#and dolores didn’t have anyone else just like billy

[bigdumbbambieyes]

i heard the Lolita 1997 audio that’s Dolores screaming at Humbert and immediately imagined:

Billy being caught with Steve by Neil and immediately losing it, yelling and taunting his father for his gayness, for the way he loves a boy when he isn’t supposed to, watching the way Neil’s face turns red and his father is so close to snapping because Billy’s disrespect and disappointment is reaching new heights

so in the height of his breakdown, Billy screams through tears and a raw, trembling voice, as if he’s begging, ‘murder me! murder me like you murdered my mother!’

and if it weren’t for Steve, Billy would’ve died that night

[siancore]

I know this isn't 1 word but can I request "First Time" for Sambucky drabble please?

Anon, since you sent more than one word, I wrote more than one hundred words (I got carried away). Enjoy the Sambucky Fluff! 

The first time that Bucky Barnes admitted to himself that he liked guys the same way he liked gals was exciting, but a little nerve-wracking. He was fourteen years old and Archie O’Connor from around the way shared a soda with him. When Archie passed him the bottle and smiled at him that way, Bucky’s tummy did a hundred little flips. Just like it did that time when Katie Finnegan handed him a library book and their fingers touched a little.

Yep, Bucky liked gals, but he liked guys, too. But what would people think? Nothing nice. What would they say? Probably mean things.

So, Bucky pushed those feelings aside. When he turned fifteen, he asked if Katie wanted to get an ice cream cone with him, even though he could have just as easily asked Archie out. Well, maybe not as easily. What would people think? He reminded himself: Nothing nice.

The first time Bucky ever kissed another guy was when he was nineteen. Stanley Richards had traveled from California one summer to visit relatives. They met at the corner store and hit it off right away; he helped Bucky carry some groceries home. He had the kindest eyes Bucky had ever seen up to that point: Big and bright. They spent the summer together visiting Coney Island and listening to the wireless in Bucky’s small bedroom. When Stanley had to leave, Bucky cried and the two of them shared a soft kiss in the privacy of his room. What would people think? Two guys holding one another like that as their hearts pined. Nothing nice, he figured, so he pretended that the aching in his chest was not love.

The first time Bucky admitted he was in love was when he was twenty-one. Her name was Dolores McNeely and she had a cheeky grin, and the cutest dimples he ever did see. He took her out dancing most weekends. She liked the fast tunes best, and he would spin her around the dancefloor until they felt dizzy and their faces hurt from smiling. When they first made love, Bucky was sweet and gentle. He never wanted the moment to end. He told her that he’d save his dimes and buy her a brand-new ring. He couldn’t wait for her to take his last name. But the war came, and he had to leave. The first time Bucky admitted he had a broken heart was when he read Dolores’ final letter to say she was engaged to another guy. Bucky cried, and tossed the letter away. The last time he felt like that was the night that Stanley went back to California.

…..

The first time Bucky saw Sam Wilson, he was trying to kill people: Sam included. But he doesn’t do that anymore. Though the weight of the shame and guilt was still heavy on his shoulders. He still regretted the things he was forced to do. He mourned the life that was stolen away from him. He resented the things that had happened to him; things that tried to leave him as cold as the chamber he was frozen in.

Sam was the one who told him every single day that he had to let it go. That what happened was in the past and couldn’t be changed and that beating himself up about it was never going to help anyone. Least of all himself.

“Forgive yourself,” Sam told him. “Everyone else has.”

Then Sam placed his hand on Bucky’s shoulder and gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze. And that was the first time that Bucky ever had a crush on a friend.

Sam was a great friend and eventual housemate. He called Bucky dude and made him laugh. He was patient and generous with his time and energy. He would listen to Bucky and offer advice. And he had the most beautiful smile Bucky had ever seen in any decade.

The first time Bucky felt raw jealousy was when Leticia Byrnes came traipsing out of Sam’s bedroom one particularly cold Saturday morning. Sam’s USAF t-shirt was way too big on her as she waltzed into their kitchen and looked in the fridge.

“I’m makin’ breakfast,” said Bucky, trying to sound as friendly as he could. “Want some?”

She grabbed a carrot and took a bite, before shooting him a sweet smile and saying, “Maybe later.”

As she headed in the direction of Sam’s bedroom, she turned and said, “But thanks, Billy.”

She was already closing the door when he said, “My name’s Bucky.”

