#some are also to put control on some group

[httpsjetzt]

hey guys i have absolutely no where to put this so you guys are going to listen to me yap about my theory that i've had about the life series. don't read unless you've watched the life series/know the winners/don't care about spoilers.

okay, so my general theory is that each of the winners has a special tie to the gimmick of the season.

for Grian (3rd life), he literally made the series, so he obviously has a special tie to the 3 lives gimmick.

Scott (last life) i believe rejected the boogeyman curse which was the special gimmick that i remember the most. i didn't finish his life series but i did see someone talk about how he refused to kill anyone when he was the boogeyman. if this is true, and everyone else did kill to survive being the boogeyman that season, it means that Scott would have a special tie to the gimmick.

Pearl (double life) outright rejected soulmates, declaring that Tilly was her soulmate instead. now, you might be saying that Martyn lived on his own, too, but i don't think he ever rejecting Cleo being his soulmate. correct me if i'm wrong, though!

Martyn (limited life) kept talking about wanting time, especially when they were hunting down the greens and Etho turned green and Martyn immediately tried to kill Etho for the time. also, he had a hourglass... that's at least one special tie to the gimmick.

Scar (secret life) literally kept his life a secret. he didn't really have any allies/was part of a group that i know of (haven't finished his series) which means that he literally embodied the idea of a secret. BigB also fits into this category but Scar did try to reach out and make allies/a group so he wouldn't be alone, rejecting the idea of being a secret. while BigB never did that... i think.

Joel (wild life) is one of the most obvious ones to me because i was talking to my mom about wild life and said "who else would win the series where everything is crazy besides Joel???" i do believe this idea has some merit, though. Joel is lowkey insane (and we love him for it), and he never died to one of the wildcards. i'm not counting Mumbo's zombie killing him because that was controlled by a player, so if Mumbo hadn't died Joel would still be dead by someone else. really, who else was going to win wild life besides Joel???

now, for past life. i know that we're only on session 3 at the time of posting but if my theory is correct my bet is on Etho. he's been taking HARD advantage of each time the game version updated with showing off glitches or fun facts or even using it to kill eight players??? he's had major main character energy too and i think everyone has noticed by now lol. he's also been playing minecraft the longest i believe, and i think he would make a great addition to the winners list! if he doesn't win, though, i really hope it's Gem because it would be fun to see a villain win for once and she also deserves a win.

no i did not forget Cleo with real life, I just never watched it because it made me motion sick and i hate VR. Scott won simple life because he embraced wanting a simple life.

okay thanks for coming to my ted talk everyone :D

[redacted-00101]

More Modern-day DPS Headcanons!

I got a few notes on my last post, so as promised here is part 2 :D

link to part 1

If all the poets owned iphones, they would fs have a group chat on messages, but since that’s definitely not the case (Cameron and Meeks both have androids and Neil owns a fucking flip phone 💔) they have a group chat on whatsapp and on instagram.

In regard to Neil’s flip phone, his parents would definitely be the worst fucking helicopter parents when it comes to technology, hence the flip phone, and even then they’d regularly check it. It’s one of those modern ones with the touch screens, but it still has the fucked up keypad and the only messaging on it besides SMS is whatsapp.

I think Neil for sure reaches a point where, the second he’s old enough, he gets a job at mcdonalds or taco bell or some other shitty job to save up and buy a proper smart phone behind his parents backs + so he can have some financial freedom and buy other things. Until then, however, his access to things like social media (tiktok, instagram, reddit, youtube, etc) was strictly through computers.

Even though he doesn’t really need to, Charlie applies to the same shitty fast food place Neil works at so he can keep him company. Since the job is low stakes for Charlie and he hates rules, Charlie really tests their manager’s patience all the time and is possibly the biggest liability to their establishment, but the only thing that matters is that Neil is entertained.

Neil loves Brokeback Mountain.

In fact, Neil is just a huge fan of cowboy media in general. His favourite video game is red dead, and he loved woody in Toy Story. He also has a massive crush on Arthur Morgan, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Heath Ledger.

This is sort of an extension on Knox being the most performative man ever from my last post, but he definitely listens to Lana and Clairo, and he probably crops his shirts and wears a diesel belt. I could genuinely talk about performative Knox for hours 😭

Charlie used to watch those “sjw getting owned” compilation vids back in the day 😔🥀 BUT HE’S REFORMED NOW!!

Neil and Todd LOVE collecting physical media. They both own those radios that have cd players built into them and they both collect all their favourite music and albums on cds, they also love to burn cds and make cute little mixtapes for each other. Cameron doesn’t see the point as everything is on their phones and stuff, but Neil kind of grew up doing this anyways due to his parents being strict about technology, and it also gave Neil a sense of control and creative stimulation. When he met Todd, Todd thought it was super cool that Neil still collected physical media and started doing it too <3

Neil always decorates the cd covers of the mixtapes he makes for Todd with little stickers and scrap paper.

Todd just scrawls the track list across his mixtapes in sharpie and calls it a day.

Even though Todd and Neil kind of have different music taste, and Todd kind of doesn’t really love all the music Neil listens to, he still listens to every song, even the ones he doesn’t like. Whenever he gets a new mixtape from Neil, when Neil isn’t in their room or is out at an extracurricular, Todd puts the mixtape on and just lays on the carpet in their room and stares up at the ceiling listening.

Knox was unironically apart of the logang and owned team maverick merch.

Charlie probably watched filthy frank.

I KNOW they all watched good mythical morning (They still quote the some of the songs to each other)

I would love to believe that they all watched cartoon network growing up, but it was probably only Charlie, Knox, and Meeks who did. Pitts and Cameron grew up on disney, and Todd watched nickelodeon and whatever the hell his mother was watching (reality tv, soaps, greys anatomy, Todd LOVED the drama). Neil only watched cartoon network when he was at Charlie’s place, otherwise, his television entertainment came from the selection of kids dvds on the shelf in his home, which consisted of looney tunes, the muppets show, popeye, felix the cat, betty boop, olive oyl, and various obscure cartoons that no one’s ever even heard of before.

These days, Meeks and Todd both love those trashy drama series and soaps from the 2000s, like gossip girl, greys anatomy, stuff like that.

Charlie, Knox, and Meeks occasionally quote regular show to each other. Neil always gets the jokes because, despite not watching cartoon network regularly, he did ask for a regular show box set one time for christmas because the show always stuck with him after watching it during play dates at Charlie’s place.

Neil and Knox LOVE pintrest

Knox had a yubo account at some point 💔

Pitts loved rosanna pansino and learnt how to bake because of her, so now after years of practice he makes elaborately themed birthday cakes for each of the poets every year. However, every year on his own birthday, the poets have to try and coordinate a birthday cake for Pitts, and despite there being six of them it always turns out shitty but Pitts wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cameron unironically watches Mr Beast

Charlie used to naruto run when he was younger (me too bud 😔)

As well as being into drones (see part 1), Meeks is SUPER into lego; this mf has a room in his house dedicated to lego because there just wasn’t enough space anymore in his bedroom. He has all the massive sets, the lego ideas sets, the technic sets, the flower sets, and he’s definitely a DC lover so trust he has all the batman sets (the batcave, the batmobile etc), and so many more.

Charlie occasionally orders uber eats to Helton.

