fortune he can use to help mutants. He is faced with two mutually exclusive choices and picks one. Neither the characters or the show judge this decision, it's ambiguous and up to the audience to decide. I like that!

It's possible I'm just being very judgemental on this series only halfway through the second episode but I'm not sure it'll manage to untangle these issues. I guess we'll see.

#yostverse #the spectacular spider-man #wolverine and the x-men #avengers: earth's mightiest heroes #X-men #marvel animation

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heres-the-marvel-tea · 3 years

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Do you guys ever wonder how that scene where Peggy shoots at Steve would have gone if Bucky was in the room?

#release my version of the first avenger cut #i would literally pay to go to the theatre just to watch this five minute clip #ca:tfa #captain america: the first avenger #steve rogers #bucky barnes #that scene was super gross #clearly real women were not consulted

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imagine-a-dream · 3 years

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Don't blame me

Otto Octavius x female!reader

summary: You are a superhero that takes the job of protecting citizens after the sudden disappearance of Spider-Man. Things do not always go according to plan, but sometimes they turn out even better than you imagined.warnings: SMUT 18+ MDNI, vaginal fingering, dry humping. requested by none other than my thirstword count: 3235AN: You can read it on AO3 as well and there's version in Russian here (idk just in case). Part 2 'Bruises' (flashbacks)

Your back hits the wall with a loud thud, the force of it knocks the air out of your lungs and the world goes dark for just a moment. But you don’t have time to recover; two metal claws immediately dig into your shoulders, tearing the fabric of the superhero suit and the delicate skin under with the ease of a red-hot knife through butter. The cuts are shallow, barely bleeding, and it hurts your pride more than brings you any real damage. The lack of oxygen burns your lungs and you take a deep breath, greedily swallowing the cool evening air.

You snap your head up, and the silhouette of the master and creator of the mechanisms pinning your body, is stepping out of the dark. His regal figure approaches you slowly, if not reluctantly, and his shadow swallows all the light around you hiding you from the whole world. It seems like the darkness comes from within himself.

Octavius stops right in front of you and only by a slight tilt of his head, you realize that he's looking you over.

“Here you are, birdie.” His voice is steady, simply stating the fact. Here you are, indeed.

You can’t see his eyes behind the dark lenses of his glasses, but you just know that they have the same malicious excitement of an animal finally catching his prize after many days of chasing. For some reason, this comparison amuses you. Between the two of you, it’s debatable who is the real prize here.

To be completely honest, you had no desire to break out of the three-fingered paws on your shoulders. Not, when you had their owner right when you wanted him after many weeks of seemingly fruitless flirting. You did wiggle a little, even if just for a show, but other than that you did not make a move to free yourself, arms hanging loosely at your sides. If it weren't for the sunglasses hiding his eyes, you could swear you'd be able to see a reflection of your own, almost sadistical, enjoyment of the current situation.

The light from a passing car illuminates his face just for a few moments, and in the darkness of the alley where this madman lured you in, or more like thrown you down from the top of the near building, your eyes manage to catch a crooked smirk with a slight touch of pride. You want to wipe it off his face with either a sandpaper or your own lips, you're fine with either.

He opens his plump lips, no doubt to throw some witty and clever remark you way, that you will replay in your head for the next few days in the loneliness of your apartment, but this game of cat-and-mouse turned you on so much already, that the next words came out of your mouth before you can even think of it, bypassing any stopping points in your feverishly excited brain:

“Easy, tiger! I do like it rough, you got me here, but maybe buy me dinner first, eh?”

He stops dead in the tracks with his mouth agape, and you don't even try to stop your mouth from speaking your thoughts anymore: “Though we can skip the dinner. With you looking like a damn five-course meal and a dessert… I bet I'll be full enough for the evening.”

You watch the change of expression on his broad face with almost childish excitement. The poor man seems to be so taken aback by this ridiculous and out of place comments that don’t even notice his metal devices unclenching, releasing your rather stiff shoulders from their grip.

If you were a ‘real’ heroine, like the notorious Avengers or X-Men, so almighty and full of honor and dignity, this small interaction would be a part of a distraction plan that would offer you some time to escape or strike another blow to the villain, taking advantage of his confusion… But you were not like them.

You believed that lying to yourself was a bad and useless habit, so you were always willing to admit even the darkest of your desires. And at the very top of this not very long wish-list for the past few weeks was him.

You shoot Otto a playful wink and leant forward, raising a hand as if to cup his face, but the supervillain recoils and takes a step back, almost stumbling over one of his appendages. You find his reaction almost comical and can’t help but laugh out loud. He clearly w as not expecting such a turn of events and the furrowed brows tell you that he’s quite angry with your amusement. He opens his mouth again, but you happily interrupt him once more:

“Aw, don’t pout, Doctor, I am serious! Don’t blame me, though, when it’s all your fault. I mean just look at you, such a tall, strong man and a genius at that. And these tentacles…” With each word, you took a step forward until your palm finds its place on the lapel of his inner coat, barely grazing over the only exposed area of skin. “I can only imagine how useful they can be.”

You grin broadly, noting with pride how even in the darkness of the street you still can clearly see the blush coloring his face and spread further down his neck. It’s even adorable, you think, if you forget about his failed attempt to rob a jewelry store not that many hours ago. That poor security guard must be in great pain with this many broken bones.

Despite the obvious lewd subtext behind your words, the man stands still, only titling his head slightly, and don't make another move. You were foolishly hoping that maybe this way he finally catches on your true intentions, but it seems like the luck isn’t on your side today. You're almost disappointed.

“Shame. Judging by our previous encounter, I thought you would be… braver.”

You click your tongue on the roof of your mouth disappointedly and give his body a dirty look over. Your gaze lingers on his broad chest, slightly glistening in the dim light of street lamps with tiny beads of perspiration all over it. You stare for a few moments longer than the situation requires. And definitely much longer than any norms of decency allows.

You let your covered thumb connect with his skin finally, giving it a gentle whisper of a caress, and breath out dreamily.

“But what a sight…”

“Oh, you little minx.” A barely audible whisper reaches your ears and you find yourself pressed against the nearest wall for the umpteenth time of the evening. You cry out in surprise, digging your fingers into the soft flesh of his chest in an attempt to stabilize yourself. One of his prosthetics quickly snakes his way around your arms, connecting them tightly behind your back, and the other wraps around your legs, completely depriving you of the chance to move and escape their death grip. The devices raise you slightly to Otto’s face level.

With a quick movement of his gloved hand he takes off the glasses, finally revealing to you his beautiful chocolate eyes framed by thick black eyelashes. He narrows his gaze, locking your eyes, and you almost choke on your breath of the intensity of it, feeling more vulnerable than ever. Despite the life-threatening situation, you can't help but notice his pupils dilating wildly and consuming the soft brown, leaving only blackness.

He pulls himself closer, completely covering your body with his own. His chest is pressing against yours so hard that you can feel how each of his breaths pushes you deeper into the wall; the uneven surface of the bricks scratches your back, but it only turns you on more. Your faces are dangerously close to each other, so close that his breath burn your lips, and the tip of his long, slightly hooked nose touches the short hairs on the end of your nose, tickling it.

You take a deep breath through your nose and the bitter and distinct smell of cooling asphalt and gasoline hits your nostrils; somewhere in the back you can hear barely audible-expensive Cologne with a light touch of sweat and metal. The wild mixture of aromas is suffocating, it settles on the insides of your throat like a sticky veil, and your head starts to spin with intoxication. Or is it from the feeling of his hot body pressing yours into the cooling hardness of the bricks? The contrast of temperatures makes the feeling of sweet anticipation spread through the body like wildfire and you shiver against him which doesn’t go unnoticed.

Otto chuckles darkly and tilts his head just so that his lips are barely grazing over the corner of yours now; his nose pokes your cheek right under the edge of the mask that hides the upper half of your face, protecting your identity. You gulp, unable to move from the sudden intimacy of his movements. He ghosts his lips over your face, moving agonizingly slow, until he rises to the very lobe of your ear; to this moment every inch of your skin feels like it’s melting under his touch.

Your eyes screw shut when Octavius presses his lips on the inner shell of your ear. His deep rumbling voice flows into your ear like liquid lava and your body responds with a strong, almost painful, spasm in your lower abdomen.

“You really think you’re ready for me to be brave, huh?”

You find the strength to exhale a stubborn “Surprise me, Doctor.”

His dark chuckle sends a wave of electricity through your whole body. You can feel it traveling from the very tips of your fingers to stop in the pit of your stomach.

“Oh, damn you, calling me Doctor like it doesn’t turn you on just to say it.”

Your brain is so far away that you can’t come up with any sort of at least somewhat believable lie. You just nod, admitting the truth behind his words. And it earns you a very pleased “Bad girl.”

The next moment he sink his teeth into the flesh under your earlobe without any warning and you already feel a bruise forming on the delicate skin. A gasp escapes your lips and his wet, thick tongue slides like a snake over the burning skin, apologizing for the caused pain. Your lower lips are throbbing with desire, walls clenching with only one wish; of him inside, stretching you to the hilt. And you feel almost ashamed, but you push these feelings away, focusing on other, more important sensations.

Otto leaves a trail of wet kisses all the way down to the collarbones and stops only when his lips reach the collar of your supersuit. Soft breeze pleasantly cools your now wet neck and the soft sound of your moan seems so foreign that at first you don’t realize that it comes from your own throat.

“Won’t you look at yourself, birdie. So quiet, so… submissive. I like it.”

He’s cheeky, knowing exactly what en effect he has on you, and you can hear it in his voice, but it doesn’t matter anymore. The tentacles tighten their grip around your wrists and ankles and you hiss at the tug.

"Easy, boys. We don't want to break her yet."

You feel the tips of his fingers wandering around your chest, grazing over it tentatively. They wander over the surface of the suit, drawing obscure patterns on it. The touch is so light it nearly drives you mad and you arch your back to feel him, but he pulls his hand back just in time so you don’t have much-needed attention. You whine pathetically and he shakes his head, disapproving of your impatience.

He then raises his hand as if to cup your cheek but stops halfway and changes the trajectory. You’re about to ask him what is that he’s doing, but the question is stuck in your throat when you see his teeth ever so gently bite into the hem of leather glove on his middle finger.

Enchanted, you watch his hand slip oh so smoothly out of the piece of clothing and it hang empty, captured by his teeth. You let out a choked moan and his small smirk turns into a wide grin. That bastard is clearly enjoying your reactions. He quickly pulls the glove off his other hand and puts them both in his pocket. Not wasting another moment, his hot palms land on your breasts and he squeeze it gently. You groan simultaneously.

The heat of his hands warms your insides more and the flames of desire spread through your body, quickly turning into a wildfire, burning out the last remains of any other feelings but lust. Doctor massages your breasts and lets out a hoarse moan. You lick your lips at the sound, your walls flattering in need of attention. One hand travels carefully from your chest to your stomac; his palm glides down over your body gently, stroking every curve on the way, and stops right above the belt.

He turns his palm so that his fingers face your womanhood, the movement of his fingers tickle your soft stomach and the muscles contract; it gives Otto enough space to snake his hand under the belt inside your pants. He stops abruptly and looks up at you, questioning. But he doesn't need to ask, because at this point you’d willingly do any damn thing to feel him inside of you. Only after your affirmative nod he allows his hand to travel further in your underwear. The other hand moves to the waist, fingers diggint into your love handles.

He reach your pubis and hover over the labia, teasing the swollen lips with a whisper of a touch. You whine, and try to lower yourself in a pathetic attempt to get at least some satisfaction, but Octavius just clicks his tongue and continues the sweet torture.

You can’t take it anymore and despite your better judgment whisper feverishly: “Please… please, please...”

His voice is dripping with smugness when he asks. “Please what, darling?”

“Please!” You raise your voice in despair. “Please… touch me.”

