#But I was like 'oh my camera looks clearer!' and then realized it's 100% because I've finally replaced my cracked screen protector

[wellitsjustmeagain]

It's finally raining and cozy 💕☔

[favefandomimagines]

Wrong Direction (p.p.)

Summary: Peter breaks up with your before your Europe trip and starts dating MJ. He realizes he made a mistake when he sees you and your little sister.

AN: i’ve noticed that almost all of my peter parker imagines are always stark!reader lol probably because rdj is my dad

Peter knew he couldn’t keep holding on to you when he lost feelings. It wasn’t fair to you after everything you’ve been through. You had just lost Natasha and your dad and were stuck taking over Stark Industries. He had unexpectedly fallen for MJ during the time you were preoccupied. And it wasn’t right to stay in a loveless relationship.

“Why?” You asked, as you avoided Peter’s gaze. “I-I like someone else.” He stammered. You scoffed as you wiped the tears off your face. “It’s MJ isn’t it?” You questioned.

Peter remained silent and that was all the confirmation you needed. “I should’ve known. The girl you told me not to worry about.” You said. You began to walk away from him when he called out for you.

“Y/N,” He started. “No, Peter.” You paused. “He’d be so disappointed in you. Not because you broke up with me but because you didn’t have the courage to do it before it got worse. So just, stay the hell away from me.” You snapped.

You knew it was a low blow. Bringing up how your father would have reacted to the news of your breakup. But you were hurt and you felt betrayed. Your boyfriend and former best friend didn’t have the courage to tell you about their alleged affair. 

The days before the trip to Europe, every encounter Peter had with Happy wasn’t a pleasant one. It was full of mean looks and not a single word was spoken between the two of them. Until the night of Aunt May’s charity event, Happy delivered the donation.

Happy went back to present the check from Stark Industries, that adorned your signature, when he knew he had to say something to your ex-boyfriend.

Peter was staring at your name on the large piece of paper and a guilty expression washed over his face. One that didn’t go unnoticed by Happy.

“I’m supposed to look out for those girls, Parker. Make sure nothing bad happens to them because they deserve nothing but happiness. And yet, Pepper and I have had to deal with Y/N sobbing in her room every night. Wondering why she wasn’t enough for you.” Happy snapped.

Peter swallowed the lump in his throat, looking at his feet. You hadn’t said a word to him or MJ since that night, rightfully so, and had gone as far as getting business release from school. Meaning, you left after second period everyday to help run Stark Industries. How could Midtown High say no to a member of the team that saved the world?

“She deserved better. You should know that better than anyone.” He added. “I didn’t know what to do, Happy, okay? I care about Y/N, I always will but it wasn’t fair to stay in a relationship that I wasn’t 100% invested in.” Peter replied. “Of course it wasn’t fair to her! That girl has been through hell and back and yet you drag her through the coals. You owe her one hell of an apology.” Happy yelled.

The room fell silent as Aunt May walked in. “Did I interrupt something?” She asked. “No. I was just leaving. I have to go tend to a broken hearted teenager.” Happy replied, sending another dig towards Peter.

May looked at her nephew and sighed. “You had to have seen this coming, Peter. The people closest to her aren’t going to like seeing her hurting. Especially with how much she cared about you.” She said. “I know, May.” Peter muttered.

He shook his head before he himself left the room.

—

Everyone had just gotten off the plane from London, after the long and grueling fight with Mysterio.

You had adorned a couple of minor bruises but you were doing just fine. Physically. Emotionally, you were crippled. Seeing Peter and MJ holding hands and being a couple right in front of you.

Not even giving your feelings a second thought. You walked behind them as you exited the airport and heard Morgan’s voice yell your name.

You were so overcome with happiness to see your little sister, you jogged right in between Peter and MJ, not caring that you bumped into them both and scooped the young girl up into a tight hug.

“Morgan, I missed you.” You said, a large smile covering your face. You set her back down after a couple of seconds and began talking to Pepper. “How are you doing?” She asked. “Oh I’m fine. The suit is a little scratched up but nothing a little TLC can’t fix.” You replied.

“Y/N, that’s not what I meant.” She said. Your smile fell, knowing well what Pepper meant. “I feel terrible. Like, I’m nothing to him now. He could care less about me.” You spoke.

Before Pepper could respond, Morgan’s voice alerted you. “Peter!” She yelled, running to your ex boyfriend. “Morgan!” Pepper called to her youngest. “I’ll go get her.” You told her reluctantly.

You went after Pepper and saw Peter kneel down in front of the girl before standing up to face you.

“H-Hey, Y/N. How are you feeling?” He asked. “Fine.” You answered shortly before lowering yourself down to Morgan’s level. “Come on, kiddo. We have a lot of Disney movies to catch up on” You smiled at her.

“And cheeseburgers?” She asked, excitedly. You laughed lightly as you nodded your head. “And tons of cheeseburgers.” You answered.

You picked her up and turned to Peter and MJ. “I’ll see you guys around.” You said in a monotone fashion, not a single trace of a smile.

Peter watched you walk away from him and everything in his body was telling him to run after you. To wrap you in his arms and kiss you and tell you he takes it all back and that he loves you.

MJ saw the way Peter was looking at you longingly. The way his face lit up watching you with Morgan. Or whenever anyone mentioned you, his whole demeanor changed.

Peter watched you get into the car with Pepper and Morgan, a large smile on your face and laughing at something Morgan had said.

He shook the feelings off before putting his attention back on MJ.

—

It had been a matter of weeks and Peter’s revelation just became stronger and clearer. He was stupid to think that there was anyone he could love more than you.

Whenever he and MJ went to a place the two of you used to go, he just thought of the dates with you. Or whenever they’d be watching the original Star Wars trilogy, he’d think of your rants about Luke and Leia. Everything reminded him of you. 

So when he had to break up with MJ, it was like a repeat of how the break up between you and him went. Except she understood.

MJ always knew that Peter was in love with you, even when she didn’t want to believe it. It was obvious that his feelings for her were just temporary and misguided. Of course she understood, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. 

“Go find her, Parker. I think she needs you.” MJ told him that night.

Peter smiled gratefully before putting his mask back on and leaving her apartment. Peter had enough adrenaline that he made it all the way to the Avengers facility.

He could see your bedroom light on from the grounds of the building and made his way up your balcony. He didn’t know whether or not he still had security clearance to get past the cameras and the alarm system but clearly he did. Considering he made it all the way to your window without FRIDAY alerting you.

Peter hesitated for a moment before he tapped on your window.

Inside, your head perked up at the sound of someone tapping at your window. Peter used to do that when you still lived at the tower but never at the facility after your relocation.

You slowly got out of bed and walked towards the double doors. Moving the curtains aside, you saw Peter, dressed in his Spider-Man suit, minus the mask.

“How did you get up here?” You asked. “I still have security clearance.” He answered. “I told Pepper to change that.” You muttered. “Y/N, I really need to talk to you.” Peter said.

You looked at him for a moment before you sighed and opened the door for him. He looked at you hopefully and walked inside.

“What do you want?” You questioned. “I’m sorry. I-I messed up. I thought I liked MJ as more than a friend but then when I saw you in London helping me after what I did and then I saw you with Morgan at the airport, you smiled and you pulled me right back in again. I love you, Y/N Stark. I always have and I’m pretty sure I always will.” Peter explained.

You stood there completely dumbfounded after you heard Peter’s confession. 

“What about MJ?” You asked. “I broke up with her. Well, more like she knew I was fooling myself by thinking I was over you. She called me out on it and told me to come find you.” He answered. “How do I know you won’t just change your mind again?” You questioned. 

You that that if he could do it once, he could do it again. And you couldn’t go through that pain again. 

“I will never make that stupid mistake again. I promise.” Peter said. You looked at him for a moment before letting out a sigh. “I’ve lost too many people, Parker. I thought I could never lose you but we saw how well that worked out,” You started. “I can’t lose you again, Peter.” You finished.