[lesbian-infidelity]

okay so i went through and read some of this paper (it's um 206 pages and i just don't have that kind of time). very specifically i went through and read the discussion, conclusion and the experimental design portions of the paper (since i didn't read all of it im stating the parts i did read so if there's any information i missed you know why)

i want to start by saying that this is not a long-term study (the word typically used is longitudinal). essentially participants were spilt into three groups. the first group weren't allowed to use any tools at all (brain-only group), the second group were allowed to use websites and the internet but specifically not LLMs (language learning models; chatgpt etc) and the third group were only allowed to use LLMs, specifically chatgpt. they were asked to choose between three prompts and write an essay on one of them in 20 minutes (not a lot of time) and they were asked to do this three times over three recording sessions. so while yes the data was gathered over the course of a couple months, it is not a longitudinal study because that requires a study spanning years of time (and importantly, it also requires participants to be constantly using chatgpt during this time which isn't recorded in this experiment).

when the article talks about 'brain engagement' i think it means the brain connectivity that the study measured through EEG (basically just how connected the different ideas in your brain is). essentially what they're measuring here is (i believe) the neural network and how connected the cues to recall are to each other (so like if you thought of a dog you might think fur, and fur might connect to fur colour and maybe like the smell of wet dog right. but these connections only happen because we think of dog and these connections together a lot so the neural pathway between them gets reinforced). so the brain-only group had the wide-ranging network (meaning they had a lot of different things they associated with or thought about in relation to their topic) while the LLM group had the lowest connectivity. according to the study, the brain only group relied on these neural connections (so whatever was already in their brain in relation to the topic), the search engine group relied on the visual information given to them by their searches and 'regulatory control' (i think like thinking through the ideas given to them) and the LLM group brought in AI suggestions into an essay structure format.

the brain activity of the LLM group suggested "a bypass of deep memory encoding processes," which means that what they were writing about didn't really go into their long-term memory, specifically episodic memory which is about your personal experiences etc. brain activity also indicated a lack of semantic encoding (so they weren't putting the meaning of what they wrote into their minds). the brain-only group, by contrast, show deep semantic processing (they understood what they were talking about) and sustained executive monitoring (they focused on the task for longer i think? or they had better memory of where they got various information from?). i think this quote from the article really sums up all this, "AI tools, while valuable for supporting performance, may unintentionally hinder deep cognitive processing, retention, and authentic engagement with written material. If users rely heavily on AI tools, they may achieve superficial fluency but fail to internalize the knowledge or feel a sense of ownership over it."

very quickly let me offer this: what the research is suggesting here is not "cognitive decline" or whatever. it is suggesting that the people who used chatgpt were not as engaged with the material as those who used only their brain or the internet. the paper is suggesting that the LLM people weren't as familiar with their work as the brain-only people were but there are problems with connecting this idea to cognitive decline or anything like that

now the prompts themselves were very opinion based questions (does true loyalty require unconditional support? etc) so I won't talk about the quality of the essays themselves here. something i found interesting is that in the initial session (the first essay or session one) LLM participants talked about chatgpt as a linguistic aid, using it for sentence transitions and grammar checking or summarising prompts. a couple questioned the relevance of the AI and felt like it wasn't needed to answer the question. however by the third session lots of the group grew skeptical and started being more critical about it. "One participant concluded that “ChatGPT is not worth it” [...] another preferred “the Internet over ChatGPT to find sources and evidence as it is not reliable” (P13) [...] others acknowledged the system “helped refine my grammar, but it didn't add much to my creativity”, was “fine for structure… [yet] not worth using for generating ideas”, and “couldn't help me articulate my ideas the way I wanted" time pressure was also a factor for chatgpt use (again 20 minutes) but people still felt weird about using it.

another metric they looked at was people's ability to remember quotes from their essay. in the first session, 15 out of 18 participants in the LLM group struggled to give a quote from their essay whereas it was only 2 participants in the other two groups. none of the LLM group gave a correct quote but only 3 from search engine group and 2 from the brain-only group couldn't give a correct quote. in session two, the participants knew the quoting question was coming and while the brain-only group had perfect scores (18/18), the LLM and search engine group had 2 people who struggled in each group and generally, the trend established in the first session doesn't really deviate (although the number of people struggling to provide quotes in the LLM group went down from everyone to just 6 despite still doing worse than the other two groups at remembering). the EEGs indicate that LLM participants had low-frequency connectivity in things that are important for episodic memory and semantic encoding, suggesting, again, that LLM people weren't engaging with and incorporating the ideas in their essays into their long-term memory.

now i wanna talk about the 4th session which is where they brought in 18 of the original 54 participants (reduced due to scheduling issues) and swapped their groups (so brain-only participants were told to use chatgpt in the 4th session and the LLM group were only allowed to use their brain). those who were now assigned to the LLM group had difficulties with the quoting (7 of 9 failed to reproduce a quote compared to 1 of 9 in the reassigned brain-only group + only 1 person in the reassigned LLM group gave an accurate quote compared to the 7 in the reassigned brain-only group). the reassigned LLM group had an increase in brain connectivity when using chatgpt for a familiar topic supporting that AI can be useful for critically thinking through a topic that participants are already familiar with (which in my opinion kinda defeats the purpose but hey that's me). this group also used chatgpt more critically than the first group did. according to the study, in the reassigned brain-only group there was less deep semantic encoding and source-memory retrieval (remembering where you learnt something from) and 'no high-significance connectivity clusters' which suggests that the connections between neurons are damped during retrieval. all this suggests that the people who used chatgpt across the first three sessions had reduced connectivity over time

HOWEVER this is compared to the original brain-only group, meaning they're comparing data from one singular session with data from three separate sessions. specifically what they're saying is that the reassigned brain-only participants had substantial improvements in brain connectivity over the session one of the original brain-only group but they underperformed compared to session 2 and 3 of the original brain-only. which, im no expert of course, but idk if you can confidently say this is a solid comparison without also doing three sessions for the reassigned brain-only participants (essentially practice effects come into play here and stuff).

they suggest that 'early AI reliance may result in shallow encoding' so people might not fully remember what they actually wrote because they outsourced their thinking to the LLM and that taking away LLM tools during the early stages of getting familiar with a topic might support memory formation. finally they suggest that the brain-only group once they were told to use chatgpt in the fourth session may have compared their past essay with the current AI output and engaged in self-reflection etc. a preliminary idea that they suggest needs to be researched more with a larger sample before it can be confirmed as a thing that exists is that the reassigned brain-only group focused on a narrower set of ideas which suggests they might not have been deeply engaged with the topic itself or did not critically examine the LLM output.

and now finally i want to talk through the limitations they acknowledged in their paper (and some that i thought of myself while reading it). firstly their sample size is small and seems to be WEIRD (wealthy educated industrialised rich and democratic participants; essentially a criticism of psychology's love of using a very specific, usually american sample group that is not usually reflective of the rest of the world, sometimes even just in america) + also women are overrepresented in the study. this study specifically looked at chatgpt so there might be different results with different LLMs. the writing task wasn't divided into subtasks like idea generation, writing etc which previous research had done. their research is very specific to essay-writing in an academic context. and finally, they suggest that "future studies should also consider exploring longitudinal impacts of tool usage on memory retention, creativity, and writing fluency."

now I just wanna add: is quoting really a good measure of memory? anecdotally, i would say hell no but im sure someone more qualified than me has tackled this question at some point. next all the brain monitoring and quote remembering just seems to imply that participants are more familiar with the material when relying on their brains instead of just focusing on reproducing what they see in search engines and chatgpt. i think the time constraint comes into play here too and would be curious to see the results of a study that allowed people a reasonable amount of time to write an essay. also it's important to remember that for the search engine and chatgpt groups, they had to search read and review all their information and THEN put it into a coherent essay in 20 minutes whereas the brain-only group just had to write one. they didn't have to make sense of any secondary source and could just draw from their own experiences. therefore there might've been a cognitive load on the other two groups that wasn't present for them?

anyways really interesting study. i tried to present the results as quickly and non-biased as i could because the article doesn't really go into too much detail. i very specifically wanted to mention again that there is NO long-term data (in this study) on the effects of pro-longed use of chatgpt. this is a lab experiment not a longitudinal study. I also want to encourage people to read the study itself if this sounds like something interesting to you. i tried my best but i can only do much.

