#there was a time (not this show) where someone was writing serious code (like hacking into a system) and it was all html source code

[superchlorine]

oh, hajun is working on some code!!! let's see what he's writing...

ah yes... some python code. in a javascript file? and located in a tests folder too, instead of the main src folder. points for writing a math game, i guess (he works at an education software company), but i'm not sure this level of coding will get you into the engineering department, hajun.

fortunately for him, his ceo needs him as a secretary more than as an engineer.

[skarsjoy]

Slash Film: 10 Best Alexander Skarsgård Movies And TV Shows, Ranked BY RUSSELL MURRAY JUNE 14, 2025 6:10 AM EST

All of their 10 are ranked below with their description of Alex's performance. Since Murderbot is the newest, I'm including the full write-up on it here.

MURDERBOT (#4)

It might be too early to determine where exactly "Murderbot" truly belongs on this list. The newly released Apple TV+ series hasn't even finished airing its first season as of writing, and the network has at least seven entries in Martha Wells' "The Murderbot Diaries" to mine material from. That said, it's already such an entertaining star vehicle for Alexander Skarsgård that it could go down as his career-defining project — for now, a spot in the top 5 feels reasonable.

If you have yet to be acquainted with the weird delight that is "Murderbot," it follows the misadventures of a corporate security android (played by Skarsgård) who musters up enough free will and self-awareness to hack into [its] programming, liberating [it] from the lines of code that dictate his every moment. Now in total control of [its] future, the self-christened "Murderbot" is forced to play the role of mindless drone to avoid being melted down by his creators before he can make his final escape. [It] accompanies mining crews on dangerous expeditions and pretends to be as oblivious as possible. Every so often, an accident or local hostile will compel him to protect the humans he cares very little for — the rest of the time, [its] binge-watching thousands of hours of streaming content and monologuing to [itself] about whether or not [it] should slay [its] captors.

Skarsgård is absolutely killer as the melancholy Murderbot, making [its] mechanical alienation strangely relatable. It would be easy for the character's verbosity to drift into an unlikable "Dexter"-style narcissism, but Skarsgård's performance — with its mix of bored detachment and weird bursts of youthful excitement — gives "Murderbot" a narrative vibe that's as unsettling as it is endearing.

THE NORTHMAN - With all the pieces in place and production under way, Skarsgård went absolutely wild for his role as the Norse folk legend Amleth, packing on serious muscle mass and enduring a physically and mentally strenuous filming process to tell the story of the Viking prince's quest for generational vengeance. It's a credit to both Eggers' career and Skarsgård's talent that "The Northman" still rules despite being Eggers' most disappointing film upon release, though we feel it has aged into a violent, trippy, visually striking, and emotionally dynamic showcase of Skarsgård as a truly great actor.

GENERATION KILL - Alexander Skarsgård plays Staff Sergeant Brad Colbert, a character based on a retired marine veteran who has since become an outspoken advocate for the awareness of post traumatic stress disorder brought on by joining the military. The series' unflinchingly brave reckoning with the psychological and emotional consequences of warfare is what raises it to the level of "Band of Brothers," and the subtle, natural performance from Skarsgård is what raises it to the near-top of his filmography.

SUCCESSION - Skarsgård plays Matsson like a boyish, stupid sociopath who is so alienated from normal people that he can't help but see them as disposable pawns. At the same time, Matsson is given a humiliating humanity that paints his evilness not as genius, but as the embarrassingly insecure behavior of someone with no social skills. He nails the series' delicate tone, creating a character who is both plausibly dangerous and deeply stupid. Skarsgård and Matsson became the central villain for the triumphant final season of "Succession." Though he can't hope to fill the massive void left by Brian Cox's Logan Roy, Skarsgård is imposing, memorable, and totally arresting, and a large reason why season 4 might be the best season of "Succession" overall. 

MURDERBOT - Skarsgård is absolutely killer as the melancholy Murderbot, making [its] mechanical alienation strangely relatable. It would be easy for the character's verbosity to drift into an unlikable "Dexter"-style narcissism, but Skarsgård's performance — with its mix of bored detachment and weird bursts of youthful excitement — gives "Murderbot" a narrative vibe that's as unsettling as it is endearing.

MELANCHOLIA - Alexander Skarsgård has a prominent supporting role in the first half of the film as Justine's fiance Michael, whom she loves but ultimately cannot see a happy life with. On its own merits, "Melancholia" is one of the best movies of the 2010s. In terms of Skarsgård's career, his vulnerable performance makes up for his lack of screentime, though not enough to rank it above some of his meatier roles.

INFINITY POOL - [Skarsgård] plays James Foster, a young writer who tries to escape his relationship problems by taking a getaway to a remote country that attracts wealthy tourists like his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman). He quickly falls under the influence of an arresting fellow traveler named Gabi (Goth), who encourages him to engage in dangerous, morally corrosive acts — the consequences of which (due to the country's unique laws, culture, and apparent scientific advancements) are that James be forced to watch a clone of himself be horrifically executed by the state. 

DOCUMENTARY NOW! (Soldier of Illusion Parts I & II) - "Soldier of Illusion" is surreal, hilarious, and unexpectedly disquieting as it looks at the absurdity of Herzog's artistic dedication from a new angle. Skarsgård's Rainer Wolz is compelling and empathetic. The actor's performance, coupled with Mulaney's bluntly comedic script and Alex Buono and Rhys Thomas' fidelitous '80s aesthetic, creates a hyper-reality so tangible it's often hard to remember you aren't actually watching a documentary.

BIG LITTLE LIES - Alexander Skarsgård plays Celeste's husband Perry, making up the other half of a toxic and abusive marriage. Skarsgård delivers a memorable supporting performance in the series, standing out in the crowded ensemble as one of the series' most entrancing characters. Skarsgård was awarded a Golden Globe and nominated for a Primetime Emmy award for playing Perry.

TRUE BLOOD - Skarsgård was perfectly cast as a hulking, mysterious Viking vampire, literally towering over every scene with a distinct vibe that's effortlessly charismatic and menacing at the same time. While his performance is totally believable, there's also something so impressive about how well he nails the show's tone and style, especially given that his later work is mostly naturalistic and understated, his soapy head-whips and dramatic stares feel artfully employed rather than cheap. 

LONG SHOT - Skarsgård appears in the film as the Canadian Prime Minister, and though the script is mostly channeling a 2010s Justin Trudeau, Skarsgård gives him an awkward brashness that turns him into a three-dimensional rom-com villain. "Long Shot" is great on its own, but definitely worth watching for anyone interested in seeing Skarsgård in a light-hearted comedic story for a change.

Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1884970/alexandar-skarsgard-best-movies-tv-shows-ranked/

[bluegarners]

*luring you in so you can repost, my evil plan worked muhaha*

for the ask game! i have two options but you can choose the one you like more. dick showing off his hacking skills or outsider pov being unnerved of how dick’s whole demeanour can change in a sec when he takes charge (and maybe how other heroes -family and teams- look at him for guidance.

in other words, dick being bamf

dkjfhskdj roma you know exactly how to bait me !!

i really like the idea of both concepts! i don't especially believe any one particular batfam member is more technologically skilled than the other (except for barbara- she's insane, i think, and shouldn't ever ever ever be messed with), but i think dick knowing his way around code and various different coding languages is soooo interesting. i don't know anything myself about the language of technology, as i hardly invest any time in learning how to use what i have, but that one panel comes to mind for dick-- it's that one where he's like "the program didn't have english but i do know tameranian, so i used that", and even though i know next to nothing about how data recovering works, that's insane for me to think about. like, the world of numbers and coding and being able to read that in its most familiar text (english in this case for dick) is already super hard, but doing that in a completely different alien language that probably doesn't use any familiar grammar structures, symbols, numbering, or syntax and then applying that to do some hard "hacking" and glean valuable information from it all??? insane.

i would love to write something to convey that kind of feeling, but honestly, i don't think i'd be able to capture the sheer awe that would be appropriate for it. it's that thing where you can't truly understand how difficult something is until you're already in the business of doing it, but i'll take a swing at it anyway

He gets a ping around 11:45 p.m. It's an email from Dick, heading titled Mission Accomplished Boss with a file attachment encompassing the body of the letter. Duke opens it, grinning as he reads through the summarized information Dick had forwarded and sends back a quick thank you.

"What's that?" Tim asks from over his shoulder, having wandered towards the dining room for a snack.

Pulling up the file in full, Duke gestures to it for Tim to pour over. "I sent Dick a hard drive a few days ago and it had some kind of encrypted code on it that I couldn't make sense of. He just got it back to me."

Leaning against the counter, Tim settles closer. "That's a pretty quick turn around. Did he say what the code was?"

Duke scrolls back up to the summary points, highlighting the third one from the top. "Haskell, it looks like. I've never seen it before and it looks like the code was written up by someone in China."

At that, Tim stills, squinting. "You can't be serious. He got you Haskell back in, what, three days?"

Duke shrugs, going back to peruse the rest of the file. "Two, actually. It was pretty quick considering all the info in here. I got the hard drive off of--"

"Dude," Tim says, a complicated look of fondness, irritation, and exhaustion passing over his face. "It's not just 'pretty quick'. It's insane. Haskell is used by almost all the giant media companies and is pretty much purely mathematical. That shit is used for big data. I'm- How did he do that in two days?"

Looking at the data sent over to him in a new light, Duke tries to wrap his head around the "insanity" of what Dick has apparently done. Tim has resigned himself to tiredly rubbing his forehead, mind somewhere else as he scrolls through all of Duke's gathered info, forehead rubbing increasing in pressure as he keeps scrolling.

"I'll send him another thank you, then," Duke says, amused.

Tim merely scoffs.

[musecharm-writes]

Curiosity Killed the Cat Burglar (Tony Stark X Reader)

ANONYMOUS: You write for marvel? Awesome! Ive always wondered ehat would happen if someone tried to reverse engineer one of Tony's suits just for curiosity instead of evil or money... could you write something where Tony finds reader doing something like that? Thanks!!

Summary: You’ve been training yourself for months for this mission (not even counting the time you’d spent learning all the skills you would need in order to even make it a possibility), and now you’re finally here, so close to what you’ve been waiting for for so long…it almost feels too easy.

You’ve been training yourself for months for this mission (not even counting the time you’d spent learning all the skills you would need in order to even make it a possibility), and now you’re finally here, so close to what you’ve been waiting for for so long… it almost feels too easy.

You’d spent weeks perfecting the software that let you into the Stark Industries mainframe so you could access the blueprints of the ventilation system. You’d taken great lengths to memorise the layout; you could recreate the map flawlessly if called upon to do so. You’d made a backup plan for absolutely anything and everything that could possibly go wrong.

And now that it’s working, it just doesn’t feel right.

As you slip into the elevator, pressing the button that will take you to the floor housing Stark’s workshop with a gloved hand, you have the distinct sensation of being watched. You send an uneasy glance around the elevator and are unable to detect any cameras, but you’re well aware that means nothing; there could be thermal scanners, pressure pads, or even something as simple as hidden cameras in the walls or ceiling. Stark is as sneaky as he is clever, and you’re the last one to underestimate him.

He is your hero, after all.

--

The elevator doesn’t make a sound as it reaches the workshop floor, nor as the doors open with a smooth glide, and it’s equal parts unnerving and impressive. You don’t waste time studying the elevator, though; you leave the elevator car, creeping down the hall until you come to a wall of glass.

All that’s between you and your goal now are a keypad and a shatterproof glass door.

You pull the hacking device you custom built and programmed from your belt and attach it to the keypad. Numbers scroll across the screen until, finally, the security code is displayed in blinking green.

You grin in satisfaction and press the appropriate numbers. The door opens.

You’re in.

You stalk into the darkened shop, padding across the floor without making a sound. You reach up and pull down a pair of homebrew infrared goggles.

Let’s see. If I was a super-genius, where would I keep a high-tech, flying suit of armour?

You see some display cases on the other end of the room -- you’re unsurprised to see that Stark preserves his old suits, considering how attached he seems to be to them -- and are preparing to search for the mechanism that will open the cases, but it’s not necessary; there’s a half-assembled suit laid out on one of the work benches, as though its owner left in the middle of performing repairs on it.

Jackpot! You hadn’t dared hope you would get this lucky; the newest model of the Iron Man suit, just laying there in the open, completely unguarded? This is better than anything you could’ve dreamed of!

You approach the workbench, stepping over and around other half-complete projects that Stark has left scattered around. There are what you assume to be deactivated automated assistants, too, arm-like structures with claw shaped grasping appendages on the ends.

Under different circumstances, you would love to stick around and see what this place looks like when it’s up and running at full capacity. You bet it’s amazing.

You shake those thoughts from your head. Focus on the task at hand, you remind yourself. Your window is incredibly small.

You carefully open the faceplate of the helmet and search for a data upload terminal. Once you’ve found it, you pull your scanner from your belt and attach it to the terminal, activating it. Your heart flutters giddily. You’re so close.

And then, a voice says, “Right, I think I’ve let this go a little too far. JARVIS, lights.”

The lights slowly start to come up. You hastily remove your goggles and turn to find none other than Tony Stark standing at the far end of the room.

He smiles and waves shortly. “Hi. I’d introduce myself, but,” he swirls his finger in a circle, “seeing as we’re here, I’m pretty sure it’s not necessary.”

You’re completely dumbfounded. You have no idea what to do, what to say -- how do you explain yourself?

You came up with a plan for every scenario, except for the one where you got caught.

“Uh,” you begin, “I… I don’t… I mean, I’m not-- It’s not--”

“You, on the other hand, have some serious explaining to do. You could start with who you are, for example, and why you’re in my house, and how in the hell you managed to build a bunch of shit that neutralised my security measures.” He points an accusatory finger at you. “You hacked me. Nobody does that, nobody has ever done that. How did you do that?”

You open and close your mouth, at a total loss for words. “W-Well, um, I… I just did?” It’s a terrible explanation and you know it. You kind of want to dissolve into the floor; this was not how this was supposed to go, not at all.

