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jedi-enthusiast · 4 months

Note

Genuine question as to why you feel so passionate about being pro-jedi? I definitely wouldn't say I'm anti-jedi, but I think there are some decent criticisms that can be made about them. But overall I'm just interested to understand the dedication to being pro-jedi, cause it is a fictional organisation at the end of the day. Isn't it more fulfilling to look at them from different perspectives so we can get the most out of the story as possible?

Before I answer, I'm going to ask you a question in turn, would you ever ask this question to someone who was anti-Jedi? Would you ever imply that they need to change their view on the Jedi because they're "not getting the most out of the story?"

Now, I'm going to preface this answer by saying that I'm not angry with you, I'm just very passionate about this topic---so don't take any of this personally. You seem like you're genuinely asking, and I appreciate that.

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Personally, for me, there aren't really any criticisms that can be made about the Jedi- (keep in mind, I primarily adhere to Lucas Canon, everything else is just an add on depending whether I like it or not). Everything that people criticize the Jedi for or accuse them of falls into one of three categories:

Not true- (the Jedi are a cult, the Jedi repress their emotions, the Jedi were mean to Anakin, etc.)

Done for a reason because the other option would be worse/it was their only real option in a bad situation- (the Jedi shouldn't have fought in the war, the Jedi should've defended Ahsoka, the Jedi are slavers because of the clones, etc.)

Or it's something that's an Eastern concept/practice but people refuse to look at it as such and instead project their Western viewpoint/religious trauma onto them- (literally the entire thing about attachment)

I've never seen any criticism of the Jedi that doesn't fall into one of these categories, so why should I be inclined to "hear people out" or "look at the Jedi from other perspectives" when there's...really nothing else to look at?

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Another thing to consider is that, while the Jedi are fictional characters, George Lucas based them heavily on very real religions and groups---particularly Jews and Buddhists.

So when people say things like- "the Jedi weren't allowed to care/love/have emotions because of Attachment™️" -they're spreading harmful misinformation and basically saying that Buddhists can't love/care/have emotions because of their rule against attachment, since the philosophy of non-attachment is literally taken verbatim from Buddhism.

And when people usually pair the above rhetoric with- "-and that's why the Jedi deserved what they got/caused their own downfall" -it's...a very concerning mindset for people to perpetuate---especially when George Lucas based the genocide of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire off of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.

When you strip away the fictional aspects of it, a lot of what people say about the Jedi is literally Nazi/antisemitic/Holocaust denial rhetoric. To take an example of something that has actually been said on one of my posts:

"The destruction of the Jedi Order was less a genocide and more of a religious conflict that the Jedi lost. The Jedi Order is a sect of the collective religious culture of 'Force Users,' and their destruction cannot really be considered genocide as the cultural group of 'Force Users' still exists albeit heavily restricted and controlled by the Sith during the Empire Era." - @/ironwoodarl01

And, as @zarohk pointed out:

It’s depressing how so many “Jedi critical” talking points are pretty much antisemitism and Holocaust denial/justification: The destruction of the Jedi Order was less a genocide and more of a religious conflict that the Jedi lost. "The Jedi Order religion of Judaism is a sect of the collective religious culture of 'Force Users Abrahamic faiths, and their destruction cannot really be considered genocide as the cultural group of Force Users Abrahamic faiths still exists…" Similar thinly-veiled antisemitism in the Star Wars fandom also frequently includes supersessionism, the Christian idea that during the (Roman) Republic era, the Jedi Jews had become corrupt and lost their way, and and so finally a divinely created person was sent to show them new path. This is why attempts to read Star Wars where Anakin is a Christ figure or correct where the Jedi have failed (ignoring the fact that he wrecked the lives of most people he was involved with, including himself, and the Darth Vader was never happy) are not just incorrect, but generally have a thick underlayer of antisemitism.

So, while Star Wars is fictional, it's important for people to analyze why they feel the way they do about the Jedi and be critical of the ways in which they talk about/criticize the Jedi---because, like it or not, the Jedi and their genocide are based on real people/things and so your reaction to them/what happened to them can be very telling.

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Finally, being critical of the good guys or trying to view everything through a morally grey lens doesn't make the story inherently more interesting, nor does it inherently add anything to the story---so I'm not "missing" anything.

If believing that no one can actually just be good, and everyone has to have some agenda, and "the good guys were the REAL bad guys all along" adds something to Star Wars for you...by all means, go ahead and believe what you want.

But my view of Star Wars isn't "lesser" or "missing something" just because I don't share that view and actually like the good guys and believe in what they taught/did.

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I'm passionate about being pro-Jedi because of everything I outlined above and because they were truly good people who tried their best to help the galaxy---they were brought down, not because of anything they did, but because of one man's selfish stupid actions.

There might've been a time when I was willing to hear people out when they criticized the Jedi---because hey! maybe I was wrong---but that time has long passed because nothing anyone has ever criticized the Jedi for has held up to scrutiny, and anti-Jedi people won't just keep the fuck off my page and leave me alone.

So, frankly, this is my blog and I'm allowed to be as passionate as I want to be---and I'm not gonna stop, or start viewing the Jedi as "wrong" or "bad" or whatever, just because you- (and other people, I'm sure) -think I'm missing something by being strictly pro-Jedi

#star wars #sw prequels #pro jedi #pro jedi order #pro jedi council #in defense of the jedi council #in defense of the jedi #jedi appreciation

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darling2411 · 2 years

Text

Days like these

Not my gif

Mick Schumacher x reader

summary: On summer break you visit Mick's family in Switzerland with him.

warnings: none

word count: 3.3k

The wheels of the plane smoothly connect with the ground and at the same time your heart begins beating frantically. The whole flight over you had nervously nibbled on your bottom lip and squeezed your boyfriend's hand to literal death.

“Love, calm down. There’s nothing you need to worry about.” Mick sends you a reassuring smile.

You grimace “ Mick, what if I behave like a complete idiot? What if your mom doesn’t like me and wants you to break up with me? What if your sister despises me? What if I make a complete fool out of myself because I know absolutely nothing about Switzerland or Germany's culture and language and stuff?!” You are so concerned that Mick's family will not like you and once again are trapped inside your mind who has officially entered overthinking modus.

“They are going to love you.” He responds calmly. “How do you know?” You ask, catching his gaze. Your eyes are filled with worries and confusion.

“Because I love you simply as that.“

Mick couldn’t understand how someone as wonderful as you could think that there's someone who wouldn’t like you. When he looks at you his heart overflows with love. His veins get filled with sunshine and happiness and his eyes start to shine like the stars he would gift you if he could. He often tells you that you are the bane of his existence. With all that has happened and everything that is going on is his life you’re his saviour.

You sigh. His word may have given you some peace but the doubts are still raising hell in your mind. You try to take a deep breath and draw a mental door where you shove them behind and shut it close with force. You imagine that you lock the door and only you have the power to open it again. The thoughts and nagging doubts have no power over you.

You smile at the silence in your head and turn to Mick who’s already looking at you.

“Ready to go, Schatz?“

“Will you ever tell me what this word means?” You lean closer to him, a wicked grin playing on your lips.

“No. It’s my little secret.” He winks and you’re allowed to be at the receiving end of his dazzling smile.

Grasping your chin, he tilts your head up and presses his soft lips against yours. The kiss ended far to soon and when you break apart you are already craving for more.

“ Come on, we gotta go. My mums probably already waiting.” He trails of.

The whole process of getting out of the plane and receiving your bags you hold onto his hand, never letting him go. You’re in a new country, a place you've never been before and a country where you don’t speak the language. You will not lose the one person you know and who will save you if something happens.

Mick is the perfect gentleman. He carries your luggage for you, opens the car door for you and is always asking if everything is okay. You just need to love him. And when some guys recognized him and ran over to ask him for pictures and autographs he never let go of you and made sure you weren’t shoved aside or treated rudely.

As much as you’re his saviour, he’s your hero.

You never feel like you’re somewhat of a burden to him.

The drive to his family’s house is short and filled with him pointing out places where he grew up and made memories with his family and friends.

On the radio the people speak German and you only understand little pieces.

Words like ’gut’ good or ’wunderbar’ wonderful.

Mick often chuckles at some things that the moderator or callers tell but when you look at him expectantly he grimaces and points out that if he tried to translate it, the joke would be lost and it wouldn’t be funny anymore. “M’ sorry, Liebling.” He squeezes your hand lovingly but you smile at him and say that he doesn’t have to worry about it. And he doesn’t. Yes it’s a little inconvenient that you don’t understand his native language, but you make it work.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The peace you felt just moments prior is replaced with nervousness and you fiddle with the arrow necklace you got as a one year anniversary gift from Mick as soons as he pulled into his parents driveway. The thought behind the necklace is that an arrow can only be shot by pulling it backwards. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means it's going to launch you into something great.

Anyway we digress.

You arrived at his parents house. It is beautiful.

Before Mick could ring the doorbell, the entree is being pulled open by a woman seeming to be not much older than the pair of you. His sister Gina-Maria.

“Awww Hallo großer.” ( großer is a term of endearment that mostly mothers use for their sons in the German language, literally translates to big one.) she greets him before pulling him into a bone crushing hug. “Ich habe dich vermisst.“ I missed you she murmurs.

When they part Mick tries to introduce you but before he could even get one word out his sister is already all over you.

“Oh und wer bist du?“ Oh and who are you? Mick beat you to answering her question “Das ist meine Freundin [y/n].” That’s my girlfriend [y/n] He says proudly, smiling at you widely. You smile and wave shyly. “ Hi”

“Sie spricht kein Deutsch.“ she doesn’t speak German he quickly adds.

“Ah no problem,” Gina-Maria announces,” all of us speak English so there should be no language barriers.”

You feel something heavy lifting off your chest and relief replaces the feeling of nervousness.

“That’s great. “ You smile genuinely.

“We’ll let’s get inside, Mama wants to meet you really bad. She’s going to be so excited.”

“Yeah I feared that that would be the case.” Mick leans toward you, whispering in your ear. “ I just want to apologize beforehand, my mum is going to talk your ear off.” He chuckles. The sound of his chuckle and wave of air hitting the sensitive skin of your neck and ear make you shiver and close your eyes in pleasure.

“No problem.” You whisper,” I’m prepared.”

He takes your hand and leads you into the living room. Everything is held in warm comforting colours and you immediately feel at home.

“Hello dear.” His mum greets you.” Wow, you really are beautiful. My son didn’t exaggerate when he told me you are the most beautiful woman he has ever laid his eyes on.” With that she pulls you into a loving hug. You laugh heartily.

What you don’t see is that Mick is blushing furiously behind your back and sends his mom a glare.

“Oh Mick Ich bin doch nur ehrlich.“ I’m only being honest she laughs.

“Mmh ” he responds, rolling his eyes.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

The first encounter with his family went over smoothly and you not once felt uncomfortable.

His mother and sister had taken you to the little town to buy groceries for dinner and ran into a lot of people they know. It was nice getting to know people Mick grew up around and you felt welcome at all times.

When Gina-Maria saw the look of confusion on your face she always translated the conversation for you as good as possible and you were really thankful for what she did. You even learned a new word. ’Grüezi‘ ( A greeting In Switzerland).

In the store the three of you bought a lot of food and wine and you were looking forward to trying the Swiss cheese and chocolate Mick was always gushing about.

When you got back Corinna suggested that she could start preparing dinner and you ‘kids’ could relax and make yourself comfortable.

“Oh no we can help.” You offered.

”Ja Mama, wir werden nicht faul rumsitzen.” She turns toward you,”Can you get Mick? He will also help, before we left he said he was getting your room set up . “ yes mom, we will not sit around lazily.

You nod and make your way upstairs into yours and Mick's room for the days you’re staying.

You silently open the door and find him sitting on his bed.

“Mick?” You ask, “ your sister asked me to get you, we’re all gonna help your mom in the kitchen.” You hear him sniffing.

“Love? Is everything alright.” You ask again concern lazing your voice, while making your way over to him.

When you get a clearer look at him, you see him clutching a picture frame tightly in his hands and single tears sliding down his face. You crouch in front of him and ask him what’s wrong.

“I- I’m sorry. I don’t want to ruin everyone’s mood, but on days like these I really miss my dad.”He looks down at what you assume must be a picture of him and his dad and then he takes your hand in his,” he would have really liked you.” He smiles a sad smile and your heart breaks for him.

“Oh Mick.” You stand up and take his face into your hands, stroking his cheeks lovingly. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you, but please know that I'm always here for you. ”As you lean down and kiss him on the forehead he breaks. He pulls you in close by your waist and buried his face in your chest. His sobs almost make you cry. His body is shaking in agony and you try to calm him down by stroking his hair and whispering that everything is going to be alright and that you love him.

After a while he stops sobbing but his body is still shaking.

You pull his hands from your waist and push him back a little until you can sit in his lap. His face is pressed against your neck now and you can feel tears wetting your skin, but you don’t complain. How could you?

After another five minutes, Mick detaches himself from you and kisses you gratefully.

“Thank you” he says silently.

“Nothing to thank me for.” You kiss him again, deeper this time. He groans and presses closer. His tongue traces the seam of your bottom lip and you open your mouth for him. His tongue invades your mouth and you moan. He tastes salty like the tears he cried and desperate to forget his sorrows.

His hands wander to your bum and squeeze while one of your hands is tugging on his hair and the other holds onto his shirt.

Soon you're moving your hips on top of his and he moans in pleasure. “You feel so good grinding on my dick.” He voices.

You can only moan , the pleasure making you dizzy and unable to form words.

But before your little make out session can devolve into something you two definitely shouldn’t be doing with his mother and sister in the house, the door opens and his sister barges in.

You gasp in shock and Mick lifts his head from where he was just sucking your skin mere seconds ago.

“Aha, that’s what’s been keeping you from coming back downstairs. Mick you horny bastard.”, she scowls,” Get your hands off her and come down to help Mama.”

Mick huffs and gives his sister an annoyed look before kissing you again, telling you he’s sorry without words. Then he lifts you from his lap and stands up himself.

“Ugh you’re disgusting.” Gina groans. “Before you face Mama you should take care of your problem.” She fake gags before turning around and leaving.

You’re as red as a tomato and turn to look at Mick mortified. He’s adjusting himself and says, sounding more questioning than sure ” well at least it wasn’t my mother?” You chuckle embarrassed before shaking your head and leaving the room.

Mick on the other hand needs to take two more minutes before he can follow you.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You and Mick's mother are in the kitchen and the soft music in the background paints a sweet, domestic picture.

While you’re chopping vegetables for the salad Mick gets the grill going and his sister is setting up the table.

“Does he treat you well?” Mick's mother asks you out of the blue and disrupts the comfortable silence.

You stop cutting a cucumber and look up. “Yes, he’s the best.” You smile at the thought of your sweet,loving boyfriend.

“You raised him well.” You chuckle.

“I better have.” Corunna laughs with you.

“Schatz? Can you pass me everything that needs to be grilled?” Mick asks when he steps into the kitchen.

“Course” you hand him two plates and follow him outside with another one.

