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coquitokisses · 9 months ago

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Trusting Again | chapter 003: the truth

Word count: 3232

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📍Berlin

So after we arrived at the place, thankfully we weren’t cuffed anymore, but we weren’t in the clear either. We’re kinda in trouble.

“So we’re going to prison.” I looked at Sam and Steve as we walked to the place where they were gonna let us be in

“No, we’re not.” Steve answered

“Well this kinda looks like we are.”

“This isn’t prison.” Steve said

“I cannot believe my first time being arrested was because I decided to follow two idiots and go against the law.”

“Ow, what? You regret it now?” Steve pouted

I just rolled my eyes. “Shut up, this is your fault.”

“My fault?!”

“Yes! We should’ve let the CIA catch Bucky, why the hell did we even bother going to Bucharest? Look where we ended up, and where’s Bucky? Arrested.”

“Oh please.” Sam rolled his eyes “Even you said that this didn’t make any sense.”

“You shut up, tú lo que eres es un lambe ojos, I don’t wanna hear it.” I told him

“Hey, don’t talk to me in Spanish.” He pointed at me

“You’re a kiss ass.”

“Oh look who’s talking.” He looked at Steve and they chuckled

I sighed. “I hate you both.”

We saw Natasha walking in our direction and she approached us.

“You” she pointed at me “Aren’t supposed to be here.”

“Well if I would’ve known it was gonna get this bad, I wouldn’t have come.” I shrugged

“Liar.” Sam looked at me

“For the record, this is what making things worse looks like.” She said in a low voice

“He's alive.” Steve told her

We walked into the office and we saw Tony talking on the phone.

“Consequences? You bet there'll be consequences” Tony said while looking at us three “Obviously you can quote me on that cause I just said it, anything else?... Thank you, sir.” He said before hanging up the call

"Consequences?" Steve said

“Secretary Ross wants the three of you prosecuted, had to give him something.” He shrugged as he started to walk away

“I'm not getting that shield back, am I?”

“Technically it's the government's property” Natasha said “Wings too.” she looked at Sam

“That's cold.” Sam shook his head

“Warmer than jail!” Tony said

“Well, he's got a point.” I sighed “What the hell are we supposed to do now anyways? Die of boredom?”

“Well you can always play Stop with Sam.” Steve looked at me “I’m sure there are some papers and pens laying around somewhere.”

“That'll be great.” I looked at Sam

“Fine, but only because I'll probably die of boredom too.” he said

“Guess we'll be playing Stop then, wanna join, grandpa?” I looked at Steve

“I'm good.” He chuckled “Good luck.”

(...)

It’s been like an hour. I’m getting bored and I honestly want to leave. I just can’t be sitting around doing nothing, I get bored. We're now in the office, the three of us and Sharon, as we watch that doctor evaluate Bucky.

“Why would the Task Force release this photo to begin with?” Steve spoke breaking the silence

“Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?” Sharon shrugged

“Right.” Steve nodded “Its a good way to flush a guy out of hiding, set off a bomb, get your picture taken, get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier.”

“You're saying someone framed him to find him?” I asked him

“Steve, we looked for the guy for almost a year after Austria and found nothing.” Sam told him

“We didn't bomb the UN, that turns a lot of heads.” Steve said

“Yeah but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him, it guarantees we would.” Sharon replied and then frowned kinda getting all the pieces together

“Yeah.” Steve turned to look back at the monitor

“Tell me Bucky, you've seen a great deal, haven't you?” Zemo asked Bucky

“I don't wanna talk about it.” Bucky responded

“You fear that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop.” Zemo replied

I kinda don't like this.

“I got a bad feeling.” I whispered to Sam as I leaned my elbows on the table

“About what?” He whispered back

“All this.” I sighed “It’s just.. it’s kinda weird.”

“Don't worry” Zemo added “We only have to talk about one.”

And just seconds after that, the power went out and the whole office was dark. Sam and I looked at each other and we kinda already knew that something was not right.

“Bad feeling alright.” Sam looked at me

“What the fuck?” I said and Steve turned around looking at Sharon

“Sub-level five, east wing.” She told him and he immediately looked at me like telling me to go with him

“Just go.” I said

Sam and Steve both stormed out of the office and I stayed there for a few minutes. I saw that Tony and Natasha were walking towards the door and Sharon saw them too.

“Come on.” She said to me

I got up and followed her. When we got out, we were kinda in like a lobby or some shit and there was Bucky just punching anyone who tried to stop him.

“Forget it, I’d rather get arrested.” I said after seeing how Bucky fought with Tony, but the poor man ended up on the floor.

I was really thinking about turning around and going back to where I came from, but before I could even think about leaving, Sharon grabbed my arm.

“You’re not leaving.” She said

“I’m sorry, but who was the one who almost died last time when he appeared in Washington?” She opened her mouth to talk, but I didn’t let her “Exactly, this time I’ll watch everything from a very far distance.”

“But you’re trained better than me.” She looked at me.

“You’re working for the CIA.”

“Cat! You gotta help me.”

I just rolled my eyes. “I should’ve stayed in New York.” I said starting to go down the stairs and she followed me

He might succeed and kill me this time.