He hums satisfied. “Since you asked so nicely…”

Suddenly his middle finger roughly press on the head of your pulsating bud and your whole body jolts in shock. You groan loudly, voice hoarse and shaky. He exhales loudly and mumbles under his nose, you only hear something along the lines of ‘already’ and ‘wet’, but you don't even think of asking him about it. By this point, you don't care about anything in this world but this man.

His strokes are gentle and slow and it makes your hips thrust on their own accord. Skillful fingers working on you with care for a few more minutes, and in any other circumstances this kind of attention would be a pleasant start, but right now it's too slow for your liking. Your heavy head falls on his shoulder, you whine and writhe under his touch like a bitch in the heat. You feel the pressure building inside of you slowly, but it’s not enough, and in a pathetic attempt to reach your peak faster you squeeze your thighs to press his hand closer to your core.

You feel his body rumble with soft breathy laugh and his chest vibrates under you, stimulating sensitive nipples and making you shudder. Mercifully, he dips index finger fist, and then the middle finger right into your slick opening, thumb taking their place now, rubbing your bundle of nerves. He doesn’t give you any time to adjust to the stretch of his thick fingers and start to move them inside of you. Your breath increases and comes out in short whimpers when he fastens his pace and you hide your face at the base of his neck breathing in his scent.

Even, through the pampering blood in your ears and street noise around you hiding spot you can hear wet sounds of his digits pushing in and out of you in a rapid pace. You think that your moans and heavy breathing can be heard from miles away, but all of the thoughts in your head disappear when Otto angles his palm and insert a third finger and the pressure of his digit on your throbbing bud increases; the pace of his pumping and the force of his hand are so perfect that it makes you see stars.

Your thighs shake from how good he makes you feel. Your leg twitches involuntarily and your knee ends up captured right between his legs and under his crotch. His bulge pokes in your upper thigh, and you feel his huge excitement. The connection makes him groan loudly and his hips thrusts in your leg.

His fingers on your waist tighten harder and you’re almost sure that he’ll leave his fingerprints there for you to remember. You strain your thigh a little and he nearly chokes on his gasp. He pulls into you even closer, squeezing you with his weight as if he wants to merge with you. He rolls his hips once, twice, and it’s not long before he’s humping your leg without a care in the world. He’s pleasuring himself with your body, hips rubbing his member in sync with his fingers thrusting into you, massaging your walls so deliciously.

His low almost animalistic growls pushing you closer and closer to the edge. You're close, so close...

And then the world explodes, your walls clenching violently around him and body convulsing in the world-shattering orgasm; your mouth opens widely in a soundless scream. To prevent the shouting of his name in bliss for every soul to hear, you clench your jaws and your teeth dig into his neck, leaving a dark mark for him to remember. Octavius groans and increases his speed, helping you ride out your last waves of pleasure and chasing his own release.

Your body goes limp on him with a final sob; he makes a few more sharp thrusts and stiffen at last, shaking. His breathy moan gets lost somewhere in the crown of your hair. You stand there for several minutes, breathing heavily. After some time, when your breath is steady and heart is calm, he carefully removes his hand, covered with your fluids, and wipes it on the inner fabric of his coat. He takes a step back and the restraints on your arms and legs loosens, and you almost fall to the ground, legs weak and boneless, but he catch you just in time.

He gives you a few more minutes to recover, hugging your smaller form almost lovingly, until pulling away completely.

“Well, I must admit it was a pleasant turn of today’s events, even if a bit unexpected.”

His upper claw returns his hat, that fell off his head in a fit of passion, to its rightful place. Otto adjusts it to his liking, looks over your ruined suit, and bows in a mocking manner, holding the brim of his hat with two fingers.

“Until next time, Y/n.”

He all but purr and your legs nearly give up from the sinful tone of his voice.

It’s only when his figure disappears in the night streets you realize that he called you by your name. You real one.

“Wait, what the f…”

masterlist | request rules

#Otto Octavius #Doc Ock #Doctor Octopus #Otto Octavius x reader #Doc Ock x reader #Doctor Octopus x reader #Otto Octavius imagine #Doc Ock imagine #Doctor Octopus imagine #Otto Octavius oneshot #Doc Ock oneshot #Doctor Octopus oneshot #Spider man #Spider man 2 #alfred molina #female reader

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somewhatgreatexpectations · 3 years

Text

Writing’s On The Wall (Wanda Maximoff/ Reader)

Hello, again! We’ve finally reached... Civil War! Loosely inspired by Sam Smith’s “Writing’s On The Wall”. Some of the actual dialogue from the film is used here with some adjustments. Let me know what you think.

Summary: How the reader and Wanda are involved in the events of Civil War. Will they be on the same side? Or will they have to fight each other?

“I want to feel love, run through my blood, tell me is this where I give it all up? For you I have to risk it all, 'cause the writing's on the wall”

Half a year had passed since you left the comfort of the Avengers tower and the path to healing had never felt more manageable. You should have known that wouldn’t last. Peace never seemed to last around you.

You didn’t know what to expect when Fury called you out of the blue and told you to turn on the news, but it was certainly not what you saw. A quiet curse escaped your lips as you watched the news of what happened in Lagos play out before you.

For at least an hour you listened to them completely annihilate Wanda’s character and talk about her like she was a monster who couldn’t be controlled. A threat. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. She made a mistake – she was trying to help. You could only imagine how she was feeling.

The news continued to pile on the next couple of days which is when you caught wind of the Sokovian accords. The information being relayed to you in the form of a demand from one Tony Stark who said you needed to sign since you were technically still an Avenger. You told him you would need time to think about it because the fact of the matter was, you didn’t agree with it. Not that you actually told him the second part.

Shortly after your phone call with Stark, Steve also reached out. Though he was reluctant to have to ask you for help when he knew what he would be dragging you back into. You agreed within seconds. Not only was it what was right, but Steve was your first lifeline. You’d always offer him help. You’d always stand by him. You had made a promise. That’s just who you were.

Due to some loose ends, you were the last to arrive at the parking garage Steve had designated as the meeting location.

The sight of Wanda before you after all this time shocked you and rendered you immobile for a moment.

As if she could sense your presence, she looked over and made eye contact with you, her eyes widening ever so slightly. You shook your head, you had healed – moved on. She wasn’t your focus anymore. The look in her eyes stuck with you though, it was something you had never seen before. You could feel her eyes follow you. Even after all this time, it slightly hurt you still.

Wanda, on the other hand, felt breathless at the sight of you. The one she thought she’d never get to see again. She could feel her heart beating so hard in her chest she was sure everyone in the area could hear it. It took everything in her not to run over to you, take you in her arms and never let go. Even after all this time, she missed you still.

“Cap, what have you gotten yourself into now?” you questioned playfully, smiling brightly when Steve turned to look at you.

Despite the circumstance, Steve was genuinely glad to see you, to physically see how much better you looked after your time away rather than just hear it in a phone call. “Y/n. I hate how this is how we’re being reunited but it’s good to see you.” He pulled you into a tight embrace which you gladly returned.

For the first time in her life, Wanda envied Steve Rogers.

When he released you, Steve turned and addressed everyone else. “Alright everyone, go and get ready. Time is of the essence… And I can’t imagine they’re going to let us go easily.”

Before you could walk away, Steve threw a duffle bag at you with a wink before he walked off to put on his suit. You looked into the bag and noticed a sleek black outfit with blue and white accents. New gear, you thought to yourself, nice.

“Hi, Y/n.” you heard an all too familiar voice say softly from behind you.

With only slight hesitation, you turned. “Hello, Wanda.” You greeted neutrally, proud of yourself for not feeling as broken as you once did at the mere sight of her.

Wanda smiled slightly at you, her nerves at an all-time high from being this close to you once again. “I’m surprised to see you here. You look… good.” She said shyly.

An amused smile spread over your lips. “Thanks. I thought I told you I’d always be on your side.” You said with a wink. The referenced conversation felt as though it had happened in another life.

A pink hue covered her cheeks which you took note of curiously. “I’m actually glad you are.” She admitted honestly. “I’ve had a lot of time to think these last few months and it’s made me realize that I-“

“I’m genuinely sorry to do this, ladies, but we’ve really got to go.” Steve interrupted. Looking apologetically at Wanda who appeared disheartened.

You waved your hand dismissively. Allowing yourself to get invested in even just a conversation with Wanda wasn’t something you’d allow yourself. “Not an issue at all, Cap.” You replied lightly, pretending you didn’t see the way Wanda’s looked down dejectedly. In that moment you wished you didn’t know her so well.

Once you were all gathered, Steve separated you all into teams that would be spread throughout the airport, Clint and Wanda would be together, Sam would stay with Bucky and you would be with Steve. Scott would be waiting in hiding for when the perfect opportunity presented itself. Without knowing all the variables, it was difficult to form a perfect plan, but you all worked with what you had. Once that was settled, it was time to get into position.

“Y/n.” Wanda took hold of your hand as you were turning to leave. “Do you think we could finish that conversation later, whenever that may be?” She asked hopefully. You took note of how she was holding her breath.

“Sure, Wanda.” You eventually replied, watching the way she breathed out graciously. “I’ve got to get into position now though, Steve is already out there.”

Wanda lightly squeezed the hand that you hadn’t realized she was still holding. Awkwardly, you pulled it away. A short look of disappointed flashed across her features. “Be careful out there, okay?”

“You too.” You replied neutrally, this conversation was veering into dangerous territory. With one final nod you took off in a sprint to get into position, not seeing the way Wanda stayed behind for a moment.

Even just the minor action made her aware of the fact that you’d changed, you used to always look back. She looked at your retreating figure with worried eyes until it disappeared from sight.

Almost as soon as you got into position, you could hear Sam begin calling you over the coms. “Y/n, go out to Steve, give them some numbers. Remember your points and the mission.”

“Haven’t been out of the game that long, Wilson.” You replied with an eye roll before heading out to where Steve was trapped.

The end of Tony’s speech caught your attention. “… in Clint, rescuing Wanda from a place she doesn’t even want to leave, a safe place-“ His words halted as you came to a stop by Steve’s side.

For a moment Tony just looked between you and Steve, obviously surprised to see you there. “And you brought the kid back into the chaos for this? To make her a criminal? Real nice, Rogers.” Tony quipped angrily.

Steve opened his mouth to respond when you beat him to it. “I can speak for myself, thanks. Hi Tony, good to see you again.” You matched his sarcasm with a mocking wave of your fingers. “If it means I can fight for what’s right then I’ll gladly join the fray again.”

“You heard her.” Steve replied with a small chuckle.

Wanda couldn’t help but watch you with a small smile of admiration from her position. She truly missed being able to see this version of you. Always determined to do what was right. Clint shook his head in amusement at her but didn’t say anything.

From your place you could see Tony’s frustration grow as he addressed Steve again. “I’m trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart.”

“You did that when you signed.” Steve replied coolly.

Tony looked away before looking back at Steve, his anger more present. “Alright, we’re done. You’re going to turn Barnes over and you’re going to come with us. Now. Because it’s us.” He paused slightly. “C’mon…” he added, and you almost felt bad for Tony.

Over your coms you could hear Sam let you both know that he had found the quinjet. That’s when chaos ensued. Your focus was keeping Rhodey back from Steve when you saw Tony begin shooting at Wanda and Clint, with a flick of your wrist Rhodey sunk into the floor, completely encased in the concrete that was once flat underneath his feet.

The sound of his suit slowly chipping away at the defense let you know that it wasn’t too damaging as you began running towards Tony, using your powers to propel you forward. That was until a truck got thrown right in your path and exploded mere inches from you. You ducked and rolled, jumping back up. “C’mon.” you mumbled to yourself. Noticing the red wisps that surrounded you during the explosion.

You made eye contact with Wanda, who’s eyes were worried as she lowered her hands, the red wisps that were lingering around you fading. You nodded in thanks, Wanda just quirked her lips up and nodded back.

