#nemeses (early version)

[insomniumstella]

a hell of a deal

steve x female!reader

summary: drunk Steve tries kissing y/n on New Year’s Eve just to get turned down, resulting in the two nemeses deciding upon a deal that’s about to make their whole year extremely confusing.

warnings: unspecified age gap (reader is in her early 20s), explicit language, alcohol consumption

word count: 10k

“Twenty seven!” It was the last New Year’s Eve at the Avenger’s tower, but y/n had no desire to make it memorable. New Year's Eve parties sucked. A time reserved for false hope and imaginary joy. “Twenty six!” Refilling her glass of champagne, she turned her head to look in Natasha’s direction. Love is disgusting, she thought, when Bucky peppered kisses from the base of Natasha’s neck all the way to her jawline. “Twenty five!” ah, these people couldn't have yelled any louder if they tried, and besides, nobody should ever start counting that soon.

At least, everyone was too busy finding their New Year’s kiss partner to notice her escape onto the balcony.

“Too crowded in there?” Steve swiftly joined her, placing his right arm on the ledge to lean against it.

“Something like that.” She locked her eyes with his. They were different that night, a shade of darker blue and shimmering with mischief. It wasn’t a bad look on him.

“Twenty!”

“Wanna kiss?” He chuckled, and y/n raised her eyebrows. Even their usually strict Captain couldn’t resist getting drunk tonight. To say they've had a rough year would be an understatement.  

“How much mead did Thor give you exactly?”

“Fifteen!”

“Enough to speak the truth?” He admitted, but it came out more like a question. Enough to speak the truth.

“And the truth is?”

“Ten!”

“You're beautiful.” While y/n had been forced to listen to many, too many jokes tonight, this one was by far the funniest. What a fool, she contemplated. Steve couldn’t stand her guts for no apparent reason. That same Steve also enjoyed addressing her as a kid and had harshly rejected y/n when she had asked him out on a date. Thus, the one-sided hatred had turned into a mutual dance. That Steve was so going to kick this Steve’s ass tomorrow. He might also kick hers if he won’t be too hungover for training.

“Tell me more.” She gave him a sly smile. Oh poor Stevie, you’re so getting blackmailed.

“Seven!”

“I think you’re really pretty and kind, and I like you.” He brushed her cheek with his thumb. “Is that so unbelievable?”

“Three!”

“Kind of.”

"One!"

Everyone inside was coupled up at that point, with most guests making out before the official announcement — Natasha and Bucky were not an exception to the fact. On their own, they were great people to have around and hang out with, but together? A big mess of PDA overload.

“Happy New Year!” People inside were overjoyed to ‘start fresh’. As if one day of the year carried a ton of significance. She was expecting Steve to say something else, but what she didn’t see coming was him wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her close.

“What are you doing?” y/n managed to choke out when Steve leaned in for a kiss, their lips brushing together.

“Kissing you.” Steve whispered and tried putting his mouth on hers.

This was one hell of a weird situation. Bewildered, y/n pushed Steve off her body. Thor must've given the Captain too much of his Asgardian ale. While the man was a super-soldier, Steve wasn't a God. Luckily, the drunk version of Steve was much easier to push around than the sober.

“I don’t want you to, lover boy.”

Pouting, Steve crossed his arms on his chest. “Let’s make a deal.” He was so drunk and out of it, y/n wished for nothing more than to have her phone and capture the glorious moment. A moment Steve will hate to remember if he’ll even remember it at all. “A deal I’m calling we might pretend to hate each other, but we both know we belong together.”

“That’s a mouthful.” y/n let out a sigh.

Drunk Steve was even worse than regular Steve, and regular Steve was already pretty annoying. The man had never understood when to quit.

“I had a crush on you for three years.” No amount of convincing would ever make y/n believe the words that left his mouth. People don’t reject and bully their crushes. People don’t yell at them for being stupid and whine to others because they’re 'borderline obnoxious' to be around. That was something better left to old-school teen romance movies she loved making fun of. “Next New Year's Eve, same place, same time, we meet up, and if you’re still single by then, we kiss.”

“And if I’m not?

“I don’t worry about that much.” He smirked. Even intoxicated, Steve was still a fucking asshole. “I know you have too big of a crush on me to want somebody else.” Steve stepped away.

Getting a boyfriend any time soon had not been on her agenda, but Steve had just presented her with a challenge she wasn’t going to lose. Proving Steve wrong was the girl's favorite pastime activity. I do not have feelings for this jackass.

An irritating thing about Steve was that he'd always remain true to his promises, even the drunken ones, and granting Steve a real kiss that would imply she did, in fact, like him, sounded like a nightmare, y/n would never experience. The only way you’re kissing me is if I’m six feet under.  

January 6th.

“You’re pulling your punches.” Steve pointed out.

The blonde's posture was perfectly straight, rigid almost, with his hands resting on his hips as if he ruled the place. In some ways, the gym was Steve’s kingdom. He was a king perched on a throne of gym mats in an empire that constantly smelled of sweat. The thought made y/n chuckle.

“You’re pulling on my nerves.” She was done with his remarks and comments.

Both knew she was one of the best hand-to-hand fighters on the team; quick and light on her feet. No super-soldier serum, but smart enough with her movement to make the soldiers lose time after time. Lounging at him, y/n took Steve by surprise and forcefully kicked him in the chest. Managing to knock the man down, she moved to wrap her legs around his neck and began choking him. An easy, swift move guaranteed to shut him up.

“Stop or I’ll tell everyone about New Year’s Eve.” She loosened her grip after Steve tapped on her thigh for the fourth time.

“First, no one will believe you,” he gasped out, cheeks reddened. The proudness that overtook her body when Steve had to take a couple moments to catch his breath was immeasurable. “Second, I was drunk and didn’t mean it,” he got up from the mat, and y/n followed, looking up to stare into his eyes, “third, you’re so aggravating no man would ever want you.”

Red was all she saw. It took approximately three seconds for a bruise to form on Steve’s cheekbone after y/n decked him straight in the face. We’ll see about that, dickhead.

February 14th.

“You’re kidding, right?” Steve was in disbelief from the sight in front of him. There, just a few feet away, wearing Bucky’s red henley and tight-fitting jeans, was y/n. “Bucky doesn’t wear heels.” She glanced down at the Louboutin heels Tony gave her for Christmas and shrugged.

“I do."

When Sam had first invited her to spend Valentine’s day with him and Steve, she had said " fuck no", but the more she had contemplated, the more the idea made sense. Sure, Sam hated the situation when Bucky first joined his and Steve’s duo, but he had soon noticed that the trio had a great dynamic, and yes, he'd never admit it, but not having Bucky around affected that dynamic. A trio of the serious, the funny, and the calm.

Sam enjoyed hanging out with Steve alone, but he had gotten used to having a third person around to balance everything out, so inviting y/n along, when Bucky had made plans with Natasha, was a no-brainer. Mad after her date canceled, y/n had taken the role of Bucky a little too serious. Sam’s words of “imagine how badly your presence would annoy Steve” had only fueled her mischievous idea even further.

Strutting over to Steve, she placed her hands on his shoulders. “Tonight,” she gestured to herself, “I’m your best pal Bucky.”

“The only thing you are is annoying.” To that answer, y/n paid no mind.

“Let’s play some pool boys, shall we?” She gave Steve a half-smile before turning around and striding to get the cue sticks. Sam was shaking his head when she came back and immediately removed himself from the situation that was about to unfold. Irritated, Steve grabbed a cue from her hands.

“I’ll order us beer.” Sam spoke up, but the other two were too occupied to notice him leaving.

“I’m breaking.” She declared, walking around Steve and purposefully bumped her shoulder into his. Bending down, she broke up the pool balls, pocketing a purple, solid one. She moved spots to sit on the rail of the table, and moments later, two more solid balls were in the pockets. “Forgot how good I am.” She stood up from the rail and smoothed out her jeans.

“You’re using the cue wrong,” Steve commented, “that was dumb luck.” With a few steps forward, he was right behind y/n, her ass brushing his crotch area. Putting his hands over hers, Steve guided her. Another solid ball fell into the pocket. “Now, that was a nice clean shot.”

Trapped between the table and his arms, "is this how you and Bucky usually play pool?” y/n snickered and spun around to face him.

“Go to hell.”

“I’ll take you with me. It’s nice there,” she turned back to the table, this time bending down lower, much lower, so her ass was fully pressed up against Steve’s crotch and pocketed her fifth ball, “warm.”

March 9th.

Steve might've had the body of a Greek God, but what he never had, was taste. Picking up shirt after shirt, each uglier than the other, he tried finding Bucky a gift. Finding the perfect gift for your best friend should be effortless. However, finding the perfect gift for the same man who had attempted to assassinate you in the last eighty years may be somewhat difficult.

Locating y/n by the accessories section, Steve shoved barf green and a pee yellow shirts in her face. “Which one?”

“Please, stop.” She responded, tone dripping in horror. A single girl could only withstand so many monstrosities before it became too much. “Neither.”

Sighting, Steve returned the shirts to their original locations. The spy was looking at the belt section when he appeared beside her. Noticing a black leather one, she picked it up to show the super-soldier.

“I’m not gifting him a belt.” He crossed his arms over his chest and locked eyes with y/n. “He doesn’t need it.” Tilting her head, she stared Steve up and down. Most days, he'd wear the same shoes and belt. Both were so worn out, if they could talk, they’d ask to be replaced. Confused, Steve glanced at himself and raised his eyes back to hers as if to ask, “what?”

“Why bring me here if you’re not going to listen to my suggestions?” She put the item down, only for Steve to grab it.

“You were the only available girl Avenger.” Steve examined it again. The belt was a little out of his price range, but Bucky would certainly enjoy a gift like that. “Thought you could be useful.”

She punched him in the arm out of irritation. It had been four hours since they had arrived at the mall, and each passing minute was becoming worse and worse with Steve’s indecisiveness and disregard for her ideas.

Snatching the belt out of his hands, she headed for the cash register, Steve following right behind. Noticing he was about to say something, “I’ll say I made you buy it if he doesn’t like it," she commented, shutting him up.

“If Bucky doesn’t like it, it’s all on you.” He waved a finger at her, and she pushed his hand down. One day, he'd be the death of her, that much she was sure of.

“Hello.” The cashier spoke, her voice coated in pure excitement. Great. Noticing her staring at Steve as if she wanted to devour him whole any second, y/n laced her arm around his bicep. “How are you?”

“Hi, sweetheart.” Putting on a genuine-looking smile, “we’re doing just great," she answered and patted Steve on the stomach.

Having paparazzi follow their every move was exhausting, but on the flip side, starting rumours was a fun way to treat her boredom. Usually, it’d come back to bite her in the ass, resulting in an hour-long lecture from Tony, but all the crazy headlines magazines would come up with would be well worth the trouble.

Putting the belt on the register, she looked up at Steve, who was gawking at her as if she was a crazy person. “I’m sure Natasha will too.” y/n removed her arm from Steve's bicep when the cashier started scanning their purchase. The sentence confused Steve even more, but before he could ask what she meant by the remark, y/n quickly placed her index finger on the man’s lips and shook her head. “You don’t want me to tell you.”

“The receipt is in the bag.” The cashier was only staring at Steve, but he was paying her no mind. Taking the bag from the girl’s hand, y/n gave her a quick smile and dragged the blonde out of the store.

“You don’t want me to tell you.” She repeated with a sly smile on her face. It was scary how suddenly y/n was able to change from one person to another. Her fake, overly sweet demeanor was promptly turned into her usual, sarcastic one as she continued giving Steve a sly, knowing smile. Steve would probably get a heart attack if he'd learn about everything that went down in his best friend’s and Natasha’s bedroom. “It’s rough.” Noticing a cafe nearby, she grabbed Steve’s hand to drag him towards it. “Rough and scary.”

April 1st.

Standing in Steve’s shower was not how y/n had planned for her day to go, but there she was, Steve’s shampoo in one hand, blue hair dye in another. Not only was it the Avenger's first week at the compound, but it was also April Fool’s day; this had to be memorable.

“Our blondie uses conditioner.” She peaked her head from out of the shower, chuckling.

Natasha looked at her unamused.

“Bucky does too. Conditioner doesn’t have a gender.” She shrugged, and y/n gave her a knowing look. While conditioner didn't have a gender, Natasha unquestionably liked sneaking her hands into someone’s hair to pull on it during sex. y/n was almost sure it was Natasha who had introduced Bucky to the great thing that was conditioner. Before dating Natasha, Bucky would look a bit, in less harsh words, a little dirty. “Hurry up, he’ll catch us, and I’m not taking the blame for your ass.”

“So rude.” She responded from the shower. Steve’s shampoo was now replaced with the dye, and y/n couldn’t wait to see his reaction. “Have a nice bath, Stevie!” She threw the empty dye bottle into the bag Natasha brought and stepped out of the shower, giving the bag to the redhead. “Preferably a long one.”

While it was sad to miss Steve’s initial reaction to his now blue hair, the sight of him, however, furious and only in his boxers, was glorious. Tony gave Steve a pointed look when he ran into the kitchen.

“Hello, popsicle.” Tony put down his phone to really take in Steve’s hair. “That’s quite a change.”

“Did you do this?” Storming up to Tony, Steve pointed to his head. Dyeing Steve’s hair blue would never be above him.

“As much as I wish I have, I had much more important things to do today.” Tony raised his hands. Chuckling, y/n looked at Natasha’s face. The spy was trying her best to hold in her laugh, face so red, it looked as if she had stopped breathing.

“I think it suits you.” y/n got up from the barstool and ruffled Steve’s hair before placing her and Tony’s dishes in the sink. “What do you think, Natasha?”

“It really does.” Natasha finally let out the breath she had been holding. “Matches your eyes.”

“You’re dead,” Steve turned his body in y/n’s direction, “dead," and suddenly lounged at her.

Amused, she jumped over the bar and took off in the opposite direction. The public might know Steve the kind, selfless hero, but when it came to getting revenge on y/n, the man could spend hours if needed. He chased her all the way through the first floor and then the second. Chased her through hallways, conference rooms, the gym showers. The compound they just moved in was a maze of countless cement walls, but the fact she had no idea where she was going didn’t stop her from trying. Accidentally finding the recruit training area, she sat down on the ground.

“You’re okay?” Sam asked after giving the recruits an exercise to practice, and she smiled at him.

“Better than ever.”

Her break, however, was cut short when Steve barged in, running around the confused recruits in training. Jumping up, she waved goodbye and snickered when Steve stopped to say a short hello to Sam. She quickly took off running again when her eyes met Steve’s. It didn’t matter that her lungs were out of air, or that her legs were burning, what mattered, was getting away from Steve. It was an unfair race. A game of cat and mouse where the winner is clear from the start. Nonetheless, y/n ran, wherever, and as fast as she could.

“Looks like there’s nowhere for you to go.” Steve observed once they were standing outside. Luckily for him, y/n had terribly overestimated her abilities and was now walking backward in the pool’s direction.

Stopping in her tracks, “Does it?” She asked him before trying to sprint past Steve.

It was easy for the super soldier to grab her waist and throw her over his shoulder. “Got any last words?” He questioned proudly.

“I do actually,” y/n chuckled. “You look like an idio-“ The sentence was cut short as her body got submerged in the pool’s water. Icy, freezing cold water.

A few days later, she turned up with a cold, and Steve couldn’t have been happier. What an asshole. An asshole with barely faded blue hair.

May 17th.

Sadly, the blues hadn't lasted as long as y/n was hoping they would, but on a brighter note, Steve’s regular hair made it much easier for them to blend in during an undercover mission.

“I could tell you the brand I used.” y/n suggested after ordering a drink. Steve was leaning on the bar, body facing the dance floor, his face cold and neutral. “If you miss the blue.” She took a sip when the bartender brought her the drink she ordered and gave him a seductive smile. “Could use a little more vodka.” y/n told him, and the bartender smirked.

“One second.” He winked at her.

Rolling his eyes, Steve turned his body to face y/n. “Would you please stop flirting with the bartender?”

For reasons unbeknownst to his own mind, y/n’s flirty behavior was annoying the living hell out of him. The unwelcoming atmosphere of too many people, dim lights, and loud music wasn’t exactly helping. Raising her eyebrows at Steve’s comment, y/n swiftly changed her expression when the bartender came back with the stronger drink. She gave him a coy smile upon tasting it.

“Much better.” She observed, sliding a fifty over the bar. “I like mine strong.” Flexing his arm on purpose, the bartender slipped the bill into his jean’s pocket before finding a pen and writing his number on a tissue.

He disappeared to serve other guests as quickly as he gave her the napkin, but y/n didn’t mind. Standing beside her was a man she wanted to toy more with anyway. Noticing Steve’s annoyed expression, she made a point to slowly slide the napkin down the plunging neckline of her dress.

“It’s going to fall out.” Steve looked down at her cleavage. “You don’t have a bra on.”

“And how would you know?”

“Can see your nipples from miles away.” Steve teased her. “They’re shining through the dress.” Clearly, his intention was to make y/n feel bad, but the only thing she did was look down at her boobs and shrug.

“Oh well,” was not a reaction Steve expected.

“Would you please stop drinking?” He spoke up minutes later. Y/n was halfway through her drink already. Letting out a sigh, Steve grabbed the glass from her hands and chugged the rest of the cocktail. “This is your third.” He waved the glass in her face before setting it down on the bar.

“Technically, I only had two and a half since you just drank this one.” y/n fixed the collar of Steve’s shirt. As tight as usual, but in the unusual color of black. This shirt suited Steve well; the pale blue never did do him any justice. “You look good,” she ran a hand down his chest, “red jacket, 9 o’clock.” Moving it down to Steve’s thigh when she noticed the man take yet another glance. “Is that a gun, or are you just happy to see me?” She teased Steve, peering up at him.

“Please take your hand off of my penis.” Steve grinned innocently at y/n as her eyes widened. “The gun is a bit to the left.” He replied, and she quickly removed her touch.

“Just checking, sorry.” She muttered, pressing her lips into a tight line. “He’s still staring.”

“Yes, I know, Captain Obvious.”

“What do we do?” The woman didn’t get an answer as Steve clutched her hand and gently dragged her to the dance floor. For a man as confident as him, he sure looked awkward. Uncertain of what to do herself, y/n placed one of his hands just above the curve of her bottom, the other on her waist. Her own hands she loosely wrapped around Steve’s neck and started moving her body to the rhythm. “Think he recognizes us?”

Letting his hands roam around y/n’s back, waist, and ass, Steve peered over her shoulder. “No idea.” He pulled her in closer. “Where’s your gun?”

“On my right thigh.”

Setting one arm on y/n’s upper thigh, Steve brushed his fingers over the gun to make sure, then gripped y/n’s leg below the holster before dipping her. Though the dip was a staple move in many dancing styles, the action, coming from her Captain himself was quite bold. She wouldn't have anticipated he'd be brave enough for it, but despite her confusing emotions, her face returned to a neutral expression.

Perhaps it was just one of his tactics to make her feel inferior. Steve always treated her as an idiot during missions, and it was infuriating. Of course, she had her gun, but he just needed to make a show out of confirming it.

Placing a hand on her neck for support, he stared her down before speaking. "See that green door?" She could barely make out anything through the heavy crowd of people. Seeing upside down wasn't helping either, but she managed to spot the door, and Steve raised her back up as fast as he dipped her. Releasing the hold on her leg, he bent down to reach her ear. “Meet me there in three."

He was soon gone, and y/n rolled her eyes at the man’s oblivious behavior. She didn’t have a phone nor a watch. Deciding to follow the song, she met Steve at the door right before it ended.