Peter took a step towards you held your hands in his. “I’m never letting you go again.” He said.

“And I’m sorry, too. For the things I said to you that night. My dad wouldn’t be disappointed in you. It’s the complete opposite probably, he’d be proud of you.” You said. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Y/N, you were hurting and you had every right to say those things.” Peter said. “And I, uh, I love you too. I guess I never stopped. That’s why it hurt so much.” You added. 

Peter’s frown turned into a goofy smile as he heard those words leave your mouth. 

“Really?” He questioned. “Yes, really.” You said with a small laugh. “Would I have let you in my room if I didn’t mean it?” You added. “No, probably not. You probably would have kicked my ass.” Peter said. 

“Most likely.” You joked. “I missed you.” He said. “I missed you too. It’s been weird without you.” You replied. “May has been asking about you. Asking how you’re doing after everything.” Peter said. 

You were silent for a moment as you looked down at your feet. “How have you been doing? I know I haven’t asked that.” He added. You and Peter sat down on the edge of your bed, your hand still in his. 

“Some days have been harder than others. Like yesterday, I was sitting in the office, trying to help Pepper with some business stuff. And, uh, I looked on the desk and saw blueprints for Steve’s new shield and a brand new Iron Man suit. It got me thinking that, he’s not going to be able to finish those things. He’s not going to be there to see me go to college, walk me down the aisle or be there when I have my first child. All of these amazing things are going to happen to me and there’s always going to be that missing piece.” You answered. 

“He’s going to be there. Maybe not physically but he’s always going to be with you. With all of us.” Peter said, using his thumb to wipe the tears off your cheek. “I just, I don’t know how people can do it. How they can go through losing a parent and be okay. I mean, look at you. You lost both of your parents and Uncle Ben and you’re the best person I know.” You said. 

“What did he tell you in that last message?” Peter asked. “That I am meant for amazing and great things. That I am going to do more than he ever could and that he’s proud of me.” You answered, choking back a sob. “Then that’s what you’re going to do. You are going to continue to make him proud.” Peter said. 

You took a deep breath and wiped the tears off your face and shook of the sadness. “Let’s just go back to being happy. We’re back together, everything’s okay and I just want lay with you right now.” You said. 

“How about we watch The Empire Strikes Back?” He suggested. You smiled widely before nodding your head. “Yes please.” You answered. 

Peter stood up and took off the suit before climbing into bed with you. “I still don’t get how they just swept the weird sexual tension between Luke and Leia under the rug. Like they’re siblings.” You added, receiving a laugh from Peter before kissing you on the head. 

“I love you.” He said. “I love you too.” You replied, as the opening of the movie started. 

[retrocelly]

You’ve Been Distant (Tyler Seguin)

A/N: I banged this out in about an hour and barely proof-read it, so sorry for any mistakes. I’m in an angsty Tyler Seguin mood and I can't help it.

Warnings: angst, age gap (everything legal of course), cursing, yelling, basically everything that comes with arguing

Word count: 2,378

Everything about Tyler was familiar. You knew the subtleties of the way he spoke, the way he would lean on you for comfort after a particularly rough game, and all of the things that made him tick. However, you didn’t know this Tyler. Recently, he had been distant from you. He would come home from roadies and hardly acknowledge your presence within your shared home. He seemed reluctant to talk to you about his day, or listen as you spoke about yours. He hadn’t been inviting you to come out with the boys after a win like he normally would. After nearly a year and a half together, you’d grown accustomed to Tyler being borderline clingy at times; hanging on your every word and staying near you like a lovestruck puppy. But the separation came all of a sudden: he just came home one night, took the dogs out, then went to bed without a second glance your way. From that point, it’d been nearly three weeks since you’d had your Tyler.

Your worry wasn’t that he’d fallen out of love with you or that he’d been unfaithful, but rather that he’d finally listened to what everyone had been telling him for over a year: you’re too young. Sure, a seven year age gap was a lot to some people. Hell, even you and Tyler had been wary to start a relationship at first. It hadn’t taken long for the both of you to realize that you were too good together, you complimented each other in every way. Since then there hadn’t been a doubt in your mind, but you couldn’t say the same for Tyler. You noticed the way that he paused before telling his friends that you couldn’t drink while out with them since you were only 20. You noticed how he shifted when he introduced you to his family, praying that they wouldn’t be surprised by how young you looked. You noticed all of it. 

You needed desperately to talk to Tyler about all of it and just get a feel for where his head was at. Then again, how on earth were you supposed to do that when he wouldn’t talk to you at all? Luckily, the Stars didn’t have a game tonight and you figured that he’d be home from practice by 2pm, giving the two of you plenty of time to talk.  Your were right, and right around 2, all of the dogs got up to stand around the front door. You gave Tyler a moment to set all of his things down and greet the dogs before you spoke.

“Hey Ty,” you started, trying your hardest to sound cheerful, “how was practice?”

He gave you a quick glance, his face remaining stern.

“Good.” 

That was it. Good. You hated the word.

“Well when you have a minute, I need to talk to you about something.” Tyler let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

“I’m pretty tired after practice, Y/N. Can we just talk some other time?” Tired, he was always tired. After practice, after games, after going out with friends. When wasn’t he tired anymore?

“No, Tyler,” you sighed, “it’s important and I need to talk to you about it today.” He shook his head slightly, exacerbated, then turned from you and headed up the stairs toward your bedroom.

Fine. If he wanted to try and ignore you, you were going to make it near impossible for him to do so. If constant prodding is what took to get him to pay attention to you, then that’s exactly what you would do. You needed him to talk to you, scream at you, something.

Tyler trudged black down the stairs a few minutes later, having changed into sweats and a worn t-shirt. He sat on the couch (the opposite end from you, of course) and focused his attention on the TV. Shamelessly, you scooted closer to him until your shoulders were touching. The small amount of contact was probably the most you’d had in almost a month and you missed him. Tyler sat up straighter and leaned slightly away from you. It hurt, sure, but you were determined to keep going with your plan.

“Do I smell bad or something, Ty?” You tilted your head to look him in the eyes, but he didn’t return the gesture.

“Nope.”

“Is something wrong?” You knew there was, but you’d do him the courtesy of acting as if you didn’t know.

“Nope,” He returned bluntly, “just tired, like I said earlier.”

“Do you want me to give you a massage? That always seems to help.”

He shook his head without a word, keeping his focus on the TV screen. Okay, time to kick it up a notch. You pulled out your phone and opened snapchat and selected the puppy filter. Quickly, you turned the camera toward Tyler and started a video where you zoomed in on his face. Finally, he turned to look at what you were doing, which activated the filter and turned his scowl into a much cuter puppy scowl. You let out a childish giggle and posted the video to your story, knowing that that would only agitate him further.

Tyler shifted in his seat, letting out a sigh so heavy that it sounded more like an annoyed groan. However, he still wasn’t talking. For your next trick, you leaned your head on his shoulder and made sure to nuzzle into him a bit to really piss him off. If there was one thing Tyler hated, it was being smothered while he was angry. Still nothing. Well then, time for your final act.

Tyler clearly wasn’t in ‘the mood’ at the moment and if anything, it was probably the last thing on his mind. He was angry, and tired, and didn’t want to be around you for whatever reason, so what better way to push him over the edge? Slowly, you tilted your head up and began laying slow kisses onto Tyler’s neck. You made sure to focus your efforts just below his ear and overtop his collarbone, where you knew he was most sensitive. He moved his head away from you slightly, but you only used that as an excuse to move so that you were straddling him, now completely blocking his view of the television. Quickly, he moved his large hands up to grab your shoulders and pushed you away from him.

“Cut it out,” he scolded, “I don’t know how much clearer I can make it that I want to be alone right now.” His face was hard and unforgiving, an expression you’d only seen when he was upset during a game.