When we first got there, Sharon was the first to kick him and I had no other choice than to follow her. It didn’t take long before Bucky was throwing her onto a table, breaking it, and grabbing me by the neck with his metal arm and pushing me onto one of the other tables there. I tried to get him off me once he started choking the shit out of me, but it was obviously impossible to even push him away.

“You could at least recognize me.” I managed to say, words barely coming out of me, as I tried to breath and also get him off me

My sight was starting to get all blurry and then I finally felt his hand releasing my neck. I rolled off the table coughing trying to catch my breath and when I managed to get on my feet again, I ran out of there trying to look for Sam and Steve. I even went outside but there were too many people running and screaming that it was literally impossible to find someone. I just opted to get the hell away from there and ended up walking for almost 40 minutes, also, trying to not get caught by the freaking helicopter that was looking for us.

I arrived at what looked like a small bookstore and decided to call Sam because I had no idea where they might be.

“Hey.” He answered

“Are you guys okay?” I asked him “Where the hell did you go?”

“I sent you the location of where we are.” He said “Come quick tho.”

“On my way.”

I hung up and went straight to Sam's conversation, I saw the pin and realized it wasn't so far from where I was so I decided to walk there and I literally arrived in almost 20 minutes. It was like an old auto shop kinda?

I got in and I saw Steve, Sam and Bucky inside.

“Took you forever.” Sam said

“Y'all literally vanished.” I rolled my eyes “And also, I had to make sure nobody saw me, there's a fucking helicopter looking for us, did you guys know that?”

“Are you okay?” Steve asked

“I’m fine.” I nodded and then I looked over at Bucky

Now that I have him closer and he's not trying to kill me, I definitely noticed that he looked a little different than the last time I saw him. Starting with his hair, which is a little longer.

If it wasn’t because he's a super soldier, I would smash my fist straight into that perfect face of his right now.

“And we meet again, soldat.” I stood in front of him folding my arms “So much for not wanting to be found, huh.”

“Not that I was planning on running into you three, specially not you.” He responded

“Well look at us now.” I gave him the most sarcastic smile ever

“Alright, that’s enough.” Steve said and I just stepped away from Bucky “I see Cat made quite the first impression.” He looked at his friend

“You don’t say.” Bucky sighed

“Oh he did too, trust me.” I scoffed “You do know we all have a fucking target on our backs, right?” I looked at Steve

“He didn't do it.” He said

“Oh I knew that since the moment we saw the news.” I nodded “I just can't really comprehend why the fuck would you go through all this shit when we already have secretary Ross on our asses because of the fucking accords and now we also have the CIA looking for us!”

“No offense, but that's a little hypocrite coming from you.” Bucky said to me “Why do you care so much about following orders now?”

“Offense and listen, you really shouldn't be talking shit after what's been happening.” I turned to look at him “You should've listened to me when you had the chance.”

“You really wanna do this now?” He raised an eyebrow

“Alright, enough.” Steve sighed

“You know what? I kinda want to.” I stepped closer to him, completely ignoring Steve

Not that I wanted to ignore him, but I'm actually kinda mad so my mind is only focusing on Bucky.

“Then why don't you do it, agent?” Bucky said to me

I just sighed. “You really are starting to get on my last nerve, who would’ve thought.”

“Shut up, both of you.” Steve said in a more serious tone “That's enough.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” I turned around looking now at Steve

“That's why we called you.” Sam said

“I'm not tryna put my ass on the line again! We got enough with the accords to also be dealing with escaping from the fucking CIA.”

“What? You regret it now? Cause if that's the case, by all means, go talk to Tony, I’m sure he’ll welcome you with open arms.” He said folding his arms

“Don't be ridiculous, I’ve always been on your side, but this is fucking insane.”

“And don’t you think I know that? I’m tryna think of what to do now.” He said and I let out a sigh

“I just don’t want us to end up worst than we already are.. if that’s even possible.”

“It is, we could be in jail.” Sam said

“Relax, it won’t happen.” He said and I just leaned on the wall without saying anything else. “Who was that guy?” He asked Bucky

“I don't know.” He responded

“People are dead.” Steve started saying “The bombing, the setup.. the doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you, I need you to do better than "I don't know".”

“He wanted to know about Siberia, where I was kept.” He said after a few seconds “He wanted to know exactly where.”

“Why would he need to know that?” Steve asked

“Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier.” he replied

“Woah, hang the fuck on.” I shook my head

“Cat.” Steve looked at me

“No, wait, I'm with her on this one.” Sam spoke “You're saying there are more like you?” He asked Bucky

“Yes.” He nodded

“Who were they?” Steve asked

“Their most elite death squad” Bucky replied “More kills than anyone in HYDRA history and that was before the serum.”

“They all turned out like you?” I asked him

“Worse.” He looked at me

“The doctor, could he control them?” Steve questioned

“Enough.”

“He said he wanted to see an empire fall.” Steve added

“With these guys he could do it.” Bucky nodded “They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize, they can take a whole country down in one night and you'd never see them coming.”

