#‘I wanna hold Mr Data’s hand >:( why does SHE get to do that’

[rayvern-sheep]

I’m so jealous of that little girl in S2E15 of TNG… I would’ve killed to be holding Data’s hand as a kid, wandering around on that set oughhhhh

My inner child is screaming yelling crying stomping their feet, swinging their little fists around in a whirlwind

[redthreadoffate]

gee, thanks, karen [peter parker]

a repost, originally posted in my former writing blog

relationship: peter parker x stark!reader

warnings: swearing, none; mistakes here or there

request (anon): hello!! how about hoco stark!reader x peter where he goes to her lab and asks for her help to fix the suit bc karen isn’t working well lately and while they low key flirt and fix the suit, she puts on the mask to check everything and karen starts telling her how much peter likes her, and she dies inside bc she likes him too and they kiss? maybe ending with irondad or bucky interrupting and they are like :o

notes:   i was going to use the other character in the end but i realized continuity wouldn’t make sense but then i was like fuck that, but I finished it already anyways…second out of the two peter parker x reader fics, it’ll be awhile before i agree to make them again

summary: karen’s broken and peter asks y/n stark for help

You were quietly working in your lab, humming every now and then to a tune that would pop into your head every so and so.

You thanked your father for giving you your own lab in the Avengers compound. There were cameras everywhere on your floor and you knew that he would be watching your every move when he could. Sometimes, you would wave at one camera when you knew he was in the control room. It would never fail to make you giggle, and Tony would always comment that you are such a silly little girl for laughing at your own antics.

Sometimes, some of the team members would come over and ask for your help if Tony was busy. Or they were too lazy to think of solutions on their own. But hey, who’s complaining about helping them?

They would need help with their gadgets, sometimes for work or fighting, most of the time for their everyday use, like their cellphones and laptops, tablets and watches. You don’t mind. In fact, you enjoy it. It makes you feel useful in this compound filled with superheroes.

Your favorite to help out was Peter Parker. He was also a genius with technology, but sometimes he needed a hand with his suit and weapons. You loved helping him out with his webshooters since there were so many possibilities for it. You were even the one who helped your father create his current suit with the Karen interface.

And although Peter turned down the calling of being an Avenger, he would still come over from time to time, and you noticed it’s mostly just to talk to you.

That thought made you smile. You stuck out your tongue and giggled a little in giddiness.

You continued to type in some data in the paper you were writing on. As much as you loved the technology of your father, you still loved the old fashioned pen and paper. It was easier to overlay if needed. You wanted to see all the possible choices before you typed it in the database.

But you thought of Peter again and that tickled your body. “Oh, come on. He isn’t over Liz Allan yet, you silly. He’s still hungover, he can’t be into me that quick. Can he?” But you shake your head.

You’re pretty good at telling if someone liked someone, except of course, when it came to you. But you pretend you do anyway. You have yet to be proven wrong. You smile and nod your head slowly, twirling the pen in your hand with your fingers. “Looks like you’ve got your groove on, y/n Stark.”

“What was that?”

You turned around, surprised to see your father standing behind you. A device in hand and a hologram sticking out. “Hi, Dad.”

“You’ve got your what on, y/n?”

You giggled nervously. “Nothing. It’s nothing, Dad. I was just talking to myself.”

“No, I wanna hear what you said. You’ve got your what on, y/n Stark?”

You sighed in defeat. “My groove,” you said softly.

“I can’t hear you.”

“My groove,” you repeated louder.

“Your groove, huh?” Tony nodded his head. “Well, you know what you should have, y/n? Your homework.”

“Dad,” you whined. “I’ll do that later. I’m in the middle of a discovery here.”

“Oh really? What is it? The end of homework.”

You raised your pen in the air. “That will be my project!”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Okay, whatever. Just hurry so you can finish your homework. It’s a school day tomorrow, y/n. Remember that.”

You smiled sweetly. “Yes, Daddy.”

Tony left the room, leaving you alone.

You turned back to your paper and grit your teeth. So you lied about making a discovery. You were simply testing out some different designs for a suit you wanted to wear. It was very similar to the technology of your father’s but it had no name yet, you didn’t know what to call it, not even a working name.

You sit on the stool and tap the pen on the paper. “If I do this…then this happens, which, of course, I can’t let that happen. So I have to do this…but I have yet to figure out how this one works for it to be able to do that.” You sighed in frustration. “Okay, but if this does happen, which leads to this, then perhaps, just perhaps, it will reach my goal.”

You spin the chair around a few times until you get dizzy. “But we can’t say anything precise with just ‘perhaps’ can we? Oh, y/n, you gotta try a bit harder if you wanna reach the Tony Stark level.”

Finally, after about an hour, you decided that you’ve had enough. You shut down your lab and head to your room to do some homework. “See you tomorrow,” you said with a yawn. “To new discoveries!” You raise your balled fist in the air.

You’re in the middle of a math problem when someone knocks on your door. You groan, you like math and you were getting the answer to this certain number.

“Come in!” you called out, not bothering to look at the door. It was probably just your dad and you wanted him to see you concentrating.

“Hey, y/n.”

You looked up at the young voice. It was Peter Parker and he was holding his Spider-man mask in his hand. “Oh, Peter. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“When am I ever expected?” he snickered.

You smiled and laughed a little. “True.”

“Am I disturbing you?” he asked. He gestured toward your table and smiled. “You look like you’re doing some homework.”

“It’s no problem,” you said with a shrug. “It’s just math.”

“Which you absolutely love,” he responded with a cheery tone. He knew that was something you two had in common. “You hate it when you’re being interrupted when you do your math problems.”

You squint one eye. “That is true, too.” You looked at him for awhile before he raised his eyebrows. “Will you just let me finish this one math problem. I’m almost done, I swear. I just need a few digits to write. Sit.”

He laughed and nodded as he sat on the other chair. “There’s no need to explain, y/n. I’m the intruder and I interrupted you during your favorite subject. Go on, go on. Take as much time as you need.”

You smiled and half-jokingly said, “You say that and I’ll finish the whole homework.” Then you continued answering the number. After you’ve secretly finished answering one more number, you turned back to him and grinned. “Done! Now what did you want to talk about?”

“There’s something wrong with Karen,” he replied, holding up his mask.

“Oh no!” You exclaim, standing up and grabbing his mask. “Not Karen! What did you do, Peter Parker?”

He laughed nervously. “I may have fallen flat on my face.”

You looked at him immediately. Now that he mentioned it, his nose was a bit broken and he had a cut on his lip and some scratches along his face. “Are you okay?” you ask, although you know that it’s too late to ask that now. “Have you gone to the clinic?”

“I can’t go to my school’s infirmary or the hospital and mobile clinics,” he chuckled, “without being asked what had happened.”

“Why don’t you go to the one downstairs?”

He shrugged. “Can we fix Karen first?”

You sighed. “Okay, sure. Come on.”

The two of you left your room and walked over to your lab.

You tinker with the technology your father put in but you also recognize some of the pieces you’ve planted in the interface.

Peter did everything he could to help, in fact, there were moments wherein his mind thought of the better solutions. You weren’t undermining his brains, no, of course not, but you were also thinking of your own pride, you did put some of the tidbits that was the reason as to why Karen had come to life.

“You’re really good at this,” Peter said.

“Only because I want to impress you,” you replied. “You’re not so bad yourself, Mr. Parker.”

“Only because a pretty girl is with me.”

You look at him with a smirk playing in your lips. “So how’s Liz Allan holding up?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I think she hates me.”

“I would hate you, too. You know, if you told me you needed a rain check for our homecoming date when we’re in the homecoming dance.”

“Aw come on, I’d never do that to you, y/n. I like you.”

You laughed. “And I like you, too.” You shake your head. “Go to the clinic, Mr. Parker. We’re almost done with Karen.”

He sighed and patted his mask. “See you, girl.”

You snickered.

After a few minutes, you think Karen is doing okay. So you do the thing everyone would do to test it out, you wear the mask.

“Hello, y/n.”

“Oh, hello, Karen. I didn’t know you still remembered me.”

“I will always remember you, y/n. Peter thinks very highly of you.”

“He does?” you gasped.

“Yes. He would constantly talk about you, asking me if you’re okay. I would watch him talking to himself in the mirror, practicing how to ask you out. He likes you very much, y/n. And based on your facial reaction and heatwave, I can tell you like him, too.”

“Y/n!”

You unmasked yourself and see Peter with a red face. “I can explain,” you both said at the same time. “I like you!” Again, in unison.

Peter rushed towards you to give you a kiss. “I know Karen said I’ve been practicing,” he said against your lips, “please don’t watch those. Those are really embarrassing.”

“Your nose is still broken,” is all you can say, murmuring.

“I’ll go later,” he said.

You giggle. “There are cameras, we’ll get cau–”

“What is going on here?” Tony’s voice boomed.

“Oops,” you both say, a goofy smile on your faces.

[shimmershaewrites]

A Matching Set (Caryl Post Season 10 One Shot + Grimes babies + Lydia and some Aaron).

Just a little tooth-rotting fluff I found on my hard drive half finished.  Kinda, sorta Christmas fic but not.  Read it.  You’ll see.  Sorry not sorry.  

“Play lots of Tetris as a kid?”  

 The mountain man beard does precious little to hide Aaron’s brief grin as he waits for Daryl to add more to that blurted, out of the blue question.  

 Daryl doesn’t blame him.  They ain’t talked a lick since they set off beyond Alexandria’s gates with a wobbly ass wheelbarrow and an ax in dire need of sharpening.  Once or twice, Aaron’s hummed a few notes of a couple vaguely familiar Christmas tunes, but other than that?  Radio silence.  Surprise or not, however, he figures the question’s pretty on point.  Especially considering their current means of passing the dwindling daylight hours.  “So.  Did ya?” he asks again, blue eyes averted and squinting as they search out any signs of potential danger, human or otherwise. Nothing’s there.  Hasn’t been since they took the head of the last Whisperer snake, but old habits?  They die hard.  And if they’ve kept his heart beating this long, he’s not looking to abandon them. ‘Sides.  If there were anything out there, he has no doubts Dog would be the first to alert them.  Provided, of course, he wakes his lazy ass up in time.      

 Rising and carefully slotting the last piece of tinder into place atop their firewood pyramid, Aaron lets his own eyes flit over the gray horizon.  “See anything?”  Soon as Daryl shakes his head, he allows his shoulders to relax.  Then he laughs to himself quietly.  “As a matter of fact, I did play.  You?”  

 Breath whining past his chapped lips, Daryl doesn’t respond.  He’s too focused on heaving the wheelbarrow out of the mud that’s caked around its wheels, his boots, even the abandoned ax.  Loaded down as it is, shit’s definitely heavier than it looks, and he gives up, at least momentarily.  “That the last of it?”  

 Aaron nods, bending to reclaim the ax.  “That’s the last of it.”  Daryl’s muttered thank fuck has his eyes crinkling in a way they haven’t in ages, at least not in the presence of anybody but Gracie.  “Need a little help?”  

 It takes the both of them working together to get the wheelbarrow out of the rut and bumping along the path home.  They’ve been walking a while, Dog trotting on ahead, before Daryl picks the dangling thread of conversation back up.  “Played,” he admits.  “Hell else was detention good for?”  

 “Homework,” Aaron quips.  

 “Pfft.  Bet your ass was the permanent hall monitor.”

 “You’re looking at a Hall of Famer.”  

 Daryl simply smirks.  

 “Ah, the Daryl Dixon approximation of a belly laugh.  I’m breathing rarified air.”  When his teasing is merely taken in stride, his steps start to slow and he regards Daryl with something akin to wonder.  Dog even turns back to stare.  

 Feeling his friend’s eyes boring a hole in him, Daryl mutters, “Hell you staring at? Wanna trade places?”  

 Aaron takes but a second to consider the offer.  “I think I’ll pass.”  

 “No shit. Figured you’d say…”  

 “Carol prefers you.”  

    ---

 The sky’s bleached of any color by the time Daryl’s finally headed home.  The streets of Alexandria empty.  

 No wonder because there’s a storm blowing in.  First one in what promises to be a long winter season.  At least according to their self-appointed weather man Eugene.

 Personally? Daryl thinks it’s all some grade A bullshit.  Pouring over half a dozen dusty old Farmers’ Almanacs like they hold the answers. Plotting random patterns and pieces of data on time-yellowed paper in chicken scratch that would have put Merle’s own to shame.  He doesn’t need or believe any of it because he can feel it in his aging bones like some kind of wizened old wizard.  Course, it doesn’t take much these days to make old hurts echo.  And the cold he’s feeling now?  It chills his blood.  Makes him ache and wish to high hell he’d worn the ridiculous hat Carol had tried to shove down over his ears this afternoon before he and Aaron had left out. Embarrassing piece of yarn might have come in handy filtering out the hollow, haunted whistle of the wind, but damn if he was going to sacrifice his dignity like that.  Wearing a whole-ass pom-pom on top of his head.  A rainbow one at that.  Nah.  Weren’t all that long a walk from Aaron’s.  “Almost there,” he reminds himself.  “Almost.”      

 Dog’s got a little extra giddy-up in his step as he trots ahead.  

 The mutt looks back and whines as if to tell Daryl hurry and Daryl can’t help but huff something resembling a laugh as he reshuffles the load of firewood stacked clear to his chin to get a better grip.  His breath fogs in front of him like thick, odorless cigarette smoke and shit.  His fingers might be halfway numb, but they twitch reflexively for the vice he hasn’t allowed himself to indulge in months.  Shaking his head, he includes Dog when he grumbles.  “Getting soft.”  

 Dog hangs back and stares him down as if to say speak for yourself.  

 “Ain’t the only one,” Daryl generously allows when a particularly biting gust of wind swirls around them both.  It lifts his hair from his forehead and makes his eyes sting.  Has him hunching his shoulders clear to his ears as if that’d do him any good, and he finds himself hurrying just as much as the little fucker that finally abandons him, home within his sights.  “Ain’t the only one.”  

    He sheds his muddy boots just inside the kitchen door and tries to make a grab for Dog before he runs off, he really does, but the damn animal’s too squirrely.  Too excited to see his kids.  To see his girl.  Daryl can relate.  

 “Ten minutes later and we were going to send out a search party.”  

 The soft lilt of her voice brings a smile to his mouth before he’s even seen her.  “Promised I’d be back.”  All the leftover tension from the trek back through the woods melts away beneath her gentle touch and he leans his head back against her chest with a sigh.  

 “I know that,” she murmurs fondly.  “Judith knows that.  RJ too.”

 “Lydia?”

 “She worries. It’s sweet.”  

 What’s even sweeter is the feel of her hands in his hair, her nails tickling his scalp, and the smile he feels curve against his cheek before her lips leave a kiss there. “C’mere.”  

 She’s straddling his lap, arms hooked around his shoulders, and nose nestled against his own before he can ask her twice.  

 Daryl cups her head and coaxes her closer, her hair slipping like silk between his fingers. He kisses her until they both sigh.

 “Miss me, Mr. Crossbow?”

 Her smile fills his heart and works a lump into his throat.  “Always.  Know that.”

 She traces the bridge of his nose, the line of his jaw, the curve of his ear, and pouts. “Your ears are cold.”  

 “Should have worn the fucking hat.”  

 “I’m not one to say I told you so, but…”  

 “Pfft.”  

 “You really should have worn the fucking hat.  I mean, look at me.  Really look at me.  This isn’t the time or place for vanity,” she teases.    

 “That’s the ugliest sweater I’ve ever seen.”  She giggles like a girl.  Like Judith. Like Lydia when she doesn’t think anybody’s watching.  And he’ll tell her a thousand times the sweater is ugly just to hear that sound again, even though she’s still the prettiest thing he ever did see.  “The ugliest damn sweater.”  

 “The ugliest.  I left yours upstairs at the foot of the bed.”  

 “Carol.”  

 “They’re a matching set.”  

   ---

 The logs are crackling in the fireplace when he comes back downstairs and joins them.  

 RJ and Judith have their heads together nearby, talking in whispers and giggles.  Both of them seemingly transfixed by the orange sparks that float and flicker like fireflies against a midnight sky.  

 Lydia’s got a book and Dog in her lap and a blanket tucked around her toes.  A soft, hesitant smile plays upon her lips when she spies him, and she’s quick to bury her nose back in her book before it can visibly stretch from ear to ear.  

 “Stahp,” he gives a preemptive grumble when Carol glances up from mending his raggedy ass pants and her sassy mouth starts to twitch.  “Woman,” he warns with an accusatory finger when the first laugh sputters free. “If I didn’t know better…”  

 “Is Aunt Carol in trouble?” RJ asks his big sister.  

 Judith’s smile is soft and knowing even at her tender age.  “Not really.”  

 “They gonna kiss again?”

 Lydia does the answering this time.  “Probably.”

 “Did the Brave Man kiss Mama all the time too?”  

 “He did,” Judith answers wistfully.  

 “Why?”  

 “It’s what two people that love each other do.”  

 The dancing twinkle in Carol’s blue eyes softens into something else altogether, something that although it makes Daryl’s cheeks flush pink in the glimmering firelight, he brings her hand to his mouth and presses the imprint of his smile to her palm.  “Hear that?”  

 “Ain’t telling me nothing I don’t know, Sweetheart.  Now ‘bout this ugly ass sweater…”  

 “Nobody else could pull it off as well as you do, Pookie.  Nobody.”  

[ick25]

Rockman.EXE Axess Episode 1 Review.

Presenting Rockman’s new Style... Change.

I can’t promise that I am gonna review the rest of the episodes of Axess nor will I make it very long since I have already stated that this is my least favorite season, but this Corona Virus situation is already driving me crazy so I might as well vent my frustrations here.

Fun fact:

This season never aired in Latin America so I had no idea that there were more seasons beyond the virus buster episode. I watched it in English thinking that it was an episode from the first two seasons that I missed, it started with the same made up intro from the last season, but to my surprise the episode opens in Net City, something I don’t remember ever seeing in previous episodes, and then I saw Megaman’s art style and my confusion became excitement right before I heard the English dub the made me cringed so hard that it almost ruined the show for me, until the writing did that later on. (But I like Rockman’s english voice, it’s kinda hot n.n)

Episode tittle: Cross Fusion!

The episode opens with Rockman fighting two Navis at once in the Net Coliseum, and I’m already loving the art style and how they don’t show his face during the battle until Netto’s voice tells him that he already got their battle pattern. It was like they were saying, “ It’s him! it’s the Rockman you know and love after so long! And he looks slightly shinier too”!

 BTW, I’m watching this with Spanish subs, that were sadly not made by yours truly.

Anyway, Netto sends the long Sword and the Yo-yo chips that appear with a new cybernetic themed background and... WOAH WOAH WOAH! TWO DIFFERENT ART STYLES IN THE SAME EPISODE?!

You thought I wouldn’t notice?

Not even five minutes in and this episode is already hitting me with inconsistent art to save in animation, which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t noticeable.

Rockman defeats the two Navis and returns to Netto who gives us but a glimpse of the new PET design before the tittle card appears.

But worry not, for the next scene shows us what the Advanced PET model looks like with this short and kinda lame commercial.

“Believe in the heart of the chips”, it’s the vibe I’m getting here.

And I also never thought it would be possible for the Spanish subs to write something dumber than “Plug-in your heart”. (It’s roughly saying, “Do plug-in into your heart”)

We then join Netto skating with Meiru on her scooter who is basically shaming him for acting weak in his battle until the end, and do you see something wrong with this image?

That’s right, good ol’ Rush is there on Meiru’s scooter for no reason, except to remind me that Rockman will never materialize in the real world like him.

Then they bump into Chisao, yes, Chisao, who wastes no time in telling the audience that Dekao is in Jawaii for some reason.

What little Mr. exposition forgot to tell us is why is he there instead of Dekao.

Netto and Meiru invite Chisao to go with them to Scilab, which is now gonna be a very recurrent place, to deliver a bag to Netto’s dad who is in Japan working on something, and once he’s done he’ll go back to abandoning his family to travel the world. 

He is working on a top secret experiment, so everyone is of course invited to watch it.

These are Officer Mizaki and his Navi Prismman, who are not gonna be important until very later in the season where they’re affected by this show’s equivalent of drugs, but right now they are gonna remind us of the dangers of human trials.

Eguchi Meijin makes a comeback, since the last time we saw him he was making a late advertisement for Battle Network 3 in episode 51. He tells Netto and the others that the experiment is called Cross Fusion and that it is the next step after the Virus Buster episode where Dr. Hikari brought a bunch of cyber data into the real world, which is bringing a Net Navi into the real World through its operator’s body? That was already possible without the human body!

What is the purpose of Cross Fusion then? Other than to turn the series into a superhero kind of show for western audiences.

There is no real explanation of why they want to do this or why Cross Fusion is the only way to achieve this purpose. Why not simply materialized the Navis like in the last episode? You can’t really argue that it was the viruses intervention that made this possible, because a “good” scientist would try to reproduce this result without risking the life of a human being, there certainly must be other ways to do so. 

It seems that the only excuse they have is that Netto’s dad was not aware that this event happened because he was asleep during the entire episode, and if Netto never mentioned it even once.

“I wanna risk my life too since that experiment reminded me how cool it was when Rockman materialized back in Jawaii when your Dimensional Core program was corrupted by viruses, so I would most definitely die just to see that happen again.”

Dr. Hikari: O_O

Yuichiro obviously denies his son’s suicidal request but just then, viruses take over Scilab, and the room they are in is locked down with the ventilation system sucking in the air giving them 15 minutes before they run out of oxygen.

We cut to a commercial break where we see a spoiler of Netto getting his wish right after his dad said no.

It’s just Rockman with a different outfit design and brown hair and eyes.