“But I thought you said that nothing was wrong.” You pouted, making no move to get off of him. You were taunting him, and it seemed like he’d finally realized that as his face contorted into a confused scowl.

“Is that what you’ve been doing this whole time?” He questioned loudly, standing up as he forced you off to the side of him. “You’re actively trying to piss me off? Are you that fucking desperate for attention that you cant even leave me alone for one damn day?!”

“One day?” You retorted, standing off of the couch the face him. “Tyler, you haven’t spoken more than five words to me in the past month!” 

He let out a bitter, empty laugh, one that you hated. He was livid.

“And so this is how you decide to get me to talk to you? By being the most obnoxious girl within 100 miles?”

“I didn’t know what else to do, dammit!” You screamed, and you could feel hot tears beginning to sting your eyes. “you wouldn’t talk to me no matter what I tried!”

“God,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair, an unforgiving glare still plastered across his features, “You’re so fucking immature that you don’t even know how to handle a problem without acting like a brat. Do you not understand how annoying that is? It doesn’t make me want to talk to you, it makes me want to get up and leave the damn house. You can be such a child sometimes, it’s like I’m fucking babysitting.”

“Oh, so that is the issue!” Your tone was accusatory, “You think I’m too immature.”

You had settled slightly, your demeanor softening after finally hearing the words you knew he’d been waiting to say. Tyler, however, didn’t seem like he was backing down.

“Wow, Y/N, do you want a gold star for your fabulous detective work?” You crossed your arms at his mocking tone. “Y’know, sometimes I think that they were right about you. Jamie told me that you were too young - he said that you would a pain in the ass, because 20-year-olds are fucking stupid when it comes to dating - and he was right. My mom and both of my fucking sisters told me that it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with a girl so much younger than me and I should’ve fucking listened.”

Tyler’s face was red and you had a couple tears running down your cheeks by the time he was done.

“Oh, give me a goddamn break, Tyler! You’re such a selfish ass sometimes, you know that?” He opened his mouth to retort, but you cut him off. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing at all! I was being a good, supportive girlfriend and then one day you came home and just decided to pretend like I didn’t exist. I was there for you when you needed me to be! When you came home after a bad game, whining like a baby that it was all because of shitty refs, I was there to console you! Not once did I complain when you drug me out to go clubbing with you and the boys after I’d had a full day of classes and work! Not once did I sit you down and tell you about how terrible my day was, because I cared about you first! I always put you first! And instead of repaying the favor like any other boyfriend would, you cut me off and acted like it was my fault! If you wanna talk about who’s immature, take a good hard look in the mirror because I’m not the moody, narcissistic prick in this relationship, but that’s what you are right now!”

You let out a heavy breath and walked past Tyler to go upstairs. He made no attempt to speak, nor did he try and come after you. You knew him well enough, and when Tyler was silent like that, it was because he knew he was wrong. You walked into your bedroom, shutting the door behind you (after the dogs had followed you in, obviously). You needed time to cool off and he needed time to reflect. Once you were changed into your pajamas, you sat on the edge of the bed and allowed yourself to shed your remaining tears. By the time you’d calmed down, you were simply exhausted. It was still only mid-afternoon, but you didn’t care. You crawled into your side of the bed and flicked on the TV, ready to settle in for the day. However, a soft knock at the bedroom door and Cash’s soft whimper caused you to get up again. When you opened the door, you were met with a sheepish-looking Tyler, his hand scratching at the back of his neck and an apologetic look on his face.

“You’re right,” he sighed, causing you to raise your eyebrows.

“Good start,” you chided, “what else?”

Tyler let out a quiet laugh at that - he always did have a thing for your “strong personality,” as he called it.

“I’m sorry. Like, I’m so fucking sorry, Y/N. I’ve just been under a lot more pressure at work recently, y’know with management up my ass and all that. I know that that’s not an excuse, and I shouldn’t have have taken it out on you, but lately I’ve just been feeling like I’m not at my best and I guess I just didn’t want to disappoint you too, so instead I figured I’d just ignore you. I should’ve just sat down and talked to you about it, and I was the immature one because of that. About what I said earlier, I didn’t mean it. I love you with everything that I have and your age isn’t an issue for me, I was just pissed off. And for the record, Jamie and my family love you too, you know that. I was just being a dick and wasn’t thinking about what I was saying.”

You nodded carefully, allowing the silence to settle before you spoke again.

“I appreciate that, Tyler. With all due respect, I did mean what I said. You’ve been really selfish just ignoring me and it hurts. It hurt me to think that you were going to break up with me - to think that you were just giving up on us.” 

Your eyes welled with tears again and Tyler moved to envelope you in a hug. You let him.

“I’m so sorry, baby. So fucking sorry.” You could tell that he was near tears too, his voice shaky and breaking. “And I promise you that I won’t ever make you feel like that again. I understand if you still need some time but I’m here if you need me and I’m not going anywhere.” 

You pulled away from him gently, taking a moment to simply look into his eyes before leaning up to connect your lips with his. The two of you melted into the kiss right away, Tyler’s hands moving to cup each side of your face as your hands draped loosely around his waist. When you moved out of this kiss, you were greeted with Tyler’s soft smile. It wasn’t a smirk like he sometimes did after an intimate moment, but a simple, happy smile. You returned it.

“Can we just go lay down? We’re both sleepy and I miss you.” You pouted your bottom lip slightly and he couldn’t help the laugh that resonated through him.

“Yeah, of course, let’s go to bed. I miss you too, my love.”

[operationrainfall]

Title Woven Developer Alterego Games Publisher Alterego Games Release Date November 15th, 2019 Genre Adventure, Puzzle Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone 10+ – Fantasy Violence Official Website

I really wanted to love Woven. After all, I was one of the original backers of the unsuccessful Kickstarter project, and was duly impressed by Alterego Games’ decision to self publish the project afterwards. The premise of Woven was really compelling and different, taking place in a soft world of woolen yarn and fabric that is being invaded by strange mechanical insects. Our hero is a goofy elephant named Stuffy, and he quickly comes across a new friend, a firefly-shaped robot named Glitch. Together, they set out to discover the truth and explore this world, transforming and reweaving Stuffy to scale various obstacles along the way. If only the adventure had lived up to that fantastic premise.

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Woven is the sort of game that would have made my childhood self smile. It plays out like a live action Winnie the Pooh, in a calm and mellow land where all that matters is relaxation and finding flowers. At least at first. Stuffy is a very amicable protagonist, but not the brightest bulb. A fact that is repeatedly referenced by the game’s narrator. The narrator’s tenor sounds very British, and at first I enjoyed how his paired sentences usually rhymed. It does grow old rather quickly though, especially when you realize that the narrator is not gonna help you much with direction. If you get lost at all, he’ll start reminiscing like a grandfather with dementia, talking about the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. None of which is helpful. Which wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that getting lost is a regular occurrence in Woven. Or at least it was for me. I managed to get stuck about 5 minutes into the game, in what would be considered the tutorial area. That’s because the game doesn’t hold your hand much, and trusts you’re clever enough to pick up on the clues in your environment. Sadly, what Woven thinks is plainly evident very rarely is. Case in point, the very first blueprint machine I came across gave no guidance how to operate it. I eventually figured it out, but it was a sign of things to come.