Stark looks incredulous. “You… just did. Huh. Okay. Well, I just thought I’d let you know I went along with this little charade because, if we’re being honest, I found the concept of someone smart enough to hack Stark Industries enticing. I figured I’d just wait and see where you were going with it. But, since you were just after the suit -- totally boring motivation, by the way, that’s been done like a thousand times by now, what is it, money or power? -- I’m gonna have to see you out now.” He pulls out a wafer-thin, see through card and taps on it. “Jay, let Happy know we have an interloper on sublevel--”

“Wait!” You cry out. “Wait, please don’t kick me out!”

He looks at you, quirking a brow. “And why should I not?”

You fidget awkwardly, feeling a little stupid in your thief getup. “I… I didn’t want the suit to sell it, or weaponise it, or whatever. I just wanted to see if I could… If I could make one better,” you admit, your face reddening.

Stark is silent for a moment, which you aren’t sure is a good thing. Then, he says, “Huh. Okay,” and the way he says ‘okay’ turns it into a four-syllable word. “So, you broke into my house, disabled all my security, and entered my private workshop without permission… because you were curious?”

You nod, a little embarrassed. “Yeah.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know,” he says, with a hint of a smile. “Not so sure about the cat burglar.”

“But satisfaction brought it back,” you retort.

“And you’re feeling satisfied with yourself, are you?”

You shrug, starting to relax as you settle into the rhythm of the banter. “I could be. Depends whether or not you’re planning to call the cops on me.”

The hint of smile turns into an outright grin. “And ruin this thing we’ve got goin’ on? Now, why in the world would I do that?”

You laugh. “...Does this mean I get to look at the suit after all?”

Stark makes a show of considering your request. “We can work up to it,” he says. “After you show me what you’re really capable of.”

--

You spend what must be hours down in the workshop -- Tony Stark’s workshop! -- shyly explaining how your devices work, and then you move upstairs to the living room and spread out schematics across the table, trying valiantly not to explode on the spot when the guy you’ve had a crush on since you were, like, ten tells you your craftsmanship and code are just about as good as anything he’s ever seen, which is really saying something.

You’re so focused on trying to seem like you don’t care that much about his approval that when he says, “So, hey, how about next week, we meet up somewhere for a little intellectual conversation over coffee?” you nearly miss it. (‘Nearly’ being the operative word, of course.)

“I… What?”

“Unless you don’t like coffee. We could do lunch,” he continues, and somehow, he almost seems as nervous as you were just a moment ago.

The idea of Tony Stark being nervous to ask you for coffee or lunch -- you, of all people -- is laughable, so much so that it sends all your nerves running for the hills.

“Yeah,” you say. “No, I mean, coffee’s fine. I love coffee.”

He nods. “Good. Good, I’ll see you then. Hopefully this time you won’t break into my house beforehand.”

You fluster immediately at that, stammering, and he waves it off.

“Kidding,” he says. “I let you get in, remember? You’re fun, you’re a good,” he waves his hand as if trying to summon the words from nowhere. “Conversationalist. You grok me.”

You nod.

He slaps his knees and clears his throat. “Welp,” he says, standing up, “it’s been fun, but as everyone in my life loves to remind me, I have a company to run, so as much as I would love to spend the rest of the day talking about fun stuff, I sorta can’t. Walk you to the door?”

“Sure.”

He sees you out, reminding you not to forget about your “little rendezvous next week, I’ll pick you up and take you someplace swanky, my treat.”

You don’t feel nervous about it at all. You just met your idol, and all you had to do was break into his house and try to steal the plans for his top-secret superhero suit.

You can’t wait to find out what he wants to talk about next week.

[midnightsgift]

Ep 10 Review

Less so an insightful take on the episode with hindsight but more my first reactions to the scenes as they play out, and perhaps a summary of my thoughts at the end with predictions

>I understand why Ga-on didn’t murder the guy but a part of me wished he did/an opportunity to commit a ‘serious crime’ occurs a gain and he follows through with it.  We often see characters like him (Kim Ga-on) where they have a strict moral code pushed to the breaking point, but never truly taking that ‘irreversible step’ whatever that may be for the given shows. They often retain their own moral compass and only really bend in what they believe in, and in this case be shaped by the perspective Kang Yo-han is showing. Quite literally may I add as he holds him still; stopping him running into the fire; directing him to observe the man dancing amongst the burning paper or even the greed of humanity through the risk of negotiation/loss of money. Characters like Ga-on have their world’s image destroyed and him traveling by himself to murder the man portrayed that broken boy he’d be very well. It was unexpected and I LOVED the writing for that and it is already above other shows with similar storylines because of that but i wish he’s given another chance to do something he can never take back in the name of ‘justice’. I want to watch how he lives with himself after, how he’d rationalise his actions and the aftermath. I’d prefer for him to feel guilty but not regret i feel as that would be a clear indication he’s grown into a different man 

> Yo-han really got me wanting to get my cards out, and some dominos so i can made a trail to push over,

> I love how Yo-han made ‘who would i play with?’ a passing comment but looked so offended and smug idk how he did it when Ga-on doubled down on it.

>Listen I'm not saying Yo-han is a superstitious man but I am imagining every time he’s plotting he makes a tower and if he gets an ace once it topples he knows he's on to a good one

>lmao the assistant getting shifty when the minister complained bout ppl doing anything for money

>Idk if it they intentionally did it like this but it seemed like Ga-on approached Judge Oh with the video like he hadn’t yet suggested the idea to Chief Kang. If it was like that it’s like their trying to fix the gap they had created, and i think depending on who's idea it was it alludes to two different things, Yo-han’s: he noticed how Sun-ah is probably trying to approach Judge Oh especially after how she was agreeing to her ideas in the meeting of her photoshoot. So now he’s trying to rectify the damage he caused by favouring Judge Kim because ‘only two are need for a majority’ Ga-on’s: he’s trying to maintain a friendly relations ship between Chief Kang and Judge Oh as he’s trying to fix most of Yo-han’s relationships.

The two are such contrasting reasons and its probably me misunderstanding anyway but I love it.

>Ngl and maybe TMI i love that she insinuated she’s murdered ppl by saying she reeks of blood, but as someone who gets periods i would just assume she means i actually smell.

>Argh i love Elijah and how she just shits on them for having such a flawed understanding of ‘hacking’. Elijah Supremacy👑

>He knows how to make an entrance, also sidenote: i live for this soundtrack

>Ah he fucked up, now she’s gonna seek the professor out and start asking questions

>That so sad cuz its true he is poor in what matters

>Someone mentioned it before that Yo-han talks to Sun-ah like she's a child at kindergarten and i can’t unhear it

>Sun-ah seems to be more embarrassed by being a maid than I thought, it seems to be less of a reaction of someone who pissed at the elite but someone who hates her past and wants to blend in.

>Someone also stated that the ppl who have been on trial are representative of the seven deadly sins and with the show already having such heavy Christian symbolism it seemed like a valid observation. So would his be ‘Pride’ i feel like that closely ties with patriots. That or wrath due to the reparation of ‘justified anger�� 

>Damn he stole his grandmother’s funeral money

>I can’t wait to finally see her as a proper villain 

[redstarwriting]

New Moves

Natasha x Fem!Reader

Request: “Hi! I love your writing, can I request a nat x fem reader fic where reader is from M15 and was sent to assist the avengers team? She's a techie and very skilled fighter and ends up saving Nats life during a hydra raid on the compound, up to you exactly how they get together! Hope this is okay :)”

Word Count: 1,807

Genre: Not totally sure to be honest with you

Warnings: swearing, suggestive themes, fighting, guns

A/N: Thank you so much nonnie! I’m really happy you enjoy my writing. I really like writing fem!readers for Nat, so this was a treat to write and it made me feel better writing it! So that’s a plus. I hope this lived up to your expectations! I’m sorry it took me so long. Please enjoy!

───────────────────────────────────

“So why exactly was I the one sent to do this? There are plenty of other people qualified for this job,” you complain to your best friend who only raises a single eyebrow at you. “You serious? (Y/N), you know you’re the only person that can help the Avengers on this.” You scoff at them. “Oh please. Shouldn’t they have someone who is actually, you know, meant to be a fighter? I like to do things with computers!”

“Okay, fair, but you’re also one of the best if not the best fighters we have here! Listen, (Y/N), I know you would rather be stuck here typing away at your computer like the lame ass that you are, but you need to go kick some ass with the Earth’s mightiest heroes.” You roll your eyes at their statement before sighing deeply, checking your watch. “Well, I suppose I better go. I’ve stalled my flight long enough.” “When were you supposed to leave?”

“Eight in the morning.”

“(Y/N)! It’s nearly 9:15! You can’t just-”

“Yeah, yeah, save me the lecture. I’ll see you after I get back from this mission. Don’t eat any of the food I have in my office. I’ll know it was you,” you say, narrowing your eyes at them. They just flip you off as you walk away with a smirk on your face. You make your way to the hangar where you were supposed to be literally an hour and fifteen minutes ago. To say you got a stern talking to from the pilot was an understatement. The next eight hours were very awkward for you, as you warmed up your muscles in the back of the jet. You were about to assist the Avengers after all. You may as well be warmed up, anything and everything can happen when it comes to them.

It’s not that you hated the Avengers, far from it actually. You admired them greatly. The reason you didn’t want to do this mission was genuinely because you’d rather be at your computer. While fighting is all good and fun, hacking, figuring out puzzles, finding information on people, even fixing technology was just so much more of a thrill for you. You didn’t mind kicking some serious ass every once in a while, but your heart is where there’s a hard drive. You also may have had a Fat Crush on Natasha Romanoff. What a woman. You sigh and blush thinking about it but continue warming up. The flight goes by decently fast, or as fast as an 8-hour flight can go. You land at the Avengers Compound, and although you’re a tad nervous, you aren’t showing it.

You walk out of the plane, saluting to your pilot who just stares at you before he takes off. You chuckle to yourself; you really did make a new enemy today. “(Y/N) (L/N), it is great to finally meet you. We’ve been told about your skills and we believe you’ll be a valuable asset to this mission. I am-”

“Maria Hill. And you are Nick Fury. I do my research. Now tell me, what exactly am I meant to be doing?” you ask, not slowing down your walk. After all, you had work to do. Better to get it done than sit around talking. You don’t see it but Nick and Maria share a glance. You definitely lived up to what they expected. “Well, it seems there’s a new Hydra base, but we can’t pinpoint exactly where it is,” Maria explains, and you glance back at her. “Are they just changing the IP Address around? I don’t suppose you wouldn’t have needed to call me in if that were the case,” you think out loud and Maria nods. “We originally thought that was the case, but… then it got a little more complicated.” You stop walking and look at her with a confused expression. “We’ll let Stark tell you what’s happening. We have some… other… business to attend to,” Fury says. You nod at him and walk into the room where the Avengers are. Why are your hands sweating? They need to stop that. They need to stop that right now. Why are you nervous? What is going-

“Agent (L/N)?” you hear a voice which snaps you out of your mind and you look to see the Tony Stark in front of you. “Tony Stark,” you say, holding your hand out to him to shake which he does. “So why am I here? I’m assuming you need to find more than an IP Address,” you say and he nods, motioning you over to his work space. That’s when you notice Natasha is also with him. And by default, with you. Aaaand now your hands are sweaty again. Great. “It’s nice to meet you Agent (L/N). I’m Natasha Romanoff,” she says to you, and you give a small smile. “It’s nice to meet you too, Agent Romanoff.”

“Okay, time to pay attention to this one now. Basically, there’s this new Hydra base, right? We need to find it to stop it because we believe it’s their new main base. Not good. The only problem is, we can’t pinpoint this new base down. At first, we thought it was what you said, an IP Address constantly changing which is easy to crack., I could do it in my sleep. But then when I tried and nothing was working, I realized we were dealing with something more… complex. Bigger, in a word.”

“And what you mean by bigger is…?”

“It’s jumping IP Addresses, yes. The only catch is that it’s jumping IP Addresses in space.”

“…In space?”

“In. Space.”

“You’re serious? That’s absolutely mental,” you mumble, completely amazed. You start typing away on his tech as he watches. Out of the corner of your eye you notice Natasha watching as well, and you smirk to yourself. “Even though I am the smartest man alive when it comes to tech, I couldn’t figure it out. So, naturally, I decided the smartest woman in tech could.” You wink at him before saying, “Give me forty-five minutes. I’ll figure it out.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

“You’re pretty confident,” Natasha says, and you give her a small smirk. “Well this is my specialty. The addition of space to it is just a fun little puzzle I need to solve to crack the code. This will be a fun little challenge,” you say half to her and half you talking to yourself. You’re so enveloped in the work you’re doing; you don’t notice her little chuckle. What you do notice, though, is the sudden sound of breaking glass and gunshots. Your expression turns from confusion to anger as you realize, “Stark, did you forget to hide the IP Address for this system here?!”

“…You know, I may have forgotten that tiny part.” You duck down as the glass behind Tony breaks, Natasha following with you and Tony suits up. He starts shooting blasters at the intruders, but there’s a significant amount. Luckily for you, not all of them are armed. “I’m going to go look for Cap, you two handle any others who come in here,” Tony says before running out of the room. You and Natasha exchange a glance before a new group of men run in the room. You pull out your gun, and start shooting at them, Natasha doing the same. Right when it looks like you’re done and the last man is down, you hear a sudden gasp. You turn and look at Natasha, who was caught off guard by one of the Hydra agents. He has a gun to her head, and he doesn’t look like he’s about to waste any time with the trigger. “I don’t think so, bastard,” you mumble before jumping into action.

You grab the wrist he’s holding the gun in, twisting it as hard as you can which results in a loud pop. He yells in pain, dropping his weapon, but now his attention is on you. He throws Natasha to the ground, getting ready to take a swing at you, but you expertly dodge his punch, sliding swiftly under his arm. You then elbow him in the side, causing him to jolt forward, giving you the perfect opportunity to kick your leg up and bring it down on the back of his neck, forcing him to the ground. You then grab his hair, yanking his head up and then forcefully smashing it onto the ground, knocking him out. While you do this, Natasha watches. She was ready to jump up and save you, but it seemed like you had everything handled. Even when a guy tried to sneak up behind you after you took the one who was after her out. You didn’t even need to look to know that someone was there. You stepped back onto one oof his feet as forcefully as you could, which caused him to double over, giving you the perfect opportunity to elbow him in the face. He staggered backwards as you turned around, getting low and using your leg to take out his, causing him to land on the ground with a loud bang. Luckily, he hit his head on the way down, so he was out cold, and you didn’t even need to do anything else to stop him.