When you come back inside you are met with Corinna looking at you with teary eyes.

Your eyes widen and you immediately ask what’s wrong.

”The nickname.” she stutters.

You frown and she explains “His Dad, uhm he he always called me that. Mick always grinned when he did. In English you’d probably say darling. The literal translation is treasure, because you're his most prized possession. “

You gulp and clear your throat,” That’s uhm that’s really beautiful.” You try hard not to let a tear fall.

“He’s so much like his dad.” Corinna smiles.

“Well I wouldn’t know that, but I know that he’s as strong as his mother.” You give her a hug and she tells you that Mick’s really lucky to have you.

I’m lucky to have him, you think.

“Well that’s enough sentimental stuff for today, let’s enjoy our time together.” She tries to sound upbeat, but you can hear that she's still reminiscing about the times with Michael. You decide not to say anything. When you two are finished you join the Schumacher siblings outside who are again bickering. Corinna scowls” Kinder, hört auf euch zu streiten und kümmert euch lieber darum, dass wir etwas zu essen auf den Tisch bekommen.” Kids , come on, stop arguing. You should rather make sure that we get some food on the table soon. “Ja Mama.” They both say in usion and you chuckle. “What are you laughing at babe?” Mick questions you, a grin playing on his lips. He loves having you home with him. Yes he may be sad that his dad cannot meet you, but he loves that you’re comfortable with his family and that they really like you, not that he has ever thought differently.

He wanted this with you. A family. He’s possibly going too fast because you're only together for a year and a half. But he makes his money by driving too fast, so why should he slow down with you? His job is dangerous and he knows that there are risks with everything but he doesn’t want to waste any time with you. He loves you and you love him, so what is stopping him from taking what he wants?

“Oh you and your sister are just,” you sigh,” I always wanted that. “ you pull him from his thoughts.

“I know, Liebling.” He pulls you into his side and kisses the top of your head. You look at him with hearts in your eyes and he swears he wants to fall on his knees for you.You look at him as if he gives you the world, and if he could he would. “God, baby, you gotta stop looking at me like that.” He mumbles into your hair.

“What do you mean?” You ask innocently.

He pulls you closer to his body.

“You look at me like I’m the center of your world.”

You laugh” Yeah, because you are.”

“I want to kiss you so bad right now, but I can’t. Because if my mom sees how I kiss you, she knows what unholy things I’m going to do to you when we’re alone later. “ You whimper silently. Goosebumps coating your skin and your body’s aching for him. He wants you so badly, but he can’t have you. Not here. Not now. Later he promises himself and you through a look he sends you. Later he will take whatever he wants and you're going to willingly give him everything.

“Mickilein stop flirting with your girlfriend and come and put some meat on the table.”

“I don’t need to flirt with her, she’s already my girlfriend.” He smirks at you and gives you a chaste kiss. He mutters something like “Nervensäge” ( A word to describe someone who’s a pain in your ass) into the direction of his sister before walking over to the barbecue and starting to put the finished food on a plate.

You take a deep breath and sit down opposite his mom who gives you a knowing look. “You can’t resist their charm.” She states and you shake your head. “We’re defenseless.”you announce dramatically before breaking out into a fit of giggles. Corinna following suit.

Dinners fantastic and you four have a great time. Corinna and Gina-Maria take turns telling embarrassing stories about Mick and sometimes throw in some stories of him and his dad too. Your boyfriend hides his face in his head many times to not show he’s blushing but you know and takes his hands away from his beautiful face to kiss his red cheeks. “ I love you.” At some point his mother and sister even pulled out one of the photo albums from Mick's childhood and you’re swooning over the cute images of him.

“That’s my favourite picture of him and his dad.” Corinna admits wistfully. In the photograph, Mick is sitting on his fathers lap in a kart,wears his helmet and smiles brightly.Mick and Gina look at their mum and they share a pained look. Gina hugs her mother from the side and Mick kisses the top of her head. “Wir habe dich lieb Mama.“ we love you mom

Corinna turns to the next page and ends the sad moment with a laugh at the next photo of Mick and his sister throwing mud at each other.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“Thank you for the beautiful day.” You spoke to Corinna and Gina-Maria before telling them good night and joining Mick in bed. You snuggle close to him, your head on his chest and one of your legs thrown over his. He smiles into the darkness of his childhood bedroom and kisses the top of your head. Loving how you always wanted to be close to him when you slept.

“I love your family.” You murmur and his smile grows.

“And they love you. “ he can feel you grinning into his chest. “I hope you’re not disappointed but I’m really tired. Can we delay the hot sex to tomorrow?” you ask while trying to fight a yawn.

“Of course, Schatz. All the talks about my dad also kinda have the same effect as too much whiskey. No boners for us .” He chuckles.

“Well we will see about that in the morning, baby.” You laugh and he pinches your bottom in response.

“Oh, by the way your mom explained to me what Schatz means and why you call me that. I want you to know that I now love it even more than before.” You admit to him. He strokes your hair, takes a deep breath and out of the blue he whispers

“Marry me.”

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Here you go I guess.

Join my tag list if you want.

Reblogs and Feedback are appreciated :)

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

@ellabellabus07

@motylekrozi

(You two wanted to be tagged in works of other f1 guys when Mick wasn’t on my list , if you don’t want to be tagged in stories about him please tell me.)

#formula 1 #f1 fanfic #mick schumacher imagine #mick schumacher x you #mick schumacher x reader #mick schumacher #haas f1 team #my writing ᗢ #gtawwf

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firespirited · 9 months

Text

Watched a bad cam of barbie the movie and the gender essentialism that was. debunked. in. the. sixties. made my brain leak out of my ears.

but maaaaang this is the prettiest film set with the most gorgeous costumes I’ve seen in at least twenty years. All that colour, actual saturation T_T it’s magnificent.

Cut for major spoilers and thoughts (will collate this later into something less messy)

In a nutshell, very fun movie. Not very good as a *Barbie* movie unless you've only bought them since the body diversity of 2016 but formed your ideas about them in the early 90s. The fans will enjoy easter eggs but not anachronistic plots.

well. i may need to kidnap greta gerwig and explain solidarity along other lines than being handed the crappy gender and this might take a while since clearly this hasn’t crossed her mind or ever existed in her world. I may have to use Barbie and wheelchair Ken being politically aligned since neither fit into the dreamhouse as blunt props then move on to asian ken who’s had one or two more dolls than allan, one of which is an expensive hard to find samurai caricature. Then maybe we can talk about why there are no sanitation work barbies despite kids loving trash and toilets as concepts and what magically happens when cleaners and garbage collectors strike.

HOWEVER this isn’t a feminist movie and never was. To judge it more harshly than any other blockbuster isn’t really fair. ((That won't stop me of course because doing a queer or marxist reading of Rugrats in Paris can be entertaining.)) I loved the dances, I loved the sets, I loved the costumes and throwbacks. But Kens being all what about the menses after getting friendzoned and them being walking stereotypes was miserable and so unreal.

Kids don’t project that onto their dolls who are busy being genderqueer adventurers in the wildest telenovela you’ve ever seen... creepy mommybloggers do that.

I’ve talked before about Hallmark movies being made not for the demographic represented on screen but mothers of adults or teens who want their kids to find fulfilment in a life close to their parents, back “home”. Pixar movies that speak to the office politics of the parents who brought the kids to see the colourful funny film. This is more of the same and the massive disconnect comes from knowing that Barbie - and dolls in general - are only projections. Ms Gerwig sees something I don’t and never have seen except in the choices that Mattel has made as a company to try to expand and appease the consumer base (covered earlier, it wasn’t always gen pop like now but mass buyers for retail chains).

You don’t get personal issues from Barbie, you get them from society and other women and a world run by men making them feel inadequate. Barbie isn’t skinny or a slut or anything value/morality based until long after you’ve absorbed those concepts yourself, projected them on many other women then finally see Barbie wearing or doing something you could never be allowed.

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I moved house about once every three years as a kid, some of those changes were to radically different social (and literal) climates: going from evangelic rural USA to a east germany then back to working class UK gave me mental whiplash. I found myself age 8 dissociating to the point of having to be guided by the teacher in the changing rooms after sports at school unable to decide what was right or wrong about removing clothes then taking a shower with the other girls. I didn’t know how to reconcile the vastly different but strongly held beliefs about bodies. Age nine I’d move to a place where you don’t show bare legs, age 14 to a place where it made no sense to locals to not be in small clothes half the year. I was a mess.

But Barbie was never a symbol of anything except how much money your family were willing to spend on birthdays. I couldn’t understand what my parents saw in her that was in any way inappropriate, girl wears whatever her current occupation requires, her body designed to never be fully naked! It’s a toy - why do they make animals talk and give food a face? Toy logic is why. Ken, Barbie Clone, Pony, Ninja turtle, Snoopy, Teddy, Rock with eyes on it all occupy the same ungendered and also highly gendered, depoliticized and highly political IT ME and IT HERO and IT CUTE space.

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This wasn’t for the girls gays and theys but white liberal parents worried about a symbol that’s not even a symptom that barely registers compared to what’s printed on a cereal box: pretty skinny white lady, eating with a grin, looking so rested and happy, hers has fresh fruit and drizzled honey because she gets to have fancy breakfast not you, calories per portion, portion size that’s not a real portion that fits a cereal bowl if you actually weigh it. Bollocks staring at you every breakfast time. 1 of 300 messages your kid will take in that day.

Rest assured dear parents that Barbie does not even factor, her profession doesn’t last more than an hour out of the box: drama and far more important issues must be attended to. Unlike a gun which can only be a gun, anything Barbie comes with or finds can be a weapon or a magical artefact.

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Nitpick 2: Allan was awesome and never got to beat up that odd guy Alan for stealing his name.

Side notes:

Nitpick number one Barbieland has no horses ???!!!!??? First thing sis did when she had her own pocket money to buy Barbies was get the horse. The horse no-one could ride of course. Slightly better scale than mylittlepony G1 Bow Tie.

Love Simu Liu's era of riffing on his buff like a ken doll image. Between this and The Other Two he's done a lot to deconstruct toxic masculinity (and bite the MCU hand that feeds him, how Boyega of him) . I know twitter has some beef with him (no idea what that's about) but as far as I can tell he's actively working on breaking stereotypes placed on him with each new role.

Really loved the dig about money not being speech in barbie supreme court. The details are impeccable when not in service of the odd ken redpilling plot (he just wanted purpose and horses) or the awful will ferell 'comedy'.

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I’ll do a rewatch as soon as a better quality version lands and possibly combine it with Ghost in the shell - Innocence which does a lot of talking about dolls, gynoids, icons, idols and the image of self contrasted against Matoko who’s basically decided to be formless for a while.

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Initial conclusions :

Threading the tiny needle that is Barbie the doll as she is played with and collected by children and adults vs Barbie as she is perceived and made symbol of women's issues was never going to be easy. As a toy story, it works. It's beautifully designed has a decent message about women being told to be perfect and a weak one about men acting out when they don't have purpose and having to find their own value.

The flat feet were the first red flag because barbie had flat feet from the 80s onwards: all gymnast bods, beach bods and many fashionistas and made to moves. So it's pick and choose barbie eras depending on what suits the set up for this ken/barbie conflict. We're also throwing Life in the Dreamhouse completely out of the window. We're ignoring Ken being important to gay men and the gay men designing for Barbie. The queer eye is vital to Barbie's worldview and longevity. All of Barbieland Kens are straight and clueless. No Blaine no Ryan ok I can accept that, but no gay Kens is very hard to imagine. I liked the gender non conformity of Kens though, that was very much in line with modern Kens such as Dennis Bahl the green BMR.

As a Barbie story, things start to get complicated because Barbieland isn't a match to what's happened to the Barbie universe IRL. The body diversity in Barbieland and single names is post 2016 only. The aesthetics of the (play)sets are 80s-90s. The careers are partly 2016 +, partly 80s-90s except that Ken had plenty of careers pre 2016 (& as far as I can tell he's been a dogwalker, farmer and a vet since 2016) but it's a massive plot point that he has no career or purpose here. It's the parents choice to buy him as an accessory/comphet love interest or as his own character not a Barbie 'canon' rule.

So you set up a conflict based on the fact that Barbie sometimes came with a same occupation Ken as accessory but set in a post 2016 world where you *choose* if to have a Ken and never get one just to have the Barbie. We're going to ignore qll the times recently where you couldn't buy Barbie without her sisters.

Ken does exist without Barbie to collectors of male dolls. Some of which are little boys who are allowed Kens but not Barbies.

I'm glad for the pg13 rating because Ken's been designed carefully to counteract the 90s potato Ken stigma that made him so clearly the guy doll. Since the Blaine, Ken is just one of the crew of friends and a potential boyfriend, sculpted to look as friendly and unthreatening as possible. I really don't want kids who had a non segregated crew to start The Gender Wars unless that's something that's happening in school.

Emptying my head of all that Barbie lore was too difficult on first viewing. My views on ken are basically brunette potato ken is an afterthought but blonde ken since they got back together has been shaped by himbo, sometimes glam ken... with LitDH golden retriever ken being the main idea in my head. So Gosling's blond Ken starting out supportive himbo and quickly revealing 'nice guy' tendencies felt so wrong.

You know what? I want the edit where Ken's dickishness is cut out and Barbie's crisis takes the main stage. It felt rude to have her movie undercut by incel Ken and it'd be a much more focused story to have Barbie and Gloria vs the world and Ken realising he is kenough as a side plot.

#saf #barbie movie spoilers #barbie spoilers #barbie movie

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perennialwitness · 1 year

Text

THEO

Theo sat alone in the window seat of a passenger train, staring out at the Eastern European countryside as it whizzed by. He was back on the continent again for the first time in years. Convinced by Matt to join him on a month-long sabbatical to take their minds off of the political climate in The States. In order to assuage Theo’s guilt for fleeing, he made the claim that it wasn’t uncommon for Black artists to seek asylum in European nations to allow themselves the peace to process and create. Think about Quincy Jones or James Baldwin, or Nina Simone, he would say, and Theo would agree, if only so that he would drop the subject.

A vibration in his lap shook him from his ruminating, his muscles clenched at the sight of his phone screen and the banner it displayed. A message from Rosalina Cruz-Diaz (@QueenOfThorns). He and Rose followed each other’s Feeds, though they hadn’t spoken directly in years. It was a way for them to silently acknowledge each other’s existence and observe from afar. The message was a reply to a photo he’d shared of him and Matt posing with two blondes in front of Brandenburg Gate.

I can’t believe you’re in Germany! You just missed me.

Theo scanned the text several times quickly before locking his phone and dropping it into his lap. He knew she was in Europe as well and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t hope to accidentally cross paths. Had she been thinking the same? His mind whirled with potentiality, thoughts sweeping in great ellipticals gathering force with each revolution until the pressure mounted and he forced his gaze outward through the window, his thoughts kept busy tracking the blurry landscape, soothed by long strokes of earth tones. He unlocked his phone again once he cooled off and began typing a response. Something casual, fun, something that showed he was well-adjusted without her and living a fulfilled life.

Did I? Oh well, better luck next time.