“Sorry!” Scott said sheepishly to you over coms.

You refocused and noticed the path to the quinjet clear for you all, each of you sprinting in its direction.

The quinjet was quickly approaching as each of you sped up even more until a beam of light cut into the ground before you, effectively stopping you all in your tracks.

“For the collective good, you must surrender now.” Vision said, his eyes on Wanda whose expression never changed. Each member of Tony’s team formed a defensive line in front of the jet.

Both sides were in a stand-off, and it was obvious neither was willing to back down. “What do we do, Cap?” you questioned.

“We fight.” Steve said without a moment of hesitation, determination clear in his eyes as he began running forward. Everyone else followed suit, both teams clashing in the middle.

The scene was so frenzied, and your focus was on fighting Tony with your powers that it wasn’t until Sam spoke over coms that you focused in again. You easily agreed with the plan that not all of you could make it out. It had to be Steve and Bucky.

The sound of Wanda’s scream distracted you, thankfully Scott had also distracted Tony just in time.

“Wanda!” You shouted on reflex already beginning to run over when you saw her fall to the floor, clutching her head. You were able to catch the building that was falling on Steve and Bucky with your powers for a moment before allowing it to crash down behind them.

When you turned your attention back to Wanda, you noticed Vision come to a stop beside her and take her in his arms. The conversation between them looked intimate. She looked up from her place in his arms for a moment and met your eyes. Her eyes looked as though they were trying to convey something to you when they had suddenly gone wide as you felt a strong force make contact with your head then everything went black.

When you finally came to your head felt groggy and achy, the way it did when Hydra used to run experiments on you. You tried to lift a hand to rub at your head when you noticed resistance and something cool around your neck. Out of confusion, your eyes shot open only to feel anxiety seep into your bones when you took note of the straight jacket that you were confined in and the collar locked uncomfortably around your neck.

“Hello?” you called, hating the way fear crept into your voice.

“Y/n. You’re awake.” You heard Wanda respond, relief obvious in her voice. You looked around for a moment trying to locate her voice when you finally noticed her across a brightly lit circular sort of area, in her own straight jacket and collar. Her eyes that were so bright before the battle now dull.

Fruitlessly you tried to use your powers to manipulate the walls of the cell to no avail. “Where are we?”

“They call it the raft.” You heard Clint’s bitter voice float through the walls. “We’re criminals now.”

The anxiety you felt began to overwhelm you as flashes of being tied up in a similar manner and watching someone you loved be harmed went through your mind. “How long have we been here?”

“Three days,” Wanda began hesitantly almost as if she wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell you more.

Clint interrupted her. “They’ve been knocking you out each time you come to, even for a second. First, they doped you up. The last time they just hit you. They’re not big fans of Steve over here, you’re the closest they could get to him.” Anger was clear in his words.

You thought you heard him mumble something about putting Wanda directly across from you, so she’d be forced to watch.

Wanda looked resigned with purple bruising under her eyes. You were hesitant to ask. “What happened to you?” she shook her head.

Thankfully Sam answered for her. “They’re not big fans of her either. The one good thing Tony did was stop what they were doing to both of you.”

Before you could ask anything else, the sound of the door opening caught your attention, all of your attention it seemed. A moment later, Steve walked in, a relieved smile on his face as he took in each of you.

“About time.” Sam said gruffly.

Without hesitation Steve began taking you each out of your cell and loaded onto the jet he had waiting.

You were watching the prison shrink in the distance from the safety of the quinjet when you felt someone take a seat next to you. You didn’t need to look to know who it was.

“Do you think we can have that talk now?”

Part 8! Don’t worry there’s more to come, I’m just releasing one title ahead at a time. This part was semi-difficult to write because I didn’t want to add too much of the fight scene because then it would be extremely long and this was more of a set-up chapter for Wanda and the readers story. To establish where they are after separating and bring them back into each others lives. Anyway, as always, hope you all enjoyed! Comments and thoughts always welcome. :) (bonus points if you can tell me what part was referenced in this chapter ;)

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duuhrayliegh · 3 years

Text

A Friend of Yours - pt. 2

pairing: bucky x reader

summary: reader meets up with Bucky, Sam and Zemo to figure out this Flag Smasher drama

word count: 6386

warnings: canon lvl violence? SPOILERS FOR TFATWS, (it’s the episodes with yn in it, like rlly) language throughout the whole thing, i think that’s it.

a/n: i’m actually really proud of this guys. there is a part three that has WAY more Bucky x YN content that’ll be posted in a few days <3 i hope y’all love this!!

i just want to remind y’all that this started out as a request from @dramaticwittch it won’t let me tag you for some reasons babes :((

be sure to read A Friend of Yours - pt 1

A Friend of Yours - pt. 3 is up too!!!

p.s.: my requests and tag lists are open!!

check out my other writing here!

xoxo ray <3

You had the same contacts as Sharon, so finding the Three Musketeers was no problem. It baffled you that Sharon had access to satellites. Makes you wonder what she was doing during those five years you were gone. When you got to their safehouse, you were impressed to say the least. It was nice, cute little pillars next to the dining area, some couches, just enough to make it livable. One thing that struck you as strange was that it was also empty, they weren’t there.

“Fuck it.” You dropped your bag onto the dining table and walked over to the kitchen area. You opened several cabinets, searching for alcohol that you could drown your frustrations in. You found an unopened wine bottle, releasing a little cheer, you popped the cork and brought the bottle to your nose. A sweet plum scent invaded your senses, grabbing a glass and pouring it full for yourself before re-corking the bottle. You grasped the cup walking to the stained glass windows on the opposite side of the room. You could hear footsteps approaching the doorway, then the door being forced open. Muffled conversations were taking place during their entrance.

“Well, I got nothin’. No one’s talkin’ about Donya.” Bucky said as he waltzed into the room. Sam followed closely behind him, Zemo immediately going to the kitchen.

“Yeah, Karli’s the only one who’s fighting for them.” You said, startling the pair of men who were now lounging on the couches. “Aren’t you supposed to be good at this?” You dropped next to Bucky, offering him a sip of your plum flavored wine.

“She’s not wrong.” Bucky shot Sam a look, questioning his thought process. “Look, for five years these people were welcomed into countries that have kept them out using barbed wire. There were houses and jobs.” Sam sighed, “Folks were happy to have people around to help them rebuild.” You stopped listening halfway through Sam’s speech, thinking of Sharon. You only refocused when Bucky placed his metal hand on your knee, giving you a look, asking if you were okay.

“That little girl. What’d she tell you?” Bucky asked after you nodded at him. His face never left yours, until Zemo approached the three of you on the couch. He was holding a tray with a clear teapot and cups. He placed it on the coffee table, stepping back and clutching a cup for himself.

“The funeral is this afternoon.” Zemo was always one for the dramatics, so you’re sure that he had something else up his sleeve. Bucky squeezed your knee and you knew he was trying to calm himself.

“You know the Dora’s coming for you any minute. In fact, they’re probably lurking outside right now. Keep talking.”

“Leaving you to turn on me once we get to Karli.” He made a noise of acknowledgement, “I prefer to keep my leverage.” Bucky hauled himself off the couch to stand in front of the Baron. You gaze flicked to Sam’s, unsure of what Bucky was going to do. Bucky puffed his chest out, clenching his jaw as he gripped Zemo’s teacup and chunked it at the concrete wall behind him. Zemo flinched as Bucky began talking to him.

“You wanna see what someone can do with leverage?” Sam stood quickly, trying to diffuse the situation before it escalated.

“Take it easy, Buck. Don’t engage him.” You were taking a drink of your wine, as you observed Zemo’s actions.

“Watch out, he’s going to extort you and do that idiotic head tilt thing.” Zemo’s eyes darted to your figure on the couch as he straightened his head. Sam left to make a call, you assumed Sharon and Bucky followed closely behind him. Zemo offered you cherry blossom tea to which you declined by holding up your wine glass. As Bucky left the room, the Baron released a sigh of relief causing you to laugh at his actions.

“You’re really scared of him, aren’t you?” You teased the man who was now glaring at you.

“If you have made him as angry as I have then you would be too.” You shrugged your agreement. You hadn’t made Bucky mad, and you definitely hadn’t been a part of reactivating him as the Winter Soldier to reach your goals.

“Yeah, well you’re a dumbass, so.” You got up and walked to where Bucky and Sam were gathered. Sam’s phone was still pressed to his ear, but you could tell you were catching the tail-end of his conversation. You could hear Sharon’s voice over the phone talking about the Power Broker. In all your years of living and conducting business in Madripoor, you never tangled with the Power Broker. That didn’t mean anything, it was just suspicious because of how successful your operation with Sharon was.

“What’s the plan?” You asked, dumping the rest of your wine in the sink, casting a glance at an appalled Zemo. “It was shit wine.”

“Zemo has a contact that can show us where the funeral is, and that’s all we got.” You nodded before looking at Bucky and Sam.

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

**********************************

You were walking down the cobblestone roadway with the Three Musketeers when a voice shouted at you from the stairway before you. “Karli Morgenthau is too dangerous for you guys to be pulling this shit!” A scruffy looking man approached you. Both him and his partner were clad in tactical gear, the scruffy one’s resembling a Walmart version of Steve’s Cap suit. Bucky spread his arms out.

“How’d you find us now?” The man’s partner responded to Bucky with equal annoyance.

“Come on, man. You really think two Avengers can walk around Latvia without drawing attention?” As he got closer you could read Hoskins on his vest.

“No more keeping us in the dark.” Scruff said before anyone else could fire back. He stopped walking in front of Zemo, effectively stopping your forward motion. “You can start by telling us why you broke him out of prison.” You were walking just behind Bucky to his right and you watched him cock his head back, his voice taking on a sarcastic tone.

“He did that himself, technically.” Scruff’s face contorted as Bucky talked.

“This better be an unbelievable explana--” Scruff’s voice was cut off by Sam’s hand bumping into his chest.

“Hey, take it easy before it gets weird.” Zemo began talking over the group around him, explaining what was going on. You remained quiet, observing the interaction between Scruff and the Three Musketeers. Clearly, the Three Musketeers did not like him and so you assumed he was the ‘new Cap,’ whatever that means. The group began walking again with Zemo leading the pack.

“Alright good, we’ll move in fast. Take her by surprise.”

“No, I wanna talk to her alone.”

“I’m not losing her again.” Scruff was insistent but so was Sam.

“Look, the person closest to her just died, she’s vulnerable.” The group had stopped walking again, focusing on the conversation. You could see the wheels turning in Hoskin’s head as Sam spoke. Scruff was not having any part of what Sam was suggesting.

“What? No. Wait, no! No. Stop. Hold on. Stop, okay?” Scruff ran ahead in front of the others, stopping the forward motion, once again. “I think we’re way past reasoning with her, unless you forgot the fact that she blew up a building with people still in it.” This was news to you, deciding to stay offline in hopes of remaining under the radar. The back and forth continued until Scruff turned to Bucky.

“You gonna let him do this?” Bucky tilted his head at the man. “Are you gonna let your partner walk into a room with a Super Soldier alone?”

“He’s dealt with worse. And he’s not my partner.” You knew Bucky was referring to himself in Winter Soldier mode. Your heart hurt for him to have to go through this again with some clueless nobody.

“And last I checked, he’s a grown ass man who makes his own decisions, Scruff.” Your arms crossed over your chest. This had been the first time you spoke since Scruff and Hoskin’s had arrived.

“Who the hell is this?” Scruff pointed at you. “You break her out of prison too?” Sam interjected before you could sass back.

“I used to counsel soldiers dealing with trauma, okay? This is right in my wheelhouse.” Scruff’s gaze hadn’t left your face. He continued staring at you as he countered Sam’s claim.

“Yeah, I know. And I know those soldiers, which is why I know this is a bad idea.” Hoskin’s hand came up to rest on Scruff’s shoulder.