ChatGPT can harm an individual’s critical thinking over time, a new study suggests.

Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab asked subjects to write several SAT essays and separated subjects into three groups — using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, using Google’s search engine and using nothing, which they called the “brain‑only” group. Each subject’s brain was monitored through electroencephalography (EEG), which measured the writer’s brain activity through multiple regions in the brain.

They discovered that subjects who used ChatGPT over a few months had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels,” according to the study.

The study found that the ChatGPT group initially used the large language model, or LLM, to ask structural questions for their essay, but near the end of the study, they were more likely to copy and paste their essay.

Those who used Google’s search engine were found to have moderate brain engagement, but the “brain-only” group showed the “strongest, wide-ranging networks.” (Read more at link)

This research is so important. I know it won’t surprise any of us anti—ai folks, but proving what we already know is paramount.

[vyrid]

In honor of Harry Potter’s birthday, here are my top ten favorite Tomarry fan-fictions (in no particular order!!)

1. Horror of Our Love by Leontina

In a world where Neville Longbottom was declared the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter grew up in a happy, loving family, but all of that changed when he was twelve; the year he met Tom Riddle.

Notes: I love, love, love the writing in this fan-fiction. The summary is a little vague, but the actual storyline, the characters, the dynamics are insane. It hasn’t been updated in a while, for which I am heartbroken, but I’m recommending it anyway, because finished or not, it’s still one of the best things I’ve ever read. Tom is so accurate here, and Harry is still a good mix of canon and supporting Tom.

2. Iridescent by BloodyWar2411

No Magic. Tom Riddle: A mob boss. Draco Malfoy: A vengeful prick. Harry Potter: Stuck as a cleaning boy for Tom's office as a way to make up for something Draco claimed he did. Bottom Line: Damn all rich people to hell.

Notes: Again, very vague summary—as are most works on ff.net, but I’m here to tell you a better premise. As it says, it’s a crime lord/mob-boss AU where Harry pisses off Draco and gets forced to work at Riddle’s shop/undercover crime center. I read it a long time ago, but it was amazingly written and had good plot, too. The characters had depth to them and the Tom in this one is such a mix of I-hate-you-go-die and OH MY GOD.

3. To Kill You With A Kiss by Paimpoint

After Dumbledore's death, Harry searches for answers in the Pensieve. But something goes wrong. Trapped inside a memory, Harry finds himself back at Hogwarts in 1945 where he meets an 18 year old Tom Riddle teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Notes: The writing in this fan-fiction is just… wow. It sounds poetic, melancholy, so detached from everything even though the plot isn’t necessarily that tragic. It’s like poetry with how the tone is so different from everything I’ve read with similar summaries. I remember this being fairly popular a couple years back but we need to bring the hype back.

4. Rebuilt by Terrific_Lunacy

After society as we know it collapsed, humanity struggled for survival. Following a decade of chaos and anarchy, a new society begins to establish. Lords try to assemble the best followers around them and battle other groups for territory. Young Harry Potter tries to stay out of trouble, but when a new lord with unconventional ideas sees the potential in his unique talents, his quiet life soon gets turned upside down.

Armed only with his wits, Harry has to take on one catastrophe after the other, all the while trying to uncover his own past and teach a certain smug bastard the meaning of personal space.

Notes: This needs, needs, NEEEEEDS, more attention. Like, even more attention than it already has. The writing is cool, has some grammatical errors but nothing you can’t push past, and the plot MORE than makes up for it. It’s a very new and unique concept I haven’t read before and I remember being unable to physically put this thing down when I started reading. Also, Draco is adorable here.

5. Sleeping Somewhere Cold by Dark_Cyan_Star

Lucius has twin boys. Voldemort is asking for his servants’ firstborn child. Thinking it's an honor; Lucius gives Voldemort the healthy child, Draco, who happens to be the younger twin. Harry grows up the black sheep of the Malfoy family and befriends Mudbloods and the boy-who-lived, Neville. Eventually, he ends up being disowned from the Malfoy family. Things spiral out of control when Voldemort finds out Harry is the firstborn. He'll stop at nothing to get Harry on his side. After all, the ritual Voldemort wants to use will not work without Harry. For the Dark Lord wants to eat off the children's magic once they are of age.

Notes: Beautiful writing, amazing plot, and Harry is probably the best part of this fanfiction. He has amazing personality, actually has goals, and his whole life doesn’t revolve around Voldemort. It’s pretty popular, so I’m sure most of you guys have read it already.

6. Little Seer by HuskyWalker

Voldemort won the first war. Harry is happy to live as an unnoticed squib at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, visions and rebels don't allow that and Harry soon catch the attention of the dark lord.

Notes: I’m going to be very honest here, the grammar really isn’t the best, Harry is really OOC, and the plot is really hit or miss. But for some reason, I’ve read it 4 times repeatedly to the end because there’s just SOMETHING about it that keeps me still reading. I can’t pinpoint it but it’s probably my most reread fanfiction.

7. Curfew Violations by Ravenslith_Fledglingmoon

When Harry started his freshman year at Hogwarts High, he was the new kid in town. And as such, with no social life to speak of, he had no problem getting home after school right on the dot. Thus negating the need for any sort of actual imposed curfew; it simply wasn’t necessary. All was well for about a month before Harry blipped on -his- radar. Enter Tom Riddle—junior upperclassman, top athlete, and every teacher’s metaphorical academic wet dream, with superior height advantage and perfect hair to boot.

Harry had been minding his own, content to enjoy the inauspicious beginning of his high school career until they just so happened to cross paths, in the abandoned storage room on the 7th floor corridor (because Hogwarts was stupid big and Harry had been looking for a quiet corner in which to relax and otherwise de-stress, not held in another smoke filled boys bathroom).

Who knew Tom had a thing for short, messy haired, emerald eyed, deliciously fresh meat?

Notes: The summary basically tells it all, but I am here to solidify the greatness of this fic—it is equal parts hilarious, hot, chaotic, and plotty. I love Harry here, Tom’s hilarious and hot, Lily’s the cutest mom and the sex is amazing.

8. Diagnosis by (orphan account)

Harry Potter is screwed.

With a penchant for Firewhiskey and late-night parties, he had no idea that he would find a handsome man in his bed the next morning, when he wakes up; already late for his first day at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies as a Healer trainee. He also had no idea that his mom’s ex-boyfriend would have an axe to grind, the most eager girl would follow him around like she’d been hit with a Permanent Sticking Charm, or that the handsome man in his bed that morning was his boss, Tom Marvolo Riddle, Head of Spell Damage.