As per the norm, Netto and Meiru plug-in their Navis with new animations that are gonna be recycled since they changed the art style once again.

Rockman and Roll are sent into the computer via infrared beams and we see that the computer is full of Mettools and Spikey viruses, while showing us Roll’s bum for some reason.

I feel robbed, I want my Rockman butt shot!

Time to change the art again.

Here is something new that I like, they are now showing how the Mettool viruses can block shots.

This probably means that these are high level Mettools since those are the ones that block attacks in the games.

I also like how they get creative with the chips they use like the Aqua Sword.

Even Roll’s Aqua Tower looks more powerful.

You almost feel sorry for those viruses.

They even make the Black Hole, a chip I find pretty useless in the games, look epic.

Or maybe I’m just not using it right.

They keep running out of air, and once again Meiru has to show that she is the weakest of them all by fainting right before Roll is attacked by a Fire Dragon virus. Netto’s dad catches Meiru and manages to plug-out Roll just in time so... Oh, hmm, that doesn’t look right.

It would be fine if she was his daughter, but that isn’t the case so it just looks wrong. Adult men shouldn’t be holding little girls like that! O~O

Rockman then avenges Roll with another cool Aqua Sword animation.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/0ee15af9e77ae94c845bcdf6895629db/tumblr_n3ipukz8hC1rzkxhio8_250.gifv

Sometimes screen shots can’t do a scene justice.

More Spikey viruses appear and the culprit is then revealed, a new Navi named Savageman AKA Beastman.

Stop holding her like that, it’s weird!

Rockman attacks him with his cool Aqua Sword move, but he only deletes the Spikey viruses around him. Then he uses his Rock Buster and starts shooting at Beastman who isn’t affected by any of them.

I’m sorry? What Beastman is saying here is that to him, Rockman is just a puppet being controlled by a human, showing us that the anime is once again differing from the games, but I’ll talk about that later.

Netto hears that they only have 3 minutes left of air and decides to destroy what we learned from the first season by suddenly making him an expert on Program Advances without the help of the Aqua Custom Style, this time it’s the Z- Cannon or Zetta Cannon.

I honestly like the new animation for the Program Advance, every time Netto inserts more than one chip they appear as little blocks piling under each other until the third chip comes in and pushes the first block up. This easily shows how the chip programs are compatible with one another since that is how a Program Advance is activated.

The Program Advance seems to be effective as Beastman logs out, the computer is back to normal, the room opens up again, and the day is saved... Or so we thought!

This is were the episode starts to feel a little rushed. Right after this we get another mysterious figure who clearly isn’t the Navi we saw watching Beastman’s performance just a couple of minutes ago.

First episode and we already have two more bad guys introduced? And to make things worse, this second villain shoots some type of missiles from outer space that surround Scilab and traps it inside a Dimensional Area.

Yeap, that’s right, the Dimensional Area Netto’s dad is still working on has somehow ended up in the wrong hands, and they made it even better! Because get this, not only does it allow viruses to materialize in the real world, but Navis as well! Cross Fusion has already become pointless! However, the show doesn’t see it that way.

The Mettool and Spikey viruses, along with Spark Bees this time, begin destroying Scilab. Since they are all inside a Dimensional Area, Netto remembers what Meijin said before and decides to go try his luck with Cross Fusion to save everybody, and runs downstairs to get a Synchro Chip.

Considering that Cross Fusion is still being tested, would this be considered something brave or very stupid?

Netto encounters the Mystery Navi from before who is stealing all the Synchro Chips, and tries to Ash Ketchum his way into stopping him.

Seriously, what is it with young shonen protagonists and trying to attack a powerful non human antagonist face on?

After that failed attempt, Shademan calls Beastman who also materializes to destroy what remains of Scilab while he runs away with the Synchro Chips, except for two chips that he clumsily drops when grabbing them all with one hand. Netto sees the chips and decides to use them to fight Beastman, and what surprises me here is that Rockman doesn’t really object to this despite knowing that it could be dangerous, and he has always been seen as the smart one.

Obviously, Cross Fusion is a success as we get the typical anime transformation sequence, but to be honest, I’ve seen better.

No, the first statement is more accurate. This is a fusion.

And this one too.

Two different characters that merge together to create an entirely new being that shares traits from both predecessors.

No, in fact, It is not Netto turning into Rockman, it’s just Netto in Rockman’s clothing. The only difference here is that Netto fights more aggressively than Rockman.

Except for that time Rockman stabbed Stoneman in the eye, he never really maims anybody.

After this, Netto tries to use a Battle Chip but forgets that you need a PET for that, a PET that disappears somewhere after Cross Fusion. So he decides to use the Rock Buster, but since they’re in the real world, the buster gets a super boost that sends Netto flying, with the shot leaving a hole not only on the building, but on Beastman himself.

So... I love seeing shots of Rockman’s muscular body, but when you give it to Netto it just doesn’t work for me because you know his body doesn’t look like that, making this feel out of nowhere. 

Also, “Flipante”? I’m pretty sure these subs are from Spain because they use a lot of words that I’ve never heard before.

Since Beastman was maimed and mortally wounded, he runs away, the Dimensional area disappears an the episode ends with Netto back to normal with his PET reappearing again, him fainting, Rockman calling out to him worried that he might be dead, and an aerial shot of a partially destroyed Scilab.

What do I think?

Well, if you read my previous post, “The problem with Megaman NT Warrior Axess”, you already know my main issues with this season, starting with how different it was from the first one.

Like I mentioned before, Axess never aired in Latin America so it took a while for me to realized that there was another season. I got used to watching reruns of the first season over and over again because of how much I loved it, and after I watch this episode for the first time, in English, I was very, very confused at the end. I immediately felt that something was wrong, that the show was gonna be  different and I wasn’t sure if it was gonna be a bad thing or a good thing. It turned out to be both because the writers couldn't settle on a tone for this new season, so I was ambivalent from beginning to end.

I’m just gonna mention the good things. The general animation is way better that the majority of the episodes in the first season, the new visuals give it a more cybernetic feel to it which goes perfectly with the theme of the show. Roll and Meiru do more in battle, even though Meiru is still the weak girl character that needs to be saved by a big strong man, ew. The new PET design and the infrared beams they use to send the Navis into the Cyberworld is much more futuristic than the cords from the previous season that are vulnerable to being cut, which, again, is very fitting to the theme, as well as the animations when inserting chips and activating P.As.

The idea of Viruses and Navis materializing in the real world is revolutionary, I just don’t like how it is set up.

The Advance PET was introduced in Battle Network 4, while Beastman appeared in Battle Network 3 as a World Three Navi and having an operator named Inukai. Here, however, Beastman is a solo Navi that is called a Darkloid, and instead of being man-made, Darkloids are portrayed as A.I beings that were spontaneously created from...Bug frags, I think? Yeah, that’s another thing I don’t buy from Axess. 

The mystery Navi is Shademan who was introduced in Battle Network 4 and is in fact a solo Navi, but he was created by Dr. Regal, the other mystery character that appeared, but Shademan is also a Darkloid here.

Say what you want about Forte and Gospel, but their origins are purely man-made and make sense, and even if viruses and bug frags are also man-made, having something instantly created out of Virus remains doesn’t make sense unless a higher power is involved, which hasn’t really been specified in Axess.

If you are one of the few people who read my posts, I appreciate your support and are free to share your opinions too.

[razorblade180]

Hey how about the Data farms couple going on their first date alone? Also how you holding up man?

{I’m alive so that’s something I guess😅}

[Jaune’s apartment]

Jaune:Oscar are you ready yet?

Oscar:*bathroom* NO!!!!

Jaune:I hate to rush you but your date is in like thirty minutes.

Oscar:I’m just making sure everything is perfect. I want this night to go well.

Jaune:You make it seem like this is your first date with Penny. The two of you hung out at the carnival and the lake where both of kissed more than once.

Oscar:I know but this is different; this time we’re actually alone and have no wingman to help.

Jaune:Ruby and I almost let you drown on accident. I can’t say we were helping you out a lot then.

Oscar:Maybe next time don’t abandon me to go make out with Ruby in the lake.

Jaune:You’re asking a lot out of me.

Oscar:*walks out in a tux* How do I look?

Jaune:*fixes tie* like a man trying to impress a girl that’s clearly into him. So just like most people.

Oscar:Cool, any advice for me? Final words of wisdom?

Jaune:Hmmm sometimes a girl will ask for help or bring something up they can actually handle. Just be a gentleman anyways.

Oscar:You mean how when Ruby says her purse is too heavy on her even though she carries a scythe?

Jaune:Exactly that, she just wants me to carry it for her and it’s fine. Most importantly, be yourself. Penny seems to like how much of a dork you are. *smiles*

Oscar:Who you calling a dork, you dork? *laughing*

[Ruby’s car]

Penny:*rocking back and forth*

Ruby:You seemed stressed.

Penny:I’m calm Hic! okay I’m a little nervous. Hic! I am losing my mind....*blushing*

Ruby:You’ll be fine. Just one question. Why are you going to a restaurant when you don’t eat?

Penny:I panicked asking him out. Anyways I’ll just eat the food and it’ll turn to surplus energy. Also if I’m going to have tastebuds then I want to use them.

Ruby:Wait, Atlas knows how to turn food itself into energy that’s good enough to power an Android?

Penny:........

Penny:I cannot confirm or deny the previous question.

Ruby:Were you trained to say that?

Penny:I cannot confirm or d-

Ruby:That answers my question. Anyways, I just want you to remember to have fun, don’t do anything crazy, and if you guys go on walk or something then say you’re cold.

Penny:If I get cold I just turn of my-

Ruby:Trust me Penny, just say you’re cold. *parks car* Best of luck!

Penny:What will you be doing now that we aren’t hanging out. *gets out*

Ruby:I think I can find something to do. *mumbles* like my boyfriend.

Penny:What?

Ruby:Nothing!🎶 *slowly driving away*

Our nervous android walks through the door to see many tables set in a beautifully designed restaurant that looks like something only the elite could afford. Well let candles are on every table and a chandelier shines nicely on the ceiling.

Penny:*takes a breath* (If you were made to fight a war, you can handle a date.) *sees Oscar*

Oscar:*patiently waiting at a table in his tux.*

Penny:(You can’t handle this)

Oscar:*swaying in the chair*

Ozpin:(Stop loo-)

Oscar:*jolts* (Oh my god you scared me!? I thought we agreed you’d go away for the night?)

Ozpin:(I wouldn’t have said anything if your heart wasn’t beating like a drum. Are you sure you don’t want me around)

Oscar:(Positive)

Ozpin:(Remember that time you were folding clothes and basically had a panic attack because Ruby’s bra somehow got mixed in with your clothes?)

Oscar:......(Just don’t speak unless I say something to you.)

Ozpin:(That’s fair. What if you space out though?)

Oscar:(I’m not gonna-)

Penny:Hey Oscar.

He turns to see his beautiful date in front of him, and beautiful was an understatement. Right now he was captivated by Penny wearing a long green dress with no shoulder straps. It shimmered slightly in the candle light and had a decent size slit on the right side. On her ears and around her neck were some sort of gem that matched her now curled hair perfectly. The girl was shyly twiddling her thumbs as her face was a little red.

Oscar:*flustered beyond belief*............

Ozpin:(*cough* )

Oscar:*snaps out of it* H...Hi! You look...wow.

Penny:Really? It’s not too much? I could take of the necklace or-

Oscar:No, you look....you’re perfect as you are.

Penny:Th...thank you. You...look very handsome in that. *blushing*

Oscar:Thanks *pulls seat out for her*

Penny:*snorts* hehehe

Oscar:What’s so funny?

Penny:Nothing really, it’s just a little weird for someone to do things like this for me. I’m not exactly delicate. *sitting down*

Oscar:I know, but this is a date and I was raised to do this sort of thing. *sits down* So, how have you been?

Penny:I’ve been fine. Spent time with Ruby earlier and she helped me get ready for tonight. Other than that it has been a tad boring though. For the pass few weeks I haven’t really left the base here. Doing a lot of test.

Oscar:Test?

Penny:Just some routine maintenance. Making sure I’m learning about the world efficiently as well as properly. Oh, also I got some upgrades I wanted that should’ve been obvious in hindsight.

Oscar:Please tell me it’s a floating device?

Penny:*giggles* Yes, I can float now. I told my father about the lake situation and we both agreed that a situation like that shouldn’t happen again. I was so tired of seeing the bottom of-

Her train of thought was cut off by Oscar’s look. A calm smile was worn on his face with soft eyes. She could tell he was listening intently but there was something about that look that started to make her a little shy. Everything about the situation even made her stomach feel fluttery. Was that even possible!?

Oscar:Something wrong?

Penny:Sorry, it’s just.....why are you looking at me like that? Not that I mind your smile since it’s really nice.

Oscar:Oh, well thank you. *smiles* I’m smiling because not so long ago you were afraid of tell me anything about yourself. Now you wanna full conversation about it. It’s nice.

Penny:Heh, you’re looking at me new in approved. Physically and emotionally.

Oscar:So, anything else you want to share? I’m all ears.

Penny:*grins* Okay! Umm...hold out your hands, palms up.

Oscar:*does it*

Penny:*holds them*Notice anything strange? Or should I say normal?

Oscar:...Umm, I’m bad at guessing games. All I feel is warm pal- hey your hands are warm, and also really soft.

Penny:Yep! Body heat, more sensors for feelings, and just about anything to feel more normal I suppose. It’s weird, last week I bummed into a soldier and it actually stung a bit. Pain wasn’t a feeling they wanted to give me but I think it’s an important part of-

Oscar:Feeling alive? *rubbing her hand*

Penny:Exactly, I know I’ll never truly be normal but I want to get as close as possible. I want us to feel as normal as possible...

Oscar:*red* Us?

Penny:Yeah, us.... *eyes widened* wait are not? *gasp* did I miss read these signs? Ruby told me about this thing called “subtext” and how to read it but I’m starting to think I might have been seeing it wrong. Which is really scary if- *rambling*

Oscar notices they’re drawing a bit of attention around and starts getting a bit anxious himself. He tries to calm her down but nothing seems to work.

Ozpin:(I know you’re not asking for help but might I offer a small tip?)

Oscar:(Uhhhh sure?)

Ozpin:(Let her know she’s not wrong.)

Oscar:(Geez I’m dumb.) Penny, look at me. *holds hands tighter*

Penny:*worried* Y..yes?

Oscar:I....I like being an us. You didn’t miss read anything. Spending time with you is really nice and this entire day felt super long because I wanted it to get to the part where I got to see you again. I want....I want to be your..... *flustered*

Penny:*eyes widened* Yes...

Oscar:*red* What?

Penny:*looking away*.............

Penny:Be my boyfriend, please?

Oscar:...So do you have better sensors everywhere?

Penny:What?

Oscar:You said you can feel . That would mean you could everywhere right?

Penny:Yeah, but what does that have to do with-

Once again her words were cut short. Instead of his eyes though; it was his hand rubbing her face. Penny knew her sensors where in full effect because the sensation was way more intense than the lake. Not only that but she was definitely feeling way warmer than usual. It was nice, so leaning into it felt more than natural.

Oscar:*pulling back* Feeling better?

Penny:Can you always do that if I ramble?

Oscar:*chuckling* Only if you do same for me.

Penny:Consider it done. *rubbing her arm* uh, could we possibly, you know. *leaning*

Oscar:As eager as I am?

Penny:No Hic! yes...*blushing*

Oscar:Good to know. *leaning*

“Ms. Polendina?”

Penny:Huh? *turns head*

Soldier:Sorry to have interrupted your night out but you are needed back at the base for a briefing. I was told to escort you.

Penny:Awwww but that was supposed to be tomorrow. I’m in the middle of a date, *sheepishly* with my boyfriend.

Oscar:*internal screaming*

Ozpin:(Please stop screaming)

Oscar:If it’s not too much to ask, maybe I could walk her home?

Soldier:I’m not sure if-

Penny:*puppy eyes* Pretty please Mr...*looks a tag* Mr. Tanaka sir!

Tanaka:......Sigh, please don’t dilly dally on the way ba- *hugged*

Penny:Thank you! I mean... *salutes* Yes sir!

Oscar:Shall we then?

Penny:We shall, too bad we didn’t even get to eat.

Oscar:I know right!? The service here sucks.

[City Streets]

The road to the base is relatively quiet. Snow gently falls to the ground while street lights make a trail of golden light. Both of then continued to enjoy each other’s company and walk casually. Cool air blows lightly, causing Penny to remember Ruby’s words. She slowly wrapped her arms around herself and started to rub them.

Oscar:You cold?

Penny:Uh...something like that. *supressing hiccup*

Oscar:*takes off blazer* Here you go.

Penny:Won’t you be cold though?

Oscar:I don’t mind a little cool air. Farm life had its frigid moments. *drapes it over her*

Penny:(This smells nice) That reminds me, I spent so much time talking about me that you didn’t talk much about yourself.

Oscar:Nothing much to tell really. Life’s been pretty average.

Penny:You have two souls.....

Oscar:Life’s been my standard of average. *smiles* Just the occasional internal monologue and grimm patrol.

Penny:Is he talking right now?

Oscar:Nah, we made an agreement for him not to intrude on our date.

Ozpin:(Tell her I said hi...)

Oscar:He says hello.

Penny:Hi Professor. I wish my body guards also didn’t intrude. I suppose you’ll have to tell me more about having two souls another time. Seeing magic would be quite the experience.

Oscar:Funny, I wasn’t thinking you’d actually call it that. I thought you would’ve gone a more scientific route.

Penny:Well I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sound illogical and completely goes against what society knows. However, I can’t deny that it might exist; there’s one shred of evidence that supports it.

Oscar:Really? What’s that?

Penny:It sounds a bit ridiculous but...how do I explain this? *stops walking*

Oscar:*stops*?

Penny:I know I’m not human when it comes to most things. Indeed I have an aura which people consider a soul but even so, I’m still not like everyone else by a wide margin. This is a fact and it’s a fact that I’m okay with; different doesn’t mean I’m inferior or superior. It makes me well, me. But ever since I met you things feel....different.

Oscar:Different?

Penny:*twiddling her thumbs* Like, everything that we do feels scary yet exciting. Things make sense but at the same time, not at all. My stomach starts to feel a little weird too. It’s not some glitch either; I’ve checked plenty of times. I know I’m an android but whenever I look at you......*blushing* it’s like I forget that. I become... just another girl. *looks down*

Oscar:Maybe you’re more human than you think.....

His hand makes it’s way to her chin and tilts her head up. Beautiful green eyes stare right at him with pure and varying emotions; each one he was certain he was feeling too. Fear, anxious, excitement, apprehension, courage, confusion, yet also clarity. The nerve he worked up at the restaurant had vanished and he found it a little challenging to get any closer than he already was. Penny didn’t move either for a moment. She was too fixated on his eyes again; Both her hands found their way to his sleeves however and was tugging Oscar closer painstakingly slow. Pushing down all their anxiety, they both go in for for a kiss. Time stopped mattering and so did the cold. Only thing they focused was each other; their simple kiss under a street light in the snow.

[The base, several minutes later]

Penny:*In uniform and walking though the halls*

Ciel:Oh, There you are Ma’am. You are several minutes behind schedule.

Penny:I’m sorry. Penny Polendina is here and reporting for duty. We’ll still make it before the meeting actually starts. You shouldn’t let that watch rule your life ya know.

Ciel:I suppose you might have a point to a degree. So, was your night out a pleasant one?

Penny:*blushing* Best night yet...

[Jaune’s apartment]

Oscar:*walking in* I’m back Ja-

Jaune:*watching a movie* Oh, you’re back earlier than I thought.

Ruby:*only in Jaune’s hoodie* Oh no, did something happen? Also hi!

Oscar:*avoiding eye contact* Hey Ruby. Penny got called into a meeting so the date was cut short.

Ruby:And after all that work I put in to make her look all cute for the night; not that she needed it. Was it nice while it lasted at least?

Oscar:Yeah.....really nice. *blushing*

[dxxtruction]

Logic-b0mb.Hc

Mr. Robot: Season 2 episode 5

Break down / Character Analysis / (No hc section but I could add one)

(This episode is an alright one sandwiched between two great ones but involves a lot of important plot development. Quite literally its setting things up like planting the bombs for later.) 

Hacking the FBI.

Elliot’s really feeling the rush because he’s been itching for this a while. He’s been avoiding getting to a terminal because he’s been dealing with getting rid of Robot, and I feel like he’s also on alert about Ray so really didn’t feel up to helping him until it became necessary. (He’s on alert about pretty much everyone though that’s just how hypervigilance is, and I wouldn’t go around trusting just anyone in prison on top of that.)

Hacking makes him feel powerful and in control, something he’s expressed he lacks feeling in his every day life (to Krista). (Someone made a post about this desire for control stemming from Elliots abuse where he lacked that control and like I gotta agree.)

“The programmatic expression of my will. I live for this shit.” (I really like this quote)

The irony of hacking the FBI on a computer within a prison. The flip side is Ray’s website is also being worked on from inside a prison. I’m not sure if this stands to symbolize something about American society and the prison system or not. On one hand he’s getting rid of a threat for personal reasons and on the other hand he’s thinking of exposing one for moral reasons. He’s able to control his own hack, but when it comes to dealing with Ray he isn’t the one in charge.

List of hacking steps he gives:

Step 1. Identify the target and it’s flaws, there are always flaws.

Step 2. Build malware and prepare an attack.

Step 3. A reverse shell two stage exploit.

Step 4. Write the script.

Step 5. Launch the attack.