“Well this is just great.” I said with sarcasm

“This would've been a lot easier a week ago.” Sam walked over to Steve and I

“If we call Tony..” Steve started saying and I scoffed

“I don’t think we’ll believe us.” I cut him off

“Even if he did..”

“Who knows if the accords would let him help.” I said and Steve let out a sigh

“We're on our own then.” He looked at the both of us

“Maybe not.” Sam shrugged and we both looked at him “I know a guy.”

“So” I looked at Steve “What's next, Cap?”

“I need to make a few calls.” He said “And we need to get out of here.”

“We gotta stay low tho.” Sam said

“Yeah, very low.” I nodded

“I'll be right back.” Steve walked out, I supposed so that he could make "a few calls"

Sam walked out too and I took a deep breath. This is insane.

I looked at Bucky and then I sat on the floor in front of him.

“So” I crossed my legs “Being framed is fun huh.”

“You have no idea.” He sighed “How'd you know it wasn't me?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been tracking you.” I replied “…From a distance, of course.”

“Of course you have.” He said not at all surprised “Does Steve knows?”

“No, of course not.” I shook my head

“Why? Felt guilty?”

I let out a sigh. “A little.”

“He’s gonna find out eventually.”

“Yeah, I know.” I nodded “I’ve been thinking about telling him, but I just don’t know how he’s gonna react.”

I should tell him. I really should because maybe we wouldn't be in this mess right now if it wasn't for me.

“You have a certain look on your face, agent.” Bucky said in almost a whisper “What is it?”

“I just.. I think I better tell him now.”

“He's not gonna be happy.”

“I know.” I sighed “But I have to.. better late than never.”

I looked back and saw Steve standing next to Sam, who was actually talking on the phone.

“Steve.” I cleared my throat and I stood up from the floor “I, um.. can we talk?” I said and he looked at me “I kinda need to tell you something.”

“Yeah, of course.” He nodded “Wanna go outside?”

“Well I don’t want the police to see us, so here it’s fine.”

I was really anxious. I didn’t even know how to start.

“What is it?” He asked when he saw that I was pretty impatient

“Okay, I’m just gonna say it.” I sighed “Remember when I went with Sam to Europe? To find Bucky.”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“Okay, well remember that we did found him, right? We told you we were in Austria.”

“Yes, Cat, I remember everything, where are you going with this?”

“I didn't lost him.. I, uh..” I bit my lip nervously “I let him go.” I finally confessed, he looked at me a little confused

“What are you talking about?” He frowned and then looked at Bucky “What is she talking about?” He pointed at me

“I was the one who talked to him that day.”

“Yeah and if I remember correctly, he got all defensive and threw you across the room, you were all bruised and even had a cut.” He said “What do you mean you let him go?”

“I talked to him, he said that he needed time and I just.. I simply decided to let him go.”

“Simply decided?” He raised an eyebrow

“Look, I’m sorry.”

“What the hell happened exactly for you to let him go like that?”

“Don't be mad at her, it's my fault.” Bucky interrupted us and Steve looked at him “I was just trying to remember everything on my own.”

“Stop.” I looked at him “I should've knocked the fuck out of you and drag you out of there.”

“Yeah, you should have.” Steve nodded “You realize that because you let him go we’re in this position now, right?”

“Yes!” I raised my voice “I made a mistake, I know and I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think it was too big of a deal at the moment, he just wanted to remember everything on his own and I thought that was okay.”

“Well it clearly wasn't.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t.” I sighed “But at least my intuition was right! He didn't do anything.”

“But look where we are now!”

“But that’s not entirely my fault now, is it?” I said “I mean, the fucker who messed with his head is the real responsible here, he could’ve done it even if Bucky was with us.”

“That’s not the point…”

“It is! It kinda is.” I cut him off

“Cat, you’re not realizing the consequences that your actions had.”

“I am! Trust me, I am realizing it and I knew what I was getting myself into when I made that decision.”

He clicked his tongue. “I just can’t believe you could do something like this knowing it would have consequences. I just..” he sighed “I can't believe that you, out of all people, could do this.”

“I know it was wrong but I just..��

“What?” He looked at me with his hands on his hips

I let out a sigh. “You're really mad at me, aren't you?”

“A little.” He nodded “And a little disappointed too, you were supposed to do your job and I asked you to do it because I knew you were the only one who would do it no questions asked.”

“I know and I'm sorry.”

“We could've prevented this.”

“I know.” I sighed feeling guilty as hell “I really am sorry.. trust me if I could go back in time and change what happened, I would.”

He let out a sigh. “I'll go see if Sam's done so we can get the hell out of here.” He said walking out again before we could say something else

I just sighed and then leaned on the wall. Bucky's eyes found mine and he took a deep breath as he sat straight.

“I'm sorry for trying to kill you.” He said looking at my neck

“It's fine.” I said “Not the first time anyway.”

“Sorry.”

“At least you’re apologizing now.”

“Apology accepted then?”

“I don’t know, I’ll think about it.” I sat on the floor facing him “I tend to hold grudges.”

“Well that’s not good.”

“Do I look like I care?” I tilted my head

“You got issues, you know?”