“I said three, not four.”

“Don’t have a watch, fool.”

Rolling his eyes, Steve took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his pants. “This is the combination to the safe, I’ll guard the door while you go in.” She wasn’t hearing anything the soldier was saying as their target was heading straight in their direction. “Be quick.” She didn’t catch that either.

If only y/n could cause a distraction, he wouldn’t recognize them, right? Without thinking, she placed her hands on Steve’s neck and captured his lips in a kiss.

“Go along with it.” She muttered into his lips and weaved one hand into his hair. Realizing he was completely frozen, Steve hurriedly put his hands on the small of her back. Moving his lips in rhythm with hers, Steve took no time to deepen the kiss and pull y/n in closer. Now, this was such a strange move it took them both by surprise.

“Did Natasha teach you this?” Steve chuckled when they pulled away. “She did the same thing a few years ago.”

The sentence left y/n completely dumbfounded. Shaking her head no, y/n also tried to shake away the ugly feeling, which goes by the simple name of jealously. “No,” y/n mumbled. “she did not.”

June 5th.

“I’ll be right out!” y/n slipped on her dress, leaving the zipper undone. “You’re not Wanda.” She noted after opening the door and finding Steve on her doorstep.

“No.” He scanned her up and down. “I needed to go over yours and Bucky’s mission report.” He waived a pile of papers in his hand and sat down on the bed.

“Can’t you talk to Bucky about it?” She questioned, trying to zip up her dress. Every attempt proved unsuccessful as her arms were simply too short to reach all the way down her back. Groaning, Steve stood up, walking up to y/n. Swatting her hand away, he easily zipped the garment and returned to his previous spot.

“I would, but he’s on a mission with Sam.”

Rummaging through the drawers of her dresser, y/n pulled out the jewelry box she was looking for. While Tony and y/n bumped heads often, he couldn’t help but feel a warm affection towards the younger Avenger. She was a friend, a teammate, and a daughter wrapped in one, to which Tony was grateful every day.

“Just wait till he gets back!” The girl yelled, disappearing into the bathroom. “I’m in a hurry!”

“A two week long mission.” Steve informed her when she came back with a container of makeup. “Why are you getting ready anyway?” He questioned when she pulled out five, seemingly the same, tubes of lipstick and chose her favorite one.

“It’s none of your concern,” y/n started off, “but I have a date.” She told him after finishing the makeup. “With a real, human man.” She pointed her index finger at Steve after noticing he was about to say something snarky. Chuckling, Steve leaned back and propped himself on his elbows.

“And where is this real man taking you?” He challenged, gesturing to her dress.

God, if Steve could get any more irritating. Her dress was tight and had a couple cutouts, but it was an appropriate outfit for a nice meal in a luxury NYC restaurant. Those kinds of restaurants weren’t her scene, not exactly. Still, why not give Steve a double fuck you by not only finding a boyfriend but a rich one at that.

“We’re going out to dinner. He’s picking me up in two.”

“Explains the douchey car outside.”

“Here’s here, and you didn’t tell me?!” y/n puffed out and quickly found a pair of heels she’s been wanting to wear for some time now. Deciding to give Steve the benefit of the doubt after noticing his admiring face, she sat down next to him. y/n put on the shoes before asking the man, “what?”

He stayed silent while she grabbed her purse and took one final look in the mirror.

“You look good.” He smiled. “A bit like a hooker, but-” he didn’t get to finish as y/n smacked him across the head with her clutch. “Kidding!” He put his hands up. “Stripper is a better word.”

“Out.” She ushered him out of the room by smacking his head over and over. “I hate you.”

“Have fun, kid!” He teasingly yelled after her when y/n stepped into the elevator. “Have fun, kid.” He repeated in a more jealous tone, but y/n wasn’t around to hear it.  

July 4th.

“Tony, let yourself be forever damned.” y/n sighed, looking at herself in the mirror.

Not a woman to shy away from tight dresses and heels, her current outfit was nothing short of a stripper’s uniform. A huge American flag was pictured on her boobs, along with the words “PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN” right under.

The bet had seemed easy, seemed being the keyword there. Tony wasn’t a fan of training, but he'd often come down to the gym to watch, so on one of those days, they had made a bet. If Natasha was to knock Bucky down first, she'd have to do whatever Tony would ask of her on Steve’s birthday, and if Bucky was to succeed, y/n would get unlimited access to Tony’s cars for a week. The stakes had been incredibly high — Tony would rarely come up with good ideas, but unlimited access to his cars? It had sounded incredible. Despite formerly being known as The Winter Soldier, Bucky had been knocked down to the ground a few minutes into the fight. Super soldiers, what are they good for? Nothing.

“Sweetie, you ready?” Tony singed out, too pleased with himself. No one else at the compound knew what Tony and y/n were up to that day, but no one usually questioned anyway. Those two were never up to anything good. “Show our Captain his best gift.”

She cursed underneath her breath.

“Oh yes, Steve, take it in because I’m never wearing it again.” y/n responded from around the corner, and even though she couldn’t see Steve’s face, she was sure he was utterly confused.

Taking a deep breath to calm her anxiety y/n stepped into the living room. A wave of oohs and ahhs and giggles filled the room. The woman wished for nothing more but the earth to swallow her whole in that very moment.

“C'mon, sit on the Captain’s lap.”

A bet was a bet. You can always punch Tony later, y/n. Putting on a fake smile to play the character Tony so greatly wanted her to, she gracefully sat down onto Steve’s lap sideways.

“Happy Birthday, Captain.” She said in a lower, sultrier tone.

Wait, that cannot be his, she shifted around to get comfortable entirely mortified. If not for the others clapping and cheering, the whole situation would’ve been so much more awkward than it already was for the pair. Steve’s mouth formed an o shape, his face burning up.

“Happy Birthday to you.” She kissed his cheek. “I hope you enjoy your gift.” She gestured to her all-American dress, and Sam whistled. “The dress.” She looked Sam dead in the eyes and shook her head. “Not me, asshole.” Sam only raised his eyebrows and gave her a crooked grin.

The dress wasn't something Steve found attractive — too short, too skimpy. Yet much to his dismay, it suited y/n's figure, showcasing her curves in all the best ways. The feel of y/n's body on his and the word "captain" coming out of her mouth in a deep, sultry tone did nothing, but add weight to Steve's arousal.

“Thank you.” Steve choked over his words, and his eyes caught Bucky’s. “The dress is-“ his best friend had a knowing look on his face and gave Steve an amused smile, “nice.” Steve finished and quickly stilled y/n in place when she started squirming.

Firmly placing his hands on her hips, he pushed her down. She stilled for a while, but by this point, y/n’s body was closer to his than the soldier found comfortable. Not around other people anyway. Moving one final time, y/n positioned herself, so her back was leaning on his chest. Yeah, that’s his boner I’m feeling.

“Smile for the photo!” Tony smirked, holding his phone and snapping a few pictures. The genius wanted both of them to feel as uncomfortable as he could make the pair. That’s what the two nemeses get for spending his money. “Steve, please put your hands around y/n.” He instructed, and Steve cleared his throat before hesitantly placing his arms on y/n’s thighs. “Closer, Captain,” Tony encouraged, ”really hold her close.”

Holding her close was the last thing he craved. On the contrary, the blonde burned with desire to shove the absolutely sexy girl in a tacky dress off his lap because, and he'd never admit it, she inadvertently forced his body to react in ways Steve wasn't too fond of.

The Captain was too hot, too aroused, and too embarrassed from all the looks thrown their way. His own body had betrayed him. Begrudgingly, the super-soldier wrapped his arms around y/n’s waist, letting his hands rest on the upper part of her thighs, and nervously smiled for the photo. Steve wasn’t the only person whose body acted quite treacherous at that very moment, and y/n had to excuse herself to the bathroom the second Tony was done.

August 28th.

“Wanna play 21 questions?” y/n suggested, putting her feet on the dashboard.

Pushing them down, “I’m not 16.” Steve answered.

The ride to the Avenger’s tower had been awfully quiet. While not the biggest fan of small talk, y/n wasn’t going to spend another three hours back to the compound in tense silence. Bored out of her mind, she picked up a piece of technology they had retrieved at the tower. Presumably, it was something important as Tony had been adamant the movers couldn't access certain rooms.

“Put it with the rest.” Steve commanded.

She turned her head to look at the mess in his trunk and placed the item on a stack of other, in Tony’s words, super important, things. The pile was the perfect representation of Steve and y/n. While the items the blonde had packed were neatly wrapped in bubble wrap, y/n’s, well, the items she had packed were either stuffed into boxes or messily wrapped in scraps of bubble wrap she had found after Steve had finished.

“I’m bored.” y/n admitted putting her feet on the dashboard once more.

Pushing them down again, Steve stayed quiet for a few minutes before giving in to her suggestion. The awkward stillness wasn’t his favorite thing in the world either.

“Why did you kiss me?” He was heading straight for the important questions.

“To keep our cover from being blown. Why do you always wear these ugly shirts?” Another major issue.

“Oh my God, always picking on my shirts. What’s up with you and my wardrobe?” Steve exclaimed.

“It’s ugly.” Y/n shrugged. “Boring, outdated, unflattering.” The last one was only sort of a truth. “Plain, mismatched, I could go on and on.”

“Please, don’t.” Steve stopped her from speaking when she opened her mouth to start listing more bad adjectives about his clothing.

“Will you miss it? The tower, I mean.” She took off her shoes, and Steve threw her a strange look. “My feet smell great, actually.” Unbuckling her seatbelt, y/n held up one of her legs to Steve’s face and laughed at his disgusted grimace.

“Put it away, and no.” He glimpsed at her before his eyes were back on the road. “How was your date?”

“For your interest,” y/n started out, “I’ll miss the tower. Also, what date?” She questioned him.

“The date you dressed as a stripper for.”

Opening the glove compartment, she found Steve’s hidden stash of unhealthy snacks. Packs of candy, chocolate, and vinegar chips were amongst the variety. She easily disregarded the disgusting Lay's flavour as the inferior snack option, and snatched up a bag of sour worms.

"That was months ago," she giggled, launching a pink and yellow worm at him. "I thought you meant the date I went on last week."

“Didn’t expect you to take the deal seriously.” Steve bit his lower lip. Something inside him didn’t like the fact he missed y/n going on a date. Something inside him didn’t like the part of her going on a date with a different man at all.

“I’m not losing.” She threw another worm at Steve, and he gave her a pointed look which she laughed off. “I have no interest in kissing you," she threw yet another worm to piss the soldier off, "and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to kiss me either, kid.” y/n mocked him.

“Don’t you dare throw another worm at me.” Steve threatened when she raised her hand. "Besides, we already kissed." He recalled.

“Are you stupid?” She held up a blue and pink gummy. “These ones are the best. Also, yes, we might've, but that kiss wasn't real.”

“Who came up with the idea for my birthday?”

“Tony.”

“Why?” Steve demanded to know. Something like that wasn’t above Tony. He was a grown-up with the brain of a genius and the behaviours of a child, but it was still a strange idea. y/n's comment about their kiss on the mission Steve forced himself to ignore.

“What’s this about? Was the dress not up to your standards?” She raised a brow. “I lost a bet. Overestimated your best pal Bucky.” y/n was still sour about it. The man knew every single one of Natasha’s weaknesses and still managed to get knocked down first. What a loser.

“Not sure if you noticed with all the writhing around in my lap,” Steve glanced at her and snatched the bag from her grasp, “but it was a weird situation.”

“A hard one.” y/n teased him, and Steve knew exactly what she was talking about. “It’s normal for guys to get boners when I sit on their laps.” Steve noticed her smirking from the corner of his eye. “Tony just wanted you to have the best birthday ever!” She exclaimed and settled her feet on the dashboard despite his protests. “Assuming from the clear, hard facts,” She teased him again. “You enjoyed it.”

“Shut up.” Steve groaned.

“Always so rude.” To that, he didn't answer, ending the conversation before asking y/n about their New Year's Eve deal.

Steve thought about calling it off but decided against it. He was going to make sure she loses. Not to kiss y/n for real of course, no, that would be disgusting and imply that he actually had feelings, but it would, however, clear up a lot of questions. The important kind of questions Steve needed answers to because he while surely didn't have a crush on the way younger girl, nothing made sense anymore. She succeeded to turn his brain into a mush every time. That girl was also his teammate, and that same girl he had spent the last three years tormenting. They couldn't like each other; Steve had made sure of it. One day those questions would be the end of him.

September 14th.

“Someone had fun.” Bucky made grabby hands at Natasha when she stumbled through the door. y/n appeared in the living room seconds later, just as drunk, if not more, as Natasha.

“These lovely gentlemen bought us so many drinks.” Natasha sat down on Bucky’s lap, and he laughed. How Bucky wasn’t jealous was beyond Steve. “One even gave y/n their number.”

“He did.” y/n held up her phone after falling face down onto the couch. “He’s sooo cute too.” She drunkenly exclaimed, and Steve quickly took the phone from her. “I wanted to text him!” She turned around to lay on her back and kicked Steve at the end of the couch.

“I know.” He sighed. “It’s why I took the phone away.”

“But we’re going on a date tomorrow.”

Laughing, Bucky wrapped his hands around Natasha and looked at y/n. “Then text him tomorrow.” He smiled and scrunched his nose when y/n made a sad face.

Before dating Natasha, Bucky would always look after y/n whenever she'd get drunk. He'd have fun doing it too. It'd be like Russian roulette, where the man could never know what he should be expecting. Sometimes, she’d cry, and other times, Bucky would be forced into doing karaoke. On rare occasions, she'd just be herself. Intoxicated, but herself nonetheless. With no walls to hide behind, no filter on her speech. On those days, Bucky and y/n would have endless conversations about boys, girls, astrology, movies, food —  anything she could think of before sleep would devour her, and he’d have to carry her to bed.

“Please carry her to bed.” Bucky stood up. The redhead was soundly sleeping in his arms. “She hates waking up on the sofa.”

Begrudgingly, Steve picked up y/n bridal style, and she giggled. It was one of the first times Steve ever heard her giggle. “You’re cute too.” She wiggled her eyebrows and poked his cheek. “Kind of mean, though.”

Steve bringing y/n to bed was an easy task as she fell asleep as soon as he stepped foot in the elevator. After gently placing her on the bed, Steve was about to walk out.

“Don’t have a crush.” He muttered to himself upon deciding to take off her heels. The dress, while wildly beautiful, looked wildly uncomfortable, so cursing underneath his breath, Steve quickly removed the garment from her too. Guilty about looking at y/n in only her underwear, Steve threw a blanket over her sleeping form. Rummaging through the mess that was y/n's room, he soon found an unopened water bottle.

“Stay?” She sleepily called out after he set the water on the nightstand. “Please?”

This version of y/n was so much different than he’s ever seen before. Usually calm, collected, and closed off, tonight, she was giggly, sweet, and open. No snarky comments, no sarcastic remarks. Tired enough to sleep through hurricanes and earthquakes.

“Why did you kiss me on that mission?”

“I already told you.” y/n yawned and moved to make space for Steve to lay down. “To save our cover.”

“There were about three different routes you could’ve taken.” Steve kicked off his shoes and laid down. “Why the kiss?”

“It was the first thing that came to mind,” y/n smiled and snuggled up to Steve, “seemed logical.” Resting her head on his chest, she closed her eyes. “Maybe even fun.”

“Rest easy, kid.” Steve whispered when her body relaxed into his, and her breathing turned even. Calling y/n by the nickname kid didn’t feel right anymore. A nickname that had been used for teasing and mocking no longer fit in the pair's dynamic. “Sweet dreams.” He whispered once more, and after kissing y/n on the forehead, slipped from the bed, disappearing from the room altogether.

October 31st.

“That’s not a costume, that’s underwear.” Steve remarked when y/n walked into the kitchen with an outfit of a black bodysuit, fishnet tights, and bunny ears.

“How would you know?” She unwrapped a cherry lollipop, putting it in her mouth. “You’ve never seen me in my underwear.”

Steve had to break their eye contact, and y/n laughed. If only she knew. For the first time in quite a while, y/n felt truly desirable. Sure, she had been on multiple dates in the past few months, where Wanda would do her makeup and find the perfect outfit, but this was something different. A good different. This was seductive, skimpy, yes, but sexy nonetheless. It was also liberating. Freeing. She didn’t care about Steve’s opinion or Tony’s weird looks. All that mattered was that she, herself, felt amazing. In contrast to her everyday baggy suit pants and an ill-fitting top, this outfit was a real confidence booster.

“What are you even supposed to be?” Steve stared her up and down. He hated to admit that jealously was rearing its ugly head.

“A Playboy bunny, duh.” It was time for Pepper to give her a weird look. In fact, the three of them were looking at her in a very, very strange way. “What?” She released the lollipop from her mouth with a pop.

“Have you had anything to drink already?” Pepper questioned, a worried look in her eyes. Pepper was the mom of the group, including being a mom to her own husband sometimes. Pepper expected to look after Tony the most tonight, but this kind of behavior was unusual for the girl.

“No.” Y/n rolled her eyes and turned on her heel after grabbing another lollipop. “See you later, guys!”

Tony’s parties were always great, but this Halloween, he had truly outdone himself. From the decorations to the music and the food, the entire scene looked straight from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The party was already in full swing when y/n managed to find the people she was looking for.

“Boys!” y/n greeted the infamous Avengers trio. “Meet Todd.”

“Hey.” Here came the ugly feeling again.

“A fan of PDA, I see.” Steve gestured to Todd’s arm over y/n’s waist, but the other man just laughed.

“Yeah.” He looked at y/n, giving her a big smile. “Can’t ever take my arms off of this gem.” Could easily make you, Steve thought and immediately got rid of the idea. Not the place, not the time, even though a great opportunity to punch him presented itself when Todd started non-stop rambling about baseball.

“y/n? Would you mind helping me bring some drinks over?” Steve asked when his beer bottle turned empty. The girl knew exactly where this was going, but excusing herself, she followed after the soldier.

“Who the fuck is that?” Steve finally spoke up when they reached the bar.

He felt infuriated, jealous, and something else, he, himself, couldn’t quite place a finger on. While not a fan of swearing, this seemed like an appropriate time.

“My boyfriend.” She waved at Todd when he turned to look in their direction. “I think.” She added when he turned around. “Could I also get a shot of tequila?”

“You think?” Steve was out of his mind. Of course, he expected y/n to take the deal seriously, he just never imagined that she’d be fine with being around some random guy if that meant winning.

“Yes.” Thanking the bartender for the tequila, she took the shot, welcoming the burning sensation spreading down her throat. “Actually, could I get another?” She pointed to the empty glass.

“The woman is fine, thank you.” It was the first time Steve has ever called her a woman. To say it took y/n by surprise would be an understatement.

“I’m trying to hook up tonight, Captain.” She quickly leaned over the bar when the bartender wasn’t looking and poured herself a shot. “You’re ruining my chances.” She made a face after setting the glass down. Tequila was a dream and a nightmare. Deliciously rough but malicious at mornings.

“y/n, I’m calling the deal off.” Steve stopped her from pouring herself another shot. “You don’t need to prove anything.” Too bad the damage was done already. About half a bottle of liquor coursed through her veins. Sorry about the lie, Pepper, she thought, recalling back to earlier.