“Wait, John. If he can talk her down, it might be worth a try.” Scruff was not happy with Hoskin's agreement to the situation. Scruff said something to Zemo, who mostly ignored him, acknowledging the little girl waiting under an archway. The group began moving toward her and you focused on Bucky.

“Hey, you okay?” He just nodded at you, denying you the pleasure of a verbal response. You’ll take what you can get. Bringing up the rear of the group, you entered the factory type building last. The little girl pointed up some stairs, and Zemo translated. Sam walked up behind the girl, making him way up the stairs as Scruff handcuffed Zemo to a metal contraption.

“You got ten minutes. Then we’re doing things my way.” Scruff yelled after Sam, who darted his eyes at you and Bucky, a silent instruction to the both of you. Scruff rested his weight against a table, holding Steve’s shield in front of him. His breathing became increasingly worrisome, an ode to how stable he was in the moment.

“You aren’t looking so hot over there, Scruff.” Bucky shot you a warning look, but it didn’t deter you. “The government is really harping on you to get this shit contained, aren’t they?” Scruff pushed off the table, bringing the shield around his back. You were leaning against a pillar near Zemo and Scruff made his way over to you. His face was about six inches from yours as he spoke.

“Do you know who I am?” He was trying to intimidate you, which clearly wasn’t working.

“Do I look like I give a shit?” Scruff’s eyes darted over your frame, a look of recognition washing over his features.

“I know who you are.” He glanced at the clock across the room before looking back at you. “I could arrest you right now. Enemy of the State, standing before me right here.”

“We’re not in that state, dumbass. Technically, you don’t have jurisdiction.” The corner of your mouth raised in a smirk as Bucky called your name. You pushed off the pillar behind you to stand next to Bucky, who was leaning against the railing of the stairs.

“Don’t antagonize him, Y/N.” Bucky berated you, to which you shrugged a shoulder. Scruff began pacing back and forth, frustration getting the better of him.

“It hasn’t been ten minutes, John. Just sit tight.” Hoskin’s tried to calm Scruff down.

“Don’t do that. Don’t patronize me.” He shot a look at Hoskins, then the clock, then Bucky, making a decision in his head. “I’m goin’ in.” Bucky rose to his full height, not allowing Scruff to get by him. “This is all really easy for you, isn’t it? All that serum runnin’ through your veins.” You watched Bucky’s jaw clench, you could see the anger bottling up. “Barnes, your partner needs backup in there.” Bucky was an immovable fortress of solitude. “Do you really want his blood on your hands?” Oh shit.

You watched as Bucky’s resolve faded, allowing Scruff to step around him. Bucky was tired of being the cause of other people’s deaths. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust that Sam could take care of himself, he just didn’t want the burden any longer. He was finally free of being a murder machine, finally able to rinse his hands clean. Scruff knew just which buttons to push to get what he wanted.

Scruff busted into the memorial site, guns blazing. You trailed behind Bucky who was fighting against Hoskin’s to try to reach Scruff. Karli and Sam were previously engaged in peaceful conversation, until Scruff announced that Karli was under arrest. Betrayal laced her features as she looked at Sam, defending herself against Scruff advances. She threw Scruff’s weight into Sam, launching them both into the table behind. Bucky took off after her, chasing her through the halls. You crouched next to Sam, making sure he was okay.

Sam recovered quickly, racing down a different corridor leading to another stairway. You followed close behind, allowing Sam to attempt to navigate the area around you. The two of you eventually went down enough of the wrong corridors, that you met up with an equally confused Bucky. You head perked up at the sound of gunshots somewhere in the building. Not sure who the culprit was you turned to Bucky and Sam, who looked just as panicked.

The three of you retraced your steps to find Scruff standing over a knocked-out Zemo with crushed vials wetting the floor. Scruff tossed a glance back at Hoskins and then one to the three of you on the staircase landing. “What did we miss?” Sam directed his question at Scruff, who didn’t dignify him with an answer. Scruff nodded to Hoskins before walking away from the rest of you.

“Thanks for your help, asshole!” You shouted after him.

*******************************

Hauling Zemo’s deadweight back to the safehouse was a job that you and Sam decided Bucky was fit for, being a super soldier and all. Through much complaining and whining on Bucky’s part, he did get him to the safehouse relatively injury free, dumping his body on the couch, jostling Zemo just enough to wake him up. Bucky promptly left the apartment after dropping Zemo off, going to clear his head was the explanation you got as he left.

You huffed, discontent with everything that was going on. You walked to the kitchen, wetting a rag and tossing it at Zemo. “For your head, cover your eyes, it’ll help.” You then popped a few cubes of ice in a glass and poured whiskey over it, handing it to Zemo as well, tapping your temple at him. You went back to the kitchen, jumping onto the counter, letting your legs dangle over the edge. Sam had pulled out a laptop and was typing furiously.

“Were you ever offered it?” You knew Zemo wasn’t talking to you, but to Sam, who hadn’t looked up from the laptop screen. You zoned out of their conversation, trying to decide what Sam was sending Sharon now. “Sam, you can’t hold out hope for Karli.” This made Sam pause and turn to face Zemo, who continued talking. “No matter what you saw in her, she’s gone. And we cannot allow that she and her acolytes become yet another faction of gods amongst real people.” Zemo removed the rag from his eyes, locking gazes with Sam. “Super Soldiers cannot be allowed to exist.”

“Isn’t that how god’s talk?” You interjected, then you asked quietly, “And if that’s how you feel, what about Bucky?” It was a valid concern. “Blood isn’t always the solution.” Bucky waltzed into the apartment, stripping his jacket from his shoulders, giving a perfect view of his two contrasting arms.

“Something’s not right about Walker.”

“You don’t say.” Sam quipped, closing his laptop and facing Bucky.

“Well, I know a crazy when I see one. Because I am crazy.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“Shouldn’t have given him the shield.” Bucky jabbed at Sam, sticking to his guns on this.

“I didn’t give him the shield.” Sam was exasperated in his delivery.

“Well, Steve definitely didn’t.” You turned to Bucky.

“Hey. Back off, Buck.” Bucky was going to say something in reply when the door burst open again. In walked Scruff and Hoskins, all gung-ho about something.

“Alright. That’s it. Let’s go.” He pointed a finger at a now standing Zemo. The whole room began shifting, Sam in front of Scruff, Zemo to the side out of direct view, and Bucky to your other side, glass in hand. “I’m now ordering you to turn him over.” Sam stopped before Scruff, annoyed.

“Let’s be clear, shield or no shield, the only thing you’re runnin’ in here is your mouth.” You added from your spot on the countertop. Scruff pointed his finger at you.

“And I’m taking her too.” Bucky stepped in front of you, blocking Scruff’s view of you. You placed your hand on his left shoulder, letting him know you were still there.

“I had Karli and you overstepped. He’s actually proven himself useful today. We’re gonna need all hands on deck for whatever’s comin’ next.” Scruff puffed out his chest, attempting to intimidate Sam.

“How do you want this conversation to go Sam, huh?” He stepped back slightly, “Should I put down the shield? Make it fair?” Taking on a condescending tone with Sam, making your brows raise. Suddenly a spear lodged itself in the pillar next to Scruff’s face, all eyes darted towards the woman across the room. Two more warriors walked in, holding spears by their sides and Bucky looked resigned. This was new territory for you, who the fuck are these people? One of the women stepped forward near Scruff. She spoke at Bucky in a language that sounded vaguely familiar to you.

“Release him to us now.” Scruff ignored her instruction, deciding to step towards her, holding his hand out for her to shake.

“Hi. John Walker. Captain America.” You scoffed loudly.

“No, you’re not!” You received a look from Sam at your comment.

“Let’s put down the pointy sticks and we can talk through this, huh?” Sam stepped forward, warning Scruff against tangling with the Dora Milaje.

“The Dora Milaje don’t have jurisdiction here.”

“The Dora Milaje have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be.” Your hand balled into a fist, quickly covering your mouth.

“That’s a burn, Scruff!” You yelled like the little shit you are.

“Y/N! Cut it out.” Sam snapped. Scruff, for some reason, thought it was a good idea to place hands on the Dora he was speaking to. She quickly brought her spear up to force his hand off her shoulder, then bringing it downward into the back of his knee and finally bouncing it off of the front of his helmet. She launched her foot into his chest while he was dazed, sending him backward into the spear behind him and face planting on the ground below. Scruff recovered quickly, sliding his arm into the straps of the shield to protect himself from the spear coming at his body.

The three warriors began fighting with Scruff and Hoskins, much to yours and Bucky’s delight. Sam backed up to stand next to Bucky, who crossed his arms over his chest. Sam looked at Bucky.

“We should do something.” You had just barely heard Sam say it when you and Bucky yelled at the same time.

“Looking strong, John!” “You’re doing great, sweetie!” Bucky gave you a look at your term of endearment, not understanding that it was a patronizing use of the word. The warrior battling Scruff was about to drive her spear into him, until Bucky gripped the handle, stopping her attack.

“Ayo!” Bucky yelled at her. “Ayo! Let’s talk about this!” Ayo had effectively yanked Bucky towards her body, then throwing him backwards. Sam stopped another warriors spear before it drove into a downed Hoskins. The last warrior threw her spear at Scruff, trapping the shield against the table. She began her approach to him and Sam yelled your name to help him.

You got down with a groan, unhappy that you had to save this asshat. All movement was stopped when you heard a metallic thud against the floor. Your head snapped to a now one armed Bucky, his vibranium arm laying on the ground. You released an audible gasp as Ayo walked away from Bucky, his blue eyes wide. Everything around you faded as you watched a broken Bucky, kneel to pick up his metal appendage. Your eyes flicked to Sam, who was just as shocked as you.

“Did you know they could do that?” Sam gestured to Bucky’s immobile arm.

“No.” He swung his arm around once to restart the systems. You heard Hoskins checking on Scruff’s wounded ego, but that didn’t matter to you.

“Bucky. Are you okay?” He avoided your question, grabbing his jacket and telling Sam that Zemo had gotten away. You held your arms out in front of you, what the fuck? Are you the enemy now? You followed after them, not sure where you were going. You got closer to Bucky, grabbing his left arm and yanking him back to you, making his attention be on you for a second or two. “I’m talking to you, dickwad.” His eyes hardened as you continued. “I don’t know what the fuck just happened back there, I’m assuming that has to do with you not being the Soldier anymore. I don’t really care. What I care about is if you’re okay or not.” You stopped walking, still holding his arm.

“What do you want from me, Y/N?” Bucky inquired.

“I want you to fucking talk to me. I’m here for you to unload on.” His brows scrunched and you realized what you said. “Oh my god, not like that, sicko. Well, I mean--”

“Y/N.” Bucky smiled at your humor.

“There, see? How hard was it for you to smile. Just talk to me. I’m making sure you’re okay. Don’t shut down, I hate it when people do that.” Bucky went to say something else when the both of your attentions shifted to a concerned Sam.

“She said what?” A pause, “Right. Hold on, hold on. I know, I know.” He sighed loudly, “Listen, pack an overnight bag and take the boys.” He tried to calm the other person down. You began walking again, Bucky asking quietly.

“What happened?” Sam dropped the phone to his collarbone.

“Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews.” Bringing it back up to his ear, he continued. “Go somewhere safe. Only pay cash, alright? Let me know when you get there.” You turned your attention to your surroundings. The bland streets offered little to no security, but they did give too many vantage points to count. “She wants me to come alone.”

“I’m coming with you.” Bucky fired back, not changing his mind about this one.

“Yay, more friends. She’ll love that. Where we going now?”

*********************************************

You’ve never seen Sam as mad as he was when he walked into that building. Although you weren’t sure if it was anger or if it was betrayal that he was displaying as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. “You called my sister? That’s how we’re gonna play this?”