Three bubbles appeared at the bottom left corner of the screen and he locked the phone again, not wanting to appear too eager by seeing the message as soon as it was sent. His right leg shook up and down in a twitchy rhythm. He had the sudden urge to clench his jaw and crack his neck. His thoughts now turned to what he might say if he ever saw her in person; likely that he’d seen it all coming, that their end had been inevitable, doomed from the start. His phone vibrated and with clammy hands he unlocked it quickly, too quickly.

Who says there’s gonna be a next time?

Theo caught his own smirk of amusement reflected by the screen and it stung. He knew immediately what this had become. Rose was speaking in a language she’d reserved for him a lifetime ago. A reference she knew he’d understand. Rather than reply he pulled up her profile, the bio read: A Rose by any other name. Radicalized Afro-Latina Carmen San Diego. If you catch me I’ll tell you secrets. None of her photos were of tourist attractions or national monuments. Instead they depicted the intimate moments that occurred along the way. It made her seem to be perpetually in transit, never arriving at any place in particular. There were many times when he’d thought to comment on a photo, spent half an hour agonizing over word choice, but he never followed through. He tapped on her most recent, dated three weeks ago. It was black & white and captured Rose perusing records at a small shop in Kreuzberg. She’s mid gasp, eyes alight, pinching the edge of a copy of Pastel Blues. He swiped at his phone, taking him back to the message screen. He typed and as he did he was reminded of Rome. They weren’t making a stop there on this trip at his request. He was unsure if walking those streets would have a reaction on him or not and fearful of ghosts from his past he thought it best to avoid the Eternal City altogether. Though despite his efforts she appeared all the same, seeking to acknowledge their shared proximity to the place where it began.

I don’t know, it’s all coming and going.

Over the years Theo attempted on sleepless nights to rationalize his heartbreak. He’d tell himself that the love he felt for Rose was a result of something larger than them both, that their entanglement was as inevitable as their separation. They were young travelers bursting with hormonal desire, attempting to justify their escapes by validating themselves with the presence of another. Holidays were an opportunity for the romantics to act out the moments that felt too forced for day to day life, a chance to be cheesy and dramatic with the understanding that their actions will exist solely in that one point of space-time, carried onward only by memories as their lives would likely never intersect again, less they faced the reality that whatever magic conjured then had not been between their true selves but the people they dreamt of being. Theo and Rose had broken this rule and the result was their failed relationship. With time he came to believe that impermanence is an aphrodisiac, an invitation to tempt fate and while these moments may burn loud and bright they fizzled just as rapidly. Their love, like all love, had been a gamble, with particularly low odds and to lose such a wager was better than having never played at all. Her response was instantaneous.

Always will be.

As much as he tried, those rationalizations never stuck. He’d loved her, all of her, not just the version that existed in Rome. He’d seen the gory bits and his love remained constant. It was her who’d fallen out of love with him. He hadn’t lived up to the expectations she had for him, she hadn’t given him the opportunity to. She’d deemed him without potential and therefore a waste of her time. Theo sighed and focused on his hands as he tapped out,

Why didn’t you wait for me?

He stared at the text wondering if he should ruin this moment with accusations. Thinking better of himself he deleted the words, checking his need for answers. He’d gotten the message loud and clear.

I miss you and I hope you’re safe.

He snuck one last look at her profile, locked his phone and returned to his gazing. Proud of himself for showing restraint, he used it to soothe the wound reopened in his chest. It was the mature thing to let her go, he’d wasted enough of her time and she’d made it clear what the situation was when she left. He had no right to interfere, even if she was the one who’d reached out it was sanguine to assume she’d had anything other than platonic intentions. They could be friends, should have been from the start, he was beginning to see that now. What began as defensive logic for the sake of his id slowly dissolved and he began to paint pictures in his mind of what could have been. Matt was a good friend, loyal, but never really interested in the details, he arrived in every new city with a checklist of places to visit each of which only holding his attention for the minute or so it took for him to snap a selfie. Rose though, she had a knack for it, traveling, and a way of imbuing even the most mundane experiences with suspense and anticipation befitting an odyssey. Theo imagined himself following her around the planet, stumbling upon ancient spaces and taking them in with her whispering facts she’d gleaned from books and documentaries in his ear like gossip.

By the time Matt returned from the restroom, languid and unable to catch his balance on the speeding train, Theo was fully engulfed by his fantasies and did not acknowledge him as he took his seat. With a groan he slid into a slouched position, running a hand over his damp forehead.

“Left a mess in there, hard to aim with this thing bouncing around.” He waited, but Theo offered no response. “Hey, so uh, remember I told you about that girl I met at the bar last night?” Nothing. “Sticks, such a cool name, anyway she hooked me up with this—” Matt scrounged around his pocket for a moment shifting dramatically from side to side so that he bumped Theo’s shoulder finally drawing his attention.

“What?” he muttered with a few rapid blinks as he readjusted to reality.

“— It’s supposed to be like a psychoactive sleep drug,” Matt produced a pill bottle of little black tablets. “I’m thinking it’d be dope for the train rides, like a little trip between trips.”

“You know this counts as smuggling, right?” Matt looked from him to the bottle, his eyebrows scrunching in thought.

“I don’t think anyone cares. It’s not illegal, I’ve never even heard of it. When was the last time someone checked your bags anyway?” He gave the bottle a shake and let the rattle of tablets tie off his point. “So, you down?” Theo wavered, he didn’t love the idea of both of them being incapacitated in such a public place. Though in the second it took him to respond his mind was changed by a single thought; What am I doing any of this for, if not to take chances?

“Give me one,” he said and Matt shook out two tablets one for each of them, with a slight cheers they dry swallowed the NYX and then they were gone.

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fortressofserenity · 1 year

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With less pretension please

Though I grew up liking X-Men a lot, the fact that many of the more popular and better-known X-Men and the like tend to be white sort of complicates whatever attempts at deconstructing the problem with racism. Even if it were confined to white people, it doesn’t show what it’s like to be ostracised for speaking a minority the way gaelgoirs have been subjected to in Ireland or for another matter, Low German speakers in Germany.

As this person said on Bookriot, X-Men probably was never a good metaphor for ethnic minorities to begin with. As I said before, it doesn’t address the additional problems an ethnic minority goes through like say the dilemma of having to maintain an endangered language so closely associated with a family or small-knit community for so long that it’s telling it was never written by anybody belonging to those communities or anybody interested in endangered languages.

The Legion of Super-Heroes may not be any better in some regards, but it is less pretentious in that it never pretended to be a metaphor for ethnic minorities and racism. This makes the characters a good blank slate for whatever ethnicity you imagine them to be, Lightning Lad could be Jamaican and Cosmic Boy could be Chinese. That actually makes them more promising than the X-Men will ever be in some regards, since it never uses metaphors for ethnic minorities.

Now that the Legion of Super-Heroes is more ethnically diverse, there’s a lot more to flesh out the characters’ cultural backgrounds since to my knowledge it’s never been deeply-explored in the comics for a long time. It’s about time we explore Jamaican culture through Lightning Lad or Chinese culture through Cosmic Boy, though it does make one wonder why aren’t Kenya and Japan deeply explored through Storm and Surge.

Well to my knowledge since I don’t read much comics, but when it comes to Storm for somebody who’s supposed to be a Kenyan and African she doesn’t seem so Kenyan. She doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day every 26 December (which’s a result of British colonialism), it’s not that she can’t speak any English but supposing if she lived in Kenya as a child since many Kenyans also speak Swahili she ought to know or at least understand it to some extent.

Which leads me to thinking she was never written by a Kenyan, she was never written by somebody who lived in Kenya either. So most of the part, she is a white person’s idea of an African made worse by that unlike Wakanda, Kenya is a real country. It’s something people ought to learn more about, since it’s something one can travel to. It wouldn’t be cheap and it would take time adjusting to the time zone there, but you could really go there because it exists.

That’s honestly why the X-Men never worked well as a metaphor for ethnic minorities, not only are we deprived of characters speaking in a minority language like Irish and Venetian but are written by whites for a long time and especially white Americans (to the best of what I know) that it’s going to reflect a strong Global North sensibility. Because X-Men comics were never written by Africans, so Storm comes off as a white person’s idea of an African.

I could be wrong about that, but that’s why the X-Men never worked as a metaphor for ethnic minorities and the Global South.

#racism #storm #ororo munroe #x-men #legion of super-heroes #dc comics #marvel #marvel comics

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inapat15 · 2 years

Text

Anton Walbrook : A four-part biography visiting the life and career of a mysterious actor Chapter Four : The search for archives and the end

I first started to appreciate Anton Walbrook after watching The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, he was truly brilliant as Theo. Now, I could talk to you about his career after the Second World War and his roles in La Ronde or Lola Montès, two great movies directed by Max Ophüls that I strongly recommend but that is not how I want to finish this journey.

Trying to find biographical elements about Anton Walbrook is like chasing a ghost. His name doesn’t ring any bell. He is almost invisible as if he never existed. He was extremely secret and, after his death, the family of his partner burned a lot of his personal letters, especially the ones talking about his sexuality. And it is such a shame because now we can only wonder and speculate. We have no way to know who he truly was. A lot of what I told you about Walbrook comes from the essay of a British academic who spent a lot of years trying to scavenge everything he could about the actor. He named his book Anton Walbrook : A Life of Masks and Mirrors and I think that he couldn’t have gone with a better title. Even after all his researches, there are still so many shadows because even on set, Walbrook would always stand aside, keeping to himself. Deborah Kerr said in an interview that on the set of The Red Shoes, he would always be on his own between the takes, very quiet and still.

Walbrook’s figure hasn’t ceased to fascinate me ever since I discovered him. So, when I first got access to the INA database, his name was the first word that I typed. I hoped that I would find some archive about him and I did. Only one archive, a radio archive. Walbrook went in 1950 on a RDF radio program called Plein feu sur les spectacles du monde to do the promotion of the new movie he starred in called The Queen of Spades. Walbrook became at this moment even more of a legend to me because he speaks German, English and French for absolutely no reason, he says he just loves the language. Being able to hear his voice (in French !) was almost unbelievable, there was finally an archive with him in it that I could hear outside of a feature film. It is not a character talking, it is him. At the end of the five minutes long interview, he says something (in French that I translated) that I love : “speaking a different language as an actor is a plus because different nationalities capture different things in acting but there is one language, the language of the heart that is universal and this one, everyone understands it".

The Queen of Spades is another Thorold Dickinson movie released in 1949 and adapted from a book. Walbrook plays a character named Herman Suvorin, a poor officer in the army who tries to get to know the secret of a countess who allegedly sold her soul to the devil so that he can win at a card game, gambling a lot of money to finally achieve his dream of being rich. To do that, he will seduce the ward of the countess to gain access to the house and to the secret. But he should be careful what he wishes for… That movie is just like all the others I have talked about before, very well directed, a perfect acting and a mise-en-scene impeccable. What I love about this movie is that it is a fantastic genre movie, you have this countess impossible to touch, looking like a ghost. The atmosphere is so special, it feels ancient, like a story that never ages.

I have failed to mention it previously but Walbrook’s characters are often aristocratic dandies or tormented characters and that suits him very well. He often appears as an enigmatic and lonely figure. Always very quiet and in control, his characters can have bursts of anger but very rarely. Just like him, you’ve seen the character on screen but, at the end of the movie, you still know almost nothing more about him than you did at the beginning of the film.

Anton Walbrook died of a heart attack on August 9th 1967 at the age of 70 while playing on stage in Germany. He is buried in London as he requested in his will. He is a figure that represents a lot to me, he died thirty years before I was born and still his acting reached me out of time and space. I don’t know how he managed that but I feel like he does speak a universal language of the heart in his acting and the movies he chose to star in are often some kind of tale that everyone can interpret their own way. He is one of the greatest forgotten actor of his generation and he represents my love for cinema so well and specially my love for movies made between the 1900’s and the 1950’s. I will miss writing about him. As an ending, I just urge you to discover at least one of the movies he starred in. I recommend The Red Shoes, it is an absolute classic.

And just like that, our journey ended.

Flavie Charvet - 01/06/2022

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moonlit-imagines · 3 years

Text

Headcanons for being an Avenger with the power of persuasion

Avengers x reader

warnings:

a/n: towards the end this branches off into the fatws timeline but there’s no explicit spoilers

prompt: anonymous: “Can you do hcs for the avengers with a reader who has powers like Allison Hargreeves from The Umbrella Academy?”

the avengers were a little iffy about you because......someone with your power was hard to trust at first

“mind control isn’t as fun as it sounds, you guys. i really don’t wanna keep my guard up at all times when i’m at home base” -clint

“yeah, i’m not sure if i trust this one yet. i mean, i’m totally immune to mind control, but what if they mind control someone to come after me? and they have easy access to the place?” -tony

“excuse me, did you just say you were immune to mind control?” -nat

“he most certainly is not” -wanda

i mean, you get it and all. you heard stories of the avengers’ past encounters. it couldve messed them up

and they had no character references for you

you were new and mysterious

and your powers could be dangerous if you used them the wrong way

“well, i say we take a chance on them. they might surprise us” -cap

“i knew you would say some crap like that” -tony

“i thought a surprise was the opposite of what we wanted?” -bruce

you were put on the team soon after, but you had to have a buddy on missions

*pretending that we have deaf/hoh!clint like in the comics* you were buddied up with clint since your powers were auditory

“you can’t sign me an involuntary command, can you?” -clint

“no, sir” -you

“cool, cool, cool” -clint

stealth looked good on you, ngl

you were able to get behind heavy gunmen and whisper commands to them

“simon says you are an avenger now, shoot the enemy” -you

“simon says i am your new boss, take out your ex-coworkers” -you

“simon says give me your keycard” -you

“simon says i’m not the enemy, you are” -you

“not bad down there, y/n!” -sam

“thanks! now can somebody give me a lift to that one all the way up there?” -you

you proved yourself that day, so everyone got a lot more comfortable with you

and you made a promise that day that you’d never use your powers on them

but occasionally someone would ask you a simple favor, like putting them to sleep or making them focus on a project

“i think the focus one could be a fire hazard” -you

“so just come and get me! or let me die, that’d be fine, too” -tony

“whatever...simon says focus on the new tech” -you

time went by and things got tough, especially when the sokovia accords rolled in

“i wasn’t even there for that, mr. secretary” -you

“and i’m aware of that, mx. l/n, but you still pose a threat to people around the world. you have the means to walk into any place you want and do anything you want. you can see how that makes people uneasy, don’t you?” -ross

“i’ve never used my abilities for anything but good” -you

“what y/n is trying to say is—” -steve

“he knows what i’m trying to say, but apparently that’s the issue” -you

you were “grounded” with wanda

and pretty pissed about it

“i can understand why i’m here, y/n, but you? what did you do?” -wanda

“i intimidate men in charge, i guess” -you

sounds about right, huh?

but clint broke you out

“finallyyyyy! vision is such a drag” -you

and when you got to germany, you were conflicted with yourself

should you use your powers on the teammates who wanted you locked away?