“You’re not calling anything off. I’m not insufferable. Not annoying. Certainly, I’m not so aggravating,” she mocked Steve, “that no man would ever want me. I’m kind,” she poured the third shot anyway, “caring,” swallowing the burning liquid, “hot.” y/n exclaimed, pushing her index finger into Steve’s chest. “Look at me.” She did a messy twirl to make her point, but it only worried Steve further, because she was drunk, and out of it, and about to have sex with a man she’d never sleep with sober. “There are hundreds of men who want me.” She hiccuped. “Men who deserve me.” y/n tried to step up closer to Steve but accidentally stumbled, and he quickly caught her in his arms. “You, however,” she got out of his hold and smoothed out her costume, “will never be one.” Grabbing the tequila bottle from the bar, y/n turned on her heels and started heading in Todd's direction. You will never be a man who deserves me. Those words hurt a lot more than Steve would dare voicing.

November 24th.

“Don’t.” y/n put a finger on Steve’s lips. “Don’t want to hear it.” Her red eyes and teary cheeks were enough of an indicator that the evening went wrong. Pressing his lips into a tight line, Steve sat back down on one of the benches. Despite it being deep into fall, the night was beautiful. With clear skies for stars to shine through and a big, round moon, giving off enough light to illuminate both of their faces.

“I wasn’t-“ Steve thought for a moment, “wasn’t going to ridicule you.” Sitting down beside him, she leaned her head on Steve’s shoulder. It was another indicator of all the shit that had went down if his so-called nemesis was seeking out his comfort. “Want to go out for ice cream?”

y/n didn’t want to go to bed yet. Not yet. The feeling that crept deep into her bones after Todd’s actions was still there. She couldn’t go to sleep just yet. “Sure.”

12:47 am. All the ice cream shops already were closed by now. Steve was going to get a heck of a lecture for this tomorrow, but he didn’t care. Leaving y/n alone, Steve went into Tony’s garage, accessing his not-so-secret spot where Tony keeps his keys, and emerged in one of his supercars minutes later.

“Best case scenario, he kills you. A slow, intimate death” y/n chuckled, getting into the car, and immediately turned on the heating.

“And in the worst-case scenario, he?” Steve found the button for the seat heater.

“He fires you from The Avengers.” y/n nodded her head and she was right. Steve have always cared more about his newfound family than dying.

“Tony can’t fire me.” Steve spoke up when they reached McDonald's. It seemed like a good time to say something considering y/n looked calm and composed, with dry cheeks and no longer red eyes. Besides, the silence was starting to eat at him.

“He absolutely can.” y/n thought out loud after they ordered. While not a fan of ice cream in colder seasons, Steve ordered himself some fries for moral support. “I’m taking these.” y/n gestured to his food after they picked up their order and he laughed.

“You can have a couple.” Scrunching her nose, she stole some, putting them in her milkshake. She snuck a couple extra when Steve wasn’t looking.

“The deal is still on, by the way.” She declared after the food was mostly finished and Steve had driven them to an empty parking lot. It felt good to be around someone who didn’t ask a million questions about when, why, and what happened. Never in a million years would she have expected that person to be Steve, but she was grateful. It was the first time she felt grateful to have Steve in her life. Through the best, the worst, and somewhere in the middle.

“Still got a month.” Steve made a face y/n didn’t recognize. It was the kind of impression he’s never used around her.

“And if I’m still single,” she locked her eyes with Steve’s, “we kiss.”

“Yeah.” He laughed slightly. “We kiss.”

A comfortable silence fell between the two. It wasn’t awkward, wasn’t confining, wasn’t rushed. It was the kind of silence with no pressure to speak unless it feels right to do so. The kind of silence they had only experienced years ago, when they had first met, and Steve hadn’t decided that he wanted to be an asshole to y/n yet. The kind of silence y/n haven't even realised she missed.

“Wouldn’t be the end of the world.” Steve suggested after some time, and y/n shook her head no. “We kissed before.” He recalled.

“Yeah.” She truly laughed and Steve was glad to hear it. “Touched your penis that night too.”

“It was actually my gun, I just wanted to mess with you.” Steve admitted and y/n’s mouth fell open. What an asshole.

“You have no idea the embarrassment!” She hit Steve in the back of his head and he chuckled. “I thought about that moment for weeks!” She hit him again. “Weeks!”

“Sorry.” He caught her hand so she’d stop hitting him. Gently lowering it back to her lap, Steve gave y/n a sheepish smile. “Was that because you enjoyed it or-“ catching y/n’s daring look he suddenly went quiet and nodded. “Embarrassment. Got it.”

“You should be embarrassed too.”

“Why?”

“Stuck your whole arm up my dress just to check if I had a gun.” Steve’s cheeks reddened. “I’m not a kid, you know ” She stuck out her hand and Steve shook it, the handshake declaring a truce.

Not friends just yet, but not nemeses either.

“This was a weird year.” Steve blurted out. y/n couldn’t help but agree with the statement. Weird and a little unsettling. A year of big fights out on the field, and even bigger wars inside their own minds.

“Kind of want to stay single.” y/n admitted but regretted it as soon as she saw Steve’s expression. “What? It would be a weird end to an even weirder year. Very fitting.” She looked out the window.

As much as Steve wanted to kiss y/n, and he wanted to greatly, Steve didn’t want her to kiss him just because it seemed fitting, or just because it'd be a weird end to an even weirder year. As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted their kiss to be genuine, real. For y/n to have as much passion and desire for him as he had for her. Desire he spent so long suppressing, it was about to spread like a wildfire.

December 31st.

Besides Steve surprising y/n with her gift late on Christmas Eve, the holidays had come and went with no other events of significance happening. Still, Steve coming to her room at 11:32pm to give y/n the necklace she’s been wanting for months had been a nice surprise. She had made them cocoa and stolen a few pieces of the leftover pie then, bringing them up to her room with Steve’s help where they had spent the next couple hours talking, openly and honestly. It had been as unusual as it had been welcome. It had felt good to have a conversation without insulting or teasing each other. A conversation that had seemed like a fresh start. Not one to believe in “fresh starts”, y/n had hoped next year would be different. The first New Year's Eve at the compound definitely would.

And as it had turned out, she was right. The party was entirely unrecognizable. Not only had Avengers switched headquarters, but the room had a lot of new faces. In fact, there were so many people, y/n had a hard time locating her friends, and an even harder time locating Steve. He had smiled at her when she first walked into the scene but was quickly nowhere to be found. Gone like a needle in a pile of hay.

“Fifteen!” The deal wasn’t off and she was still single. “Fourteen!”

Steve’s saying of same place, same time soon proved to be difficult to accomplish as the tower had been sold to another millionaire, and the compound had zero balconies. Maybe he had known about the move then, and had proposed the deal on purpose.

A deal impossible to keep true. That wouldn’t be beyond Steve. Can’t believe he’d do that. The old Steve who called her a kid would. It suddenly dawned on her that while the compound lacked in balconies, the one thing it did have was a rooftop.

Sprinting out the room and into an elevator, she pressed the button to the top floor. Ten. Nine. If only this elevator, designed by the super genius philanthropist playboy himself, could go any faster. Eight, seven, six. A small hope of making it there in time was still burning inside her heart. Small, but strong enough to burn down forests. five, four, three. As much as she tried convincing herself that she was rushing like a crazy person because they had made a deal, the deep parts she tried burying under all the walls, understood better. Two.

“Happy New Year.” She gave Steve a sheepish smile after the elevator doors opened.

“Happy New Year.” He smiled back. Not giving herself time to rethink the idea through, y/n ran straight into Steve’s arms and grabbing his face in her hands, kissed him.

It was the kind of kiss that felt as explosive as the fireworks outside. The kind of kiss that warmed them both from the inside, despite it being deep into winter. The kind of kiss that made the world disappear, with no regard to the shouts of drunken people, or the freezing snowflakes falling on their cheeks. A kiss that felt real, because as scary as it was for them both to admit it, was real. Swiping his tongue on y/n’s lips, Steve asked for permission, which y/n happily granted. No thoughts, just the feeling of his lips on hers. Wrapping his arms around y/n’s waist, Steve pulled her in closer. Close enough to feel her body heat and the quickly beating rhythm of her heart. Their tongues fought for dominance until y/n ultimately let Steve win, and gently bit down on his lower lip to jokingly taunt him.

“So what do we do now?” y/n asked him when they pulled back for air.

“First,” Steve bent down and captured her lips in a kiss again, “we kiss. Second,” he peppered small kisses all around her jawline with a few speckled around her neck, “I do this.” He gave her a nervous smile, but was glad to find y/n enjoyed it, “and third,” he went silent, and gave her a confused look “we stop fighting?”

“Stop fighting.” She tilted her head. “Perhaps become friends.”

“I take you out on a date.” Steve nodded. “One that doesn’t result in tears.” y/n shook her head yes. “And we then go from there.”

“We then go from there.” y/n repeated. “Sounds-“

“Weird?” Steve completed her sentence when she hesitated for a bit.

“Weird.” She agreed and let out a breath. “Very weird.”

“Well, I know you must at least find me attractive because you asked me out two and a half years ago.” Steve winked at her.

“Yes, and you rejected me.”

“I was afraid.” The man admitted and brushed his thumb over her lips. Removing his jacket, he wrapped it around y/n. “Afraid of admitting I had feelings for a twenty-something year old.” Steve was being honest that night. He had been so scared to face the truth that he had feelings for y/n, he tried masking it with rudeness. “It’s scary. Scary to say it as a 100-year-old man.”

The sentence made y/n laugh, truly laugh, and Steve poked her in the ribs. “Let’s start fresh then. I’m y/n.” She removed one of her hands from Steve’s neck to shake his. “No more calling me kid though.”

“Steve.” He chuckled and shook his head no. There were other ways to annoy the woman if he'd ever need to. “Same place, same time next year?”

Weaving her hands into his hair, y/n stood on her tippy toes to kiss him. With as much real passion and desire as Steve had hoped for. “Let’s not go that far.”

“No.” He whispered, gently placing his hands on her neck. “For now let’s be here.”

Because this was exactly where Steve wanted to be and he wasn’t about to let the moment go. Wasn’t about to let y/n go, even though it didn’t matter — this was exactly where y/n wanted to be too. Wrapped in the coziness of his jacket, with Steve’s lips on hers.

[tsundanire]

Draco Malfoy and the N.A.S.T.Y. Problem Pt 1

First and foremost let me just go ahead and assure you that this is the most un-beta'd, crack-iest, bullshit you will probably read from me...this month? I can't make any promises about the rest of the year this early. Please note that this is based off an image I will drop at the bottom of this part, and a hilariously cracky conversation from the Drarry Discord Server. I will be posting this in several parts over the next few days on tumblr, and then will likely add the completed/polished version to Ao3 all at once at the end. Without further ado... Draco and his N.A.S.T.Y.'s...

...

...

Having grown up in the upper echelons of Wizarding social classes, Draco Malfoy was an expert in social customs. For birthdays, he made sure to send out hand-calligraphed invitations, and matching thank-you cards following the event. For Holidays and other social gatherings, he made sure to Owl an appropriate host/hostess gift, as well as a hand-penned note thanking them for their gracious invitation—regardless of whether he wanted to be there or not.

Professor McGonagall had once received a note of thanks from a much younger Draco, upon receiving his Hogwarts Letter. It hadn’t helped endear her to him in the end, but at least he could look back—nose haughtily pointed high—and say he had far better manners than the future Headmistress.

So, during his first year, when the time came to formally choose his life-time partner arch-nemesis, no one else besides one Harold Jimothy Potter would do. And so, our valiant Slytherin hero set to work, drafting a N.A.S.T.Y. otherwise known in long-form as: Notification of Adjusting Social Terms of Yokefellows.

The neatly scripted font, written in gold ink, and formalised on stunning—and expensive—black parchment, was sealed with the Malfoy crest, and was sent via owl within days to Potter. It was received during breakfast the following morning, along with a bevy of fan-mail and a rather soggy looking Daily Prophet—which Potter insultingly took more interest in than his N.A.S.T.Y.

Breakfast was almost finished, most of his friends—besides Granger—had already set off for class or whatever the hell it was Gryffindors did in the morning, before Potter finally noticed the artfully folded black parchment bearing his family’s seal. Confusion marred his brow, as he tore through the seal, ripping some of the paper in the process. Draco’s brow twitched angrily, but then again, who could have expected anything else where stupid dumb Potter was concerned.

Draco knew the letter’s contents off by heart, having gone through several variations of the draft in order to get the wording just right.

Harold Jimothy Potter,

Below you will find a N.A.S.T.Y. shifting our social arrangement. It is with this that I do declare us Arch-nemeses. Nemesi? Whatever. You’ll find below the terms and conditions for said arrangement, including the things I expect from our new relationship, as well as what I am open to doing for you. Should you have any questions, concerns, or amendments you wish to re-negotiate, please forward this letter back via owlpost with your notes.

Looking forward to a life-long partnership in mutual hate and distaste,

Draco Lucius Malfoy.

Notification of Adjusting Social Terms of Yokefellows

This notice is to inform you of my interest in becoming: Friends Lovers Enemies Arch-nemeses ✔

As such, I would like our relationship to include:

Video games | Make-outs | Sword Fights ✔

Movies | Sex | Ritualistic Sacrifice ✔

Pets | Cuddling | Elaborate Kidnapping ✔

Bees ✔ | Furry Masks | Demonic summoning ✔

Cheese Plates ✔ | Screaming ✔ | Homoerotic Banter ✔ ✔

Please return via Owlpost with your signature attached if you agree to the terms. If not, please use the space below to indicate your concerns or amendments.

Yours amicably Yours adoringly Your reckoning is coming ✔

X___Draco Lucius Malfoy___ X___________________

Potter’s expression was blank for a moment as he read over the words, but then…it morphed into a masquerade of feelings and emotions, nothing sticking long enough for Draco to be able to decipher them. Seeming to settle on confusion, Potter turned in his seat, narrowing his eyes towards the Slytherin tables, clearly in search of Draco, who waved his hand and offered a thumbs up—in the style of lower class muggle-immaturity the Gryffindors seemed overly fond of.

Those emerald eyes narrowed even further. And then, utter prat that he was, rose from his spot, and left the great hall without looking back. At least, he’d taken Draco’s card with him. Maybe he’d take some time to think about Draco’s offer and get back to him? What could he possibly lose by formalising their intentions?!

...

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[acecorvid]

I’m thinking either dance class or yoga class for Spideyfam or Spideypool...

It's been two years since I've updated the series "This Spideyfam Has Two Dads" so if you wanna start at the beginning: here ya go. This will be part 12 in the series of Spiderfam adventures.

“I’m not as young as I used to be,” Peter moaned, muscles stretching in ways that were going to give him trouble for the next month. Despite his morning stretches—that he performed most mornings, if he remembered, sometimes he remembered—he wasn’t feeling particularly fit anymore. “Aw, that’s why you gotta stretch out, old man!” Of course it was Gwen, the spider that moved like a graceful dancer with ballet slippers to boot, who pointed this out. She didn’t do it maliciously. All of the spiders were trying to help him get back into shape so he didn’t throw out his back at least once a month. Sure it healed but it wasn’t entirely pleasant every time. Hence, yoga classes instructed by some youtuber that Gwen had discovered. She was disappointed that a yoga youtuber from her verse didn’t exist in Miles’ verse (or she wasn’t a yoga teacher on the internet in this one), but she said this one had the most similar vibe that made her feel relaxed and productive. Peter found it to be a mild form of torture...

but the others seemed to enjoy it. Even Noir, still clad in their coat and mask, was happy to participate—and was much more limber than Peter could ever hope to be anymore. Surely it would be easier without the trench coat but Noir never took it off, but no one in the Spiderfamily questioned it. They all had their quirks, their secrets, and they respected everyone else’s. “You know, it’s not really fair to do yoga when one of us defies the laws of physics…” Miles grumbled as he shifted into a much more complicated pose that Peter decided he was going to sit out on. Pan to Peter Porker, body stretched beyond logic. Looking more like a pretzel than a man or a pig. “The problem is your minds are too narrow to understand the right way to break those laws,” Porker replied, moving to the next pose in a way that hurt Peter’s mind and spine to watch. “It’s like he doesn’t have bones…” There was a sort of fascinating horror in Porker’s cartoonish abilities. On one hand, it was amazing and hilarious to see the kinds of things he was capable of. On the other, it was downright mind boggling and disturbing to witness. They’d all accepted the multiverse and their many differences, but coming to terms with cartoon physics existing was a lot harder to accept than this verse saying “you PUNT miette” instead of kick. Peter still had no sweet clue how old Porker was, or if age mattered in the same way for a cartoon pig. Though to be perfectly honest, all of the spiders were toddlers from his perspective. A man closing in on his forties had no business being a superhero when there were other younger spiders (with essentially his powers) able to take over when he could barely manage to do intermediate yoga poses without wanting to detach his stiff and aching limbs. Keeping up with the kids was difficult sometimes but what it really came down to was Peter’s unwillingness to sit back and let a bunch of kids do his job alone. He remembered what it was like: sixteen, completely alone, the fate of a city resting solely on his inexperienced shoulders, juggling secrets and homework and nemeses. He couldn’t retire when he could still do his part to help, to be a support for this unusual family of vigilantes trying to heal from their trauma by making the world better. “You alright, Pops?” Peter blinked out of his reverie to see all the spiders gawking at him as he laid in defeat on his yoga mat. “Just taking a break,” he grunted, forcing his old body to co-operate and focus on completing the next yoga post. Next to him, Gwen didn’t look like she believed him but she didn’t press. They fell into a comfortable silence as they moved through the next round of poses. Peter tried his best not to get distracted but he caught Gwen’s eye after he pulled off a particularly difficult pose for him. There was a fierce proudness in her eyes and it was almost too much for him, seeing how much she cared about him staying active. She easily slipped into the role of surrogate big sister and somehow landed them in the ‘struggling dad needing to rely on the assistance of the eldest kid’ trope. Peter wouldn’t have been happy with this development except her version of taking care of him was similar to the snarky scolding he would get from Aunt May, combined with the soft understanding of a strangely shared trauma. Not to mention it was also their deal. Watch over each other. “Oh hey, family yoga?” Wade’s voice interrupted the yoga lady’s instructions as the door flew open behind them. No one was expecting him back today, but no one could ever really expect Wade. He showed up without any warning, texts, phone calls, but—which he found was lacking in the Deadpool from his old verse—he usually showed back up in one piece and not entirely as bloody as one would imagine for his line of work. He made a big effort not to worry the kids when he could help it and Peter appreciated that. “Dad Number 3!” Miles called out. He attempted to turn his body mid-pose to greet him but ended up falling onto his mat the moment he lost his balance. “Wow, lookin’ good B!” Peter

could feel Wade’s eyes on his ass without even turning around. He flushed immediately but that was mostly from the pose that had positioned him with his ass in the air right before Wade walked in the door. Of all the coincidences… Of course Gwen chose that moment to stand up abruptly and clap her hands. “Okay gang! Let’s pack up the yoga mats and break into teams to patrol the city!” “Gwen, it’s only three o’clock.” Miles looked up at her in confusion. “I know ‘crime never sleeps’ but the city’s probably-” “Oh, Miles,” Peni shook her head, walking over to pat his head. “So young, so naive.” “You’re like twelve, Peni.” “I’m fourteen. Now, let’s go! I wanna kick some early worm bad guy butt!” “That’s the spirit, kiddo!” Gwen high-fived her and ushered the rest of the spiders out the door before Peter or Wade had the chance to comment. “So,” Wade’s smooth voice was suddenly right behind Peter’s ear. His body a warm and solid presence slowly pushing up against him. “Working on your… flexibility, huh old man?” Peter had to admit, there were definitely other benefits to staying active that did not involve superhero responsibilities.