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There’s dozens of blueprint machines spread across Woven’s 5 regions, including meadows, deserts and jungles, and each blueprint gives Stuffy new transformation options. To unlock the blueprint, you play a little musical mini-game by operating mechanical levers to select notes. Though this was confusing initially, I grew to enjoy the mini-game. At first I assumed that each animal form would have set limbs, but you can mix and match after you acquire several, creating bizarre chimeras. Case in point, you can pair Pig legs with Lion arms and a Rhino head. You can even have two different arms or legs simultaneously. Each body part has different capabilities that allow various actions. You’ll need these to solve puzzles and make your way through the game. Though Woven is nominally a linear experience, the world is so wide open it’s easy to not immediately know where to head next. A good example was when I came across a short hilltop ringed with mountains, with a circular passage full of cranky yak creatures. I could stomp my foot to force the Yaks to move, but after moving in a complete circle, I wasn’t sure what to do. I eventually found the solution online in a very helpful playthrough, but it was frustrating being on the cusp of a solution and having no idea where to go next. This was due to the fact many of the puzzles in Woven are time based, but they don’t tell you they are. If a clock had showed up indicating I had a certain amount of time, I would have known to hurry up. And the farther I got in the game, the more complex and active the puzzles got. I much preferred the puzzles that required thinking but not fast reflexes.

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While it’s clearer why you would want to transform Stuffy to progress, it’s less clear how to use color palettes called patterns. You’ll find tons of flowers as you wander about, and by stomping your foot, they’ll open up and allow Glitch to scan them. You can also scan some animals for these, but they rarely sit still, so you’ll either need to be quick or find a way to distract or incapacitate them. Lastly, there’s patches you’ll randomly find on the map to unlock patterns. Patterns do a couple of things. On the one hand, they let you decorate Stuffy at the knitting machines, making him look as fancy or hideous as you please. You might be more surprised to realize you need some for puzzles. An example are giant snakes that block your progress unless you match their pattern. There’s another cool segment where a mechanical spider will pounce on you unless you blend in with the background. I don’t mind using patterns strategically, but it’s very easy to not scan the right one, and then be forced to backtrack until you find it. Some sort or an indicator of where key items resided would have helped, but there’s no such thing. And given the wide open format of Woven, it’s rather easy to get lost and miss the proper patterns. Oh and did I mention there’s more than 100 of them spread across the entire game? Which makes it even more daunting when you manage to pass one without realizing it.

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You may be wondering what Glitch does, and the simple answer is he operates every mechanical device you interact with. He turns on the blueprint machines and knitters, scans items and can also use his light to illuminate dark caves. The little firefly is pretty helpful, and his backstory ties directly into the plot of Woven. You’ll find lots of nodes that reveal bits and pieces of his lost memory as you go. I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say there’s a reason Glitch feels so strongly pulled by the planet’s moon. I wish I could say Stuffy’s backstory was as interesting, but he’s almost an incidental character. He could literally be anything or anybody else, and it wouldn’t change the course of the game. I never knew much about the elephant, other than he was apparently simple, cowardly and loved flowers. It’s not clear how long he’s been around, what he did before Glitch or anything really. He’s just there to progress the story, and that’s a shame, especially since he’s nominally the main character.

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Not everything in the game works poorly. I did find it handy how the different Joy-Con controlled Stuffy and Glitch, respectively. And I appreciated visual prompts indicating what abilities I needed to get past obstacles, and found the camera easy to operate. The problem was primarily with the game’s physics. Woven is a wide open 3D world, but often what seems a clear path forward ends up tripping you up with invisible stage geometry. Bushes often kept me from moving forward, which was awkward. As a fan of platformers, I found this made Woven a lot harder to enjoy, since I was never clear if I could progress or not. Sometimes you do actually need different abilities tied to animal parts, such as jumping or pushing, but you never know in advance. So if I came to an area with a puzzle and had the wrong parts, I would have to backtrack all the way to the nearest knitting machine and reweave my elephant friend. I really think it would have been much easier if Stuffy could fast travel to these, since they’re spaced rather far apart and it’s not very fun walking about. Failing that, I would have loved a mini-map, since that would have cut down how often I got lost in Woven dramatically.

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Visually, Woven has a cute storybook aesthetic. There’s lots of bright colors and soft details. While I have no problem with that, I do have a problem with the graphical fidelity. I will mention I played the Switch version of the game, and from what little research I’ve done, it runs far better on other consoles. I normally don’t complain about things like framerate or the like, and usually find most games I play on Switch run great, but oftentimes the graphics here were muddy and fuzzy. Simply put, this game suffers from Bloodstained syndrome, meaning every other iteration of the game plays better than the one on Nintendo consoles. Which is truly a shame, since this is the perfect sort of all ages game that would otherwise appeal to a lot of Nintendo gamers. Musically the game is frankly dull, and quite muted musically. Sound effects lack punch, and actions often don’t have the proper impact as a result. When Stuffy punches a box out of his way, it just slides quietly out of place. Much like the rest of the game, aesthetically Woven is a very mixed bag.

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While I hate to add onto my other complaints, I have a few more. For one thing, I find it completely awkward how Stuffy always looks at Glitch as he runs forward, contorting his head to follow the firefly everywhere. That’s minor, but a more significant issue relates to the linearity of the game. If you miss any collectibles or achievements, you can’t get them until the next time you play through the game from the beginning. Once you reach a new area, there’s no backtracking, and the game auto saves. So if you’re one of those people that loves to platinum games, best of luck. And finally, while I don’t mind the general lack of combat in the game, it makes it that much more challenging when you have to contend with the final boss.

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Much as I wanted to love Woven, I left the experience quite disappointed. There was promise here, but for whatever reason it wasn’t met. If you don’t mind clumsy physics and very complex and vague puzzles, you might enjoy what’s here. Even then, it’s a hard pill to swallow at $19.99. Though you can beat the game in less than 5 hours, it took me around 9 due to getting lost repeatedly. So at least you’ll get some bang for your buck. This is one of those games I recommend you pick up on a sale. Hopefully Alterego Games has more ideas they can breathe life into in the future, cause I’d honestly like to see them succeed. In the meantime, I’ll lament this tale of an elephant and his firefly buddy.

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”1.5″]

Review Copy Provided By Publisher

REVIEW: Woven Title Woven

[until-the-joy-drops-again]

Phone call (chapter 1)

I had that itch. That itch that drives you completely insane because it's not physical, so you cant scratch it. It's the one that starts in the back of your brain and travels down to your stomach. That itch of the past you just cant relieve.

I thought about her a lot. How could I not? She was imprinted on my soul. The one that "got away," because I'm a stupid fool and instead of trying to cross the distance of time to get her back, I just let more time get I the way. Making it worse and worse...

Just then, my phone rang. I glanced down and almost choked on my beer. Delaware?!?! There was no way... I just stared at the phone, not knowing if I could actually answer it or not. Luckily, my heart took over, grabbed the phone and hit the talk button.

"Hello?"

"Adam! It's trevor walker."

I let out a sigh of relief and disappointment all at once, "oh hey man, what's up?"

"Adrien said you're in LA?"

"Uh, yeah.... yeah, bands on break for a little while, I'm home-" he cut me off.

"Good! We got you a flight out tomorrow morning, we'll pick you up in philly tomorrow evening! We have band practice Wednesday at 3pm."

I waited a beat for him to go on, but we both know he didnt need to.

"Trev i--," but he cut me off again.

"Delta, flight 752, leaves at 10:05, concourse d, better get there by 6...and she doesnt know we did this... see you tomorrow!" And the line cut out.

I pulled my phone away from my ear and stared at it for a minute. Obviously I wasnt going to go, i had heard she had gotten married about 18 months ago (why did i know that's how long it had been?) So... could i go back to being "just" friends? I mean, we had ALWAYS been "just" friends but...

The pain in my chest made me physically grab at it as I doubled over, dropping my phone. I felt tears stinging my eyes and had to gasp for air. The pain was incredible as I realized part of my brain had grasped onto the hope of seeing her again. I tried to take a slow deep breath but it shuttered in my lungs. I found myself rocking as I tried to calm myself down

There was nothing left I could do about her. The time and distance had grown too big. There was no hope left.