Elliots first hack was a local library (WashingtonTownship Public Library) and he did this at age 11, the only thing he did was look around their database but he mentions feeling powerful. (He’s been hacking for a good 17 years so it must have been a great feeling.) (He started hacking 3 years after his dad died, awful as he is Elliot began learning his way around computers from him.) (I wonder if/when Darlene got involved in hacking with Elliot.) (To bounce off that I’d love to read/write a fic about the first hack they did together)

Elliot always writes his own script, that’s how he learned. It would be the best way to ensure the most control on the outcomes to write it yourself given you know what your doing and Elliot most certainly does. (If we remember back to the hack to break Vera out of prison he mentioned he never makes mistakes in his code). (Seems impossible tbh but this is fiction we gotta remember that.)  

The hack:

Elliot is using a zero day exploit to attack with Malware he’s coding. How I’m understood this is a process used to get data though unknown vulnerabilities (in his case from the android phones).

He needs a way to implement the malware. He’ll be using a reverse shell which joins communications with the target and attacker machines. (His Fem2cell to the FBI android network.) Two stage I think refers to additional malware he’s put in to corrupt everything upon discovery. (He can get in and erase evidence, and if he’s discovered everything gets corrupted)

This will make him own Every Android phone of FBI agents in E-corp. Plus Evil corps network. (Because they’re in the same building?)

(Seen in message to Darlene) FTP - file transfer protocol (he’s handing over his scripts to Darlene so she can launch the attack on her end.)

Elliot pictures himself working in the dark (or maybe that’s just us) but its actually now daytime so several hours have past. (if we assume that we really did arrive in Rays office at night last episode which feels true.)

Darlene breaks into Angela’s

Darlene and Angela haven’t seen each other in five weeks. (They both had a lot on their plate to be fair. Before this they were meeting at least once a week for dance I assume.)

Darlene is creating a DMG file on Angela’s laptop (Darlene doesn’t own a MacBook) (Angela-image.dmg) when she comes in but its not why Darlene is there. (DMG file types hold apps for Mac but if you’re making your own files you can encrypt other things into the file besides apps. DMG’s also can be password protected. I don’t recall if we ever know whats in the file but I wonder if this was the completed FTP. Or just Darlene messing around.)

Darlene tells Angela that Elliot covered for her tracks and involvement in 5/9.

“Why didn’t he say anything?”

(“Because that’s what he does.”)

He doesn’t let people know when he’s helping them or ask for their permission (to Elliot not saying anything = low risk of others lashing out or getting hurt)(Stems from childhood). He just does because its whats good to do to ensure people he cares for are protected. (Those are his principles). Another more obvious read could be he just doesn’t tell people things, Elliot has a hard time being open with people. Angela and Elliot haven’t really been all that close for a while now as well if you remember. (I feel there was a point in time he did share important things with her.)

Darlene wants to use her in order to plant the femtocell in the FBI headquarters located at e-corp because Angela has access to the building. She uses Elliot helping her as leverage because she gets that Angela wouldn’t just do it without reason to. (And Angela still refuses because as things appear to stand she’s already been cleared and doesn’t want to get reinvolved.) (She has every reason to see hacking he FBI as super risky too.)

Darlene lets her off. (but this doesn’t stop her from still trying)

Pre-China

FBI has found the RasberryPi at Steal (mountain) Valley. (This is later said to be a dead lead because it becomes tampered evidence)

We are lead through the FBI work environment, and its mentioned security is lax. There’s a guy on the floor who shouldn’t be. (This is here to show that even if Angela were to get on this floor she has a chance of being stopped (which eventually does happen.) (Plant and payoff)

Dom mentions she doesn’t dream. (She has insomnia. This could be stemming from her job which is stressful and would make anyone become highly alert, this case is probably always on her mind as well. And/or feelings of alienation from lost connectivity to others which she fills by staying up all night chatting, or other factors we’re never quite made aware of.) (I think this is meant to contrast with the previous episodes statements on dreaming. Dom seems to know what future she’s fighting for, but its her job to. You can’t necessarily “dream” when you already know/are told what needs to be done.) (Dom is definitely a character who represents alienation.) (I don’t wanna assume what Esmail was going for but Marx's theory of alienation describes the estrangement of people from who they are as a consequence of living in a class society. (Estrangement from self and identity.(this comes up later)) Capitalist alienation has consequences that separate us from our work building identity around our jobs rather than around ourselves.)

We see Mobley on the co-workers laptop. (I assume this is the information collected from the end of the world party)

There was an E-mail sent out to tell Dom and her partner on the case that they are going to China with Santiago (with a few other agents who are all pricks)

Darlene visits.

“The she-devil” (The guard Elliot is imagining to be his Mom) isn’t around, meaning the guard is gone for some reason?

Darlene fills her brother in on how things are moving forward. She tries to get the reluctant Elliot on board with getting Angela involved because it really is the only option. Darlene feels like Elliot talking to her would convince her to change her mind. (And Robot agrees because he’s willing to risk it to protect them from the FBI) (I may be on Darlene and Robot’s side here, though I do get Elliots POV he’s not seeing how there really isn’t going to be another way in.)

Elliot wants Angela far away from all of this. He definitely still cares about her a lot and would feel guilty if anything happened to her. (He already feels guilty about everything and is trying not to let it blow up into anything worse)(Yet in doing do this leads to worse outcomes later)(He’s unable to risk her, but still understands getting into the FBI is a priority. “Find another way.”) (throughout this season and the next season we see Elliot slides away from plans as a means of deescalating what he sees as things that will lead to terrible outcomes, effectively trying to abandon and undo them.) (Mr Robot and him have continuous conflict on this.)

China (Dom and Whiterose)

The FBI is in China to discuss needing access with Minister Zhang (Whiterose) (I’m gonna mostly use Zhang here for contextual purposes) (The Chinese Minister of State Security)

In the meeting Dom speaks up about needing access to what China has on the Dark Army (In a previous shot she sees people in the Dark Army masks at the airport.) (We’re not sure how much intel the FBI have on DA. They are the worlds most dangerous hacker group and thats knowledge to anyone who knows about them. The FBI has to have at least some things about them on file, like maybe those masks.) (Dom is suspecting Dark Army and F-society could have a connection as affiliate hacker groups) (It’s set up to imply she saw those guys in the airport and It got her thinking which is why she jumps in to say something.)

This episode deals with the idea power a lot (the lack of, gaining of, and having of power). How Whiterose is framed in scenes indicates a sense of power and control (even to some extent framing her as godlike). She’s revealed to maintain a high ranking government position, while also heading the dark army. It’s in her best interests to comply with he FBI, and shows no concern for her involvement. She knows she has the upper-hand.

Party at the Ministers house (Monday night)

Dom discovers the clock hallway, when Zhang discovers her. (I think she peaked Whiterose’s interests in the meeting and this just solidifies it) (side-note: I don’t think Dom really needed to pee all too bad she just wanted and excuse to get away from the party.)

She discusses the clock which looks like the one her parents have then introduces who she is to Zhang. (Can’t tell if Dom lied about that anecdote to not feel intrusive or if Whiterose was lied to. If Dom lied, then it’s a nice play because Whiterose ends up lying about having a sister later.)

Dom (who is naturally curious) then asks what the clocks are about. and we get this:

“Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player the struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more”

(“You’ve surrounded yourself with the constant reminder of mortality?”)

“- …As each second passes I push myself to keep moving.”

(I can see Whiterose’s obsession with time stemming from her confrontation of mortality, the traumatic experiences of her former lover. Whiterose sees time as her enemy in the race to complete her plans. Yet she also finds her ways of controlling it making it seem like she is the master of it. This is sort of the mask she wears and she wears it well. (Her plans ????)

Then she asks why Dom is in the FBI

“I was. I am disgusted by the selfish brutality of the world, but at the same time I am utterly fascinated by it.” (This line gives insight into how Dom sees the world and other people. There’s this one Florence Nightingale quote which calls out the selfish brutality on the part of the superior (those in power) as part of the true horror of war.)

Something about this discussion make Whiterose open up to Dom enough to show an artwork in her office about the anxiety within losing ones identity. (Identity has a lot of meaning to Whiterose. She lives a double life, a large part of her own identity is hidden from the world in several ways. Whiterose is alienated from herself in the sense the she can’t be herself to the world.)

“How is it that revolution can create such beautiful art yet you and I are tracking revolutionaries who’ve created nothing but turmoil?” (Another bomb planted… if she only knew.)

Whiterose pressed so Dom reveals the personal reason for joining the FBI deals with her breakup after a proposal in her final semester of law school, one thing leading to another she’s now an FBI agent. (I think Whiterose picks up that Dom gay af by the way she hides who her old flame’s gender is.) (anyway Whiterose ends up having some sort of reaction to this and shows Dom her dresses then lies about having a sister, which Dom picks up as a lie.)

Whiterose inquires about what if 5/9 never happened, mentions alternate universes, she is moved by the idea of what ifs for things to be different. Whiterose gets flustered about this showing some semblance of vulnerability, and the clocks go off on the hour. (This idea of alternate realities is planted here and plays a role into what her project may be, but we’re never quite sure. At the end of S4 when we’re in the headspace it seems her machine worked and we did enter a new reality.)

The Dark Army shoot out in China kills everyone but Dom and Santiago. (RIP)

In the court with Ray

The basketball court is fairly empty around this time but hot Carla is there in her usual spot. (Sidenote: I love her)

Elliot still has to help Ray (its the conditions he has to meet for letting him have access to a terminal)

Robot is antsy and feels this wastes time, that they need to be getting in touch with Angela. (But of course Elliot ignores him because he’s against Angela getting involved.)

To help Ray he says needs administrative access from the old IT guy. IT guy comes. Elliot finds out the guy knows what he’s doing, raising his suspicions. So he starts putting things together that theirs something fishy as to why Ray came to him. IT guy wants to just move off the subject but Elliot doesn’t have time to play games. This chatting back and forth between them is fairly funny, especially when robot just key smashes and Elliot has to back space it. The IT guy eventually yields and shows Elliot the site, which pretty much deals transactions in every type of crime including trafficking.

Later in Elliots cell he’s trying to piece together what to do about Ray, he wonders whether he is innocent or guilty. Robot wants to move on but Elliot can’t.

“You know, but your going to ignore it. You wanna know why? Because thats what we do.” (“That’s not what I do.”)

Robot is always weighing the risks at every possible turn of events, always weighing out he 1’s from the 0’s. He does it to protect them of course, but sometimes these decisions are selfish. While it may do well to ignore for their safety, the risks of not doing anything could ruin Elliots sense of morality. (Not that robot can help things are already going to blow up on them anyway). Elliot shows us he wants to act, because he’d feel sick if he knowingly enabled the things that happen on that site (mainly concerned about the people being trafficked). He’s one to take down people who are bad even if there are risks involved. It’s that part of him is driven by his desire to make a better and safer world for the host even if he’s unaware of it. I do find it curious that Robot insinuates a “we” here on what they do because MM has yet to ignore something like this before. (A hint or just a throw away plea to get him to stop?)

Logic bomb- a set of instructions secretly incorporated into a program so that if a particular condition is satisfied (or a set time occurs) they will be carried out, usually with harmful effects.

(.HC encrypted file type that needs password access)

Elliots taken by Rays goons (I cry and he cries for help)

Joanna

Joanna meets with this guys she’s paying and he confesses about his paranoia with the FBI being on his case … So she kills him. (The Wellick’s are … something. I am disgusted by the selfish brutality. Yet I guess violence is often a form of self preservation especially in this shows logic so like I get it. Some people hack others attack.)

He mentions protecting some guy in a hoodie at this meeting. (This says Joanna definitely pieced together that this tech Tyrell kept mentioning is the mysterious “Ollie” who came by her house.)

The way she just orders her security guard to kill a man and this is the option she went to, Joanna does not mess. Honestly can’t even describe all the dynamics at play here between Tyrell ,“Tyrell”, the body guard, Joanna, and Joanna’s new lover. Things are being planted for Joanna needing to find where Tyrell is (and Elliot’s been asking about the same).(Also the media really eats up this Tyrell situation and Joanna becomes an infamous celebrity for it.) (Everyone wants to know where Tyrell is.)

Joanna’s orders were to inject succinylcholine (induces paralysis) before shooting him. She sees this as giving the man time to process his final moments. “Letting him die with answers. Otherwise we’re nothing but ruthless murders.” She says this all while feeding her baby.

Angela meets with Ollie Then with Elliot Then finally with Darlene.

Angela finds out Ollie has been brought in for FBI questioning. He confessed about “the CD man” to the FBI and they’ve drawn up a sketch of him (Cisco).

This scares Angela enough to start considering compliance with Darlene. It eventually leads her to a decision based on what the best possible outcome could be.

Angela makes an attempt to reach out to Elliot before actually moving forward with her decision. This shows the contrast between them. What Angela does is make sure things are okay (at least for Elliot), though she may act separately from how he feels. By this point Angela has run down her options and decides her best option is to just plant the femtocell “Either I act or I wait to get caught.”

Elliot doesn’t say much after his initial push back, he doesn’t want to put Angela at any risk but can’t do anything about it if she’s already made her decision. Her logic also makes sense, it could even be riskier if she did nothing.

The topic then changes. Angela’s still wondering why Elliot’s been different, why he’s been pushing her away.

Instead of being direct Elliot mentions their conversation on the train platform the day he was found in he cemetery. Angela gets a bit uncomfortable, there’s lingering worries about Elliot.

“You told me to take care of myself. I wanted to be okay. I wanted to s-stop seeing him before I talked to you again.”

“And”

“And my dead father’s standing behind you right now.”

This opens up discussion again about the idea of annihilation, which was touched on in the previous episode. It seems in some part, but not entirely, that Elliot wants to stop seeing Mr Robot in order to feel like he’s improved himself, that he’s become better. That would be his way of taking care of himself. Obviously these desires turn up empty handed because there’s no getting rid of Robot. He’s still conflicting with him, and though that plot mostly takes a step back in this episode it is shown in what ways they’re still ending up disagreeing.

“I could be a friend. Someone to talk to. Someone who cares about you. Who knows maybe that will help.”  waitfortheq.ogg starts playing when she says this, it’s the theme associated with Shayla so I cry. It’s a song that carries like a special feeling of safety, a comfort in knowing that your here with someone who’s a friend, and while still being fairly somber. Elliot (and I as well) seems to agree this could help because he starts asking about qwerty and they actually smile and laugh. (My heart). I like to imagine they talked for a while after this and that things ended well. Despite them still being in disagreement by the end of it, Angela feels more confident in her decision now.

Meanwhile at F-society HQ: D.C Op is a go. #Droptheballs. This is right before Angela gets there.

Angela takes a secure route to meet with Darlene at HQ to get the tower from her in order plant the femtocell. Something to maybe note is Angela seems to only start acting once she had selfish reasons to doing so.

[srprincess]

Fictober promt 18 “Secrets? I love secrets.”

fandom - check please

part 10 of the spookydoo AU

They all stood outside the lighthouse, getting ready to split up and spread out across the area. It was a little later than they planned, and the sun was just setting. Might not be so good for keeping a person from tripping over their own feet in the dark, Will thought, but one of the prettiest times of day just the same. Jack clearly agreed. He stood closer to the water with his camera out and pointed over the rocks toward the ocean, clicking away. Biggest smile on his face that Will had seen yet.

 He stepped over to where Lardo and Shitty waiting, leaning against their vehicle. ”Okay, you two have the map?”

”Calling this,” Lardo waved the marked-up paper plate, ”a map seems overly generous, but sure. I have ’the map’.”

Shitty tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to muffle a laugh behind his fist. ”Be nice,” he choked out.

”Hey now!” Will defended his hastily scribbled map. ”I drew all the roads and marked the one's where you need to go, labeled with names even, for the entire way from here to there. I even drew out the cemetery!”  

”Oh yes. This circle with a bunch of - trees, I guess? - around the edge. Some tombstone half circles. And a bigger tree with a sad face. There's even waves at the edge that say ‘too far’ over them,”  Lardo said, unimpressed, ”because that’s where we went wrong last time.”

”See? Everything you need. What more could a person want?” Will knew it wasn't technically the best map, but figured they could check-in if they got off track. Chowder had assured him that the walkie talkie app he found used so little data that, even with sketchy slow service, they should be fine to keep in contact.

Shitty gave up all pretense of not laughing and pulled Lardo close with an arm around her shoulders. ”Not everyone can be an artist, Lards. It’s a fine map, Dex. I actually think I even remember that spot. I just didn't check it out, because there weren’t any markers that far over.”

”There’s a grease spot in the ocean.” she pointed out, dejected.  

”Yeah, there sure is.” he agreed.

 Will left them to finish loading up and went over to where Nursey was watching Holster give Ransom a piggyback ride. Or trying to, anyway. There was a lot of lurching and near falls. As Ransom’s desperate attempts to hold on started covering Holster’s eyes, Will shouted, ”Could you not?!”

”Come on, Dexydoo, they're just having fun. Remember fun?” Nursey teased.

”Dexydoo?” Will shuddered, ”Absolutely not.”

”Dexy?”

Will narrowed his eyes.

”But Dex is chill, right?”

”It’s - fine, whatever, ” Will shrugged before raising his voice at the other two, who seemed determined to break every bone they had before falling into the ocean, ”If you must, could you at least go about 200 more yards down shore?”

”Why?” Holster asked, even as he started to move further down the drive.

”Because that’s the property line and then if you kill yourselves it’s someone else’s problem.” To Nursey, he said, ”Ma always told me insurance didn’t cover stupid, and I’d like not to find out if she was right.”

 Shaking his head at the continued antics, Will asked, ”Do they actually help or is it just a lot of this?”

”Truth? Mostly this. Hey, wanna know a secret?” Nursey asked him.

”Secrets? I love secrets. Just as much as I love surprises.” he answered, totally deadpan.

”Really? Remember you said that.”

”So long as you remember the sarcasm. Wait - remember it why?”

Nursey lowered his voice and pulled Will back over to the rest of the group before continuing, ”Secret - Ransom’s totally terried of ghosts. Holster spends most of these trips keeping him distracted.”

Will, suitably distracted himself with this new information, asked ”Seriously? Whoever heard of a ghost hunter afraid of ghosts? How does that even work?”

”Not very well.” Jack answered for him, putting his camera away in the bag before slinging it over his shoulder. ”For one, We don’t stay in the haunted hotels anymore.”

”A nightmare for him?”  

”Understatement of the year.” Chowder said. ”Last time we tried was at the Borden B&B. Holster took the attic room with him. They were sleeping in there until about 3 in the morning when Rans woke up and basically had a meltdown. Ran down the stairs and through the halls yelling about ghosts out to get him. Woke up the other guests, staff, everyone.”

Farmer continued, ”After that whole scene, it was ’suggested’ we find another place to stay.”

”Yikes.” Will cringed.

Lardo nodded, ”Whole rest of the trip, all he would talk about was how Lizzie had been trying to touch his butt and laughing at him.”  

”Anyone try telling him it was probably just little kid ghosts, and that Lizzie would have been way less playful? More-” Will made a hacking motion with his arms and faux-shrieked, ”Eee! Eee! Eee!”

”Chyeah, they did,” Nursey laughed.

Bitty stared him down, hands on hips, height be damned, ”And that was what, Mr. Nurse?”

”Wildly unhelpful,” he answered, attempting to sound, but not looking, very sorry. Clearly parroting something he must have been told at the time.

”Well, they should be fine here at the house,” Will assured them. ”I know I've never seen anything too freaky.”

”Especially when there’s no one throwing things from above?” Nursey pointed out.

Will smiled, ”Like you wouldn’t have done the same?”

”You got me.”

”So, how do you want to do this? Transportation-wise?” Will asked. ”You've got your ridiculous clown car, and I have my pickup...”

”How about Nursey rides out with you, everyone else with us and we’ll drop them at the far end of the road on our way to the cemetery.” Lardo suggested.

”Then we can work our way back to the harbor from there. We’ll hop in the truck bed to get a ride back to the house after,” Bitty said.

Nodding, Shitty added, ”That way if Lards and I stay the night out there you guys won't be stuck waiting. Makes sense.”

The group agreed, but Will worried, “Are you set up for that? Sleeping out, I mean. It gets really cold overnight, this close to the water.”

”We have a little pop tent in the trunk and a couple kick-ass sleeping bags, we're good.” Lardo assured him.

”If you're sure,” Will said. ”Okay. Everybody remember-”

”Be careful, check-in every hour and watch the road,” Bitty finished. ”We know, we will, don't worry.”

After getting all loaded up, they headed out to their designated spots.

As they drove by, Will yelled out the truck window to Ransom and Holster, ”Remember, house is open. But if you go up, all feet stay on the floor. None of this,” gesturing as they switched and Ransom tried to keep Holster lifted up.  

”YES DAD!” they shouted back, in unison, just before tumbling over again, turning into a laughing tangle of limbs.

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episodes 01-15

Press START button.

Ex-Aid is one of those seasons that when you look at it sounds like something that shouldn't work. I mean, putting doctors and video-games together? Is this what, a Dr. Mario live-action, an adaptation of Surgeon Simulator, or an actual Kamen Rider season?

This odd combination of factors always made very skeptical about this season, there's also the huge anime eyes in the helmet that never sat well with me too, but this concept combo always seemed pretty wild to work. But then I watched Gaim, which also had an odd combination of themes, and I saw that those odd concepts mixed together can be doable and be something fun so I started to look forward to the season. But even with the excitement, a small fear started to linger because as I started seeing more and more of Kamen Rider and seeing more of the community I always saw Ex-Aid popping up as one season that everyone thinks it's top-notch and well... the last time I saw a highly acclaimed season in the fandom I hated it so the chances of that happening here again were there.