“Nice going, (L/N),” you hear Natasha say and you look over to see her with a smirk on her face. “Oh, it was nothing really,” you respond, trying to not let the look on her face affect you, but definitely failing. She definitely knew it affected you. Oh God. “Maybe you could teach me a few of your moves after you figure out this Hydra space thing?” she suggests, and now it’s your time to smirk. “The Black Widow is asking me to show her some moves?” you ask, and she chuckles. “She is. She’s… interested in what you could teach her.” Now there was no hiding the blush dusting your face. You clear your throat, tryin to not look like a loser before turning back to what you were working on before. “I’ll be done with this in-”

“Forty-five minutes?”

“Thirty-five, actually,” you say, a glint in your eye. She smiles. “I’ll be waiting.”

Now you did figure out where the Hydra base was and you did teach Natasha some new moves. No, actually, you taught her some combat moves. She was really impressed with what you did and was willing to learn from you. Don’t worry though, she taught you plenty of new moves too. Now after this incident you were called in to help the Avengers many more times. And now any time you need to go help them, you leave early. After all, you’d be a bad girlfriend if you didn’t visit every so often.

[kirishwima]

For scenarios... could I request rfa accidentally meeting MC before the party? no drama like "there's a bomb so I gotta run to your place" they just accidentally meet somewhere and MC recognises them from the pictures in the chatrooms and goes to greet them. Rika's apartment can't be far away from where the others live so it should be impossible. (if you can find a way to squeeze in V that's okay but you don't have to)

i really liked this idea! hope i executed it well ^^

YOOSUNG:

MC and he were actually studying at the same university, but different subjects!

They had a common elective course of modern history though, one that Yoosung’s friends convinced him to take with them since they could share notes, and MC simply had an interest in it, and well, needed the extra credits

Neither of them really noticed each other at first-it’s a big classroom and it’s in the afternoons, so oftentimes Yoosung just skipped lmao

Once though Yoosung’s friends couldn’t make it to the class so he offered to go and take notes for the day, and rushed into the class a little late, so he took the first seat available-right next to MC

He struggled to both write and listen to the professor at the same time, and eventually he got a little behind with his notes. MC noticed his cute frustrated face and shared their notes with him, tapping him on the shoulder as they quietly pushed their papers to him

Yoosung’s happy face was stuck in MC’s mind-he wore his feelings on his sleeve and it was so refreshing to see someone this innocent at this day and age.

They became fast friends afterwards-exchanging facebook accounts and talking via messenger often, sometimes about the class, sometimes about anything and everything else

They even had study sessions to help each other study!

Near the end of the semester, and right when this extra class ended, is when MC stumbled upon the RFA messenger-and one look at Yoosung’s name along with his shooting star emoji got them excited to realise there’s a familiar face amongst this strangeness

The rest of the members found their friendship cute, and Zen constantly tried to play match-maker for the two, telling Yoosung that ‘he should’ve told the RFA he has such a cute girlfriend’ lmao

(*cue Yoosung flushing redder than Seven’s hair*)

ZEN:

No, contrary to what you might think, MC wasn’t his fan-they did however hear about Zen through friends interested in musicals, and agreed he was handsome

No, instead, they met him whilst helping out a friend who was working backstage at one of Zen’s shows-they needed help finishing up painting of some background sets, and MC offered to help them in their free time, and as a return their friend offered MC tickets to the show

Zen met MC whilst rehearsing-he knew MC’s friend and went over to say hi, and met MC, who he of course instantly tried to flirt with, even though he was half-kidding about it

Well, flirtatious nature aside, the two really hit it off, and became good friends-not that they were super close or anything, but Zen would stop and chat with MC after rehearsals, and he invited MC out along with the rest of the crew after the first successful run of the show

He didn’t exchange any social media accounts with MC, because quite frankly, he doesn’t have any lmao, and MC’s phone was broken so they couldn’t give him their number either

Zen insisted that if they leave it up to fate, they’ll meet again, and well-he was right

Lo and behold, MC joined the RFA, and whose face is the first they see in an oh-so-modest selfie?

Yup, Zen the Knight it is

His first words when he realised who MC was were ’See? I told you fate would find a way!’

Sure Zen,,,sure lol

JUMIN:

MC actually scored an interview as Jumin’s executive secretary!

They were so thrilled about it, and did their best to calm their nerves before the interview, knowing that being jittery and anxious would lead them nowhere

Well, they were more than shocked at Jumin’s cold behaviour, but they did their best to match his pace, answering each of his questions without missing a beat, mentioning their credentials without bragging about them

Honestly, Jumin was very pleased-he saw a perfect candidate across him, albeit a little inexperienced due to age, but that didn’t really matter to him-with a little training they’d be perfect for the job

Well, eventually though a better candidate came along, so MC was left with the rejection e-mail in their inbox, disappointed but ready to move on

They had all but forgotten about Jumin Han until stumbling onto the RFA and meeting him again, confused and surprised at the difference of his character in the chatrooms

They didn’t mention the interview at all, but Jumin has the memory of an elephant-one look at MC’s name reminded him of how he met them, and he reassured them that they were incredibly good at the interview and left an impression on him

It takes some getting used to his different attitude, but it’s refreshing to see a man they thought of as cold and calculated be a complete cat-loving goof-and it’s honestly one of the things that makes MC fall for Jumin

And vice-versa, Jumin remembers MC’s serious confident attitude at the interview, and is pleasantly surprised to learn what a gentle, kind person they are in the messenger

When they meet Jaehee though….boy are they glad they didn’t get the job lmao

*pat pat* it’s okay Jaehee…hang in there baby

JAEHEE:

MC was working part-time as a barista at a coffee shop near C&R!

It was a small independent shop, hidden in-between bigger franchises, but their coffee was great, and if there’s one person that loves good coffee, well, it’s Jaehee

The first time she visited the shop she was at a loss of what to order, the possibilities endless with all these brews of coffee they offered, and MC found Jahee’s flustered face adorable

They chatted her up to see what kind of flavours she likes and dislikes, and ended up making her a delicious cold brew with vanilla cream-just sweet enough to give her that sugar rush she needed, but not enough to hide the flavour of the coffee itself

Well, Jaehee was more than thrilled both at the taste, and at the cute cashier *wink wonk*, so she quickly became a regular at the shop

Yes this is your good ol’ cliche coffee AU DON’T JUDGE ME

She’d always stop for a cup of coffee before work, and would secretly be happy on the days she ended up meeting MC during their shift-she’d try and visit during her breaks too, when time would allow it, and would sit and sometimes chat with MC when the cafe wasn’t too busy

MC eventually learnt some stuff about Jaehee, that she works as a secretary to some annoying cat-loving rich dude (lmao sorry Jumin), that she loves coffee, and that her dream is to eventually open her own cafe, if circumstances allow it

One day, Jaehee went to the shop, knowing that MC had a shift at that time, but they were nowhere to be found-their co-workers said MC called in that they can’t make it today because something urgent came up, so Jahee nodded along, wondering if MC was okay

….well, she didn’t have to worry for too long, as not soon after she got her coffee and headed back to the office, a familiar name popped up on the RFA chatroom

Yup, this is a coffee shop au alright-just with some hacker and cat-loving twists lol

SEVEN:

You can never convince me that this boy is not an active reddit user, and you most definitely can Not convince me he isn’t in any and all paranormal and horror forums either

So he’s scrolling around on reddit one day, posting memes and trolling people, when he stumbles upon a really interesting thread someone made about the origins of mothman and possible sightings outside the USA

He’s hooked and spends a lot of time reading through the thread, intrigued by the sophisticated way the OP wrote their points and how well-thought of their evidences were

He started commenting on the thread and talking with the OP, who he soon became online friends with-he loved to chat with them about spooky stuff, cryptids, conspiracy theories and so forth

He didn’t talk much about himself, and would sometimes even make up some lies because he didn’t want to seem like a creep that won’t even share his name, but he couldn’t give out his info that easily; he did however tell them his code name, 707

Eventually they started talking outside of reddit too, through facebook messenger (i mean…we already know this dude has a facebook account and posts his cars there lmao), and is thrilled to find out more about his new online friend, MC, and to even find out they live far closer than he thought!

Well, he gets used to talking with MC almost everyday, and it’s actually one of the few highlights of his day-he’s never really had someone care for him the way this person, someone he hasn’t actually ever met in real life does. He wonders if they’d change their mind about him if they ever met him in real life, but shakes the thoughts away-it’s not as if this could ever develop into something more than an online friendship anyway

Well…or so you thought, Seven lol

When a stranger comes barging into the RFA messenger, he’s instantly tracing their steps and finding out all their internet activities, and lo and behold-whose facebook account is this that he ended up finding? Why, it’s none other than MC!

The moment Seven found out, he got suspicious; was MC just pretending to be online friends with him to hack into the RFA? Were they stealing information without him knowing?

It hurt to have to think this way, but how else could they be linked?

When he slowly found out MC was actually innocent, he was more than relieved-he secretly happy that he could now chat with them both online and on the RFA app, that he could share parts of himself with MC that he couldn’t before

to say he fell for them is the understatement of the century lmao

V/JIHYUN:

When he first started with photography, he took some classes at a local university to learn more about professional photography, photoshop e.t.c

And MC happened to be taking the same classes as him!

They often sat next to each other, not talking at first, but then their professors would sometimes ask them to pair up to work on assignments, and MC ended up paring up with Jihyun more than once

They became fast friends-Jihyun was a little distant, but always friendly in a cold, aloof way, and always polite, and he found MC to be so warm and gentle, he was naturally drawn to them

He did feel attracted to them, but never made a move-he was still struggling with so many things himself, he didn’t want to drag anyone else into his mess. He just wanted to focus on photography and that’s that

So whilst they talked a lot during university, as soon as they graduated, V drifted away, and when he even changed his phone number all communication was lost between the two

Well, time went on, and MC slowly began to forgot about the mint-coloured man they met, until they stumbled into the RFA chatroom

They didn’t realise it was Jihyun at first-he did change his name after all, and everyone in the char referred to him as V, but the way he texted was very familiar, even though MC couldn’t quite understand why

When he finally introduced himself, they were stunned. They didn’t want to ask him if he remembers them though-it’d be too embarrassing if he said he didn’t

But of course V did remember them-the moment Seven told him their name after his background check, all the memories came flooding back, opening up a Pandora’s box in his chest where he locked all those feelings away

Even if they’re back within arms’ reach, and even if they seem interested in him though…it’s useless. He’s far beyond repair, and if he didn’t want to drag MC into his mess then, he most certainly doesn’t want to drag them into it now

So he becomes distant again, more so than ever before but MC isn’t having it-they call him out on his bullshit, and tell him to square up and be honest otherwise they’re leaving

So V reluctantly admits to it all-to remembering MC, to his feelings towards them, and to his own cowardliness back then, and how it’s now too late to change anything; even if he wants to. God, he wants to.

hi I’m soph and i love to torture my favs lol

-send me a mystic messenger scenario/prompt for character reactions!-

[thethousandyearwitch]

“Tumblr Cultings” another Shitpost fic.

Hisoka is a ~~Tumblr Influencer~~ and decides to start drama. 1334 Words. 

fanfiction.net link

Click. Clack. Click. Hisokas nails tapped quickly against his phone screen. "Tonight it's going down. I have had e-nough of a certain person here, and all of you deserve to know who and why! ~ ♠️ " Post. He didn't have to wait long before the familiar pings and blops of instant messages and questions asked to his blog started.

Anonymous: Who is it?? (≧▽≦) So excited to see you tear someone a new one!! IM from cutiepanther: where do u even get your info from lol?. IM from chaineddown: I Thought You Were Done Creating Drama For Attention. 

Hisoka snickers to himself, lazily grabbing another whiteclaw from the fridge, before retreating to his bedroom desk. He takes a first sip of his drink while opening his laptop, and quickly going on tumblr.com once it has finished setting up. @Bubblegumbitch, 20.879 followers. 7.344 posts. 27 new asks, 7 new IMs. With a satisfied sigh, the popular blogger sets down his can, and cracks his knuckles.

YouTube Influencers make a lot of money through ad-revenue. Instagram influencers hold themselves over water with sponsorships. And though Hisoka did hold a platform on both of these as well, he preferred the more traditional customs of the blogging site. You don't get paid for having a lot of followers, or making popular posts, and sponsorships are almost entirely unheard of.  But he wasn't in it for the money anyway. The drama was far more alluring. Hisoka had made his starts as a "Tumblr influencer" through creating blog layouts, masterposts of custom themes, and the occasional "funny" post, which was usually just him vagueing about someone that pissed him off that day. His first call-out post he wrote at 7k followers, calling out a far bigger blogger than he is for stealing codes for their theme and for kinning a character from a TV show that has generally been frowned upon on Tumblr for being "atrocious and a bad influence". No one likes to admit it, but everyone loves a little drama, don't they? To see someone else's dirty laundry aired out, the relief that it isn't their own, the community effort of shutting someone out of their reigns for one simple post. A satisfied Huff escapes Hisoka as he dwells in this lovely memory. Time to make a new one.

"CALLOUT POST for @spidershead13 I can't believe I would ever have to do this for someone like him, but Chrollo has definitely pushed it too far~. Definitely don't harrass him, just unfollow and block his sorry ass!~ ♣️ ."