My phone pinged with a text message. I looked at it, it was trevor... I opened it and it was a link to s webpage. Confused, I pushed it and it took me to the local delaware page, to the divorce announcements. I frowned as I glanced over the page till my eyes fell on her name. I gasped. She got divorced! I looked at the top of the page, it was 4 months old.

I just sat there, my mind racing... trevor and those guys were a lot of things, but they never fucked around. If they were calling, getting a plane ticket and texting... I knew it was my best chance to fix this.

I absentmindedly stood up and started pacing around the room. I tossed my phone back on the couch and ran my hands over my head and neck, trying to help my brain put my thoughts in some sort of order.

Why didnt she know- but I knew the answer. Cause I'm a fucking moron and they weren't going to put her through anything else if I didnt show. And although that realization stabbed at my heart, it gave me a sliver of hope, that she might care if I didnt show...

My brain fucked with me then and somehow made me smell her then, for half a second. The smell of lavendar mixed with a little menthol cigarette smoke and sandalwood. The pang of longing I felt made me clutch at my stomach. And I turned towards my bedroom and started throwing shit in my carry on bag.

A vision of her face floated in front of my eyes. I still remembered every detail of her face, and then I focused on her eyes. I shut my eyes to bring the memory into clearer focus. Those beautiful hazel eyes. Before I knew what I was doing I was rushing back out to the livingroom and grabbing my phone. With shaking hands it took me a few tries to get into my music writing app and copy the right file. I pulled up trevor's text message, attached the file and hit send before I could second guess myself. I tossed the phone back on the couch but immediately picked it back up. I pushed some more buttons and then her face was ACTUALLY in front of me.

It was my absolutely most favorite picture I had ever owned. To the point of it being creepy, I laughed at myself. I had to saved probably 100 times in different places so I would always have it. We were younger in the photo, taken in New York during one of my tours about 4 years ago. We were walking back to the hotel, it must have been like four o'clock in the morning. Adrien had had his camera on him and wanted to get a photo of us in a crosswalk. We all thought he was an idiot... I smiled at the memory.

We had all been drinking, but we weren't hammered. We definitely shouldn't have driven a car, but we weren't staggering around and slurring... adrien was hoping around us trying to convince us to stand in the crosswalk. "Dude, do you WANT us to die?" She had asked him, laughing.

"Itll be quick! Look, there is barely any traffic or people... itll be perfect!"

"So we are all just going to..what? Like abbey road it?" I had asked, the vision of it made me laugh.

"No, just you two," he pointed at her and I, he had said it so matter of fact it caught me off guard. I turned to him, but he had already turned his attention to her, grabbing at her sleeve, hoping up and down again.

She burst out laughing, it was so easy and so pure and happy it made me smile.

"Okay...okay!!!!" She yelled at him, smiling, before she turned to me.

My stomach clenched as I remembered her turning to me then. She was just so God dammed beautiful, it was like she was just floating there on the street, the way she turned her whole body towards me so she was walking backwards down the street. Her mane of blonde hair bouncing as she moved, the sparkle of light and mischief in her eyes...she just took my breathe away. All I could do was nod at her.

"Yes!!!" Adrien jumped into the air and pumped his fist. "Ok, will the rest of you block any people from walking through? I'll set my camera up now so it can be quick. He started fussing with it as we walked. He took a few practise shots of the traffic, adjusting before taking another one. Finally he looked up, "perfect! Let's go!"

Adrien looked around him as we walked, he looked up at the street signs and pointed to our right, "this way!" He stopped at the crosswalk.

"So, this one?" She asked him as we all waited for the light to change.

"No, I want a little more traffic, we will go up a few streets..." so we did. Finally Adrien said, "this one!" And startedbouncing on the balls of his feet.

"So,how should we pose?" I looked down at her standing next to me.

"Let's see where the moment takes us," she smiled with her whole body, taking my arm.

There was still some traffic on this street as our light changed. Cars lined up behind the crosswalk and Sam, Dan and Paul ran out into the street to block any pedestrians crossing towards us. Adrien darted out into the empty right side of the street and crouched down as she pulled me into the crosswalk.

God she was really gorgeous. I laughed at her and grabbed her arm and spun her like a ballerina as I heard her laugh. I caught her with my right arm around her waist and my left hand between her shoulder blades. And I dipped us.

I felt her left leg come up to my hip as I leaned us both down. Her face just inches from mine, her hair falling back and downwards, covering my left hand. She was still laughing but when our eyes met her laugh softened, her eyes sparkled even more. I smiled at her, an easy smile I had no control over. I moved my face just a little closer and I saw the desire in her eyes as she quickly glanced at my lips. Our noses were just about to touch when...

"Yes!!!! Oh my God yes!!! That was AMAZING!"

Scared the hell out of me and I almost dropped her as I turned to look at him completely surprised.i had totally forgotten what we were actually doing. I looked back at her as I helped her up, I heard a car horn and saw our light was changing. I gave her a small push and we ran the rest of the way across the street.

As I looked at the photo in my livingroom, it really was "AMAZING." The headlights of the cars behind us made us glow almost, everything else was dark. He had taken it right st the moment when I was going to kiss her. Our faces close together, our smiles were loose and full. Her leg cocked up, her knee on my hip, her hair tumbling down behind her. I didnt look to bad either, holding her up and bending over her.

I kicked myself, if I had just fucking kissed her...if not right then, then later that night...or any time in the next 3 months, before my agent came at me with the marriage proposal... but I never did... and now, here I am, in this empty condo, trying to put my life back together after my idiotic ideas i had to get famous.

How the fuck was I supposed to sleep tonight?

[hayjeon]

Memory Lane | 03 ft. Yoongi

→ grumpy husband yoongi au aka lots of fluff and a little smutty language → 1.7k words → part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | BTS in 10 years!AU

A/N: I WILL NEVER FUCKING EVER GET OVER THIS AU UGH

also highly inspired by this video and dedicated to my dear friend who is currently suffering from wisdom teeth pain bc i cant fucking wait til shes drunk of her ass bc of the meds cause i’ll be ready with the camera to make sure that shit goes down in history

“Oh shit, who are you?” His groggy voice croaks out.

You look up from your organization of the clothes you packed for him and your eyes widen when you see him come to. You rush to his side, leaning down to get a good look at him. 

“Babe, are you feeling okay?“ 

He frowns, movements even slower than usual because of the anesthesia. His eyes rake over your features, eyebrows furrowing as he examines how your lashes flutter in confusion and your hair falling around him smells so damn good. 

He squints. "Wait what? Babe?" 

You laugh, grabbing a chair. The doctor warned about something like this, momentary memory loss or delusion was common for any patients coming off of such heavy anesthesia from a surgery. 

He turns to you, and you hand him his crackers and some water. He chews on the plain stuff slowly, still looking up at you in confusion. 

“Woah, are you a nurse here?” 

You raise and eyebrow and curl a piece of hair behind your ear. Propping your elbow on the side of his bed, you smile down at him, “Uh, I’m your wife, Yoongi.” 

He pauses, cracker mid-chew and his slanted eyes turn to you, wide. “Wait, we’re married?!” 

You chuckle and nod, guiding the hand that’s holding his cracker back towards his gaping mouth. “Yes, honey. Eat your cracker.” 

He catches sight of the ring on your finger and gapes. “Fuuuuck, I’m a genius. Holy shit, did I buy you that?” 

You look down at the jewel, a gorgeous round diamond halo embedded in a platinum band studded with smaller ones. It was an obnoxiously gorgeous one, sitting right on top of the plain silver promise ring he gave you on your year anniversary. Smiling down at it and extending your hand out in front of the both of you, you nod. “Mhm, don’t you remember when you dropped it in the sink drain when you proposed?” 

He closes his eyes, chewing thoughtfully. “No. Do we have kids?” 

“Not yet.” 

“Okay I take it back, I’m not a genius. Why haven’t I knocked you up yet?”