“Well.. that makes two of us.” I shrugged

“…Can't argue with that.” He shook his head and I chuckled

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#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes x reader #marvel #mcu #steve rogers #tony stark #natasha romanoff #sam wilson #the winter soldier #captain america #black widow #sebastian stan #chris evans #bucky fanfic

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aphelionatseven · 5 months ago

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Op. 71 Act 1, Scene 1: Regali Teneri: winter warmers day 003

✶ prompts: dildo | holding hands

✶ ship: pierresteban

✶ words: 1,593

+ a little song

Charlie

[Voice Message—0:35]

Transcript:

“Cheri! Uh, was wondering if you and Este would want to join Max and I at the symphony this evening? Or is it the ballet?”

Max sounds grumpy as he supplies, “Ballet. The Nutcracker.”

“Yeah! What it is the, um, rat king and all that. The one with—” Charles starts singing the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, horribly off key.

“Please say yes, Pierre, or else I’ll be stuck next to the FIA dick sucker—” “That’s rude, Maxie, he is only doing his job—” “I do not care he is of course a cunt who pushes bullshit—”

Pierre snorts as the bickering gets cut off, and even if he does ponder on it for a split second, his reply gets typed out faster.

pierre

I’m sorry, mon amie, but I’ve got sim training to do. Surely you can just put Max on the end so he doesn’t even have to look at George?

As he goes to lock his phone and continue with the monotonous task of cutting up lettuce for his salad, Charles’ contact shows up on a screen. With a reluctant sigh, Pierre shoves his phone in between his ear and shoulder, then answers with a tsk.

“Charles, as I said I am busy. I cannot magically move around my schedule.”

He can practically hear Charles pouting, “Oh, you are such a liar. We are all in London, non? So, it will be a lovely double date!”

“Date?” Pierre sputters, narrowly slicing his finger, “Non, ce ne sera pas un rendez-vous. For me, at least.”

Charles sounds so confused, even Max has to chime in, “Este talked to me about you for so long in Qatar. Everything is good now, right? So I do not see the issue.”

Pierre thinks he must have cut something somewhere and died from blood loss, then woke up in a world where everyone thought he was back to being in love with his ex teammate-best friend-boyfriend-whatever. All because of a 2-3 that really was just gifted to them. Utter nonsense.

“Mon amie? S’il te plaǐt? I can video call you and plead with puppy eyes if you are not swayed!”

“Jesus,” Pierre mumbles and rubs a hand down his face, “Sure, fine. Merveilleux. Just text me the address, d’accord?”

Charles giggles, all proud of himself, “Wonderful! I’ll see you at eight!”

—

It wasn’t hard. It wasn’t like—equivalent to shunting it on a formation lap or equal to whatever Esteban must have felt when he was thrown out before Abu Dhabi or when he got the call from his ex about—it wasn’t a soul crushing thing to do. To open up the short string of blue and grey code between him and the person stuck firmly in whatever invisible string held Pierre’s life.

Pierre

Hey man!

No. Too informal. This is a date, gotta make him think it actually is, right? That seems to be the best course of action; think of it as revenge given too late.

Pierre

Hi copain! Max and Charles have two extra spots for the Nutcracker tonight.

Pierre thinks he might bite down through to the bone before he lets his thumb press onto another letter. It’s fine. Deep breath, it’s not hard, this isn’t hard.

Pierre

Hi copain! Max and Charles have two extra spots for the Nutcracker tonight, at 8:30. Would you want to tag along with us? Max would appreciate it, since the other option is George and Carmen.

Delivered.

He winces as he bites down on an olive with its pit still intact, and nearly chokes when Esteban’s reply comes through almost instantly.

Esteban

That sounds wonderful! Is 7:30 a good time to come pick you up, chéri?

Read 2:15pm

God. Jesus. Fuck. Pierre stabs the remaining sad pieces of lettuce with his fork and screams into his hands. He thinks about wishing he had choked on the olive pit.

Pierre

Sounds good. Charles said to dress nice!

Delivered

“No, he fucking didn’t! What am I, sixteen again?” Pierre wallows to the open air of his flat, and flings his head against the back of the couch. Who was he, wanting Esteban to dress nice because, yeah, so what, he looks really fucking good in a suit. Pierre hopes a blizzard blows in and freezes him to death so that he never has to even think of doing something like this again.

Esteban

I’ll put on my very best for you, calamar ;)

Read 2:20pm

Pierre grinds his teeth together and takes another deep breath to suppress another frustrated, throat scratching groan. He glances at the clock and does it anyway. Five and half hours. He’ll make it.

—

He barely drags himself out into the front lobby.

His hands are stuffed into his Burberry coat as he waits, grateful Charles wasn’t forcing them into going to Covent Garden or something ridiculously unfun—sure, the ballet was equally miserable to Pierre, but at least there wouldn’t be a sea of tourists to push through just for a dried up overpriced mince pie.

“Ah, there he is,” and Pierre swears he must have fallen into the fire, with how his face heats up at the sight of Esteban—a neatly pressed dark burgundy velvet suit, an obnoxiously adorable bow tie, and his perfectly fit black coat. Merde, “I was worried I overdid it with the festivity.”