if you got into their comms, you could stop it in an instant

but that’d take some time

“hi, simon(e)! i’m, uh, scott! i think you’re pretty neat!” -scott (p.s. y/n’s hero name is simon/simone. whatever you prefer idrc)

“thanks...and what do you do?” -you

“he shrinks!” -sam

you snuck out to the pavement and tried to hack their comms, but could only do it one at a time

so you got the spider kid

“simon says stick the cat man to the side of the plane” -you

but that cat had claws

alright, it might be harder than you think

“oh god, simon(e)?” -scott

“what is it?” -you

“i’m a little nervous for my next trick...would it be too much to ask if you did your little command thing for me?” -scott

“ughhhhh...simon says, go on with your ‘trick’” -you

and all the sudden he shot up into the air

“oh, nice” -you

you really hated fighting with these guys, but you were out of options and now cap wanted you to come with him, he wouldn’t leave without you

“steve, i’m sorry. simon says leave without us” -you

and that he did, which left you to be caught by a hair

“so close, weren’t you?” -tony

“simon says go to hell” -you

“very funny, guess i’m immune to mind control, after all” -tony

having a mouth restraint place on you that tony had been saving ever since you joined the team

one that “team cap” heavily protested the second they saw it

“tony, that’s wrong! don’t you trust them enough not to do that? they’re going to hate you after all of this” -wanda

“it’s either me or them. at least mine is comfortable” -tony

kinda fucked lol but understandable ig

having to testify without a voice, only able to type or write

but eventually you made your case and were able to make a deal, but part of that deal was to keep your mouth sealed when in the presence of authority since your voice was deemed a weapon ;)

kinda a dick move if you ask me

so you said fuck that and became a fugitive with steve + friends

but used your powers less and less

again, only for favors because it was hard to get peace in these crappy motels

“simon says kill that roach, oh god” -you @ steve

“you were an avenger and you can’t kill a roach?” -sam

“don’t start with me, sam, or you’re sleeping on the floor” -you

“you wouldn’t” -sam

“don’t test me” -you

waiting and waiting for some kind of turning point that didnt come until alien invasion 2.0

and you tried so hard to stop thanos from snapping, but the stones got the best of you as you were frozen in time

but fortunately you didn’t dust

leaving you to get a rematch against thanos when the time would come

and reuniting with tony just for him to lecture you with the rest of the team

“go fuck yourself, tony” -you

“oh, thank god they didn’t say ‘simon says’” -that raccoon you’ve known for like 3 weeks

“do you ever shut up?” -you

“no, he does not” -nebula

anyways your time did not come and you waited five years for another chance

and although you did not redeem yourself on your own, you were just glad that your side, humanity, had won

but just before thanos had ceased to exist, you told him

“simon says to feel the pain of loss for all of eternity” -you

it may have been cruel, but it’s what he deserved

the next step was for you and sam to be pardoned of your crimes

but you didn’t exactly part ways just because...what else was there for you to do? the two of you were close after your time on the run

and all was well until he decided to give the shield up

“oh, bucky’s gonna be pissed” -you

“he’ll be fine” -sam

now, bucky had mixed feelings about you

he was nervous about your powers, but you did save him

and he knew what it felt like not to be trusted

so he gave you a chance and partnered with you after the “new captain america” and the “flag smashers” fiasco

legally, if you used your powers on a government official/soldier you’d go back in the slammer, but it was quite tempting, even if it were just a “simon says punch yourself in the face”

and off to madripoor you went with...zemo

“are you going to persuade me into something petty, mx. l/n?” -zemo

“i’ve gotta make it worth it, honestly, but there’s no rule against me doing so, so at least i won’t feel bad” -you

and who knows what’s next?

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @lokihiddles // @frostedficrecs // @lotsoffandomrecs // @johnmurphyisqueer // @teenwaywardasgardian // @pappydaddy // @captainshazamerica // @freya-xo // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove // @ofthedewthesunlight // @canarypoint // @zoeyserpentluck // @randomawesomeperson102 // @ghost-bich // @wonderful-writer // @of-a-chaotic-mind // @groovyfluxie // @procrastinatingsapphictrash // @lxncelot // @swanimagines // @randomfandomimagine // @petersgroupie // @agentshortstacc // @rosadiaz-sarayvargas-harleyquinn // @werewolf-himbo // @comiocudequemtalendo1 // @mochamoff // @the-marvel-meme-emporium // @summersimmerus //

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codename-adler · 3 years

Text

Death of Heroes

Because not even Neil can outrun the ephemerality of men.

Renee is the first one to go.

Nearing sixty but never reaching it, she is outlived by Abby and Wymack. At least Stephanie Walker is waiting for her at the gates of Heaven, but for the rest of her Foxes, the loss is heavy.

It’s cancer. Leukemia.

It started with the bruises from her sparring matches with Andrew not healing very well. Then not at all. After decades of maintaining these monthly meetings, of keeping her body healthy, Renee finally has to give it up. She knows something is wrong, and she knows that these sessions won’t be of any help, now.

Then the extreme fatigue starts. Still, Renee doesn’t do a thing about it. Or at least, she lets life go its own course. She looses weight, which she already doesn’t have much of. But then the nosebleeds begin, and it’s no use telling Allison to stop worrying. The diagnosis is unsurprising, yet still shattering. And it’s not a good prognosis either, but it’s still not bad enough for the doctor to give up the Five-Year survival plan.

Renee has to speak up. Ally, I don’t want to do this. She has to put her foot down. Allison, my love, it’ll be okay. I won’t get better, you and I both know that. But it can be okay. It can still be good.

Renee doesn’t get treatment. Renee doesn’t tell anybody, except Andrew. Because Andrew knows, somehow, that she made a terrible, irreversible choice. Because Andrew only deals in truths. Because Andrew is Andrew, and just as he needed her all those years ago, she needs him now.

A little more than six months pass, with less and less outings from Renee and more and more excuses from Allison, and Renee gets sick. Really sick. It starts like a regular cold. Then it looks more like the flu. And suddenly it’s pneumonia, and respiratory difficulties, and lung failure. She’s in that hospital bed, wearing that gown, breathing in that mask. Renee finally nods to Allison, giving her consent.

Ally makes the call.

Only Andrew and Dan make it in time.

Renee Walker goes out like a light.

The Foxes, who had once upon a time been used to murders, life-threatening schemes and acts of extreme violence, had never really known Death itself. The simple, yet inevitable fate of human lives. Of going quietly into the night. It’s all so quiet. So anticlimactic. It’s so quiet, too quiet, too heavy with silence. This time, there is no one to blame, no one to punish, no one to take responsibility.

It’s just life. It’s just death.

Wymack and Abby can’t believe that one of their Foxes, on of their kids, left before them. Renee’s Korean roots made her look barely a day over forty, which made it all so much worse. Renee’s death takes a toll on every single one of them. Because it’s Renee, the best of them. Because all her papers are in orders, her will to date, her wishes known; just as when she was alive, she leaves no chaos behind her.

There is nothing and no one to be mad at, except life.

In the cemetery where Stephanie Walker is buried, Andrew buys a large lot of land. (Large enough to one day welcome all the Foxes) The tomb is moved over there, and Renee’s name is added. A tree is planted above her scattered ashes. It’s very small, very fragile, but with the years, it grows strong.

For the first time, the Foxes realize that, despite going through Hell and back in their youth, they are not immortal. There is nothing to be done about that, but it hurts. It hurts to lose their angel this way, so soon, so suddenly. It hurts to lose, period. It feels like a failure, like giving up. They lost her. They lost.

But somehow, they gained something else they might never know about. Renee might have been the only religious one among them, but that didn’t stop her from becoming their Guardian Angel. Because somehow, from then on, the Foxes were spared.

Let me show you.

Just as Bee had a few years before Renee, Abby, then Wymack, simply die in their sleep, no fight, no agony. None of them have to see another Fox go before them. They don’t have to go through that indescribable ordeal ever again. They are spared the pain.

Then decades pass, enough for the remaining Foxes to grow very old, and live very long. Not infinitely, but long enough.

Matt is the next one to go.

Matt has worked hard all his life, both mentally and physically. It comes to no surprise, then, that arthritis chose to invade his body. For the first few years living with the diagnosis, natural medicine and osteopathy are enough to keep the pain at bay. It doesn’t stop Matt from doing anything. He babysits his 9 grandchildren with Dan every week; he goes on roadtrips with Dan every summer; he goes on a light jog with Dan every day.

It’s just that one day, it’s not enough anymore. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the pain becomes too much for Matt to do his day-to-day activities. And really, the pain, he could take; it was an old friend, a familiar feeling, almost like a sixth sense.

It was the mental toll of it all that he couldn’t take. To have to say no to seeing his grandchildren. No to driving around endlessly and aimlessly for hours. No to waking up in sync with Dan every morning, and no to their routine, and no, and no, and just- not living.

For the first time in a long time, Matt doesn’t want to do this anymore.

But he does, still. He smiles, and he lies, and he tries to will away the pain.

It all comes down to one afternoon, when he takes his painful walk of the day around the neighborhood. There are three little kids playing Exy in their driveway, when suddenly a ball escapes their racquets and rolls down in the street. The smallest kid runs after it, runs and runs and runs, without looking. Kind of like Neil, Matt thinks to himself before his body acts of his own. The kid doesn’t see the car, and the car doesn’t see the kid. Matt sees both.

The BMW is going way over the limit, its sleek black sides reflecting the sun too brightly. Despite his pain, despite his age, despite his now slow reflexes, Matt leaps. He screams at the kid to stop and turn around, to let the ball roll away, but to no avail.

Matt pushes the kid away in time for the car to hit him instead, and only him.

The rest becomes a blur, but the final verdict is as such: broken hip, shattered leg, probably won’t walk ever again, even with surgery. The doctors and surgeons warn Matt that with his age, his pre-existing condition, and his drug history, surgery might kill him. But Matt refuses to be bedridden for the rest of his already miserable life. Dan knows that. She knows that he has to try. Knows that he might not pull through. She also knows that Matt wants to go, has wanted to for a while now.

She calls Neil. She calls Allison. From there, all the Foxes are bound to get the news. Matt promises to wait until their arrival before going into surgery. In the meantime, the nurses start a morphine line, after warning the couple very strongly about the side effects and the risks. But Matt is in pain, terrible pain, and it’s a compromise to wait for his Foxes. It takes about a week for all of them to come to his bedside, with Nicky being last, coming all the way from Germany. Neil and Allison barely leave his room; Dan doesn’t at all. The others take turns, leaving as much space for Matt’s kids and grandkids as their hearts can allow.

The open spot for Matt’s surgery is on a Friday.

Matt Boyd does not make it to Friday.

The morphine is too heavy on his heart. It was a possible outcome, not as alarming as the upcoming surgery, but... Matt had secretely wished to go ever since and- maybe, up there in Heaven, someone heard him...

Dan and Matt had had a mutual understanding, that it was okay, but it doesn’t make it any more easy to let go.

Two months into Matt’s departure, Allison moves in with Dan. She walks her through every stage of grief. She grieves all over again herself, too. But they make it.

Same goes for Andrew with Neil. Neil doesn’t know loss like this. Death like this.

And yet. And yet. Deep, deep down, Neil is scared. That after all his years of running, and fighting, and lying, he won’t get that peaceful ending Matt was granted.

But Neil lives.

And Nicky leaves.

A few months after Matt, he and Erik simply stay in the States. They say it’s because they want to be close, because they don’t want to miss anything, because they don’t want to risk a Fox leaving without a chance at saying goodbye. Because Nicky misses his Aaron and his Andrew.

Which are all valid and true motives. It’s just not the whole truth.

Nicky has dementia. Alzheimer’s, to be precise. Diagnosed about a year ago. It’s not bad yet, but- It’s the endless back-and-forth between the house and “der Supermarkt” because Nicky forgot what he drove there for in the first place. It’s forgetting words in all the languages Nicky speaks. It’s freaking out at all the Germans speaking German, because Nicky sometimes believe he is still living in America. It’s not finding the Columbia house and panicking when Nicky can’t get a hold of Andrew or Aaron.

It’s hard, it’s heartbreaking, it’s terrifying, but it’s manageable.

Once Nicky and Erik settle back down in North Carolina, they both wonder how long it’ll take before the twins figure it out, because there is no way Nicky is telling them, but he also knows nothing can get past his twins.

And he’s right. Between Aaron’s acute knowledge of Medicine and Andrew’s reknown lie-detector skills, it takes about 14 days for them to take Nicky hostage and demand the truth.

As the year comes to an end, Nicky’s dementia doesn’t seem to progress that much. He seems to escape the worst. He doesn’t forget anyone. He doesn’t become aggressive, doesn’t go missing, doesn’t lose any function of his body. Without looking too closely, Nicky is simply getting old.

The twin girls he and Erik adopted get to move back in for a little while, having lived in the U.S. all their lives and seeing their parents fly to Germany after their retirement. They know, too, and try to make the most of it. They are lucky. They are so lucky. Nicky is a miracle patient.

In the end, though, it’s Nicky’s body rather than his mind that gives out. Once you reach a certain point in time living with the disease, but without the general complications of it, eventually the brain has trouble managing all the organs of the body. So instead of forgetting to eat, or forgetting names and faces, sometimes your brain doesn’t remember how to make your heart beat. Or how to make make your lungs breathe.

Nicky Hemmick stops breathing in the middle of the night, after having wished his twin daughters goodnight, texted his other set of twins goodnight, and kissed his husband goodnight. Nicky had thought, then, that it was indeed, a good night.

Just as he had remembered his Foxes until the end, he was remembered by them as the big-hearted lover that Heaven had just gained as its new angel.

Too soon after him, though, it’s Allison’s turn.

It’s not that she’d simply been waiting around for the day she could be reunited with Renee. She just didn’t understand why her Foxes kept leaving, and why she was still stuck here without her other half.

She didn’t just wait, though. She helps Dan out with the grandkids, and sometimes the grown-up kids too. She volunteers a lot. She gives back to the Columbia community, and all around the world. She travels to places she’s never been, places that remind her of Renee, but are void of painful memories. She empties their bucket list, and much more. The last thing Allison has yet to do, the only thing left to do, is mending her relationship with her parents. Or parent. Singular. In spite of everything, including the death of her husband, Francesca Reynolds was still standing strong at the head of the Reynolds empire. 100 years old was nothing when you lived in spite.

In a twisted way, Allison believed that maybe her mother was the last piece she needed to mend before she was allowed to go. That despite being gone for years, Renee was still there somewhere, looking out for her and making sure she didn’t have any regrets.

So Allison accomplished the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the impossible. For the first time in decades, she flew back to the Reynolds estate and spoke to her mother. In person.

It was not the emotional reunion Renee might have hoped for, but it was a reunion still. That was more than enough for Allison. They didn’t talk about the big things. The important things. But they talked. They talked. And they scheduled another talk.

Back home with Dan, Allison embraced her friend and let the tears fall. She was grateful for her friend, but both of them knew that these were not the arms Allison wished to be held in. She went to rest a bit before dinner, and she tried to imagine how it would feel like to have Renee hold her again.