Giggling, you help prop him up against the pillows and press a cup of water to his lips, and he drinks with gusto. When you press another saltine cracker against his lips, he cringes away from you with the cutest expression, pouting at the taste. 

“I don’t wanna.” 

“Yoongi, you have to eat your cracker so that the anesthesia will wear off faster.” 

“Hot nurse I don’t know what you are doing to me but I am married.” He holds up his left hand, brandishing his own matching platinum band with two simple grooves in the upper and lower part of the band, wrapped snugly around his finger. Your favorite part about the otherwise simple band was that Yoongi never took it off. Even when he had gigs and other important meetings, or even shows that requested that he model their own choices of fashion and jewelry. Ever. 

You chuckle and press the cracker into his mouth when he’s finished speaking. Grunting, his eyes open and send you a glare as he chews on the cracker, eyebrows furrowing at the plainness. “My wife will beat you up.” 

You smile thoughtfully. “How is she?” 

He closes his eyes, his voice sexily husky and groggier than it is when he wakes up or is trying to seduce you. It’s also a bit slower and muffled, as his tongue weighs heavily in his mouth, but he talks surely, and you notice his speech becoming a bit more clearer as he continues. This was good, because the doctor recommended that he keep talking to help him wake up. 

“She’s so hot. And so fucking nice. So fucking nice. And her legs and ass look really good when she wears the heels I bought her but I’ll never tell her because I know they make her feet hurt.” 

You giggle at that memory, when Yoongi bought you the prettiest pair of Louboutins in your favorite color for your birthday once and you wore them the following week to a fashion show event he was invited to as his plus one. You were the talk of the night but then he had to piggy back you back to the limo at the end of the night because of the blisters on your heels and soles. 

“And also she likes watching deep shit like Your Name or Get Out and secretly I love that because I know Namjoon’s wife still makes him watch Frozen with her and I swear I’ll never babysit his kids again or else I might break every copy of that goddam disney movie.”

“She’s super independent. Did I mention she’s a vet? Like shit if that’s not the epitome of my fucking fantasies then I dunno what is.” He hiccups and you bite back the huge smile on your face to press the cup to his lips and let him gulp more water. 

“We fight, sometimes. But I’m happy because she knows who she is now and we don’t fight about identity stuff anymore this far into our marriage. It’s more like endearing shit like ‘you left the toilet seat up’ or ‘get your own goddam milk’ and I fucking live for that shit.” 

He chokes on a bit of crumbs from the cracker and explodes in coughs, and you scramble to pat his back and give him some more water. Suddenly his mother scrambles to his side and joins you, helping you refill the cup and caressing his back.

“Ah, mother! When did you get here? You should’ve called, this stuff is so heavy!” You grab the cooler from her, and set it aside, most likely filled with food for you two to eat while here at the hospital. She smiles at you and sits down, gazing down at her son. “You know that means he really likes you.” 

You blush, taking the other seat beside her and also gazing down at Yoongi’s still groggy figure chewing slowly on his cracker, oblivious to your conversation. “How much did you hear?” 

“Enough to realize he was talking about you and not some other woman.” 

You giggle and press another cracker into his hand. She grasps your hand and smiles. “I know he’s not really good at showing it but, he really loves those that he keeps close to him. I’m so happy he married someone like you, someone who draws him out of his little shell. I haven’t seen him so happy, ever. Even when he’s grumpy and in pain.” 

You giggle at the way he groans and furrows his brows when you urge him to eat another cracker. Whining, he turns from you and rolls over, his back towards the both of you. The minor surgery from appendicitis had given you a scare but definitely was something turning out to be a milestone in your books. Smiling, you respond. 

“I’ve never been this happy either.” 

“What the fuck are you talking about? What did I say?” 

He turns to you in the passenger seat, as you pull out of the driveway of the hospital. 

“Well, you first hit on me, and then you congratulated yourself on marrying me.” 

“There’s no way I said that. You’re joking.”

“100% positive Yoongi. I was there.” 

“What else did I say?” 

“Not much.” 

“Are you sure?” 

You smile secretly to yourself, giggling as you pull into your home. “Yeah, not much else.” 

“Babe, we have literally two minutes to get into the car. Are you ready yet?” He checks his watch, sighing as he fiddles with his cuff links. 

“I’m ready!” You appear at the top of the staircase with a gorgeous white blazer and shorts set. You bound down the steps and stop in front of the door to put your shoes on and he notices the high heels he bought you a while ago. He silently watches you smooth back your curled locks and balance a hand on the wall to keep yourself steady as you pull on the suede heels onto your jaw dropping legs. Inwardly he keeps himself from popping a boner right then and there. Three years of marriage and waking up to your bloated sleepy face did nothing to stop his attraction for you. It was the same, the you who woke up in one of his shirts and tiredly shoved your glasses on your face and prepared his coffee or the you who dressed up in designer clothes and spent hours perfecting your already perfect face with makeup and jewelry for Jimin’s third baby shower. 

But outwardly he grumbles, “Don’t those shoes give you blisters?” 

You smile at him, and he melts. It was the fucking highlight of his day, seeing the way your smile literally lit up his world even brighter than any stage lights or morning suns he’s ever seen. “I can deal with it.”

“To show who?” He rolls his eyes and stuffs his hands in his pockets as he grabs his keys and follows you out the door. 

“You, babe.” You turn and sling an arm through the crook of his own, and he clenches his jaw to keep himself from smiling too hard. 

“Whatever.” He grumbles as he opens the car door for you and then starts the engine with a scowl. You giggle as you notice the way he only drives with his left hand so that his right is free, and taking the hint, you weave your fingers through his as he merges onto the freeway. He’s still scowling though. 

But you love it, and you love him. 

He doesn’t love the traditional way others do, with the googly eyes and kisses and sweet words dripping with honey. But you see it in his actions, and anaesthesia-induced speeches, and it was the best you could ask for and ever wanted. 

Because he was yours and you were his, and it was all that mattered. 

Because you caught a good one there. 

Yeah, you’re sure you did. 

[jeromesxreader16]

Sticks and Stones? Staples and Thrones.

You should do one where Jerome meets Harley for the first time after being all cut up. (Yet he’s somehow still beautiful!!) And he takes an immediate liking to her because she’s totally bad ass and doesn’t care about his scars? The rest is your imagination, I guess.

———-

“I’m telling you Jim. I don’t have a clue where it is.” I shrug my shoulders and twirl a strand of hair from one of my pony tails. He crosses his arms and stares me down as Harvey sighs in annoyance. “Come on Harleen. Just hand it over.” I smile and prop my head up. “I keep telling you coppers I don’t have the dang necklace.”

Harvey throws his hands up and yells. “So what if she does? It really matter? Only 100 dollars that place is losing! Just let her go Jim.” I smile at Harvey and hold my hands out. “Yes. Please let me go Jimbo.” I laugh and gingel the cuffs around my wrists.

Jim hoists me up and out of the room and as soon as he does a siren blares and a car goes by almost hitting everything in sight. “You need to teach him how to drive!” I laugh watching the crazed driver, and seconds later he runs over a guy!

I tug my hair in excitement and run for my apartment wanting to see this story on the news.

As I get to my house I unlock the door and see my window open and a little tree hugger on my couch. “Hey Red.” I say and go to the kitchen. “Heard you were taken in…again.” I shrug my shoulders and get a drink. “Want anything?” Ivy slams the door closed and looks at me seriously. “You need to stop. Your record is shot and you’re gonna lose this place.”

I smile and open the dishwasher, and as the door falls open bags, and bags, and bags of money fall out. “Now stop worrying will you?” I giggle and turn on the TV.

As the picture becomes clearer I see a man…wearing someone's…face? Hm odd. “You seeing this Red?” I say as I get closer to the screen. “Well not when you’re in front of it!” Red says playfully and pushes me out of the way with her foot. “Hey!” I whine and get up. “Go out and get some food will you?” Red asks as she waters her plant on the side table.