Excitiment starts to bubble under Hisokas skin. In truth, of course, Chrollo did nothing horribly wrong, nothing at least that Hisoka could proof. But everyone likes good drama between popular blogs that follow different themes. If this post could rile him up enough to write a callout post for Hisoka in return- Blop. IM from porcelaincat: Hisoka. Oh no, the fun police. Bubblegumbitch: Yeeeees?~ ♥️ Porcelaincat: Are you not too old to start petty fights online? Bubblegumbitch: OUCH. ♠️ Bubblegumbitch: I stay young at heart, dear.~ Porcelaincat: 1) Gross. 2). Who are you bullying this time? Bubblegumbitch: Chrollo @spiderhead13 :o) Porcelaincat: I am surprised, I honestly did not take you for that stupid. My fault.

Ouch. Illumi never cared if he was hurting feelings. Maybe he should write the call-out post about Hisoka. Though Hisoka doesn't have any viable dirt on him, not yet at least, not until he finds that porn blog that hes SURE Illumi has hidden away somewhere. Whatever, fuck that guy and his voice of reason. Hisoka takes another gulp of his whiteclaw, and goes back to typing.

"It has come to my attention, that multiple people have had the same unpleasant experience with Chrollo, something you cannot let slide so easily~." 

(Multiple people meaning one fake blog that he himself created to write himself IM messages "receipts".)

"In the following screenshots, one person tells me about how Chrollo tried to convince them to come visit him in Newyork and joins his 'church'! That's right, the guys a cult leader, trying to lure in more people from here!~ (Blogname in the Screenshots is blacked out for anonymitys sake ofc)."

Was he going too far, trying to convince everyone that Chrollo was a Cult leader probably out to harvest their organs? Or was he not going far enough

"Not sure what everyone was expecting of a goth blog like his, posting all that ~deep~ and ~brooding~ stuff, but pleeaaaseee stay clear of him now, don't let yourselves get pulled into some scary cult bs~ ♦️ .

#callout #calloutpost #internetbloodsports #cult. "

And post. Hisoka spins excitedly in his chair, self satisfied with his own hubris.  Immediately more blops and pings storm in. Anonymous: I knew chrollo was a weirdo, mayor bad vibes ಠωಠ Anonymous: thank you for talking about this, honestly scary!!!!! Spiderslegtostandon: What is your damage? Hisoka chuckles. Now only to wait for- IM from spidershead13: Hello. Chrollos timing was as usual, perfect. Bubblegumbitch: Why hello~~~~ ♠️ Spidershead13: I believe we need to talk about whatever that post was. Hisoka glances at the notes, a steady stream of likes and reblogs flowing in. Damage control is gonna be hard for the opposing side.

Bubblegumbitch: Sorry, I believe I'm just warning the people about you~. Didn't take you for such a dangerous guy :o( Spidershead13: Can you give me the @ of the person sending you those messages? Obviously they must have gotten something wrong. I'd never Invite just anyone to come over here, and I'd also never force my beliefs on anyone. Bubblegumbitch: Sorry, no can do. Who says you're not going to doxx em~. ♠️ I don't want to be responsible for putting someone in danger more than they already are~.

The influencer was now just leaning back in his chair, taking in a cool nights-breeze flowing in from the window. Was Chrollo mad? He's sure he'd want to punch him right now. What will he start Hisokas call-out with? Who would people believe more? It was all so exciting.

Spidershead13: Hisoka, this is nothing to joke about. I don't want to loose the trust of my community. I want to clear my name. Bubblegumbitch: if you can proof that I, or my informant has lied, I won't stop you from trying.~ ♣️ Spidershead13: Is this another childish game to you? Bubblegumbitch: A game? I take public safety extremely serious!~ :o(

No reply for 10 minutes. Hisoka bites his bottomlip, basking in the excitement of the unknown next moves of Chrollo. He was unpredictable, and thats what made him fun to toy with. If he was simply out to ruin someone's blogging experience, he could have cherry picked any one popular blog, dig long enough for dirt, and run them off the site in less than 2 hours. But that's predictable, that's normal, where's the fun in that?

Ping. Anonymous: Where's the Call-out?? Did you bitch out? Huh? Anonymous: did you delete the post? Was about to forward it to some friends who r mutuals with chrollo Pardon? Hisoka check his blog, and behold- The post is gone. Wooshed away, as the site itself would annoyingly proclaim. Did the site glitch out and delete it? Is it simply not displaying the post? 

Spidershead13: So you did fake those screenshots, I assume. The URL in your IMs leads to an empty blog with the same IP address as you Spidershead13: I did not take you for someone who'd stoop that low. Bubblegumbitch: Hahaha what did you DO?~ ♠️  ♠️ ♠️ ♠️ ♠️ Spidershead13: Had a friend of mine 'check' your blog. He was also nice enough to delete the post for you already.

Hisoka blinks. Once. Then twice. He's been hacked. This was going even better than he had anticipated. Quickly he screenshots the conversation, before hitting "New Textpost". " !!!I'VE BEEN HACKED BY @SPIDERSHEAD13!!!! [Screenshot] #callout #callout post #internbloodsports #hacker"

Post.

Ping. Blop. Blop. Blop. Ping. This was going to be a long, delicious night.

[lightningbuggie]

for a prompt could you write a short blackwatch!sombra x blackwatch!mccree? it's an au that i quite like, but i can never find any stories for it. feel free not to though! that's totally fine too

McCree was always hesitant to trust new personnel - a trait that stemmed from his Deadlock days - and today was no exception. He didn’t truly understand the purpose of a ‘hacker’ anyway, he couldn’t imagine hacking was any more resourceful than a gun. Reyes apparently thought it was, considering he personally spent months tracking down the recruit in question, and weeks further convincing her to join Blackwatch. Had McCree been asked, he would have said their team was big enough with the cyborg and the witch, but ultimately Reyes made the call and decided they needed one more. 

They brought her in late after work on a Tuesday night, apparently on her request. McCree couldn’t remember the last time Reyes took someone else’s orders so willingly, but he’d obliged her every demand. None of them were even allowed to be at headquarters during her tour, for her ‘privacy’s’ sake. Neither McCree nor the others were particularly pleased.

The day he finally saw her was a whole two weeks after her initiation. They had just finished a mission briefing in a conference room far too grand for their tiny team, and McCree couldn’t understand why Reyes was sticking around after adjourning - he was normally the first to leave. The cowboy quietly left the room with the others, but hung around by the door, taking one last peek inside once Genji and Dr. O’Deorain were out of sight. Back in the meeting room he witnessed a flash of purple, revealing the vibrantly dressed hacker lounging in a seat he had assumed was empty. He watched as she and Reyes chatted for a moment before shaking hands and heading out different doors. The commander approached the door McCree was standing by and he quickly sidestepped away as the door opened. He wasn’t quick enough to get out of view however, as Reyes barely took one step out the door before his eyes found McCree. 

“Settlin’ in the new recruit?” McCree asked, trying not to sound embarrassed.

Reyes held his gaze for a moment before ignoring the question and walking away with a huff.

Genji actually brought her up first. The two of them were going over some floor plans for a building they were meant to break into, and McCree brought up the concern of security cameras.

The cyborg just shrugged, “I’m sure Sombra can take care of them.”

“Sombra?” 

Genji raised an eyebrow as if he didn’t understand McCree’s confusion, “Our new hacker.”

McCree didn’t realize until that moment that he hadn’t even known her name, “Have you spoken to her?”

“Yes. She offered to help upgrade my cybernetics. She seems capable.”

McCree didn’t know what to make of that. He’d like to think Genji had good insight, but he could hear the Deadlock crew in the back of his mind reminding him to never place anyone else’s judgement above your own.

Moira spoke of her next. McCree had entered her office for a pre-mission checkup, something he often put off as long as possible to avoid leaving himself in the hands of the witch. 

Dr. O’Deorain kept her examinations minimal. McCree seemed healthy enough, but she wasn’t happy with the state of his mechanical arm - as was evident by her constant poking and prodding of the metal.

“I intend to run a few minor tests on this.” She told him, cold and clinical.

“How long’s that gonna take?”

“I’m not certain. Sombra raised some concerns on the matter of remote hacking, though we’ve yet to discuss the process or potential solutions. ”

“Not like you to listen to other people’s suggestions, doc.”

She gave him a pointed look, then raised an arm in the direction of the door. McCree took the cue and left. 

It was two nights later when McCree interacted with her for the first time. It was well past when he should’ve been asleep, but the cowboy was busy sitting in their training room going over floor plans for their upcoming operation. He’d been ignoring the ticking of the training room clock, but the ding signalling midnight was finally enough to send him packing back to his room to get some rest. He only made it as far as the living quarters entrance however, before he was stopped by the sight of a dim purple light seeping through an adjoining hallway. He followed the light to its source, a seemingly unassuming door made special only by the violet glow seeping through its cracks. McCree tried the handle and to his surprise the door opened without issue. 

The room was dark, illuminated only by a series of monitors in varied sizes. Most of the screens displayed coded information, while some showed weapons diagnostics, and the largest presented the floor plan McCree had been pouring over all night. He turned his head to the chair sat in front of the monitors, which seated the infamous hacker as she scrolled through some code on screen 2. 

“Close the door if you’re coming in.” She replied offhandedly in a Spanish accent.

Ah. Spanish. All of a sudden ‘Sombra’ made a lot more sense. He closed the door behind him and stepped into the room. This time he took in the other aspects of the space, noting a couch, full bed, and mini fridge occupying the area behind her desk. Far more lavish than any of the other rooms he’d visited, his especially. 

She spoke up again, “Did you notice the same thing I did?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The plans.” She pointed a manicured nail at the largest screen. “Gabe’s plan could use some work.”

He’d never heard anyone refer to Reyes as ‘Gabe’ before - she was either too valuable to lose or two minutes from being fired. Ten minutes ago he wouldn’t have been confident guessing which, but now seeing how well Blackwatch was treating her, he had some idea. 

He cleared his throat, “Reyes wants us to infiltrate through the east entrance, but I was thinking-”

“The west is closer to the target, why risk being in there longer than you have to?” She finished. 

Her seat was turned around, finally facing him. Her eyes were a shade of purple so electrically bright he couldn’t help but stare. He’d already noticed her half shaved head from his last sighting, but now he could see the implants lining her skull in perfect clarity. She was like nothing he’d ever seen before. 

“That’s what I figured.” He took a step forward, maintaining eye contact. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, McCree.”

“I can say the same. Everyone’s been talking ‘bout you lately.”

“Am I employee of the month?”

“If the doctor likes you, it’s hard to tell.”

Sombra tossed him a mischievous smirk as she stood up. “Sombra.”

He tipped his hat to her in return. “Shadow, huh?” 

“Si, vaquero.” She looked pleased to know he spoke Spanish. Sombra nodded towards the couch and he took a seat, while she walked over to the mini fridge and began rummaging through it. “I’m going to suggest the west entrance tomorrow, I’d appreciate it if you mentioned it too.”

“Sure. Though Reyes mentioned something about that route being too close to where they house their mechs to be viable.” 

She stood up holding a bottle of rum and two lowball glasses. “Nah, I can deal with that.”

“Oh yeah?” McCree was going to comment that it was quite late for a drink, but watching her crack open a new bottle of fairly pricey alcohol was enough to convince him to stay for one. “How do you plan to do that?”

Rather than answer, Sombra just tossed a glass in his direction. His reflexes were normally lighting quick, but seeing as he was caught off-guard, he was just a second too late to reach for the glass. He didn’t have to worry about it breaking however, as his mechanical arm caught the glass with ease, operating completely out of his control. McCree watched in horror as his arm, now sentient, held the glass still as Sombra waltzed over and poured an ounce of rum into it. 

McCree brought his eyes back to her as she poured her own glass. “How’re you doing that?”

She just smiled and wiggled her fingers, purple light emanating from her nails. “That’s my job.”

“I’m gonna ask ya kindly to give me back control of my arm.” He warned. She did, and McCree almost dropped the glass as he suddenly regained command of the appendage. Thankfully he managed to hold onto it, which was good considering he was going to need a drink after that. “Thank you.”

Sombra took a seat on the coffee table itself, her legs resting inches from his. “That’s how I’ll deal with them. If they try to use the mechs I’ll just shut them down.”

“What if they try the same thing?” He asked, taking a sip of his drink. 

“Yeah I know, I’m working on it. You have it easy, your friend Sparrow is a glowing green target. Too easy to hack.” 

“How does hacking him work? Make him throw the mission?”

“And more. I could make him help the enemy if I wanted to.”

McCree downed his drink and set the glass on the table. “Well here’s hoping you don’t.”

Sombra grabbed McCree’s mechanical arm and pulled it on her lap, causing the cowboy to sit forward and press his shoulder against her as she examined his tech. Her nails glided over the indentations, leaving a comfortable cooling sensation in their tracks. He glanced up to watch her features, her brows furrowed, lost in concentration as she tried to solve a problem he couldn’t see. He had to chuckle at the strange intimacy of the moment, but immediately regretted the action as he watched her focus drop. 

“What?”

“Nothin’, just expected you to be dry and serious, but you’re provin’ me wrong. You this comfortable with everyone you work with?”

She let her voice drop an octave, “Only if I like them,” and followed the words with a shameless wink.

McCree chuckled, “You know, my old partner used to tell me to never trust a pretty face.”

She gave him back his arm and studied his face, “You shouldn’t trust anyone, period.”

“Sounds like a rule straight outta Deadlock.”

“More like Los Muertos.” She stood up, swishing her drink around in its glass. 

McCree followed her. “You were in Los Muertos?”

“Mhm,” she hummed as she sipped her rum, walking him to the door. “But that’s a conversation for Friday.”

“Friday?”

“I have an idea for how to set up a stable firewall for your arm, but I’m gonna need a few days. Same time?”

“You sure you want me coming by so late?”

Her smirk returned full-throttle as she opened the door for him, leaning on the door frame with her drink at her lips. “I’ll see you then, McCree.” 

He tipped his hat to her and headed back down the hallway towards his room, using every ounce of strength to avoid turning back as he heard her door shut behind him. The walk back was quiet and introspective. He could practically hear Ashe screaming in the back of his head to be more cautious, but nonetheless as his eyes scanned the ground beneath his feet, watching the light fade with every step, he knew his dreams would be basked in a purple glow.

[firebirdsdaughter]

Random Writing… Tid… Bit?…

… Okay, I don’t even know what this is. It just… Popped out! DX

… No wait. That’s… A really weird image.

