#robot seb fic

[andthebubbles]

in other unimportant news! i didn’t feel like editing robot seb fic no. 1 (though i think it’s almost done, or at least i hope so! it seemed almost all right the last time i read it, so...), i didn’t feel like adding to robot seb fic no. 2, soooo i just remembered a simi fic i last worked on in october last year and edited what i had of it into shape... and now i’m too tired to continue, it’s almost 3am XD 

but eyyyy yayyy, i guess XD

[deedala]

Weekly Tag Wednesday!! 👯‍♂️🍁

thanks for creating today and for tagging me to play @jrooc!!

🔤 Name: deanna🌱

🎶 Last song you listened to: Naked in Manhattan - Chappell Roan

🎵 Artist on Spotify giving you the feels right now: I'm still on my Hozier shit 🙃

👯‍♂️ Fave Blorbo Moment: so so many...but here's one: NODNODNODNODNOD 😜

🍟 Your guilty pleasure snack: french fries is one (though i dont really feely guilty about it lol)

🌮 What food are you craving today: i would in fact really like some french fries right now

📖 Last fanfic tab you opened: i'm listening to my robot lady read @juliakayyy's Running Into You right now!!

🖌️ Favorite fic project you've created: me? creating fic projects? 😅 i've never done any fic for shameless!! but yeah i guess it would be the massive co-op ancient arlathan au with @maizzycakes @thegorilllainthemist

👩🏼‍🎤 Next tattoo you want (or would consider if you're not a tattoo person): i would very much like to become a tattoo person. i want some floral shit that represents my family or the bunny from runaway bunny or a whimsical sword or something. im just poor and bad at scheduling things. 😂

🧐🆓 What's living in your head rent free this week: yeah this week it's deffo the new @goodkwuestion story that just started, im so stoked about it🤡

And now for tagging some little nuggets! play if you want or just know i am waving at you fondly from across the room like a weirdo 💖 @michellemisfit @darlingian @too-schoolforcool @vintagelacerosette @callivich @juliakayyy @sickness-health-all-that-shit @suzy-queued @metalheadmickey @lingy910y @sleepyfacetoughguy @heymrspatel @creepkinginc @energievie @mmmichyyy @thepupperino @rereadanon @sirrudo @gardenerian @mikhailoisbaby @mickeysgaymom @grossmickey @lizelandre @transmickey @crossmydna @tanktopgallavich @suchagallabitch @ardent-fox @gallawitchxx @7x10mickey @howlinchickhowl @auds-and-evens @sam-loves-seb @tsuga-of-mars @gallavichonly @palepinkgoat @scurvgirl @themarchg1rl @purplemagpie @gofionaonthem @imikhailo @mybrainismelted @tellmegoodbye and anyone else!! just lie and say i tagged you!!! i will always corroborate 😌

[widowlurker]

rambling about catws!Bucky because time is a flat circle

Lowkey tough being a Bucky stan (hehe) out here bc atp the mcu just doesn’t know what to do with him and it’s absolutely tragic because catws is a great movie and a huge part of that is how beautifully they presented the Winter Soldier. Like he is undeniably (personally don’t @ me) the best part of that whole movie. Last time I went this insane over analyzing actors’ facial expressions was the hunger games and that’s basically the peak of fiction for me. So, here’s me doing exactly that

warning: no beta we die like my vocal chords watching catws for the first time

Something that sits at the forefront in my mind abt Seb’s acting as the Winter Soldier is how good he is at being blank. Normally when I think of blank, no thoughts head empty acting it’s just a completely unmoveable demeanor and from what I see in fics it’s a common interpretation that the Winter Soldier is just an empty husk. And while he’s definitely a lot less sentient than he seems to be in the comics I don’t think he’s as robotic as people like to write about (and how I like to read abt so dw this isn’t me trashing on that).

I read a post on here that was either a meta or rant that I def reblogged but don’t feel like looking for that was either or about or mentioned how the Winter Soldier is def a powerhouse but that’s just a building that was made from the frame of Bucky’s own combat skills from the war.