For someone as loud, as present and as strong as she was, Allison Walker slipped quietly from time.

When Dan found her, she could only smile tearfully. She played with her hair one last time as she called her Foxes.

Allison left Dan in charge of her finances, and so she took over her charity duties and went above and beyond to honor her friend’s memory. Her sister.

Dan thought she would be next. She wished, she hoped, she prayed to be next.

She wasn’t.

Kevin was.

He might have been the biggest and hardest loss to weather. It wasn’t a feeling that could be explained. As painful as it had been to lose Renee, and Matt, and Nicky, and Allison, losing Kevin was... the great and terrible 10, as they’d say.

Kevin should have died way sooner. His liver should have given out because of all the alcohol it had endured in Kevin’s youth. His heart should have given out because of all the stress it had faced for most of Kevin’s life. All the bad things that could happen with old age should have happened to Kevin, but they didn’t. They didn’t.

Death came knocking one day, and politely asked him if he would please follow them, and Kevin simply took it as a sign that his time was up.

That day, Kevin had felt a numbing pain in his chest all morning long. Used to little injuries here and there, he hadn’t thought anything of it. And he certainly wasn’t about to worry his doctor of a husband...

However, as the sun reached it’s highest in the sky, Kevin couldn’t really hide his pain any longer. He had lain down on their couch for a bit, but he couldn’t seem to get back up. It was too exhausting. So he called for Aaron, as loud as he could in the state he was.

As Aaron stumbled into the living room, Kevin tried to use his softest voice to inform his husband of the situation. Aaron immediately called an ambulance, and when the vehicle took them both away, he reached for his phone again to make, once again, a terrible call to their Foxes. But through his oxygen mask, Kevin reached out to grap his wrist and whispered, with difficulty, just Neil... just Andrew...

Because here’s the thing: Kevin loved his Foxes, and his Foxes loved him back. Immensely.

He loved them so much he had married one, with another one of them as best man (Neil), another as his husband’s (Andrew), and yet another one as their celebrant (Renee).

They loved him so much that it was only short of worship by a hair or two. And Kevin knew that. He loved Dan like a sister. And by extension, he loved Erik like a brother, too. And he loved all the Foxes’ children and grandchildren like his own, despite never being a parent himself.

But Neil and Andrew... There were no words for what they were to him. He knew that he wouldn’t have to talk them through it. He knew they would be the only ones strong enough and close enough to hold Aaron up in case it all turned to shit the moment he passed the hospital doors.

And being the History nerd he had always been, Kevin had written letters, a long time ago. To his Foxes. Most of them had left before him, and so he could never give them their letters, but Dan, and Erik for Nicky, could still have those letters. Kevin poured everything into these letters. It had taken him years, ever since Renee’s departure. He wrote, and threw away, and started again, until he got it right. Nine letters, for his nine Foxes. Andrew knew about it. He’d give Nicky’s and the upperclassmen’s to Dan and Erik, and they’d understand. Kevin didn’t want them to be there, at the very end of it all. He just wanted Aaron. And Neil. And Andrew.

Those three had letters waiting for them, too. Andrew would hand them over a month later. But he would never open his.

Andrew and Neil arrived just before 1 PM. Kevin was hooked on all sorts of IVs and still had the oxygen mask on. His heart monitor was beeping very, very slowly, erratically. He was still Kevin Day in all his gloriousness, but he was much more Kevin, their beloved Kevin.

On one side of the hospital bed, Aaron never let go of Kevin’s hand. On the other side, Kevin removed the mask and weakly motioned for Neil to take the other hand. But Neil was stunned. Frozen. So Andrew came up behind him, and held Kevin’s hand.

It would be the first, and the last time.

Just as Neil finally sprung into action and went to put a hand on Kevin’s shoulder, feeling his wiry muscles and his fragile bones underneath the hospital gown, Kevin closed his eyes.

The heart monitor began flatlining.

Neil looked at the monitor, then to Kevin. He looked at Andrew, then back at Kevin, and then at Aaron. His eyes couldn’t stay focused on one thing. He was still hoping. He was still refusing.

Aaron lowered his head. Kissed Kevin’s hand.

Andrew held on tighter to Kevin’s other hand. Gripped the back of Neil’s neck.

Kevin took Death’s hand, which felt a lot like Aaron’s, and Andrew’s, and Renee’s, and walked away.

Aaron unplugged the monitor. And called it.

Time of death: 13:01.

It took exaclty one month, day for day, for Aaron to leave as well. They called it the Broken Heart Syndrome. On the surface, Aaron had held it together. But Andrew knew. He saw. That he was losing him as well.

Some could say that, by handing over Kevin’s letter, Andrew killed his brother. But those who would say that didn’t even begin to understand the complexity of the bond between twin brothers. Especially not the Minyards.

Because what Andrew really did, with that letter, was gifting Aaron with relief.

Peace. Quiet.

Love.

Aaron could exhale, now. He would see Kevin soon, now.

And so in the same room, in the same bed as his husband’s, Aaron Minyard forced Death’s hand and demanded to see Kevin again.

And then there were three.

Dan lived for so long that she started to fear outliving her children. She felt old, so old. In her head and in her heart. She did not believe in a God, but she often found herself praying to someone, anyone. She did not believe in angels and demons, but she often wondered how long they would keep her from Death.

So she waited. For the days to go and the nights to pass. She barely ate anymore. She barely moved. She was only feeling okay when she slept outside, in her chair in the backyard, the sun shinning on her beautiful face. She could sleep for hours there, surrounded by her lively garden. The wind swayed her skirts, the trees whispered in her ears. It was okay.

And at the same time, it wasn’t.

She was tired. She was lonely. Even Erik, a couple of years ago, had gone to rejoin his husband. Neil visited her at least once a week, but he still had Andrew. He couldn’t understand, nor could he stay away from him for too long. He would miss him too much.

Every year she celebrated another birthday, and every year she blew her candles wishing they were her last.

And at last, her wish came true.

Dan was expecting one of her kids to come by in the afternoon. The Carolina sun was shinning quite hard on her, so she had placed her chair in way that let the sunlight hit the back of her head, turned away completely from her house. Her daughter knew exactly where to find her when she arrived, and so she didn’t wait for a response to her presence before making her way down into the garden. She had called her mother multiple times, and had assumed she was sleeping when she hadn’t answered.

Dan was not sleeping.

Dan Wilds had left this world, the sunlight pouring down on her like the radiant goddess that she was.

Being one of the last Foxes, it took a day before Neil and Andrew got the news of her death. They don’t get involved in the funeral preparations, but they show up. And that’s enough.

People don’t really bother them anymore, so they can bid farewell to their Captain in relative peace. They come by Dan’s house aftwerwards, too, and help her kids out with everything. Yes, even Andrew.

Dan’s death makes them reflect the most.

About the Foxes. About each of their departures. How they all lived a good and long life. How they all died a good and quiet death.

They think about how they were always the ones nearing death, always fighting to stay alive. About how they died a million deaths before the age of 18.

They think about how they are the last ones standing, even after everything.

They survived. They lived.

(They loved)

Neil and Andrew should not have gotten this far. They should not have lived this long. They shouldn’t have. But somehow, somewhere above, someone has watched over them and made sure that they didn’t get the ending they should’ve had, but the ending they deserved.

Neil and Andrew don’t really want to die. They don’t really want to live on either. But they take every day that they are given, to be with each other, to mend their hearts still, to breathe.

They take every breath they can.

They wonder who will leave first. Who will have to say goodbye and stay behind, who will have to wait.

It’s a fear neither of them had ever thought they’d have. Not like that.

And it’s only a matter of time before they get their answer. They are, after all, getting very old. It is both a blessing and a curse.

After decades of partnership, Neil and Andrew still go to bed the same way they did when they were eighteen. Both facing each other, their hands joined in the middle, their nose a breath apart.

After decades of peace, Neil and Andrew still wake from sleep at the slightest abnormality.

Which is why the minute Neil Josten gives out his last breath, Andrew awakes.

Neil’s hand in his is still warm and his skin is still soft. His hair, although completely white for quite some years now, still have that bronze glow to them. They’re still curly, and soft to the touch. Andrew passes a hand through them before resting it on the back of Neil’s neck.

He looks at Neil like it’s the first time, tries to memorize every detail of his beautiful face. He rubs circle in his skin, and takes in everything that was, that is Neil. His husband. His junkie. His rabbit. His pipedream. His lover. His love.

Andrew doesn’t move from their bed.

When he has finally spoken everything that he feels to Neil, from the safety of his mind, Andrew moves closer to him so their foreheads touch and noses align. He takes Neil’s lifeless hand again, and kisses it. He sets their hands back down, between the two of them, and looks at Neil one last time.

And slowly, Andrew Minyard closes his eyes, forever.

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carryonthroughtheages · 3 years

Text

Hello everyone!

Another year of Carry On Through The Ages is over and done! We have emotions and exhaustion, but we're so happy that this year had the hype and excitement that it did.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to all of the AMAZING creators who spent the last several months working away at their historical content!

Thank you also to the hard-working mods: @bazzybelle, @giishu, @palimpsessed, and @xivz . This fest would not have been as successful as it has been without you!

We encourage everyone to look under the page break for all the fics and art. They're all fantastic!

Here is the link to the AO3 Collection: Carry On Through The Ages 2021!

Thank you all, and until next year! 🧡🧡🧡

MONDAY:

1) sun on the sea (T) - @trenchcoat-moth : AO3 // Tumblr

Tensions run high in England, and Malcolm decides it's for the best he sends Baz to live with Fiona, where he'll be safer.

That is, until Baz's ship is attacked.

2) The Words I Long To Say (M) - @bazzybelle : AO3 // Tumblr

Simon Snow was dead.

Baz Pitch was sure of it. Simon had gone away seven years ago to fight a war in the jungle and he hadn't come home.

So, when Simon shows up in Baz's club, investigating a string of brutal murders, all Baz wants to do is hold him close and never let him go.

But these aren't the same boys from 1960 and Baz has a lot of processing to do before he's ready to believe in Simon again.

3) we are slaves to gods, whatever gods are (M) - @wellbelesbian : AO3 // Tumblr

I don’t fully understand what plagues him, but I know it’s bad, and I know it goes deeper than guilt. He didn’t want to kill his father, not really, but we were instructed to do so by Apollo. Cleanse the house of its sins, dispose of a murderer to set things right. It was only right that I join him; he was avenging my mother as much as his. Clearly, Apollo didn’t seem to consider that such an act would make Simon a murderer in his father’s place. It seems I got off fine, but as far as Simon is concerned, the vengeful spirits that once spun and danced on the roof of the palace now hunt him down, determined not to stop until he rids the world of himself.

4) World War II Era Art - @stardustasincocaine : Tumblr

TUESDAY:

1) the art of loving you (E) - @one-more-offbeat-anthem : AO3 // Tumblr

1955. London. Young love.

Forbidden love.

A year ago, starving artist Simon Snow met Baz Pitch, son of a wealthy art patron, at a party, and their days (and nights) together have been a wonderful secret.

But Simon is tired of being a secret and knows it's time for things to end.

(Baz has other ideas.)

2) Reliquary of an Arsonist (T) - @tea-brigade : AO3 // Tumblr

Simon Snow grew up a ward of Watford Abbey, but when his magic manifested in an explosive accident as a child, he became the Abbey’s anchorite—never to leave Watford’s walls, for his own protection. That is, until Abbot David sends him on an important errand…

Basilton Pitch paints portraits for his patron, Lord Grimm. But he’s never forgotten the magic he learned from his mother—nor the men who condemned her to death as a heretic. When Simon arrives and offers Baz a commission from Watford Abbey, he sees his chance to avenge his mother once and for all...and he’s willing to burn down everything in his path to that end.

But it was no coincidence that pulled these two unlikely souls together. Something more sinister is underway at Watford Abbey, and only Simon and Baz can uncover the truth before everything goes up in flames.

3) Westward Son (E) - @aristocratic-otter : AO3 // Tumblr

Simon and Baz have found each other again, but there's nowhere in Brooklyn or Virginia where they can safely be together. So now, they venture the hazards and struggles of the Oregon trail, to perhaps find a little homestead in Oregon of their own.

4) A Way Out (T) - @lying-on-the-sofa : AO3

I frown at him..“You don’t know me.”

He offers his hand. “Simon.”

Simon. I feel the name around in my mind and assign it to his face. Simon. I don’t shake his hand. They’ve still got my arms pinned. “Basilton.”

Simon nods at me. “Now we know each other. Let him go.” Very casually, he takes his other hand from behind his back. A sword, flashing. He leans on it and smiles invitingly. “Let him go.”

This time, they listen.

Simon Snow has been trained for years to become a tribute—one of the fighters Athens sends every ninth year into the Minotaur’s labyrinth. He wants to know the way out, if only for Penny’s sake. Luckily for him, Prince Basilton of Crete also wants a way out—off the island, where no one will know he’s the half-brother of the Minotaur.

Unluckily for both of them, they don’t exactly form the most agreeable pair.

WEDNESDAY

1) long is the road the leads me home (G) - @wellbelesbian : AO3 (Version 1) (Version 2) // Tumblr

Baz has a rather unremarkable life, and he's fine with that. Running his late mother's beloved inn with his temperamental aunt, estranged from his father and step-siblings, he's successfully convinced himself that he's better off without attachments.

Then Simon barrels into his life, guns blazing and rapier drawn, and Baz is swept up in dramatic plot he never bargained for.

Worse still, he finds he quite likes the thrill.

2) New Romantics (T) - @ninemagicks : AO3 // Tumblr

Basilton Pitch, twenty-two years old and a famed poet of the Romantic era, has fled to the countryside. In Mummers House, the fabled haunt of literary greats, he sulks himself into oblivion and awaits a sad, disappointing end to his brief years of brilliance. The cause of his downfall? None other than Simon Snow, the so-called “bad boy of English poetry”, breaker of rules and eternal thorn in his side. Baz hopes that Mummers House might mean an escape from London, from Snow and his increasingly virulent popularity... but the rain that comes has other ideas.

3) thnétos (T) - @snowybank : AO3 // Tumblr

thnétos: subject to death, mortal

a retelling of Apollo and Hyacinthus

4) A Medieval AU art piece - @thewriterxj : Tumblr

THURSDAY

1) From Eden (E) - @orange-peony : AO3 // Tumblr

I wonder if his skin is warm or cold to the touch. I tell myself it’s simple curiosity, that I’m an artist and capturing things on paper or canvas is my way to make sense of the world. That drawing him feels so natural, so I should just follow my instincts. Ebb used to say it all the time. Follow your heart. It knows where you’re supposed to go.

I wish I could. I wish I had enough money and freedom to just draw what I want. To paint him in his unattainable beauty. To draw him the way I want to. Naked and vulnerable, raw. Without frills and expensive suits.

Just Baz on paper, my fingers tracing his delicate and beautiful lines with simple charcoal.