So! Why don’t I subject everyone to this, instead?

Well, this is whacky.

Random scene from a random timeline that will never happen in show.

Literally features a dialogue summary of the last Tidbit I just wrote.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a long silence.

“Okay…” Aruto said, finally, leaning forward on his knees, clasping his hands together. The woman sitting across from him gave him a suspicious look, but didn’t interrupt, so he continued. “… Can you give them back?”

She blinked at him. “You’re asking if I can give Horobi back his emotions?”

There was an incredulous tone to her voice, but he nodded anyway, even though he saw Isamu rolling his eyes out of the corner of his vision, and Yua shaking her head. “Yes.”

The woman gaped at him for a moment, until she realised he was completely serious, throwing up her hands. “No! They were never a part of his original programming! They’re not some code I can stick back in.”

At that, Isamu snapped out of his usual exasperation with Aruto to shift forward in interest. “What do you mean?”

The woman shifted uncomfortably, grinding her teeth together. Eventually, Yua came closer well, leaning on the back of the sofa. “You’ve got immunity now, remember? And that man doesn’t ever need to know you were here.”

The woman shot her a small glare, but sighed. “Horobi was intentionally designed to hate humans.” She explained, haltingly. “Where other HumaGears are programmed to support and assist…” She trailed into another deep sigh. “He didn’t choose the name Horobi himself. The boss gave it to him, so that he could ‘never forget what he was.’ People who interacted with him were instructed to keep their distance, make sure he kept a negative view of humanity, and to make sure that he never thought of himself as anything more than that.” She rubbed her hands together anxiously. “He wasn’t just a HumaGear. The boss wanted him to be a…”

There was a sharp thud as Isamu’s fist connected with the wall. “… A weapon.” He growled. “They wanted him to be a weapon. So they mistreated him to build resentment.” He punched the wall with his other hand, too, head dropping into his forearms. “Damn ZAIA…!” There was a sour edge in his voice that made Aruto strongly suspect he was thinking about the way Thouser had manipulated him, too.

Looking even more unsure of herself, the woman nodded. “Exactly. Horobi is, essentially, a carefully crafted WMD.” She looked down at her fidgeting hands. “I don’t know what exactly they did to him. I was just programming. But it… It sounded bad.”

Isamu was glaring daggers at her now, and Aruto wasn’t sure if he should be worried Vulcan would take a swing at the the woman, or glad that he was this angry on behalf of a HumaGear’s mistreatment.

Yua on the other hand, like always, was much harder to read. “… I see.” She murmured softly. “Thouser creates Horobi, and therefore MetsubouJinrai.net, in order to create an massive incident that he’s secretly in control of…”

Aruto blinked at her. “Eh?”

She gave an irritated sigh, but propped her hands on her hips and clarified, “Thouser deliberately created the threat so that he could be the one to step in and stop it—effectively disgrace Hiden for not being able to deal with it, and make himself and his company the hero.” Her mouth twisted. “All that damage. And I nearly…”

“We nearly helped him do it.” Isamu grunted from her left, not breaking his glare at the former ZAIA programmer. “Don’t bump me off the guilty list.” She gave him a look that was slightly annoyed—but also partially grateful.

“But something went wrong. His creation reached singularity despite his programming.” Izu brought them all back to the point, her level gaze never having left the woman. The HumaGear secretary tilted her head questioningly. “You stated that ZAIA created Horobi. How was Jin created?”

The woman hesitated for a long time, taking several deep breaths before answering. “… That’s just it. We… We don’t know how it happened. Something… Somehow, despite everything, Horobi… Something changed. One of the theories that came up was that he saw the humans interacting around him, and realised he was…” She choked on the word. “… Realised he was lonely.” Another nervous swallow. “Be we don’t know for sure. It was amazing how he managed to keep it from us—he worked nights, figured out how to hack the cameras and give them a feedback loop. We found a whole damn library of clips he’d been giving them to hide it.” She raised her hands to rub her face briefly. “Then, after he finished, he had Jin hide somewhere in his rooms during the day, when the staff came by.”

“… How did you find him?” Yua asked, very quietly.

The woman pursed her lips in a frown. “… He attacked a researcher. It was on the routine ‘conditioning’ visits, and…”

“He attacked the person hurting his family.” Aruto finished for her sombrely.

The woman didn’t nod, but she didn’t disagree, either. “I was…” She shook her head as she searched for words. “… Amazed. It was the first time a HumaGear creating another HumaGear had ever been heard of. And Jin was so advanced, in a way. He looked like an adult, but acted like a child, more personality than any other…” She trailed off again, her expression darkening. “But the boss was furious. Wanted him destroyed. Horobi went nuts, started shouting not to hurt him, called him his son.” Her hands rubbed together even faster, and she started picking at her nails. “Boss… Said he had an idea. Sent me out with Jin and ordered me to wipe his memory.”

“And you did?” Izu asked, with an edge to her tone that was unidentifiable.

“It’s not like I wanted to!” The woman’s voice broke. She looked frantically at Yua. “You know what he’s like!”

Yua, however, shook her head. “No. I left Thouser when he tried to make me cross the line.”

Tears pricked at the woman’s eyes—and Aruto did feel a little sorry for her, Thouser didn’t give the impression of someone who would be lenient on disobedience, but this had had had massive consequences. “What happened?” He asked firmly, trying to sound like his grandfather and bring the conversation back.

The woman’s jaw clenched, and she huddled into herself, but she continued. “… Daybreak happened.” She murmured. “The ForceRisers hijack a HumaGear’s main programming. Results can vary—they can reset it, alter it, magnify a particular program, or completely override to with something like a single command.” Her fists were clenching so tightly her nails were leaving marks. “He used it to drive Horobi berserk. Almost the whole facility was destroyed.” She sighed again, a slightly thoughtful one. “He came for Jin. I didn’t expect that. Even though his mind was overridden, and he was operating on his original core directive, he still came. I only survived because I had the sense to get out of his way.” She looked around at them. “Emotions were never part of his original design. He somehow… Taught them to himself. Through Jin. When the boss put the ForceRiser on him, it purged everything it deemed ‘unnecessary.’ He literally cannot feel.” She shook her head. “I can’t just put them back in him. He’d have to learn them all over again.”

Yua folded her arms. “And his relationship with Jin has already suffered for it, so that’s probably not…”

“That’s what you think.” Isamu muttered, straightening up. Turning on his heel like a soldier, he started toward the door.

Yua turned after him. “Where are you going?”

He came to a half a few steps from the exit. “It’s just the emotions he lost, right?” He asked the woman with clearly faux cheer, deliberately ignoring Yua’s question. “He still remembers that he made Jin, just not why, or how it felt?” Looking utterly bewildered, the woman nodded. “So.” Isamu clicked his fingers. “We just force him to remember.”

“Remember?” Aruto asked, rising himself, completely not following Vulcan’s logic. “How?”

Isamu sighed thoughtfully, then glanced at Yua. “Yaiba, why did you ditch Thouser?”

She hesitated. “… Because he wanted me to frame you for murder and then kill you.”

He pointed at her like she’d just answered the winning lottery question. “Exactly. Life or death decisions.” He turned and started toward the door again.

“So… What?” Yua demanded, starting after him. “What makes you think you’re going to be able to do this, that you’re the person for the job?”

Isamu stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “… Because,” He told her levelly, without turning around. “… Feels like I owe it to him. One of Thouser’s weapons to another.” Looking over his shoulder, he gave them all a tired, sad smile. “Like we’re the only ones who can almost understand each other, you know?” Then, with a nod, he vanished out the door.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, I do like me the idea of Isamu being deliberately manipulated by Thouser/Yua’s mystery boss in the name of… Well, here, essentially using him as a weapon. Taking his hatred and fear of HumaGears and stoking it to help raise the stakes of the incident or something, or as a method to clear up evidence, or as canon fodder, whatever. And Isamu is pissed to learn of him doing something similar to Horobi.

Of course, none of this is gonna be exactly canon. There is a chance for the ‘Isamu (and maybe Horobi? Please?) being manipulated’ somehow, but it would not be exactly this, not at all.

Also this is way later in the series when both Wolf Dad and Cheetah Mom are on Grasshopper Son’s side. Also the thing that I wrote Yua leaving Thouser’s employ for… Feels possible. Like, for all she and Isamu fight and he drives her crazy, I don’t get the impression she’d be willing to kill him, and might even be disgusted by a plan to frame him for something as bad as murder. So, it seemed plausible.

[dreamwritesimagines]

Don’t You Love Me? 9- Darling, I Can’t Seem To Quit [Steve Rogers x Reader]

A.N.: Your feedback makes me so happy and helps me write faster, please keep it coming! <3

Characters: Steve Rogers x Reader, Tony Stark x Pepper Potts, Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff.

Warnings: Drinking, mentions of addiction, self destructive behavior, cussing, explicit language, mentions of sex.

Summary: Past never stays in the past.

Word Count: 3659

Read Chapter 1 here!

Read Chapter 2 here!

Read Chapter 3 here!

Read Chapter 4 here!

Read Chapter 5 here!

Read Chapter 6 here!

Read Chapter 7 here!

Read Chapter 8 here! 

The beautiful moodboard is made by fictionwillneverdie

Gif’s not mine!

How was it that after years on the run, his voice still managed to give you goosebumps and made you fill with an urge to run away?

It didn’t matter where you’d run. Anywhere but there. Anywhere that he couldn’t get in contact with you, anywhere-

Wishful fucking thinking. There was no way you’d ever get somewhere he couldn’t get to you.

You could feel the panic roaring through your system and you clenched your fists, trying to pull yourself together. You felt like you would actually pass out from fear because the room was spinning around you in full pace and your legs felt way too weak, but you managed to open your eyes and blink fast in order to get your vision back before digging your fingernails into your palms.

“Don’t call me that, asshole.”

Thank God your voice was stronger than how you felt.

He tsk tsked. “Denial gets you nowhere, Y/N. I thought I taught you that.”

You bit inside your cheek hard enough to make it bleed, then turned around. He looked just like how you remembered him, even his arrogant smirk hadn’t changed. His hair was shorter but the way his eyes shone with that dangerous light was exactly the same.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Tony spoke for the first time as Steve took a step towards you, as if he wanted to come closer to make you feel better, stronger even. You grabbed your phone, typing in the password, then stole a look at the computer beside you.

“I’m Trent,” he smiled, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark. I heard so much about you,”

“Well that makes it awkward, because I didn’t hear anything about you,” Tony stated, frowning deeply and Natasha walked towards you to stand by your side, as if trying to console you.

“I see that you’re good friends with my wife-”

“I’m not your wife,” You stated, focused on your phone and Trent chuckled.

“We got married-“

“Did we though?” You looked up from the phone and raised your brows, “Show me documentation. It doesn’t exist.”

Trent’s jaw clenched, “Well, that’s because someone hacked into the state’s system and deleted the electronic copy-“

“Yeah, someone…”

“And because of an unfortunate accident on the same day, the hard copies caught fire.”

“Unfortunate accident, yeah. They never found the person, did they?”

Trent looked as if he had tasted something sour for a second, “Nope. Unfortunately.”

“Okay, full offense, you look like a dickhead-”

“Tony!” Pepper whispered and Tony shrugged,

“He does. He got this whole Bond Villain thing going on, do you have a cat too? A spinning leather chair? Why were you trying to steal my files, Trent?”

“You were getting too close,” Trent smiled, “I thought I could introduce myself. After all, we’re both businessmen, aren’t we? We know how business wor- Y/N, it’s rude to be on your phone while we’re talking.”

You ignored him until you punched in the code, then looked up,

“Look at the computer on your right.”

“I’m sorry-?”

“What, did you think you were the only person who has been keeping tabs, fuckhead? Look at the computer on your right.”

Trent turned his head and frowned, “I’m sorry, are you actually pointing a satellite at me?”

“Your office is still in that skyscraper you own, isn’t it?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t try me, you compensating motherfucker.”

“You can hack a satellite?” Tony mumbled and you shrugged, still holding the phone tight.

“You can’t?”

“Speaking of that,” Trent said, “Keeping tabs. I gotta say, I don’t approve your past time activities.”

“There’s a solution for that, you should go and fuck yours-“

“All those people you’ve been sleeping with…” he tsk tsked “And now I find out that you’ve been seeing Captain America.”

And just like that, the room went silent.

"It's nice to finally meet you Cap." 

"Can't say the same, son."  Steve spoke for the first time, and unlike how you felt, his voice was under control, as if everything was okay. 

As if there was nothing wrong.

His calmness had a hint of authority in it, and that was more than enough to send a shiver down your spine. 

Okay, what the fuck? 

You really weren't supposed to be turned on right now. 

Trent's eyebrows rose, "I see," he said "Let's skip the small talk then." 

"Let's."

"Steve, don't-" 

"Sunshine, I am talking here." Trent cut you off and your eyes narrowed, the fury spreading through you. 

"You piece of-" 

"You're looking for trouble, Mr. Rogers." Trent cut you off, "I'd thread carefully." 

Steve smiled calmly and crossed his arms "I'm guessing your understanding of threading carefully means hiding behind a screen."  He stated “Like a coward.”

Trent's smile faded and Natasha shook her head. 

"You need to give me this guy’s address so that I can teach him some manners…" She muttered into your ear and you pursed your lips as Trent gritted his teeth, glaring at Steve before turning to you.

"You wanna know what I think, Y/N?"

You looked up at the screen "Not really Trent, no one fucking cares what you think." 

"I think you're doing it on purpose." Trent said "You went and found the one guy whom you knew I wouldn't stand, because you wanted to get my attention."

"Yeah asshole, because my whole life revolves around getting your attention." 

"You're trying my patience, sunshine. You know what happens when you do that." 

And just like that, all the muscles in your body clenched and the panic started bubbling at the pit of your stomach. The memories flooded your brain so fast that it almost made you wince but you managed to keep your expression as still as you could.

"I'll be in touch with you, Mr. Stark. We're interested in a program your company currently possesses, and I'd like to talk to you about that."