The second time Bucky was jealous was when Andre Stannard called by their apartment to take Sam out on a date. Andre was tall and handsome. Clean-cut and well put-together. Bucky felt self-conscious near him since his hair was getting too long, and he probably could do with a shave. He ran his fingers through his messy tresses and watched the two of them from the sofa as they complimented one another before heading out. When Andre pressed his hands to the lapels of Sam’s jacket, Bucky rolled his eyes so far back in his head he thought they’d get stuck.

“Be back later, Buck,” Sam called out. “Don’t wait up.”

Bucky plastered the best smile over his face that he could muster for Sam, and wished them a good evening. That night, he lay in his bedroom, sleep evading him, until he heard Sam come home alone. He smiled to himself that the date ended with Andre not returning, but then felt bad because he only wanted Sam to be happy.

The first time Bucky ever admitted to anyone that he liked guys as well as gals, was when Sam helped him make a Facebook page. He didn’t want to give away too much, and didn’t really know what he was doing, so he filled out the information sections quickly. Sam inspected it, his gaze lingering on Bucky’s profile picture a beat longer than was necessary.

“Dude, you accidentally checked that you’re into men and women,” Sam pointed out. “Want me to go back in and change it?”

Bucky stared at the screen a moment, and then looked over at Sam. I like guys and gals the same. Why shouldn’t I say so? But what would people think?

Probably the same things they thought about Sam: That he is a hero; a really great guy; a good friend; a total catch; that he is kind, fair, generous, and caring; that he deserves love from whomever he chooses to love.

What would people say? Probably the same things they say about Sam: That the person he ends up with, regardless of their gender, had better treat him right.

“It wasn’t an accident,” said Bucky, as he glanced coyly at Sam. “I like guys and gals.”

The first time Sam Wilson kissed Bucky Barnes was on an otherwise uneventful Thursday night. They were sitting on their sofa, playfully arguing about what show they wanted to stream. Sam had taken the remote control and shoved it underneath one of the cushions. Bucky turned slightly, leaned over and tried to reach for it as Sam grabbed hold of his hand. They both froze as Sam’s gaze locked onto Bucky’s.

“Wow,” said Sam. “You’re really tryin’ to distract me by getting handsy, uh?”

“No,” said Bucky, suddenly forgetting how to speak when Sam’s thumb rubbed his as they entwined their fingers.

“What’s happening here?” Sam whispered.

“I don’t know,” Bucky replied, just as quietly. “But I like it.”

“Yeah,” said Sam. “Me too.”

Sam shifted so that he was facing Bucky. He brought his hand to Bucky’s face and cupped it gently. Bucky thought his heart was going to leap from his chest as Sam leaned in closer. Their eyes closed as their lips finally met. His tummy did a hundred little flips.

The first time Bucky had ever held a guy’s hand out in public was when he and Sam were taking a slow, relaxed walk through a city park. They stopped a moment while Sam tossed some seeds to the pigeons. The sunshine caressed Sam’s beautiful face and shimmered in his dark brown eyes. Bucky lost his train of thought for a moment, stunned by just how handsome Sam was.

“You good, Buck?” he asked, noticing a faraway look in his eyes.

“Yeah,” said Bucky with a smile, as he slipped his hand into Sam’s. “Never been better.”

The first time Bucky made love to a guy was when he and Sam took their relationship to another level. It was perfect; better than he could have ever hoped for. Sam was perfect and Bucky was sweet and gentle. He kissed Sam all over his body and held him close. He loved him for the first time, just like it would be their last time.

The first time Bucky told Sam he loved him was after a particularly hard mission. Sam had been hit with shrapnel that pierced his suit. He lost a lot of blood that day. Bucky sat by his side in the sterile hospital room until he woke up.

“Hey,” said Sam tiredly as he came to.

Hey,” Bucky replied with a relieved smile.

They both went to speak at once, then laughed.

“You go,” said Sam. “I wasn’t gonna say anything important.”

“I love you, Sam Wilson,” Bucky blurted out. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

The first time Bucky had saved enough dimes to buy a brand-new ring was the week that Sam was out of town. It had only been a few days, but Bucky was missing him like crazy. He could not imagine his life without him: Kind, sweet Sam; his Sam. The guy who he could just be himself around. The guy who made everything better just by being there. The guy he was completely and utterly in love with. The guy who loved him back.

He stood in front of the glass case inside of the jewelry store. The finely crafted bands sparkled under the strategically placed lights. He didn’t need to choose the most expensive of the bunch, just one that represented their love: Strong and unending. He asked to get a closer look at a plain silver band. He imagined Sam’s face lighting up as he drops to one knee and asks for his hand in marriage.