And you know, I think my fears became reality and I feel like I'm having another Drive experience here. Maybe not at the same level as Drive, I feel like Ex-Aid got me less angry and annoyed, but this season really didn't click with me. I see that it can grow on me because after episode 11 I started enjoying it more, but the general feeling for these 15 episodes and this movie was... meh? Like, I don't like most of the characters, I have a serious problem with the comedy, and there's something in the dialogue of this show that really tickles me off. I also don't like how CGI heavy this show is, and most of the CGI looks horrible.

One thing that really pushed me off at the beginning was the structure that wasn't very interesting, we had 4 episodes to introduce the riders, 4 episodes to give a power-up to each of them, and 2 to introduce a shared power-up and defeat the first general of the villains, and I felt like I came out of these without that much story, it felt like they were just going through a checklist of toys they had to sell and not actually telling a story. It's only from episode 11 onward that it starts to feel like this show has some sort of plot.

I also don't like how this starts similar to a Rider War thing, with all riders competing to see who cleans 10 games first and gets the most Gashats, but they make all characters out of the main one be completely hateful so we have no choice other than root for him. And like, it's okay to give us jerk characters, but you gotta give us something about them so that we can hang on, you don't need to make them redeemable or anything but you gotta have enough for us to love hating on a character otherwise it's just annoying.

Going back to my weird dialogue point, probably one of the things that I dislike the most is how there are times where they don't seem like real people talking? Like, the image I have when seeing the dialogue is that a bunch of old men in a writers' room sit down thinking "what will sound very trendy to hit off with the kid gamers", "what's a young people language we can put here" and they think they're being very smart and clever, but just sounds odd as hell, especially with the gaming aspect and the catchphrases (that at this point in this franchise I'm already tired of them because most of them aren't even charming anymore).

Another thing that doesn't sit well with me is just how special they make these characters be when there's no necessity for it. Like, being an actual doctor is already special enough, you don't need to have your main rider be extremely good at games to justify the gaming motif, you don't need the secondary rider to be a famous prodigious surgeon to install a rivalry. I mean look at Kiriya, as far as I can't remember he doesn't have any special trait and yet he manages to be interesting and stand out on his own. Heck, you don't need to have Emu be patient 0 of the gaming disease when you already have him being really good at video-games and when you're starting to add another element to him with a possible second personality, it's too much for a single character RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING. It's not like we're seeing those characters evolving into becoming special, they're already special and we just have to buy it. Of course, there are still routes that they can go with that will make the show more interesting, like for example they can do something with Taiga and Emu and their game addiction/obsession and that can be really great, but all this special feeling since the beginning really bugs me.

I think since I'm already here let me talk about the characters. Emu is a precious kid, there are times in which he kinda gets under my skin, but I overall like him. I especially love that he works as a pediatrician, in the beginning, especially considering this is a kids' show, I like to have this idea of doctors being heroes in the mind of children because they really are (despite the health care system in a lot of countries make it looks like they're villains). Other than him being extra special there are two things the show does with him that I don't like, the first one is that after the first arc is done they make him leave pediatrics to start doing surgeries and while I understand that as an intern that's the normal course and he probably has to go through different areas before choosing a specialty, but I feel like that was done just to hone more the rivalry with Hiiro and I don't really care for that, I hope he's back at pediatrics later on because I feel like it's what makes more sense for him and for the target audience of this show. The other thing I don't like is his personality change when he "starts a game" because it never felt like there was much of a change in any of the cases, they just make a gust of wind and he shows a grim for a few seconds, but nothing changes. And seeing that this is a plot point they want to explore it annoys me that they never made that play out before, it's bringing something up when it's convenient and saying that they had a basis for that but the basis is a single small thing that was never brought up to attention before.

Moving to Hiiro, I Hate Him and that's all I have to say. And I hate him even more because the show put him in a relationship where he was very cold and dismissive of his significant other and still they want to make us sympathize with him, they frame it as "the girl left because she didn't want to bother your studies" instead of "she left you because you were a jerk". But of course, they can't make that because then they wouldn't be able to make the stoic character they want so much, they would have to make someone who's trying to become a better person after he lost someone important that he didn't give the proper attention to, and that's much harder and they don't want that. UGH, I hate this man so much.

Taiga. Taiga is... interesting, I like the concept of someone who worked at CR before but lost himself to addiction, that's a great plot point. It's sad they don't do much with him and we end up with another obsessive jerk. Still, don't hate him as much because I can see the potential for them doing something very cool with him, but as of now, he's in the pile of hate.

Kiriya was probably my favorite character of this cast, it was really fun seeing him go from a mysterious man lurking around to someone who looks very deceptive, and all the journey of him investigating the truth as the episodes where going, and seeing his credibility be questioned but he never gave up despite that, it was all very great. Do I think it was a cheap move to kill him before he could tell the truth about Emu? Yes, I do. Because this is something we see everywhere, it's not a new trick. But I still felt his death, and if they don't come up with a way to revive him somehow I'll give this show props because it was a bold move to kill off a character during the Christmas special.

About Genm, and all the villains for that matter, I don't have much to say. I don't get them, I'm not curious to understand them, thus I don't care for them. It's interesting that the powers of the riders end up coming from the main villain? A bit? But then again, if you have all of these powers and you're handing them to people who oppose you, it seems like it's very counter-intuitive. At least they have the excuse that he's gathering data from them, but if he never recovers those gashats, is he really getting the data he wants? I don't know, everything about him and the villains seems very odd. But for what's worth, he almost killed himself to gather data for a zombie game and that was pretty wild so I guess that counts? About Graphite and Parad, I don't have anything to say, don't really care for them.

This leaves us with the side characters. Asuna/Poppy, I wanna like her but sadly I don't. If she is the "token girl" of the season, I'm at least glad she's not a romantic interest and that she fills in as a support role, but still, don't know why she can't just be a regular nurse that goes a little crazy sometimes. Though I guess if they had gone this route with her she would probably become Kiriko 2.0 and that's also bad so... There's the Director of the hospital, and I just hate him, I hate that they make someone who's supposed to be the leader of the hospital sooooo stupid. And he's stupid at all times, he doesn't even get the treatment Jun had in which he was there for comedy but he also had his moments where he was serious and those moments were pretty good. This dude is just here to make his eyes pop and drool over his son and I hate that. Mr. Minister should've chosen someone better suited for this job. And last, there's Nico who just seems like another jerk I don't like, but I'm holding on talking about her because I think I've only seen her for 2 or 3 episodes and she appeared very little so I can't say much about her.

I intended to talk about the Dr. Pac-Man movie, but they actually integrated that plot in the show in a much more flashed out way this time around so I feel like it would be redundant to talk about it since the bigger points I would have to make were already touched on. But let me say, what a mess of a movie. Like, there was no reason for Wizard and Gaim to be there, like how did Gaim even get there in the first place? This movie would be much better with only Drive, Ghost, and Ex-Aid, because they actually had a decent plot going around there that connected very nicely. But it's still a cross-over movie and they make a lot of things I hate about these cross-overs, the awful rider forms are there, there was an awful huge CGI battle scene that looked ugly as hell (though props to them for making this fight happen mid-way and not at the end), there was that scene were the riders started to speed-run through their old forms that were also pretty awful because I could barely understand what was going on in the scenes, all the mess that every rider cross-over movie has. But the thing that annoyed me the most this time around wasn't even that, was Ghost being Ghost again and putting another countdown to doom into Takeru and bringing Akari in this hell with him, and having ANOTHER fake-out death for him at the end. GOSH, THIS ANNOYS ME SO MUCH, LET THIS DUDE LIVE, STOOOOOOP.

And before wrap-up let's talk about what everyone loves, the designs.

This is probably the group with my least favorite designs EVER in this franchise, I'm sorry. I get, they're taking inspiration of different game genres, and the different forms are like they're leveling up, and in concept, I like that but in actual looks, only a very few of them get to pull it off. To begin with, I don't even know what those belts are supposed to be, they look way too busy and I can't define what that shape is.

The Level 1 forms are a mistake. I know, it's Mario before he eats a mushroom, it's still ugly as hell, and I hate that when they grow to their Level 2 forms the head of Level 1 goes to their back like a backpack. In terms of Level 2, I wasn't a fan of Ex-Aid's eyes at first but the design grew on me a lot, I love the colors and how vibrant it is, I also like Genm's because it's just a color variation and it looks good so... Kinda wish his hammer arm stayed as a hammer all the time though, makes Brave having a sword less special. And speaking of him, despite hating his character, as an RPG fan, I do love his design. Snipe, on the other hand, is an abomination. That thing on his right eye that is supposed to hair? What the fuck Kamen Rider, you can do better. Well... at least he's not just a bike, I guess. Thinking about it now, I should've known that Kiriya would end-up dying when his level 2 form was just a bike, that was a major red flag. At least he looks cool.

Sadly Level 3 starts to make everything look ugly again because the power-ups are attachments and they usually go only in the upper body making everyone look like an ice cream cone. I don't think there's a single Level 3 design I like, all of them look awful. I think Shakariki Sports and Jet Combat offend me the most, but all of these can be thrown in the trash. Together with the shared Level 5 power-up, gosh talk about an awful form, it's so bulky, and that dragon head looks so ridiculous, I think the only Level 5 that works is Brave's because in the end it just looks like he's branding his sword, but everyone else looks awful, in special the Full Dragon form.

The Level 10 forms are fun because I love Genm's zombie version, black and white is an easy combination but it works so well, and this dude looks so freaking cool, also NO BACKPACK HEAD! Also, he has a much better belt than the others, this should be the design for all the riders, it's not very big, it's easily recognizable as a portable console, it just looks good you know? But then we have Ex-Aid's Level 10 and he's chibi ex-aid again and he looks awful, thankfully this form is just a set for us to get Level 20 Left and Right that is a concept I love and definitely my favorite suits out of the ones for this season so far. Would I like it better if there wasn't the shoulder piece with Lv.10's head? Definitely, but I still love these forms. I personally love the right side more because after all we already have a light blue rider on the team, but I also think the bright orange with blue accents looks more appealing and stands out more than the blue with orange accents. The last form present in these 15 episodes is Para-DX's Puzzle and Fighting game forms, and I hate the puzzle form, it's really ugly, the fighting game form works way much better, but the back of the helmet being Puzzle's head brings it down a little.

And that's it for this post. Not gonna lie, considering how much I didn't enjoy this show at the beginning, I'm very surprised by how long this post is. I think it's a sign I'm invested so I'm hoping we'll have only good things from here on now. If you have anything to add, please share your thoughts in the comments down below. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so much for reading me rant for so long, and until the next time. See ya in the next game.

[prettyboy-parker]

i promise i’ll come back for you

fic for this moodboard

ship: winterspider

words: 1.3k

warnings: internalized and societal homophobia

my ao3: prettyboy_parker

Bucky falls in love too easily.

First it was at age 12, with Sandra, ( or was it Sarah? ) whom he shared his first kiss with. ( A waste, if you ask him. ) She promptly broke up with him a week later, claiming that she needed to “find herself” or whatever. A week after that the entire school knew that she was with some kid in his math class.

Second was at age 16, when he proclaimed his love to his then girlfriend Nancy after a football game. He was sure that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, that she was the one . Unfortunately, she had different ideas. Turns out she was getting it with a senior from a different school.

And third?

Well, that’s a different story.

———

“James Barnes?”

A youngish woman pokes her head into the makeshift waiting room of the recruitment center. He visibly grimaces at his full name, but gets up quickly since he’s been waiting for almost an hour. The metal chair scrapes on the floor, the other men seated wincing. The woman gives an almost pained smile and a quick “Follow me.”

She leads him across the open-plan warehouse that was hurriedly made into another recruitment center. They weave in and out of desks and people until they get to the “hospital” part of the center.

“Please, take a seat.” She orders, patting the examination bed.

He hops on, the protective sheet crinkling and adding more noise to the already loud room.

“Nurse Parker will be with you in a moment.” She says with a smile, pulling the curtain around the table.

At least he has privacy.

He stares at his hands that rest in his lap, littered with cuts from beating up another one of Steve’s tormentors. He’s picking off a scab when the curtain rustles and he looks up.

There’s a gorgeous young man standing there, and wow, is he even a man? Boy would be a better term.

There’s no way this kid’s the nurse.

“Hi Mr. Barnes!” He chirps, extending his hand for Bucky. He takes it, giving a firm handshake and boy does he have the most delicate hands.

“I’m Nurse Parker, but you can just call me Peter.” The boy, Peter, says with a wink, uncapping his pen.

Bucky smiles, staying silent because he’s currently at a loss for words.

“Do you have any medical conditions you know of, Mr. Barnes?” He asks, and Bucky has to mentally pinch himself to acknowledge Peter.

“No, not that I know.” He responds, watching Peter furiously scribble something on his report.

“Alright hon, can you roll your sleeve up for me? I need to take your blood pressure.”

Bucky does as he’s told, Peter prepping the machine next to him. Wordlessly, the young man slides the cloth part up his arm, fingertips lingering for a bit too long.

Peter records all his data quickly, checking a few more things before deciding his verdict.

“Okay, Mr. Barnes, you meet the requirements. You’re good to go.” Peter smiles, handing the paper to him.

“Thanks, Peter. And my friends call me Bucky.” He takes the paper and folds it into his pocket.

“Alright then, Bucky. I’m actually done my shift, so I can show you to the door.” Peter offers, taking Bucky’s hand and helping him off the table.

“How about I walk you home?”

Peter cocks his eyebrow and drops his hand.

“It’s a bit of a walk.” He laughs nervously, pulling on the sleeve of his work uniform.

“I don’t have anywhere to be.” Bucky responds, pulling open the curtain slowly.

“Okay, I guess.” Peter agrees, “I have to run and get my bag. You can just meet me outside.”

He scurries away, obviously a little flustered. Bucky smiles to himself as he turns his report in to the lady at the front desk. He heads outside, the bitter New York air hitting him in the face. Peter is quick to follow.

“Are we ready, Mister Parker?”

“We sure are, Mister Barnes.”

———

The next time he sees Peter is at the grand Stark Expo.

“Peter!” Bucky decides to shout ( which may be a poor choice ) and the brunette turns around.

His face literally lights up .

“Bucky!” He squeaks, maneuvering his way through the throng of people.

“Hey, sugar. Fancy seeing you here.” Bucky quips, nudging him with his clothed elbow.

Peter looks away in embarrassment, brushing a few astray curls out of his eyes.

“Yeah, guess so. You look...” Peter looks him up and down, “..very dapper.”

Does he have a thing for my uniform?

“You like a man in uniform, darlin’?”

This causes a flush to creep up Peter’s neck.

“No, I, that’s- I don’t-“ Peter stammers, fiddling with the edge of his suspenders.

“Hush. Let me buy you a drink.”

15 minutes later they’re walking through a nearby park with iced tea in hand. (Peter protested alcohol, because he’s only 20.)

“You’re ludicrous, Bucky!” Peter giggles, taking the last sip of his iced tea.

“I wouldn’t say that, doll.” He responds, looking down at the younger.

Peter looks back up at him, big doe eyes sparkling with laughter.

“Hey, there’s a bench over there, you wanna sit down?” Bucky offers softly, gently brushing Peter’s sleeve with his fingers.

“Sure.” Peter replies, walking over to the wooden bench sat under a tree.

Bucky brushes a few leaves off of the bench, sitting down next to Peter.

“Nice night, isn’t it?” Bucky says mindlessly, resting his arm on the back of the bench.

“Yeah.” Peter breathes, turning to face Bucky.

God, his face is so beautiful. So perfect. So angelic.

“You’re gorgeous.” Bucky whispers before he can stop himself.

“Bucky.” Peter says softly, resting his hand on his thigh.

“Can I kiss you?”

Peter responds with a quick nod.

He closes his eyes and leans in, finally closing the gap between him. His lips are oh so soft, such a stark contrast against his chapped ones. Peter leans in closer, and he’s so inexperienced but Bucky loves it. He can’t help but move his hand to cup his cheek, running his thumb over the soft skin.

“Bucky,” Peter says when they pull away, breathless.

“This-it’s wrong.” He mumbles, eyes focused on the dying grass.

Bucky’s hand slides down his neck, rubbing the cross on Peter’s necklace between his fingers.

“Then why does it feel so right?” He responds, turning Peter’s head so he can look at him.

“Goodness, Bucky, you’re making this so hard.” Peter breathes solemnly, dainty hand pressed against his chest.

“Please, Peter, give this a chance. I leave in a month. We can make it work.”

Peter kisses him again.

———

The days leading up to his departure are nice. They’re spent in Bucky’s shitty apartment, sprawled out on the makeshift bed that takes up most of the room. They’re spent tangled together, lazy mornings and soft touches. They’re spent walking Peter to work, a soft squeeze of his hand to say goodbye. They’re spent at bars that Bucky snuck Peter in to, a hand on his thigh under the table. They’re spent with stolen kisses before Peter suddenly gets called into work, kisses to the back of his hand while waiting in line for rations, kisses in the back of the dark movie theatre. They’re spent hand in hand in an underground gay bar, praying that they don’t get caught. They’re spent swaying in each other’s arms in their kitchen, radio loud, but not too loud.

They spend their days falling in love.

And for the first time, Bucky is loved back .

And he doesn’t want to cry as he sees Peter waving from the train platform, so he blows a kiss instead. Peter pretends to catch it and holds it to his heart.

Right then and there Bucky makes a promise.

I promise I’ll come back for you.

[boogiewrites]

Reports & Repertoire 13

Characters: Eddie Brock x Venom x Candace Miller (OFC)

Word Count:  7100+

Summary:   Venom romances Candy in an attempt to seduce her to get her to sleep with them. It works.

Warnings/Tags: Explicit Sexual Content: Threesome with Venom giving oral sex. Fluff. Flirting. Seduction. Romance. Venom being very into rom-coms. Eddie being a gorgeous dumb ass. Venom’s understanding of romance is a bit cliche, but his (Eddie’s?) heart is in the right place.

Click on my icon then go to Mobile Masterlist in my bio for my other works and chapters. (Had to do this since Tumblr killed links, sorry.)

Candy and Venom had been taking into consideration their discussions about sex, trying to get to a place of comfort and mutual validation with each other. It gave Eddie some time to breathe as far as Venom talking constantly in his head. He'd been reading up on human relationships, what was healthy and not, as Candy liked to always say communication was the key to a healthy one. Venom knew healthy was a good thing and he wanted to have their relationship running as well as he did Eddie's body.

They had many texts while they were apart about sex. This was crucial to their, very specific situation. They talked about what they liked, what they didn't, what they had or hadn't tried before and Eddie hadn't ever been with someone who actively wanted to know about his sexual history. Candy told him she wanted to know so she could help him overcome this shyness he seemed to have about what he liked. Her openness led to deep dive discussions on taboo's, society and culture expectations and Venom was enthralled.

Once Venom felt like he had enough data to approach the situation delicately, which is what he had been told would be best, he moved onto the part he had already learned the most about. Romance. Venom liked romantic comedies. He didn't understand the appeal of the tragic ones, not understanding why people would want to feel sad while intaking entertainment, but he watched everything he could find that he could get to.

"Eddie," he says one evening, being full of human remains and just having watched an 80's rom-com. "I have realized something."

"Oh yeah?" Eddie says, eating out of the Tupperware container he'd taken of leftovers from the last time he and Candy cooked together. Or rather, the last time she tried to teach him how to cook and she and Venom had made him look like he couldn't even boil water.

"You and Candy have established your fondness, your coupling in an official capacity." he begins.

"Thought you were all about romance right now? That's the least sexy thing I've ever heard." he chuckles.

"Shut up Eddie, listen to me." he turns his hovering head to his hosts face. "I have not done that. Even though you and I...we are one, she does not see it that way. I think that I, as a singular being, need to tell her these things myself." he stares at Eddie with rounded eyes.

"Couldn't hurt." he says supportively.

"I want us to be romantic Eddie. We could woo her now. We understand making love, the emotions, the tenderness, the connection." he continues. "We could be together with her and consummate this relationship."

"Woah, bud, I know we like her but I don't think proposing is the right way to go right now." he says with a hesitant frown.

"Marriage? I did not say marriage." Venom tilts his head.

"Isn't that what consumers means?" he wonders with narrowed eyes, as if he were asking himself, and on a technical level, he was.

"Eddie. You are handsome always and dumb sometimes." he says, nuzzling against his cheek.

"Hey..." Eddie pouts.

"It is is a term not exclusively used to mean marriage." he explains.

"Alright. So you wanna ask Candy to be your girlfriend too?"

"I think it would be beneficial. Do you?"

"Worth a shot." he shrugs.

"I will need to teach you about romance Eddie." Venom says, perking up.

"I think I know what romance is, bud." he rolls his eyes.

"I am inside your brain Eddie. You do not." he informs flatly.

"Says the alien...the not human alien...to a human male who has had relationships before." he purses his lips at his friend.

"All have failed. With the exception of Candy. And I am trying to stop that from happening."

"Ouch." he says, his chin pushing into his neck.

"It's true."

"Yeah but...shit, you don't gotta come for my neck like that." he shakes his head and sighs. "So if I don't know about romance...what exactly are you plannin' on doin' then huh? Teddy bears? Flowers? Candy's a smart woman, you're gonna have to go beyond a box of chocolate."

"There will be all those things," he says, looking around the room. "But lucky for you..." he says, swooping into Eddie's face. "I pay attention...I know what she likes."

"Okay so what's the plan?" he says putting the empty container on the coffee table.

"First, we need to look at our bank account..."

"Oh jesus..." Eddie grumbles and rubs his temples. ---------------------- Candy was out a business dinner and fighting the urge to look at her phone. Not that it would help the time go by faster, but she knew Eddie was at home waiting for her and she hadn't seen him in two weeks and she was going through withdrawals. She remained vigilant, being feminine and approachable for the network higher-ups as she spoke in sound bites and vague but ambitious goals for what she wanted for the show.