2) Slings and Eros (M) - @palimpsessed : AO3 // Tumblr

Young god of love Simonides is tasked by his father, the god of war, to bring about the ruin of a mortal prince to punish his blasphemy. However, once Simonides sees his intended victim, he begins to have misgivings. Prince Tyrannus might have offended the gods with his very existence, but all Simonides can see is how beautiful and lonely he is.

Or, a very loose interpretation of the Eros and Psyche myth.

3) I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire (M) - @knitbelove : AO3 // Tumblr

September 1940: Going back to Watford feels different this year, and not just because England is at the brink of war with Germany and Italy. Penelope seems unsettled by everything, and Agatha is distant, and Baz is … simply not here.

What if Carry On but during the Blitz?? Yeah.

4) A Fool's Oath (M) - @thewriterxj : AO3 // Tumblr

A simple soldier is invited to join the ranks of the royal guard. He and his appointed mage arrive at the royal city to find themselves at the mercy of an unmerciful court. As he struggles to find his place in this foreign environment, he also finds himself entranced by music that only he seems to hear that floats out about the city. He makes an oath to wed whoever makes such beautiful music.

Too bad that person is the crown prince.

FRIDAY

1) Stranger Tides (T) - @tea-brigade & @xivz : AO3 // Tumblr

“If some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep, even so I will endure…” Captain Simon Snow of the Chosen One is many things—cunning, handsome, ruthless. Greedy. It’s no surprise that Snow finds a way to piss off the God of the Sea, he always manages to get himself into some type of trouble. This time, however, he’s not the only one who will suffer the consequences. Poseidon promises to not stop his pursuit until Snow and all of his men are dead.

Enter Basilton Pitch—rich, beautiful, mysterious. Suspicious. He offers the crew of the Chosen One a hefty sum to take him back to Europe from the Caribbean. And who is Captain Snow to refuse so much coin? After all, Greek gods aren’t real.

Right?

2) The wayward heir [comic] (M) - @letraspal : AO3 // Tumblr

Like a folk song, our love will be passed on. Simon Snow wants to be an artist. He used to live in Fiesole where he worked in the wool shop of his good friend Ebeneza Petty. He has now chosen to return to his native Florence in order to participate in an art contest hosted by the Pitch family, the most important bankers in all the three continents and Simon’s last chance for an art patronage. No matter how much he hates them.

But being back in Florence also brings back the memories Simon wanted to leave behind : his days as an orphan, the mystery about his mother, and once more being under the inquisitive eyes of his godfather, the new archbishop Davy. The archbishop is very same man who would never forgive him for dropping out the priesthood and ruining his secret plans against the Pitches.

The last thing Simon needed was an unbearably handsome jerk getting him into trouble on his very first day in Florence. How can focus when this man is the most annoying person he has ever met and yet his major source of inspiration.

3) Prohibition Blues (T) - @heyyyandrea : AO3

Simon Snow is a baker and aspiring playwright in Prohibition Era New York City. When he meets a handsome man at Shepherd's speakeasy who is interested in his work, he can't help but think it feels too good to be true.

4) Earth Below & Sky Above (M) - @phoxphyre : AO3 // Tumblr

In the depth of the palace of King Minos of Crete lurks a creature known as the Minotaur.

Baz, prince of Athens and chosen of the god Poseidon, has heard the stories. And now he’s volunteered to come to Crete as one of the annual tributes—to dance with the king’s bulls and fulfill his destiny. He just wants to survive the bulls, protect his people, and go home.

But what if the Minotaur isn’t a monster—but just a boy? And what if instead of slaying him, Baz fell in love with him?

A Carry On retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, set in Bronze Age Crete.

5) A 1980s AU Art piece by @stardustasincocaine : Tumblr // Instagram (Slightly NSFW)

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zediina · 3 years

Note

hi! sorry if this comes off as rude, but i’m learning german and was wondering if you have any german tv show/film recommendations? i’d really appreciate it if u do, thanks so much!

Hello!! Don't worry, this isn't rude at all :) I haven't seen many of these in a long time but here are a few I really enjoyed (I linked the trailers to the movies/the first seasons of the shows too):

MOVIES

Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944)

Yes, this movie is very old; it's black and white. But it's still shown on German tv and it's pretty funny. A famous writer goes undercover in a school, pretending to be a student since he never got the classic school experience (he was home-schooled). He and the other students play a bunch of pranks on the teachers, and other shenanigans happen.

Das Boot (1981)

This is a classic and was nominated for several academy awards, including best director and best cinematography. It takes place on a German submarine during ww2, so it's a war movie. Usually not my favorite genre but this one really kept me on the edge of my seat. There's also a series that came out recently, but I haven't seen that. I can't imagine that it's better than this though.

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Takes place shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall and tells the story of a young man from East Berlin. His mother just woke up from a coma, and the doctors say she shouldn't get any big surprises (like, you know, the of the fall Berlin wall) so he tries to fool his mom by pretending the GDR still exists; which is harder than it sounds. The premise sounds a bit ridiculous but it's a really great and funny movie.

Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (2003)

Based on a very popular children's book, this movie tells the story of a boy who's new in a boarding school. He and his new friends find the book for a musical and decide to practice and perform it. (There's a bunch of other stuff happening like a rivalry with another group of students. I haven't seen this movie in forever but it's good and the story is very well known).

Die Welle (2008)

This is based on a true story about a social experiment a history teacher did with his class; maybe you've heard of it before. They create a mock-nazi party to try and understand how they became so popular and how people could buy into their rhetoric. Things go sideways pretty quickly. A great movie and a reminder that none of us are immune to indoctrination and radicalization. There's a tv show with the same name, but I don't think they're connected.

Fack Ju Göthe (2013)

I feel like everyone in Germany has seen this comedy at this point. Objectively it isn't a very good one but I'm going to recommend it simply because every German person I know can quote at least one line from this movie. A criminal takes a job as a teacher for the owrst class in that school, because his accomplice buried the money they stole underneath the school and he needs to get to it. Let's just say his teaching methods are a bit... unconventional.

Labyrinth des Schweigens (2014)

Another movie based on a true story, and one of my favorites. This one really stuck with me. It's about a young state attorney in 1950's Germany, who starts interviewing holocaust victims and prosecuting nazi officers who served in Auschwitz. This movie really shows that many people in Germany would have preferred forgetting the holocaust ever happened and pretend everything is fine rather than confront it.

Tschick (2016)

We actually read the book to this in school. It's a bout two 14 year old boys who steal an old car and go on a road trip together, and all the crazy stuff they experience. To be honest I don't remember that much about it since it's been so long since I've seen it, but I do remember really liking it!

Kästner und der kleine Dienstag (2017)

Remember that really popular children's book I mentioned? Well, this movie is about the author of that book. He's one of the authors who stayed in Germany during the Nazi regime, even though his works were banned and burned. It's about his friendship with a young boy that inspired a character in another famous book of his.

Die unheimliche Leichtigkeit der Revolution (2021)

This movie is about the east german environmentalist movement that started the peaceful revolution, which lead to the fall of the Berlin wall. It's about a teenage girl whose younger brother died due to pollution, and the state is trying to cover it up. Also shows how the GDR was trying to suppress any criticism of the state. It's definitely not the best movie on this list, but I really enjoyed it.

TV SHOWS

Ku'Damm 56, Ku'Damm 59, and Ku'Damm 63

The three mini series tell the stories of three sisters, whose mother runs a dancing school on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. They take place in 1956, 1959 and 1963 respectively. It touches on a lot of topics, including domestic abuse, antisemitism, homosexuality, rape and more. I particularly loved the first season, where the youngest daughter who doesn't really fit into her mother's plans discovers her love for rock n' roll dancing.

Charité

The Charité is a prestiguous university hospital in Berlin with a long history, which this series exlpores. Season 1 takes place in the 19th century, where Robert Koch is lookig for a cure to tuberculosis. Season 2 takes place in Nazi Germany and among other things talks about the euthanasia practices at the time. Season 3 takes place right when the wall is being built (which passed right by the hospital). The show includes charcters based on real people as well as fictional ones.

Deutschland 83, Deutschland 86, Deutschland 89

An East German soldier has to go and work undercover for the GDR in West Germany, at a time where cold war tensions run high. I never got around to watching the last two seasons, but I remeber that the first one was really good.

Club der roten Bänder

This is based on a true story, and there are other versions of this show for example in the US. It's about a bunch of kids with different conditions who become friends in a hospital; two of them have cancer and got their legs amputated, one has an issue with his heart, one crashed a motorcycle, the youngest is in a coma, the girl has an eating disorder. There are other characters who show up as well. The show can get pretty sad, but their friendship is really touching.

Türkisch für Anfänger

This show was wildly popular back when it came out in the early 2000s. A german woman marries a turqish man, and create a patchwork family with four kids; who are absolutely not excited about it. But they have to figure out how to live with each other.

Oof, this escalated a bit, but I didn't want to exclude anything :) I hope you find something you like on this list!

#asks #german stuff

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hetalia-has-a-secretary · 3 years

Note

How would allies and axis find out that their s/o was originally from a universe where the countries were all characters on a show called “Hetalia”?

Aka Countries learn their girlfriend got isekai-ed to their world

Welp... Japan is going to have a existential crisis, but don't worry! We all know this is England's fault! Also did a "first meeting" kind of thing because I'm a bit lazy and don't want to make up backgrounds and such 😅

C/N: Countries name

Allies + Axis: England teleports someone from another Dimension!

The day started out simple. Another meeting, another argument. But as England began cursing America and France for their shaninigans, a portal opened up from the ceiling!

"What is THAT!?" Germany screeched/demanded an answer from England.

"It seems... my magic wand... Has malfunctioned..."

As to why England has a Magic wand that runs on batteries, is no one's problem but his own.

The issue now is there's now a human that's landed right into C/N's lap.

Allies:

America:

He was standing when his future S/O fell from the ceiling. As expected, he caught them. Only to drop them upon having them scream in his ear. They kept eye contact for a few more seconds before S/O spoke up.

"A-america!? How is that possible! You're just a cartoon character!"

The room went silent for only a handful of seconds before America laughed.

"Really? Cool!"

He was the only one who believed them right off the bat when they said they were from another universe. They didn't seem like a liar, and how else would they know who he was But since S/O seemed to know way too much, America was designated as their babysitter until England could figure out what to do next...

England:

He was so caught up in being flustered, the person who fell, toppled right on top of him. A few groans here and there and his potential S/O was fully aware of the situation.

"Wh-What the fu-"

England was quick to interrupt them.

"Oh love! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to summon another mortal!"

Sadly, all S/O could do was stare. It became increasingly obvious they were either having a identity crisis, or they knew who they were. Either way, England took the blame, and had to explain that some dimensions only exist as a concept in others. As to why they were part of some anime. Didn't help, but it certainly gave S/O something to think about for the next few hours. And England a rather large headache as they bombarded him with questions. Not that he minded getting to flaunt his knowledge.

France:

This cocky son of a gun was sitting down, so of course he caught them in his lap. And immediately started flirting with them.

"Ah~ I see the black sheep of Europe gifted me with a literal Angel~"

"Black sheep- You mean England?"

Everyone froze. Even France choked a bit. But his eyes never left their face as they were (more or less forced) asked to explain where they came from. Even if France was from a different dimension, it didn't stop him from sympathizing for them. It must be hard to be away from everything one knows. Now he's made it his duty to make sure they're as comfortable as possible while in a new and strange place.

He was certainly caught off guard when they weren't flirting back when ever they interacted. To everyone's surprise, he stopped his advances all together. He was slowly growing more concerned over what lighting the show portrayed him in...

China:

While everyone argued with England, China was the only one to see the feet come from the ceiling. He promptly ran over to catch the slightly unconscious body from the portal. He watched with courosity as their eyes slowly opened.

"China? Am I in a dream? I haven't watched Hetalia in a while..."

He knew immediately what had happened, and gave England the biggest death stare to fix the situation before it got worse. Until then China made sure the newcomer had all their questions asked. He wasn't surprised in the slightest that this happened. England's magic is wonky, and stuff like this has happened more often than not.

Also, who would china be if he didn't try to offer some food from the potluck as well?

Russia:

He was standing, so when he caught his S/O, he had to fight everyone to let them go. Even when they were looking up at him like he was their whole world.

"You're even cuter in person..."

Russia tiled his head at them, their conversation separate from the rest as they argued on.

"You are not from around here? Not many would catch themselves dead with words like that."

He gave them a sweet smile, and had them explain where they were from. The idea of someone already knowing everything about him, and still giving him such a star stricken compliment made his heart melt. Maybe this wasn't a bad thing? Maybe they were just that nice? Does this mean they want to be friends with him? Oh all the questions he had for them. He was also courious about the world from where they were from. Good luck separating them, it will be impossible.

Axis:

Germany:

He caught them by complete chance. He literally had to jump a few feet forward to catch them, though he doesn't know why. What I can tell you is that as soon as his eyes met theirs he was already falling for them. Though he was slightly taken off by them saying his name.

"Ludwig? Damn... You're just as strong in the anime as in my, dream?"

He had to be the one to explain they weren't dreaming, and that England needs to stop being bad at magic. Even so, he took responsibility for what happened.

He thought it was rather cool to have someone compliment him from a different point of view. He couldn't help the sad look on his face when they asked if they were going to be sent home.

Japan:

He panicked, and panicked more when he was forced to try and catch them. He didn't want whoever to get hurt, but was desperate to lay them down on his jacket.

Once they came around, his skin crawled at the mention of his name. He didn't know them, and had to explain what happened. From then on it was clear they weren't from his dimension.

"So I've been... Isekai-ed? Into Hetalia! That's awesome!"

He subconsciously nodded in agreement.

"That is very cool. Does this mean you like anime then?"

They hit it off and the whole idea of being teleported from a different world was completely forgotten. For now.

Italy:

Everyone expected him to not understand a single thing. But as soon as they landed in his lap he immediately bursted out:

"They're not from this world..."

Everyone freaked out as soon as he said it. All he had to do to calm them down was point out the Hetalia themed notebook they were holding. When asked if it was true, all they could do was give a slow nod.

Italy then spent the rest of the day cooing over them, and asking them a thousand questions about the show. Honestly thinks it's cool, even if he's seen as a bit of a coward in the show, he's not like that... Sort of.

#hetalia american #hetalia england #hetalia france #hetalia china #hetalia russia #hetalia germany #hetalia italy #hetalia japan #hetalia #aph #hws

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emwritesstuff · 3 years

Text

as the world caves in | ch. 6 | bucky barnes x reader

synopsis: You are a ghost story. A former Air Force pilot who had her plane shot down by Germany in 1945, but here you were in 2023, alive and frozen in your 25-year-old body.

You haven’t seen Bucky since the 1940’s, before his fall, before you went on a suicide mission only to come back alive. You aren’t sure reliving those memories – and being a living memory of everything the man has lost – is the best for him.

But you and Bucky won’t be apart for long.

This will loosely follow the plot of TFATWS - so spoilers ahead, specially regarding episode four. Thread carefully!

masterlist | AO3

notes: The following chapter is finally here! It took me a while to revise it because I wanted the action scenes to not suck super badly, so yeah.