"Sorry, I don't do business with people my friends don't approve, and it’s obvious Y/N doesn’t approve you." 

"You haven't heard of our offer yet."

"Not interested." 

"You will be." Trent said as you felt something cold touching your shoulder and you flinched before you saw Bucky, squeezing your shoulder as if trying to assure you everything was fine. 

"Y/N?"

"Fuck off Trent." 

Trent smiled again "I'll see you really soon. We'll catch up, okay sunshine?" He nodded at Steve "It’ll be over his grave, so wear something nice." 

With that, the screen went dark and the room around you started spinning faster, panic flooding your system.

“Fuck this shit,” You managed to say, then grabbed your bag and stormed out of the room. 

                                         *

"Y/N, I'm serious, you need to stop." Jake said as he sat down across from you. Unlike before, you weren’t by the bar, but this time you had got yourself a table, figuring that less people would disturb you.

No such luck.

"You need to fuck off." You told Jake as you filled yourself another glass and he eyed you up and down.

"I'm cutting you off."

"Do I need to threaten you again?" 

"Threaten me all you want. You downed one full bottle, I'm surprised you can even see straight-"

"Listen, I'm not in the mood," you said, "Go back to work, and leave me alone." 

"What happened?"

You slammed the glass down "Leave me the fuck alone!" You snapped and he looked taken aback for a second before he licked his lips. 

"Don't leave okay? I'll take you home when I’m done."

"I'm not going home."

"To the Avengers Tower then." 

"I'm not going there either. What part of leave me alone don't you get?" 

"Y/N, you can't-"

"Thank you Jake," both you and Jake turned your heads when you heard a voice "I'll take it from here." 

You had no idea whether it was due to whiskey in your system or Steve was actually there, at the sleazy bar. Unlike how you felt, he looked as if everything was under control as he shed his brown leather jacket and rolled up his sleeves while Jake stood up and Steve sat down next to you.

"And a glass please." 

"You don't drink." You mumbled at Steve who shrugged. 

"I don't get drunk, there's a difference." 

You pursed your lips as Jake brought Steve a glass.

“Here, sir.”

“Thank you,” Steve said as he filled it, and Jake walked away. You raised your brows, watching him.

"You drank all of it by yourself?" He asked as he lifted the almost empty bottle and you nodded silently, looking down at the glass. 

"Yeah." 

"We gotta introduce you to Thor." 

"You should leave." You muttered, turning the glass between your hands. You couldn't take it, him being all perfect, not right now. 

"Why's that doll?" 

The sweet nickname made you pause at the warmth spreading through you but only for a second. 

"You know why,” You answered fractiously and he shrugged again,

"Not how it works." 

"I can tell you something that could make you run away."

"Hm, and what is that?" 

You gulped and reached into your pocket to pull the very small bag filled with drugs. You held it up, waiting for him to go away but he only clenched his jaw before his intense gaze fell on you. 

"I didn't… take any." You muttered "I haven’t, yet- I've just... I've been considering it for the last two hours." 

Steve extended his hand silently, motioning for you to give it and you tilted your head. 

"I'm not good with authority, Cap." 

"You would've taken them already if you really wanted to.”

“Yeah well, maybe I’m still considering-”

“Y/N,” his voice was gentle, “That's not the solution, you know that." 

You gritted your teeth and hesitated for a second before you placed the tiny plastic bag into his palm. 

"Where did you even get them?" 

You shrugged "I have a past, so..." You bit on your lip "You should bail." 

"What?" 

"You've heard what he-" you swallowed "He's coming for me, Steve." 

“Let him. We’ll be ready.”

You chuckled bitterly, “We?”

“Yeah, all of us. Me, Bucky- Buck hated him too by the way- and Tony, and have you seen Nat? I mean if I were him, I’d be more terrified of Nat more than all of us combined. She will place his head on a freaking stick, I’m just hoping she will let me watch.”

You wiped at your nose with the back of your hand, “You don’t know him.” You mumbled, “You don’t know what he’s capable of, I just…” Your voice cracked, “I don’t want to be here anymore, I want to go home.”

“Okay, let’s-“

“Not to my apartment. Home.”

Steve paused, “Where’s that?”

You sniffled and twirled the glass around, watching tiny droplets move, “Somewhere he won’t-“ you cleared your throat, “Somewhere safe. There’s no such a thing anymore, is there?”

“Come to the Tower with me.”

You shook your head, “They’ll have questions and I don’t want to talk to anyone. Besides Tower isn’t safe either.”

“I’ll be there, Y/N. Trust me, it’s safe.”

“Yeah well, he could still get me-“

“Over my dead body.”

“Yeah Steve, that was his plan, weren’t you listening?” You put the glass down to see him better but he didn’t look worried at all.

“He’s not gonna kill me.”

You gritted your teeth, “You missed the part where he failed to mention his last name then?”

“What’s his-“

“Besides, I don’t-“ You motioned at him, “I don’t deserve this whole thing. I- I hacked you.”

“Hacked me?”

“Got into your phone, pried into your privacy. I know stuff about you that you don’t think I know- I even went through your google searches – sex on the beach is really a drink by the way, want me to order that or will you leave before that?”

“Y/N, why would I leave?”

“Damn it, Steve-” you shook your head, “I wasn’t supposed to do that, okay? That’s- that’s like really rude and Fury told me not to, and I did it anyway-“

“You know, I got into lots of fights back in forties,” Steve cut you off, “Bucky kept telling me not to. I did it anyway.”

“Nice to know some things don’t change.”

“The point is,” Steve said, “Sometimes you just can’t do what people tell you to do. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it just means you have your own rules.”

You stared at the glass for a couple of seconds as you tried to pull yourself together.

“I don’t…” you mumbled, “I don’t want anyone to lay a finger on me. That’s my rule now.”

Steve nodded slowly, “May I help you establish that rule, then?”

You could feel the sob climbing to your throat so you just nodded and wrapped your arms around his neck, burying your face to his rock hard chest. He held you tight, as if you would disappear if he didn’t, and pressed his nose to the top of your head, inhaling the scent of your hair. You stayed like that for almost a minute, in silence, wrapped in the scent of him before you felt him rubbing your back, shivers coming back with full force.

“Come on doll. Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

                                          *

You hugged Steve’s brown leather jacket tighter around your body, trying to inhale his cologne as discreetly as you could while you followed him up the stairs. For some reason, your heart was still slamming against your ribcage as you thought about the possibilities, but you chastised yourself in your head, since when were you getting nervous around guys?

“Steve, Fury called-“ you heard Sharon’s voice and you froze on your tracks, holding the handrail tight, unsure whether you should take those last steps but Sharon, being a well-trained agent immediately sensed your presence and turned her head. She paused only for a second before she looked between you and Steve, her eyebrows raised.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” she said, leaning back to her open door, “It’s Y/N, right? I saw you in SHIELD headquarters before.”

You tried to push a strand of your hair behind your ear, but jacket’s sleeves were too long for that so you just ended up brushing the sleeve against your hair, “Yeah. Hi.”

“What did Fury say?” Steve asked as he unlocked his door and you climbed up the last two steps, still feeling like you were intruding in a way. Sharon stole a look at you before she smiled at Steve.

“Nothing that can’t wait,” she said calmly, “Have a nice night. Nice to meet you, Y/N.”

“Um- yeah totally, you too.”

Awkward…

She closed the door behind her as you approached Steve, then stepped inside his apartment, looking around. He followed you suit and closed the door before switching on the light, and you bit on your lip.

“What would the neighbors think just got much more serious.” You mumbled, making him chuckle.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You sure she’ll be fine with it? I don’t wanna-“ You shrugged slightly, “Fuck shit up.”

That seemed to make him smile while you followed him deeper into his apartment. It was a nice and cozy apartment, Steve’s characteristics reflecting on objects here and there. There were couple of framed black and white photos on the walls –who even framed photos anymore?-  and his shield was leaned against the wall, as if he had just remembered not to take it with him on his way out. A few books about World War II were scattered on the coffee table and on the corner, he had a phonograph.

“There’s nothing going on.”

“Hm?” You turned your head “What?”

“With- uh…With Sharon. There’s nothing like that.”

You scoffed, “She wants to jump on you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, as if taken back by your outspokenness, “I’m sure you’re wrong.”

“Women can sense that shit, Rogers.” You muttered as you looked out the window. “Nice place.”

“Thanks. When was the last time you ate something?”

“I drank whiskey,”

Steve shot you a reprimanding look, “As in actual food?”

You thought for a second, “Can we make popcorn?”

“...That’s- Y/N, that’s not actual food.”

“It’s my comfort food,” You shrugged, and he looked like he would say no, then shook his head slightly, as if annoyed at himself for giving in. He made his way to the open kitchen and you shamelessly eyed him up and down, and leaned to the kitchen island.

“Sorry about tonight.”

Steve looked at you over his shoulder for a second before he spilled some popcorn into the pot, “What’re you talking about?”

“You know what,” You muttered, dragging your fingernails on the smooth surface, “Everything. I’m sure- I’m sure you have questions-“

“I don’t.”

You frowned, “What?”

“I don’t have any questions. Whenever you want to tell me, you’ll tell me.”

For some reason, that was more than enough to make tears fill your eyes and yet, you found yourself smiling before you took a shaky breath, pulling your phone out of your pocket.

“You know, I made my research. A little.”

“Hm?”

“About how dates worked in 1940s.” You touched the phone and the music filled the room, making him turn his attention to you.

“…And you’re supposed to dance on a date.” You held out your hand and he shot you a look, then shook his head, as if he was embarrassed all of a sudden.

“I’m not a good dancer.”

“And I’m drunk as fuck Steve, we make the perfect pair.”

“I don’t even know this song.”

“It’s my sex song- I’m joking!” You pulled at his hand, “Come on. It’s not very gentleman like to turn down a girl’s dance request, you know. What would forties’ etiquette say?”

He heaved a sigh but let you pull him closer and his arm sneaked around your waist, making you giggle. The soft popping sounds of popcorn filled the air along with the music and you bit on your lip as he swayed you, then you looked up at him as he entwined his fingers with yours.

“What?” he asked gently and you shrugged,

“You’re really pretty, Rogers.”

A faint pinkness adorned his cheekbones, making you smile but he played it cool,

“I’m pretty sure that’s my line.”

“Sucks to be you.” You muttered, “Why aren’t you running for the hills, Cap?”

“Never been the type.” he said silently, as if the minute he talked louder, the magic would disappear. You couldn’t help to smile.

“But you know I’m trouble, right?”

“Oh definitely.”

“That doesn’t scare you?”

“Nah,” he shrugged, “Buck says I have a thing for trouble anyway. Why bother proving him wrong? I’d never hear the end of it.”

You could barely feel him pulling your body closer to his as your heartbeat got faster, and for a second it worried you that he could hear it. You didn’t know why, but you were much, much more nervous around him than any other person, and yet it didn’t make you uncomfortable. It was the same feeling as you had riding a rollercoaster, excitement filled with glee.

“You should check the popcorn.” You muttered and the corners of his lips turned upwards.

“It can wait,” he muttered, his breath warm on your lips and you closed your eyes as you saw him leaning in, excitement washing over you, making your heartbeat go crazy but you were snapped out of your bliss before his lips could even touch yours.

“Rogers!” Natasha’s voice was accompanied by the pounding on the door, “You came back home? Seriously?”

You opened your eyes when you heard Steve’s impatient sigh, as if he was as annoyed as you were.

“What is this music?” You heard Bucky’s voice and a small laugh escaped your lips.

“Is it normal to hate your friends sometimes?” You wondered out loud as Steve pulled back.

“Sorry about this,” he said and made his way to door, then opened it. From the sounds of it, Bucky had just walked in and Natasha was on the phone, following him.

“Guys…”

“Yeah, me neither Pepper.” She said and Bucky heaved a sigh.

“I thought you were outside looking for-“

“Hey there Barnes.” You walked to hall and waved at him, while Steve looked between you,

“Y/N?” Natasha said as soon as she saw you, still on the phone, “No- Pepper, she’s fine, we’re at Steve’s place. No no- you don’t have to-” She stopped talking as Pepper probably hung up and Bucky cleared his throat, as if he didn’t know what to say.

“Your ex husband is a prick.”

Steve shut his eyes for a second, as if praying for patience and you pursed your lips, then nodded and threw up a peace sign.

“Word, man.”

“Potts is coming by to see if you’re okay,” Natasha held up her phone, as if now realizing she had interrupted something, her expression full of regret. “So Tony is probably coming too, to drop her off. Sorry.”

“O- oh? Good-”

“Did we…interrupt something?”

You exchanged glances with Steve, who looked as lost as you were,

“Nah you didn’t,” You waved a hand in the air dismissively and Steve seemed to get the clue because he shook his head fervently.

“No, not really.”

“Yeah nothing was happening.”

“Sure, just… you know. Nothing.”

A silence fell upon all of you and you could tell that neither Bucky nor Natasha bought your lies, but in the end, Bucky heaved a sigh.

“Well since we ruined something, we might as well eat the popcorn.” Bucky said as he and Natasha walked past you and you leaned your back to the wall, huffing out a curt laughter.

“Come on then Cap,” You pushed yourself off the wall as Steve let out an impatient whine, throwing his head back “Good things come to those who wait.”

Chapter 10 is here! 