Like I said, Harry Potter is screwed.

Notes: The fanfiction is basically a Grey’s Anatomy rewrite, but it’s written AMAZINGLY. It’s kind of cliche, and really cringe at times, but I loved reading it, and I know you will, too. Harry here’s a badass, kind of a whore but you know that’s fine, Tom’s kind of dick but he’s nice to Harry and that’s all we care about.

9. A Dangerous Game by Cybrid

Tom Riddle opens the Chamber of Secrets in Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts. After a botched attempt to extract the Horcrux in Harry’s scar leaves their souls tied together, Tom is forced to kidnap him when he makes his escape. A story of Horcrux hunting, adventure and unwilling attraction.

Notes: If you haven’t read A Dangerous Game, what have you being DOINGGGG? The writing is 10/10, the plot is AMAZING, Harry is so in character, Tom is a dick but we like that, and it’s finished and it’s just the blueprint for Tomarry fanfictions anywhere.

10. Meant to Be by phoenixmaiden13

One Night of passion leads to drastic consequences that changes the war completely. Harry must go into hiding to protect himself and his most guarded secret. But will that secret bring Harry and Tom together? Only if it is Meant to Be.

Notes: This is probably one of the first tomarry fanfictions I’ve ever read, and it’s what got me into the ship. It’s M-Preg, and the grammars a little off but it gets better as the story progresses. And the PLOT. UGH. Tom is so fine, Harry’s so beautiful and their DAUGHTER!!!!!! She’s what really brings that fanfiction together. It’s like a balm to the soul after reading dark fics like No Glory, honestly. It’s sweet and homey.

[darkcrowprincess]

I feel like a big thing people miss about the prequels trio:

(I have not read a lot of the books. Only seen the movies and some of the TV shows. So if anything is wrong please do not come at me in the comments with spoilers or this and this happens in the books or in this show)

Padme trusted the system. She believed in it and in Palpatine as much as Anakin did till ROTS. She may not like certain actions they do, and personally tries to do things differently/change things. But till ROTS she trusted the system. It's one of her character flaws that I like about her.

Obi Wan is the same way when it comes to the jedi. He may personally do things different when it comes to people he cares about and may want to change things about the Jedi by working with the system(being on the council). But at the end of the day he trusted the Jedi(which I think is connected to his trauma of wanting to be a perfect Jedi because he was almost kicked out). It is a big character flaw of his.

Anakin has seen and personally experience the worst of the system. He has been a slave and he has seen that no one is doing anything about it( the two people he cares about most Padme and Obi Wan arent doing anything about it, because they believein the system) why he becomes bitter and has most of his trust in people not governments, not in groups(the jedi) not in the system. Anakin is still good(till ROTS when Palpatine manipulated Anakin into snapping and selling his soul) but this is why he starts to think the way he does. Not realizing that dictatorship is worse. But the system they have isn't better. Anakin trusts people, is loyal to people, not governments.

Saying all of this its Anakin, Padme, and Obi Wan(I feel like this is the thing that a lot of Obi Wan fans dont realize) fault for the republic failing and turning into and empire. Its all their fault. Yes its mainly Palpatine's. But they get some of the blame too. As well as the jedi. Because Fascism doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Saying this the prequels trio are also the biggest victims of Palpatine as well. They are the ones who suffer the most out of what Palpatine's done. Anakin becomes a slave and attack dog. Everyone he loves is dead or gone (or so he thinks). He's alone with his abuser and has spent the past 20 years(vists from his past popping up none withstanding) with nothing but anger and numbness, in a suit that's killing him. Obi Wan spends the rest of his life alone in sadness with memories haunting him, living on Anakin's home planet protecting Anakin's legacy. He has no one else. He's the only one of the trio really left alive. Padme dies/symbolically commits suicide because the system she faught for was secretly the empire the whole time, she put the Emporer in power, her husband has become Vader and he's done this all in her name. She dies in sadness with only the tiny hope that Anakin still has good in him. Dying without Anakin by her side. Crying for him.

They suffer the most because even if they didn't know it fully at the time, they prevent Palpatine's empire from fully happening earlier in the phantom menace.

And of course Palpatine wants these three to suffer the most. Obi Wan is a part of the order he hates. Was the apprentice of Qui Gon Jin the master that mainly foiled his plans, and got rid of his potential apprentice Maul. He's also incredibly difficult to kill!

Padme was suppose to be the puppet queen easy to control and just as easy to dispose of. Yet she helped take back Naboo. The people genuinely love her. And shes a lot smarter than him at times. Yes shes got to go too. Just like Obi Wan is. She also is incredibly difficult to kill.

Anakin is the huge wrench in his plans. He helped Padme and Obi Wan stop him in the phantom menace. The only reason he is not on the kill list with Obi Wan and Padme is because he's incredibly powerful. That's is the only reason Anakin isn't dead. Palpatine could have had his empire without him. He wants his power and I think the big main reason he wants it because Palpatine wants to be immortal and wants to possess Anakin's body. So here's the best way Anakin can suffer without dying all while also causing the people he loves to suffer and be a trophy he can wave in the Jedi's faces.

If Palpatine wants anyone to suffer the most its these three. And they suffer so much.

Obi Wan is the protector of Anakin's legacy(his son and daughter) yes he says its for the Jedi (Obi Wan says a lot of things but really deep down he cares) and though he will never admit it. He protects the last hope, the last good bit of Anakin which is his children. Because he loves Anakin.

[sapphire-theseainequator]

Also, religious discrimination is fucking real, regardless of gender. It annoys me that a lot of "white feminist" believes that witchhunt only happen to the poor poor women who is just very smart in 1800s europe. Witchhunting and death penalty for sorcery is still fucking real and legal in some places for people who just want to do their old belief (ie. Saudi Arabia, maybe even Indonesia with the new "anti hexxing" law that is probably targeted for people who still believe in indigenous religion while the goverment pretend to "acknowledge them" (they don't)). Some of the religions/beliefs with witchcraft labels and such even have traditional male leaders, yet it doesn't save them for being targetted.

You don't need to believe in a religion or anything to know that people shouldn't be murdered for believing the wrong god

lotta people seem to think the issue with the salem witch trials was that witchcraft is bullshit and not that mob justice is unreliable, inhumane, and fosters widespread paranoia and compulsion rather than protecting literally anyone from harm

[wildstar25]

MiqoMarch Day 20 - Memory

Rare is it to see you so shaken. I can only imagine what thoughts must be consuming you at this moment, my love.

[iidsch]

also more codelyokoposting but I really really dig XANA as a villain. It's not a person with a complex background that led them down the path of evil, it's not a morally grey character you sympathize with but condemn. It's a powerful AI capable of controlling almost anything in the real world. It doesn't have a face or a body, we only know it for its symbol and for the monsters it controls in the virtual world. It's willing not just to kill people through various methods (poisoning, drowning, car crash, fucking space lasers too?) but also Earth as a whole (it tried to blow up a NUCLEAR PLANT and crash two trains with toxic chemicals in them). And we don't even know why it does this, at least not for now. It may not even have a particular reason, just some sort of virus or malware in the form of an AI that seeks nothing but destruction without any goals in mind. This "pure evil" characteristic doesn't come off as childish, like in some children cartoons, it's just kind of scary to think that such an incomprehensible and destructive force exists, almost feels like a natural disaster

[sun-e-chips]

Per waterpark au, you mentioned that they were able to retain water in their frame to add to their weight. Do they have any other useful skills built in?