I think his sentience is somewhat similar to that in how he isn’t so much as an empty bodyguard and more like a tunnel-visioned fighter. His mind isn’t a blank slate in a body that’s blindly committing violence but a constantly calculating fighter (a trait I also think was just built off of Bucky’s own violent skills derived from the war) whose mind is occupied only by whatever violence he’s committing.

Seb’s facial expressions as the winter soldier present this well. Again, when you think of the empty husk the Winter Soldier is you’d expect little personality and emotion to be acted out as that character. The thing is, he’s not an empty husk. Seb does a good job at having existent and moving facial expressions without any real human emotion being shown by them. When the Winter Soldier furrows his brows as he fights or thoughtfully looks offscreen when he pulls off his goggles(?) in the lead up to the reveal he’s only expressing the slightest bit of acknowledgement to whatever is happening. Particularly, usually in fight scenes when people do the former it’s to make the character look mad or determined. When the Winter Soldier does it it’s just there. Sebastian manages to move his face in ways that should indicate fully-felt emotions but still only add up to a blank face.

Perhaps in that way the Winter Soldier is somewhat robotic not in the way of an emotionless android but rather an intelligent algorithm.

so, blah blah blah Sebastian is really good at acting blank. But what about when the Winter Soldier does show emotion. Disclaimer that in my rewatch I only saw the highway fight/reveal and the helicarrier, not when Fury and Steve get attacked in his apartment. With this, the first time I believe we see the Winter Soldier breaking out of the emotionless mask is the cute little bout of panic he has shortly after the mask/muzzle comes off, when his eyes get big and be looks off in a way unlike before where instead of it being the slightest indication of thought and strategy it’s a genuine feeling of panic and confusion. This is very much in contrast to moment before after he asks who the hell Bucky is and shoots at Steve. He says the words, but that’s it. His face doesn’t move to accommodate any sort of emotion any normal person would be feeling when they said that sentence. His mouth simply moves as he asks (though the blankness is still broken by then because I have doubts the 100% Winter Soldier would ever take the time or express the confusion that’d come with asking that question). Immediately after he clicks back into reality and the mission at hand when he shoots at Steve he doesn’t return to his before blankness. His eyebrows furrow and this time it’s not simply an unconscious physical result of being focused or whatever but he’s genuinely confused and desperately trying to follow what he’s being made to do. Up until that point, not once does the Winter Soldier bother to halt anything he’s doing in a fight if not necessary. This is the first time he personally hesitates.

And then the helicarrier scene. Oh lord almighty the blessed helicarrier scene. By here the Winter Soldier is back to Winter Soldier-ing, blank and emotionless no matter what movement his face makes. And he stays like that for the entire pre-fight pleading Steve’s doing in that bridge(?) thing. UNTIL Steve says “please don’t make me do this”

Now I noticed this in my rewatch yesterday and then while I was rewatching the scene on yt to write this I fought for my life trying to figure out which cut to Bucky in that convo in which he does it, so I damn-near thought i hallucinated it. But I swear to god his head tilts down and his eyebrows go up. It’s similar to the facial movements he does before when he’s full Winter Soldier where his face moves but it doesn’t indicate any actual emotion being felt. This time however it just somehow does. He’s pleading, for what I literally cannot think of but his face moves only slightly and it somehow spreads the full feeling throughout his entirety. In the next cut after that he doesn’t have that same emotion, but it was there.

From then on the curtain is ripped. Now Bucky fights and he scrunches up his face and all of the sort and he’s not only expressing emotion but he’s doing it so blatantly. So blatantly in fact that I can tell he seems to feel almost desperate.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that not once does the Winter Soldier bother to halt himself unless necessary to survey the situation or something the sort. Yeah, none of that is here. He’s unbelievably sloppy, not as fast and hit-for-hit with Steve as he was during the highway/reveal. And throughout the fight he only gets slower and slower, his face scrunches and moves more and more., and he wastes more and more time talking and trying to make Steve suffer and feel how he’s getting hit as if to prove to something or someone that he’s not succumbing to the memories bubbling up inside him and straying from his mission.