She had grown up having to learn how to eat a lot of shit from men with power. Being from a small town with a mostly religious population she was used to being told to act like a lady and behave herself. She hated doing both of those things when forced, but she was thankful for the practice as she performed hyper-feminine for these monkey's in suits, telling them what they wanted to hear. With what she felt where borderline inappropriate cheek kisses, lingering too long with audible sniffs. Hands on her ribs and lower back that there certainly inappropriate enough to warrant her dropping her smile and moving away quickly. She got to watch the men leave in their chauffeured, all black gas guzzler and decline an offer to go back for drinks to their suite.

As they faded out of the distance, she sent Steph a picture of her rolling her eyes, saying she was calling an uber and getting the fuck home. She takes her foldable flats out of her purse, switching from the high strappy heels she'd been wearing and sits on a bench to change them. She puts her blazer over her tight dress before moving to text Eddie. She hears a rumble of a motorcycle and doesn't think anything of it. She's texting him that it went well and she'd be home soon.

"Hey, there gorgeous. Need a ride?" Eddie flashes her a charming smile, helmet sitting in his lap as her eyes rise to instinctively to tell whoever it was to fuck off but her face softens as soon as she sees him.

She gives him an entirely charmed closed mouth smile, rising quickly, her heels in her hands, as she rushes towards him, wrapping her arms around him and his worn leather jacket.

"Hey baby," he says in a deep voice that makes her sigh. His phone dings. "Hold on just a sec. This is probably my girlfriend, gotta get this," he says, gently pushing her away as she rolls her eyes and laughs at him. "Ah. Yep. Looks like I can't give you a ride, toots, my old lady needs me back home." he jokes and gives her a dopey smile.

"You idiot," she says with a soft giggle, leaning in to kiss him. "I missed you," she whispers against his lips. Her phone dings. She pulls away and pulls it from her purse. "Hold on. This is probably my dumb ass boyfriend." she smiles and kisses his cheek, looking to the phone to reveal a response of "k". "Oh you know I hate it when you do that." she shakes her head and narrows her eyes playfully.

"I do. But I plan on makin' up for it tonight." he shifts his brow suggestively.

"Oh you do?" she says with an impressed tone. "What's the plan Mr. Brock?"  she asks with a coy smile, taking out the helmet that was designated as hers and replacing the empty space with her heels.

"We both have a nice night planned for you." he says in a much more sincere tone.

"What have my boys been doing with that key to my place? Not messin' it up I hope." she grins and takes the flannel from the other saddle bag, Eddie watching her ass as she bends over the bike to reach it.

"Just a little." he jokes. "Nothing a few thousand in property damages won't cover." he shrugs.

She ties the flannel around her waist. "If I'd known you were coming I would've brought leggings or something."

"We wanted to surprise you."

"Well you did, good job." she gives him another kiss to the cheek, getting to smell that cologne and clean laundry combination that her brain had trained her body to react to. "Good thing I wore panties, huh?" she snickers. "Gonna try to not flash everyone. Last thing I need is a Britney and Paris a 'la 2006 flash shot getting out on the internet." she laughs, snuggling up to Eddie.

"Well they're doin' just fine now," he says supportively. "Imagine the boost in ratings!" he says with a laugh.

"Come for the pussy, stay for the news. That old saying." she snorts. "Take me home, babe, I wanna snug up with you," she says putting her hands under his jacket, feeling his warm stomach under her hands. She feels Venom move over her hands while they're concealed. "You too Venom. Get us home." she sighs happily.

---------- Eddie rolls his bike into the small space available in the garage Candy shares with the family that lives in the other half of the house she lives in. "Don't go in yet!" he calls out, shuffling out the garage, closing the door as she jingles her keys in her hand.

"You were kidding about the property damage weren't you?" she asks flatly.

"Yeah! Yeah." he nods and takes her hand, taking the keys from the other "We just wanted to surprise you." he says with that dopey smile that makes her want to kiss his big soft lips.

"Surprise me?" she questions in an unsure tone.

"Yeah, close your eyes...lemme get ya inside." he mumbles, pulling her forward and then releasing her hands. "Just a minute! Promise!" she hears his boots hitting the floor and heading into the kitchen. "Just stay right there!" she hears his voice moving, and clasps her hands together.

She takes a deep breath, wondering what on earth these two were up to.

"Kay...kay..." he mutters, moving back towards her. "Follow me. NO peaking!" Eddie says. She feels Venom cover her eyes and she places her hands over him.

"You ask me not to peak I'm not gonna." she says defensively.

"No chances." Venom's voice hits her ears. She's pulled in the direction of the living room, and Eddie places his hands on her shoulders.

"Alright." he says looking over to the symbiote. "Count of three?" he says optimistically.

"One...two...three." Venom counts slowly, nervously, as he pulls his hand like shaped goo from her eyes.

She blinks them open to find a dim room. As she adjusts, the candlelight from white pillar candles dots the room. There's every sort of romantic cliche she's ever thought of. A giant teddy bear in her reading chair, chocolate dipped strawberries and champagne on the coffee table next to a large bouquet of roses.  Eddie taps his phone screen and music starts playing throughout the house.

"Wh-" she begins, a huff of air pushed out in confusion but gratefulness. "What's all this for?" she says with a much sweeter turn to her words.

"We wanted to do something nice for ya." Eddie says subtle shrug, motioning to Venom who was moving from behind her to in front of her.

"We wanted to woo you. You deserve it." he begins, his face showing much less angular, more human shaped with rounded eyes to make himself less look intimidating.

"Boys..." she lilts and pouts. "You didn't have to do this." she insists and lets out a soft laugh.

"You are worth the trouble." Venom states as he watches her wide eyes taking in the room.

"Besides, Venom has this thing... where he can store things inside himself so... he stole a bunch of this." Eddie rubs the back of his neck and laughs.

Candy looks to him and he nods and she lets out a warm laugh that eases his nerves. "I like your style." she nods in appreciation.

"Thank you. You like it?"

"I love it, it's entirely too sweet and adorable, seriously." she coos, moving to put her hands on either side of his face. "Thank you Venom, this was all very thoughtful of you." she strokes the side of his head lovingly and his eyes shut for a moment. He seems so harmless like this. Such a lovely body of goo and space matter, with a metaphoric heart of gold. She wondered if perhaps it was Eddie's softness that leads him to want to be so affectionate to her. She figures she should repay him. "Can I give you a kiss to thank you?" she says softly and his eyes go round like a cartoon and she chuckles at him.

"Yes. Yes." he nods. She plants her lips to his forehead and pats his cheek. The warm but quivering mass moving underneath her mouth.

"Thank you, you big sweetie." she coos.

"There is more." he says quietly. Eddie watches the interaction, feeling elated himself, as Venom had his heart fluttering at Candy's approval.  He glides a tendril out of sight and retrieves a box from within himself.

"What's that?" Eddie and Candy both ask. Eddie had told him no about buying a ring, he wanted to date her not scare her off by going too hard too fast. It wasn't like it hadn't crossed Eddie's mind, but he was trying to refrain himself from moving too fast. Which was something he had the tendency to do.

"A gift." Venom responds with a teasing tone, nudging it towards her.

"Why are you doing all this for me?" she asks with a pout.

"Because we want to romance you." he rasps out. "Eddie has had his chance to become your boyfriend," he pauses and takes the top off the small box and holds out a gold heart locket to her. "I would like to be as well. I thought if I asked you formally and showed you how I...we care for you with grand gestures you would be inclined to say yes to me. As you did Eddie. We are one...but you see me as another person and I want to show you that I care for you just as much as Eddie does." he puts the locket around her neck as he speaks, fluffing her hair back in place, gentle strokes to her cheek and neck with warm and soft limbs before he draws them away.

"Venom, sweetheart." she replies happily and reaches down to touch the gift. "You...ugh..." she lets out an exaggerated breath and moves to wrap her arms around him, he forms a more human shape, shoulders, and arms to embrace her back. "You're going for boyfriend of the year, huh?" she sighs happily. "He's really showin' you up here Eddie." she teases and kisses the side of the symbiote’s head.

"I mean I helped..." he shrugs and smiles. "What's in the other rooms was my idea though." a more mischievous look comes over his face.

"What's in there?" she asks, looking to Venom.

"Quit it Eddie. Me first. This is equally as important to the process." Venom gruffs at him.

"Process?" she asks an uncertain expression.

"Candy." he returns his voice to something softer. "Look." he says, flicking open the locket. Inside was a tiny photo of himself in one side and Eddie in the other.

"Oh my god." she laughs. "This is the cutest thing I've ever seen." she covers her mouth to hold in a laugh because the picture of venom, although tiny is well shot. The picture of Eddie looks like it was taken while Venom was bothering him, his face annoyed and smashed. "You seen this?" she asks Eddie with a grin.

"No. I had no idea about the necklace," he admits, leaning in to see. "What the hell, dude?" he says shoving Venom.

"I got it. I made the decisions." he grins and closes it gently. "She can remember me fondly."

"And I look like a pile of angry mashed potatoes?" he says with raised brows.

"If you'd gotten her something you could've picked out the picture." he sass's back and they both look at Candy as she sighs loudly, a warm smile appearing on her face.

"You two are ridiculous. I love it." she says with a shake of her head.

"He is ruining the mood." Venom says reaching out a hand to put to Candy's cheek, causing her to blink rapidly at the affectionate touch that felt almost human. "I wanted to show you we are capable of romance and worthy of being with. I thought if I did this, you might be inclined to be with us again." he mumbles the last part.

"Sexually?" she says with a deep turn of her voice and a playfully raised eyebrow before Eddie let's out a small snort in amusement.

"To be honest...yes." he admits.

"You askin' me to be your girlfriend too?" she clarifies with a polite smile.

"Yes." he nods.

"Okay..." she says thoughtfully. "This is very romantic, you did a really good job." she begins. "I've already considered myself your girlfriend. You and Eddie are a package deal right?" she shrugs.

"Told you." Eddie says with a much more supportive fist to the symbiote’s shoulder.

"But you asking means a lot. And yes. I consider you to be my partner too." she says with a hard nod. "That's why I bring you chocolate and pills when I bring Eddie beer and food," she explains. "I don't want one of you being left out." she looks to both of them. "It's been super weird and hard at times to come to terms with this. But we've come a long way." she nods enthusiastically. "I care about both of you, you know." she pats the hand that lingers on her shoulder.

Venom moves in slowly, and she does not flinch, but watches him with curiosity, not seeing fear in her eyes makes his body soften and sends a shudder through Eddie. He nuzzles against her face and neck, up under her hair and lets out a purring sound. "Thank you, Candy. I am glad you are ours. Eddie was very lucky to find you." his voice is soft and deep, not having the monstrous gravel as it used to have so heavily.

"And you were lucky to find each other." she says with a smile. "I don't have to worry about him as much with you around. I know you've got his back." the affectionate rub of her thumb against his hand makes him purr again." So let me get both by big soft boys in here, huh?" she says with a big smile, holding out her arms. "I've got two arms, c'mon. Plenty of room for both of ya." she chirps.

Venom wraps around her to her back, nuzzling over one shoulder while she wraps her arms around Eddie's neck. Venom encases them both in a warm embrace, the long tendrils stretching, wrapping and spreading around them and squeezing. "Aw, this is nice." Venom says quietly.

"Who picked the music?" she asks with a subdued laugh.

"We both kinda did." Eddie murmurs as they pull away from the embrace. "He found some 90's r & b playlists that were just a bit too...sexually forward in my opinion." he says defensively.

"Music made for having sex to makes sense to listen to when you have intentions of having sex." Venom states obviously. "You humans like to seduce each other with it."

"So you are trying to seduce me?" Candy smirks and crosses her arms.

Venom’s head moves back to her quickly after defending himself to Eddie. "Yes. The gifts act as a mood setter to show you we care for you beyond the physical. But the physical...we want that too yes." he nods.

"So...what's in the other room, huh? You plan on seducing me...next step is the bedroom right?" she says with a confident shake of her head.

"Bedroom is the third step. Let me begin the second one." Venom states as he stretches in through the bedroom door.

Candy turns to Eddie, her face at ease, eyeing him up and down. "You have anything else in there you know I like?" she asks with a tilted head and more suggestive smile as he gestures to the phone in his hands.

"Sam Cooke." he says with a charming smile.

"Mmmm." she nods approvingly.

"Marvin Gaye." he adds with a smirk.

"Oh you're lookin' for trouble, huh?" she playfully scolds and laughs, leaning in closer to him.

"Lots of 70's rock ballads. I know you like those slow jams." his voice dips lower and gives her the slightest bit of tease.

"I do love some good dad rock." she chuckles. "I'm from the country, I can't help it." she shrugs shamelessly.

"Also!" he says, with a raised finger, getting distracted by one of the gifts that were his idea. He moves towards the bedroom. "This is a new system," he says proudly. "I'll put it on your phone later." he beckons her closer with his hand. "We got these speakers and they play the same song through the whole house." she can hear music coming from her bathroom as well as the brightly colored pod on her dresser.

"It's called synced Eddie." Venom says, poking his head out from the bathroom.

"Yeah, they're synced up." he mumbles, scrolling through the playlist they'd made.

She hears the bath running and looks with a lowered brow towards the sound. "What's step two of the seduction of Candace Miller?" she smirks.

"We knew you had that meeting tonight. And you'd not been looking forward to it so I thought tonight might be a good chance for us to help you relax...put you in a better headspace y'know?" Eddie says with a subtle shrug, eyes soft and voice the same.

"We wanted to help facilitate us all being together. We know what relaxes you the most." Venom's deep voice comes as he slithers from the bathroom, a limb extended to pass through Candy's hair. "Can we help you relax Candy?" Venom asks, his head hovering near her face. She feels a slight thrill run through her at the suggestion.

"I went and got your favorite things from that fancy soap store too." Eddie begins, walking over to the bathroom door and opening it. They'd set up a romantic scene in there as well, candles carrying from the bedroom to the bathroom.

"Lush?" she asks, seeing the bubbles in the tub.

"Yeah. I know you like those fizzy things so we got some 'a them and bubble bath." he offers shyly, holding his hand to her. Venom wraps around her shoulders, a gentle push towards Eddie.

"They're called bubble bars." Venom corrects.

"Yeah." Eddie frowns at him for only a second before turning his eyes back to her. "We wanted to suggest that you have a good soak and tell us how your meeting went. Get it out of your system? So we could... y'know... maybe spend the night together?" he offers with a face that shows his hopefulness.

She takes a slow breath, looking around the pale colored room with the warm rosy tones of candles flickering. With the smell of jasmine in the air, she runs her fingers over the lip of the tub, her face indifferent and trying to let go of the reservations she'd been holding onto. She told herself she'd try anything once. She hadn't expected that to be this exactly,but here she was.

"This is about you." Venom says, appearing over her shoulder. "Whatever you want of us. We want to do that." he clarifies, an inky black hand shaped limbs rubbing up and down her arms to ease her.

"Okay." she nods and exhales in a breathy voice. "I'll get in the tub and tell you when to come in, that work?" she turns to look at the over her shoulder. "Let me get my head in the right place?"

"Yes." Venom says with enthusiasm, a slight squeeze to her arms before he pulled away.

"We'll just be in here." Eddie says as his head pulls out of sight as he pulls the door to.

She takes in the ambiance, and they really had done a wonderful job. She hears the music switch, some mood setting rock and she grins. They were a bit eager, but then again, if her racing heart was any indication, so was she. She settles into the tub, her hair piled and pinned on top of her head messily. With painted toes wiggling on the rim, hands slow and pushing about mountains of bubbles she sighs and rests her head back. "C'mon in." she calls out.

They both appear, Eddie now in just a thin t-shirt as he'd stripped away some layers. Venom a soft blob on his shoulder.

"Hello boys." she greets with them her chin in the water, hiding an evocative smile.

Eddie gives her a soft look, one side of his lips tugging back farther than the other with those soft hooded eyes at ease at the sight of her wide-eyed in the bathtub. "I figure, Venom can get your feet, I saw those heels you were wearin' before I pulled up at the restaurant, I know you won't turn down a foot rub." he grins,  moving to the end of the tub behind her.

"You'd be right." she smiles, watching Venom settle at the other end, opposite Eddie.

"I read about how to do this." he says, tube-like extremities now picking up and moving her feet, starting to touch and manipulate them, the pressure growing firmer each time, a pleasant weight as the soft nubs at the end of his arms rub circles into the balls of her feet.

"Yes you have." she exhales contently, moving her arms to the rim of the tub. "What'd you doin' back there babe?" she asks Eddie, turning her head to the side to get a glimpse of him.

"Well I'm gonna take the top half here." he says in an amused way as his hands move to her shoulders.

She sits silently, having never had the attention of two people at once before, it makes her feel powerful. A faint flush across her face from the heat of the water and her thoughts becoming indecent. Two guys were supposed to be like a 'thing' right? She thought. As her neck and feet got rubbed simultaneously she was starting to see why.

"So how did the meeting go?" Eddie suggests, his wide, square-tipped fingers rubbing at the caps of her shoulders.

"It was fine." she sighs out, shutting her eyes and letting her head all forward. "The rating are good. Steady. They like my direction, want to focus on the younger demographic, political trends, protests...that sorta thing." her words aren't articulate as usual.

"How do you feel about that?" Eddie asks, hunching over on the footstool, his mouth now close enough to her ears she could feel his breath over her.

"You my therapist or you tryin' to fuck me?" she gets out before she laughs, the bubbles jiggling with her body in the water.

He blows out a raspberry and kisses her head. "Sorry for showin' interest in ya feelin's. We won't' do all this extra stuff and lovin' on you first next time." he chuckles.

"You know I'm just bein' stupid." she smiles and hums.

"Yeah I know." he mumbles into her hair.

"I gave them vague answers. I'm gonna keep trying for expose''s. You know that stuff really butters my biscuit." her shoulders heave slightly with a silent laugh.

"Does this?" Venom asks, fingers still working away, turning her ankles and swiping up her calves. It reminded her of getting a massage with a pedicure, her legs getting added in on the treatment.

"Yes, god yes, boys, this is..." she nods and lets out a groan. "You're gonna spoil me with this." opens her eyes slowly and gives him a smile.

"Do you recall me telling you about how this sexual encounter would work?" Venom asks, both still working away at her damp skin, Eddie rubbing the back of her neck with his thumbs, making her grunt.

"Remind me." she sighs out, lolling her head to the side.

"He said you wouldn't have to worry about him. Remember babe?" Eddie whispers and the sound of his voice low and suggesting anything sexual started a familiar ache between her thighs. "Me 'n you can just... be together like we used to." he rests his cheek against the side of her head, his hands moving slowly from her neck to her collar bones. "You do remember that don't ya, Candy?" his voice stays breathy and even, making her take a deep inhale.

She hums contently. "Yes I do." she smiles, shutting her eyes again, taking in the softness of his voice she loved, the way it never sounded harsh when it spoke to her like this.

He finds himself getting distracted, the low light bouncing off her chest, her nipples just visible, pinked and hard at the surface of the water. He runs his hand down her breasts, her thighs shifting as he did so, an audible exhale as he cupped them in his hands. "We can... touch and... kiss..." he adds placing one to her exposed neck. "Just like we used to." he clarifies, the water lapping against her as his thumbs move to brush across her nipples, drawing a soft moan from her.

"I will be there to bring us closer together." Venom chimes in, making her eyes flutter open to see him with a slightly parted mouth, a monstrous tongue peeking from behind teeth that were starting to gather drool in their anticipation, taking in the feelings Eddie was having as he touched her, watching every sign of arousal come across her face that he'd read about. "I want to add to the pleasure." he elaborates. "With me..." his voice becomes more rumbly, a hiss at the end of his words as he mimicked the heavier breaths of Eddie in her ear, his nose tracing the outline of her ear as Venom spoke to her. They communicated as one, executing their plan as discussed, able to tell each other what they wanted to do next to her. "We can all three experience things we otherwise couldn't." His eyes close just slightly, that long tongue unfurling out of his mouth, a slap lap against her feet that she didn't expect.

She'd had her toes sucked on before, but only in the middle of fucking and she'd never paid much attention to it. There was a warmth that was pleasurable about it. And with his agile and precise tongue, the way it lapped at her lovingly, as if he was enjoying it himself, she was finding herself not minding it in the least. His tongue started to venture away from her feet and with Eddie as his accomplice, her body didn't leave her with much of an option but to give over to it. Her mind fired on all cylinders with this new experience, it didn't read into her eyes as Eddie's plush lips moved across her neck and shoulder, thumb and index fingers rubbing her nipples between them she let out her first truly audible moan.

"He and I.... we both know how to work as a team now, babe." Eddie explains between kisses. "I know what turns you on... he knows what turns you on too." his voice is quiet, the pops of his lips catching against her skin as he spoke. "We'll be gentle. We want you to enjoy this, remember?"

"We want you to want us as much as we want you." Venom adds, face rubbing affectionately against her ankles. "I would not hurt you, Candy." he purrs out with a slow blink of his opal eyes.

"I wanna show you what it's like," Eddie whispers directly in her ear. "We wanna make you feel so good." he rasps out, causing her to shudder. "It's been so long, Candy." he groans. "You miss me as much as I miss you?" he kisses the shell of her ear before moving back to her neck.

She whines and her lashes flutter. She'd never felt so thoroughly seduced before. Every mans' talk had never led to anything that would make her not call them a liar afterward. But they really could give her something no one else could. And she wanted it. She reaches one hand out of the water, clumps of bubbles on her wet skin as she gently caresses the side of Eddie's head.  "I've missed you so bad, babe." she whispers, causing him to moan against her skin, hands tightening on her chest.

"Candy?" Venom hisses. The black web-like body of him moving in waves from her feet where it had been settled, slow and steady as it traveled up her calves, disappearing into the water. "May we taste you?"