Pierre clears his throat and opts to set his gaze on the Christmas tree that’s illuminating the halo of Esteban’s slicked back hair, “Surely Max will make us all look overdressed. As long as there is wine, I will be happy anyway.”

There’s a few moments of ungodly awkward silence before Pierre steps forward a little, “Before we go, I am…” He digs his nails into his palms and his shoulders feel like they’re about to snap with how tense they are, “I am sorry. I wish you had more time, to make a proper goodbye and all. C'est injuste.”

And the guilt washes in the second Pierre sees the genuine hurt flash in Esteban’s expression, how he sadly smiles with those stupidly fucking adorable teeth, “What does Charles say? It is like this. At least I did not end up in Daniel’s boat. Que sera, sera,” he opens up the lobby door and gestures for Pierre to go first, “Prettiest out first.”

“Ever the charmer,” Pierre rolls his eyes and buries himself into his scarf, willing it will hide the blush that hasn’t left under his eyes. Once Esteban is distracted by fiddling for his keys, he mumbles, “You look really good.”

Esteban’s eyebrows fly up and he doesn’t even try to hide his grin, “Hm? What was that, again?”

“Oh, s'il te plaît arrête, you heard me!”

“Still so small and angry, calamar,” Esteban laughs, leading them down the snow covered sidewalk to his car, “It is wonderful how so much but so little changes.”

Pierre doesn’t question the sudden philosophical ramblings, too busy mulling over every decision he’s ever made that landed him in this situation. He thinks about feigning a migraine, or a fever, or near death—anything to avoid being in such close proximity to Esteban for any longer than he has to. Pierre had finally gotten rid of him; he was Ollie’s problem now.

Fine. It’s fine. He can handle a few more hours. And if he wishes those hours were more plentiful, absolutely no one has to know.

And the car ride, it’s short, it’s fine, it’s tolerable. Up until they park, Pierre unbuckles his seatbelt and reaches for the door handle—Esteban loudly protests, “Nuh uh! Getting the door is my job, mon chou.”

“Aie pitié de moi, I am not a child,” Pierre sighs into his hands and waits impatiently as Esteban comes around the side to let him out. It would be something to write away into a box to be burnt, until Esteban shuts said door, locks said car and then he’s—he’s.

His gloved fingers are intertwining with Pierre’s like it’s as easy as breathing, “Bonsoir, Charles, Max!” Esteban calls to the couple huddled beside a space heater, all along dragging a stunned Pierre behind him.

His brain has been reduced to static and the soul crushing nostalgic feeling that the warmth of Esteban’s hand is giving him. It’s perfect, how they fit together. It’s like going home and sliding into the car for the first time pre-season and slipping on a favorite hoodie that smells like asphalt and expensive cologne. Which, Esteban is certainly wearing his nicest–all smoke and earthy leather.

Pierre didn’t even realize he was aching for that missing piece—Esteban’s arm pressed up against his as they sit in their rented out box seats. The way he laughs at Max’s horrible jokes and the way his eyes crinkle at the photos of Leo he gets shown. Through every instance of small talk, his grasp at Pierre’s hand never falters. Esteban rubs his thumbs in circles, squeezes absentmindedly. Like they never stopped doing this. Like no binds had ever been severed and Évreux was just outside the back door.

Once the lights dim and the ballet begins, Pierre finally looks over at Esteban, who is staring right back. All childhood wonder and glimmering hope—they’re teenagers again, they’re screaming in a hotel room, they’re crying in Pierre’s driver's room in Brazil. The first note plays and Pierre decides to swallow down the lump in his throat, in favor of squeezing Esteban’s hand back as tight as he can. To convey something. To keep him there, long after the curtains fall.

#the library #pierresteban #pierre gasly #esteban ocon #eo31 #pg10 #very much threw this together .. not my best but . wanted it out anyway #enjoy da read #winterwarmers2024

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sosadraws · 4 months ago

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Haii, Sosaaa! Okay, so i wanna get into animation BUT I'm really new. Lucky for me I know someone who's awesome at animating (that's you btw) so I need your expertise. What program do you use, and also do you have any tips for a newbie?

Aww Jay, you flatter me~✨but before answering I must put the disclaimer that I'm just a hobbyst animator with no formal training, that during quarintine thought "Oh woah, these Multiple Animation Projects that people do in YT are so cool! I want to join them!" and started learning by herself. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.

First things first: I mainly use TV Paint. However I'm not letting you spent money on paid stuff you don't even know you'll like, so here are some free alternatives that I've used as well:

Krita is mostly a drawing program, but it also has a animation interface. The red and black parts of the Helena AMV were made with this.

Flipaclip is kinda neat phone/tablet app for when you want to animate on the go, but it can also feel more limiting since various features have to be unlocked by watching ads or getting the premuim version (in typical app fashion, I guess...)

Blender, while mainly meant for 3D animation, also has been developing Grease Pencil, that allows 2d animation in both 2D or 3D spaces. And the lines are vectors, so you can edit them after drawing them and such.