[emberravenwrites]

(Re-)Intro

Hi all! I’ve been pretty inactive for a while thanks to having a hard time at uni, so I thought I’d make a new intro post, especially since there have been a lot of changes since the last one!

I’m Ember, they/them or xe/xyr, and I’m in my early 20s. I’ve been writing on-and-off for years, but until recently it was pretty much exclusively oc-insert fanfiction.

I have five main WIPs, all in varying stages of development, and I’m hoping having somewhere to talk about them will motivate me to work on them more!

Any ask games I reblog are all free game, regardless of how long it’s been since I’ve reblogged them.

Always open to chat, whether that be via asks, through reblogs, or in dms - especially if you want to ask about any of my WIPs, or talk about books, or your own WIPs, or anything else!

Also always accepting book recs, though I can’t guarantee I’ll get round to them quickly.

If you want on (or off) a taglist for any of my wips, please let me know!

Very brief premises & statuses of all 5 WIPs under the cut:

Legacy Series - ‘epic quest’ sort of fantasy adventure, with an original magic system set in an original world. status: book 1, draft 1, chapter 5/12.

Call Series - ‘crime drama’ into ‘cops’ v vigilantes into ‘the gang overthrows the government. completely different original magic system (involving pacts with eldritch beings) and in a different original world based heavily on our own. status: book 1, draft 1, chapter 3/17.

Hidden War Series - secret organisation versus demons from another world. plots, reluctant immortality, reincarnation, another magic system. set in an alternate version of our world. status: book 1, draft 2, prologue.

Ivy Academy Series - magic school on a hidden island. three eras, three sets of main protagonists, three stories of varying lengths and genres. 1 - late 1800s, murder-mystery/horror. 2 - ww2, spy/thriller. 3 - 2010s, slice-of-life/adventure. Status: planning.

Rise of Heroes - not your typical superhero story. set in 2014, an odd group have to come together to stop nemeses they didn’t even know they had from ruining their lives and doing untold damage to the world. Status: (one book) draft 1, chapter 13/20

Fun fact: [Heroes was my Camp Nano (July) project this year! Despite being insanely busy for the first few days of the month, I’ve managed to hit my 50,000 word target!]

Updated: 02/08/22

[sarriathmg]

thoughts on jason as red x? :D

Hi, anon!

I like the fanon of Jason using the alias, though I’m not convinced the second Red X (that was in the 2003 Teen Titans show) has anything to do with Jason. I do, however, like the idea that there are many people who had taken the alias since Dick hung up that uniform, and one of them being Jason.

I think the idea of Red X is closely related to Dick’s psyche and his growth as a person. In the show, the uniform is a testament to Dick’s obsession with catching Slade. It shows what kind of things Dick is willing to do to achieve certain goals, even if he has to lie to his closest friends (Trivia: Dick as Red X is actually my inspiration for dark!Dick. Renegade is basically a more extreme version of Dick when he was X.). X represents Dick’s flaws and in a way, his hanging up of the uniform symbolizes his growing out of those.

With Jason added to the mix - first of all, the timeline doesn’t match if you want to go with Jason as the 2nd Red X. If Dick is Robin, then Jason should still be a pre-teen. And if you are going with a different age AU to make it work, then I’m not a big fan. I absolutely detest same-age Robin AUs and only like reverse Robins on some occasions - I like Dick and Jason with their canon age gap of 5-8 years.

Secondly, the things the second X is known to do, isn’t really how I envisioned things canon Jason would do? X refers to himself as a “petty thief” and seems to have no bigger goals in mind, other than stealing (as opposed to early Red Hood, who has a clear goal in making Gotham safer using lethal ways). Plus, I’m not sure if I like the indication that comes with Jason taking on another one of the aliases Dick has left behind. One that represents the flaws Dick has grown out of, no less.

Now that I’m typing this, though, I realized I am up for an AU where Jason has never been Robin and has become X a sort of “Catlad/Stray“ type foil to Dick’s “Detective“. I think that is very cool, and thanks to various media and anime I’ve watched over the years, this detective/thief trope is something I absolutely adore. And X!Jason as a sort of analogy to Stray sounds like it has a lot of potentials.

Imagine a battle of the wits between them, with Dick making it his goal to catch Jason. Many times, Jason slips out of his grasp, but there are just a few times Dick has the upper hand and can totally bring Jason in, only to realize Jason has been using the money he’s stolen to help kids and lets him go. There might be a few times where Dick works on a case that needs Jason’s skill set, which becomes the catalyst for them to work together. Maybe it’s flirting and nemeses on the field and “friends with benefits” off the field. I’ve watched way too many animes with this trope so the list goes on and on.

I even had a discussion once where Jason hides his bunny ears under the X skull mask. He looks intimidating on the outside but when his helmet is off, it’s these big, cute floppy ears that get an “aww" outta Dick.

In any case, thanks for the ask! The question did get me to flesh out my ideas a little. Maybe one day, I’ll draw or write something with this premise. Who knows?

[adelaidedrubman]

3, 10, 14, 20, 29 and 37 for john and jestiny? <3

thank you so much mika!!! i’m very sorry these took an eternity <3

3. Who’s the one who listens to a music genre the other doesn’t like and how does the other react

both tbh, jessie is not a fan of the eden’s gate choir and john is not that big a fan of dolly. the difference is john just has to deal with it. jessie will tone down some of the cringier country when she settles down into less of a “constant torment” stage with john, at least. she mostly listens to classic country and alt rock, and she’ll occasionally give john a break to play more of the latter.

10. Which one stares at the other’s booty like “damn” and how does the other react when catching them

also probably both, but i’d say john does it a little more often. (jessie is packing a bit more, and wears clothes that show it off more often.) john has a habit of intently staring at her body anytime she’s busy with any kind of physical labor, and her ass is included in the areas of interest.

early phases she’s going to pretend not to notice because she’s really in denial about how much of their conspicuous hyperfocus on each other is blatantly sexual — yes okay sure he’s staring that’s because you have to size up your enemy sometimes, it’s completely platonic, same reason she stares at his hands and chest constantly it’s just a thing nemeses do with each other. when she’s done being willfully obtuse and the mutual tension is openly addressed between them, she’ll probably crack a joke about it or just show it off more.

14. Which one rolls over in the morning to wake up the other one just to give kiss them

john. it is not well received. she’s not a morning person. also if jessie ever does catch a sleeping john, any version of john that is not talking, she would never in a million years do anything to disturb such a miracle.

20. Say they were cuddling on the bed while listening to record player playing the background. Which song is playing?

it must be you by dolly parton

29. Does one have a spot on them where they would melt when the other kisses them there

jessie definitely loves kissing along john’s chest, and his sloth scar in particular, which he not so secretly adores. jessie loves when john kisses her thighs, and, more secretly, also does swoon a bit when he kisses her dimples.

37. Do they get into fights often? If so what do they fight over and how do they make up?

no they’re extremely gentle and kind with each other, and as we all know jessie is a fundamentally non confrontational person so —

just kidding obviously she’s a bitch and so is he. they fight every day, and there are very rarely genuine apologies or even a clear endpoint of “okay well we’re not fighting anymore,” they honestly make up by just... continuing to very stubbornly exist in each other’s space until something else happens and they get distracted. usually sex, although they often continue to argue during that, too.

[johnnys-green-pen]

Random E! Thoughts: S4E16 - Smoke Eater

There’s a LOT of Station 10′s in LA County apparently, heh. Though I guess they may just have reassigned some numbers since Johnny was at 10′s in the pilot movie… would explain why the flashback version of the pilot movie claims Johnny was at 8′s despite the helmet numbers clearly showing it was 10s a couple moments later. 

Replacement Cap seems pretty chill in everything except safety stuff and paramedics. He sure has a way of handling Chet in a very “nice try, not gonna work” sort of way, anyway…

So first of all, Johnny’s on the defensive since the first inkling that Replacement Cap may be an antiquated jackass. Seems like a reasonable reaction, but it’s also quite a change compared to his initial amicable demeanor. Especially since Roy’s still basically going “eh *shrugs*” at this point. Kinda gives the impression of authority figures being on thin ice in general as far as Johnny’s concerned, which tracks with his usual distrust-bordering-on-fear. 

Chet running up to Replacement Cap to go off about his ~human fly shoes~. First of all, nice bit of continuity (they’re from S3E22 “Inventions”) - but also, going by the way he really does run up to him and his apt choice of topic, he absolutely heard what Replacement Cap said and was trying to keep the thing from escalating. 

I absolutely love that Replacement Cap tells Chet to “get outta here” - and Chet looks over to Johnny, to check if that’s alright with him, and doesn’t budge until Johnny motions at him to leave. It’s just such an endearingly protective little gesture. 

Johnny’s whole speech about how giving people a chance is a two-way street, and the way he just 

That heart attack rescue is harrowing - losing people’s bad enough, but losing them while you’re being observed by someone who *really* doesn’t trust you to do your job? Especially when you’re used to someone in that position who unquestioningly has your back? oof.

Those long, long seconds at Rampart where there’s neither soundtrack nor dialogue, just utterly sinister silence.  

Johnny, disheveled and devastated

This episode is so damn hard to watch in parts. It’s so good, but so hard to watch.

Johnny, who sits down at the table with zero intention to eat, and Roy who doesn’t even bother.

Chet trying to cheer Johnny up, and Johnny just giving him that long, blank look before deciding that Chet deserves a reaction, but also the way the smile just drops off his face again.

Replacement Cap ruining Chet’s efforts instantly.

Roy looking at Johnny looking at Replacement Cap and seemingly just quietly going “uh oh”

Johnny, temporarily shocked into silence as Replacement Cap doubles down on his shitty opinions

Roy, who won’t stand for this either

Chet, who’s definitely not okay with any of this

Johnny just looks so numb throughout this whole thing

Joe Early sneakily hip-bumping the fruit vending machine like Dix did earlier is the funniest thing. 

To Replacement Cap’s credit, he’s willing to listen and learn as soon as he sees some proof that the whole program might actually be good for something.

Dix being severely unimpressed by the big scary biker

Brackett being equally unimpressed

Johnny being on high alert the second he sees Replacement Cap looking at the Squad’s compartments.

Johnny seems so goddamn relieved that Replacement Cap’s suddenly eager and willing to learn, and I love how he just gets right into explaining, because this, he understands. 

I think it’s pretty interesting how Johnny goes right back to something closer to S1 behaviour with this captain. Quieter, more intense, zero shenanigans. 

Also, Chet who’s really trying to suck up to Replacement Cap, but who also absolutely refuses to throw Johnny or Roy under the bus. The way he keeps trying to jump in and spare Johnny’s feelings is just so hilariously sweet - and the way Johnny seems to acknowledge it, too. Yup, A+ nemeses, there. Gotta love those dorks. 

[alpacaparkaseok]

Where you should be

Chapter 3: Nemesism

Genre: Hobi x oc

Warnings: this series contains stalking, blackmail, and similar stressful/fear inducing situations. Also unrequited love, which is perhaps the most terrifying of all.

Word Count: 3.8k

Guys! Last chapter was a bit of a downer lol. I wish I could say that all of this gets resolved quickly and easily, but that’s no fun. So enjoy!

Nemesism (n.) frustration or anger directed against oneself

The next morning I hardly see Hobi. He eats early, making me a smoothie and leaving it on the counter with my name.

Well, with a sticky note that says ‘Sunny’.

I can hear his music blasting from his room where he’s getting ready, it’s loud enough that he doesn't hear my loud breathing as I close my eyes and try to focus on just getting through this morning.

When it’s time for us to leave Hobi walks out into the living room to find me standing awkwardly before the window, staring out of it like I just might flee the scene before he can see me.

“Do-yun sent a car for you, it should be outside.”

They’re the first words he says to me all morning, and they have me turning around from where I stand before the window, the meaning behind his words enough to rake through my already shredded heart.

“Hobi-”

Just as I begin to speak he turns away, starting to walk from the room. A heartbeat later finds me striding toward him, throwing caution to the wind.

“Jung Hoseok, don’t you dare do this to me. Don’t you dare,” I jump in front of him, putting a stop to his escape. He keeps his eyes trained on the hallway beyond. “You’re going to start being all weird and distant, and I can’t...I can’t-”

My voice breaks a little until I’m suddenly drowning in tears. I’m just as shocked as Hobi is, and I bring my hands up to my face, trying to stop the flow.

“I- Ha-rin, I didn’t mean to-”

My face is burning with embarrassment as I realize that I have no right to be bawling like a baby in front of the man that just confessed his love to me last night. He has every right to be distant and angry, yet here I am sobbing before him.

But I want him.

I want him so bad. And he’s standing less than a foot away, that sad expression swimming in his eyes as he brings me into his arms, his cheek resting atop my head.

Don’t ever let me go.

“We’re a mess, aren’t we?” Hobi mumbles.

I laugh through the tears, melting into his embrace as Hobi laughs along. How can we still be laughing even after we’ve put our hearts through so much pain?

Standing there with my face pressed up against his shoulder, crying and laughing at the same time, the realization of my feelings for him hit me hard and fast. Sure, the foundation has been laid for a while now, but standing here with my heart in pieces and completely unable to pick up Hoseok’s shattered heart, I know what I feel.

There’s a difference between wanting someone and loving someone.

If I just wanted Hoseok, I would have bailed out on any sort of integrity I have left and told him right then and there that I was an idiot. That I couldn’t stand not being around him. That I want to be his, and I want him to be mine.

Yet, I love him.

Which is exactly what has me extracting myself from his arms, apologizing, and heading straight out the door.

I only allow myself to look back once as I close the door, clutching my things in my arms. There he stands, still facing the hallway. Clinging to his sweatshirt in his fists as though it’s the only thing keeping him on the earth.

Sitting in the back of the black SUV, I wonder how I can feel such different emotions at once. There’s peace knowing I did what I had to do.

And there’s loneliness, cursing my name for throwing away what was sure to be a cure.

♟

June 2019

“That sounds great,” I say into the mic. “Come out here and listen to it, then we’ll go from there.”

Soobin, Hueningkai, and Beomgyu exit the recording booth and head into the studio. They crowd around me, leaning in to listen to the latest version of the song.

We’ve been in here for about an hour now, going over a rough version of a new song for them. It’s been nice to have them around, I’m usually pretty alone in my studio. Other than the occasional visit from Dohyeong or Pdogg, I tend to have my space.

Space is...good.

We’ve just started listening to the recording when there’s a knock on my door. Swiveling around in my chair, I grin as I see who the visitor is.

“Well well,” I muse. “Look who decided to drop in.”

Dohyeong smiles back at me, saying hello to the other boys. “How’s it going?”

I shrug. “Good. We’re just working on some stuff. What’s up?”

“I was actually coming to steal you away for a bit. I need a second opinion on something. Unless you’re busy…?”

Glancing at the other boys, they wave me away. “Will it take long?”

“No, not too long.”

Getting up from my seat, I laugh as Hueningkai immediately takes the vacant seat. “Take your time,” he croons, enjoying the seat of power. The other two boys instantly start bickering over the chair, making me roll my eyes endearingly at them.

“I’ll be back soon. Don’t delete anything.”

I follow Dohyeong out the door, taking the stairs as we head up to the next floor where his studio is.

“So how’s it been going?”

Dohyeong is one of the only people I ever really see around the Bighit building these days. Other than TXT and a handful of other producers, it’s a ghost town on my floor of the building.

I guess I never noticed how little traffic there was on my floor before. I always had one visitor popping in.

Ever since February, Hoseok has been scarce. While he didn’t seem to be angry anymore, he certainly hasn’t gone out of his way to seek me out. I can’t say I blame him.

It’s made it a little easier, I think. Not seeing him everywhere I go has allowed me to buckle down and get to work without feeling sorry for myself.

“It’s been good. Pretty steady. What are you working on that you wanted me to look at?”

We’re just entering his studio as I finish my question, and I nearly fall flat on my face as we walk through the door.

It would appear that Dohyeong was not working alone. In fact, the entire rapline is here with Pdogg.

Namjoon paces back and forth on one side of the room, hardly even noticing my presence when I walk through the door. Yoongi sits in a chair beside Pdogg, chatting with him about the track.

Hoseok sits on the sofa in the back of the room, his elbows on his knees as he stares forward, lost in thought.

His hair is black now, so different from those honey-brown highlights I swooned over a few months ago. Now he looks much sharper, like a force to be reckoned with.

He looks dangerous.

“Really Dohyeong?” I try to keep my tone light as everyone in the room turns to look at me. “Second opinion?”

Dohyeong shrugs, moving to sit before his computer. “If I told you I needed your opinion, you would’ve told me to ask Pdogg or something.”

Pdogg chuckles, nodding along knowingly. “Nice to see you, Sunny. You never come around anymore. Too cool for us now?”

It takes every fiber of my being for me to not look at Hoseok.

“Just been busy,” I mumble, coming to stand beside Dohyeong’s chair. “How’ve you been?”

Pdogg shrugs. “Same old same old.”

Namjoon strides forward, never one to get bogged down with awkward small talk. Not when there’s work to be done. “Hey, Sunny. Would you mind listening to this for us? I think we’ve all been listening to it for so long that we can’t get a fresh perspective on it.”

I nod, settling down into the chair beside Dohyeong and slipping a pair of headphones on. “Anything I need to know going into it?”

Yoongi chuckles from behind me, causing me to turn about in my chair. In the process, I can’t help but peek over at Hoseok.

He’s looking right at me already, every bit of his attention honed in on me. My eyes graze his, and the momentary eye contact leaves me sparking with electricity.

“Well, Hoseok wrote most of this, so it’s his fault if it sucks.” Yoongi smirks at his friend, earning himself a glare in return.

I force myself to laugh along with everyone else, wincing internally as Hoseok leans back against the sofa and crosses his ankle over his knee.

Has he somehow become better looking over the past few months?

“Good to know,” I mumble, turning back to the screen. Dohyeong nods at me, starting the track.

From the corner of my eye I can see that everyone else has gone back to pacing or chatting, so I take the time to lean back against my chair and close my eyes, really taking it in.

I can definitely tell that Hoseok inspired a lot of this track, it sounds like him. RM starts it off, his voice gruff as he delivers the lyrics, painting a picture in the way that only he can.

Suga joins in on the chorus, and I frown. His voice is nearly drowned out from the heavy drums in the background. I make a mental note to tell them as much.

It’s not until the bridge that J-hope makes an appearance.

My heart begins to pound in my chest, and my eyes fly open as I stare at the monitor. I watch the small numbers counting down until the end of the song, begging them to pick up the pace. Hoseok’s voice lodges itself into my mind, and for a moment the words end it before it can begin are replaced by the phrase he keeps spitting out again and again.

You moved on before I could move you.

You moved on before I could move you.

You moved on before I had a chance to move-

My knee hits the bottom of the desk as I rip the headphones off my head, tossing them onto the desk before launching out of my chair. Everyone freezes where they sit, looking at me with various levels of confusion.

Hoseok is the only one in the entire room that has yet to react to my sudden actions. He keeps his eyes down, picking at something on his sleeve. His chest doesn’t move as he refuses to breathe.

“Drums are too loud in the chorus, Yoongi.” I bite out the words, ripping my attention away from Hoseok. “They’re drowning out your voice.”

Yoongi nods slowly, his mouth hanging open as he stares at me. “Ok.”

Namjoon steps forward, hands outstretched as though trying to grasp the situation. “You didn’t even finish the song, though. Isn’t there anything else?”

I’ve already taken several steps toward the door, Hoseok’s voice ringing through my mind unceasingly. Turning to shake my head at Namjoon, I feel as though somebody set me on fire. “No. Sounds great. Sorry,” I lie, I really couldn’t care less. I have to get out of here. “I’ve got to go check on the boys.”