“Sam, I would never hurt her. I just wanted to understand you better.” Her accent shone through with every word. You could tell that she didn’t want to hurt you. Her demeanor was relaxed, her guard was up, but she was being civil, almost like a politician. You were good at analyzing the people around you, so when Karli mentioned Sam and Bucky just being tools she really meant it. She wasn’t interested in hurting people she deemed innocent.

“Hey, Sam, new Cap is moving, looks like he’s found them, or maybe they found him.” Sharon’s voice snapped you back to reality. The two of you hadn’t spoken since you left Madripoor.

“Scruff’s coming, guys and you know it’s not going to be pretty when he does.” Bucky jumped over the ledge and Karli followed suit. Jumping into Bucky, slamming his body into the post. You ran alongside Bucky to the location Sam had sent to your phone. By the time that you had gotten to the building where Scruff was, you had lost Bucky. Taking an entrance that was already knocked open you heard gunshots from a few floors above you. With your gun raised, you scanned the room for any friendlies.

“Y/N, you’re about to come up on Hoskins. He’s not moving, may need an assist.” Your brows furrowed as you entered the room cautiously.

“How the hell do you know that, Shar? How did you get access to satellites?” You questioned as you approached a tied-up Hoskins. “Need some help, Battlestar?”

“I totally had that.” He said as your knife snapped the zip tie around his wrists.

“Yeah, yeah.” You held your hand out, hauling him to his feet. “It’s okay to be the damsel, ya know?” He shook his head at you, not engaging in your hilarious banter. “Jeez, who pissed in your Cheerios.” You shoved your knife back into your thigh holster, leading the way to where the others were.

When you walked in, Bucky had just caught a knife that Scruff had so deflected. He twirled the object in his right hand, ready to defend against the Flag Smasher attacking him. Their fight was quick and ended with the Smasher on their back, the knife Bucky was holding embedded in the floor inches away from their face. You jumped in, helping Sam fend off another Smasher when suddenly Bucky’s fist flew by your face.

“You’re welcome.” He darted off to deal with the others. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Scruff being held by a Smasher and Karli coming with a knife in hand. You started towards her to stop her, until you saw Hoskins attack from her other side. He tackled her to the ground, Karli bounced back quicker than Hoskins, allowing her to throw a punch at Hoskins. Your jaw dropped as you watched his body fly into the concrete mainstay behind him. His whole body slackened and Karli stood in shock.

Scruff was struggling in his captors hold, thrashing about to get to Hoskins. Once he was free, he shook Hoskins and pushed his fingers against his neck, checking for a pulse. “Hey, hey. Hey. Lemar!” You stood silent in between Bucky and Sam, unsure of what to do. It wasn’t until Scruff stood again that you knew what he was going to do. He had a half-second head start, but it was long enough that he was able to reach the Samsher that was holding him back before you could reach Scruff.

You had to push through the crowd to see what was happening. The Smasher had his hands protecting his face against the slam of the Captain America shield that was being hammered into him. You gasped and had to turn your face into Bucky’s shoulder. This is not happening, but it was.

And the whole world saw it too.

***********************************

The next time you saw Scruff was in an abandoned warehouse. He was talking to himself, yelling about different things. If you weren’t sure before, you definitely were now. John Walker had taken the serum and it was enhancing all the wrong things. Scruff was kneeling, resting his hands on the bloodied shield before him. You were on Sam’s right when Scruff walked up to you.

“You guys should see a medic. You don’t look too good.” He paced in front of the three of you. “You saw what happened. You know what I had to do. I killed him because I had to! He killed Lemar!”

“He didn’t kill Lemar, John.” Bucky’s voice remained calm. “Don’t go down that road. Believe me, it doesn’t end well.” Scruff sent Bucky a disgusted look.

“I’m not like you.”

“You convincing yourself or us, Scruff?” You recognize that this probably isn’t the time to pull his strings but he wasn’t thinking clearly anyway.

“Listen, it was the heat of battle. Okay? If you explain what happened, they may consider your record. We don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” Scruff never stopped pacing, his hand flexing in the shield.

“You gotta give Sam the shield, Scruff.” He stopped pacing and turned to you, getting a little close for comfort.

“Oh, so that’s what this is.” He leaned forward, “You almost got me.” His index finger jabbed into your chest then rested there as he spoke. “You don’t wanna do this.”

“Yeah, we do.” Came Bucky’s reply before all hell broke loose. Bucky and Sam rushed Scruff, fighting for a way to get the shield from him. Scruff sent Sam flying backwards with a swift kick to the stomach. This gave you the room you needed to launch yourself onto his shoulders, attempting to flip him using his own body weight and your momentum. Your move distracted him enough that Bucky got a few decent hits in, but it really just served to piss him off further. He whipped one arm around, gripping the waistband of your jeans and dumping your weight off his shoulders. He threw you into a wooden shipping container, knocking all of the air out of your lungs.

You watch, as you lay there gasping, Bucky get beat to his knees by Scruff and Scruff’s attention is turned by Sam flipping in the air, kicking the shield to the side. You rose to your feet, readying yourself for the opportune moment. Once you found it, you flung yourself at Scruff, sending the both of you to the ground and the shield away from the both of you. You resituated yourself to straddle his stomach, this position didn’t last long because he flipped the both of you. Slamming your back against the ground, he gripped your wrists, yanking them way up high causing you to groan out at the stretch. He released you but not before delivering a swift punch to your cheek.

Your vision blurred, but you could make out Bucky going head to head with Scruff again. Scruff threw the shield at Bucky after kicking him into a lift. Luckily, Bucky was able to catch the shield and shift it to his own arm before Scruff attacked him again. Scruff pressed the shield tight against Bucky’s body, then began speaking to him.

“Why are you making me do this?” You and Sam shared a look then watched as Scruff tossed Bucky clear across the room into an electrical outlet, short circuiting his arm. Sam flew at Scruff, trying to catch him off guard. He was unsuccessful in his efforts, ending with Sam facing Scruff as you crouched in Scruff’s six.

“This isn’t you, John.” Sam began trying to reason with him. He is who is way past reasoning, not Karli. Scruff’s head tilted as he spoke in that condescending tone again.

“We could’ve been a team.” Sam didn’t say anything. He deployed his wings, flying past Scruff and sending a small grappling hook to try and take the shield. Scruff flipped through the air, then braced himself against one of the lifts. You came up from behind him and tackled him off the lift, sending Sam to the ground as well. As you landed, you hit your head on a piece of broken concrete, disorienting you. The shield was out of Scruff’s hands, and he wasn’t happy about that. They both dove for the shield but Scruff managed to get to Sam first, landing on top of Sam.

“I am Captain America.” Scruff grunted out as he ripped Sam’s wings from his suit. You watch in horror as Scruff holds the shield, ready to give Sam a face lift. Bucky knocked Scruff off just before he could land his hit. Scruff had pinned Bucky to the ground after driving Bucky’s head into the side of the shield. You hauled yourself to your feet again, wrapping your arm around Scruff’s neck, hindering his movement. Sam came from the front, delivering a harsh blow to Scruff’s face. You continued to hold your chokehold as Bucky and Sam pried the shield off his arm. You heard a sickening crack as Sam withdrew from the hoe down. Bucky rose to his feet and spit out the blood collecting in his mouth, reaching out his hand for you to take.

You walked over to Sam, you hoped that would be the end of it all. Lo and behold though, Scruff got up yet again. “It’s mine.” He growled possessively, starting towards Bucky again. Bucky ducked lifting Scruff over his shoulder and Sam threw his whole body weight into Scruff who was dangling off to the side of Bucky. The three of them laid on the floor, bloodied and sweaty as you stood over them.

Bucky rose to his knees, the shield in front of him and he used the leverage of it to stand fully. He dropped it next to Sam, pausing for a few seconds and then walking away completely. You stood next to Scruff, in disbelief. “This just got a whole lot more complicated didn’t it, Sam?” He didn’t reply to you, but you watched as he tried to wipe the blood off the outer rings of the shield.

***********************************

You stood outside the building where Donya’s funeral was held, listening to Sam talk to someone else named Torres. Bucky had walked right past you, not a word said. He was shutting down and running away, at least that’s what it looked like. You wouldn’t know because the whore wouldn’t talk to you. You sat down on the stairs, head in your hands frustrated about what was going on. Your phone began buzzing in your pocket, so you took it out ready to deny the call, until you saw who it was.

“Shar.” You sighed into the phone speaker.

“Y/N. How’s it going?” You could hear the smugness lacing her tone.

“Alright, just get it over with. Tell me that you told me so, just make it quick.” She scoffed.

“I mean, I did tell you so, but now I don’t want to tell you that I did.” You laughed at her.

“You realize you just did, though?” You sense that she was smiling.

“What happened?” Her tone switched into a serious one on a dime.

“Walker took the serum, went batshit, killed a Flag Smasher, and then beat the shit out of Sam, Bucky and me in order to keep his precious shield because he ‘is Captain America.’” Your voice morphed to imitate Scruff.

“Well, that was bound to happen sometime. He’s all over the place.” You nodded, pulling the phone away from your ear and switching to speakerphone so you could talk and scroll through Twitter.

“He’s already trending. Captain America Kills Innocent Man, what a great headline. You know the worst part about all of this, Shar?” You switched the speakerphone off, bringing it back to your ear. “I don’t even think that Karli is in the wrong here. She’s doing what she’s doing for good reason, she’s just doing a shit job of getting her point across.”

“Yeah, well she’s becoming a pain in everyone’s asses, so that puts her on everyone’s shit list.” Sharon took a deep breath before continuing. “You need to get out of there. I know you’re not technically in the States, or alive, but you know how the government is. They’ll find a way to get you, if they want you.” She was lecturing you out of love, you knew, but it was frustrating for you still.

“Can you not trust that I know what I’m doing?” A grunt released from her end of the phone. “No, seriously Shar. We grew up the same, went through all the same training, what makes you know so much better than me?” Deep down, you knew that wasn’t what she meant, but you had always felt second best when it came to Sharon.

“It’s not that you don’t know what you’re doing.” She sighed heavily. “It’s that you were gone for five years and things have changed. Governments have become stricter and you don’t understand that they aren’t the same as they were.” You remained quiet, expecting her to say something else. “That’s why it’s good you have me because I know how they work.”

“You know how they work, do you?” You were fed up with her. “Then explain to me how you have access to satellites, Sharon. That’s not something that you just happen upon.” Your tone was accusatory. “Are you working for the Power Broker behind my back?” You heard a sharp intake of air on her end. “I swear to God, Sharon. We promised each other we wouldn’t work for that asswipe. He’s involved in too much bad shit. If the US government were to ever find out that we were working for the Power Broker, they wouldn’t grant us pardons, Shar. Did you fuck this up for us?”

“I didn’t fuck anything up and you need to check your tone when you’re talking to me.” Your brows shot to your hairline.

“The fuck did you just say to me?”

“You heard me. We need to work this shit out. I didn’t fuck anything up and neither will you if you come back to Madripoor right now.” You were shocked, Sharon had never talked like this to you.

“I really don’t think I would be comfortable being somewhere that I’m clearly not welcome anymore, so I’m going to stick with what I know.” Sharon began backtracking as you resigned yourself to being on your own for the first time in forever. “Goodbye, Sharon.” You ended the call and shoved your phone into the pocket of your jeans.

You dropped your head into your hands in defeat. Being on your own was daunting and you weren’t sure how Sharon survived without you well enough to grow your business all on her own. You tried to think of your next move, deciding that sticking with Sam would be your best bet. He’s the easiest to guess where he’s going since Bucky has been mentally MIA towards you.

You recalled Sam mentioning his sister and nephews, thinking he would go there to check on them. You hauled yourself out of your slump and to Zemo’s apartment to collect your things before going. You were going all in if you were going to do this, so why the fuck not?

*************************

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mimento-more · 3 years

Text

Bucky Barnes x Reader – The day that I ruined your life.

(sorry for any mistake, english is not my first language. Gif not mine)

TRIGGERS: mentions of blood, character death, violance.