You can even use normal drawing programs. I've animated with Paint Tool Sai and Medibang by drawing all the frames, saving each frame as a image in sequence (001, 002, 003...) and putting them together in some editing program or gif maker. It's possible, but it's more work.

There's also OpenToonz, which is an open source version of the software used by Studio Ghibli in some movies?? I haven't used this one, but I'll leave it here in case you want to give it a try.

For editing (In the rare scenarios where I do fancy editing) I use After Effects. I can't personally recommend any free substitute, but as far as I've read, DaVinci Resolve seems like a good replacement.

Now, regarding actual animation advise, I won't explain the principles or terminology because:

It's very overwhelming since it's A LOT of information, specially for a beginner

I work mostly by vibes, so there are concepts I don't undertand well enough to explain to others

Instead I'll foward you this whole book that goes in detail about all that technical stuff.

That being said, at the end of the day, hand-drawn animation is drawing main poses (aka key poses) and then drawing a bunch of more drawings in between until the drawings together look like they move.

So yeah, it's a lot of work,

....but it doesn't have to be tedious work~ 👀✨

As a hobbyst I live for the philosophy of vibing during the process instead of chasing perfect results, and I'm assuming that you just want to try for funsies and not that you're trying to become a pro industry animator anyways. Here are my personal tips to make the animation process more bearable:

1- Pick something you love! Seriously, any long task becomes more bearable when it's about a theme or character you enjoy. There's a reason why most of my animations have been about HnK or Signalis,

2- SIMPLIFY THAT DESIGN! Before you even pick the pencil, I want you to really look at the design of whatever you're going to animate and ask yourself "Are all the details in this design really necessary?" Every extra detail really starts to add when you have to draw the same thing multiple times for a single second of animation. You don't need to add all the robotic details on replika bodies, or draw every single stripe a tiger has, to put an example.

3- Keep it simple! At some point you might have a cool idea of an anime style epic battle with looks of cool explosions, camera angles, awesome fighting choreograpies and whatnot; but you first have to start small or else you'll get overwhelmed and not finish anything (been there, done that). Start with something simple like a bouncing ball, or if you're feeling brave, a walk cycle or a character turning their head. In that same sense, remember the book I linked? Don't try to learn all of it at once, go one step at a time.

4-Use references! On google images there are multiples breakdowns of things like run, flight or walk cycles, for example, and you can even use youtube videos! (tip: pause the video and use "," and "." to move back and forth between frames). In case you need help with a very specific pose or movement, you can use yourself or a friend recreating the pose irl (yes, the process is very embarrasing, and yes, the results are worth it)

4- You don't have to animate/redraw everything everytime. We aren't going for Oscar winning levels of animation here anyways. It's ok to copy and paste across different frames, only animate certain parts of the body and leave the rest static, panning the camera to simulate movement... Listen, if actual standars profesionals cut corners, why can't we? We aren't even getting paid for this!

6- It's ok to suck at first. My first animation was this kitty back in 2016,

and here's this Elster from last year doing similar movements.

It's not perfect by any means, but I feel like both art and animation-wise there has been some improvement. And I guess that right now I could remake it and make it even better, but that's because I got more experience and a better eye at finding mistakes and how to solve them, and you get that with practice.

...So yeah, there's that, have fun in your animation endeavors 👍✨

#OH MY GOD THIS IS A TESTAMENT #I'm so sorry Jay for making you read all of this #I know less that you think #but the little I know I try to share to the best of my habilities #animation #ask #the yappening

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l6ndry · 6 months ago

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blog info! -> guidelines, tag nav, emoji anons.

001. guidelines ⊹ ࣪ ˖

who i write for ෆ

right now mainly just rafe cameron! i'll probably write for more characters/fandoms in the future (if i have any ideas). i try to stay away from writing actual people as it makes me uncomfortable.

guidelines ෆ

i will write angst & fluff. i'm an amateur writer, so i'm still learning what i'm comfortable writing + writing in general and i'm definitely not a consistent writer by any means, so completing and starting anything is a task to say the least. i write for fem!reader in all my works, but i will write gn!reader if anyone requests it. i will not write anything with a specific race/body type, male reader, noncon, dubcon, teacher x student, age gap, stepcest/incest, smut, heavy violence, abuse, anything i'm not comfortable with i will not write.

i cannot guarantee that if you make a request i will write it! enough said, if you have any requests or you just wanna chat feel free to drop by my inbox !!! and please be respectful when requesting something :) also, i love seeing people interact with my posts! every single comment + reblog makes my day & motivates me to continue posting!!

002. tag nav ⊹ ࣪ ˖

#navigation ✧ → all my navigation (ie guidlines, tag guide, masterlist, etc.)

#♡ talkin' nonsense ₊˚ → me yapping (general)

#₊˚ 🐇 by amora 𝜗𝜚˚⋆ → all my works!

#˚₊➴ love letters 💌 → answered asks

#ᯓ hall of fame ★ → reblogs of fics i like

#about me .ᐟ → all things about me

#amora's loves ⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 → miscellaneous posts

might add on to this in the future :p

003. emoji anons ⊹ ࣪ ˖

🧁 ; 🪼 ; 🧸 ;

lmk if u wanna be added!