What would people think? That they are the luckiest couple alive.

What would people say? That they’re happy for them.

SEND ME 1 WORD PROMPT FOR 100 WORD DRABBLE

[thesffcorner]

Dishonored Retrospective Part 11: Death of the Outsider Changes

My friends we have finally reached the end; Death of the Outsider. At the time of writing this, this is the final part of the Empire’s story; even if Arcane ever decides to revisit this world, the story that started with a man being marked by a demigod so he could save his daughter is over, and for the conclusion we are going up against that very demigod.

I will come clean with my bias immediately and say that I absolutely love this game. It’s my favorite in the whole series, both in terms of gameplay and story. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Story and Overview:

Death of the Outsider came out in 2017. It was originally planned to be an expansion of Dishonored 2, like KoD and BW were, but it ended up becoming a stand-alone adventure instead. In keeping with tradition, the protagonist has once again changed, and this time we play as Billie Lurk, right after the events of the second game.

It’s a new day in Dunwall; Emily has taken back the throne, the new Duke is ruling Serkonos and after 15 years and everything that happened in the previous game, Billie decides it’s finally time to find Daud. Inspired by nightmares in which she sees the Void and loses her arm and eye, she sets sail for Karnaca and docks at an abandoned carriage line near the Albarca Baths.

Karnaca has changed since last you saw it. Not only does it have a new Duke, but depending on what you did with Paolo in the last game, the Howlers are no longer the big bads around. They have been replaced by a new, much darker gang called the Eyeless, and these guys are heavy into the occult. The gang consists of a lot of different factions you’ve already fought before; Howlers, Witches and random thugs, which is fitting since the fall of both Paolo and Breanna have left a power vacuum on the streets of the city. This is also a handy way for the developers to reuse enemy models, while still keeping the story consistent.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the friendliness of both the Grand Guard and the regular City Watch. There are wanted posters everywhere for Meagan Foster, meaning that Emily was much less forgiving than she made it out to be in the last game. You will still want to avoid any official law enforcement, so it’s business as usual.

Enemies:

DotO continiues in the tradition of KoD and BW in that we have a few modified and few new enemies. First we have the City Watch, Grand Guard and Overseers, and for our gang quota we have the Eyeless. The first three are the same factions you have always fought, and as I mentioned the Eyeless are a joint group of some of the enemies you fought in Dishonored 2.

In addition we have some more Clockwork soldiers, though these guys are a nerfed version. They can’t see from the back anymore, and are much smaller, though they compensate for it with the world’s creepiest smile! I don’t know if I’d want to put my money in a bank that has psycho-robot guards that smile. 

For the new enemies we have the Blind Sisters of the Oracular Order, the Cultists and the Envisioned. The Sisters are the female counterpart of the Overseers who rarely leave the Abbey, but have done so now because of the whole the world is cracking and the Void is seeping through. You were introduced to them in the Royal Conservatory level of the previous game, but this is the first time you actually get to meet them. They are as, if not more dangerous than their Overseer brethren, and if I have one complaint about them it’s probably that they have no interesting abilities or powers. They are just female Overseers with swords.

The cultists are similar to the Eyeless, if the Eyeless were as, if not more fanatical than the Overseers. They are an odd mix of scholars and murderers, and their designs are quite cool in that their faces are starting to turn to stone. They also become invulnerable if they are alerted, though I’m not sure if this is a glitch or an actual ability. 

Their Envisioned cousins on the other hand, are possibly the toughest enemy to kill in these games. They are made of stone, and practically indestructible. They are the highest form of whatever the cult is trying to achieve; immortal, eternal and unperturbed by mortal affairs. The original cultists who killed the Outsider have now become Envisioned. 

Weapons, Powers, and Gameplay: 

For the weapons, Billie has even more variety than Emily. Like Daud, she uses a launcher instead of a crossbow and also like him she uses electric bolts instead of sleep darts. There are grenades, spring razors, sticky grenades, rewire tools, and stun mines and my new favorite weapon, the hook mine which can be lethal or non-lethal depending on how you use it. It’s pretty great option with some hilarious results.

The biggest and best change are by far, Billie’s powers.

 Like with Emily, the developers decide that Billie too should spend the first level powerless, but they learned their lesion and made the level much more appropriate in difficulty for an under-powered character. It doesn’t feel like you should be able to use your powers but can’t for some reason.