You've yet to mention any human employees, and we already know they double as Life Guards, so I'm curious if they're able to imitate breath for CPR as necessary or if there's a proper nurse of sorts on-site for these cases. I'm curious about all of it actually. The whole AU. Like every square inch of it in fact (<<< withholding 742 more questions, visibly frothing at the mouth)

Oh ho ho!!!! I see you caught onto that lil detail hehe

Yes they have that feature built in for heavy duty labor and emergency purposes only. One of those purpose being minor construction. As of currently there are no human employees so when the park needs maintenance the sun and moon are the brawn to get the job done! Lil fun fact the park did have human employees during the first two years of the park being opened, but not in the sense you might be thinking. The waterpark is a branch of the Fazz Company but it was a very experimental one. Having animatronics mixed with water, the chair heads weren’t entirely confident in its popularity so they didn’t focus much of their attention on it during it’s construction so a small team came together to build it as a sort of passion project that could function on its own without much leadership. Hence on opening 3 types of animatronics were designed to run and maintain the waterpark. The only human employees were designers, marketers, financial advisors and other outside overseers of the park.

After the two years Sun and Moon gained ownership of the waterpark under some minor agreements. The park still has an attachment with Fazzco and all of the shares that aren’t going towards the waterpark directly go to them, other than that they released all the other responsibilities to our two animatronics. It’s not the greatest deal but Fazco doesn’t stick their nose into their business and the boys are free to do as they please with how they want to run their waterpark!

(And yes the boys are able to perform CPR haha, they can blow up a tube within 6 seconds! They also can fool around and blow the hats off of guest, it didn’t take poor y/n long to find out about that)

[milfbrainrot]

to be completely honest i think the biggest thing that holds me back from making ocs is i focus so much on difficult dynamics that no matter how i envision a character, there's some type of offensive way it could be interpreted and it just... stops being fun. of course you need to have some considerations for avoiding blatant stereotypes but it rly does hold me back from developing anything out further bc it feels like everything i go to make is tainted and Problematic TM.

[kakusu-shipping]

A little Big Shot Autos AU scene I wanted to get out of my brain before August set in

[wizardnuke]

loudly bitching about someone over the phone for 40 minutes straight at work while coworkers sideeye me. sorry. i have never shown this behavior before and itll be another two years before i do it again

[phagodyke]

anyway yeah relevant to that post abt being deaf/hoh and ppl excluding u from conversation bc of it (even unintentionally), that's smth that's been really deeply bothering me lately bc there are a few ppl I routinely have to deal with who do it a lot and it Pisses Me The Fuck Off I've lost all patience w them. giving up and calling it ableism and walking out idc anymore 🚶‍♂️

[eclipsecrowned]

danae: tries to show even a scrap of empathy towards w*sker for how her family set him on the path that ended with all of that. chris:

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I promised you some lions! Let's talk about manes, males, and management.

This is Tandie, the current male lion at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Notice anything odd about him? He's got one of those hilarious awkward teenager manes. Except... this cat is nine years old.

I was, of course, immediately curious.

Manes serve a lot of purposes for male lions, including being an indicator of health and fitness - it's actually a sexually selected trait and a social signal. Mane texture / hair quality / length is dependent on nutrition and the body having energy to grow (and carry around!) that much hair! The color is also a signal: males with darker manes have been found to have higher testosterone levels.

In one research report, wild males were much more likely to avoid a lion decoy when it had a longer or darker mane - but the girls really loved a dark mane. It's thought this is because a long, dark mane is an indicator of mate quality. Males with longer, darker manes have higher testosterone and were pretty healthy: meaning they had more energy for fighting, had a better chance of recovering if they got injured, and generally had a higher rate of offspring survival. Manes matter!

So, back to Tandie. He was actually born at the Woodland Park Zoo in 2014 alongside two brothers, to dad Xerxes and mother Adia.

This was Xerxes (rip).

Obviously, a very large, dark, lush mane on Xerxes here. So where did these blond muttonchops come from on his son?

I asked the zoo docents and got an answer that didn't make a lot of sense. They told me that after the three cubs grew into adolescents, they were moved to the Oakland Zoo together. But living together suppressed his testosterone, and he never grew a mane.

Hmmmm.

Here's a photo from 2016, when the brothers debuted at Oakland. They're a year and a half old in this photo.

(Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo)

And here's from an announcement for their third birthday.

(Photo credit: Oakland Zoo)

Okay, so these dudes obviously all were growing manes as of 2017. I think Tandie is the one on the left in the first photo, and laying down in the middle on the second. What happened?

I was just in the Bay Area for a zoo road trip, of course I went to Oakland and tracked down a docent to ask some questions.

It turns out that shortly after the brothers turned three, they started acting like adult male lions: they started scuffling regularly. It's a normal social thing for male lions to live in groups, called coalitions, but according to my lion experts there's generally a baseline level of some social jostling within them. It wasn't quite clear from what the docent said if they couldn't manage the boys together, or if they just wanted to avoid the scratches and small wounds that result from normal lion behavior. Regardless, they put all three of the boys on testosterone blockers in order to be able to keep them together as a social group.

Now, I don't know a lot about the use of hormone alteration as a form of captive animal management, except in the case of birth control. I don't think it's something that's unethical - there was just a webinar on it that I saw go by - but I don't think it's commonly done with big cats. Lions have kind of complicated reproductive cycles, and for instance, we've been learning that female lions can take much longer to come into estrus again than expected after coming off hormonal birth control.

In males, testosterone blockers (or being neutered) means they lose their manes. This is why a lot of rescues will do a vasectomy on their males instead of a neuter - it allows them to keep their mane and the social signals that accompany it.

Tandie returned home to Woodland Park Zoo after Xerxes passed in early 2022, and the docent told me all of the lions had been off their blockers "for while." I'd guess those things happened around the same time, since bringing the trio down to a duo at Oakland would reduce some of the social tensions.

Hormones are such interesting things, though. One of Tandie's brothers has a full mane again, and the other is still totally mane-less.

As for Tandie, his mane is growing back in, and it looks like he might rival his dad for length and coloration.

He started here, in February:

Yesterday:

What a difference four months (and maybe proximity to a girl) makes!

[wwinterwitch]

friendly banter — bucky barnes

summary: sam asks for your help on a mission. you're reunited with him, Joaquín and Bucky. the last one really likes to banter. you think it's just a friendly exchange. it's actually a bit more than that

pairing: bucky barnes x fem!reader (+ platonic friendships with sam and joaquín)

word count: 5k

tags: friends to lovers, sharing feelings (awkward but cute), reader is a hacker and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, fluff, undisclosed feelings (mutual), kissing

note: this was kind of a mess but i'm back after a long time on not writing any fics! i'm currently in my last months of studying to become a lawyer (yay) and writing fics has proven to be very therapeutic during this time. this may or may not suck but i enjoyed writing it so i hope you enjoy it

please reblog and/or comment if you enjoy!

all masterlists | marvel masterlist | part 2 (features the thunderbolts* now)

"Got eyes on it?"

You stop walking as soon as you hear that question, staring ahead in disbelief. "You mean...the huge panel in the middle of the room?" you ask with obvious sarcasm, trying to speak as quietly as possible through your comm as you make your way further inside the darkened room.