TYPE: angst.

_____________________________________________________________

“So James tell me, have you had any nightmares recently?” the therapist asked him like every week.

Of course he had nightmares, he killed so many people when he was the Winter Soldier, the feeling of guilt never left him. But recently he had been feeling worst than any other week. Three days from that day will be the anniversary of the death of his soulmate, his beloved, his best friend and unfortunately, his victim too.

_____________________________________________________________

Five years ago…

“Come ‘on Bucky don’t be an asshole, give me that back.” said the girl to the ex sergeant.

“Take it yourself. Oh wait… you seem a little too short to grab it.” Bucky said laughing hard. He and y/n would always do things like that, they annoyed each other so much that the Avengers almost hated them both.

“James Barnes if you don’t give me back my phone I swear-“ she was cut off by Jarvis.

“Agent Barnes, Agent l/n, you have an incoming call from Nick Fury.”

“Agent Barnes, Agent l/n, I need your help, since the Avengers are away. We have found a secret H.Y.D.R.A. base and it seems that they are trying to create a new Winter Soldier. This base is situated in Siberia. I’m sending you an Alicaner to get you there. Don’t fuck it up, we can’t afford to let them finish their project.”

y/n gave a look at Bucky. She knew this would be hard for him even after all the therapy with the Avengers and their newfound friendship. That place would be for sure the base that created the first and only Winter Soldier, a twisted version of Bucky that he hated and hoped to bury deep down in him even though sometimes it tried to show up and kill everyone in the room.

The girl took Bucky’s hand and tried to reassure him that the mission will go well and that she will protect him from that evil monster that was H.Y.D.RA.

Bucky knew very well that when y/n said those kinds of words she will keep them but he was really scared to turn back to the old himself, after all those 3 damned words kinda worked on him even now. He tried not to think about it and simply hugged the h/c woman. He hugged her so hard that she was out of breath shortly and had to say his name to stop him. They laughed one last time before heading to the plane.

After a a few hours they were in the freezing cold Siberia and the only thing left was to head to the not-so-secret-anymore base. Bucky and y/n had to come up with a plan quick if they didn’t want to be caught; after a while they decided to sneak in and to separate to look for information’s on the new type of super soldier and try to destroy them.

y/n was pretty athletic so she sneaked in easily but for Bucky it was a bit more difficult. The only thing he could do was to surrend himself and hope they would take him back.

y/n found a room that was dark and the only light source was very poor which turned in her favour so she could stay hidden in the shadows and source up things. When almost all hope were lost she found a fil folder that contained a bounce of paper sheets. She read them and what she found was terrifying to her…

Bucky’s acting was never the best but fortunately the secret society believed him or so he thought.

The moment they took him into a room he saw a face he wished to never see again, Zemo was there standing with the Winter Soldier book in his hands.

Bucky was right about fearing the worst when him and y/n were called on this mission.

“it’s nice to meet you again, old friend.” Zemo greeted him with a sly smile.

“I’m not your friend, Zemo.” Said Bucky with stone cold voice.

“we know why you’re here, oh wait let me correct myself, why you and that girl are here” said the man. Bucky felt a shiver down his spine. They knew everything from the start: the base, Fury this time didn’t think ahead, he and y/n have fallen into a trap.

“well now that you’re here why don’t we catch on the old times? I remember you screaming so loud that it was like music to my ears. Boys take him here.” He ordered the two guys that were behind Bucky. The ex sergeant fought them but he felt a sting in his right arm, one of the soldier injected him with something that made his vison go black.

y/n watched those files again and again but she still couldn’t believe that was nothing in them; Bucky and her have fallen into a trap. How could have she even thought that this mission would be that simple? She felt stupid, she was naïve but a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent couldn’t afford to be naïve or they would die.

While she was scolding herself, she didn’t capture the sound of someone walking in but when she felt someone grabbing her she was quick to neutralizing them. The woman run away from that room but going back to the main corridor would have mean a certain death. She quickly scanned the alleyway and saw a small door. “it’s the only way out of here, come ‘on y/n you can do it.” She reassured herself even though she was claustrophobic.

Crawling her way out she then arrived at the entrance and surprisingly enough Bucky was there.

“Buc we have to go, it’s a trap” she told him but as soon as she finished to talk a hand grabbed her buy the neck and smashed her to the nearest wall. The air was leaving her lungs quickly as she tried to grab Bucky’s metal arm to stop that torture but his grip was too strong and she almost blanked out. Then her throat was released but a punch hit her stomach hard then in the face multiple times, now she was a bloody mess.

The Winter Soldier was back.

Bucky was following the orders, killing the spy. He was back to his evil origins but he couldn’t fight against an order not when Zemo said those russian words that made him swap back. He liked that feeling: the power, the violence but at the same time the good side of him knew this was bad. All he could ear was his punches hitting skin and felt blood on his armored arm but then he heard a mumble.

“Please stop.” That voice was familiar but he couldn’t grab on it. He continued punching the spy until there was silence. The small whimpers stopped and that could mean only one thing: the spy was dead and his mission was accomplished.

“B-b-buc, I love you.” She said with her last breath.

That 4 words snapped the Winter Soldier out of that foggy mess that was his head and let return Bucky Barnes at the reality. What he saw was horrifying: blood everywhere, blood on his hands and then he looked at what once was his best friend now laying in a pool of blood with eyes shut open and cold as ice. Bucky kneeled down to grab her lifeless body and hugged it one last time. Tears were falling down his face without him even realizing. The pain, the grief, the guilt, he felt everything.

_____________________________________________________________

Today…

“James, can you answer my question?” the therapist asked once again.

“No, no I don’t.” he answered with a small forced smile.

He remembers that day as the day that he ruined her life.

if anyone is interested I can create a tag list. Write me if you want to be in there. Thanks for reading ✨

#bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky fic #bucky x female reader #angst #marvel #bucky x reader angst #tfatws #sebastian stan #winter solider x reader #bucky barnes angst #bucky barns imagine #bucky barns x you

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freddieslater · 3 years

Text

MCU Ships That Could Deafeat Thanos: Thundershield | Steve Rogers x Thor Odinson

Requested by anonymous

[Full thing on ao3]

"No." The answer comes out so clear and decisive that even Thor's a little surprised by it, but as soon as he says it, he knows it to be the truth. "I don't want to go back even knowing I can if I so desire. Because I would be living a lie. Those versions of the people I love... they aren't mine. And I wouldn't belong there with them. Not anymore, that's a different version of me, that's his life. Not mine."

Steve sighs again and starts to shake his head. "I know what you're trying to say, but... it's not the same for me."

"No, I know," Thor agrees. "It's different. I would be messing with the timeline, stopping things that need to happen. You would be... well, happy."

"Don't... do that," Steve pleads, turning away from him again, closing his eyes against it all. "It's not that I'm not happy."

"But you do regret it? Crashing your plane into the ice?"

There's a pause between them as he lets Steve think it over.

"I don't... I don't regret that I ended up here. That I became an Avenger with you guys, or everything we've done over these last few years. I don't regret this life I've lived since I woke up, but it's—it's not mine—“

"But it is," Thor argues, exasperation slipping into his voice, trying to reason with him. "This life—it may not be the one you were meant to live, but it's the one you have, and—and going back? It erases all of those things you say you don't regret."

"Why does everyone think that?" Steve asks, his frustration clear in his voice. "You and Bucky make it sound like such a bad thing, for me to want to go back. Why? I shouldn't be here, and I don't—I don't belong here."

"Neither does your friend Bucky. Yet he's staying."

Steve drops his head forward, hands clenching. Thor just watches him drag them through his hair.

"Alien girl. The green one. She doesn't belong here, not this version of her. But she stays. Well, not on this planet, but she's staying in a timeline she isn't from with a man who's supposed to be her partner but she currently loathes, so... that's something."

He almost pulls a chuckle from Steve. It's quiet amusement, more of a smile and an exhale. But it's something.

"I belong on Asgard," Thor then says. "Yet I've had to make a new life here. Without my brother, my mother, my father, and a lot of my people. But I keep telling myself, it'll be alright. You know why?"

The answer is obvious to Steve already. His smile fades a little, but it's still there, as though engraved in his face permanently. He drops his hands from his face and looks up at Thor expectantly.

"Why?" he asks.

And Thor smiles, leans in to clasp a hand on Steve's shoulder, and says, "Because I know I have people I love all around me. And people who love me. This may not be where I belong, but I can handle it. Because I can see any of you whenever I feel like I'm alone. I'm reminded that I am far from it, and that, now, this is where I belong. Not here, specifically, but in this place in time."

Steve stares back at him. He gets the point. As much as he may not want to, Thor can tell that he does, as he takes a deep breath.

"It's just... it feels wrong to stay," he admits. "With..." He bites down on the insides of his cheek. "With Tony gone, and... Nat. It just doesn't feel right to stay here knowing that they're not."

Squeezing his shoulder, Thor nods. "I understand. Truly, I do. I..."

His fingers press a little harder than intended, but Steve says nothing as Thor speaks through his teeth, "I miss them, too. Every moment, I'm reminded of them, again and again. But, you realize that going back to a time before you met them won't rid you of the grief of losing them? It'll still be there with you. Only, you won't have anyone who understands the pain that you are feeling. You'd be more alone than you may feel here."

Steve knows he's right. Going back wouldn't make him feel better. Or happier. It would just be escaping.

He tries for a small smile, and cuts his eyes away, turning his head as well. The bad feeling returns to the pit of Thor's stomach and winding around his heart like a weight pulling it down. But he knows that Steve needed to hear it. They both did.

He releases Steve's shoulder and pulls his hand back. It feels cruel, to leave him with no comfort, but he has to for himself. Maybe he's a bit of a hypocrite; to say all of that all while knowing he's probably going to up and leave to join the Guardians in the next few days. Getting too attached to this New Asgard, it wouldn't go well for him. Neither would becoming too attached to the people he does have left.

What's really the difference between that and running away? Valkyrie's been trying to talk him into staying after making her the new King. Maybe... Maybe he should try. He just won't have the weight of all of his people on his shoulders this time. He could just... be one of them.

"I guess," Steve starts, shrugging, "I could go back to Brooklyn. See if the flat Nat and I used to stay in is still available. Or find a new one." He drags the back of his hand across his face and Thor isn't sure if it's to hide his sadness or wipe away the last traces of it. "I could keep an eye on the kid, then. Peter could probably use some support around him from us after everything that went down. And I'll see if I can find Wanda."

Thor nods but stares down into the water with a frown. It hadn't occurred to him how badly it might be hurting Peter. Or that Wanda might not be in the best state of mind. They haven't seen or heard from either of them since the funeral.

"You should check in on them," he agrees.

"What about you?" Steve asks, curious. "What are you going to do?"

Thor takes a deep breath. His answer a few minutes ago was somewhat simpler. Now...

"I think I might stay here," he says. "My people... these people... they don't need me to lead them anymore, but it would be nice to be with them. I did agree to help the Guardians, so I'll probably have to do that first, but I would only be gone a little while."

He glances at Steve to gauge a reaction. He's nodding, and when he says he might leave, he just makes a quiet, "Oh" but doesn't seem betrayed. Maybe a bit disappointed. Like he wants him to stay, which is entirely understandable considering he did just talk him into staying.

"You'll be the first one I come to see when I get back," he tells him sincerely.

Steve really does smile at that. He lifts his head with one more deep inhale, then looks at him, and says, "Good. And if you disappear off the face of the planet for a year after that speech then I'm getting Carol to take me up there and find you myself."

He's the one to reach out this time, patting Thor's leg with a kind, warm glint in his eyes. It hadn't been there when he got here, but Thor's glad to see it returned home safely.

"We gotta stick together. Right?"

Thor smiles back. "Of course."