The door gives way and I’m out into the hallway, striding toward the elevator like my life depends on it. I decide against it once I get there, heading into the stairwell beside the elevator and making it down a total of five steps before I collapse and sit with my head between my legs.

You moved on before I could move you.

The walls are caving in on me as I sit in the stairwell, and I close my eyes tight against them. Eventually it becomes too much to handle, and I find myself launching up and climbing up the stairs.

I’m not completely sure how tall the Bighit building is, but it’s definitely tall enough that I’m a panting, sweaty mess by the time I clear the final floor. Staring at the door, I push through it and find myself in an empty hallway.

The sound of music coming from what I assume are training rooms at the end of the hallway meet my ears, and as though in a trance I gravitate toward the sound.

The music gets louder and louder as I approach the room. The door is closed, so whoever is inside must be blasting it. Leaning up against the wall just outside the room, I close my eyes for just a moment.

The bass vibrates through the floor, accompanied by the persistent music that seems to know just how horrible I’m feeling inside.

For the first time in my life, I understand why people say that there’s only a thin line between love and hate.

Standing here with my back pressed against the wall, I feel so much hate. It’s overwhelming, overtaking my senses as I clench my fingers into fists. If my eyes were open, I’m sure I would be seeing red.

Instead, I’m picturing my contract in my mind. The music swells as I picture signing that contract over and over again, laughing at the thought of ever getting to know any idols past a purely professional level.

There’s so much anger in me as I think over the past few months, remembering all those hours spent alone in the studio. Staring at my monitor, the same scene from Hoseok’s apartment playing over and over again in my mind as I try to pretend like nothing happened. The way I held my breath every time I heard footsteps coming down my hallway, some pathetic piece of my praying that it would be Hobi, coming with a bag of food and a sheepish smile, telling me that being friends was enough for him.

I should know better by now; I live in a world where Hoseok is a stranger to me now and I’m back to taking the bus.

Still, in those slower hours in the studio I find myself wondering what it would be like if I could tell him that I do love him. I love him still, four months later. That all of this was some horrible rule I had to follow in order to save us both.

But even in this world how could I look him in the eyes that once gazed at me so softly and tell him that he’ll move on? That he’ll find someone that is free to love him?

Hate is an addicting feeling, I realize. Hate is so much safer than love. Love requires you to make the right decision, even if it means you’ll come out lacking.

The music stopped.

My eyes open to find myself almost in another world. The hallway hasn’t changed at all, but the absence of the booming music almost makes it easier to breathe. Suddenly I’m no longer drowning in my feelings, but rather observing them.

The sound of someone nearly hyperventilating has me pushing off the wall, rushing over to the closed training room and throwing it open before another thought can cross my mind.

Even though the door flying open should have alerted the occupant to my presence, they don’t notice me as I stand in the doorway.

Hoseok sits with his back against the far wall, his knees pulled up to his chest as he runs his hands through his hair and over his face. He’s still wearing the same clothes as he was less than fifteen minutes ago in the studio downstairs, but it’s clear he was just working out in them. Most likely dancing, if I’m going to make a guess.

How did he get up here so fast?

Frozen in the doorway, I go over my options. They’re quite simple, seeing as there’s really only two.

First, turn and leave. Run away before he sees me. It’s tempting, especially because it already looks like I’m invading his privacy.

And second.... “The song wasn’t that bad.”

Hoseok’s head shoots up so fast that I’m afraid he hit it against the wall. His eyes are wide and he looks quite frankly exhausted. I wince at the look he gives me.

“What...” his voice is raw and I wonder how it got like that. He shakes his head, looking down at the floor.

I take one step forward, then one step back. Hoseok’s eyes shutter as he watches my uncertainty, but he makes no move to say anything else.

So tired.

He looks so drained. Like someone took a giant spoon and ladled out all of his leftover emotions, leaving him a drained well that is just waiting for another rain.

Suddenly the thought of me hiding in my studio and replaying this entire awkward experience in my head seems more horrible to me than talking to Hoseok, so I take another step inside the room. His eyes never leave the floor.

“Is everything...” I shake my head, trying to gain some courage. Did my heart always beat this hard around him before? “Is everything alright?”

Hoseok chews on the inside of his cheek as he ponders my stupid question. Then, almost as if changing clothes, his expression changes. Brightens, almost.

I can still see the dark storm clouds hovering over his head, though. No matter how brightly he smiles at me now, those rain clouds aren’t far behind.

“Fine.” He brushes his hair away from his face, reverting back to the meticulous Hoseok I know. “Did you see...?”

I frantically shake my head, earning a look of profound relief on Hoseok’s part. “No! No, I was just-” I pause, not entirely sure of what to say. Running from my undying love for you and the hate of what we’ve become doesn’t seem very appropriate.

Hoseok raises his brows, rising to his feet but remaining on the opposite side of the room. “Just what?”

“Just...going for a walk.”

“A walk?”

“Yep.”

I cringe as Hoseok takes a long look at me before turning away and heading toward the speaker system in the corner. “Do you have a tendency to take walks to the top floor?”

Is that worry I’m sensing? I realize with a start that perhaps Hoseok spends a lot of time up here, and I think that the lack of visitors on this floor might have something to do with that.

“...no.” Watching Hoseok’s back, which remains visibly tense, I take a step backward. “I should probably get going.”

He nods once. “Ok.”

“I…” Why can’t I form a proper sentence around this man? “Sorry. Bye.” Turning on my heel, I stride out of the room as quickly as possible, keeping my eyes ahead of me as my heart nearly pounds out of my chest. Throwing the door to the stairwell open, I don’t stop moving until I’ve returned to my studio.

Beomgyu jumps out of my chair when he sees me come in, his smug victory smile wiped off his face.

“Is everything alright?”

Well isn’t that the question of the day. “Yep. Did you guys listen to the track?”

Soobin steps up. “Yeah, it sounds great. We were just going to pass it along-”

“Perfect. I’ll export it to your project manager right now.”

In my peripheral I can see the three boys exchanging glances, but I pay them no mind. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be mortified and apologize, but right now I would really like for them to leave.

They shuffle out, mumbling their farewells. Hueningkai turns around at the last moment. “Do you want me to leave the door open or close it?”

Swiveling in my chair, wave him off. “Closed, please.” He does just as I ask, and suddenly I’m alone in the studio listening to their retreating footsteps.

Closing my eyes, I gather the strength to get up and lock the door. Something tells me that I won’t want to be interrupted for a while.

I’ve just risen from my chair when an envelope slides under my door, making my breath catch in my throat. Hurried footsteps rush down the hallway, but I don’t bother to open the door to see who it is.

Picking up the envelope from off the floor, I frown when it isn’t labeled. It’s simply a white, blank envelope. Ripping it open, I unfold a piece of notebook paper.

I know who you are, but do you know who I am?

Bighit can’t save you now, Jung Ha-rin.

Instantly my heart rate kicks up as I read those words over and over again. Rushing to my door, I pull it open to see who left this horrible note only to find the hallway empty. Standing there in the middle of the corridor, I fight the urge to rip the note to shreds and cry in a corner.

The sound of me barging back into my studio and slamming the door shut reverberates throughout the entire floor, but the sound of my heart pounding drowns out the noise. I hold the note back up to my eyes, practically panting as I read it again.

“What is happening?” I whisper.

♟

When I leave later that night, I still have no idea what’s going on. I leave earlier than usual, although it’s still dark. Mentally cursing myself, I decide to just hope for the best. With my luck today, I’ll be kidnapped or something before I can even make it to my apartment. 

I sent a picture of the note to Bang PD along with a short explanation of what happened. He told me that he would review the security cameras to get a look at who it was that delivered the message, but advised me to catch a ride with someone rather than taking the bus.

So naturally I’m taking the bus.

Sulking at the bus stop while keep my eyes and ears open for any suspicious activity, I can’t help but laugh a little.

Today sucked.

Just as the bus pulls up, I feel my phone vibrate. Scrambling onto the bus and sitting in the first available seat, I pull my phone out and nearly choke when I see what message I just received.

I can’t help the sound that comes out of me upon seeing his message - it’s a mixture of a groan and a sharp intake of breath, resulting in a coughing fit. The people closest to me glare and scoot farther away but I don’t care.

Staring down at his message, I have to breathe slowly and deeply in order to stop myself. As much as all of this is a dream...the note I carry in my pocket reminds me of all that’s at stake here.

Bang PD’s words accompany the note, repeating themselves over and over again in my mind as I punch out a reply. 

End it before it can begin. 

Shoving my phone back into my pocket before I give into temptation, I jump off the bus as my apartment complex comes into view. Keeping my head down, I hurry up to my apartment. 

As soon as I enter the apartment I’m rushing to my room, grabbing a box from under my bed and rummaging through it until I find what I’m searching for. 

“There you are.” Holding up a staff photo from when I first started at Source entertainment, my eyes zone in on one of the male staff members on the far end. 

Now just add a hood, a bit of scruff, and crazy eyes. What is my old co-worker doing hanging around my apartment complex? And if my hunch is correct, what was he doing in the Bighit building today?

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[aion-rsa]

How Shang-Chi Could Make Up for Doctor Strange’s Ancient One Whitewash

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is clearly being positioned as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next premiere tent-pole, as a walk through the action-figure-teeming toy aisles of mass retail stores now proves. Notwithstanding what that means for the next immediate MCU movie event, the July premium streaming premiere of Black Widow, the fact that Marvel and its Disney-powered marketing machine is supporting Shang-Chi to this extent is a sign of the film’s importance to the overall MCU. It’s a notion that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige affirms with a key contrition about a pertinent past controversy.

September’s Shang-Chi premiere will unleash the MCU’s adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Master of Kung-Fu, a title once considered a relic of 1970s pop culture’s post-Bruce-Lee martial arts craze, but has since been revived in the modern era. The film will be the first MCU offering to showcase a predominantly Asian cast; an attribute that accurately complements its plot pertaining to the film’s titular Chinese crime syndicate, the Ten Rings, which has been lurking in the MCU’s shadows since the very beginning in 2008’s Iron Man. However, Feige explains to Men’s Health how said Asian cast also represents a major course correction for the MCU regarding the maligned casting of chameleonic white actress Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in 2016’s Doctor Strange, which whitewashed a character who’s traditionally an elderly Asian man.

“It’s about having a foot in both worlds,” explains Feige of Shang-Chi’s more authentic Asian approach. “In the North American world and in China. And Simu [star Simu Liu] fits that quite well.” As a result, Marvel’s approach to Shang-Chi is a major divergence from its early reaction to 2016’s Ancient One controversy, which widely cemented the term, “whitewashing,” in the pop culture parlance. At that time, figures such as Feige, director Scott Derrickson and Swinton herself initially stuck to their guns, believing that a comic-purist depiction of the character would have proliferated a stereotypical, Fu Manchu-esque elderly Asian wise man. While Benedict Wong’s more character-driven, empowered reinvention of Strange’s manservant, Wong, was seen as a positive gain in that particular endeavor, the Ancient One still rubbed many the wrong way.

“We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge,” concedes Feige on Doctor Strange’s Ancient One controversy. “We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.” Thusly, Shang-Chi is set to become a cavalcade of Asian actors, featuring names such as Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng, Awkwafina, Fala Chen, and, most notably, star Simu Liu, who makes a major transition from his recently-ended days on sitcom Kim’s Convenience.

Marvel Studios

Interestingly, the initial assessment of Feige and Derrickson (who eventually made his own mea culpa on the move shortly after the film’s release,) was not entirely inaccurate, since the Ancient One—created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Larry Lieber for 1961’s Amazing Adventures #1—was a product of less-enlightened times, and bore all of those stereotypical attributes. The 500+ year-old elder character (whose real name is Yao,) was introduced as an unnamed Lama in a Tibet-set story, and was later revived in 1963’s Strange Tales #110 (Doctor Strange’s first appearance,) as “The Master,” subsequently retconned as the Ancient One. However, Marvel’s contemporaneously self-congratulatory “cutting-edge” approach was a compromise that pleased no one on either side of the proverbial table. Ironically, their attempt to avoid depicting a perceived negative stereotype became the temerarious erasure of an intrinsically-Asian character off a prominent platform from which the seemingly slighted demographic of Asian actors could have benefited.

However, business-minded motivations may have also led Marvel to misplace its priorities, since elements from Doctor Strange‘s story were notably altered to make the movie more amenable to the growing market for Western films in China, namely in its omission of the location of Tibet, in which the Ancient One’s mystical city of Kamar-Taj is traditionally located. Indeed, the prospective presence of an authentic-looking elderly monk from the uprising-embattled occupied region would have been seen as politically problematic to the Beijing government, which would have affected the film’s bottom line. It’s the kind of perilous tightrope that will be walked upon with Shang-Chi, whose unassuming protagonist, a young American-assimilated Chinese man, uses his phenomenal fighting skills to face a dark past connected to the Ten Rings crime syndicate, of which his fixated father figure, the sinister Wenwu (Tony Leung), happens to be the leader and goes by a nom de guerre more familiar to Marvel Comics fans, The Mandarin; a character who carries his own controversy.

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Movies

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Deals With The Mandarin’s Difficult History

By Gene Ching

Movies

Is Shang-Chi Villain Death Dealer Hiding a Secret?

By Joseph Baxter

Like the Ancient One, Mandarin—traditionally depicted as a pointy-mustachioed, elaborately-dressed Asian manipulator in the pages of Marvel Comics—has long been seen as a stereotypically problematic character; a notion that complicated the expectations of the MCU’s Iron Man movies, seeing as he’s been one of Tony Stark’s most iconic nemeses ever since a villainous introduction in 1964’s Tales of Suspense #50. Consequently, the buildup to 2013’s Iron Man 3 was hyped by the casting of Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, a non-Asian (half-Indian, half-white) actor, whose version of Mandarin seemed to be reinvented as a video-threat-issuing terrorist leader of the Ten Rings; an organization whose attack was the catalyst for Stark’s armor-building origin story in the first film.

However, said controversy experienced a monumental metamorphosis upon the release of the film, in which it was revealed that Kingsley’s character was a stand-in, named Trevor Slattery, a drunken out-of-work actor who was being used as a threatening strawman to distract the public from the actual villain mastermind, Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian. Yet, Kingsley reprised the role in 2014 follow-up short, All Hail the King, in which the incarcerated actor’s fate is left up in the air after he is kidnapped by an agent of the real Mandarin, who was upset by Slattery’s impersonation. The act seemed to be symbolic of Marvel’s planned course correction for Shang-Chi–by way of 2016’s Ancient One whitewashing hiccup—with Leung’s authentically Asian portrayal of that long-awaited villain… who may or may not have inflicted a slow, painful death to the clueless actor.     

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings hits theaters on September 3, 2021. Additionally, sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness—which could, akin to Avengers: Endgame, yield a secret Ancient One cameo—arrives on March 25, 2022.

The post How Shang-Chi Could Make Up for Doctor Strange’s Ancient One Whitewash appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[bi-makes-pie]

"I'm her best enemy" Playlist [ PART ONE - Songs 1 to 30]

Click READ MORE to see the whole list

1. Nemeses (feat. John Roderick) – Jonathan Coulton I mostly see this as being in the Master’s POV.

“Could it be that you need me To keep you out, to run you faster Promise me you'll let me be The one, the worst of all your enemies”

2. Crazy – Burn the Ballroom 12 to Missy. This one is quite cute. He does calls her mad, but we all know the Doctor isn’t exactly the perfect picture of sanity either.

“She had problems with my love connections So she bought me bullets and she made corrections (…) I'd say crazy, doll, but you've got something different I'd say complicated but that's your kind of rhythm I'd say lost and you'd say love

But you're crazy not to see That you're crazy just like me...”

3. Silence – Citizen Shade This kinda makes me picture the Doctor trying to give in and settle down with the Master (any version) while dealing with the inner conflict that they’re far too cruel for their taste.

“I found peace in your violence Can't tell me there's no point in trying I'm at one, and I've been silent for too long”

4. Dangerous Man - Little Dume This alternates between the Doctor’s POV and the Master’s. But you can also interpret it as being 100% about any version of the Doctor, since they do have a dark side.

“Every bone in my body's bad Fire's burning, the skies are turning black They say I'm a dangerous man” “Can you hear the storm's a coming I'm a silver in the lining There's a spark in me They say I'm a dangerous man Better run fast as you can Don't you look back”

5. Under Covers – LeRiche A bittersweet song about two people who had this precious friendship and love for each other, and about how distance can keep it all bottled up but once they give it a chance, they immediately go right back to the start. Just fits them very well, if you picture a happy ending to their relationship.

“I don't know why you're looking for a friend I'm right by your side But out here from a distance You won't look me in the eyes Without your love, I think I could die Then you let me in, we go back to beginnings When we were just friends hanging out on the ceiling We'll laugh about love and how we felt for one another And I love the way we make up under covers”

6. The Scientist – Coldplay A song about longing to make things right again and with little analogies involving science? I mean…

“Nobody said it was easy It's such a shame for us to part Nobody said it was easy No one ever said it would be this hard Oh, take me back to the start”

7. Renegades – X Ambassadors The “They actually stole a TARDIS and ran away together from Gallirey” AU we need so much

“Run away with me Lost souls and reverie Running wild and running free Two kids, you and me And I say Hey, hey hey hey Living like we're renegades”

8. Love is War – American Young I like how cute this song is and yet there is a bit of a dark twist. Fits them.

“Sometimes love is all that can save us Sometimes love can kill a man Yeah sometimes love is a soft touch Or a pistol in your hand Sometimes love is a white flag (...) Sometimes a cannon ball But it's worth fighting for Baby, sometimes love is war”

9. Bury a friend – Billie Eilish (Cover by Pomplamoose) Master’s POV. Can apply to any of their regenerations but I think of Simm!Master the most, since Ten tends to run towards him rather than walk away from him.

“What do you want from me? Why don't you run from me? What are you wondering? What do you know? Why aren't you scared of me? Why do you care for me? When we all fall asleep, where do we go?”

10. Come as you are – Nirvana (Cover by Imaginary Future) Best Enemies, everyone. Master’s POV again.

“Come as you are, as you were As I want you to be As a friend, as a friend As an old enemy (…) And I swear that I don't have a gun No, I don't have a gun”

11. Turn – The Wombats Academy!Era, Doctor’s POV. Theta (Doctor) clearly has a crush on Koschei (Master) and they’re both love being chaotic together. 

“I like the way your brain works, I like the way you try To run with the wolf pack when your legs are tired I like the way you turn me inside and out I like the way you turn I like the way your brain works Baby, it's the crazy I like I think I saw the world turn in your eyes”

12. Run – Snow Patrol Master’s POV if he was ever able to be honest about his feelings. Some parts can easily be read as the Doctor’s POV too.

“You've been the only thing that's right In all I've done And I can barely look at you But every single time I do I know we'll make it anywhere Away from here”

13. Maps - The Front Bottoms The Doctor’s POV as their relationship deteriorates after the Academy and he plans to steal the TARDIS and leave Gallifrey and his friend behind. I had to help myself from quoting the whole song because IT REALLY FITS SO WELL.