It’s a typical security room with tons of cameras pointing to every corner of the building. To your relief, the presence of your group is apparently still unnoticed as your eyes wander across the various screens in front of you, noticing no commotion or an unnecessarily large group of unfriendly-looking guys rushing to find you. The large panel control installed in the middle of the desk before you is the thing that immediately gets your attention as you walk closer, always keeping in mind the task at hand.

All you really have to do is hack into the system to disable the security protocols long enough for Sam and Joaquín to sneak into the top floors of the building to retrieve the data that they wanted from the bad guy's records in order to find out more about the gang they'll be (hopefully) putting behind bars soon.

This is not the first and definitely not the last time you'll be doing these kinds of favors for Sam. Your friendship goes way back, when you were still a nobody at S.H.I.E.L.D. that somehow managed to get on Captain America's good graces after that whole Washington fiasco. You're still unsure why Steve always thought so highly of you. Then again, he was the type of guy who never failed to see the potential in other people, even when they couldn't quite see it themselves.

Now, you get to help the new Captain America, who's also as dear to you as the previous one was...perhaps just a tiny bit more annoying, but one of your dearest friends regardless.

As you rush over to the panel, you have to jump over the unconscious body of a security guard that Bucky (another dear friend you met thanks to Steve) took care of before you walked inside, quickly taking a seat in front of the large keyboard to start doing your part of the job.

You hear the unmistakable chuckle from Joaquín as you quickly type in a series of codes and commands. "Jeez, I missed having you on our missions!"

"Awwh!" you mutter with genuine endearment. "I missed being part of these missions too, buddy!"

"And we're still going out for drinks after this, right?"

"Are you genuinely asking me that, Joaquín Torres?" you ask, sounding overly offended on purpose.

You hear him laugh again, but before he can say anything back, you hear Bucky interrupting the exchange. "How about we focus on not getting caught here and then you guys can discuss your night plans?"

"Uh-oh, old man got upset," you joke soon after, finishing to type in the last few codes to fully disable the security system. Surely they have some backup protocol that would soon trigger the alarm to alert these guys of an unwanted visitor, but by then all of you will be long gone. It really is a very simple mission.

"He's jealous you're not taking him out for drinks," Sam jokes back, and then you immediately hear Joaquín agreeing with him.

It's a normal occurrence for Sam to be making those kinds of jokes involving you and Bucky. He has been making those types of remarks for as long as you can remember, fully convinced the two of you "have something going on" as he has put it before. You really try not to think too much about it because, first off, Sam loves to say shit just for the sake of pissing you and Bucky off and, second...you really don't want to let those comments get to your head.

You don't want to let yourself wonder about the what if's of that. There was a time in your life when you did allow yourself to fantasize about the possibility of actually "having something going on" with him, but you learnt to shut off that part of your brain in order to avoid getting your hopes up regarding a situation that just wouldn't happen outside your imagination. Hearing Sam’s silly remarks would only bring you back to those days.

Bucky has been one of your best friends for years and he has never shown the slightest of hints that he might be interested in you in the way you would like (at least not that you're aware of), and there was absolutely no way that you would ever make the first move and risk embarrassing yourself in front of him or, even worse, losing the friendship you two have. You eventually just got comfortable in the abyss of eternal friendzone and learned to accept it. If there was ever going to happen something between the two of you, surely it would've happened by now.

Still, Sam seems to be holding onto that rope for dear life and refuses to let it go. You can't deny it’s a bit uncomfortable to hear those jokes though. They somehow make you feel like somehow you got caught and everyone knows you have a secret crush on Bucky, but you've learned to adapt over the years.

"First part's done.” Leaning back on the chair, you watch the percentage bar on the screen before you, completely ignoring Sam's little joke. "A few more seconds and you're up guys!"

"Hallway’s clear," you hear Bucky say, still guarding the room where you're currently in. "How much time do we have to get out of here?"

"Uh...I can't say for sure. Anywhere near five to thirty, maybe?"

"Minutes?"

"Seconds."

"Oh, great," he mutters ironically.

"Well, I'm sorry. We're hacking into a very sophisticated system that I don't entirely know how it works!" you snap back at him. "Besides, the whole point of this is to give Joaquín and Sam enough time to sneak inside without having to deal with a bunch of guards going straight for them. Bad guys will know we're down here and they'll come looking for us first."

"Isn't hacking your whole thing? How do you not know how it works?" he asks, and just by the tone of his voice you know he's trying to piss you off, because he knows that's exactly the type of comments that would make you upset. If that type of comment came from a stranger you would be strangling them right now, but it’s Bucky, and he seems to enjoy annoying the shit out of you.

"Big talk coming from someone who still asks for my help because he barely knows how to unlock his own phone."

The sound of his faint chuckle immediately makes you smile, perfectly picturing the way he's probably rolling his eyes just barely right now, trying to suppress a smirk as if you could possibly see him right now, knowing he hates when you point it out to him.

"You have to give me some credit, though. I know how to program emails on that thing now. Soon enough I'll be taking your job, so you better watch out."

You can't help but laugh at his reply, slightly shaking your head as you realize you’re getting distracted by him, trying to keep your focus on what you're supposed to be doing right now rather than indulge in a never ending back-and-forth with him. As soon as you type the last codes and the large SECURITY SYSTEM: DISABLED alert pops on the monitor, you quickly rise up from your seat. "You're up guys, hurry!"

"On it!" Sam replies as you rush outside the room.

Before he even says anything to you, Bucky is quickly guiding you down the hallway with the intent of getting out of there as soon as possible, turning to look at you with a confused expression when you stop walking and, instead, start yanking his arm to go in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?"

"The exit is that way," you point out as if it’s obvious.

He looks even more confused now, and slightly annoyed. "Don't think so. That's the way we entered, but there's another way of leaving this place a lot faster."

"No, we can't change the plan!"

He definitely looks annoyed now, trying not to snap at you. "I'm not changing the plan. Exiting that way has always been the plan. If we go that way, we'll-"

Before he can say anything else, the loud sound of an alarm blasts through the entire building, signaling that you've been discovered and you'll be having company very soon. As if that wasn't enough, the door of the room you were previously in opens violently, and the guard that was previously unconscious on the floor is frantically alerting more people through his radio.

“Oh, that’s great,” you point out, slightly panicking right now because you’re still inside the building. “You decided to wake up early, huh?”

Bucky immediately grabs the guy by his bulletproof vest to throw him against the wall, taking his barely regained consciousness to his advantage. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice about six other guys coming towards you, turning around the same corner you wanted to run towards as part of your escape plan. Sadly, that's when you realized maybe the direction Bucky was suggesting was better.

You’re unsure of what to do now. It's not like you haven't been taught how to take down a few bad guys, but your specialities have always involved computers rather than physical combat. Almost as if he could read your mind, Bucky turns towards you for a quick second. "Go! I'll catch up to you." Again, almost as if he knew that you'd try to ask if he was sure about it, he immediately shouts yet another "Go!" before you're finally deciding to do as he says, running down the hall in the direction he has intended to go before.

Hours later, second after second that passes by, you’re more and more convinced that you'll never hear the end of it. If only you could go back in time and just agree with Bucky's plan rather than trying to argue with him. It would have spared you a lifetime of him reminding you how he was right and you were wrong.

Turns out his exit plan was the one you should've followed all along, because it actually led to the engine room which immediately meant being in a much less crowded part of the building to escape without risking bumping into more people.