They talk for a little while longer, until they eventually say their goodbyes. It's hard. Thor admittedly still worries that, the second he goes off with the Guardians, Steve might feel alone again and decide that it's no longer worth staying. Steve assures him that he knows now he can't do that. Not to the others, and not to himself.

And so they separate, for the time being, Thor going off to help the Guardians, and Steve going back to Brooklyn to check in on Peter before he starts trying to locate Wanda. But they promise it won't be long before they see each other again.

#mcu #marvel #mcuedit #thundershield #steve rogers #thor odinson #steve x thor #thor x steve #rowing the rarepair rowboat #mcu ships that could deafeat thanos #myedit*#this took me forever to actually get around to doing so I am so incredibly sorry anon #I’m not sure how in character they are as I still haven’t auite figured iut characterisation for mcu characters yet #but I’m working on it!#and also this is technically a snippet because I couldn’t afford to post the full 2k works that I wrote for this here #so it will be on ao3 #hope you’re still around anon!!

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theres-an-impulstor-among-us · 3 years

Note

I know you wrote a drabble where Scott is almost sacrificed at Dogwarts and wanted to ask if you could write a version of that where he actually is sacrificed.

okay so this one is an alternate ending to this one, so it’ll start off the same and branch out into a different ending. read it first/save it for after if you want a happier version lol

author’s note: due to my severe discomfort surrounding decapitation, i’ve altered the method of killing slightly

lives at the start of this fic: Jimmy - red, Scott - green, Ren - red, Etho - yellow, Martyn - green

cw: blood, strangulation

just a reminder: please do not tag as shipping :)

…

Scott is starting to regret letting the Dogwarts trio take him and Jimmy back to their base, but he can’t exactly back out now. It’s his own fault, really, for asking if there’s anything else he can do to support Dogwarts from a distance, rather than putting up their banner.

He shoots a sideways glance at Jimmy, who seems even more nervous than him. Scott resists the urge to reach out and take his hand.

Finally, they arrive at Dogwarts. Scott is more than worried to see that a new platform with torches surrounding it on all four corners has sprung up in the middle of the carrot field. It looks innocent enough but something about it gives it an ominous vibe.

Unfortunately, this is exactly where Ren leads Scott.

“What is this?” Scott asks warily, putting one foot on the step up.

“This is the Altar of the Black Heart,” responds Ren ominously. “For Dogwarts to truly achieve full power, it requires a sacrifice. The blood of an outsider.”

Scott’s eyes widen as he realises what this means. “Whoa, whoa, hold on a second!”

He backs away a few steps but bumps into Etho, who takes hold of him in a surprisingly strong grip.

Jimmy starts forward with a gasp but Martyn grabs him and pushes him down, holding him in place. “Scott!” Jimmy cries uselessly.

Ren stands on the hill just above the altar as Etho drags Scott into place and tries to hold him down. Scott struggles against Etho’s grip, causing Etho to backhand him across the face.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Jimmy screams. “SCOOOOOOTT!”

Blood trickling out the corner of his mouth, Scott coughs and tries to fend Etho off again.

“I’d stop resisting if I were you, Scott,” comes Martyn’s cold voice.

Scott glances over at him. His heart freezes as he finds Martyn holding a sword to Jimmy’s neck. “No!” he gasps. “Don’t!”

“Then hold still.”

After a moment, Scott squeezes his eyes shut and falls still, letting Etho push him to his hands and knees in the centre of the altar.

“Scott…!” croaks Jimmy. “No…!”

Scott forces himself to meet Jimmy’s terrified gaze. “It’ll be okay, Jimmy,” he whispers, just loud enough for Jimmy to hear. “Just stay strong for me, okay? Stay strong.”

“A sacrifice must be made!” announces Ren, spreading his arms to the skies. “Do the honours, Etho.”

Etho nods and raises his axe.

Jimmy looks away, starting to hyperventilate. He can’t watch this.

Scott closes his eyes.

The axe comes down hard and buries itself in the small of Scott’s back, the tip piercing his heart and killing him instantly.

Smajor1995 was slain by Etho

Jimmy starts to scream and doesn’t stop. His eyes are fixed on the spot his husband just was seconds before, tears streaming down his face. Tears of terror, of grief, of anger.

Something snaps inside him.

“Take Solidarity to the dungeon,” Ren orders. “We’ll deal with him later.”

But as Martyn starts to move, Jimmy reacts lightning fast and kicks him in the stomach with unbelievable strength. Martyn staggers back in shock and pain, allowing Jimmy to snatch his sword and slice cut after cut in his former friend’s body, not stopping despite the screams. His lust for blood has finally been awakened and he WILL avenge his husband.

InTheLittleWood was slain by SolidarityGaming

He spins round to find Etho charging at him with the axe that had killed Scott. Seeing his husband’s blood still dripping down the blade sends Jimmy completely over the edge.

His swing has so much force behind it that it knocks the axe cleanly out of Etho’s hand. Before Etho can recover, Jimmy shoves him to the ground and kneels on his chest, his hands wrapped around Etho’s throat. His eyes are so flaming red that they’re practically glowing, teeth bared in an animal-like snarl.

THIS is the person who killed his husband. Jimmy will make him pay.

Someone is trying to pull him off Etho but the bloodlust increases a red lifer’s strength and stamina, and they can’t budge him. The smell of blood is making Jimmy dizzy and disoriented, but all he knows is that he wants to kill. No, he NEEDS to kill. His desire to maim and murder is so strong that it’s all-consuming, growing inside him like lava escaping a volcano, rising up until it’s about to explode outwards and destroy everything in its path.

“STOP!” Ren’s voice yells desperately.

Jimmy doesn’t. He can sense that Etho is almost dead, and every instinct in his body is driving him forward to finish the job.

“Jimmy!”

This voice causes Jimmy to freeze and slowly release Etho, blinking against his red vision as he looks around wildly for its owner.

A hand touches his shoulder, then hugs him from behind. The cool, smooth arms… the scent of strawberries… the gentle heartbeat…

“S-Scott?” Jimmy croaks.

“It’s me, Jimmy,” whispers Scott. “I’m here.”

Jimmy slowly turns around and finds Scott’s face looking back at him. It… It really is him.

He pulls Scott into a tight hug, clutching him like his life depends on it. All the pain and anger and terror melts away, leaving only love.

Still holding Jimmy tightly, Scott carefully moves him away from Ren and a freshly-yellow Martyn as they dash to the semi-conscious Etho’s side.

“We’re even,” he says firmly. “A life for a life. There’s no need for further bloodshed.”

Ren glares back at him, but his expression softens slightly as he registers what Scott’s saying. “Really? You’d be satisfied leaving it like this?”

“Well, of course we’d still be enemies,” responds Scott. “But I want to call a temporary truce. I don’t want anyone else to die, not even any of you.”

After a moment, Ren glances over at his right hand man. “It’s your call, Martyn. You’re the one who died.”

Martyn considers Scott’s words on his own for a moment, before glancing up and happening to make eye contact with Jimmy. All traces of the bloodlust in Jimmy’s gaze are gone, replaced only with the eyes of the person Martyn used to be close friends with all those years ago.

“I accept your olive branch,” he says.

Ren nods and addresses Scott and Jimmy: “Then you two may leave this place in peace.”

“Come, Jimmy,” Scott murmurs. “Let’s go, quickly. Before they change their mind.”

Jimmy dithers as Scott takes hold of his hand and starts pulling him towards the exit. “S-Sorry, Etho,” he says awkwardly. “Sorry, Martyn.”

“Come on.”

Scott practically drags Jimmy to the gate and out of Dogwarts, only slowing down once their walls start to appear in front of them. Jimmy stays silent, letting his husband lead him.

Finally, they get into their base, which is where Jimmy takes the lead and pulls Scott into the former’s house, shutting the door for privacy.

“Jimmy, what-,” Scott starts.

“Let me see the scar,” says Jimmy seriously. “Please.”

After a moment, Scott turns around and lifts up the back of his shirt. A clean, straight mark running down his back shows Jimmy exactly where the axe entered his body. He gently traces the line with the tips of his fingers.

“I told you this would happen,” he says hoarsely. “I said they’d do this to you but you didn’t listen!”

Scott huffily pulls down his shirt and takes a few steps away. “I know, Jimmy. TRUST ME, I know! You’re just lucky they decided to go for the green lifer, not the red.”

“LUCKY?!” cries Jimmy. “Did you SEE me back there?! I murdered Martyn and nearly choked the life out of Etho!”

“Yeah, I did! I set my spawn right outside the walls before we went in and it’s lucky I did or you might’ve kept going and gotten yourself killed in the process! I can’t believe fear for your own life is what finally triggered your bloodlust.”

“What?!” Jimmy stares at him with wide eyes. “You think THAT’s what happened?”

Scott frowns at Jimmy’s reaction. “Well… I DID, but…”

“There’s a reason I’ve stayed back and tried not to get involved in any of your stupid conflicts, you know! I NEVER wanted to kill. EVER. But when they sacrificed you right in front of me, I felt the desire to rip Martyn and Etho apart like a predator with its prey. THAT’s what triggered my bloodlust, Scott! They killed you and I wanted them to suffer like they made you suffer!” Jimmy’s voice breaks and he dissolves into tears. “My bloodlust was triggered by the need to avenge you. And to make sure they never hurt you again.”

His heart breaking, Scott pulls Jimmy into another hug, letting him cry into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” he murmurs. “I never considered how traumatic that whole thing must’ve been for you. How are you holding up?”

Jimmy coughs, trying to clear his throat. “B-Better now. Please promise me we won’t ever go there again, though.”

Scott rubs Jimmy’s back soothingly, feeling Jimmy’s heart still pounding in his chest.

“I promise.”

#3rd life smp #3rdlifesmp #solidaritygaming #smajor1995 #vaunna’s requests

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hungnitan · 2 years

Text

My thought after read FGO JP comment :

I myself already stopped playing JP and migrate to NA but this things will happen too in next 2 years so let me voicing some of my thought with everything happened especially drama of this year...🤣

A male servant turn into tentacle female

I won't say the name everyone already know but he first release from arcade version then came to mobile then become a woman with weird fetish design...

To be honest, I think management teams really desperate to gathering some petty money. Then again FGO never freely open their banner income but I really sure it decrease 2-3 times than their prime time...

But then again even IF they release the male version too I think it doesnt makes things different... since he don't have something special so yeah I still let this go

Some ikemen turn out to be NPC

This one just happened from weeks ago, about Takasugi with his cool looking design turn to be NPC just like Mitsuhide and other male from Guda Guda...

This just my thought, but I think they better release Takasugi at least as *4 or going along as *5 with Lancer Ryouma in current banner. Putting him as NPC are more like "male doesnt sell so let's put Avenger Nobu along with Ryouma" for players searching for Nobu to throw their money just to get Ryouma...

So to cut it short, this move is just show their management really desperate and can't or blind? see player's needs...

Around 1:30 ratio for female and male servant

For this one, I think someone should enlighten FGO upper head or their last decision making. Except those people are just otaku hardcore or think they still in safe line I think we can prepare say goodbye to FGO in next or two year...

To be honest I myself still prepare for that after LB finish

If they want to makes FGO into harem or female centric game, write it in game genre from very start ! So we female won't even bother to touch the game like Honkai

Look again why Genshin or ProSekai climb to top so fast (I took example those two as I play them and it have pretty balanced gender and screentime) or Uma Musume eventhough it all female still safe at top...

I can't deny waifu more profitable in gacha game BUT husbando needs pretty killing than some random genderbender woman !

Need example ? Genshin pretty open for their banner income... It turn out their JP branch sells for husbando places 2&3 best out of moreless 20 banner so far

...wait why I say these long argument🤣 as if I care for FGO anyways, I never throw money there too🤣

Maybe I just bit sad huh... Just saw Wada (Takasugi art designer) express her or his? Dont know sadness over the NPC things. Means she draw him earnestly not knowing this beforehand right... Really saddening as she draw so many servant before

#fate grand order #genshin impact

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otterskin · 3 years

Text

Dumb Details From the Loki Trailer I noticed but then got too serious about

First - apparently it’s not a trailer, so I guess we’ll get ‘Trailer 1′ later? ‘Exclusive Clip’ hardly seems accurate, but hey, I’m not Disney’s marketing division. I wouldn’t live in a shoebox if I was.