#navigation ✧#my entire account is best viewed in dark mode + mobile!

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mustdies · 1 year ago

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TASK 003. TWO JOINTS & A FUNERAL. AN UNFORTUNATE SERIES OF EULOGIES. trigger warnings for death, religious imagery, suicidal ideation, anxiety attacks.

in life and apparently in death, there were the ones who leave and the ones who remembered. the startling thing was dante wished it were him. spare everyone the trouble of worrying after him in those pockets of time where he were only a thought. a phone call away. of course the bastard had to be the one to leave them all here, utterly bereaved. death, you see, was the ultimate freedom. richard had done the selfish thing: become entirely untethered. another hole in the ground, raw & gaping, awaiting occupancy. he knows, much to his detriment that there will be no space held for the rest of them. that even in the afterlife there were to be no reunion such as this. certainly not in a way that mattered. the lawn is orchestrated like an open air chapel, sky hung thick with a parting overcast, chairs arranged like pews. except this were no church, not with such profound abandonment of religion. these people only knew to call for their gods when they needed a favor. can he hear their wiles now⸺if dante knelt right there in the morning dew would god be more likely to answer his prayers? it's odd, this great good place made into a place of forever mourning. it was like burying the family dog in the backyard, you only missed him when you realized there was no one left to kick down. you missed him because you knew you could never leave, that he would never come with you. the funeral had only been a ritual of grief, however widespread. people gathering to let each other know that they hadn't forgotten about you. that even below the earth, there was still work to be done. you're only dead when there's no one left to remember, right? there had been some brief rendition of a frank sinatra croon when the reality began to seep. or rather, when it had began to cave upon him. there were no forewarnings, only a culmination like pebbles all rolling to the same place. you don't know what you're hiding from until you've built that wall, feel the weight when it crumbles. he blinks and suddenly dante has been called to speak, briefly imagines he'd gone first when he rose from his seat⸺it was easier to be forgotten that way. there's a slight huff, remembering only then that he needed to breathe. september will kill him, he thinks. like father, like son. or ward, more accurately. dante walks down the aisle splitting the many rows of unfamiliars. he'd chosen to sit toward the back of the crowd, only to spare himself the embarassment of being acknowledged in such a state. he stands before them, a boy again. sights brimming with crystalline pools, stood at the podium shone in the warm morning light overlooking their great big country house. it felt like he were being punished for his crimes, that the torment of all he'd done had culminated as this. now it were merely a matter of waiting to see who cast the first stone, how long until he too were cut down. he cannot bare the snarling crowd, lying in wait with their hungry eyes. they're tearing him apart, even if they aren't really⸺he can feel it. a pause, as if to unclench richard's fist from his heart. there's a grating stammer projected from the microphone. he then starts, clearing his throat as if it were any help. " i uh, i had something written but ... " dante fumbles briefly from pocket to pocket, feeling for the small slip of paper his eulogy had been written on. his speech was shit anyways. " it wasn't supposed to be like this. " bites the inside of his cheek, mind drifting somewhere else entirely. " but it is. and rich did good⸺did his best. " tears threaten to well still, he looks away while there's still a chance. " and we're here. god we're fucked, but we're here. " another exasperated breath, distant quiver in his voice. " and uh⸺i don't think some of us will ever stop missing him. "

#﹠⠀ ⠀ 𝐃. 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐊 ⠀ ⠀ 〳 ⠀ ⠀tasks #this REALLY got away from me but we ball #was very tempted to have him walk out all together

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tosodev · 7 months ago

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Devblog 003:

Forgot my password to tumblr this morning and wound up making a hugely complicated password generator so it wouldn't happen again and so I could actually remember it.

Now time for actual dev content:

Since all the VFX has really been done and dusted I don't have any cool gifs to show you (that and I don't want to make them since it was really complicated.) So today I will have boring ass regular-degular screenshots. Sorry!

So first off I've implemented the save-file ranking system, of which there are 3 ranks. Silver (the basic one), Gold (the one that you get for doing something tdb), and the Rosegold (which you'll get for having the gold one and then doing something extra on top of it). I also have the hearts counter in place, which track how many "boss heros" you've killed so far. While your normal every day run of the mill hero's will be pretty easy and flimsy (and namely, randomly generated), these boss heros will occur at specific times or under specific conditions and will be like you took a high level dark souls player (me) and dropped them into your dungeon. And, as you can see, there are 5 of them. Which means they get harder. Pause for dramatic effect.

Next up I have the states of gameplay after you load a file. They have their names in the top corner of the screenshot for simplicity as well as their own color scheme which I discussed a little bit about in 002.

So in order we have:

The Combat Sate (red) : Which is for the player to use their own attacks and powers to directly combat the heros, seeing as you're the final boss and all I felt like you should be able to defend yourself. Also adds an extra layer to game design.

The Sponsor State (yellow): Will be your main way of getting GOLD which is the primary currency for all "static" buildings, traps, walls, etc. You'll accept them and they'll become visible in a sponsor tracker that I've yet to add, where you can see how happy the sponsor is with you and, in turn, how much gold they're willing to give you per day or let you spend on certain items.