“There is a map in my room, on the wall of my room And I've got big, big plans (…) You say 'I hate you', you mean it And 'I love you' sounds fake It's taken me so long to figure that out I used to love the taste, I would do anything for it Now I would do anything to get the taste out of my mouth (…) "And what about your friends, Don't you love them enough to stay?" And I say, "If I don't leave now, Then I will never get away." Let me be a blue raft on the blue sea, I'll blend right in”

14. Old College – The Mountain Goats This fits the tiresome, sad, manipulative and draining part of their relationship.

“The warning signs have all been bright and garish Far too great in number to ignore (…) Our love has never had a leg to stand on From the aspirins to the cross-tops to the Elavils 

But I will walk down to the end with you If you will come all the way down with me”

15. Like a Staring Contest – The Future Kings of Nowhere Covers the end of their friendship and start of the new enemies dynamic. 

“I'm so tired of open warfare When the point of this was to be best of friends (…) When you fall in love as hard And recklessly as you and I do It seems that the final act should have The same intensity as the first scene”

16. Poison and Wine – The Civil Wars Reminds me of 12 and Missy but before Series 10. 

“You only know what I want you to I know everything you don't want me to Oh your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine You think your dreams are the same as mine Oh I don't love you but I always will” 

17. Genesis 30:3 – The Mountain Goats The mentions of a past relationship and the following lines followed by drums really make me picture this as Simm!Master and Ten getting a happy but bittersweet ending.

“For several hours we lay there, last ones of our kind Harder days coming, maybe I don't mind Sounds kind of dumb when I say it, but it's true I would do anything for you”

 18. Blood Under The Bridge – Frightened Rabbit Could literally be any version, but I picture Dhawan!Master and 13 making amends here, mostly because he might be crazy and frenetic but behind that façade he’s clearly way more tired than she ever will be.

“And it's alright, it's alright It's just blood under the bridge And I'm too tired to fight And you're sick of feeling sick And so am I It's alright It's just blood under the bridge”

19. Even Though Our Love is Doomed – Garbage  Missy’s POV. You can interpret this like her train of thoughts and reflections starting from early Vault days to the last time we see her on-screen. Reluctance, guilt and then the resolution.

“Come a little bit closer I need to understand Why we kill the things we love the most (…) Can you love me for what I've become Love me for what I Said that I would not become 'Cause they don't burn like I do (…) And even though our love is doomed And even though we're all messed up You're the only thing worth fighting for” You're the only thing worth dying for” 

20. Starlight – Muse 12 and Missy during the episodes World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls.

“Now I'll never let you go If you promised not to fade away Never fade away Our hopes and expectations Black holes and revelations” 

21. Control – Halsey This screams Missy to me, especially since she literally incorporates the character of the evil nanny in her book (The Missy Chronicles) and in Big Finish’s audio dramas.

“I'm bigger than my body I'm colder than this home I'm meaner than my demons I'm bigger than these bones

And all the kids cried out, "Please stop, you're scaring me" I can't help this awful energy God damn right, you should be scared of me Who is in control?”

 22. Enemy – Woodlock End of Academy!Era. Yet another song which reminds me about their early fighting days and the end of their friendship.

This is where it begins At the start of an end I could no longer pretend No more, you walked out the door You’re my enemy

23. Why Can't We Be Friends? – The Academic The title says it all. The lyrics also mention how the relationship is always turning into something new, so I had to associate with the longest friends to lovers to enemies we’ve ever seen on television.

“This world is pointless If you're not here This world is pointless If we're not self-destructing love And it falls and it breaks and it turns into something new And it falls and it breaks and it turns into something” 

24. Wish That You Were Here – Florence + The Machine Doctor’s POV, in the days when he regrets leaving Gallifrey for a couple of seconds before turning to occupy his with something else. Because he knows that even if he went back, things aren’t the same and everyone has changed – including him.

“And I never minded being on my own Then something broke in me and I wanted to go home To be where you are But even closer to you, you seem so very far

And it's beautiful but there's that tug in the sight I must stop time traveling, you're always on my mind”

 25. No Light, No Light – Florence + The Machine This one makes me picture the first moment the Doctor realized his friend had changed too much and had to choose between his own feelings and standing for what’s right. This happens A LOT in the show, but I imagine realizing that for the first time was the hardest.

“But would you leave me If I told you what I've done And would you leave me If I told you what I've become No light, no light in your bright blue eyes I never knew daylight could be so violent A revelation in the light of day”

26. Dancing with the Devil – Wolf Gang This alternates between the Master’s POV and the Doctor’s POV. 

“If you're the chosen one How does it feel to be loved by no one? If you're the number one Where do you run to? Can you hide behind the sun? You say that there's no oxygen again You're forcing down the lies but you always get your way Something tells me that this was all arranged You tricked me once again” 

27. Skeleton Park – Kasador Master’s POV. “You know, back in the day, I'd burn an entire city to the ground just to see the pretty shapes the smoke made” (Missy, in The Lie of the Land, Series 10, Episode 8)

“When the house is on fire Air fills my lungs I satisfy desire From watching all you run Yeah the house is on fire Hear the sirens scream My hands hold the lighter It fits so naturally”

28. Elastic Heart – Longfellow What I love the most about the Doctor (all versions) is how they keep fighting for what is right despite their own feelings being hurt or despite how much it may cause them pain. I love what this character represents, and those lyrics reminds me so much of them. 

“Oh why can I not conquer love? And I might have thought that we were one Wanted to fight this war without weapons And I wanted it, I wanted it bad But there were so many red flags (…) Yeah, let's be clear, I'll trust no one You did not break in here I'm still fighting for peace”

 29. Bite Back – The All-American Rejects “You think you've broken me? You'll have to try harder than that” (The Doctor, in The Timeless Children Series 12, Episode 10). Same unbreakable side of the Doctor, but this time she definitively resents it a little more than usual. 

“You couldn't break me in the end And such a freedom I enjoy When you're deaf to the sounds you trust If that was all you've got, my friend Then set yourself to disappoint” 

30. No Children – The Mountain Goats Listen to me here: this covers the whole “They were married way before they started to hate each other back on Gallifrey” fan theory.

“I am drowning There is no sign of land You are coming down with me Hand in unlovable hand”

[ PART TWO TO BE ADDED SOON ]

[theajaheira]

2019 fic roundup

december was INSANE and i spent most of january dealing with the aftermath of Terrible Parents, but i am finally doing this! in nearly-february! good grief!

tagged by @catty-words​! always a delight, cori <3

Total 2019 Word Count: 541,906 Total 2019 Hits: 29,555 Other 2019 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 3,184; Comment threads: 787; Bookmarks: 509; Subscriptions: 223.

Total 2018 Word Count: 338,835 Total 2018 Hits: 22,374 Other 2018 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 2,192; Comment threads: 453; Bookmarks: 280; Subscriptions: 69.

links and titles to 2019 works (buckle up, folks.)

[btvs] imperfections (148,374 words) y’all know about the braveryverse already but i’ll bring up some good points: jenny and giles accidentally adopt the entire scooby gang. also faith gets some actual support and is actually eventually stable enough to date buffy. good times.

[btvs] deliberate obstruction (5,492 words) the one where jenny is petty as fuck and attempts to sabotage every single one of giles’s dates after their breakup. not her best look, but it was really fun to write jenny being Not Great. she deserves to have that option.

[btvs] arch-nemeses (2,171 words) who doesn’t love some of that good old-fashioned ripper au nonsense? particularly when it’s spike and ripper being confusing nemeses who sometimes drunkenly make out (jenny thinks this is very funny).

[btvs] sick day (3,097 words) written because someone should take care of giles, damnit! probably not jenny, tho. she’s not the best at it. lucky for her giles loves her so much.

[btvs] simpatico (10,096 words) sister fic to the grieving process! set circa btvs season six! jenny is connor’s awkward aunt! giles is a repressed disaster who’s still pining but refuses to admit it! 

[btvs] honesty’s the best policy (3,830 words) that one where giles and buffy are hit with a Truth Spell that means they say exactly what they’re thinking. is that all that bad for buffy? not too much. is it a little iffy when you’re a repressed watcher man who still haven’t told your girlfriend how much you love her? uh.

[btvs comics] i router, you giles (1,111 words) GOD this was written BEFORE i knew that giles and jenny were dating in the reboot comics and isn’t that a concept? a snarky-cute first meeting! ok not really that cute bc they just yell at each other a lot! but definitely snarky!

[btvs] transitional (3,152 words) good golly this is cute and i honestly forgot that i wrote it. which makes sense, bc there is a lot of stuff on this list. set in between season one and season two, in an attempt to bridge the giles/jenny gap between “awkwardly friendly coworkers” and “oh my god i think i like you”

[btvs] across the pond (5,323 words) FUN FACT this got nominated for a headline award and i’m SO PROUD OF THAT?! epistolary fic! giles leaves for england in s6 but without his wife! his wife is very mad and writes him VERY MANY LETTERS TO YELL AT HIM! perfect for those people who sometimes think “god, i wish jenny had been in s6 to yell at giles.” 

[btvs] very really married (66,987 words) giles and jenny got drunk-married in las vegas and are keeping the marriage going so they don’t look like terrible authority figures. giles does not want buffy to know about his fake wife. giles does not want his fake wife to know about his real slayer. giles has a lot of problems and it doesn’t help that he might be catching feelings. big mess.

[btvs] bad dreams (2,267 words) GILES/JENNY/ANYA IS BEST SHIP NEXT QUESTION

[btvs comics] an open mic enthusiast (2,250 words) yet another giles/jenny comic-reboot meet-cute written before i knew they were dating!!! this time: jenny gets to see giles playing guitar. repeatedly. because she keeps going back to watch him at the open mic.

[btvs comics] blindsided (2,024 words) my first (and definitely not last) giles/anya fic! a shorter version of a plot bunny i hope to chase down in 2020 (ahaha did i say that WHOOPS)

[btvs] uncharted (16,469 words) my jenny calendar day fic! also known as “jenny calendar has a guilt complex: a novella.” no prophecy dream outs jenny to the group -- but she tells them anyway. and blames herself. and breaks up with giles while she’s trying to Fix Things. absolute mess. (thank god there’s a happy ending, right?)

[btvs] on the mending of hearts (9,236 words) that giles/anya fic where giles shows up at anya’s failed wedding and sweeps her off her feet and they have sex in his hotel room! except uhhh there’s a lot more drama and crying and anya really just needs some cuddles, tbh.

[btvs] extracurricular activities (1,003 words) straight up this one BARELY counts as a 2019 fic. i wrote it back in 2016 and forgot about it and found it on my hard drive and wrote an ending to it. it’s tiny, but it’s cute! lots of early-relationship calendiles fluff, as is My Brand.

[btvs] cookie dough and boy talk (a remix) (3,976 words) dawn, but in the ripper au! she’s a precocious little bab and ripper babysits her and gets semi-adopted by joyce. it’s a thing.

[btvs] a history lesson (698 words) a brief ripper au interlude between jenny and dru. dru tries to point out that jenny and ripper are in love. jenny very unconvincingly denies it.

[btvs] faith, hope, and pancakes (3,236 words) ripper au, now with faith! and she gets to hang with college-age jenny! who is dating her idiot boyfriend ripper! the Most Fun of times.

[btvs] compromises (750 words) this....was supposed to be a three-sentence prompt but I Can’t Do That. giles and jenny discuss (read: jenny yells at giles about) giles attempting to attack angel on sight.

[btvs] valentine buzz (3,422 words) i wrote this in may lmao but i just REALLY WANTED to write fluffy braveryverse valentine’s day nonsense!!! lots of cuddles and kisses and softness abound in this fic.

[btvs] days in goodness spent (5,893 words) this fic's point was a little more abstract and a little less blunt than most of the rest of these, but i wanted to explore the concept of giles slowly going from idealizing jenny to genuinely loving her. i hope i did it justice.

[btvs] to have and to hold (7,861 words) giles and jenny get married in the braveryverse. that’s really all there is. also i posted this on my birthday (may 23rd) AND it is the 23rd fic on this list!!!! WILD!!!!!)

[btvs] saw her in the streetlight, making all the world bright (5,738 words) took me like a year and a half to write the first fic in the ripper au, lmao. in which jenny is a snarky eighteen-year-old, ripper is a snarky college dropout in a band, and neither of them are at ALL good at communicating. especially not ripper.

[btvs] perfect (1,465 words) ripper au: it’s revealed that jenny hasn’t had sex before. ripper handles this with his characteristic maturity and grace (just kidding lmao he FREAKS. but it’s bc he loves her.)

[btvs] respite (1,106 words) i wrote this after issue 5 of the reboot dropped bc i was very emotional about canon power couple giles and jenny. in retrospect, i gave giles’s emotional maturity WAY too much credit--esp. given what’s going on now--but it was still fun as heck to write.

[btvs] shouldn’t we be getting together (3,193 words) this fic’s existence is a combo of me reading a summer camp ya novel and liking the Aesthetic but not the Culture & me talking endlessly w/ @jackalopingintothevoid​ about ripper and jenny’s teenage dynamic. so many of these fics have her galaxy brain takes woven in and i KNOW she knows that. lov u, jack.

[btvs] fragmented (6,158 words) written because of that one time my brain was like “but what if jenny WAS haunting the school?” happy ending because it’s me and g/j deserve some kisses.

[btvs/hp crossover] buffy summers, muggle-born (22,070 words) i CAME BACK TO THIS in 2019 and wrote a few chapters and DROPPED IT LIKE A HOT POTATO. hopefully 2020 will bring me the courage to pick it up again!!!!!! who DOESN’T want a carelessly-mashed-together crossover where the scoobies and the golden trio are all going to hogwarts together for some reason????

[btvs] in bloom (8,452 words) this was SUPPOSED to be the end of the jenny-anya-tara trilogy. it was not. (more on that later.) this was also supposed to be a fic where giles and jenny get together. jenny and anya got together. writing things is wild sometimes.

[btvs] i still want to be your girl (35,165 words) straight up i am so proud of this fic! s7 au: jenny was chased out of town by angelus. giles does not know this. jenny has been working with angel in la, but left with faith to try and help defeat the first. giles is not the guy she remembers. (but jenny’s not exactly the lady giles remembers, either. so maybe things might work out.)

[btvs/leverage crossover] what’s in a name (4,421 words) sophie’s & jenny’s relationship to their names & identities always so totally fascinated me! this fic was my way of exploring that. (also i got to give giles and jenny a toddler. that was fun too.)

[btvs comics] live a little (6,700 words) i had so much fun coming up with a backstory for giles and jenny in the comics that i am kinda tempted to eventually try and do it again. this one was fun to write, tho.

[btvs] kind of like hydrogen peroxide (7,501 words) THIS was FUN. ripper au, but it explores both jenny’s longing for High School Normalcy AND ripper’s fucked-up relationship to magic. also senior prom is a thing.

[btvs] mending fences (6,093 words) sequel to the aforementioned epistolary fic! lots of first-person self-loathing from giles, but also a LOT of love for jenny and his kids. also the man really truly needs to stop repressing.

[btvs] her father’s daughter (1,982 words) 2020 will bring us another chapter of this fic i swear to GOD. literally there’s only one chapter up so i cannot even TALK about my plans for it but uhhh if you want giles and jenny and their three daughters pls feel free to go to that prologue and check it out.

[btvs] a thousand different ways we fell apart (4,888 words) the au fic to encompass all au fics! inspired by the comic reboot and me being like. christ. do they go through this ridiculous shit in EVERY universe? ....and then i wrote a fic where jenny was a space traveler looking through multiple universe to try and fix her marriage with giles. extra fun.

[btvs] no such roses (4,814 words) this one turned out a TINY bit rushed, but the concept of jenny bringing giles back from the dead is always something that i love exploring. i might come back and rewrite this, someday.

[btvs comics] no perfect choice (4,801 words) OOF. wrote this one after issue 8 dropped. a lot softer and more tender than what actually happened, tbh. maybe i will reread it again to make myself feel better about comic calendiles and their brutal split.

[btvs] family (3,545 words) wrote this one p early in the year and came up with an ending to it much later! ripper au: the story of how xander came to live with giles and leave his parents. angst-with-a-happy-ending abounds.

[btvs] a california january (2,206 words) jenny and giles attend a funeral together. that’s pretty much it. this is defs one of the best things i wrote this year, tho.

[btvs] how i survived my summer vacation (volume two) (25,027 words) swear to god this is gonna be the next thing i update. the braveryverse NEEDS to continue. it’s got married calendiles, for god’s sake.

[btvs] clear and impartial judgment (3,977 words) that fic i wrote when i got mad at a lack of resolution wrt helpless. like!!! giles drugged buffy!!! do we not get to talk about the psychological ramifications that would have on her???? (well. canon doesn’t. but i do.)

[btvs] sunshine ladies (10,188 words) THIS FIC WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN and i say that with incandescent love in my heart. i intended for the ‘verse to be giles/jenny, and then i intended it to be jenny/anya, and then i was like....jenny has two goddamn hands, and there’s foreshadowing here for endgame giles/jenny, and i wanna write some giles/anya. let’s fuckin go. (DEFINITELY writing another installment in 2020 about this iconic ot3 of mine.) 

[btvs] spirit-touched (4,769 words) the first smut i write and it’s calendiles ghost sex. i really think this is on brand for me, esp. considering that swath of asks in 2016ish where everyone wanted to know if ghosts could jack off. incredible.

[btvs] dear friend (28,865 words) this fic had such a rushed ending :( it’s a cute premise (you’ve got mail giles/jenny au!!!!!), but i lost interest halfway through, and as a writer i can rlly see that when i read it. another thing i might like to go back and rewrite at some point, tbh!

[btvs] familiar (2,034 words) AUGH i am SO proud of this fic. SO SO PROUD. it’s a concept i really can’t explain and the little twist at the end is something i really really like, so...just read it.

[miss fisher’s murder mysteries] unbearable (5,670 words) i need to write more mfmm in 2020 but the amount of good fic out there is deeply intimidating/delightful. this one was my little “what if it was phryne who thought jack was dead” and tbqh i had a lot of fun with it? bc pining phryne (who makes brief but extremely poignant appearances throughout the series) is an awkwardly, heart-meltingly sincere lady.

[ace attorney] man’s duty to society (544 words) wrote this as my first foray into aa fic while getting emo about miles edgeworth. would absolutely still die for that man.

[ace attorney] fancy running into you (5,887 words) lots of schmoopy narumitsu fluff! gregory edgeworth is alive! miles is trauma-free! phoenix is an artist! just!!! goodness!!!!!!!

[ace attorney] big sister (2,741 words) set in the same gregory-edgeworth-is-alive ‘verse: babey franziska comes to live with miles and his dad. she is a little impossible but miles kinda does love her.

[ace attorney] prince charming edgeworth and his incredible tux (8,042 words) this fic came from me being like “i want to write phoenix swooning over miles in a tuxedo and being like HE LOOKS LIKE A DISNEY PRINCE” and spiraled into something much longer!

[ace attorney] fate, choice, and everything in between (4,384 words) SOULMATE AU. nothing i love more than deconstructing soulmate aus. but like. in a romantic way. also phoenix and miles ARE soulmates and that is JUST facts.

Favorite Fic: I WROTE SO MUCH STUFF THO LIKE !?!??! how can one expect me to distill it to just one fic? i’ll make it my top threeL

a california january (I AM SO PROUD OF THIS FIC. it is soft and angsty and silly and devastating and tender. all the calendiles feels.)

i still want to be your girl (same mood!!! i’ve wanted to write this fic for literal years, and it’s one of those rare occasions where the picture in my head actually turned out BETTER when written out!)

sunshine ladies (this is like my giles/jenny/anya ship manifesto and it still makes me happy to think about them all co-running the magic box together and smooching a lot.)