(warnings: mentions of death, gunshots, blood, injuries) (word count: 3K)

six: shield

You sat next to Sam as he typed in a computer and Helmut Zemo nursed his headache. Once he gained consciousness, he’d showered you in gratitude and niceties, and you were already close to knocking him out yourself.

T-minus what, four hours? The Dora Milaje would be there soon enough.

It’s he the one to break the comfortable silence, only filled by the soft clicking of Sam’s keyboard before.

“Were you ever offered it?”

“What?”

“The serum.”

“No.” Sam said, raising an eyebrow at you with an amused expression. You shrugged.

“If you had been, hypothetically, that is, would you have taken it?”

Sam’s mouth turned down, and he slowly turned to Zemo.

“No.”

“No hesitation, that’s impressive.”

You got up from the table, making a round so you could watch Zemo’s face as he spoke. He’d seen you usher Karli Morgenthau out of the factory basement, and you wondered what he had made of your actions.

“Sam, you can’t hold out hope for Karli.” His eyes met yours as he said that, and you looked away, circling a pillar and walking to be on the other side of the couch, by his feet. “No matter what you saw in her, she’s gone.”

You sighed. “You talk in absolutes. People aren’t like that, Zemo.”

He studied you again.

“And we cannot allow that she and her acolytes become yet another faction of gods amongst people. Super Soldiers cannot be allowed to exist.”

Zemo spoke with such conviction that you were sure you’d be also be harboring a bullet if he knew who, and what, you were.

“Isn’t that how gods talk? And if that’s how you feel, what about Bucky?” Sam’s eyes flitted to you, and you offered him a tight smile. “Blood isn’t always the solution.”

When Steve had talked to you about handing over the shield for the first time you were doubtful. He was grieving the loss of his own time – your time, too – and second-guessing his own claim to it.

You never stopped believing in Steve when he did. You and Bucky were war. Steve was… the end of it. And not just because of the serum. He was that since you all were small and scrawny, him a little scrawnier and a little smaller, as he stopped you and Bucky from butting heads.

For Steve, you, and Bucky as well, that shield meant everything. It meant the salvation of the world from true evil, that in the 1940’s was personified in the form of a little man with a moustache. Whoever carried it carried the responsibility of being the harbinger of that freedom. Of relief, justice, and most of all... hope.

So when Steve talked to you about handing over the shield a second time, this time to capable hands instead of a glass dome, you understood – it was time to pass the mantle to someone who was, indeed, a new beacon of hope.

Safe to say, the fact that John Walker now carried the shield you put so much importance into felt wrong.

“Something’s not right about Walker.” Bucky strolled in, seemingly in a sour mood. You chuckled, and watched as he discarded his things on the counter.

“You don’t say.”

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

“Can’t argue with that.” Sam quipped, and you patted his shoulder affectionately when you walked past him to get Bucky to make you a drink too.

You swiped his jacket off the counter and hanged it neatly on the back of one of the barstools. Bucky licked his lips and shook his head as you mouthed ragamuffin at him.

“Pour me one.”

“Can you hold your liquor now, sugar?”

You narrowed your eyes at him and grabbed the glass he had fixed for himself.

“Now you pour yourself one.” You took a sip, smiling into the glass.

Bucky glared at Sam. “Shouldn’t have given him the shield.”

You shot Bucky a disapproving look. He raised his eyes briefly at you while pouring his drink, and shrugged.

“Buck—”

“I didn’t give him the shield.”

“Well Steve definitely didn’t.”

“James Barnes!” Goddamn Bucky and his hard-headed self.

Bucky looked at you like he used to look at his mother, wide eyed, like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It only lasted for a second, his bewilderment falling into a scowl right after. Behind you, Sam chuckled.

You shook your head at Bucky, but you had no time to fall into an argument. The one and only John Walker and Lemar Hoskins were bursting in, demanding to take Zemo. Ordering, really.

“Hey, slow your roll.” Sam said firmly. “Man, let’s be clear. Shield or no shield, the only thing you’re runnin’ in here is your mouth.”

You bottomed up your whiskey, knowing whatever was to come couldn’t be good.

“Now, I had Karli and you overstepped. He’s actually proven himself useful today. And we’re gonna need all hands on deck for whatever’s coming next.”

Walker challenged Sam next. He looked eager and ready for a fight, and as much as you’d loved to keep your real abilities hidden, you figured your time out of the spotlight was running out. Bucky looked at you from the corner of his eye, relaxed stance contrasting with the tightness of his jaw. Zemo paced behind Sam, still clutching his own drink.

The moment Walker put down the shield an iron spear cut the air and lodged itself into the pilaster, separating him and Sam.

No, not iron. Vibranium.

The Dora Milaje.

“Even if he is a means to your end… Time’s up.” Ayo announced in Xhosa. You grimaced.

You sighed heavily when John decides to one-up them, too. Ayo swings the spear at his arm when he touches his shoulder and a fight breaks out. You reached for the liquor again.

There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world.

The fight was only Walker and Hoskins getting absolutely overpowered by the warriors while you, Bucky, Sam and Zemo stayed out of it.

“We should do something.”

You swirled your drink, taking a small sip. “I am. I’m observing.”

“Looking strong, John!” Bucky shouted, making you have to hide a snort. Sam exhaled heavily.

“Such a diplomat, you. Bucky…”

“I’m a lot of things, Samuel.” You shrugged, but finished your drink anyways and hiked up your sleeves.

You, Bucky and Sam all ran to take one of the Doras each. As one kicked Hoskins to the couch you stepped in front of him, blocking the hit of her spear with your forearm.

You met her eyes and tilted your head apologetically. When she raised her weapon again you twisted your body and landed a back kick to her middle.

She staggered back a couple of steps but was back at you in an instant.

Hit. Block. Kick. Another hit to your shoulder.

Even if the fight was fairly balanced, Super Soldier against Dora Milaje, you knew you had a slim chance of actually winning. You hadn’t been in a fight in years, much less with someone this capable and trained.

After blocking another of your strikes with her spear, she hit the side of your left knee. It’s your bad one.

East Berlin, 1987. You had been undercover for nearly two weeks now, tracking a lead about the existence of a HYDRA lab that was conducting experiments with new Super Soldiers.

The wind that cut through the rooftop of the building you stood on testing the very limits of the overcoat you wore on top of your tactical suit. So damn cold. You tried not to dwell on how frigid your toes were inside of your boots, instead concentrating on watching the sun slip behind the skyline.

You were waiting on a man that would give you the next lead. Intel said he would be there before you, but he wasn’t when you got there. 10 minutes had gone past the accorded meeting time, and you were starting to think that no one was coming.

A bullet ricocheted on the concrete pillar you were stood behind, and you realized why S.H.I.E.L.D.’s contact was running late. You grabbed your own pistol, still hidden by the concrete, and peeked in the direction the shot had come from.

A man and a woman, in full leather. You saw the red star etched on their left arms as they marched towards you. HYDRA.

You had two exit options, one that was across the rooftop or jumping down into River Spree. Either way, you’d have to deal with the two HYDRA agents that approached you.

You ran to another pillar, shooting at them. You hit the woman on the leg, and she buckled down. Her counterpart didn’t even spare her a look, continuing his way to you. You kept shooting, missing a few and landing the rest on the both of them, the guy barely flinching.

You didn’t understand why he wasn’t using his own gun. Maybe he didn’t feel the need for one.

There was no time for thinking. The man was onto you; swatting your gun away, blocking your punch, hitting your chest. You crashed into concrete.

The woman joined in, landing a hard blow to the side of your skull. Your eyes widened. They were just as strong as you.

Super Soldiers.

You crawled away from them, hand swatting at your leg for your knife. It landed in the woman’s throat with a squelch. One down.

The man was much stronger it seemed, you barely able to keep the fight balanced even with another of your knives. You cut and ripped, but it was like your blade was a feather on his skin.

He backed you up until the edge of the building. You could see the river below.

You groaned when he headbutted you, and you go stumbling down. The blood was hot against your face and metallic on your lips.

He stomped on your knee. Again. And again. You choked on your own agony.

His voice was all you heard before he kicked you off the ledge. You plunged into the freezing air.

Hail HYDRA.

Familiar pain laced through you, making your hairs stand on end. You cried out, nearly tumbling straight to the ground.

The clank of metal hitting the ground and a spear shot at the direction of the shield ended the fight. Bucky’s vibranium arm laid limp and detached on the ground, his expression even more perplexed than when you had scolded him earlier.

You straightened yourself up as the pain subsided. Ayo opened the doors to an empty bathroom.

Zemo. He has slipped right through your fingers while you were busy defending John Walker’s ass from the Dora Milaje.

You helped Sam to his feet as they were leaving, Ayo giving you one last stern look before leading the way out. It felt like a reminder of a debt.

“Did you know they could do that?” Sam said, looking at a limbless Bucky. The arm seemed to snap back into the right place, thank goodness for that. A failsafe, then.

“No.” Bucky rotated his arm, an indecipherable expression on his face, even for your standards.

The room was filled with tension as the three of you gathered yourselves again and John Walker sat defeated on the ground, with only Lemar to check up on him. You walked past them to get inside the bathroom, frowning at the drainage hole Zemo had made his escape through.

“I can’t believe he pulled an El Chapo,” Sam murmured.

“I can.” Bucky clenched his jaw. “Come on.”

Bucky led you through the backstreet and to the back of the building, though you weren’t sure exactly what you were looking for. A lead, maybe, but neither of you knew if Zemo had made his way all the way to the underground or escaped to the streets once he was out.

“You okay? You got hit pretty bad back there.” Sam said, looking at you. You all had taken a decent beating, but the hit to your leg had taken you by surprise. Bucky frowned.

“I’m good.” Bucky frowned deeper, and you shook your head at him, clapping Sam on the shoulder. “I got a bad knee, it’s all. Replacement cap and everything.”

Sam laughed.

“You’re 106 and have a prosthetic kneecap? Wow, you’re starting to sound your age.”

“You know what, Wilson? I think you should respect your elders.”

Sam raised his hands, still laughing. “Okay, okay. But only ‘cause I saw you kicking ass back there. Girl, where the hell have you been?”

Bucky grumbled something, and threw an arm around your shoulders.

“Retired.”

You patted his cheek lovingly, and laughed a little when you caught him fighting a smile. Sam got ahead of you, sending you a look of mischief and wiggling his eyebrows.

You urged Bucky forward, earning a huff from him as you got to Sam’s side.

Compartmentalizing was necessary. Zemo was on the loose, Walker was verging on unhinged, and there was still Karli to deal with. Whatever was going on with you and Bucky – and the insistent feeling that tugged on your heartstrings whenever you looked at him – would have to wait.

You listened to Sam’s conversation on the phone, his tone growing more concerned at every pause. Sarah. Overnight bag. Take the boys.

“What happened?” Bucky asked and you slipped from under his arm.

“Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews.”

Shit.

“Sam, I got a safehouse in New Orleans.” You said once he hung up. He nodded at you, and you took his phone to get his sister’s contact.

Karli was entering dangerous territory. Before, you considered her a fighter on a rightful cause, but as if predicted by Zemo, she was escalating. You feared that it was a fight you couldn’t let her win, or run free.

“Karli wants to meet. She left a contact number.” Sam’s phone chimed. “She said come alone.”

“I’m comin’ with you.” Bucky looked at you. “We are.”

“Let’s gear up, boys.”

---

You were grateful you had kept your old tactical suit inside your closet for a rainy day.

The suit was carbon black, except for the blue-grey Kevlar plating on your chest, back and upper legs. It had a faint resemblance to an armor, and the amount of impact it could absorb made you protected and difficult to take down. You completed your gear with your trusty boots and hidden knives.

Sam had changed into his wings and Bucky into his peculiar one-armed leathers.

“Damn, you look cool.”

A laugh escaped your lips. “So do you, Sam.”

Bucky cleared his throat. “We should go.”

The sky was cloudy and the air dry, and still you could feel a storm coming. You walked into the empty building, you and Bucky tailing Sam.

“Karli!”

The redhead revealed herself, standing on the second floor. Sam went to talk to her, leaving you to watch them from a distance.

Karli looked at you and Bucky there, her eyes lingering on you for a few seconds more. You realized how menacing you must have looked, the three of you in full gear, and you wondered if Bucky felt as strange about your rigid stance as you did about his.

The two of you really had changed.

“I was gonna ask you to join me. Or do the world a favor and let me go.”

If only things were that easy.

Sam looked at the screen on his wrist and turned to you in alarm.

“It’s Walker.”

A trap. Bucky was the first to leap to the ground, colliding with Karli in the process. You and Sam landed at the same time, and you hoisted Bucky up while Sam clashed with the girl.

He sent Karli to the ground with a flying kick.

“I’ll send you the location, go!”

You and Bucky leapt into the street and broke into a fast sprint as Sam took off.

“You’re fast!”

You looked to your side at Bucky, smirking. He was just a little behind you.

“I’m lighter!”

“No fair!”

“You have a metal arm!”

Bucky led you to the location Sam had sent him. Riga had plenty of empty buildings, it seemed. You were running up the stairs when a Flag Smasher jumped on you, then another on Bucky.

The guy and you dragged yourselves all the way to the top, exchanging punches. You saw his eyes widen under the mask when you landed a boot on his chest and he went flying backwards.

Taking the free time you had bought yourself, you searched for Bucky below you. As soon as you found him the Flag Smasher tackled you, hoisting your body up. You hit his shoulder blade with your elbow and he bumped into the railing, quickly turning and hanging you over the edge.

“Y/N!”

Bucky was upside down. No, that was you.

He reached for you as the other Flag Smasher had him locked in a rear choke.

“I’ve got this!”

Tightening your legs around the man, you let yourself fall, taking him with you. You crash at the bottom of the building.

“You said you had this!”

Bucky jumped to your level.

“I do!”

You stared at his scowl for a brief second before roundhouse kicking your foe and finally putting him down.

Bucky returned to you after dealing with his own Flag Smasher. He looked furious.

“You’re so fucking reckless!”

Oh, Jesus H. Christ. You couldn’t believe Bucky, wanting to argue.

“I am fine! It wasn’t that high.” You huffed. “We have no time for this, James. Let’s go.”

You ran to the top of the building, Bucky trailing behind you. He caught a flying knife right before it lodged itself on your face. He glowered at you as if to say you don’t got this.

Not sparing him a response, you busy yourself with fighting another of the Flag Smashers, this time a woman. It was like all you needed was a little warming up, because you’re clearly in advantage as you blocked her punches and grabbed her torso, slamming her into the ground next.

You looked up. John Walker was staring at you.

He didn’t have much time to dwell on whatever he saw, one of the men coming from behind and immobilizing him.

Karli screamed as she ran towards Walker. She was in it for the kill. Hoskins tackled her before she could do it. All you could make out was the blur of an altercation.

Lemar Hoskins slammed into a pillar with a crack.

Your stomach churned.

Everything stilled as Walker ran to his partner, desperately trying to get him to wake up. He slumped sideways, his head lolled down.

He was dead.