She feels his body moving across her thighs, making her muscles twitch with anticipation. She nods before her mouth opens, half-lidded eyes connect to the symbiotes as it's chin rests in the water. "Yeah." she manages to whisper out as her fingers card through Eddie's hair, his thick lips still against her skin.

Venom disappears beneath the bubbles and she is left with only his touch to guide her as to what is happening under the surface. He parts her legs with gentle pressure. "Open up for him, babe." Eddie asks for him, hands wandering to her stomach, fingertips gripping into the soft pliant flesh of her body as he and Venom's hunger feeds off each other. She puts her ankles on the rim of the tub, feeling the tickle from Venom's body moving over the back of her thighs.

He begins with slowly oozing forward up her inner thighs, touching into places she wasn't used to being touched, seeping into every crevice, the crease of her thighs, against her lips, then between them as she feels something pressing against her thick lips. With a brief touch, her breath catches as he grazes over her clit. With Eddie taking in her reactions above the water, Venom knows what to repeat under it. Another flick, before she feels pressure push against her. It wasn't like Eddie going down on her, there weren't the luscious lips to create delicious suction, a busied little pink tongue wearing itself out against her. This was like a toy, she equated it to. And if he was to be an addition to the sex between her and Eddie, then the association seemed entirely reasonable.

He works against her, a hard but giving body against hers, flicks against her clit, circles and brushes and tugs that make her thighs tense and her back arch. She feels a more familiar texture, his tongue start moving against her, lower, taking in the wetness her body was giving him.

"You taste so good, Candy." Eddie groans against her throat. She moans and lets her eyes roll back at the words. His fingers hold tight and fast to her nipples, a firmer grasp against them as Venom teases around her entrance. "You ready for him?" he asks, her hand gripping into his hair.

"Yeah." she whimpers out, breathing fast and her other hand gripping the edge of the tub. He was gentle, as promised. The slender tip of his tongue sliding into her, giving way to a thicker and thicker stretch as he inched inside her. With a stuttered gasp, she grips Eddie's hair, fingers slipping on the edge of the tub from the water. Eddie watches as her head falls back, a moan leaving her mouth as his hand strokes upwards on her chest, slick against her neck as he kissed her cheek. She can feel the pressure of him inside her. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before, such a foreign sensation of having a muscle capable of so much delicate movement inside her. She could feel him fill her up, the pressure of his face against her inner thighs as he explored her, bubbles escaping to the top of the water.

Eddie watches her face, looking her over, letting Venom see what he was doing to her. He hisses and hummed and groaned into Eddie's mind. A new experience for all three of them. He tells Eddie how wet she is, how ready she is for them both. How he can feel the pulse of her against him as he envelopes her clit, massaging away at the area around it, direct attention given to it in gentle laps just as he'd seen in Eddie's head before. He tests her willingness to try something she hadn't with Eddie before, a brief stroke over her lower puckered hole with his reaching tentacle-like growths. She tenses and hums, a brief stop to the moans that he could hear from beneath the water. He adds gentle pressure slowly, keeping his promise to not hurt her. He feels her swell beneath him, the blood gathering between her thighs, beneath the skin to make every sensitive and tight. Her clit hard and her insides swollen with arousal as he begins to hone in on the spot that wasn't elusive to him and his shapeshifting form.

Above the water Candy grows desperate, Eddie's hard, pressing against his jeans, watching her pant and swear, her sounds of need growing louder and more familiar, recognizing the patterns with Venom's help. "Eddie," she whines, her lips trembling and turning her head to his. He asks her without words, a simple glance to her lips with those blue eyes gone dark and dilated under their heavy hoods what she needs. "Kiss me," she whispers, pulling him closer to her. "I'm close." she confesses in a heavy exhale against his lips before they meet for a harsh and hungry kiss. He lets his own noises battle against hers, moans as they hold each others heads, neck muscles tense and stretching as they work quickly against each other.

Venom knows from the twitch in her muscles before  Eddie's brain relays the information back to him that he's about to make her come. He amps up his movements, more pressure, faster speed as he rumbles against her, eager to please. Her toes squeak against the tub as they curl, her legs starting to shake. "Oh fuck," she whispers, barely audible. "Eddie," she whines and he moans at the sound. "I'm gonna come." she nods against him, voice weak and small, not the usual roar he was accustomed to. But he understood the intensity that Venom brought with him, he would've been surprised if he hadn't rendered her almost speechless.

Eddie feels her body start to tremble, holding her face to kiss her through it as he knows she prefers his face close to her when she comes. She breaks away to take a sharp inhale, moving to kiss the corner of her mouth as her lips part and her mouth drops open. A broken whimper grows into squeaks, her body convulsing in the tub, Venom drawing an intense orgasm from her greedily. Eddie's eyes roll back to match hers, hearing her, feeling her, the taste of her in his mouth again makes him painfully aware of how hard he is against the rough fabric of his jeans. He sees her face go from tight and looking pained to wide, gasping and full of surprise, knowing the peak had passed. As she was about to ask him to stop, growing far too sensitive to keep going at such an intense pace, Venom ghosts away from her. The small rapid movements stop, a slow slither away and off of her remains gentle afterward, a slow retreat of his tongue from her body, leaving her legs to sink back into the tub, thigh clenched together and jerking with aftershocks.

He rises out of the water, reminding her of old Godzilla movies, water falling off of a fearsome face. His eyes were slanted and looked aggressive, his tongue still slithering back into his mouth as Eddie panted next to her, lips pressed to her head as he watches Venom appear through piles of bubbles that still remain through their weak thrashing. Venom sees her damp and sparkling, pink, kiss-swollen lips that rest open and wanting, her chest heaving, the light dancing across it, making her looks delicious.

Without grace, the ability to conjure up any other response, or just the lack of there being an appropriate response to such a thing, she groans out, "Holy shit." as the muscles in her face begin to work again, moving from slack to engaged.

"Really is something else, isn't it?" Eddie says with a huff of breath that makes the corner of her mouth tug back into a smile.

"Yeah...is it." she nods, words still breathy as she caught her breathing back to normal.

"Candy." Venom rumbles, parting the sea of bubbles to move near her face, body moving behind him in the water like some sort of shredded sea monster. "Would you like to do that again?" he inquires,  smoothly moving from the water, disappearing into Eddie's back, only his head remaining as she looked up to them both.

"But with me this time?" she can see the need in Eddie's face as he asks politely.

"With us." Venom clarifies, a smiles that shows his teeth growing. She wonders how he hadn't bitten her in the process of going down on her.

She blinks up at them, glistening with drops of sweat and a veil of steam settled onto her skin. She nods and swallows noisily. "Yeah." a breathy response with a slow nod. "In the bedroom?" she asks, an enthusiastic smile growing across her face, glowing post orgasm.

Venom moves, thick tendrils into the tub, moving under her and slowly lifting her as she squeaks and reaches around Eddie's neck as he rises. "We got you babe, don't worry." he chuckles lightly against her neck.

"After that..." she gulps and nods, arms tight around him. "I'd say you certainly do." she says with a soft smile, meeting his eyes so they can both be sure to know the sentiment behind the words.

@hardygal69 @marvelgirl7 @emerald-bijou @negansdirtygirl22 @brianaisasongbird @vale0413 @izzy-the-ginger @chortletortoise @onomatopoetic-aesthetic @anrm1 @jademox @nightcraver @venomous-possibiities @tinastarkandco @chipster-21

[the-fiction-witch]

Tech Support

REAL LIFE: COUPLE: TBS X READER RATING: SMUT AF

"hello welcome to tech support how can I assist?"I cheerfully gleam As I know if I don't then I will get fried "Hu? Ohh thank fuck, hi yeah my computer has completely locked up and I have no idea what to do" the sweet sounding male voice explains "it's glitching out and it won't let me long in" "Okay, how long have you had the computer?" I ask "Like six months maybe" he says sounding unsure of his answer "Okay, what where you doing when this happened?" I ask "Why do you wanna know what I was doing?" He asked a little shocked "I am an adult man I do not have to explain to anyone what I'm doing on a Friday night alone" "Doing on the computer sir" I smiled "Ohh... right" he says clearly blushing "Is Uhhh is this being recorded?" "I can not tell you that sir, some calls are monitored but I can't tell you if yours is or isn't" I explain even if I can tell mine isn't "I know but just...like between us?" He asked "It's not" I smiled "Okay... I was Uhhh watching some internet videos" he explained "Okay what site where you on?" I ask "Uhhhhh... Just a site" he blushed "is it really important?" "Yes sir the site could have been the cause of the problem" I explain "I was on..." He began but then a very fast mumble of something under his breath that I didn't at all catch "Sorry sir could you repeat that please" I ask "I was on... HotvidsXXX" he said quietly "Okay, and what where you doing on the site?" I ask "Watching videos" he answered "Anything else?" I ask "Why do you wanna know?!" He asked sounding a bit shocked "I mean any downloads? Cookies that sort of thing?" I ask "Oooohhh... No, just watching" he answered "Okay, can I get the account name on the computer?" I ask "I think it's tbspersonal but that might be wrong" he answered "Yes sorry no names come up for that, can you give me a run down of your account profile?" "Thomas, 29, ..." He began going on to explain the email and such he had the account with and I found it "Mr sangster then?" I ask "Yep" he sighed sounding tried "The name is tbspersonal 160590 for future reference" I smiled "Ohh that might have been why it wasn't working" he laughs "Probably" I laughed "So any ideas why it's glitching?" He asks "Well that site does seem to have alot of reports of malware and viruses so I would suggest it was that" I explain "So what do I do?" He asks "it's signed in now what?" "I would suggest making sure you have any data backed up and doing a full rest on your computer you have a lot of stuff causing this" I explain "Okay, how long will that take?" He asks "Is the files are already backedup about half an hour" I smiled "Half an- uuuggghh! Fine" he sighed "I would suggest as well getting some kind of anti virus to stop this happening again" I explain "and I would also suggest somewhere like pronhub or Reddit next time Mr sangster much safer" I smirked "Really? Any good videos you want to recommend to me?" He smirked "Well that would depend on alot of things" "Come on tech girl don't kid me you see inside my computer you can see all my searches all my internet history, you probably know what I like better then I do?" He smirked "I'll make sure there is a text file full of links when your computer boots up again" I smirk making him a nice little file "Really? Humm is that what you think I like or what you like?" He asked "Both" I smirked "Yeah? Uumm ummm, I'll be sure to call you up again after and tell you what I thought of them" he smirked his voice sounding different deeper and like he was breathing more "so...we have half an hour till it boots up again" he smirked "you wanna... maybe you know" he smirked "What?" I ask "Well...you work for tech support you gotta be a smart girl, you know what I was doing when my computer broke" he explained and I blushed a little of course I did and it was kinda cute such a sexy sounding guy was obviously still horny "and you have a very sexy voice" he smirked "Ohh do I Mr sangster?" I ask "Yeah you do" he smirked "although honestly honey I was near completion when my computer broke, I didn't need much just a girl voice and i was gonna wanna do it" he smirked "Your video was only on for five minutes" I giggled "What are you implying?" He asked a little worried "Nothing," I smirked "so what video exactly where you watching?" I ask "Ohh come on you know how far into it I was you know exactly what I was watching honey" he smirked "Still for security" I lie "You little liar, alright, it was some couple on a underground train having a grope and a fuck" he smirked "Very interesting" I smiled "I always wanted to do that," he smirked "grope someone in the tube" he smirked "Perhaps you will soon" I smirked "Yeah? Tell me what stop and what time you get off work and I'll arrange it honey" he smirked "Perhaps some other time" I smiled as I noticed many of the people on my floor going off home leaving if almost empty so I finished off the file leaving my number and a little note on the bottom "your computer should have booted up fine now?" I ask "Yeah it did, thanks Hun now before you race off where did you hide that little file for me?" He asks "In the like fourth new folder with other new folders" I smirked "Clever girl" he smirked "how did you know that's where I keep it?" He asked "Lucky guess" I smiled "Did you look in the folder?" He asks "Maybe" I shrug I hadn't but I will now he mentioned it so I checked the file full to the brim with pictures and gifs all of them sexy and smutty "Hummm well... if your a curious little thing you could always go in the other folder in there? If you felt adventurous?" He smirked and of course after that I couldn't not look in it, it had pictures Mostly nice normal pictures of a very very handsome blonde guy but mixed in a Few that where...not so innocent "Why do you have these?" I ask "Sometimes it's easier to have them all done ready Incase a sexy girl wants to see" he smirked "in fact... That's pretty new one" he smirked as a picture just was saved in the file I looked closely and saw a phone in it clearly on this number as well as him clearly jerking himself off "Humm when was that Mr sangster?"I ask "About five seconds ago honey" he smirked "come on please... just let me finish sexy girl" he pleads "That would be very inappropriate" I smirk "I know, you know it too... but you haven't stopped me have you?" He growled as I could start to hear him with his fast pumps and harsh breathing I couldn't help feeling the ache between my legs hearing him so I slipped my hand under my skirt gently rubbing on my panties "what are... Uuuuuhh oh my god! Your really?" He asks "Of course it's my job to assist you" I smirk trying to keep quiet incase someone heard me "Uhhhh ummm ummmmm, fucking hell! I never got this my action out a sex call with my ex girlfriend" he smirked "uhhhh! I'm close honey, finish me please" he begs "Uhhh... Thomas" I whined "Uuuuuhhh! Uhhh uuuuuhhh! Fuck! Honey! Oh my god!" He moans as he clearly finished I went to stop but he must have heard me "Ohh no you don't, were not finishing this till you cum too" he smirked "come on honey cum for me, dirt that little desk chair come on I want it dripping down your fucking legs by the time I'm done with you" he smirked "Uhhh uuuuhh" I groaned rubbing harder trying to be quiet and not draw attention to myself "Quiet honey, Don't want someone to hear you" he smirked "uhh fuck you sound sexy your making me hard again already sexy girl" he smirked "Uuhh uuhh thomas-" I groan getting close "Uhh fucking hell ..., I didn't expect you to be this sexy, he's throbbing for your sexy groans honey.... Keep going honey, daddy needs to jerk of again while he listens to you" he moans "Uuuhhhh!" I sqeualed as I finished I felt it dripping down my legs a little I really did need that as I haven't gotten off in months "Uhhh uuuuuhhh uuuuuhh!!" He moans quickly finishing for the second time "whoa... Lucky you included the number honey I was about to ask for it" he smirked "I'll call you later, on this one talk about what I thought if these videos" he smirked "Very good Mr sangster, I'm happy I could resolve your issue" I smiled "Yes you did honey, both of them" he smirked "Excellent and how would you rate this tech support call?" I ask "Extremely satisfied honey" he smirked "but you already knew that" he smirked So I wrapped it up and called off getting my stuff to go home 'miss you already honey Xxx' came thought as I stood on the train home and I blushed a little as an idea came into my head

Thomas' pov:

I smirked as I got some tea after all that needing to get my energy back up I had sent her a text already if nothing else so she had my number when my phone went off so I grabbed it and checked Sexy tech support Xxx😘💜💦: Miss you too, wish you where here to...as it's something you've always wanted to do 😜 Picture

The picture was a very very cute girl stood on the tube in a little skirt and top gently and secretly groping her breast and I couldn't take it Mr Sangster💦😘💦: What stop are you getting off at?

Sexy tech support Xxx 😘💜💦: Why?

Mr sangster 💦😘💦: I'm picking you up honey X which stop? I'll be waiting outside for you

And soon enough she gave me the answer so I got my keys and hopped on my bike across town and as soon as I got there a sexy cute girl came up from the station I recognized her from the picture she saw me and smiled widely a little nervous "Hey" she smiled fixing her hair "Hey" I smiled "so? You wanna ride home honey?" I offered and she blushed with a little nod

Timeskip: I yawned a little feeling her arms tight around me so I smirked pulling her closer "ummm good morning honey" I smirk kissing her sweet lips "Good morning Thomas" she yawns "So? What do you wanna get up to this morning?" I ask her and she smirked climbing into my lap so I smirked pulling her closer kissing those beautiful lips holding her hips and the small of her back so we where as close as we could be "Thomas?" She asks sweetly "Yes my love?" I asked running my fingertips slightly across her thighs in little ways I know she can't resist "Do you think we should tell people the truth?" She asked and I smirked pushing her down flat on our bed wrapping her legs around my waist "Honey, knowone needs to know that we met when I had broke my computer watching porn, that is our little secret isn't it?" I smirk grinding my morning wood against her wet cunt "it's our little secret, all that when we first met... because if someone found out about it we would both be in the shit for that call wouldn't we honey?" I smirked kissing down her neck and chest biting on her nightie "Mummy! daddy!" We heard running down the hall so we quickly out some distance between us as they ran in "Yes alright kids hello morning what do you want?" I ask lifting the two of them up into our bed "what have we told you about bursting into Mummy and daddies room unannounced?" I ask "We did announce we yelled" Mel giggled "Still, you know after bed time and before breakfast is mummy and daddies privet time," I warn "But where starving" luke whines "Alright kids go on go set the table mummy and daddy will be down in a minute" she tells them so they jumped off the bed and ran off downstairs "When will they learn not to bother us in the morning" I sigh "They will learn, just like the learnt not to watch mummy and daddies special movies" she smiled giving me a kiss and going down to start breakfast

[amythecinnabunny]

Apartment 42 -- A BuckyNat AU

Master and rival assassins unknowingly live together for almost a year, making sure their real jobs remain a secret from each other and everyone around them.

Chapter 2

Natalia and James stood outside the apartment door, key in hand, staring at each other.

"It's one forty-five," Natalia eventually said.

"Couldn't sleep," James lied, "went out for a walk and a drink."

Natalia peered at him, squinting. "You don't look like you had a drink." She sniffed the air. "Don't smell like it either."

James smiled and leaned down to her height. "Soda, Natalia, I went out to get soda. You know, the convenience store a few blocks away from here?"

"Uh . . . I, uh. . ."

"Got you one while I was there," James said, handing her a can. He thanked his instincts he'd thought about the fact that he would not make it back before her and thought to solidify an alibi.

"I'm sorry," Natalia sighed as James opened the door. "I didn't mean to accuse you, I just . . . work is stressful and it really doesn't help that I've got to be at someone else's beck and call for who knows how long."

"It's all right," James said, ushering Natalia in.

They sat at the table and finished their cold dinner, talking about mundane and trifle things, before splitting in the hallway to their own rooms. Neither could sleep, thinking about the job they would begin preparing for once the sun rose.

///////////////

"Pancakes?" James offered when Natalia stumbled into the kitchen, yawning.

"Oh, yes please," she said, eyes brightening as she struggled to pull her hands from the gown pockets. She shuffled over to the stove and pulled one off the plate next to James.

"From now on, you handle grocery runs and I'll handle the cooking, okay? I don't think I can take another shitty dish."

Natalia rolled her eyes. "Fine, but only because you're right. And I'm only not fighting you 'cause you deserve some rights after I almost killed you last week."

"I need that plate," James called as Natalia left with the pancakes.

"Take a new one," she yelled as she disappeared back into her room. When she returned with four pancakes, James was sitting at the table with a laptop open and an empty plate beside him. "I left some for you," she said, swapping their plates, "big project?"

"Hm?"

"I saw layouts," Natalia said as she washed off the plate. She studied the ceramic disc as she spoke. "Building layouts. You an architect or what?"

"No, I uh . . . I wanna build a dream house one day. I wanna be able to build it as big as I like, as expensive as I like, with whatever furniture I like. When I'm not busy with something or the other, I like to just . . . design. Dream, if you will."

"Oh. So, what do you do, then?"

Before she came back to the table, James closed down the building plans for the Stark manor. "Uh, I'm a freelancer."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I, uh, work for this extermination company." James nodded. He had not prepared for this, despite knowing the question would crop up sooner or later. "They call, I go. You know how it is."

Natalia scoffed as she returned to pick up her bag and car keys. "Oh, yeah. I know. Listen, this new job I've got, it's ridiculous hours. I have no idea what time I'll be back, but I do promise to stock up the bar fridge."

James nodded. "No problem. If you're late, I'll put your dinner away for you."

"Thank you!" Natalia called as she hobbled to the front door, trying to walk and get her shoes on at the same time. "Don't ruin the apartment while I'm gone," she warned before closing the door.

Once she was gone, James pulled up the building plans again and continued planning his infiltration.

///////////////

Natalia spent approximately ten minutes getting her false credentials verified before she was finally allowed to input her biometrics to the system and then meet Howard Stark. As she stared at her ID, her thoughts strayed to her meeting with Madame B earlier that morning.

"What's my cover again?"

"You've been in our service for four years and you have never once failed a client. You're the best and that is why we have assigned you to Mr Stark. Did you get all that?"

"I did, Madame, but I meant my name, my look. . ."

"You will go as you are, Romanova. There is no point in hiding. This job may take years. Would you be able to hold a facade daily for that long?"

"Years?!"

"Until we get from Stark whatever it is Hydra wants, he is under your protection and is your responsibility. No matter how long it takes."

"I . . . yes, Madame."

"You will wear your graduate uniform if required. You work for a company called Royale Rouge Security, or R2S, and it has been known to provide security to several monarchies and some celebrities. Make it as grandeur as you like, but do not forget to check in and update us so our agents can ensure a solid ruse. Understood?"

"Yes, Madame."

"Then get to work, Agent."

Natalia dropped her ID into her bag and threw the landyard security had given her over her head. She straightened her jacket and walked on, searching for Howard. She eventually found an indoor boxing ring, two people sparring with one another, both so heavily padded, Natalia could not make either out. Seated on one of the two chairs and watching was an elderly woman Natalia recognised from the data the Red Room kept on her.