I smirk and stuff my hands in my pockets rocking on my heels. “Sure thing!” I stroll to the door and as soon as I grasp the knob Red ruins my fun. “Pay for it!” I groan and grab some money.

•••

I walk down the dark sidewalk of Gotham city when I see something…someone. I hold onto the pizza box and follow the shadow into a building. What can I say? I’m a curious girl.

I creep up on the figure and see who it belongs to. I see two people. One bent over and groaning in pain every few seconds and the other watching in awe or horror. I can’t tell. Maybe a little bit of both.

I lean in closer trying to get a better look, but of course me being to clumsy girl I am knock over some tools set out.

The one hunched over turns around and reviles his face…his stapled face? I then realized the man on Tv was standing in between the famous Jerome Valeska and I. HE STOLE JEROME’S FACE!

Jerome smiles and holds up the staple gun. “Yay or nay dollface?” I walk closer to him and circled his body. “Hm. It could work.” I shrug and smile at him. “Pizza?” I ask and open the box for him.

Jerome smirks and grabs a slice. “What’s your name dollface?” I smile and blush at the nickname. “Harley. Harley Quinn.” “Oh wonderful name!” Jerome smiles then looks away. “What’s wrong?”

He looks up at me and smirks. “Want to help me with this fellow over here?” I look over the man with fear in his eyes. “Where do we start?” “Oh I’m gonna love having you around doll.”

Jerome and I tie Dewit up and throw firecrackers at the fool. Jerome turns to a camera and laughs. “Tonight Gotham. You too will be…reborn!” He laughs and lights a cord leading to the idiot who stole Jerome’s face. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand baby!”

Jerome says and runs out of the building with me hand in hand. When we exit the door the building explodes throwing us a feet away from it.

We tumble over and I fall on top of Jerome. He looks up at me and laughs. “Ahh that was fun! Sure you don’t mind the staples? Good look? Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” I kiss both his cheeks. “Sticks and stones? Let’s keep the staples and get thrones.” Jerome smiles. “Oh I like the way you think Harley!”

[explodingcrenelation]

I've never seen this discussed, but I was thinking about how the Winter Soldier is a legend and a ghost, always concealed. Yet they sent him after the Starks unmasked. I guess they knew Howard would recognize him and they wanted that, but it still seems a weird thing to do. With Steve it's obvious, they knew it gave WS the advantage because Cap didn't want to kill him, but the Starks hardly seemed a threat. Sure it was psychological, but what was the point if they die fast? Got meta?

Okay, so, I really need to organize my meta. Because I swear I’ve read at least one meta post that talks about the mask and the inconsistency of its use throughout the movies. But I have almost forty pages of meta on my blog and I can’t seem to find it. I may not have reblogged it, in which case I fear it’s lost to the depths of Tumblr. (Can anyone help with this?)

For lack of resources to point you to, anon, let me ramble a bit and see if anything comes out of it.

From a storytelling standpoint, the mask is primarily for us, the viewers, so that we can have a dramatic identity reveal in Winter Soldier.

Or, really, I should say the mask is primarily for Steve because I think pretty much everyone in the audience knew the Winter Soldier was Bucky all along. Losing the mask simply confirmed it. However, the audience wants to see Steve have the revelation for himself, the moment of recognition. (And to this day that moment remains one of my favorite scenes in the entirety of the MCU. It was beautifully staged, and perfectly acted. Chris Evans emoted so much fear/hope/disbelief in one whispered, “Bucky?” and then Sebastian Stan contrasted that painfully with his flat reply, “Who the hell is Bucky?” I could go on about that exchange for ages.)After that, the mask isn’t really needed. It served its purpose for the dramatic reveal and the story kind of… forgets it. 

Wouldn’t it have been great to have Steve in Civil War realize, “Oh! That guy who bombed the UN? He isn’t wearing a mask and Bucky definitely knew to wear a mask to hide his identity when he was dismantling governments and destroying world order, so that’s probably not him.” 

Give your old pal some credit, Steve. Sheesh. He was a professional sniper and knew how to be sneaky even before Hydra caught him. There’s a reason you haven’t been able to find him for the last two years. 

But I digress. 

Ostensibly the reason Bucky doesn’t have the mask for Civil War is again for the sake of storytelling. We need Howard to recognize him and say his name and for the Winter Soldier to look straight into the security feed so there’s no doubt whatsoever that James Buchanan Barnes, Steve Rogers’ best friend, killed Tony’s parents. That makes it possible for Tony to react immediately, without having to pause to question whether or not it’s actually Bucky (it thus prevents Tony from thinking things through and reacting with a clearer head). It serves the heat of the storytelling more than it serves a common sense, fully developed backstory for the use of the mask. 

I mean, we could say that Howard’s death is the inciting incident that makes the mask necessary. The Winter Soldier was both recognized and caught on camera on the night of December 16, 1991. It was apparently a big enough deal that detailed Hydra records led Zemo to seek out that specific tape, sight unseen, knowing without a doubt the rift it would cause between Steve and Tony. 

I wonder how much trouble the Winter Soldier’s handlers had to go through to get that security tape into their hands? (Because please imagine them freaking out about Peggy Carter finding out Bucky was still alive and a brainwashed captive of Hydra. She may have been getting on in years, but I have no doubt Hydra operatives were still actively terrified of her. She was there when Steve vowed revenge for Bucky. Steve died to avenge Bucky. There’s no way she wouldn’t take it personally if she found out Bucky was still alive. Same goes for the rest of the Howling Commandos.)

That being said, it seems kind of silly for Hydra to make that realization so late into the game. Even petty thieves know well enough to obscure their identities. 

So, we could say Howard’s death is the inciting incident, but it doesn’t make much sense if it was. Because that leaves about forty-odd years where the Winter Soldier was operating without a mask. And the chance he’d be recognized by former friends and family was a lot higher earlier on in his “career.”

At one point in the past—there’s no way to know if it was before or after Howard’s death—the Winter Soldier was photographed with his mask on. In Winter Solider, computer-incarnated Zola shuffles through a series of historical images, including this one. 

It’s hard to tell for sure, but the Winter Soldier seems to be wearing the mask here. Of course, the irony is that the arm and the star make him 100% identifiable. The difference being the arm identifies him as a weapon and an agent of Hydra, not as a person with a name and a history of his own. It doesn’t particularly matter if anyone sees the arm and, in fact, adds to the chilling mythos of the ghost story. Regular men don’t have metal arms. Monsters without faces have metal arms.

The mask obscures Bucky’s identity and it dehumanizes him. (It’s also an inverse of Captain America’s helmet, which I think is simply brilliant costuming.) Not only does it serve a practical purpose in keeping anyone from knowing who he is, it furthers Hydra’s subtle fear tactics by making the arm the Winter Solider’s identifying mark. Hydra had every reason to want to use the mask from the very beginning. 

If we try to make sense of the use of the mask in the context of the marvel universe, without breaking the fourth wall, and setting aside its presence (or lack thereof) as an obvious function of targeted storytelling goals, I think we’re only left with two options: Either Hydra deliberately sent the Winter Soldier after the Starks without a mask, or Bucky took the mask off himself. 

Bucky’s not really giving us any clues here, so…

Reasons Hydra might want to unmask the Winter Soldier, knowing he’d be recognized: 1.) To throw Howard off, just in case he was armed. The man built weapons for a living. It’s not unreasonable to assume he might be armed with something that could kill a super soldier. But if that super soldier was a former friend and ally? He might be less likely to defend himself and less likely to attack, thus giving the Winter Soldier room to maneuver. 2.) Sheer pettiness. Wanting to gloat. Letting Howard know with his dying breath that Hydra was still alive and well and that his obsessive work on duplicating the super soldier serum wasn’t going to create another Captain America, but something much worse. 