Karli and her group took advantage of the tumult and ran, her shooting one last look at the rest of you as they took off. You couldn’t let her get away this time, though, so you immediately go into pursuit.

You shot one look behind you, seeing Bucky and Sam follow you as you whizzed through the streets of Riga. You’re the first to get to the square, making your way to the middle of the crowd hastily.

Walker stoop upright, holding the shield over the body of one of the unmasked Flag Smashers.

It was broad daylight; there were dozens of people around you.

The city was silent.

He was dead.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky x y/n

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amazingorangedangantrash · 3 years

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Excuse me Orange. I have seen the posts of Makoto interacting with class 77 and as much as I would love to hear about it I'm really curious about how a relationship with class 79 and Makoto would be. More specifically Makoto and Kokichi.

Yes this is because I can't get the fic "Rosemary" out of my head. In summary, Makoto loses his memories and becomes a counsellor at a school in Germany after meeting Rantaro and adopts Kokichi. Besties Rantaro and Makoto with the disaster child that is Kokichi.

Hello anon! Thank you ever so much for being so polite and patient with me :). This post has been a long time coming, and people have requested it ever since I made those class 77 headcanons. I put it off partly because I was worried I wouldn't do the V3 characterisation justice. I based a lot of this off the wiki info, so I highly encourage anyone to add their thoughts or counter if they think of something different!

(Also since pre-game personalities are basically non-existent outside of headcanons, this is based off their killing game personas)

Makoto is excited to greet another school year, and some underclassmen along with it! With all the... interesting characters (turned friends) he's encountered in both his own and the above year, he can only wonder what the new students will be like...

Kaede- out of all the protagonists, I'd say Kaede shares the most similarities with Makoto, moreso than his own sister. These two would definitely get along and make a great tag team- watch out Hope's Peak, because these two will have befriended you before you know it! Makoto definitely admires Kaede's straightforwardness and her optimistic nature. They act as great support for each other if tag teaming another person/persons, as Kaede is bolder then Makoto, whilst Makoto acts well as a medium. They're both extremely loyal, arguably to a fault. Both Kaede and Makoto have lied in a class trial to protective their friend (a detective each time too, lmao). Apparently she also lied for his sake in the demo, which is sweet. I feel like they'd connect well over their mutual optimism and kind hearts. I think Makoto would convince Kaede to step out of her comfort zone- socially, she's very bold, but she strays away from activities that could affect her piano playing (by hurting her fingers) and can waste away a lot of time in the practice room. She misses out on a lot of potentially fun activities that way. On an outing with some others, she accidentally cuts her finger, and whilst Makoto apologises and tells her she was right to be cautious, she waves him aside. Despite being unable to play the piano for a few days, she fills her time with other activities and it actually... doesn't bother her so much. As an 'ordinary person', Makoto helps a lot of talented students by opening their eyes to seeing that their identity doesn't revolve around their talents. In return, Kaede offers to teach Makoto whilst he spends time with her in the practice room. Whilst piano is her favourite, she knows how to play other instruments, and teaches Makoto the violin (maybe you think he'd play a different instrument but violins are my favourite so I'm going with that-). They even practice together, and whilst Kaede still practices nearly every day, she finds that it can actually be even more fun with company.

Shuichi- ah yes, yet another detective. Makoto was initially surprised that they'd accepted another Ultimate Detective, since there's normally only one ultimate at a time in the school (aside from Luck, which is decided each year with a raffle or draw or whatever). It's revealed that Shuichi is actually undergoing part of a new tutoring programme, in order to increase the number of people with talents especially useful to society. He's to be tutored by his upperclassman... *drumroll* Kyoko! Being close with Kyoko and with Kaede, Makoto sees a lot of Shuichi and befriends him too. He helps out with Shuichi's lack of confidence and feelings of inadequacy. Unlike Makoto, Shuichi has an obvious role model that he both aspires to and compares himself against. Unlike Kyoko, Shuichi is much more connected to and feels responsible for the people his detective work condemns. Whereas Kyoko is confident in her goal to obtain the truth, in totally neutrality, Shuichi is hesitant about it, unable to feel unbiased and take a neutral stand. Makoto convinces him this is a good thing, that feeling guilt is normal and is a sign of being a passionate and sympathetic soul. Shuichi doesn't have to be the kind of detective Kyoko is- sometimes that kind of compassionate and caring person is exactly the mindset people want. He also reassures Shuichi that as painful as the truth is, uncovering it means being able to eventually move on, and embrace hope. (He also tells Kyoko to maybe be a bit more... /welcoming/ in their lessons, and eventually Kyoko grows quite fond of her student, discovering a fondess for teaching she didn't know she had).

They're both very humble and polite, and whilst Makoto isn't reserved, he can be very passive. I think the two would appreciate having more of a calm relationship, typical of a 'normal' friendship that is often er- 'lacking' at Hope's Peak. With Kaede's help, Shuichi would open up to Makoto and others over time. I personally headcanon Shuichi to have an anxiety disorder and depressive bouts, so I think someone like Makoto would be a great support friend, for him to go to when he needs company and comfort, someone to listen and to understand, and vice versa to an extent. I like to imagine Makoto, Shuichi and Kaede often spend time together (with Hajime too protag gang ftw). Shuichi likes to study in the music room with them. He's already good at research, but the music actually helps him... enjoy it more. (Maybe he takes up an instrument too, to give him a hobby to focus on, hmm).

Kokichi- Kokichi Ouma. Kokichi Ouma... what do I even say? Trying to wrap my head around his character is like trying to clear the death road of despair in your first try. Still, I'll try my best!

I've seen a headcanon before (i dont remember by who, if you know lmk and I'll credit them) that Makoto via his unpredictable luck would be immune to Kokichi's pranks, and I think that'd set up a pretty good basis for their introduction. I think if Kokichi and Makoto had to describe the other in one word, it would be... "frustrating". At first glance, they're practically opposites- someone like Kokichi, who seems to breathe lies instead of air, and a person like Makoto, who's so honest and open it's almost stupid. Makoto doesn't like how Kokichi lies so much, even if it means people hating him. He almost seems to WANT people to hate him (I think he said once that honest people scare him more than strangers). Makoto has a tendency to break down even the most difficult characters (coughcoguuh class 78 coughcofuh), and that both scares but intrigues Kokichi. Makoto couldn't hate him if he tried (literally the only person he ever even /disliked/ was Junko. Not /hate/, but just /dislike/? Really???), and it frustrates Kokichi that Makoto is so willing to trust him and put faith in him. Makoto isn't blindly optimistic either, he genuinely believes in people, and I think Kokichi would feel envious towards being able to trust so... freely. Part of Kokichi's childish and carefee personality and his perchance for lies is the manifestation of his desire for freedom. If no-one knows what he's thinking, if no one can guess his moves, if no one can use emotions or weaknesses against him, and he can do whatever he wants, isn't that freedom? Except it isn't. By not letting his guard down and being honest with people, in a way, Kokichi's lies have left him trapped, unable to open up out of a fear of vulnerability. Whilst Kokichi would be initially suspicious of Makoto, maybe even distrustful of or uncomfortable around his personality, I think having such a grounded, honest individual whom he can /rely/ on would be... comforting. Kokichi would warm up to him, and see that with Makoto, what you see is what you get. He's above all else, a /genuine/ person, though certainly not an ordinary one, and Kokichi learns to respect and even admire that. Kokichi intentionally pushes people away to avoid expressing vulnerability, by being intentionally unlikeable, but even so I think he's lonely. Pushing away others isn't out of a true desire to be alone (it never is), but a defense mechanism. That tactic wouldn't work on Makoto, and so Makoto could become someone who Kokichi not only considers a friend, but who wholeheartedly returns the sentiment.

Makoto isn't sure what to think of Kokichi at first. He's heard so much about this terrifying new student, an overlord of a secret underground organisation with roots all over the globe... and yet the first time they meet Kokichi is trying to drop a bucket of custard on him. I don't think Makoto would like how Kokichi lies so much- especially about things like killing people or sending them away to never be seen again. It upsets him how Kokichi can joke about it, and how he seems to enjoy toying with people's feelings. When Makoto has a goal, he'll follow it through to the end, so when he's determined to break through Kokichi's walls... well, it's not easy at first. He's also willing to keep Kokichi company and give him attention and hear him out, which Kokichi admittedly likes. Whilst Makoto isn't a pushover, he's also not going to threaten Kokichi or retaliate with mean words, he genuinely listens and entertains Kokichi even though he knows Kokichi is messing with him, which is.. really nice, actually. Even if he tries he can't really shake Makoto that much (pls after all the other -weirdos- people he's met?). Like oh-? They have to duel to the death with yu-gi-oh cards? It's lucky Makoto brought his stack with him! Kokichi orders him to play tea party with him? He loved playing it with Komaru when she was younger and was sad when she stopped! Kokichi tricks him into eating a really gross weird food? How did you know that was a family favourite! Kokichi is fond of Makoto, and is desperate to keep Makoto's attention on him, whilst at the same time not wanting to reveal his true feelings, leading to plenty of complicated situations. Eventually they reach a breaking point (i love drama ok) and whilst Makoto doesn't lash out at him, exactly, he admits that maybe it's best he leaves Kokichi alone, believing that maybe Kokichi truly is content to be the way he is. It's this event that causes Kokichi to realise that Makoto really is someone he'd rather not hurt- that he doesn't just 'like' him but truly cares for him. From then on he tries to dial it down a bit, and Makoto comes to understand how Kokichi's lying and 'cruelty' stems from a place of insecurity and fear of trust. He promises to be a person Kokichi can trust, to show him that vulnerability doesn't have to mean gettint hurt. Whenever the two are around each other all kind of wacky hijinks are bound to ensure, really. Kokichi loves having someone around to not only give him attention, but want to as well, and Makoto enjoys how Kokichi is willing to spend time with and entertain him, pushing him and supporting him in ways that he didn't realise initially. They both find the other extremely interesting, and their encounters usually lead to significant changes in their relationship and mindsets.

I like to imagine they'd spend time playing games and fanboying together- Kokichi adores video games, and it always poses a challenge going against Makoto's luck, which is great for someone competitive as he is. Kokichi also seems a fan of the shounen genre, and 'basic' Makoto is the only other person in the school aside from Hifumi and Tsumugi to even watch anime so you know those two nerds geek out constantly. Kokichi likes to play other kinds of games with Makoto too- and they really like word games- especially two truths one lie. Makoto is... suprisingly good at it. He's pretty poetic, and his genuineness makes it hard to disbelieve him. Which makes it all the more fun when going against Kokichi!

Rantaro- how would these two describe each other in 5 words? "A breath of fresh air". They're both some of the "normal-est" in the school tbh. It's really great for both of them to have someone to do normal teen stuff with. They love going shopping together, hanging out at cafes and arcades. They actually meet when looking for a birthday present for their sister(s). They both reach for the same one before apologising and insisting the other have it. Rantaro insists Makoto take it, since, well, it's not like /his/ sister would get it anytime soon... confused, Makoto asks why and somehow Rantaro ends up confessing the whole thing about his sisters' disappearances, and how he always buys a present for each of their birthdays, waiting for the day when he can give them to them in person. (Pls why does this always end up with makoto counselling the students akdhsjsj-). Makoto could definitely sympathise, having a younger sister of his own. I think they'd bond over that "older brother" role they share, and Makoto would definitely help alleviate some of Rantaro's guilt. I like to imagine that Makoto, whilst being a 'typical teenage boy', also has a lot of feminine interests that he might be a bit insecure about. I love the idea of Rantaro encouraging him to embrace that (guy has like 12 sisters, he gave up feeling shy about makeup, nail polish, jewellery and dressing up in tiaras years ago). Rantaro is the first person to paint Makoto's nails and he loves it so much-!!! They go out for boba together and wear matching green nail polish pls its awesome. Rantaro also tells Makoto stories from when he was travelling and its also amazing- Makoto loves hearing all about it, and Rantaro is actually an incredible storyteller. Though Rantaro initially adventured to find his sister(s), he remembers why he loved travelling in the first place, and he's able to look back fondly on those memories that used to be clouded with the despair of his sisters' disappearance. They even go on vacation together to a tropical island at some point (maybe with friends). I'd like to say Makoto's luck might even lead to them finding one of the sisters, but maybe that's a bit too coincidental ahaha.

Miu- hmm. I think Makoto would be a little put off at first by her vulgarity and very openly sexual and crude behaviour. It's not that he dislikes her, he just isn't really sure... how to react around her? Her and Kaede don't get along, and Makoto often finds himself playing peacemaker when he stumbles upon their arguments. To his surprise, though, she seems to actually... like it when they fight? In fact- she seems to like it when people give her the time of day at all, really. Maybe she's just... lonely? And well, she can be a bit... um- /obnoxious/, but she can't be that bad! Making him go to see her weird (weird) inventions, that must be her way of reaching out and trying to spend time with him, right?

And then she starts calling him "Ma-crap-to", "Naegidiot", "Makusoto", and "Na-unchi"

nevermind she sucks

Makoto, with his saintly patience, would probably end up getting closer to her similar how Shuichi does in his FTEs. (I'll be honest there's not much difference I can think of akdjsjjssksj-)

Kaito- Kaito! Who doesn't love Kaito. It's no secret Kaito thinks himself the centre of the Universe (insert space joke here haha)- he's the protagonist of his own life, and luckily for him, Makoto fits quite nicely into the sidekick role. Both of them are passionate, with big hearts and strong spirits. Kaito is really good at seeing through people too- (idk how accurate this is but apparently in the wiki it says he sees that Nagito isn't interested in his talent or him as a person so much as him as a symbol). Whilst Makoto obviously has a lot of respect and admiration for all the talented students, I feel like it's a lot more... genuine? In a way that he can appreciate the person behind the talent, more than the talent itself. Kaito is someone who likes to inspire people and I think this would resonate with him. I think the two could seriously get along! They're both hopeless (haha) romantics and stupidly optimistic lmao. Kaito can be a little hotheaded at times, so I also like the idea that Makoto could calm him down, or at least reel him in a bit. He's stubborn when it comes to... um.. certain types of people (kokichi) so maybe Makoto could open his mind a bit.

Maki: MAKI ROLLLL. Ok I'm sure she'd probably have to hide her talent until it all came out at some point. I think Makoto is someone who's very against killing (even Junko he believed there was a better way for), so whilst he wouldn't agree with her talent, I think he wouldn't hold it against Maki, especially because he's very good at separating person from talent. Makoto is very understanding, and I think that like with Kaito, he would try to befriend her and open her up. He'd probably feel bad for her, not knowing what a "normal" life was like, so he'd try his best to do that. I think Maki in turn would appreciate that, and slowly get to know him like she did with Kaito and Shuichi. (She also likes complaining to him about Kaito lmao).

(he also takes her out for sushi so she can see for herself what a harumaki is LOL)

I'm sorry anon, this is as far as I could go aksnjjssj. When I feel up to it I'll try and make a part 2 to this, but I hope this is good for now?

(Also that fic sounds awesome and I'll definitely have to read it at some point)

#makoto naegi #v3 #drv3 #makoto + class 79 #anon #my post

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