"Ms Carter?"

Peggy Carter, in all her salt-and-pepper glory, stood up and smiled. "Yes?"

"I'm Natalia Romanova, from Royale Rouge Security. I've been assigned to Mr Stark."

"Right. Have a seat, dear, I'll have him fetched," she said as she walked up to the ring. "Anthony!"

The young boy stopped beating his butler up and pulled off his mask and helmet. "What now, Aunt Peg?"

"I need you to stop sparring with Mr Jarvis for a moment. Your father's new employee has arrived."

Edwin Jarvis was delighted to be freed and happily peeled off his protection, springing out of the ring. He barely offered Natalia a greeting before leaving, almost forgetting his shoes.

Anthony stared at Natalia. "What’s your name, lady?"

"Anthony!" Peggy scolded, her expression aghast.

"Romanova," Natalia said, offering Peggy a small smile and a subtle wave away, "Natalia Romanova." 

"Russian?"

"Used to be."

"Huh. Front and centre. Come into the church."

"No," Peggy said, "you’re seriously not going to ask--"

"If it pleases the court," Anthony cut in. He noticed Natalia slipping out of her heels. "Which it does."

"It’s no problem," Natalia told Peggy.

"I’m sorry. He’s rather immature sometimes."

Natalia watched Anthony carefully as she hopped over into the ring. She knew the facts. He was seventeen. MIT. Best friend was a James Rhodes, also MIT. She knew he loved Peggy Carter first and Maria Stark second. She didn't know if he loved Howard Stark. The Red Room's records didn't go far into personalities and emotional backgrounds.

"You ever boxed before?"

"Of course. I have extensive training, but I'm quite fond of your particular style. Mr Jarvis would certainly not approve."

Anthony grinned up at her. "Really? Dirty boxing?"

"Mhm?"

He scoffed. "I don't believe you."

"How you spell your name, Ms Romanova?" Peggy called from her chair.

Natalia knew Peggy was searching her up. She also knew the Red Room agents assigned to this case would handle it. "Romanova, R-O-M-A-N-O-V-A."

"Thank you."

Natalia kept her gaze on Peggy as the woman scrolled through her job listings as a Royale Rouge agent. She knew Peggy would try to hack as many systems as she could, but she knew Peggy had a limit. The woman was brilliant, but she was a war strategist, not a tech genius. Natalia had full faith that her agents would be able to keep Peggy out.

Anthony was not impressed and decided to show off. "Rule number one, never take your eye off your opponent."

He moved to attack Natalia and without even looking away from Peggy, Natalia caught Anthony's arm and threw him over before pinning him down by his own arm.

"Oh my God, Anthony!" Peggy cried, standing up quickly.

Natalia released Anthony, whose eyes were sparkling. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Do what?"

"What you just did," Anthony said, wildly gesturing to Natalia.

"That was instinct, Anthony. It's a skill. It takes years to master it."

"How long did it take you?"

"Two, three years. Maybe."

"Can you teach me, then? As long as you're here, working for my father, can you teach me what you know?"

Natalia studied the excited teenager, the bright look in his eyes, the raw delight on his face. Who knew how long she'd even be there for? "I suppose it can't hurt to teach you some self defence."

"Yes!"

Peggy watched as Anthony jumped out of the ring and sprinted away. Natalia slid under and out of the ring. "You're not really going to teach him self defence, are you?"

"Why not?"

"I . . . er, fair enough. Cone with me, Mr Jarvis has sent Mr Stark to a boardroom to meet with you."

Natalia quickly slipped her heels back in and straightened her suit. "Presentable?" she asked Peggy, running her fingers through her hair.

"Mm, hold still." Peggy pulled a few pins from her hair and pulled back the sides of Natalia's straightened locks, twisting them into a small, neat bun that she pinned in place. "Right. Let's go."

Natalia tried very hard to quell the warmth she was receiving from Anthony, Peggy and even briefly, Edwin Jarvis.

///////////////

"Look, Mr Stark, I understand that you believe you need the entire military watching over you, but it's obvious the United States government cannot provide that. I'm very good at my job, Mr Stark, and I can assure you that your security is of higher importance than my own."

Howard Stark leaned back in his chair and studied Natalia. "They couldn't send someone . . . scarier?"

Natalia smiled. "Trust me, Mr Stark, nothing is scarier than a woman who can kill someone with a crayon."

Howard frowned. "How do I know I can trust your credibility?"

"Well, I've prepared a report, but you can ask Ms Carter to list off my records for the last two years if you'd prefer."

Peggy sat up alert when Natalia casually gestured in her direction. Howard turned to the woman sitting across his new bodyguard. "Peg?"

"Uh. . ."

"Anything to say?"

"Uh, well, Ms Romanova is credited with over seventeen prevented assassinations in the last two years, of which eight have been monarchs, two have been presidents, four were minor celebrities, two major celebrities, and one paranoid civilian. Her training includes mixed martial arts, several forms of pure martial arts, stealth and surveillance, marksmanship, as well as undocumented and unofficial street fighting. She is undoubtedly Royale Rouge Security's best agent and more than qualified for this job."

Natalia slid the report to the stunned Howard and watched as he checked Peggy's statements against it.

"How did you know?" Peggy asked, curious.

"You asked me to spell my name, Ms Carter. Deduction."

Peggy shrugged and leaned back, satisfied. She leaned forward again. "How did you know I only went back two years?"

"Given the length of my record and the time between spelling my name and leaving the room, you can't have scrolled very far. If you did, you would not have caught everything. It was an educated guess."

Peggy nodded and leaned back again. "Well, I do believe Howard is safest in your hands, Ms Romanova."

Natalia know this was the perfect opportunity to ask why Howard needed her protection, why they believed someone was after Howard. She knew she should ask. But she could not. If she did, Madame B would change her task, order her to get the item with no regard for anyone else.

Natalia did not frown, but she wanted to. Why should she want to prolong not knowing? Why should she want to be in the company of these people any longer than necessary?

Why was she latching on to Howard's admiring gaze, Jarvis's polite smiles, Peggy's approving nods, Anthony's amazed stares?

Why?

prev || next

Masterpost

[mischiefandspirits]

Iron Legion (9/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Girl Fridays, Part 2

The party was over by the time they got back and Rhodey was waiting for them.

“Uncle Rhodey!” Teresa cheered, jumping out of the car.

“Where have you been?”

“Uh oh,” Tony chuckled, coming around to her side. “I think it’s bedtime, Resa. Head upstairs and I’ll come tuck you in.”

She pouted, but left.

“Rhodey -”

“I stuck my neck out for you and you just up and disappear,” the man snapped.

“It was just one party,” Tony scoffed, moving around the car to grab a piece of the model.

“It’s not just the party, you’ve fallen off the face of the Earth. Iron Man needs to be out there.”

“Can’t right now, busy,” he said, eyeing the piece then shrugging. “Dum-E, U, come take care of this.”

The twins gave cheerful whirs and raced over.

“I’m serious,” Rhodey growled, coming to his side and grabbing his arm.

“And I need to go tuck in my kid.” Tony pulled away.

“You head up those stairs, and I’ll take the suits myself.”

“Sure buddy,” he laughed opening the door.

“You think I won’t?”

Tony let the door swing shut behind him.

When he reached the main floor, he took a moment to take in the mess left over from the party.

“Hey Jay, where’d Pepper and Nebula get to?”

“Ms. Potts has returned home for the night. She seemed upset that you left early, but was relieved that you at least did not make a scene. Miss Nebula is in her room with the door locked and is currently on the phone with the cleaning company. She is far more upset and has decided that you will be cleaning up instead.”

Tony rolled his eyes and continued on to the second floor. “Make sure they’re compensated for the change of plans.”

“Miss Nebula is already on it. I should also inform you Colonel Rhodes has just left with the Mark II.”

Tony was slightly shocked that’s all he was leaving with. At the very least, he could have taken the Mark IV. He chuckled at the idea of taking remote control of the suit and dragging his best friend back just to remind Rhodey he could before properly considering the situation.

The world needed the suit and Tony… he didn’t have much longer and he’d rather spend that time with the kids. If anyone could be trusted with the suit, it was Rhodey.

On the other hand, there was the model to consider. If Iron Man was still around in the end…

“Jay, call up legal. Let them know the Air Force is about to get a gift and we need to get a contract together fast. Tell them I’ll be on the phone with them to discuss terms as soon as I’ve finished a quick task.”

“Of course, Sir.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What am I going to do for you? Well, the first thing I’m gonna do for you is I’m gonna upgrade your software -”

“No you won’t,” Rhodey cut in.

“Stark’s conditions,” Major Allen explained. “We get the Mark II, or War Machine as he has designated it, but only so long as he has complete control over software updates and modifications as well as a few physical components.”

“The armor is still Stark Industries property, it’s just on loan to the Air Force,” Rhodey restated. “No pulling it apart to try to reverse engineer it.”

“Then why am I here,” Hammer asked, clearly annoyed no matter how he tried to hide it.

“You’re here to weaponize it. Stark Industries won’t do it due to their no weapons policy.”

“You want firepower, huh? Well, you’re talking to the right guy.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Rhodes has the armor?”

“One of them.”

“What’s Stark doing about it?”

“Nothing. He’s claiming he let Rhodes take it. He said he’s loaning it out to the Air Force as a peace offering despite the fact the general claims they seized the suit. According to Stark, he has measures in place to prevent unauthorized use so it would be impossible for Rhodes to have taken it without his permission and the colonel backed him up. I can’t say for sure if it’s the truth or just him and Rhodes covering his ass.”

“What are they planning to do with the suit?”

“Just weaponize it. There’s not much more they can do with all of Stark’s conditions. He made sure they wouldn’t be able to modify it too much or let anyone other than Rhodes use it. He even ensured the suit would go by a call sign of his own invention.”

“Of course he did. Anyone planning to fight him on it?”

“Stern’s been making his opinion known and the other branches of the military seem just short of calling nepotism, but the contract was signed as is. The Air Force are thrilled enough to have the suit in their ranks that they’ll take anything. Not to mention that Stark’s being firm, either they take his terms or he’ll just recall the suit right out of their hanger. If it’s a bluff, no one’s calling it.”

“Well Stark’s certainly got this all in hand.”

“Agreed. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to step in without showing our hand.”

“Alright. Keep your head down and ears open. We’ve still got something in the works.”

“Yessir.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What did you do?” Nebula asked, taking in the destruction that surrounded the workshop.

“Built a prismatic accelerator,” her father explained. “Where have you been?”

“At the office, doing my job.”

“Sounds boring,” Teresa said, shoving another book under the metal coil Father was holding up. “How’s that?”

He set the coil down then set a level on top. “Perfect!”

Nebula stared at the two before shaking her head. “I don’t want to know. Please don’t blow the house up while I’m gone.”

“Where are you going?” her father asked, finally looking at her and Teresa followed suit.

“Hammer’s giving a presentation tomorrow evening at the Expo. Aunt Pepper wants me to come with her. Giving Uncle Rhodey the Mark II has helped put out some fires, but we need to be there to keep control of the situation. I suppose it would be too much to ask that you come along.”

“How long until wheels up?”

“About an hour,” she answered, glancing at her watch.

“Sorry busy. Besides, who’d stay with Resa? Happy’s going to be there too and I heard Rhodey’s part of the presentation.”

“Uncle Happy can take her around the Expo. She’d love it,” she answered easily already knowing her sister had been hoping to go since it had been announced. “I can act as your bodyguard.”

To her surprise, Teresa objected. “No, we have to finish daddy’s project. The Expo can wait!”

“You heard the girl,” he said, ruffling her hair.

Nebula sighed, but it was the answer she expected to hear. “Try not set anymore fires, literally or figuratively.”

“Will do on the figurative, no promises on the literal.”

She marched out before she could decide to argue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Call trace incomplete.”

Tony and Teresa shared a look before glancing over at the Expo model.

“Nebs,” she whispered.

“There’s no way he knows about any of you,” Tony said, but that didn’t settle the panic that was sinking in.

Vanko was in New York, just like Nebula, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey.

He turned and saw a promotion for Hammer’s presentation on one of his screens.

“Okay, sweetie, daddy’s got to go to work,” he said, moving towards the new arc reactor. “Stay here with your brothers and U.”

“I wanna come!” she announced and he turned to her instead.

“Baby,” he said, setting his hands on her shoulders. “This could turn out to be very dangerous. I need you to stay here so I know your safe.”

“But -”

“Also, the suit won’t fit you,” he added with a smirk and she pouted. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and grabbed the arc reactor.

“Sir -”

“You want to run some tests, run them.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nebula glared at the man who had placed her father and so many others in danger. Before Aunt Pepper could stop her, she grabbed him and slammed him against the desk he was standing near. “You will tell us who did this now or I will make you.”

“Ivan. Ivan Vanko,” the worm stuttered out quickly.

“Where is he?”

“At my facility.”

Nebula shoved him aside and glared at the man at the computer. “Move.”

He tripped over his feet as he rushed to comply.

“Call the police,” she told Aunt Pepper as she pulled out her phone and connected it to the laptop, allowing her access to the device. “J.A.R.V.I.S. and I will do what we can from here.”

“No, no, honey. Don’t call the authorities.”

“Call her honey or touch her again and I will break your nose,” Nebula hissed and Hammer immediately jumped away from Aunt Pepper.

“How are we looking?” Aunt Pepper asked shortly later.

“Not good. None of them are on the same system. Without access to the main command center, we’re only able to shut them down one at a time. Well, two at a time since J.A.R.V.I.S. and I can each take one.”

“How are you doing that?” Hammer’s helper asked, looking at the screen and she shoved him away.

“Unlike your boss, Mr. Stark only hires the best,” she said, taking out one of the Marine drones. “Now leave.”

Everyone fled except Nebula and Aunt Pepper.

Suddenly the connection to the command center unlocked. Two video feeds opened up, one showing her father’s face from his heads up display, the other showing the redhead from legal her father had wanted to make his PA.

“Reboot complete. You’ve got your best friend back,” the redhead said.

“And you are?” he asked and the woman frowned.

“I’m Agent Romanoff. I’m a S.H.I.E.L.D. shadow. I -”

“Am fired,” Nebula finished, using her newfound freedom to shut down all the drones.

“That’s not up to you,” the spy said.

“But it’s up to me,” Aunt Pepper growled, stepping up behind Nebula. “Why is Fury sending spies into my company?”

“That’s something I would prefer to speak to Mr. Stark about in private.”

“If this is about Fury’s super-secret boy band, I already gave him my refusal. Also, Pep, remind me to sue Hammer for messing with Rhodey’s programming.”

“How -”

“Fury dropped a data file on his way out. I had a team go over it.”

Said team was himself, Nebula, and J.A.R.V.I.S., but that wasn’t something the spy needed to know.

“Mr. Stark, that was confidential information for your eyes only.”

“Then you shouldn’t have left the drive behind,” Nebula snorted. “Everyone present is aware of the Avengers Initiative, Agent, and as Mr. Stark said, he turned S.H.I.E.L.D. down.”

“Stark -”

“Can we talk about this when I’m not fending off a Hammeroid attack?”

“The drones are down,” Nebula said. “J.A.R.V.I.S. and I just shut down the last one.”

“Great, you’re the best!”

“Stark, we need to -”

“You know what, you’ve got my PA on the line, schedule an appointment. I think Fury and I need to have a talk about boundaries anyways. In the meantime, you can clean out your desk. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on my buddy.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“All these drones are rigged to blow. We gotta get out of here man.”

“Pepper and Nebula!”

Rhodey sucked in a breath and followed after Tony. They reached the girls just in time, Tony grabbing Pepper while he grabbed Nebula.

As the explosions went off, Rhodey found a roof to land on and set Nebula down.

Tony did the same and he and Pepper immediately started bickering.

And then they were kissing.

“They are ridiculous,” Nebula sighed.

“Yeah,” Rhodey agreed, sitting down on a box.

They broke apart and Tony said, “Weird.”

“No, it’s not weird,” Pepper disagreed.

“It’s okay, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Run that by me again.”

When they started kissing again, Rhodey said, “I think it was weird. You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape.”

“I had just quit, actually,” Pepper said as they broke apart and Tony started to speak over her.

“Yeah, so we’re not…”

Rhodey waved them off. “You don’t have to do that. We heard the whole thing.”

“Are you done now?” Nebula asked.

“You two should get lost,” Tony said, pointing between them.

“I was here first. Get a roof,” Rhodey said, but Nebula just turned and started to walk off.

“I quit.”

The three watched her march off.

Tony snorted. “Well, she lasted longer than some.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes and stood up.

“Hey, buddy, I’m going to need the suit back. Gotta fix all that Hammer nonsense. Maybe even give you an upgrade. Maybe. We’ll see if I’m feeling nice.”

“Sure, but my car got taken out in the explosion, so I’m gonna have to hang on to it for a minute, okay?”

Tony hummed. “Not okay. Not okay with that.”

“It wasn’t a question.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony glanced around the warehouse Fury had set up for their meeting. His eyes landed on a folder for the Avengers Initiative Preliminary Report and he slid it towards himself.

Fury’s hand fell over it. “I don’t think I want you looking at that. I’m not sure it pertains to you anymore.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” Tony said before the man could continue. “I told you before I’ve got no interest. Now, about you sending your little spy into my company.”

“Romanoff was sent in to assess you -”

“After I already said no.”

“Which is why you were under consideration to be a consultant.”

Tony stared at the man before looking away. He stood up and held out his hand. When Fury took it, he clasped them man’s hand between both of his own. “You can’t afford me.”

He walked away.

“Stark -”

“Oh, and I’d be willing to drop the corporate espionage charges for a small favor,” Tony added, turning back to him. “Rhodey and I are being honoured in Washington and we need a presenter.”

Fury glared at him and he shrugged.

“Unless you want me to take your little secret spy ring to court. I’m sure the press would have a field day with that.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Fury growled.

Tony gave him a smirk. “Just be glad nothing confidential passed her desk or legal would be tearing into you harder than they are Hammer. They don’t like it when they’re infiltrated. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a date with the cutest girl in the world.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So what are you going to do now that Nebs quit?” Teresa asked playing with the fake repulsor on her glove as Tony paid for their churros.

“No idea,” he said. “Keep the change.”

“Sir!” the churro girl exclaimed. “This is a hundred dollar bill!”

Tony waved it off and led Teresa away. “Guess I’ll have to hire one of Aunt Pepper’s choices. Or go without.”

“Why can’t Jay be your new PA?” she asked, pulling off her gloves and tucking them into her pocket so she could take her churro from him. The faceplate of her Iron Man helmet slid up and she took a bite. “He’s always helping you with stuff.”

“Mouth closed you goblin. And Jay’s a pushover. A snippy one, but still. He’d never nag me to do stuff like Aunt Pepper does.”

She swallowed and wiped her face before saying, “Why can’t you make a PA bot then?”

“That’s…” Tony paused, thinking it over. “That’s actually a really good idea, Gummy Bear.”

She gave him a wide smile before taking a big bite.

“Yeah, I can make her feisty. A redhead like your sister and Aunt Pepper.”

“Nebs doesn’t have red hair,” Teresa giggled.

“She’s got a few wigs that are red. I can make her Scottish, or maybe Irish? What do you think?”

“Irish!”

“Irish it is. See, this is why you’re my girl Friday, Baby!”

Teresa stopped, frowning at her churro.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

She kept staring for a moment before looking up at him warily. She grabbed his hand and tugged him off to the side. “Can-can I talk to you about something?”

He knelt down and let go of her hand to cup her cheek. “Of course. You can tell me anything.”

She bit her lip, but nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a flicker of light, then another, before a form materialized in the lab. It was a young woman in her early twenties. She was pale and slim with red hair cut into a stylish asymmetrical bob and a sleek jacket and pencil skirt.

“Happy birthday, Friday!”

The AI turned her blue holographic eyes to Tony and Teresa.

“Thanks Boss, Baby-Bro.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday's here a bit early because Tony deserves a PA and I love the idea from the comics where she's his holographic secretary.

Next up: Big Buff Uncle

That feel when I actually stop to count and realize I've given Tony fourteen children and two grandchildren in this fic. I might have gone a little overboard. In my defense, over half the kids are either AI's or robots. Have fun guessing who the sixteen are! Reblog or message me with your ideas. Hint: Two kids and one grandkid come from the comics, the rest are MCU based.

[takadasaiko]

Houseguest Chapter Three

FFN II AO3

Summary: Tony and Steve' investigate the burglary at the Stark Industry.

Chapter Three: Always Come Prepared

Tony didn't bother calling ahead to the location. He didn't typically make trips out to facilities unless R&D work was being done there, so on the off chance that someone inside his company had orchestrated the break in he didn't want to give them any warning. Granted, he had to admit there was something amusing about watching people scurry when the man whose name was on the side of the building showed up unannounced. Not everything could be strategic. Life was meant to be entertaining.

Cap had decided to tag along rather than go into town. He looked like a fish out of water as he followed Tony into the facility, and even more awkward as the SI employees went into overdrive for the surprise visit.

"Mr Stark?" Tony turned to see what he assumed was the man in charge around there barreling towards him. "Bill Wiley. I'm sorry nobody greeted you when you arrived. No one said you'd be coming in personally," the building manager said as nearly raced to meet him.

Tony greeted the sweaty man with a handshake that couldn't be avoided without coming across like an ass. "It was taking a while for the report to hit our servers. I thought I might be able to speed things along."

He didn't miss the way Bill Wiley glanced nervously at Rogers who, in turn, was sweeping every visible inch of the space with that sharp blue gaze of his. He might be behind the times on tech, but Cap had proven resourceful when he was interested in uncovering the truth on something. Maybe it was a good idea to have brought him along afterall.