Reasons Bucky might have taken the mask off: Depending on how long he was out of cryo, his memories could have been coming back. Some part of him could have remembered the name of his target and he might have wanted to be identified—either to be saved or punished. But the programming was still enough in control that he couldn’t stop himself from completing the mission. 

Those are my best guesses, at least. I doubt Marvel’s creative team has given it much thought (though I would be delighted to be proven wrong in subsequent films). Does anyone out there remember any other meta posts about Bucky’s mask? Or have anything more to contribute for this anon? Please reply or reblog with your own thoughts/theories/headcanons! :)

[squeemcsquee]

Anime Central, 2018: Day 1

I meant to get this one written sooner, but it’s been kind of an exhausting work week since A-Cen. Anyhow..if you need more of my A-Cen 2018 stuff...

Previous Anime Central 2018 Posts:

A-Cen 2018: Day Zero

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 3

So my schedule didn’t quite work out the way I thought it would this year. But that’s okay.  I spent the day as a Night Vale Girl Scout and @el-draco-bizarro and @someoldmemory were my troopmates. @lechevaliermalfet was Cecil Palmer of the Night Vale Community Radio Station. There are photos of us in the Day 1 cosplay post, or in this post from @el-draco-bizarro

Our group started off pretty much all together in the “Zen Cosplay: Cosplay made stress free!” panel. We were late, but that was okay. The goal of the panel was some basic cosplay education and tips for planning your cosplay effectively and efficiently. It was led by an awesome group of Over the Garden Wall cosplayers. 

I would say that for beginners or those without a lot of planning and/or crafting skills, this is a decent reference panel. It was also entertaining, which was good.

@lechevaliermalfet and I had to cut out early in order to get to “The Myths and Legends of Fate/Stay Night”

I hope this one comes back next year. This was pretty frickin’ great and I would happily sit through it again. @lechevaliermalfet got me into the Fate franchise, but I still don’t really know the myths and legends surrounding all of the characters yet.

Also, that panel had this:

So, if you weren’t aware...the Fate franchise involves some characters’ gender being altered because...well, reasons. No, really, I’m not 100% clear on those reasons but I think we can safely blame magic for part, and Merlin for a few parts.

I actually regretted ducking out of this one early for my next panel: “Fatal Frame: They Did What With A Camera?”

This is the second Fatal Frame panel I have tried to attend this year and while I stayed to the end and it suited me a bit better than the one at Anime Zap...it still was lacking for me. At this point, I don’t know what I’m actually looking for in panels on this franchise, since gameplay demos and storyline rundowns don’t seem to be doing it for me. And yet, despite the fact I am a complete wimp, I adore these games. 

I was introduced to them when one of my roommates in undergrad played through the first 3 over the course of the school year. Almost always at night, almost always with cursing and over-the-top dramatic flailing and mocking. @shbumi sometimes got in on the fun of watching her navigate the games and providing commentary. Anyway, I adore them, am too chickenshit to get far in them myself (though I own 1-3 for PS2 and the 3ds Spirit Camera spinoff), and just wanna squee over them with someone! But, apparently, not via panel, perhaps.

Moving on... I think we did this first, so I’m just going to put it here. Anime Central was helping promote Parasyte this year, so I participated. This is also how @lechevaliermalfet got a 3rd eye for his Cecil cosplay.

This year’s dealer’s room and artist alley felt better organized and had more breathing room than last year’s, I think. Things were still jam-packed in the best kind of way, though. 

It felt too weird to really take good notes on things I liked/disliked on that area, but I really probably should have. Instead, I walked away with a note on a title to check out from the Funimation booth. A note - but not a purchase. I have learned a lesson from dealer’s rooms over the years, including Anime Central’s: Unless it is harder to track down (limited editions, soundtracks, etc). it is almost always cheaper to buy somewhere else. 

They did move the chalk artist this year. I think that helped with the flow in the registration area, especially with the addition of lines for autograph tickets. But it also meant that when I was looking for him, he was harder to find! Maybe he was on the map and I missed it? I did find him eventually though.

From the dealer hall to the artist alley!

Look at that! So much more space to maneuver and get around! You could actually walk close to an artist’s booth and still leave room for someone else to purchase a thing while you browsed! It was great!

And so many talented artists this year! @lechevaliermalfet spent a record amount and bought a shitton of art and stuff, which I will log at a later point because omg, I love it all.  @lechevaliermalfet and I then made our way into a guest panel: “Visual Novel Development and Q&A with Rosuuri”

It was interesting, and I’m curious about Rosuuri’s projects - but it really wasn’t for us. Neither of us are actually planning to develop a game or write for one or anything. We skipped out once the Q & A began to be a bit more technical.

I do believe dinner was then acquired. My timeline around meals / people watching / general downtime is sketchier, but oh wells.

I know that the next panel was “”Censorship in Japanese Anime and Manga: A View from the Frontlines”  

The panel started with a bit of a comparison of censorship in the US vs Japan. It delved into stuff I didn’t know, like that Japanese law can be suuuper vague on what qualifies as in need of censorship and sometimes it seems to just come down to what law enforcement thinks is right at the time. I also had no idea that the big comic markets in Japan will actually make people change into their cosplays once they are on-site, simply because there is a risk of offending someone outside the market because it happened before, ages ago.

This panel was also when I began to realize just how many notes I was taking in the Guidebook app. Side note in that I both love and hate this feature - if I wanted to add a new note for a new thing, I had to go into the “Notes” section and create it. Otherwise, any notes I tried to add from say, the relevant entry in the guide itself, would just get added to the original note.

Also, A-Cen rewtweeted my tweet about being excited for this panel. So there’s that too.  Really, this is one that I think needs to come back. It was informative, useful, and I liked it. It was in that weird time frame of being around my normal dinner time and where I was wearing down a little from the day, so sometimes my focus was off. That’s the one downside to the more “academic” panels being later in the day, though I imagine that’s when more adults will actually make it to them.

From there, we raced off to the video game area to kill time and Oh. My. God. I didn’t think Anime Central could improve on that room over last years, but they totally did! I really, really hope that they use that area again this year - last year’s was nice, but I am kinda glad that a prom had it booked this year. My only complaint was how the noise wasn’t easily contained but otherwise...I loved how much room there was, since it made divisions between the areas clearer. As I have done before - and maybe this should become a new goal? - I dabbled in a game or two that I didn’t know. Then I challenged @lechevaliermalfet to Space Invaders and yay! I did better than he did!

The highlight of the day, however, was our grand finale. First, we had to navigate the packed lobby of the Hyatt:

And then we got in line for “Anime Hell” There were several entertaining slides while we waited, including ones featuring a race:

I rooted for Godzilla & Porg, but it was not meant to be.

For those not in the know - and we definitely weren’t! - “Anime Hell” is a mish-mash of Japanese commercials, cartoon clips, and just plain old weirdness. @lechevaliermalfet and I figured that perhaps it would be like “AMV Hell” and it was in that things were balls-to-the-wall weird, goofy, entertaining, etc. But it was more live-action oriented.

My notes from this were mostly comments on my friends’ reactions or my own, and making note of what really made us laugh.I have a note that says I need to check out Chargeman Ken - likely to see if the stuff we were shown was just as bonkers as the subtitles made it appear to be or not.

It’s how a gummy ad became a group meme for us. I think we might be making this a tradition in the future. 

There was a “Midnight Madness” follow-up in the same room, but we didn’t stay for that. It was midnight and I think everyone was a little bit sleepy and just worn out.  And that was Day 1!

All of my Anime Central 2018 Coverage:

A-Cen 2018: Day Zero

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018: Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 3

A-Cen 2018: Day One

A-Cen 2018: Day 2 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018: Day 2 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018: Day 2 Cosplayers, Part 3

A-Cen 2018: Day Two

A-Cen 2018: Day 3 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018: Day 3 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018: Day Three