A.N: Now repeat after me: I’ll leave feedback because Dream loves feedback! ❤️ 😂  

Special thanks go to:  @theskytraveler @asongofmarvelanddc @astanwehave @girlwhoisfearless @fictionwillneverdie @lilywoood @marss-anonymous @icameforthefanfiction @pandalandalopalis @barnesrogersvstheworld @evolutionofkatep  @lostkizzy @reallyconfusednow @miss-jen-winter @fandomcrazie @latibulemark @aikeji @dans-les-details  @evanstar @thatprofessionalfangirl  @minuialeth75 @optimisticheartyouth @laffers18@kiwngsoo  @myrabbitholetoneverland @itsyaboyo @avengemebuckyy @freightcarcap @stargeek727 aestheticimagines @kerishet @fangirlbookworm @samwinchxtr @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked  @marauderskeeper  @whogaveuspermission  @thewhinersoldier @iamthemaskhewears @sasunarushiita @whatiswrongwithpeople @mischievous-fairy @agent-smoak @allison-rosewood-maximoff @petrashappyplace @swtltlmrvlgrl @imalittlebean @hey-garrett-shut-up @ruffdog921 @hogwarts-and-houseplants @go-crybaby @danielhowellstolemycamera @zabeth716 @imaginecrushes @miss-jen-winter @attorneyl @missmidnightxo @renesmeeharelds , @sippinpeachtea@skeletoresinthebasement @birdandrose @dark-princesse @local-space-ace  @bva14 @broken-pieces yourwittywitch @yasssssvictoria @dreamsofcaliforniaadventure @hista-girl @im-only-slightly-psycho @meashy-moo@themessthatismymind soulsofstarsliveinyourveins @nininstinct@charlie1987me @imyxtay @owhatshername1  @raiymaj  and lovely anons! Without you, I wouldn’t be able to write this, you’re amazing! <3

[wwounu]

heart of tin (and coding) - lee jihoon

❝ @vluevinnie13 asked: My bias is woozi and the theme I want is somewhat, futuristic wherein Woozi is a robot haha can you do that? ❞

pairing: robot!jihoon x you

genre: fluff?

word count: 1.4k words ish...

notes: this ended up being 1.4k words?! what the heck the mingyu one was only 800… oh my gosh i really love jihoon huh. i loved doing this so much!! i had more fun than i thought i would <33

send me your bias and a theme and i’ll try writing a short fanfic

Question: Is Jihoon is either the best or worst person you’ve ever met?

Answer: He’s neither… Because he’s a robot.

Everyone knew that you met because Jihoon needed repairing after your father found him in a scrap wasteland, which you still believed that it was to reprogram the demonic voice filter in him, and your father was the right man to do that. Contrary to that, no one had any clue how the two of stuck together for so long.

Only you and Jihoon know, however. Through naming the young robot.

It was a sudden thing the way you remembered it. He was sat with the nine year old you, kicking your legs while biting on a sandwich to keep you company.

“You look like a Jihoon,” You comment without a thought as your nose scrunched up, “Better than J11H220L. I’m calling you that now, okay?”

And because Jihoon couldn’t say his own opinion (because his voice had to be reprogrammed), the robot could only blink and somewhat nod.

“Hm… You’re also going to be my friend now, deal?”

Nod.

“And I’m the best, right?”

Nod.

“And… You are now my tiny tin can who will protect me all of the time!”

Nod.

“Man, you’re quiet, aren’t you…” You laugh, pushing his metal arm before you sling yours around his shoulder. “Wanna try my sandwich?”

Nod… Nod nod.

On that same night you were yelled at by your father for malfunctioning Jihoon, and couldn’t go into the repair lab for a week.

Later on, Jihoon became an automatic part to your mess of life (partially forced by your father keeping him so you had no choice).

He recorded every moment with you (“There’s a memory of you being an idiot in my database. Want me to show you?”), answer any of your questions (“No I’m not doing your paperwork for you, go suffer yourself” “I know what you want to ask. It’s sleep mode, not self destruct mode.”), he even stuck to the name you gave him (“Jihoon. Just cut the crap and call me that. My serial number is too long to remember.”).

But he was pretty dependant on you too. Carrying on the talent of your old man, you became familiar with upgrading clients’ robots and especially Jihoon’s parts. The bot was quite stubborn with who he wanted to repair him, so you took action of his difficult metal butt and did all of his repairs.

Everyone knew Jihoon as the ‘cold, cool, ice prince’ robot — mainly because he would literally set his temperature cool all the time and would be freezing — and you weren’t having any of it.

First off, Jihoon is very annoying. He’s cheeky and cunning.

You shouldn’t have coded him to tell jokes and pull pranks, because the first few years with him you had to deal with the stoic nods and expressionless faces are very different to the mischievous tricks he plays and oh-so-innocentfaces he makes once accused. In particular, you hated playing games with him — sadly, he was the competitive type, not to mention the cheating type too.

He’s very warm hearted.

Says a lot for a robot, but he knows how to establish emotions when need be (you’re guessing it was your old man’s doing before puberty came along). Over time, his words became less robotic and awkward and now had a steady, calming soothe to it. It was almost like… He was human.

On other occasions he would be overwhelmingly protective of you.

It was his function after all, and he nodded to a promise you requested since you were nine. There was one memory, during your high school days, where Jihoon got into a serious fight with one of your exes because they were only dating you for a dare (hence the reason why you are exes). You felt slightly bad for your ex, because Jihoon was at a greater advantage, yet a couple of good hits and scratches resulted in Jihoon’s metal to be peeping out of his cheek and knuckles.

Funnily enough, you were so worried about his increasing power that you were wary about the surroundings around the two of you.

“Y/N, I — Jihoon and J11H220L — am capable, stronger and deadlier than any human being on this very ground… But can I at least pet that kitten? You’d be an idiot if you think I’m not going to.”

“… Knock yourself out.”

And you’ve never seen Jihoon skip — yes, skip — so happily to the fluffy white kitty (you saved a picture just in case… For blackmail).

To your surprise, he was extremely clumsy too.

Countless of times you’ve walked into Jihoon’s legs or arms randomly shutting down, or a loud ‘Ah!’ from him before another loud clatter follows, or his arm would go haywire and hit him in the eye. He wouldn’t feel the pain, but glitch season was the worst. It was like he was having to go through human puberty, as well as dealing with a colour of Jihoon’s set of personalities every split second. And there were too many times he’d slowly waddle to your room saying, “I think one of my wires broke.” As if he was a child who broke a vase (‘When did he learn to pout?’).

Sometimes, you’d forget Jihoon was a robot.

What would it be like if he was just like you, if he was able to feel the feelings you do and not be programmed to stay in this facade until someone hacks into his program? What would it be like if his words can give genuine feelings and real heart into them?

Repairing robots was the worst — You knew the ins and outs of them too well, what more with Jihoon? You knew the ways in which Jihoon functioned, his speech receiver (which was recently upgraded to speaking in five languages), his reactions and triggers, almost everything like the back of your hand.

You think… He would be a good person.

A great man, and a very talented one at that. He was talented enough as it is, and it made you slightly jealous — He would have that same double life, living tough on the inside and soft on the inside. He would be the way the way he was programmed to be… Weird.

“You’re thinking.” Jihoon squints.

“About you.” You reply, which was stating the obvious. “Lay down over there, I’ll be done with this upgrade.”

The robot silently does as you ask, walking to the operation table before he lays down straight, humming to himself.

“New song?”

“Inspiration is easy to find these days.”

“Yeah, because your tin brain holds the entire internet.” The pair of you giggle. You walk where the robot calmly was and cut a thin piece of skin behind his ear before replacing it with another one. You carefully took your time stitching the thin skin, maybe smelling Jihoon’s vanilla-scented hair here and there.

Finally, you smile at the outcome and say a small ‘Tah-dah!’ before handing a mirror to show Jihoon what you’ve done.

“Wow.” He could only say.

“I’m guessing you like it?”

Jihoon nods, impressed. “I… Love it.”

He tucks his hair back and dazes at the small bass clef now on his skin. Even though it resembled more of a tattoo, there was a small chip inside that was an extension for Jihoon’s song drafts — He was naturally talented in almost anything, but music was the flowery path he walked down in.

Besides, you knew from the start that the robot had a way with words, even if it was behind his nods and pouty lips.

“Thinking about me again?”

“Oh, uh, sure.” You chuckle, realising how close you were to his face. He was joking, but damn, you really thought he caught you out.

Oh no. You were going to blush and Jihoon is going to detect it.

Fumbling with the phone in your hands, you lift it up to your ears in panic to excuse yourself. “My dad is calling me- I’ll um, be in the garden! Don’t break anything while I’m gone!” And you exit the station with your heart accelerating through the roof.

Jihoon stares at the door for a while, wondering if you were going to come back or not. When he agreed that you weren’t, he huffed.

“Humans are so strange.”

Yet he couldn’t ignore the fluttery and heavenly rush in him ever since your old man encoded a ‘certain’ chip labelled with what looked like a heart.

[jaywrites101]

JayReviews: Shazam!

What makes a person pure of heart? Today at JayWrites101 we're looking into the recent "controversy" surrounding Captain Marvel and her DC competitor Shazam!. Some are saying this movie is everything Captian Marvel should have been, others are saying this movie is the hack. Which is true? Let's find out together.

The purpose of this review is to break down The Good, The Bad, and The Strange to find out what makes these stories so unique.

Spoilers ahead.

Medium: Movie. Genre: Superhero, Comedy Premise: A young boy is given the ultimate power of Shazam, and must use this power to recapture the Seven Deadly Sins. Plot: A young boy named Thaddeus is teleported to a magic temple and given a test to see if his heart is pure enough to wield the power of Shazam. He fails the test and spends the rest of his life devoted to finding his way back to that temple.

Enter Billy Batson, a young delinquent living in Philadelphia who lost his mother when he was a very young child. Billy regularly runs away from his foster homes and pulls pranks on cops so he can track down every Batson in Philadelphia. Finally, at the last woman on the list, Billy is crushed to discover that she wasn't his mother either, and he's left without any option but to return to foster care.

Thaddeus, now an older man, finally cracks the code to magic and breaks into the temple. Shazam, being near the end of his power and life tries to stop him, but Thaddeus steals the Eye of Sin, which does exactly what it says on the tin and becomes his eye.

Also, it frees the Seven Deadly Sins from their captivity. Thaddeus can sort of control them, but in reality, they're just using him, and since he's already doing what they want... it works.

Anywho, Shazam, now left dying is forced to give his powers to Billy and pray that the kid won't abuse them as previous heroes did in the past. Smaaaaaaart.

The rest of the story is Billy trying to figure out the limits of his powers with his best friend and foster brother Freddy. Being Shazam makes him grow into an adult. Wacky hijinks ensue!

Billy eventually attracts the attention of Thaddeus who forces Billy to fight by kidnapping his family, and Billy discovers a way to allow them to become superheroes like himself. Together they beat Thaddeus, return the Eye of Sin to its cage, and bind the Sins back into their original prisons.

The Good: This movie is hilarious! This is one of the best modern examples of physical comedy I've seen in years! Between Shazam! and Into the Spiderverse, I'm hopeful that this style of comedy will make a full recovery. 

Aside from the laughs -- which were plentiful -- I have to say the acting was on point for everyone involved. The kids were excellent, the adults were excellent, line readings, facial expressions, all of it was top notch here.

But we're going to give this Good with an asterisk. You see, this film is a comedy, it's fun and light-hearted. This lends itself well to more expressive emotions and any slip-ups made only serve to add to its charm. It's still a really big Good. But it a bar that's a lot easier to clear in a comedy with serious moments than in a serious movie with comedic moments.

The next Good I want to point out is the cinematography. The camera guy had fun with this. And by fun I probably mean hell. The long takes, the swivels, the crane shots! There was action with this camera, and you could feel that each take was shot with dedication and care. It's refreshing to see in a movie like this especially when so many films of late show flat, static shots with the occasional shot-reverse shot thrown in.

The last point I want to bring up is the dramatic stakes.

People died in this movie.

Yeah, okay. I can hear you already tying away like "no duh," but usually in these superheroic, high-action flicks people are getting offed by stray bullets or "Raaar! Monster smashes building!" And you never really see the death toll. Like, you're sure someone died, but you're not really sure who, why, or how. Unless they're a mentor character. But those folks come with an expiration date to begin with, soooooo...

It's usually easy to ignore the damage done in films like this.

Thaddeus locks about twenty people in a skyscraper room, throws his older brother out the window, and proceeds to murder the remainder of the people saving his father for last.

That's frekin hard to ignore!!

Likewise, the scene where Bily reunites with his birth mother just to find out she left him there with the police intentionally... I... I just can't... I can't even...

The Bad: I don't believe in perfection. I believe everything can be improved. The prime example here would be how exaggerated everything it.

Don't get me wrong. In comedy, exaggeration is played off for laughs and it's beautiful, buuuuut. When you use exaggeration in your drama... It comes off as forced.

To the film's credit, the exaggeration mostly comes from the fact that they're all kids. But it's still grating to older audiences at times.

I was left in eternal confusion about how old Billy was before he gained an adult super-form. This is one area where even the internet failed me. Canonically, Billy is 12... Considering he has a crush on his foster sister who is about to leave for college... <.< I'm going to say he's supposed to be older in this film. 

I mean... They try to imply he's still in grade school, but he looks like he's already in high school. He also acts like he's already in high school.

Aside from that, most of everything else I have to go here are nitpicks. Things like "how do no one notice the lightning bolts being blasted into the rooftops?" You know. Nitpicks. They're there in every film, series or story. Nitpicks can add up and snowball fast, but in this film, they're barely noticeable.

The Strange: This section of the review is devoted to the things that probably wasn't thought out as well as you might have expected.

The other foster kids.

Out of the six kids we have: Billy the protagonist, Freddy the cripple, a little black girl, the college girl/ love interest, the fat kid, and the Asian stereotype.

There is nothing done in the movie to address these characters except that in the end, they all do actually get superpowers.

To be clear: I'm not complaining about the diversity. I'm complaining that these characters are little more than their stereotypes, and the film indirectly implies that these kids are living half a life unless they're flawless, swole, and sexy.

I know, I'm a white boy who's never lived in a foster home before. I don't think I have any kind of right to be offended... But I think there's someone out there who should be.

There are plans for a sequel in the pipelines. I hope they address this. Because half-assed inclusion can be more damaging than outright bad inclusion.

I still think this was a good step in the right direction. But they still need to take a few more.

Strongest Scene: The villain in the office scene. To me, that was the most gut-punching part of the movie. They said, "Hey, I'm going to have this bad guy do bad things in what would otherwise be a kids movie," and somehow the studio was like, "eh, whatever we don't care."

And we received gold. 