"Well, it was in the middle of the night with our skeleton security crew, sir. We've been working with the police and running inventory on —"

"Perfect," Tony cut him off. "Whatcha got?"

"For… inventory…. sir?" the other man asked like he was certain he must have misunderstood.

"Yep. What'd they steal?"

The manager looked like he was bordering on terrified as he answered. "Nothing, as far as we can tell." He stopped, and Tony was fairly sure that he was weighing if what he wanted to say would get him fired or not. He motioned for him to spit it out and the man swallowed hard. "Do you… know what we do at this office, sir?"

"Something having to do with, uh…." Tony drawled out, desperately wracking his brain for the answer. He'd seen it, right? He was sure that he'd seen it or that JARVIS had told him or something. The hangover was starting to recede, but that didn't mean he hadn't missed a few things on the way there.

"I'm with your marketing division. I just happened to be the manager that answered the call at six this morning and came in."

"Six? They said the break in was at three."

"Might have been, sir, but I was at home asleep." Poor Bill Wiley, who appeared to be too far out of his depths for comfort, ducked his head. "We're the catch-all. We've got a few marketing teams that aren't housed at HQ or in New York, the aviation department holds meetings and keep their offices here, and a couple of underwriters that live out this way come in here to avoid the commute. We don't house anything worth stealing."

"Hey, Tony?"

Tony turned, finding Steve further away than he expected. He was standing with a security guard that looked more than a little starstruck. Good. Maybe that meant he'd helpful.

"Tony, this is -"

"Juan Morales. Wow. I didn't think I'd actually ever get to meet you. You're Iron Man."

"Sometimes," Tony answered casually as he sauntered over. "Right now I just own a company who had a break in that I'd like to know more about."

"I wasn't on duty when it happened. I start the morning shift at nine."

Tony shot Cap a look, but the other man motioned for patience.

"I'm buddies with Tom in the main office. Guess it's the one you work out of?"

"I work out of my house most days, but you were saying?"

"Right… So, Tom said that some of the other security guards from around the city sent in reports about signs of guys casing the places. I mean, most of them were warehouses and storage facilities and stuff, but we've all got the same basic security protocols, right? It's weird."

"Do you think they were testing them?" Steve prompted.

"Yeah. I mean, response times are gonna be different in each location, but the alarms, how long they take to go off, if the building has any lockdown protocols…."

It was like a slap to the face. "Which they all do," Tony managed.

"But no one was here. There was a delay in the lockdown. No code or anything, but nobody trapped either."

"Like they found an override….. Can you get me a list? The other locations your buddy mentioned?"

"Oh yeah, sure, Mr Stark. Anything you need."

"Just that list. And, kid, if this leads to something, you're getting the bonus of a lifetime." He turned towards Steve as the young guard bolted off to get him what he needed.

"You think someone's after something."

"More sure of it every second. Listen, uh… this is my problem. If you wanna go do the whole touristy thing -"

"What? And let you have all the fun?"

Brown eyes met blue and there wasn't even a hint of sarcasm. Cap wanted to help. Okay then. This could get interesting.

                                               _____________

JARVIS has been running probability calculations all day, leaving Tony to tinker and Cap to wander around LA at his leisure. He'd left his things at the mansion, though, so Tony assumed he was coming back.

It left him with time on his hands and time was spent tinkering with suits and a variety of other projects in his downstairs workshop. It did wonders for his nerves and let him focus on something else when he didn't have enough data to start tracking down this unseen enemy.

"Tony?"

He jumped at the light touch on his shoulder, hissing a soft curse as the soldering tool touched his opposite hand and burned it. He turned, finding Pepper to his left and she looked startled by the extreme reaction. "I called your name a couple of times."

"In the zone, sorry," he mumbled and held his hand up to examine it. He'd had a lot worse.

Pepper reached for it, her hand gentle against his as if she didn't trust his assessment. "You should ice it."

The argument died on his lips and he offered her a smile instead. He stood, but instead of moving to the freezer to grab one of the waiting ice packs he kept there, he leaned in. She snorted a laugh, muffled by the kiss, and Tony wrapped his arms around her to pull her just a little closer. She gave in and he could feel her smile against him as she reached up, one hand trailing along the side of his face until her arm rested against his shoulder, elbow bent so that her fingers toyed with his dark hair. Okay. This was nice. It did wonders for his nerves too. One of the many, many reasons he never wanted to let her go. "Hey, maybe we could -" he started in the same moment Pepper said —

"Did I hear something about a break in last night?"

Right. That. He released her and started towards to freezer. "Yeah, the offices out in Burbank."

"In Burbank? There's nothing out there to steal."

"I think they were testing our security protocols." He grabbed the ice pack and winced as he pressed it to the burn.

"Does Barry know?"

Tony snorted, shooting her a withering look. "My money's on no. Remind me why we pay him?"

"Because he's the head of security, Tony."

"He's terrible at his job."

Pepper leaned against one of his work tables and crossed her arms. "And who would you replace him with? You've hated every name I've given you in the last five years."

"We didn't know any of those people."

"Tony," she said in that tone that said she thought he was bordering on the absurd, "we don't know most new hires. That's what references and due diligence is for."

"Happy."

She blinked at him. "Hogan?"

"Yeah. He's been running my personal security for years-"

"Babysitting you, you mean?"

"- and yours for the last two. He knows every last security protocol we have and I guarantee he has ideas. We know him, there's no question we can trust him. How have we not already done it? Let's do it."

"Promote Happy to head of security?"

"Yeah."

She was still looking at him like he'd lost it. After a long moment she loosed a breath, letting her arms drop. "I'll make you a deal. You do what you're going to do anyway and figure out if this was more than just a one-off break in and if - if, Tony - SI's security has been compromised we'll revisit the topic when I get back from London."

"Deal. Wait. London?"

She crossed the space between and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "It's been on the books for two weeks."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. I'll be back on Saturday. Think you can manage?"

Tony feigned a hurt look. "No faith in me, Miss Potts?"

The look didn't phase her and her voice was painfully sweet as she spoke. "I just know you, Mr Stark. I left a reminder with JARVIS about the R&D meeting tomorrow. Please don't miss it?"

"Promise."

"Thank you. And try not to get shot at or blown up while your looking into your thief?"

He reached out for her hand and pulled her close again. "Do my best," he murmured, and she was close enough he could feel her breath on his skin. He didn't want her to go. Selfish, he knew, but it didn't change the feeling.

"The calculations are complete, sir," JARVIS' voice rang out, causing them both to jump, instantly pulled from the moment.

Pepper cleared her throat. "I need to head to the airport. Let me know how it goes?"

"Will do. Love you."

He loved that smile of hers. "Love you too."

Tony waited until she was out of the lab and starting back up the stairs. "This better be good, J."

"I wouldn't have interrupted if it weren't important, sir," his AI responded. "I've run the calculations that you requested, and have come up with two likely targets and the top five most likely times that the breach will be attempted."

"Put it up on the screen," Tony instructed and watched the data flicker into his vision. "Pretty sure you can take the warehouse on the right off, JARVIS."

"I was afraid you might say so, sir. Shall I contact the authorities?"

"No. Let security onsite know there's an issue, but I'll deal with it."

"Sir, if I may -"

"You may not."

"I only wished to inform you that Captain Rogers is back. In case you would like to enlist his aid." The second half of the announcement was spoken so quickly that Tony had to wonder if JARVIS was trying to get it out before the mutecommand was given. He should probably be more nervous that he was that his AI had developed quite that much obstinance when it came to his warnings being heard at the very least, even if he really still couldn't do anything about making Tony follow them.

"Thanks, buddy," Tony said instead, letting it slide. He couldn't fault JARVIS for trying to look out for him.

                                              _____________

Agreeing to help Tony Stark was turning out to feel like he'd been caught in a riptide. There was no real control. All he could do was let himself be dragged along until he surfaced at the other end.

Steve had barely walked into the house when Tony had come flying up from his lab and told him that if he still wanted to help, he better hurry up. He barely stopped long enough to add that he knew where his mysterious burglars were going to strike next and that he wanted to get out there to go over everything with his security team onsite. If Steve wanted any more details than that, he could get them on the way.

Tony talked almost as fast as he drove, rattling off so much information that Steve had to listen fast to catch the important pieces. "Wait, Wait. Hold on a second. What exactly are you doing with alien tech?"

The other man was halfway through a new sentence when he seemed to hear the question. "Huh? Oh. I created a new department at Stark Industries after the Battle of New York to work with the government to help with the cleanup."

"You? Working with the government?" Steve asked, shooting the other man an amused look. He'd seen clips of what happened a couple years before when he'd been called to Capitol Hill to discuss the Iron Man suits. His mockery of the Senate wasn't the top video when Steve had searched his name, but it was close. Funny thing, he's found some old reels put on the internet of Howard in a similar position after the war. He'd responded flippantly, hoeing no rea respect for the elected officials that had questioned him. Like father, like son.

"It does happen every once and awhile."

"I'm still not sure why we didn't contact the police. This seems like the type of thing they should handle."

"All the cops will do is scare them off and we'll lose them," Tony grumbled as he took a particularly sharp turn too fast for comfort. He glanced over, and Steve couldn't shake the feeling that he was sizing up his reaction to tailor his own. "I need more data. Let's get there, get the lay of the land, and then maybe we'll loop LAPD in."

"Backup couldn't hurt," Steve pressed. "In case things move quicker than you're expecting."

"I don't need that kind of backup. The LAPD are great for what they do, but I became Iron Man to make sure that no one could use my stuff to hurt people. This falls firmly in that category."

"And they're okay with that?"

"Oh no, they hate it. Just can't really stop me," Tony chuckled and turned a corner. A warehouse came into view, large and gated with a guard station at the edge. The guard did not look happy as they pulled up next to it.

"Mr Stark," the guard greeted, his tone matching his worried expression. "I was just about to put a call in, sir. Communication with the warehouse went down about two minutes ago. I can't get through to anybody inside. I know you said -"

"Yep," Tony cut him off and killed the car engine.

Steve watched him step outside and followed half a moment later, his gaze trained on the warehouse. It was quiet, which might be expected after the close of the business day if it weren't for the fact that Tony had sent a warning ahead. For that, it was suspiciously quiet.

It didn't last. There was a loud crash that drew their attention and a figure stumbled out the door and fell hard against the ground.

"Shit," Tony cursed. "They're already inside."

"Call the LAPD," Steve instructed the guard before Tony could counter him. It wasn't until no argument came that he saw him toying with what looked like a bracelet of some kind. "What are you-?"

Tony nodded at the car. "Check the trunk."

Steve shot him a questioning look, but circled around to where it had popped open. Inside he saw his shield. The same one Tony had asked to take a look at while he'd been out earlier that day. "Just coming to check things out, huh?"

There was a loud roar that he'd heard before and one of Tony's suits came into view from seemingly nowhere. It barreled down and opened up just long enough for him to step in before it snapped shut around him. "Always come prepared, right?" he asked through the suit and Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"The police are on their way," the guard offered.

"Fine. We'll have it wrapped before they get within a mile." Steve could feel that dark gaze move to him even through the helmet. "You with me, Cap, or do you wanna wait for your buddies?"

Steve pushes a frustrated breath out his nose as he grabbed his shield.

                                              _____________

TBC

Notes: I was just writing along and suddenly Tony's pitching Happy for the head of security position. Don't know what to tell you. Apparently Barry sucks at his job. He's a lousy Forehead of Security :P

Next Time: Tony and Steve race against the clock to rescue the hostages and catch the thieves.

[demisexualnathanvuornos]

Sergeant Ellis (Lucas Bryant) Private Eyes 3x1 Catch Me If You Can (2019) 1/ 2

Matt Shade: Oh, you gotta be kidding me! Is that Ellis? Seriously, Agent Ellis? Didn’t get your fill last time? 

Sergeant Ellis: This doesn’t stop ‘til I’m holding that drive, Shade. 

Angie Everett: We already told you, we don’t have it. Dana does.

Shade: Or her partner.

Ellis: Enough with the Dana and Dominic garbage. Do you have any idea what was on that drive? Top secret data on every military intelligence asset in the world. You put a lot of people’s lives at risk. 

Shade: So, why aren’t you out looking for the real criminals? 

Ellis: The real criminals, yeah. I spoke to the people at Summit Path about them. You know what they told me? Nothing. Not one person had ever seen them. Same thing at the rink. No photos, no emails, you don’t even know their real names. 

Male Agent: We’re all through in there, sir. 

Ellis: Good. Pack it up. [Pack it up!] So, you guys wanna waste my time? You wanna play games? It’s fine. You got a trial coming up, and when that’s done you’re gonna spend the next 20 years of your life behind bars. ***

Shade: Oh, we got company.

Angie: Ellis?  

Shade: Yeah. He’s been tailing me for three days. Can you lose him? Sorry I asked.

Ellis: Damnit!

***

Angie: Oh, my God! It’s Ellis! 

Ellis: Ms. Everett. That was a nice piece of driving back there. 

Angie: Apparently not nice enough. What are you doing here, Sergeant?

Ellis: I was about to ask you the same thing. 

Angie: Me? Oh, I was here for the spa. Needed a little rubdown after those prison beds. 

Ellis: Where’s Mr. Shade? 

Angie: Uhh, he just left. He, uh he just left. A reaction to the facial peel. 

Ellis: You care to rethink that one? 

Angie: What do you mean? 

Ellis: He’s supposed to accompany you whenever you’re out of the house. Part of your bail conditions, remember? 

Angie: Oh, yeah. You see, we had an emergency at the agency. Zoe got a stapler stuck in the– Never mind. Doesn’t matter. I will call him right now to come get me. 

Ellis: Don’t bother. I’ll give you a ride. Angie: Come on, don’t do that. Please. I just made a mistake. 

Ellis: You’re under arrest for breach of recognizance. Turn! Hands. This way.[–] This will make sure you don’t leave the building. 

Female Agent: How does that feel? 

Angie: Is that a real question? 

Female Agent: Do me a favour and walk to the door. OK, I’ll give you a couple of extra feet so you don’t accidentally… 

Ellis: She’s good. I’ll meet you outside.[–]

Shade: You’re a real piece of work. You know that?

Ellis: Just because she’s the one with the ankle bracelet doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. I know you were at Summit Path that night. As soon as I find that drive, I’m coming after you too. 

Angie: How many times do we have to tell you, we don’t have it? 

Ellis: See, the problem is I know you’re lying. You know, those eggheads at Summit Path, they embedded a piece of code in the drive’s startup routine. It alerts them whenever somebody tries to access it. 

Shade: And no one has? 

Ellis: Not yet. Which means there’s still a chance that I can save some of the thousands of lives you put at risk. Enjoy your new cell.

***

[Angie cuts off her ankle bracelet, and Federal agents storm the office]

Agents: Police! Police! Keep the right side.

Ellis: Check the office. 

Agents: It’s clear. All clear. Yes, sir! All clear!

[Ellis finds a note from Angie addressed to him and reads it] 

Ellis: Let’s go!

[exo-trashbean]

In Honor of the Summer Ending

I heard some pretty wacky stuff while working at my summer job as an intern in an I.T. Department. Here is a some banter I recorded.

Sidenote - there are two Brians in my office (”Brian”, or “B″ is my boss, respectively, and “Other Brian″ is the jackass that stops over to roast me and the other intern), as well as two Dereks ("Derek " (”D”) is the other intern, and "Other Derek" is the one that sits a cube over -- all of the stuff he says is always heard from over the wall). [Also, when I refer to a “cube” it means a group cubicle with 4 people in it]

The chats/quotes separated by return spaces are all from different conversations, to clarify.

Enjoy!

"That is a lovely Shade of booger" "Try again" beep. beep. *beeps get more impatient* beepbeepbeep “Ok stOP-”

loud bang heard from across the department. “Are You having fun yet?” “Nope”

“I- I can’t” “What is it?” “A sandwich with no bread”

Clinking of change. “It’s crazy that there are 50 year-old quarters... just chillin”

“Think fast.” *Sound of can hitting the ground* *Deep sigh*

“I support equal robot rights”

Brian: *making whistle noises like bombs dropping whilst pelting interns w/root beer barrels*

Not exactly a quote, but I stand up to stretch in the morning and on the board in the cube next to me says “Cheese life! Go Cheese!”

[Testing workflow website for company] Wes: Just make sure when you comment something, you submit an attachment. It can be anything. Brian + me: Anything? *Wes nods* *Entire cube goes onto DevHumor for memes*

Ezra sneezes. Brian sneezes 2 seconds later, but with the Dad Sneeze™. Brian turns to me [2 hrs after learning what “boneless” means]: “See, his sneeze was boneless, mine was not.”

Brian: Do you know what the use of a GoTo() [Statement] is? *leans forward* THERE IS NONE Coworker walking by: GoTo the unemployment line Brian: If I find a GoTo() statement in your code, there is gonna be a coffee mug-shaped dent in your forehead

[Cube next to me after debugging] Other Derek: Thanks for solving the mystery Lucas. do you want to be part of the scooby doo club? Thomas: *offhandedly* The mystery gang? Lucas: What kind of snacks do you got? Other Derek: uh, combos- *Sound of footsteps fading away*

[Other Cube] “Is that jam?” “Yeah it’s Derek’s” “Do you want some? You can have some only if you eat all of it right now” “You’re nuts!” “No I have Jam”

Derek: We got state fair corn dogs and my brother eats like 2 or 3 for breakfast- Brian: He eats 3 corn dogs for breakfast?! Other Brian: My kinda guy

“I don’t eat things I can’t pronounce”

“Password is DonutsRgood”

“I’m trying to separate it into two columns [on ms word] but it keeps wrapping weird” “Then tell it you don’t want to listen to its music” “The exit door is right there Derek”

[Derek making checklist for supervisor on dry erase board] “NOT GARISH” written @ bottom Me: you know what you gotta do is *starts to point* Derek: YES DIFFERENT COLORS *grabs all the markers*

D: ah ye scallywag B: what D: nabbed me pen ye did B: Ah, ye see it looks a bit like mine D: it’s fine I already got another one B: arrr D: thief of the seas

Me: did you play clue or clue junior? Derek: uh... I have *giggles* no clue

Kathy, older woman that could kick anybody’s ass, total savage, etc. goes to open door - all I hear is a thud as she kicks it(?) and an “OW”: *Walking back to cubicle* “well I WAS having a good day”

“your positive attitude just sucks”

B: *Messes something up* Nergh [Unknown from other cube]: argh B: ugh

B: did you just call Dairy Queen unhealthy? D: Blasphemy. They have salads.

[Talking about hot pockets Brian made] me: why’d you put swiss cheese on it? B: swiss cheese has no lactose- D: does it at least have feet? because it lacks toes? Other Derek, from over the cube wall, before I can even sigh: Is that why swiss cheese has holes? B: oh so when HE makes the joke-

Other Derek: I need new friends. A guy I know is listening to a spotify playlist called “White Trash Bash”

[other cube mocking a caller that had a webpage problem] Zach: I REfrEsHEd Other Derek: you refreshed? I want a refresh *sound of repeated banging on keyboard* is it working?

D: it smells like pickles over here *gesturing to fridge* B: *goes over to fridge to inspect* That’s Wes’s Pickle (Referring to Wes’s lunch). *giggles* B: *turns to me and holds up 4 fingers* I’m this many.

Ezra: *Excitedly* I did a thing. There’s code! *waving arms at computer*

Nicole: [to Brian] “I’m supposed to ask if you could be any dog what you would be” Other Derek [from over the wall]: Hot dog. Say Hot Dog.

Ezra, who sits 5 whole feet away from me: *messages me over skype* “How are you holding up? :)”

“Do you know what day it is?” “No I wanna go to lunch, you guys stink” “do you know what day it is?” “... it’s hump day?”

[other cube after returning from lunch] Thomas: Yee, and I cannot stress this enough, HAW

B: don’t buy a house you can afford childless. *Very seriously* because childs happen. Me + Derek: childs happen??

Brian, my 46 y/o boss: *Opens 2 cheese sticks and sticks them in his mouth like a walrus*

[Cube over] “Could you sip your tea any louder man?” *sound of obnoxious tea sipping* *sound of choking on hot water*

“It’s not that you broke it, it’s that I had it not-fixed in the first place”

D:*cups hands over mouth to amplify sound* I WILL CONSUME YOUR DATA

5 minute conversation about pronunciation of “Worcestershire”

Aavery, the other intern besides Derek: “Teaspoons you use to stir tea. Table spoons you use to stir tables”

[talking about Spanish] B: I can order a cold beer, count to 10, and say “socks”. I can older a cold pair of socks!

Kathy: I can’t wait to retire so I can smoke weed.

[about testing] D: Aavery and Autumn did some testing for the help desk and broke a bunch of stuff [sidenote: breaking stuff is a good thing when it comes to testing] Me: I only broke like one thing, Aavery did the rest D: Well, one thing is... *trailing off* better than... none things...

Brian tells Derek to answer the phone if Mr. Duemann (one of the managers in the plant) calls. [Derek & I talking about how to answer the phone] D: *hewwo rp voice* Misteww Doowman, Bwian says to come heyuw :3

B: $1400 worth of cheese Me: jeez B: no, CHEESE

Derek, proudly after testing: There will no be bug. [yes, that’s typed correctly]

Other Derek, from over cube [talking to somebody else]: I knew it! you always smell like Jumbalaya B: WHAT

[backlog refinement, which is basically planning work stuff] B: we’re gonna have to give Autumn the password to the Service Account, and *turns to me* you’re gonna swear to use all your brain cells that day

“INventory stuf on servers” written as the title of a scheduled work task

[heard from across the office] “It’s NOT a dad joke, I thought it was cool!”

“The person that IS an alcoholic isn’t here today”

[free nacho day] Ezra: “if you taste each individual item you’re not using enough cheese”