Once Billie does get her powers, (in a pretty gruesome way thanks to the Outsider), her arm and eye get replaced with pieces of the void. She now has the ability to zoom into things (Corvo style) and reshape her arm into a sword. She also gets 3 powers which can’t be upgraded by runes and deplete mana when used. They are: a version of Blink called Displace; a version of Dark Vision called Foresight; and an entirely new power called Semblance which allows Billie to steal the face of anyone around her and wear it for a limited amount of time.

Not only are these powers super fun to use, but they can also be used in conjunction with each-other to traverse the levels in very creative ways. For example Displace is a very interesting twist on Blink; it allows you to place a marker and then displace to it. You can’t place a marker behind an obstacle and if you place a marker where someone else is standing, they will explode.

Foresight is a bit like Eagle Vision from Assassin’s Creed; it allows you to mark objects and enemies, but it also lets you travel in spirit form through grates, holes and even fly. What’s more, it can be used in conjunction with Displace, where you can place a marker in spirit form and therefore circumvent locked doors and obstacles.

This isn’t to say that Corvo or Daud or even Emily didn’t have interesting powers, but unfortunately a lot of them were geared towards a more high chaos style of play. The game never really encourages you to explore these powers in a real way, with very, very few exceptions in the first game like having to use Bend Time to get out of the duel with Lord Shaw. With Daud and Emily especially, upgrading powers like Far Reach and Summon Assassin is pointless if you are paying low chaos, because they only make your powers MORE lethal instead of helping you explore the world in more fun way.

Here, not only can you not upgrade the powers (thereby rendering them useless) but also none of them are inherently lethal. You can use Displace like that if you want to, but that’s not its primary use. Moreover, the game has entire challenges designed around these powers and using them, so it actively encourages you to use them and get comfortable with them. It honestly made me want to replay the other games by exploring the powers even more than I had before because it’s so fun.

Mana is no longer a resource you have to collect or buy, but this time around bonecharms are more important, since Billie can’t upgrade her powers. I will admit that I never paid too much attention to bonecharms in any of the other games, other than for collection purposes; this is the first game in which I considered crafting and had to really think about which charms were better suited for what level.

Another change is the absence of Outsider Shrines. Since the connection to the Void has been severed for a lot of witches and occultists (and Billie doesn’t need runes), there are no shrines in the game. Instead the Outsider speaks to Billie through rifts in the Void, which thanks to her new magic eye she can now see. These take the same form as the rifts we saw in Crack in the Slab and can be anything from photographs to wanted posters. They also cause some funny contradictions which we’ll get to in the level breakdown.

Billie also has a heart relic, similar to the one the Outsider gifts Corvo in the first game, except hers it’s a gift from Deidre (implying that Deidre was some type of a witch?). It allows Billie to listen to and understand rats which is a neat power. They will often warn you about impending danger, secret passages and generally cryptic warnings.

Favours, Black Markets and side-quests are also back. Favors can no longer be purchased outright, but this time they are rewards for Contracts, which Billie can take on and complete. There are tons of these, ranging from the lethal to the non, with some rather hilarious ones like killing a mime or robbing a bank teller. They can be found on notice boards in the Black Markets and are a fun addition to the content that also ties Billie more to what Daud was doing in the DLC with the favors.

Speaking of Daud, he’s one of 3 returning characters, other than Billie and the Outsider. We also have a ton new faces, which we’ll go over in the level breakdown but I’ll just list them here: Jeannette Lee, Dolores Michaels, Eolina Rey, Euterio Cienfuegos, Shan Yun, Ivan Jackoby, Sister Rosewyn and Brother Cardoza.

One thing that I do like to mention now, is how much these games took leaps of progress in terms of diversity. If you remember the original game, it had like 5 female characters in total, no female enemies, and no poc. Fast forward to this game, and our lead is a bisexual, disabled black woman, the main villains are an overweight Asian opera singer, a bespectacled councilman and a black female bank-owner, and the enemies are roughly equally divided between male and female and consist of all different races, ages (and even body types). It’s truly commendable how much these games improved on that front.    

Level Breakdown:

DotO has 5 levels, and like always they are divided in 3 categories: city, combination, and single location levels. The Dreadful Whale makes a return as well, but it’s a more limited space than what it was in the previous game.

And with that, it’s time to go over the levels. Join me next time, when we discuss levels 1 - 3 and some of the more interesting story beats. 

part 10 < > part 12