Hardest Fic: OOF uh i went through a rocky period of writing when transitioning into college? no such roses and dear friend were hit the hardest by my insecurity & my desire to Finish Things rather than actually spend time on the craft. but i’m much more settled in now and my writing is DEFINITELY in an upward swing (as my newest fic -- as day follows night -- attests to quite nicely, imo)

Do You Plan to Take Prompts in 2020? always always yes! (i’m bad at following through with them, but am ALWAYS accepting them.)

What was the best thing about 2019? there were almost too many good things to COUNT, but i think all of them were made possible by me working extremely hard to get myself the FUCK out of my abusive parents’ house and into my first choice college!! i’m thriving, y’all.

What was the worst thing about 2019? realizing that both of my parents are fundamentally terrible people. that part kinda sucked.

Any last thoughts for 2019? i finally understand what it’s like to fall asleep feeling safe, and to notice the way the leaves change color, and to get excited about self-indulgent things like food and cuddly stuffed animals and my own fic and art. 2019 brought a lot of happiness into my life, and oh yeah also i’m in love! lots of cool stuff going on.

Goals for 2020

finish the latest braveryverse installment!

MORE ART JUST IN GENERAL. i love drawing, but there’s not a lot of free time for artsy celia when they prioritize writing so often!

write one of the many incredible longfic ideas that’s floating around in my head. it’s honestly probably only like two or three big ones, but at least DECIDE which one i’m gonna focus my energy on.

more giles/anya this year!

more giles/jenny/anya this year!

diversify! still gonna be writing about jenny forever, but like. it might be fun to write about a few new things here and there.

maybe some more ace attorney fic? maybe even some mfmm fic again? phryne and jack are never far from my heart.

not tagging anyone bc this is....january. but if you wanna do it, feel free!

[alarawriting]

I think I have figured out which of my various universes and story ideas I will be exploring with my ficlets. (Why, yes, if you hadn’t figured it out I am totally cheating; instead of coming up with a ficlet based on the prompt, I am matching the prompt to existing universes and story ideas to see what fits best.)

So far, in 7 ficlets, I’ve covered:

#arcana: The arcana are psychic/energy vampire mages, whose magic draws from life force taken from consenting clients (though not always well-informed consenting clients.) First came up with this idea when I was 16 and I actually wrote a lot of stories based on it, only one of which doesn’t suck, because I was 16. (You modern 16 year olds, with your Internet and your instant feedback and your ability to grow as authors faster than we did back in the day!... you’re awesome, keep it up. But when I was 16? I sucked.)

“zombie humans spreading spam”: Hey, I could really go for some Five Guys.

#child impersonators: I mentioned this in the ficlet -- this idea is based on P. J. Plauger’s “Child of All Ages” (but isn’t fanfic because I’ve done something drastically different with the concept). The “child impersonators” are adults who have been taking medication that suppresses their aging, entirely, since before puberty. They do not go into puberty, they do not grow and they do not age. “Grownups” refers solely to traditional adults, as “child impersonators” have all the legal rights of adults but are not grown-up.

#diane duane #young wizards #faro and ilya: I think someday I will come back to these two, but they are the only story idea I literally didn’t come up with until I saw the prompts. I’d wanted to explore the concept of a dog wizard, mostly because, as much as I love cats, they are overdone in SF and fantasy. But the only idea I’d had about dog wizards was that they probably work with human wizards, rather than in packs with other dog wizards, because unlike cats, who can come and go as they like without humans being alarmed, dogs can’t freely travel around without human supervision. A wizard can get around this, but expending extra power when you don’t need to is against their code. It became a husky and her Russian partner protecting the Arctic because the prompts were “freeze” and “husky”.

#kai diwar universe: I really love this universe and plan to explore it in detail one of these days. I got sick of “humans are special”, “humans have a quality of growth”, “humans are the only one who make alliances with other species”, etc, and decided to create a universe where the thing that’s unique about humans is that we like beer and kitty cats. No, seriously. We made friends with the galaxy’s greatest engineers because they thought they were the only ones with a love of fermented grain until we showed up, and they traded technology for novel microbrews; we made friends with the galaxy’s deadliest and most frightening warriors, the felinoid Kai, because catlike beings exist on most planets with sapient life, but Earth is the only one where they’re small enough to make pets of, so we were the only ones who saw giant cats and instead of terrifying “tigers and lions and panthers, oh my!”, we were able to think “Ooh, kitty!” instead and befriend them.

#not even past: So imagine what if Harry Potter, or a story like it, had taken place in America. And imagine that all of the teens fighting the great evil had died except the Hermione character and the Draco character. And imagine that as a result, the Hermione character had quit the world of magic entirely, gotten married to a non-magical man, had kids, and uses magic only to protect and care for her family. Imagine that she has serious PTSD about the magical world and nightmares about the deaths of her friends, which are getting worse because her own kids are getting to be the age when she went off to magic school herself. Now imagine that the bad guys are back and targeting her. That’s the plot of “Not Even Past.”

Other story ideas I plan to do ficlets on:

#nodrama: No Drama. I did a WIP promo on this. Snarky omnipotent alien is on Earth without most of his powers, investigating whether God is actually a corrupt politician of his people. Check the tag for more related ficlets.

#coldlight: The Cold At The Heart Of The Light. Did this one too. Supervillain must protect the baby of her nemeses’ mentor against her nemeses, a superhero team, because a time traveller has demonstrated that the baby will destroy the world if allowed to grow up, but the supervillain thinks she can change things. Check the tag for more related ficlets.

#proxima: Set in the same universe as Cold Light, but with different characters. The Proximas, like Marvel mutants, are people born with the capacity for superpowers, which come in during adolescence typically.

#libertyangel: Superman expy where the Clark Kent character was female. 

#demange: The demanges -- part demon, part angel -- are entities that do not belong on Earth, and generally prey on humans. Mark discovered years ago that he was half demange, and that this obligates him to do something, so he travels the world solving problems caused by demanges. If this sounds to you like the plot of Vampire Princess Miyu, congratulations, except you missed the part where I crossed it over with Hellblazer and Dresden Files.

Mad Max the librarian: This needs more fleshing out, but basically, in a post-apocalyptic world, a badass dude on a motorcycle rescues books and computer equipment and brings them home to an oasis of knowledge and (barely) working technology called The Library.

#theclos #greenworld: In a universe where Earth has a twin planet that is more like early science fiction’s take on Venus -- hot and jungle-like -- an explorer from our world who is trying to be ethical runs afoul of a member of a godawfully powerful humanoid race who are worshiped as gods on that world. Conflicts over non-interference, the human value of trade and cultural exchange vs. colonialism, and so forth, develop. Also, the human explorer and the Theclos representative fall in love. (Yes, based on Picard/Q, though in this version the Q character is female. If you want to see one that maintains the m/m dynamics keep reading.)

#mikelondon: Bears some slight resemblance to my story “Eyes That Can’t Be Mesmerized” (posted here on tumblr!), but came first. Mike London is an IT guy, and an albino, with rhythmatic nystagmus. It turns out that this protects him from vampiric mesmerism, and that makes him a target of the vampires, so he becomes a vampire slayer.

#doctorultraviolet: I posted the first bit of the first chapter of this here, years ago. Dr. Ultraviolet is The World’s Greatest Evil Genius. After surviving the superheroes’ destruction of her base and her finances, she has to take refuge with her sister... a single mother with 5 kids who lives in the suburbs and works as a real estate agent.

#sifralef: A ship captain in an era much like the Age of Sail, but with magic, is taunted by a Daemon, a mysterious entity with near-godlike power over the world. It turns out the world is a simulation, Daemons are AIs who run the simulation and maintain it, and this particular Daemon wants humanity to wake up, leave the simulation and achieve the destiny that was planned for them when the simulation was first created... for reasons of his own, and he’s chosen this ship captain as the human to awaken. Yes, it’s based on Picard/Q. Yes, this time they’re both dudes.

Plus, story ideas that I’ve posted incomplete bits of or the concept of here on Tumblr, such as the Pale Bro, Lair of Cat and Dragon, Hole in the World, or two lesbians drive across a future America in an ancient car held together by spray-can aluminum. And some other stuff I’m not going into in detail. And there may be ideas from @writing-prompt-s or concepts people posted on Tumblr in a “I wish someone would write this” or explicitly story prompt fashion.

[ganymedesclock]

What does Eggman /WANT/, exactly? Like, in general? He definitely seems egotistical, since everything has to be "Egg[something]", and he's often building armies of robots. But what's his endgame? World domination (like in a Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil sense)? How come so many of his plans involve awakening planet-shattering forces of darkness? I've seen him help defeat the very creatures /he/ summoned, so he seems to have a conscience. What are your thoughts, Clockie?

So a big fat disclaimer here that Sonic’s worldbuilding is like... a terrifying kudzu of largely self-contained branches that don’t add up so this and any exercise in Sonic worldbuilding involves taking a pastiche of what you like, and nowhere is this more obvious than with Eggman.

The chronologically oldest concept of Eggman basically set up the conflict of the series as nature vs. technology, with Eggman representing the latter extreme. You can see this in a lot of early continuities, especially Sonic SatAM, which depicted “Robotnik” as cybernetic himself and someone who consistently hated all animal life, and thus wanted to capture it all and force it, at gunpoint if need be, into his “Roboticizer” to turn it into mindless mechanical slaves.

Suffice to say, though, the Roboticizer’s never been gameverse canon, and my personal favorite version of Eggman is rooted in his backstory as mentioned in Sonic Adventure 2.

In Adventure 2, we discover that Eggman is merely the presumably latest scion of a long line of geniuses, and was personally deeply inspired by his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik. Professor Gerald was hailed as possibly the greatest mind of an age, and considering the similarity in his and Eggman’s signature mustaches, it’s entirely possible even as an adult Eggman styled himself in his grandfather’s image.

Gerald was the lead researcher on the ARK, and the mastermind behind Project Shadow. He was searching for a cure for his granddaughter, Maria’s, illness, but largely optimistic about the way that his research would benefit everyone living on Earth. (It is never made clear Eggman’s relationship to Maria, if they were cousins or siblings, but considering Maria lived with Gerald on the ARK, and Eggman implies he admired Gerald from afar, whatever their relation, they were likely not very close, especially as Maria was personally close to Shadow and Eggman didn’t recognize him by name or looks.)

However, ARK was shut down due to suspicion regarding the project and Gerald’s covert dealings with the tyrannical, conquering alien Black Doom. As a result, there was a raid made on the ARK to seize the results of Project Shadow and take Gerald prisoner. This raid was horrifically botched and turned into a massacre, during which Maria and Shadow fled, trying to get to an escape pod, but Maria chose to seal and launch Shadow’s pod first, defying the orders of a pursuing soldier to do so, and was fatally shot. This utterly destroyed Gerald’s faith in humanity and sent him down a very dark path, eventually putting a “ghost protocol” into the ARK that would cause it to crash into the Earth and kill everyone, manipulating both Shadow and Shadow’s prototype, the Biolizard, to do so. This protocol, and Shadow, remained dormant for fifty years until the latter was awakened by Eggman.

During Last Story’s final cutscenes, Eggman reveals that he was inspired to become a scientist by his admiration for Gerald, and was seemingly equally embittered by the botched massacre, though he’s shocked and outraged by Gerald’s ghost protocol. This is not remotely the first or only time Eggman has been shown to be deeply offended by the notion of destroying the entire world and he’s been shown to be either snide towards or make significant countermeasures to entities such as Perfect Chaos, Solaris, Eggman Nega, or Black Doom, who are purely interested in destruction for destruction’s sake.

Eggman has also made many allusions that he seeks to build a city that he sees as a utopia, and, when he’s actually able to achieve his dream in Sonic Unleashed, it’s worth noting that Eggmanland looks overwhelmingly like an amusement park rather than a sinister police state like his SatAM self does. Eggman’s amusement park in Colors also is very bright, colorful, lively, and seemingly genuinely designed to entertain, to the point of recording and making a bunch of PA announcements that don’t make sense while the park isn’t even open yet and he, Sonic, Tails, the wisps, and his cadre of robots are the only people there.

So here’s my take on Eggman’s objectives:

He’s deeply embittered with the government and assumes they can’t be trusted for anything because of the ARK massacre and GUN’s following capture and execution of Gerald. Given this was fifty years ago, Eggman could have been a child at the time, which would make this even more traumatic.

Eggman’s also just plain bossy. He’s a genius, he’s charismatic when he wants to be, and he’s also a pretty good strategist, as he’s the one who primarily coordinates everyone’s joint efforts during Last Story (he instructs everyone during their respective missions with the exception of his own, when he takes input from Tails), the problem is, he is keenly aware of this and it has gone straight to his head with like no stops.

So naturally Eggman’s response to any kind of beef with authority is that everything could do so much better with him in charge and the nature of his projects betrays both his glaring ego and, buried in the supervillainous ham, a genuine desire to make something that will make people happy.

It’s also worth noting on many occasions Eggman is shown to have a surprising amount of respect for Sonic considering how much he gripes and calls him a pest or a rat- the extent depends on continuity. In Adventure 2, he’s comfortable potentially dispatching Sonic, but, gives a moment of solemn introspection in Sonic’s honor, and in Sonic X, when Sonic appears to be gone and never coming back Eggman unsubtly launches full petty theatrics in mourning. 

In general, though, the impression that comes across is that Eggman can respect a lot of the things Sonic stands for- which, combined with how many times they’ve worked together or Eggman has appeared to set Sonic up as a countermeasure if his habit for wantonly harnessing ancient gods gets out of hand, would suggest they’re on at least as honorable terms as old school superhero nemeses.

And likewise, we see our heroes throw Eggman a bone now and then- such as when Chip (who’s not familiar with Eggman) suggests they need to quickly save someone Eggman has held hostage because he’s hungry, and Tails immediately reassures Chip that Eggman must be feeding him... and sure enough once they find the guy, he’s unharmed and unfazed enough to be basically complaining about the room service because the specific kind of sandwich he requested doesn’t live up to his standards.

In short, I’ve personally read Eggman and Sonic’s rivalry as an Order vs. Chaos divide, with Sonic representing chaos, and Eggman representing order. So that’s Eggman’s ultimate goal- not harm, not destruction, not even his ego, as much as he thinks there’s a better order the world could conform to, and who better to know what the world needs than a certified Robotnik genius? He had a keen personal lesson in the problems of the existing systems, after all.

I think Sonic and Eggman both want a better world. Their disagreement is how to get there- Eggman thinks everyone should shut up and listen to him because he knows what’s going to help and also, well, you can’t make a utopia without cracking a few eggs, or kidnapping a bunch of small animals and using those adorable little buggers as robot batteries.

This read is... well, it’s frustrating to commit to any read of Eggman as an ethical person because again Sonic worldbuidling is all over the board so there’s the constant ghost of smug pundits past, present, and future looming over my shoulder going “remember when he tried to nuke a populated city though” and my only rebuttal is “any attempt at building a consistent character for Eggman is going to involve firmly telling some piece of canon to fuck off so this is my hill to die on.”

[ethanalter]

Ben Barnes on breaking bad in 'The Punisher'

Ben Barnes as Billy Russo in The Punisher. (Photo: Netflix)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the second half of The Punisher‘s first season.

When Ben Barnes accepted the role of Billy Russo on The Punisher — the new Netflix series starring Marvel’s famous gun-toting vigilante, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) — he knew that a dark future awaited his character. After all, in the comic book realm, Russo frequently dispenses and endures punishment as the gruesomely scarred villain, Jigsaw. And though the show changed some details about Billy’s origins — making him Frank’s longtime friend rather than his longtime nemesis, for example — his ultimate fate wasn’t likely to be altered. So for Barnes, the question wasn’t “Will Billy break bad?”; it was “When will Billy break bad?” The show’s producers didn’t mind making him wait to find out. “They were fairly clandestine even with me about any sort of twists and turns,” the British actor tells Yahoo Entertainment. “We were shooting Episode 5, and I was thinking to myself, ‘Is there going to be a turn? Is it going to happen?'”

Turns out that Barnes had to wait only one more episode. At the end of the sixth hour, “The Judas Contract,” Billy emerges as one more member in the conspiracy that odd-couple allies Frank and Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) are working to unwind. That revelation sets the two on a collision course that ends with Frank essentially creating the man who will become Jigsaw.

We spoke with Barnes about the scene that reveals Billy’s true nature, and why his memorable role as Logan on Westworld made him a better bad guy.

Yahoo Entertainment: Were you excited to play the moment where it’s revealed that Billy has been part of the conspiracy against Frank all along? Ben Barnes: We did a read-through of each episode before we started filming them, and I remember the read-through for “The Judas Contract” very specifically. Our showrunner, Steve Lightfoot, was there, and so were some of the executives from Marvel and Netflix. We finish reading the episode, and there’s the reveal of who Billy’s in league with. I remember Steve going, “Billy Russo, you dirty, dirty boy.” I just looked at him and went, “You wrote it!” [Laughs] They were quite excited about that turn because after that point, Frank Castle is battling the powers that be in a more general way, as well as his inner demons and stuff. So it’s nice to get a little bit more specific about it. The truth is that there’s not really any kind of a traditional big bad [guy] in the comic book sense in this particular series. It’s an origin story for both of the characters in a way. While they’re at odds by the end of the series, they haven’t become each other’s nemeses yet.

Once the reveal happened, I wanted to go back and rewatch Billy’s scenes up to that point to see how that reveal was teased in your performance. Obviously, I did know it was coming, and I was asking all sorts of questions about my involvement in things, but they wouldn’t tell me exactly what they had planned for the future. I would want to know what my involvement had been in Frank’s past — I needed to be up to date on that stuff at least. So when I’m playing my game of cat-and-mouse with Dinah Mandi [played by Amber Rose Revah], I could sort of pick and choose as an actor what moments are feeling a little more genuine or whether he’s a ruthless liar through and through. I thought it was interesting to see for the first time in a Marvel series such a slow burn in terms of character. You genuinely don’t know what side this person is on.

What sort of discussions did you have with Jon Bernthal about how much Frank knows, or suspects he knows, about Billy? We had a lot of discussions about their pasts, and we actually shot some scenes that may be being saved for any future seasons that might come about. There was exploration of their history as friends, and we see them together as partners and as “Uncle Bill” in terms of his relationship to Frank’s family. In a lot of these universes, the “villain” has done something that’s wronged the hero in such a way that can never be forgiven, but in Billy’s case, a lot of the other characters have done much worse things in terms of organizing the massacre of his family or trying to keep him at bay. I think that Billy’s betrayal is only keeping information from him, which in the grand scheme of the Marvel universe is not the worst crime that’s ever been perpetrated. However, because of their closeness and their brotherhood, it seems so much more.

Barnes with Jason R. Moore in The Punisher. (Photo: Netflix)

And for my money, Billy is actually kind of broken from when he’s a boy, so Frank is the one man he has respect for. He sees something of himself in him, and I think that’s what makes the betrayal sting for Billy too. Because when you’re playing these characters with such different shades of morality, it’s important in portraying that character to believe everything I’m doing is absolutely on the level. I actually feel a bit sorry for Billy in certain circumstances. What he’s doing is out of self-preservation and love, and it might be for the wrong, but I wanted to play it that he cares very deeply about Frank. I don’t think the story really works unless Frank holds a special place in Billy’s life.

In a sense Billy is already broken, so his final transformation into Jigsaw — when Frank slices his former friend’s face on glass — is a case where he finally looks on the outside the way he does on the inside. Yeah, absolutely. I sort of saw it in stages, like a game of Jenga. Billy was essentially orphaned and abused as a child, and that’s corrupted him a certain way. But from being in the military, he’s built up this kind of incredible mask, which is based on the way he looks, the way he dresses, and the way he treats women. It’s all this giant mask, so the idea of the shattering of that mask is the final thing in terms of losing how he sees himself. That’s part of the idea of using mirrors in our version — as this cautionary tale of narcissism. And that’s stacked up against the idea that he could have brain damage in some way, which they mention in the last episode. I have no idea what they’re going to give in terms of how the Jigsaw character will be revealed, but I certainly have my ideas about how it could work, and how he could be a more traditionally threatening figure in the Marvel universe.