All of you had enough time to change into something more comfortable to go out for drinks. Initially it was something you and Joaquín had planned alone, but evidently the two of you didn’t hesitate to invite Sam and Bucky. Of course they accepted the invite, and of course Bucky has done his very best to keep reminding you of your little mistake.

"Listen, if you don't want shit like that to happen again, just let me know your plan beforehand."

"But I did let you know. The problem is that someone is not really a good listener."

"No. Letting me know- like, properly letting me know, would've been telling me before we got inside that building."

Bucky smirks as he leans back on his chair, and it's obvious to you he's really enjoying this banter. "Plan changed at the last minute. If you would've just followed my lead, we could've left that building a lot faster."

"Ah, so you do recognize that wasn't the original plan!" you exclaim with a triumphant grin, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You changed it all by yourself and didn't tell me."

"Changed at the last minute," he repeats, as if to correct you. "You wanted me to stand there and explain every detail to you?"

"Oh, as if explaining it would've taken you hours! You’re always so dramatic."

"Children," Sam commented, interrupting the banter with an unamused expression. "I had to trust the operation to literal children."

Bucky scoffs at that comment, watching as Sam lets out a chuckle, shaking his head after witnessing this whole interaction between the two of you.

"Kinda makes you appreciate having an actual professional around, huh?" Joaquín says right after, flashing a charming smile in Sam's direction.

"Oh, please!" you, Bucky and Sam reply in unison, earning an offended look from Joaquín.

Soon after, Bucky is speaking again. "You know what? I'll give you some credit. You managed to do your part of the job…decently."

It’s obvious he wants a reaction from you, but even if your banter is entertaining, you know you can't keep bickering the entire night. Once again, you can’t help but to feel embarrassed, as if everyone at that table knows your little secret regarding your feelings towards Bucky. As if some innocent banter between friends could ever give it away. Besides, the four of you are here to celebrate your mission was a success, and the fact that you haven't seen the trio in a long time makes it the perfect opportunity to catch up.

Pretending to fully ignore his last comment, you turn to look at Sam from across the table. "You. I haven't seen your lovely face in a while," you start, watching him physically get ready for whatever silly comment you might come up with. "Tell me what you've been up to...I've seen the photos of you shaking hands with the President," the reference to Everett Ross sounding anything but endearing.

Sam sighs, shrugging. "Yeah, well, I guess you can say it's part of the job," he simply replies before taking a quick sip of his beer. "I can't say I'm thrilled about it, but I figured it's best to compromise a bit and keep the man happy. As long as he stays in line, I'll cooperate."

"Of course you're not thrilled about it, Sam. That's the same guy that put your ass in a prison in the middle of nowhere like you were some kind of top security criminal!" you reply almost immediately, still in disbelief at the revelation of any sort of alliance between him and Ross. Sam's expression lets you know that even he is still conflicted about it, not really knowing what to say. After taking a brief pause, you try to say something else to lighten the mood, not wanting him to think like you’re judging him for it. "Hey, I understand having to keep up appearances. I get it. And please accept my deepest condolences for having to deal with that piece of shit."

Your last comment makes the three of them laugh, and Bucky takes the opportunity to change the subject. "And what have you been up to?" he asks, sounding genuinely curious. "It's been a while since any of us has seen you."

"Well, my life has been all over the place the last few months. As all of you know, I moved into a new apartment. I loved my roommate, but I felt it was time to just live by myself, you know?"

"So no plans of leaving New York to move to D.C., huh?" Joaquín asks with a smile.

You return the smile immediately. "As fun as it would be to live closer to all of you weirdos, no. I plan to stay in New York for now. I'm just really comfortable there with the new apartment, the promotion I got a few months ago, the fact that most of my family and friends are there..."

"But not all your friends," Sam quickly points out, pretending to sound incredibly offended by your last statement. "But since we’re talking about friends and just social life in general...are you still single?"

"Why are you always so interested in my love life?" you joke with a playful grin, taking a sip of your margarita to leave him wondering the answer just a few seconds more. "Yes, I'm still single. Queen's full of creeps," you added shortly after. "Are any of you seeing anybody?"

"Proudly and happily single," Joaquín replies, raising his drink up as if to cheer before taking a sip.

Sam gives him a very visible side-eye. "Yikes," is all he says regarding that, turning back to you. "I'm not interested in dating right now, to be honest. I’m quite a busy gentleman, you know?" 

“And you say ‘yikes’ to me?” Joaquín says immediately after, looking dumbfounded.

You chime in before any of them could add anything else regarding that. “Bucky?” you ask, turning to look at him as you await his answer.

It was a bold move to directly ask him that question. On one hand, you know Bucky has always been a loner so you’re almost certain that he’s single. But there’s always that tiny percentage of probability that you’ll learn a truth you’re not sure how you’ll handle. He’s your best friend, of course you’ll be happy if he’s happy…but the idea of him revealing to you that he’s dating someone might actually make you physically sick.

You notice Bucky gets uncomfortable right away. “I’m single too.”

The pleasant feeling of relief lasts just a few seconds. The fact that Sam laughs at Bucky’s reply has your mind spinning, not understanding why he would laugh at that. Why the fuck is he laughing? Should you start panicking already?

"Actually, our buddy has been on a few dating apps, I believe."

Oh no. 

Even when you try to remind yourself not to care about anything remotely romantic involving Bucky- or at least, not to care more than a platonic friend would, you can deny the news of him possibly dating someone or even just randomly talking to any person in those apps makes your stomach turn. It really wouldn't be dramatic to claim that you could quite literally throw up right now at the thought of him and someone else right now.

It's not common to hear any sort of updates regarding Bucky's love life because...well, there's never any developments. He's never shown interest in anyone, and as far as you know he's never had any sort of relationship with anyone like that– serious or casual. What if he's interested in exploring that part of his life now? What if he has found someone already and you're about to hear him talk all about them? It makes you genuinely sick, but you try your best to act as unbothered as you possibly can, forcing you to mask your disgust and heartbreak with pleasant surprise.

"Is that so?" is all you say.

He looks even more uncomfortable by the subject, choosing to look down at his almost finished beer. "It's not...I was just trying to put myself out there," he says awkwardly, shrugging. "Long story short, online dating is not for me. I hated it."

You could tell he doesn’t really like talking about this subject, so you try to quickly ease the tension with a bit of humor. Besides, you're probably better off without hearing anything regarding that topic anyway. "It's because you couldn't figure out how the whole swiping thing worked, isn't it?"

Bucky immediately seems to relax with your joke, chuckling a bit. "It took me a few days actually." He takes a quick pause before continuing. "I probably should've asked you for help."

If there was any hidden message behind his last statement, it completely goes over your head because you genuinely thought it was just part of your playful banter regarding his lack of skills when it comes to technology. You laugh, and in return Bucky offers you a smile because that's as much hinting as he dares to do out loud, especially if Sam and Joaquín are sitting right there. He's incredibly used to you never getting his subtle implications anyway.

In front of you, the other two guys are watching this exchange unfold, and it's hard to tell which one of them has a bigger urge to tell you to stop being so fucking oblivious already. As subtle as he can be, Joaquín pokes Sam's side with his elbow to give him a quick heads-up before speaking. "Considering everyone's almost finished, Sam and I are getting another round of drinks."