Dumb detail no. 1:

Owen Wilson’s jacket is...weird. Look closely.

And another shot:

Yeah...his jacket has a ‘reversed collar’. It’s a cut-out rather than cloth folding on top. Huh. What a strange design choice. What could it mean?

I’ve no idea, but that I watched the trailer enough times to notice this should concern you.

Detail No. 2

In this scene, we see what we can presume to be President Loki’s ‘Throne’. Notice the candy-canes. This is a Santa Claus throne, presumably from some mall Santa. This whole place might be in a mall, judging by the stuff in it.

But the Loki in this shot is not President Loki. Notice that he’s wearing brown pants, a thin brown tie, and the beige shirt he’s seen wearing in other parts of the trailer after he's apparently joined the TVA. President Loki wears black pants, a green vest and a wide green tie with a golden clip that resembles Loki’s little chevron he always has (more on that later).

So it would seem that Loki might meet President Loki here. President Loki might even be addressing him at the end of the trailer. It’s possible that his minions turn on him because there’s two Lokis and they don’t know which is the ‘imposter’.

Speaking of, there’s a minion with bicycle handlebars grafted to a football helmet here, likely meant to resemble Loki. I dig it. There’s also cans of food scattered among the rubbish here. Makes sense that food production is non-existent since everyone has resorted to wearing license plates and spoons. Love how tattered the whole aesthetic is.

This reminds me of the opening Michael Waldron’s script ‘Worst Guy of All Time’, which featured a similar post-apocalyptic setting after the ‘worst guy’ ruins everything and makes himself king of the ashes. That’s likely what’s happened here, but I hope that Loki isn’t anything like Logan Paul, who was the inspiration for that title character.

Ah, the mysterious female character watching a meteor shower WAY TOO CLOSE UP. But my eyes are drawn to one thing...

What is that oblong object with a shiny handle? Could it be...

A sword? I do love swords. Did you know there’s a bunch of pictures of me in the stock photos for ‘Fencing?’ That’s my cred for loving swords.

I suspect that this female character will be an amalgamation of Amora (shudder) and Sylvie and an alternate Loki of some kind. This sword is currently in her possession, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it or another timeline version of it becomes the Loki Show’s Loki′s weapon.

Loki has lacked a ‘weapon of his own’ in the MCU for quite some time. I mean, yes, he has his little knives, but they are many and disposable and something he chose for himself, rather than the two legendary weapons wielded by Odin and Thor, Gungnir and Mjolnir. In fact, throughout his appearances, Loki has seemed to want such a thing of his own - he briefly had Gungnir, and then the Gungnir-like scepter, and even tried to lift Mjolnir.

One might ask why Odin would’ve overlooked such an obvious show of favouritism. Why give Thor a storied weapon and leave Loki empty-handed? Heck, even Hela had the Necroblade.

In Thor 1, we might’ve assumed that the Casket of Ancient Winters was perhaps intended one day to be given to Loki, as it is shown with Mjolnir in the Vault and thus connected to it and the children who would inherit it. But in the comics, Odin did have another weapon of storied history put away for his second son: Gram the Sword.

It was locked for eons by Odin in a special vault which required five keys to be opened, and it was meant to be for Loki if he be worthy.[2] The five keys were infused by Odin with the powers of "journeys", "endurance", "secrets", "new beginnings", and "brotherhood", respectively.[3]

The sword, like everything else in comics, has a complicated history full of take-backs and twists, but let’s just leave it at ‘it’s a representation of Loki’s worthiness and belonging in the trifecta with Odin and Thor as a King of Asgard’. It gives him ‘equality’.

In the original mythology, it’s wielded by Sigurd to kill the dragon Fafnir, and the only relation it has to Loki is that Loki is partially responsible for Fafnir existing in the first place (my username is nod to this myth by the by. Sorry Ottär.) But hey, maybe that means we’re getting a dragon? The Fafnir would be very cool.

Or it could just be a bit of rebar in this mining quarry.

Then again...it appears somewhere else...

It’s easier to see in motion, but that’s a sword swinging on this person’s back.

So the hooded figure is this lady...shall we call her Amylkie? Does that mean she’s the antagonist of this show? Well...maybe, but I suspect the true antagonist is foreshadowed here -

So, what’s going on here? A young girl (Young Amylkie? Some other TVA prisoner that the guard is watching over? An oracle, A Norn, or a kid who wandered off from the tour group in a basilica somewhere?) She’s giving Mobius M. Mobius a...piece of chocolate. Maybe he saw a Dementor, I dunno. I suspect it’ll be a MacGuffin of some kind later. He looks pretty concerned here, which contrasts with his ‘another day at the office’ blaséness when dealing with Loki. But of course this is the eye-catcher:

So, Norse Mythology. It’s been Christiannized. You can thank Snorri Sturluson for that, but you can google all about him later. Let’s just say that he made many Norse figures into equivalents for Christian ones. Baldur is Jesus, pure and a sacrificial lamb who dies for a greater good. And the devil is...Loki. Something the Marvel comics and the MCU have continued.

Here we have a devil, dressed in green and with a distinct shape on his chest:

Hmmm...wait...I know that weird horny shape...

Ah. I’d say that cinches it. This is meant to be Loki. If you look at the devil’s hair, it also resembles Loki’s, being shoulder-length and black.

So, what’s devil-Loki doing? Laying an egg? Trying out a foot massager? For a second I thought it was a moon, but we see the moon over his left shoulder, amongst the stars. Which means this is - probably the Earth.

...Dammit; I live there.

So Earth is barren and being devoured by flames, likely caused by this Loki sitting atop of it (in a throne, no less). Aw gee, things look pretty bad, don’t they?

But wait - what’s that? Under the Earth (and, possibly, under the earth)?

It’s a plant. A shoot, to be exact.

Back to Ragnarok for a second. Ragnarok isn’t the apocalypse (something we see a lot of in this trailer - all of it seems to be exploring the end of days). Ragnarok is the fire meant to wipe out the old and fertilize the ground for the new. And after the gods have died, what happens? Well, Baldur emerges from Hel, one of the only surviving gods (hmm, seems him dying worked out, didn’t it?). He’s joined by Líf and Lífþrasir, who are the new first man and woman, who’s names mean ‘Life’ and who are pictured, usually, with plants and new life. It is they who are tasked who growing a new Yggdrasil after the destruction of the old. The previous first man and woman are Ask and Embla, meaning Ash Tree and Vine/Elm tree, so there’s a theme there.

So a new sprout, possibly a tree, growing out of the destruction of the old.

This fits with Loki’s role as understood in mythology. He checks the arrogance of the gods, including when they tried to achieve immortality (sorry, Baldur, nothing personal), and that keeps the gods at their best. After Loki is imprisoned, the gods become weak, unhelpful and foolish, and Yggdrasil starts to rot. Eventually Loki escapes and returns along with Surtur (who also resembles this figure) to burn it all to the ground. This is also referenced in Thor:Ragnarok, with Loki releasing Surtur in the Vault, a place of thematic importance to Loki and one that represents the hidden secrets and sins of Asgard). You could say Ragnarok continued into Infinity War, where Loki played an important part in aiding Thanos’ destruction, giving up the stone to protect his brother and essentially dooming the rest of the universe - but also ultimately leading to its salvation, even if, like Myth Loki, he wasn’t around to see it.

So, we see Amylkie literally start a fire in the trailer -

- in fact, this whole trailer is awash in flame -

It’s fire, fire everywhere and she’s setting them!

It’s possible Amylkie’s our big bad, but I think there’s a chance she’s either a red herring, or, much like how Loki ‘worked’ with Thanos in The Avengers, she is the pawn of a greater foe -

- a Loki bent on destruction, for some reason or other. The TVA is obviously aware that this is the case, and it seems like they might be trying to ‘fight fire with fire’ by enlisting one Loki to combat another. The villain could be President Loki, since there's evidence of 2 Lokis in that scene - or maybe that's one of many Lokis, and the Big Bad Loki is being played by Hugh Grant as Old Loki. In any case, it would appear that Loki will be coming face-to-face with the worst versions of himself, and many of them. And, if I’m right about this scene:

...Loki will likely eventually discover that even his ‘good’ timeline ended in the destruction of his people and home, plus his own gruesome and torturous death. Although I think the TVA will keep that from him, and just show him the happy parts in an effort to inspire ‘good behaviour’. Until Loki inevitably discovers the rest of how that timeline played out and realize he’s been lied to. I don’t imagine he’ll take that very well...

Damn, even our ‘hero’ Loki is burning stuff down! Does this mean that Loki is doomed, always meant to be an avatar of death and toasty destruction?

Well...let’s go back to that stained glass.

Hmmm...wait...I know that weird horny shape...

And there’s something else...the bottom of the Earth is being lit up, and not by fire. Light appears to be coming off this little plant.

What colour is this plant again? That’s right, green. Green is the colour of new life and growth and change and...hang on, I’ve heard that before, too...

Hang on hang on HANG ON... let me have a look at the shape again.

That’s...a letter. An L? For Loki? Like in the title sequence?

Wait...no, a different letter. An older letter. After all, Loki is old Norse. How do you spell his name in that again?

ᛚᛟᚲ ᛁ -

And ENHANCE on that third letter!

This, my friends, is a Kenaz/Kaunaz, or what would become 'K' in our alphabet. It is also known as the 'Loki Rune' (and the Ulcer Rune, for some reason. I suspect Odin understands why). It’s used to spell his name, but is also used on his own to represent him. Heck, it's even his Superman 'S' in the comics:

Runes are more than letters - they are symbols for concepts. So what else does it mean?

Primarly, it means ‘torch’.

And also ‘knowledge’ (ken). As well as ‘growth, change, the search for truth, decay, arrogance, elitism, feminine, kinship and creativity.’

...Okay, that’s a lot, but you have to admit it fits.

More specifically, it means ‘Mastery of the Fire’. As in, someone who has learned to tame fire so that it is helpful, not harmful. To bring light and, symbolically, knowledge.

There’s another way Loki’s been associated with fire - in the Wagner Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold, the opera that inspired much the Thor films’ aesthetic and certainly their helmets, Loki is called ‘Loge’, which means ‘Fire’. He’s usually dressed to match, too -

Many trickster figures are associated with fire. They are usually called ‘Fire-bringers’ - See: Raven, Lucifer, Prometheus, etc. They are often complex figures with a foot in different worlds, but who nonetheless help mankind with the gift of ‘fire’ - although they usually pay for it, and tend to be self-destructive.

(Side note. Lucifer means light-bringer, which is what luciferase is named after. Because it glows. Which is helpful in labs. In case someone needed to know that.)

Moving from a destructive fire-starter to a fire-bringer seems like a great character arc for Loki to take, especially given his rehabilitation in pop culture, the comics, and even wider culture. Loki has gone from being seen as an evil, deviant, destructive character to one who’s seen as a patron of the arts and creativity, of stories rather than lies. Heck, some scholars of Norse Mythology even posit that he’s the closet thing to a protagonist Norse Mythology has, so I guess that backfired, Snorri!). Being dressed in green and with the sprout clearly also being stylized after his Kaunaz, there’s foreshadowing that he’ll be capable of growing good things even out of ashes.

So, to sum up: Being ‘Satan’ sounds pretty bad, but with a little letter re-arranging like we see in the title sequence, you can be...

...practically a saint. Maybe even a saviour.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

#loki #trailer #details #meta #theories #theory #explanation #thor #tva #santa #devil #snorri sturluson whinging #christmas #fire #kaunaz #loki trailer

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