How important was your role on Westworld in terms of transitioning from the heroes you played early on in your career to the more villainous roles you’re playing now? It looks like you’re really enjoying being bad. It certainly helped prepare me in terms of the boldness of my choices. Earlier on in my career, I felt like if any accusations were leveled at me, it was that my performances were a bit traditional and what people were used to. So I made a decision that I’m just going to be a bit braver, and I think that Westworld allowed me the opportunity to do that — to really kind of stretch my legs in terms of mischief. Obviously, the two characters are very different; Logan is more of a pain in everyone’s neck. One thing I asked is that he never say something that wasn’t true. There was one line where he had to [lie], and I told [the writers], “It’s really important to me that Logan never lies.” He’s weirdly a bit of a moral compass for the real world, I think. Of course, I have to be on his side because I have to play him! But yeah, I did want to take some of that momentum through to The Punisher and be a little more broken and evil and malicious. I’m having fun pushing where that can go.

Will Logan be back in Westworld‘s second season? I am back a little bit in the second season, which is not something I necessarily expected! But I am back, and I will say that everything that I’ve encountered so far is different. I have not read full scripts or anything, but it’s certainly flipped me upside down in terms of what I was expecting from the series. No one’s going to be disappointed in terms of it pushing the envelope!

Season 1 of The Punisher is currently streaming on Netflix.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Review: ‘The Punisher’ makes ultraviolence seem inevitable

Review: ‘Marvel’s Runaways’: Cool teens versus villainous parents

6 things to know about ‘Godless,’ Netflix’s star-packed limited-series western

[dailybestiary]

Moloch

(Illustration by Kieran Yanner comes from the Paizo Blog and is © Paizo Publishing.)

Hold on to your tophets, ladies and minotaurs…it’s Moloch time!

Moloch’s inspiration is a Canaanite god who gets a lot of bad press in the Torah and the Bible—two holy books that, let’s be fair, don’t exactly have a track record of playing nice with the neighbors.  But Moloch also gets some pretty bad press from the Greeks and the Romans, and the phrase “child sacrifice” gets thrown around a lot, so I’m perfectly fine with him being used as an archdevil.  (There’s actually a post floating around the Paizo Blog that basically says, “Well, that’s kind of how religion worked in those days”…but I possess the ultimate authority on good vs. evil—Monte Cook’s Book of Vile Darkness (what, you were expecting Spinoza?)—and it firmly puts child sacrifice in the Evil category, so screw Moloch.)

In early editions of AD&D, Moloch ruled Malebolge as Baalzebul’s viceroy.  In 3.0 and 3.5 Moloch had an even rougher time of it, getting replaced first by the Hag Countess and then Glasya.  Pathfinder’s Moloch, on the other hand, is firmly in control of both the Sixth Layer and indeed all of Hell’s armies.  If you’re looking for a devil who’s a servant or a patsy of another power, Pathfinder’s Moloch is definitely not it.

Probably the four most interesting things about Moloch are as follows:

1) Moloch is publicly worshipped.  Devil worship is not popular, by and large.  Even for truly dastardly faith communities, worshipping gods, even evil ones, is a safer bet than worshipping beings that explicitly come from Hell.  (“Would you like to spend eternity building a pyramid for the Pharaoh God of Taxation and Making Slaves Grovel?  Or go to the place with the fire pits and devils and eternal torment?” “Gosh, the fire pits do sound appealing. But seeing as I’m already experienced at being taxed and groveling...Imma hafta stick with what I know.”)  So devil worship is usually a cult thing.  Heck, even Asmodeus isn’t that popular in any land where he doesn't have governmental backing—without a throne, inquisition, or similar power structure in place, his church is at best seen as a necessary evil. The other archdevils’ cults mainly stick to the shadows.

But not Moloch.  His worship happens out in the open.  His followers build giant sacrificial ovens. Whole armies subscribe to his message. Of all the archdevils, he is the one most likely to be worshipped under the glaring eye of the midday sun.  And he gets that worship, because…

2) Moloch is responsive.  He answers the prayers of his followers—often in a quite literal and personal fashion.  Is your village threatened by flood?  Forget subtle shifts in tributary courses—Moloch just shows up in avatar form and dams the river.  Is an army about to ransack your town?  Moloch’s army is bigger, assuming he doesn’t just squash the looters himself.

Yeah, the price for this prompt and professional service is an eternity slaving away in Moloch’s army for anyone who asks for his aid or offers even the slightest hint of praise. But when floods, rapine, and slaughter regularly threaten your subsistence-farming-level existence, being a mule skinner for an archdevil might seem like a decent trade, especially if you don’t have to pay it off till you’re dead.  Which means that Moloch has a surprising number of worshippers, despite being a walking metal furnace that swallows victims whole and to burn alive in his stomach. Speaking of which…

3) Moloch has interesting symbolism and visual associations.  Which means interesting worshippers and sidekicks.  He’s got a bull thing—use some minotaurs as his cultists.  He’s got a furnace/child sacrifice thing—use the tophet. He’s got a walking, fiery suit of armor thing—there are tons of constructs, golems, elementals, devils, and undead like that.  And he’s a general—which means animate war machines like juggernauts or colossi.

With a lot of archdevil nemeses, the PCs’ journey fighting their servants goes tiefling —> lesser devil —> medium devil —> nasty devil—> archdevil, with maybe a fiendish dragon or something in there for variety.  Moloch’s followers are waaay more interesting that that.  Literally any soldier of any race might be found in his legions, either living, undead, as a fiendish version of itself, or as some kind of twisted einherjar. Pick up thematic cues from his description and his mythology and go nuts.  

And since we’re on the subject of him being a general…

4) Moloch is a general.  He’s the leader of Hell’s armies.  This means facing him is going to be like facing any general with godlike power.  He’s going to have lots of troops he can call for aid. He’s going to have aerial assault teams and assassination squads and giant hellfire-fueled juggernauts.  He’s going to be physically powerful himself, and canny and strategic as well.  If you come at him, you risk literally having all the armies of Hell chasing after you.

That said, it also means he has other fish to fry.  He has Heaven assaulting one front and the demon hordes assaulting the other.  He has lesser generals and colonels who want his job.  He has some mighty demanding bosses to please.  And, as noted above, he’s very attentive to his flock.  No matter how big you think your beef with him is, you’re probably the lowest item on his to-do list.

Which means you might be able to sneak into his vast army camp and ambush him.  You might be able to challenge him to single combat to gain some small concession.  You might be able to put a treaty in front of him to sign.  Keep your goals reasonable and small, and he might just to decide to send his flunkies after you in retaliation rather than deal with you personally, or burn your great-grandchildren to cinders a few generations from now…but that’s their problem.  Generals are patient, generals can wait, and generals pick their battles.  He will always come down on you like a hammer, but it might not be today.  And when dealing with archdevils, those are as good odds as you’re going to get.

Adventures are asked to investigate a so-called Children’s Crusade, only to discover it is a sham—slavers are herding the children (and their hapless friar guardians) like cattle to boats crewed by gnolls, hobgoblins, witchwyrds, denizens of Leng, and worse.  The trail leads past strange cyclopean isles to a forbidding and cruel coastal nation of military dictators.  There the children are to be fed to giant, animate tophets meant to fuel the archdevil Moloch’s fires in Hell…unless the brave adventurers step in.

A solar and an uinuja formed an unlikely friendship, despite their differing ethics, spheres of influence, and relative power levels. Now the solar languishes in a Hellish prison, and the plucky azata wants to do what even the archons do not dare: stage a rescue, even if it means facing the Lord of the Sixth himself. Fortunately, she knows some adventures who are just as plucky—or crazy—as she is.

The cult of Mithras has spread throughout the Roman Empire—in particular, throughout the Roman Legions.  But as the cult has spread, so have disturbing rumors about secret rites, bloody and fiery sacrifices, and worse.  At first, the Senate and certain famous adventurers chalk this up to the usual politics and rumormongering Rome is famous for.  But then word comes out of Anatolia that the great god Mithras is dead, slain by an imposter who now usurps his throne and perverts his rites. The usurper is Moloch, and he has turned much of Rome’s military might to his service—for even those who resist his call in life have sullied themselves enough so that he may claim their souls in death.  Worse yet, the dour god Pluto is angered by the potential theft of shades from his kingdom. His priests threaten that if this Mithras/Moloch is not stopped, Pluto will send an army of undead through the Lacus Curtius to drag the Roman army down to the Underworld, no matter what the collateral damage.  Great heroes have to act—and fast.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 6 30–31

(I’ve always thought the rapid spread and equally rapid decline of Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire was pretty fascinating.  So naturally I wanted to give your PCs an excuse to be players in that particular rise and fall.  Now, on to some housekeeping…)

Edit: Also, somehow my Google-fu utterly failed me, and nothing I read pointed me to the fact that there was a section on Moloch in Pathfinder Adventurer Path #105: The Inferno Gate. (I had to skip that AP because I was so behind; it’s on my to-read pile.)  I’ll be interested to read how my take conforms (or doesn’t) with Editor Emeritus @wesschneider‘s canon version, but that’s a project for another night.

Hi all.  First of all, again, apologies for the absurdly late post. This article literally sat half-written on my desktop since something like June 18.  We’re talking a month. Sure, this blog isn't the *daily* Daily Bestiary it once was, but I’ve never been as lax with my posting as that.  Two posts in June and none so far in July is unacceptable.

Toyota earned its reputation for amazing cars not through one outstanding model or innovation, but through a company-wide suggestion system that leveraged lots of tiny improvements. Unfortunately, the same is also true in the negative.  There’s no one reason I haven’t been able to blog or one big nightmare I had to tackle (okay, there was one—a four-day, 46-hour workweek that sucked beyond measure—but let’s pretend I didn’t say that).  There have just been a thousand tiny distractions and mini-hurdles.  The short version is: June was lame, I had to take some time for me, I probably took too much, and I’m hopping the end of July is better.  Much love and thanks to you all for your patience, yet again.

Tumblr folk already know this (so forgive me if I quote myself verbatim) but my Blogger folk don’t: My second episode as a guest of the Laughfinder podcast is up!  Once again, I aid Bryan Preston, Jim Meyer, and Tommy Sinbazo to fight evil conjured by Dorian Gray and Ben Hancock.  Once again there are many NSFW riffs on Baltimore landmarks.  And most importantly, my blood feud with Aaron Henkin erupts into passionate FURY.  Enjoy!

[believeinwinxofficial]

World of Winx 2 Review

After spending my time watching World of Winx 2 yesterday, I have to say that I have quite enjoyed my time watching this season. The series begins by showcasing the Winx in silver outfits (love them by the way!) playing their gig at Gardenia with Annabelle and Louise before heading on a worldwide tour as a musical group.

I will divide my review in several parts. Feel free to read the entire review for the full experience or whichever section that catches your eye:

~The Nemeses~

As the season progresses, each Winx will have to fight and defeat her own nemesis created by Tinkerbell in order for the Winx girl to overcome her fears. Bloom was facing Vertigo, who was infesting Bloom’s head so only she can see her. Vertigo played Bloom’s weakness - her friends - in an attempt to hurt the Winx.

Stella’s nemesis, Obscura, went on to manipulate Stella with illusions and mimicry of her friends and children from Stella’s past. It was revealed how Stella’s gravely hurt when everyone mocks her. This really hits Stella deep, as she’s always optimistic and Obscura managed to tap into Stella’s childhood when she used to be bullied by others.

On the other hand, Aisha’s nemesis, Sinka, takes advantage of Aisha’s impulsive and hasty nature in order to charge up her energy using Aisha’s attacks to to overpower her.

Flora’s nemesis Stoney, Tecna’s nemesis Virus, and Musa’s nemesis Banshee, take on a much different approach; especially Banshee. Those nemeses rather exploit the Winx’s physical weaknesses as a battle tactic. Banshee shot energy blasts that seem to be wind-based while Stoney destroyed all the nature around Flora, leaving her helpless for a while. Virus was able to take control over the Winx’s brains (except Tecna’s) and played with the girls as puppets in the sake of destroying Tecna.

Overall, the nemesis were solid enemies. Their only problem is, despite all of the power they’ve got, the key to defeat each one of them was simple. Bloom and Stella had to believe in themselves and their friends, Musa had to play some soothing music, Aisha had to patiently wait for her nemesis’s power to wear off, Flora simply tapped into her powers to counterattack Stoney, while Tecna had a little help from Matt (who would’ve thought!) as he telepathically spoke to her, telling her to let go of logic and to follow her instinct; in which she did, and was able to defeat Virus using Peter Pan’s sword as a weapon.

I guess the logic behind the slogan of “the bigger they are, the harder the fall” applies in this case. I wasn’t really impressed by how the nemesis were defeated, but at least the girls put up a decent fight. The appearance of each nemesis was striking and scary to say the least. They were fit for such ruthless enemies. The designs were well thought-out and they really highlight what Rainbow’s animation department is capable of. But enough talking about the nemeses, I’ll move onto the next part of my review.

~The Plot~

The season revolves around the Winx trying to find Peter Pan’s son, Matt to make Tinkerbell good again all while trying to perform their concerts around the world and helping troubled allies in Neverland. It was fun to watch the Winx travel to London to meet Wendy Darling (Surprising to see her an old lady, isn’t it?) in hopes of finding a clue about Peter Pan. It felt refreshing to see the Winx take guidance from someone older than them once again. One thing I disliked in the early parts of the season, however, is that in one of the episodes, Smee tries to kidnap Matt based on Jim’s order, although it was later revealed that Jim betrayed Smee and pretended he had nothing to do with the kidnapping. In fact, almost an entire episode was spent chasing after Smee! It felt like this was never utilized very well, leaving me daunted.

Once Matt was safe, Aisha had no issues being verbal about her disliking of him. She was tasked into training Matt to be a real warrior in order to help him face the queen, but soon finds out that she lacks the patience and faith in Matt to complete the training. The Winx ask Jim for his help in training Matt, but he also wasn’t able to assist Matt in his disconcerting task . As a final spark of hope, Jim suggested taking Matt to Tiger Lily; the best fighter in Neverland. Jim mentions that Tiger Lily will be able to help him train to be a true warrior, but once the Winx were able to locate her, even she admits she cannot help him.

However, one surprising twist of events takes its toll to reveal that Tiger Lily is in contact with the spirit of the World of Dreams, disclosing a prophecy that Matt will save the realm with his father’s (Peter Pan) sword. I did not expect Matt, the blabber mouth and braggart, to be prophesied into saving Neverland. I found this to be a clever twist, as we never really saw the Winx relying on someone else in order to defeat a villain in the finale.

To be blunt, I am unfortunately not a big fan of the plot. I expected to see more of Neverland and its wondrous areas, but we ended up discovering it’s all deserted and barren of all life and colors to the point it was not an interesting element anymore. Matt had fallen in love with Tinkerbell by simply staring into a constellation that aligns as her face, and Tinkerbell shared the feelings after meeting him for three minutes. The Winx never transform to aid themselves even when nobody’s around. I was also annoyed by how the Winx wanted to give Tinkerbell a second chance even though she destroyed Neverland, kidnapped talents, banished Jim, and other heinous acts after she simply apologized.

Matt ends up saving Tinkerbell from the hands of Jim, who banished the Winx and ordered the mermaids living in Neverland’s lagoon to keep an eye on Tinkerbell. Once she was freed, she turned good again and helped the Winx in the final battle against Jim. Jim basically turned Neverland’s own version of the Tree of Life into a giant flying battleship, opening a portal to the World of Nightmares in an attempt to cross it to rule both worlds. He was eventually trapped inside the WoN as Smee had previously stowed away and pushed Jim off of the ship.

As I said earlier, I am not very pleased with the plot. Although it was entertaining and original as it took surprising turns, I feel it could have been a lot better. There were no brilliant magical tricks, not enough transformations, and certainly no glamour. The season felt it lacks the magical element and sense compared to the other seasons of Winx, as the girls have never showcased their abilities in a way that left me feeling astonished or at least visually impressed.

~The Transformation~

There isn’t much to say about Onyrix, as its requirements were ... none. The spirit of the World of Dreams simply gave the Winx the power of Onyrix to help defend the realm from danger, and its transformation sequence made me chuckle at times. It still doesn’t beat Butterflix’s cheesiness, but it sure felt like it was another fashion show cough Tynix cough. The Winx were dressed in what resembles jumpsuits that look elegant at the top, to hilariously end with what resembles 70′s disco pants’ bottom.

Aisha’s wings were resampled from her Harmonix, while Bloom’s hair and wings were taken from her Butterflix. Not to mention that Tecna’s Onyrix feels no different from her Dreamix. If no one has noticed yet, every girl is wearing her secondary color as her main one, except for Musa and Stella. There has been some frequent pink, dark lime, purple, and green in Bloom’s, Tecna’s, Aisha’s, and Flora’s clothing colors respectively. Those colors weren’t exactly always present in the Winx’s transformations, but they did play a theme of their own as secondary colors. In Aisha’s case, it was mostly a mix of blue and green, but we’ve seen Aisha with some purple as a complementary color at times.

~The Secondary Characters~

I have to say, the show really conveyed the side characters very well this time. They didn’t feel useless or out of place like we’re used to, and they all played important roles to help the plot further evolve. The pirates were ill-mannered yet loyal, Tiger Lily was harsh yet supportive, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the Crocodile and Alligator Men were actually on the same side as the Winx!

I quite enjoyed how the secondary characters had a spunk to them; they all had an aura of fight and zeal I couldn’t help but to love all of them! On a final note, the fact that each character remained an indispensable part throughout the show throughout felt like a huge improvement from Rainbow’s part. It was just like Flora said in the sixth episode: “A single snowflake looks so fragile, but we all know what they can do when you put them all together!”

...Though one thing was left unexplained. How did the pirates lose their magic in the first place?

~The Plot-Twisted Ending~

Okay, so Venomya is actually a witch whose name is Baba Yaga, inspired from the Slavic folklore of so many stories. I have no idea why did the witch wait until the end to reveal her identity, and in the midst of a concert as well. Baba Yaga flat out chased the Winx from a country to country to write bad reviews about them, until eventually revealing she wants to summon a coven of witches.

Though I guess it was an anticipation mechanic by Rainbow to further raise the anticipation (although it seems to make little sense to me.)

I’m not sure what to make of the end. Will there be a third season of WoW? Will the live action movie be based on Baba Yaga? Will the eighth season be based off of her even? So many questions aroused in my mind, and the cliffhanger ending of the season left me hooked and definitely hyped for what’s more to come!

Overall, I am impressed by this season.

However, I can’t help but feel disappointed that the Winx did not use any spectacular magical spells. The show obviously was a great entertainment for me with its diverse characters and engaging story, and the plot certainly feels darker than ever (even more than season 7.) You have the mermaids manipulating Tinkerbell to commit suicide, a deep yet naive concept of love at first sight, creepy-looking villains, and ruthlessness showcased by Tinkerbell’s actions in the past and Jim’s sadistic future vision.

In spite of all of this, the experience felt less magical than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of action, just not enough magic and sparkles to give me my daily dose of Winx fantasy. WoW2 was great if you want to watch Martin Mystery or Totally Spies with a twist of magic, just not enough to give me the usual fairy tale vibes.