The two of them are standing up when they notice you're grabbing your purse and standing up as well. "Oh, I can go with you. I have to go to the restroom anyway."

The two of them want to yet again yell at you to please get a grip on the situation, but Sam just silently takes a seat as you and Joaquín go over to the bar, quickly telling him what you want to order before heading towards the restroom.

A few drinks later the four of you are finally leaving the bar. Sam and Joaquín left to their respective houses while you and Bucky shared an Uber back to his own place. He was kind enough to let you crash in his spare room for the night. It's not like this is the first time you've ever stayed at his apartment when you visit the boys, but you can't deny the idea is both thrilling and terrifying- not like anything would happen to make you feel like that...you two are just friends...but, still...your silly head likes to get silly ideas sometimes.

Deciding not to indulge in your little fantasies, you decide to start a conversation. "Update on the food?" you ask, turning to look at Bucky, who sits comfortably on the sofa of his living room.

"Like ten minutes away," he says, taking a quick look at the screen. "How come you haven't congratulated me for knowing how to order food with this thing?" he added with evident surprise, making you chuckle.

"Because you keep saying 'this thing' like it's some mysterious device completely unknown to mankind," you reply, and before you can stop yourself, you continue. "It's cute, I guess, so congratulations."

Bucky's grin grows wider. "Oh, so it's cute?"

You try really hard not to panic, feeling incredibly embarrassed. The fact that he seems to be enjoying what you just said makes it even worse, because you know he’ll use that to tease you now. He just finds any possible excuse to do it. "Cute as in lame."

He chuckles. "Right."

Not knowing what else to say, you clear your throat before walking towards him, taking a seat next to him as you try to come up with something else to change the subject immediately. "I'm starving," is all you say, mentally scolding you for such a poor effort.

As soon as you're sitting, you unsuccessfully try to ignore the butterflies in your stomach when he leans just a bit closer...perhaps if you weren't hyper vigilant whenever the two of you are too near you might've missed it. And then, he stretches his arm across the back of the sofa, right behind you.

For a second, you even thought of mocking him for such a move, but bringing more attention to it would only make you that much nervous, and you really don't want to embarrass yourself. And most importantly, you don't want your silly mind and your silly heart to get their hopes up. You're just friends, nothing else.

"Me too," he agrees, the playful grin on his face still not disappearing. "Might have to steal a few fries from you."

"Oh, I'd really like to see you try stealing my food," you reply in the same playful tone, leaning just a little closer to him without even noticing that you were actually doing that.

"I think I deserve some compensation after what happened today. You know, for all the unnecessary ass-kicking I had to do."

"Just when I thought you had moved on from that!" you reply, jokingly slapping his knee. "It wasn't my fault, it was yours for not telling me the plan on time!"

"You should've just trusted me," he insists. "But you always have to be right on everything..."

You know he's joking. There's something about bantering with you that seems to absolutely fascinate him. "Yeah, and you always want to piss me off."

Bucky chuckles again, and that's when you feel his hand gently resting on your shoulder, his arm fully around you. What the actual fuck is going on. "What, you think I like pissing you off?" he asks, tone slightly lower than before, which inevitably makes the butterflies in your stomach multiply. "Is that why you think I do it?"

You were quiet for a moment, your brain not entirely registering what's happening. "I mean...yeah."

He stops for a second, and you almost see a hint of hesitation on his face before he speaks, letting out a frustrated sigh. "For someone who claims to be so much more clever than anyone else, I would've expected you to figure it out sooner," he starts, shaking his head with a soft smile. "I've been actually flirting with you, doll."

The comment evidently takes you by surprise and all you can do is to stare back at him like a complete fool. His arm around your shoulders, the proximity, the fact he had the fucking audacity to call you that nickname...did you somehow fall asleep on his couch without noticing and this is the type of oddly-realistic dream your brain decided to come up with? Are you still standing there like a fool just fantasizing and this one just got way too immersive? And did he really just say that he's been flirting with you?

Noticing you weren't saying anything, he decides to continue, looking a little hesitant and disappointed with your silence. "You know, it'd be really nice if you say something..."

"Awful way to flirt," is all you could come up with, which immediately makes him burst out laughing. 

"Maybe," he agrees. "But I can’t believe you didn’t figure it out. I mean…Sam and Joaquín did a long time ago."

"The three of you share the same brain cell, of course they figured it out a long time ago,” you reply, still in complete shock to be having this conversation with him. Were you really that blind? "You could’ve just asked me."

"You know I'm not direct like that," he replies, and the shy look on his face almost makes your heart melt. "Like I said, I was relying on your impressive intelligence to figure it out."

You let out a soft chuckle after his last comment, immediately giving him a warning look. "Don't." He looks back at you for a few seconds, almost wanting to challenge you after noticing the way you’re looking at him. Soon enough, he’s unable to hide his smirk anymore. "There it is," you point out, knowing he hates that.

Bucky lets out a soft grunt as a complaint, resting his head on your shoulder. Encouraged, you immediately move a hand up to his hair, affectionately playing with it. The two of you stay like that, simply enjoying being so close to each other. It feels incredibly right.

"So how do you feel?" he eventually asks, perhaps feeling braver to ask now that he doesn’t have to look into your eyes when he does.

You don’t reply right away, still feeling incredibly nervous despite knowing he does like you back. Eventually, you do build up the courage to say something. "I like you. Like, a lot."

Bucky moves back to look at you know. The look on his face gives you the impression that he wasn’t expecting you to be so honest with your answer, perhaps expecting another silly joke or sarcastic remark. And even though you thought about the possibility of choosing a more humorous approach, after keeping your feelings for him locked up and stored away for so long, you really needed to just say it.

Instead of saying something back, Bucky tightens his grip around your shoulders just enough, using his other hand to grab your chin right before kissing you. It certainly takes you by surprise, but you're quickly returning the kiss as you just completely melt in his arms, still trying to convince yourself that this is not some kind of hyper-realistic dream.

His hand swiftly moves to your cheek as the kiss continues, the gesture so incredibly delicate, a sharp contrast with the pure need he’s transmitting through the kiss. It’s desperate, passionate, intense…like he’s been waiting an entire lifetime to finally be able to experience this, grateful for the absolute privilege that it is to kiss you.

One of your hands moves up to the back of his neck and your touch seems to encourage him that much more because before you know it, he's taking the opportunity to gently bite your bottom lip, right before continuing to make out with you.

Much to yours and Bucky's disappointment, the sound of his apartment's doorbell echoes through the apartment, indicating the food you previously ordered has arrived.

He reluctantly pulls away with a soft grunt. "Food's here," he comments out loud, offering you a soft smile. He takes a brief moment to look at you, brushing his thumb against your cheek in an affectionate manner, dreading the idea of having to leave this couch. "I'll get it."

"I can help," you offer almost immediately.

Instead of replying right away, he leans in for a short kiss. "I'll get it," he insists, quickly making his way to the door after another buzz could be heard.

You sat in his living room in complete disbelief of what just happened, thankful that he's not here right now to see your goofy smile and blushed cheeks. He'd probably tease you to no end if he did see that.

Not knowing what else to do, you immediately reach for your phone, opening your messages. You knew exactly who would be the right people to share the news with.

'uhm so we just kissed??????' you texted, the first message in the group chat you just created with Sam and Joaquín.

Joaquín is the first one to reply. 'HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!'

'FUCKING FINALLY.' Sam texts shortly after.