The Editor State (blue): Pretty self explanatory, will allow you to place units, move units, walls, traps, etc again.

The Dialouge State (purple): This is where your little advisor goblin, which I've named Bartholomew because I thought it was funny, will speak to you. He acts as the tutorial guy for the beginning part of the game but will later on just kind of help with some more automatable tasks. Such as "if x is y then z". This is more of a later if I have time thing as it's complicated on paper so it might be more complicated in practice.

And finally the Shop State, which is basically completed apart from adding content and listings to it. This is where you buy units and everything else. You can use souls and/or gold but some units also come with a "gold/souls per day" stat, which since these monsters are your employees, will mean that you need to pay them per day. Lest they overthrow you. Gwa gwa gwa.

Right now all the listings are randomly generated and have some placeholder text as the description, but it does it's job and I know it works. As you can see here, "433" is the name of the item, "10x" is the quantity, "33g" is the basic one-time payment price and "82g/d" is the price you'd have to pay per day (obviously this will more than likely be souls since walls and traps will probably not have a gold price, but I hear dragons are pretty greedy...) And then the "Lorem ipsum" text is where the description would go.

Purchasing already works and gets added to an inventory not yet accessible to the player (today me's problem). So all I gotta do is just add in the rest of the gameplay loop elements and it should actually be playable (I say that as if that's not a lot of work.)

Ok well that's all for day 2. I'll open an ask page or whatever to answer any questions about OVERLORD while I'm working but don't expect me to keep up with it too closely.

That's all folks!

Katlikesnero

#gamedev #indiedev #game design #devlog #indiegamedev #just now noticing that I keep fucking up the spelling of dialogue so fuck me I guess

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lgcmanager · 5 months ago

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WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITY 003 ( TRAINEES )

RESTRICTIONS: any trainee muse who joined the roleplay before NOVEMBER 2, 2024 and have not submitted their career path form/casting call 002 to the acting OR modeling path.

starting in DECEMBER, certain trainees were called separately to have a one on one meeting with their coaches ( SEO YOUNGJAE, KWON SOYI, OR JANG INSUNG ).

( important note: if you have done this task before, please skip this bit and refer to the section near the end of this post. and as a reminder, for the new trainees doing the interview part, there is also a chance that they might not be selected for the workshops due to the number of workshops available and/or the events that will happen in Q1. )

during the meeting, the coach will inform the trainee that with the end of the quarter approaching, they want to discuss with them their current performance so far based on their training progress and give a chance for the trainee to talk about any concerns or comments they may have.

for this task, you must answer the following questions ( and these questions will be asked by the coaches at some point during the meeting ):

what do you think are your strengths right now? ( please include at least 3 skills out of the ones suggested: singing, dancing, rapping, performance, acting, modeling, mcing/hosting, variety, music/lyric composition, instruments [ please specify ], and languages [ please specify ]. )

what are three skills that you would like to work on in the next few months? ( please include at least 3 skills out of the ones suggested: singing, dancing, rapping, performance, acting, modeling, mcing/hosting, variety, music/lyric composition, instruments [ please specify ], and languages [ please specify ]. )

if given a chance, what types of gigs would you be interested in participating? ( please choose two out of the following and explain why: acting [ specify if it’s drama and/or musicals ], modeling [ cfs, endorsements ], mcing/hosting [ youtube shows/podcasts, red carpet/concerts ], variety [ variety shows, youtube shows/podcasts ]. )

during your time here in legacy, what are some of the lessons that you’ve learned about yourself? ( either as a person or as a performer/trainee )

each question must be answered through the trainee’s perspective and be around 100+ WORDS per each response. the post should be done as a SOLO and if you complete this, you will earn +6 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE ! when the trainee is done answering all of the questions, the coach will inform them that they will have another meeting sometime around JANUARY to discuss further details.

make sure to use the hashtag lgc:workshops for the task. you have until DECEMBER 7, 2024 at 11:59PM EST to complete the requirements and validate your points. please submit the following form ONCE on the points blog.

MUSE NAME ∙ WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITY 003 - MEETING: +6 ( skill points distribution )

TRAINEES ( PAST WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITIES )

as a reminder, here are the list of TRAINEES who meet the requirements AND have submitted the solo from the past workshop opportunities:

hirawa emi

kang sarang

park chaekyung

park hyukjae

park taeha

takanashi asami

xu lili

for the trainees mentioned above, please send the form below to the LGCMANAGER blog:

MUSE NAME ∙ WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITY 003 are you interested in participating in the next workshop opportunity? YES/NO ( pick one )

as a disclaimer, the trainee MAY be assigned to a workshop different from the one that they were assigned in this term. they may ALSO be excluded from WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITY 003 depending on the events that happen in Q1 and the number of workshops offered for the following term. if you DO NOT send the above message to us before DECEMBER 7, 2024 at 11:59PM EST we will consider it as the muse not interested in participating in the workshops for the next term. the trainee can do the workshop opportunity again in another term when this opportunity is allowed.

#lgc:event #lgc:q42024 #lgc:workshops

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