The suspension was locked on high, the terror was real, and I actually believed Thaddeus was a wicked monster. Not to mention this was our first glimpse of the Sins outside of the statues. There was so much intensity packed into one small scene that I'm absolutely sure better reviewers than I will continue to pick over it for years to come. So it absolutely receives my subjective vote.

Weakest Scene: This one always pains me to write. I'm going to have to give it to Billy meeting his birth mother. Now, this scene did have some powerful moments in it, like Billy giving back the compass and the mother just looking at it blankly like she couldn't see the implications of it. Powerful stuff.

But the execution of it was... off. For one thing, this was a tight scene and it didn't have a lot of time to build up to the big moments. So some things felt rushed.

For another, Billy's mother seemed almost irritated that Billy had found her after all these years. Like, she glossed right over surprised, ignored curiosity altogether, and went straight on into "yeah, kid what do you want?" and that was... maybe intentional? I don't know.

It's hard to express exactly what I disliked about this, but this woman didn't feel like a mom and... I think that was supposed to be the point, but it really undercuts the emotion this scene should've had. And the only thing that connects to the rest of the movie is that Billy has to accept that his foster family is his real family now.

This is still an excellent scene, in any other movie it would've been fine. But Shazam! hit a high bar and this is easily the one scene that doesn't hold up.

Conclusion: This film was genuinely amazing! If you haven't watched it, you probably should. There's a lot to take out of it, and it stands alone on its own two feet so you don't have to worry if you've literally never watched any other DC movie.

How does Captain Marvel and Shazam! compare to each other?

Check back here tomorrow for my detailed thoughts on this and a few other "controversies" floating around on the internet.

[punwolf]

I love spam - this stuff is absolutely hilarious.

-----

“I have bad news for you. 19/07/2018 - on this day I hacked your operating system and got full access to your account {email address}”

With the help of the grey aliens right?

“It is useless to change the password, my malware intercepts it every time.“ Considering the last time I emailed anything from that account was 2015 I won’t be losing sleep over it. Want the account? You can have it.

“How it was: In the software of the router to which you were connected that day, there was a vulnerability. I first hacked this router and placed my malicious code on it. When you entered in the Internet, my trojan was installed on the operating system of your device.“

And yet you don’t know my OS ... you’re amazing. I never knew that psychics and crystal balls mixed so well with technology!

“After that, I made a full dump of your disk (I have all your address book, history of viewing sites, all files, phone numbers and addresses of all your contacts).”

My dog and collection of Warhammer miniatures feel very threatened.

“A month ago, I wanted to lock your device and ask for a small amount of money to unlock. But I looked at the sites that you regularly visit, and came to the big delight of your favorite resources. I'm talking about sites for adults.“

You should have gone for the non-existent lock out. Bring it. I have a dogman on my side.

“I want to say - you are a big, big pervert. You have unbridled fantasy!!!“

I know, right? You should read the smut that I write. Which is right out there. In the public. Not hidden at all.

“After that, an idea came to my mind. I made a screenshot of the intimate website where you have fun (you know what it is about, right?).” You followed me to A03? Then you should know what I write is really tame.

“After that, I made a screenshot of your joys (using the camera of your device) and joined all together. It turned out beautifully, do not doubt.“

You beamed a camera in my house? Because I don’t even own a webcam... Wow, you’re a regular Renaissance person aren’t you? You’re psychic AND you can magically teleport invisible objects, hooking them up to my computer with your mind. Amazing! I never even knew it was here!

“I am strongly belive that you would not like to show these pictures to your relatives, friends or colleagues.“

Are you serious? My friends and colleagues are the ones requesting the smut.

“I think $725 is a very small amount for my silence. Besides, I spent a lot of time on you! I accept money only in Bitcoins.“

Nah.

“After payment, my virus and dirty photos with you self-destruct automatically. Narrative, if I do not receive the specified amount from you, then your device will be blocked, and all your contacts will receive a photos with your "joys".

“Don't be mad at me, everyone has their own work. Farewell.“

Why be mad at someone who I just spent 5 minutes laughing at? No, by all means keep trying. I need a good laugh.

[erikawebauthoring]

HOW CAN WE PROTECT OUR WEBSITES FROM HACKERS?

We have all seen the movie scenes where someone manages to "hack the mainframe" all while a clock is counting down to inevitable demise or something of an equally stressful nature. It makes for good watching but how likely is this to happen in real life and what can you do to protect yourself?

The impact of a hack can be devastating to a business. With more important information being store on websites than ever before and massive databases of client details, it is imperative that you protect them from outside interference. There are many different ways hackers try to get access to your information in this day and age from spam emails and fake sites set up to steal emails etc.. It is important that you implement the correct security to protect your site and its information.

Here are some of the things I have learned from my research into the topic:

- INSTALL SECURITY PLUGINS! If you are using a content management system (also known as CMS) to host your website you can install special security plugins. These will actively prevent hacking attempts. There are many different CMS' such as Magento, WordPress and Joomla to name a few. As of this year 40% of all websites used WordPress.

- USE HTTPS! In order to have a HTTPS url you must have an SSL certificate (secure sockets layer). This is represented by the little lock shown at the left of the browser bar and it provides encryption that protects information such as credit card details and personal data. SSL's are data files are they are hosted in the website's origin server. While these we more commonly used for eCommerce sites, In 2018 this became essential for all websites. When using Chrome for example, if you visit a site without an SSL you will be notified that the site may not be secure. You are at risk of having information stolen. There is a lot of power in that extras!

1. KEEP EVERYTHING UP TO DATE! This includes your website platform AND software. Hackers are always looking for holes in software that will allow them a way in. Make sure your CMS plugins, apps, and installed scripts are kept up to date at all times. A lot of these are open-source software meaning their code is easily accessible to anyone with the knowledge. A CMS like WordPress will show you if an update is needed. On the dashboard next to your site name you will see an update icon when needed.

2. SECURE YOUR PASSWORDS! An obvious tip perhaps but one that can not be stressed enough. Do not create simple passwords that are easy to guess. It's hard to believe but in 2021 it has been reported that the most commonly used password is still 123456 and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why that probably isn't the most secure. When creating a password try to avoid simple and obvious themes such as your birthday or your children's names and definitely don't include the word password. The key to creating a strong password is to include a mix of special characters such as *&^, letters - both uppercase and lower case, and numbers dotted throughout. Also, try not to repeat passwords between different sites. If you are part of a team ensure that ALL members of the team are using these tips when creating their passwords too.

3. USE PARAMETERIZED QUERIES! Standard Query language (SQL) is the standard and most commonly used for relational databases. Its purpose is to facilitate retrieving specific information from the database.

An SQL injection is the number 1 most common way for hackers to attack your site and accounts for 65.1% of all web attacks. It manipulates the backend database to access info never meant to be displayed. By using parameterized queries you are ensuring that your code has specific parameters to prevent a hacker from tampering with them.

4. USE CSP! XSS or cross-site scripting attacks are a common threat. This is basically when hackers add malicious javascript code to the pages of your site. This is very serious as it can infect the device of the visitors to the site, who have been exposed to the code. Using CPS (Content secure policy) specifies the domains in which a browser can read and consider what is a valid source of scripts. It will ignore any malware or malicious scripts that could infect the visitor's device.

5. Lock your file permissions. Your website is made up of files and folders. These contain all the scripts and data to make your website work and they are assigned with permissions. It is important to lock these permissions as without doing so it is possible for others to gain access & modify the files and folders by writing their own code/scripts. In FileZilla you can change the permissions by right clicking on the file/folder and selecting "File Permissions"

These are some ways you can ensure your website remains protected from unwanted attacks.

For more info on parameters please visit the link below

[starfleetorbust]

Trust - for mccoymostly

So... I’m leaving you a story that I had and just putting it in a queue so...yeah. Unedited, but that’s not new. This is... out of my element thought, so that’s new But it’s a gift for @mccoymostly who most certainly is trying to make me fall for these two together. I’m not Anna, I’m not falling. NOT. FALLING. YOU HEAR? nope. Can you guys make sure she sees it pretty pretty please? Send her a message or something? I don’t want to spam her inbox but I know she’s been super busy and I don’t want her to just miss it. It’s okay if it takes her a while to get to it but I want to make sure it doesn’t slip past since its a gift

So yeah, Jen writes McKirk... lets see how this goes You brought this on yourself if this fails Anna And yes there are some references to... things. Books and movies and... yeah. I needed examples and I was lazy.

words: (because I always forget to add this because I’m not a pro here but some people care about this stuff- I know I do >->) --- 1200ish ish... >-> most of its dialogue though It’s a cute story. I think. Yes. Cute. can junk be cute I’m sticking the whole thing under a cut because that’s how jen writes stories now. Makes me more comfortable. But its totally SFW and all that Okay Jen, stop delaying it.

Kirk flopped onto his bed with a sigh and stared at the ceiling. The temperature controls were blowing right in his face and he twisted around out of the jet of air before he hung his head over the edge of the bed, glancing at his partner upside-down. “Bones do you trust me?”

“’Course I do.” Len answered without even looking up from his textbook.

“Yeah, but, like, how much do you trust me?”

That got Leonard to glance up and over at the sprawled-out cadet in front of him. Dangerous question. “Well, not enough to try that new Klingon bloodwine you got from god knows where last week. Not enough to give you the access code to the forensics lab that you’ve been trying to hack into, and don’t act like I don’t know about that. Not enough to sign off that medical exam so that ‘you can go at another more convenient time’.” He ticked off his fingers and threw Jim a pointed look that said do you need me to go on. “And if you’re about to ask about a threesome again, the answer’s still no.”

“No, come on Bones, I’m serious.” The cadet sat up and faced McCoy. “How much would you honestly say you trust me?”

Leonard sighed and set the book on his desk before he swiveled the chair around to directly face Kirk. “You’re a goddamn idiot sometimes. You act recklessly and you tend to leap before you look. You’re irresponsible, you don’t think about consequences, and you blow up more simulation flights then every other cadet in our class put together.” He watched as Jim seemed to deflate a little before he continued. “But you’re smart - a goddamn genius. And you’re persistent. You don’t give up and you always find some solution even if it takes ten tries.  You care about your crew and you stick to your guns. Truth is, kid, I may not jump off a bridge just because you did, but I’d certainly trust you if you said ‘jump’.” He watched Jim stared down at the floor, still looking uncertain after the ramble. “What, not what you wanted to hear?”

Jim glanced up and tangled edges on his sheets in his fingers. “Well, just, what if I were to tell you something really weird though. Something so out there that you’re not sure I’m telling the truth. Something that makes you think I’m insane?”

“You are insane.” Len scoffed.

“I’m serious!” Jim complained and threw a pillow halfheartedly at McCoy. It bounced on the ground about a foot in front of his chair. “If I told you something really crazy, would you believe me or would you question me until you got proof?”

“Like what? Give me an example.”

Kirk sat up on his knees, resting himself back on his heels. “Well, what if I were to tell you I magically gained super powers? That I found some magic space rock over in the trees behind a classroom and that now I could fly. What would you say?”

Len rolled his eyes and went back to his book. So much for serious. “I’m sure it’s happened to someone before. I’d probably tell you we need to run a scan in the labs and see what we could do.” He glanced over a passage about the slug he was supposed to be looking at next class.

“That’s not- Well. what about if I told you I found a unicorn? A real one.”

“There are those unicorn looking aliens on D’Paronal XI. You probably saw one of them.” His eyes stayed glued to the page even if he could hear the bed squeak under Jim as he shifted.

“Then a ghost.”

“Maybe a shapeshifter? Lots of species can turn invisible, and not every one even has a corporeal form.”

“What if I found a magical land in my cupboard then? Complete with it’s own currency and government?”

“Did you?” Len shot him an annoyed glance as he reread the same passage over again, too distracted to take in the words.

“No, but would you believe me?”

“Guess I’d try to help you out. That kinda stuff happens every week down in the physics department that works with the wormhole structures. I bet they know the procedures.”

“What about if I told you days were repeating over and over? That I was stuck in a time-loop and nobody but me could see it?”

“You sound like an old holovid trope. I think the solution to those is ‘wait’ usually, and time corrects itself.”

“And what if I told you I was a super-secret national spy and I was undercover here at the Academy and had to lie to everyone about my identity to protect my mission?”

“Can’t blame you. I’d say I’d probably do the same in that position.” He closed the book and carded his fingers through his hair. Jim sounded like he wasn’t about to let up.

“What if I wasn’t human and there was a just a holo-emitter that was hiding my true appearance?”

“As long as whoever gives your physicals knows.” Len snarked.

“What about if I told you I can hear voices in my head and they’re trying to guide me to these colorful caves to eat one of the mushrooms?”

“Who says I haven’t heard that too? Jim, you know it’s one of those hazing rituals the Xabodaxians do. Those ‘mushrooms’ probably make you delirious.”

Jim curled his hands in show of frustration.“Then I could tell you that that hacker-chip Erikson gave me was alive. Or I was sent from the future to warn you about something we had to prevent. Or there’s a huge conspiracy where all the teachers in the biology department fail every kid with blonde hair. The point is it can be anything.” He stood up and paced in the small empty space between their beds.“Like, what if I told you that I had told you something huge, something so big it could risk our friendship, but then I didn’t like how you reacted, so I made a promise with a deity to reverse time back to where I never told you, and now we’re living in an alternate timeline where I haven’t told you, and you’re not aware because you never saw the other timeline, but now I’m feeling guilty about not telling you even in this timeline?”

“Come on, you don’t really think that would happen.” The kid really did look torn up over something, and Len wasn’t sure how to figure it out without prying.

“The point is Bones, things do happen. Anomalies and abductions and species that break the boundaries of impossible. There are a lot of crazy things out there. I want to know I could trust you to believe me.”

“What are you really trying to ask, kid?”

“What if I was trying to tell you something really serious-”

“Jim-”

“And it sounded crazy-”

“Jim-”

“And what if you doubted me-”

“Jim-”

“Because you know if it were something serious I wouldn’t lie to you about that-”

“Jim-”

“And I’d still offer proof, but sometimes its hard to show something that doesn’t make much sense.”

“Jim! Out with it.”

Jim swallowed hard and met Leonard’s eyes.

“What if I told you I loved you?”