Until finally Steve says “I’m with you til the end of the line” and fandom was never the same

and neither was Bucky, because despite the fact that his luscious locks are blowing all over the damn place, all over his face, we see down to the atom what he’s feeling. It’s the Winter Soldier’s end of the line, and now Bucky is here to get fucked over by the mcu’s writing.

Again, catws is my favorite mcu movie in terms of acting and writing and the reason why is because they did so well at writing such a horribly tragic victim. I stay saying that Seb is one of the best actors in the mcu and the reason why is because of how agonizing his performance of the winter soldier’s mental turmoil is. So why on God’s green Earth is the mcu so intent on making some bullshit atonement plotline (or a poor attempt at showcasing Bucky’s internal guilt that comes off as an atonement plotline, depends on who you ask) and throwing him in with anti-heroes/villains when it really doesn’t fit what his arc should be AT ALL???

anyway god bless Sebastian for being damn-good at acting out agony

[the-meat-machine]

for the ask game thingy;

dirkuu.

Surprise! I have a lot of feelings about this one, and I am unable to resist rambling about them at length. Let's go.

• I looooove that "Compatible brand of freaks" is a square, because this is THE reason why I ship this so hard. These two are freakishly compatible. Two idiot boys who crave intimacy far more than they would care to admit. Two dudes for whom the first and easiest solution to any problem is violence. All of Caliborn's assorted awfulness doesn't bother Dirk; on the contrary, he finds him fascinating. Meanwhile Dirk can indulge in his freakier interests without feeling like he has to censor himself, 'cause there's nothing he can say that could possibly be worse than the shit that Caliborn spews every time he opens his mouth. Caliborn likes bossing people around and Dirk likes being bossed around wait did I say something? don't worry about it

• "They enable the worst of each other" and "Oh there's no way this will end well" is certainly one way for dirkuu to go, and it's a dynamic that I enjoy! But like I've said before, I think it's also conceivable that they could, counterintuitively, make each other better. Playing House has somehow become my thesis statement on that. Hopefully someday I'll take on the other side to this dynamic and start posting my "they make each other worse" post-canon dirkuu fic. The meat to Playing House's candy, as it were.

• You'll note that I didn't mark these two as "Fated Enemies". That's not because they're not fated, though. It's because they're not enemies. Like, yeah, ok, Dirk does eventually end up fighting Caliborn (as depicted in Caliborn's masterpiece). But really, of all the enemies Caliborn has - which is to say, literally everyone in Paradox Space - Dirk is the least enemy-ish of them all. He's the one human Caliborn likes and admires. If anything, Dirk is Caliborn's ally, though Dirk doesn't realize it. Dirk makes Caliborn his robot leg, indulges his games, and indirectly delivers Lil Cal to him. Assorted other Dirk splinters serve Caliborn in various ways (Bro does his bidding in the beta universe; Lil Seb apparently just decides on his own to start waiting on Caliborn hand and foot; Hal becomes part of Lord English). These two are soooooo fucking intertwined and it drives me insane.

• The codependency and devotion are admittedly not particularly evident in canon, but I cannot resist imbuing these traits upon my favorite ships, so that's how I write them. Though like I said… they are very intertwined, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to imagine it could go that way.

• These two are ironically sweet in a way that circles back around to painfully genuine (much to Dirk's chagrin).

• Ah, the inherent eroticism of attempted murder. Can you really even say two dudes are in love at all if they've never tried to kill each other? I think not <3

• Putting Jake there for "they're fucking the same guy" is mostly a joke, but I do like ourobros, so, why the hell not. Fun fun fun dynamic as well.

Anyway. Yes. Love this ship. My darling freaky idiot boys. I adore them so fucking much <3

[maxemilianverstappen]

controversial(or unpopular) opinion on Max ships( Maxiel, Lestappen, Norstappen etc)

I am putting this under a read more and censor the ship names to not bother anyone.

I used to read a lot of M*xiel in the past, but I stopped some time around 2020. I don't know if it is the same now, but when I used to read m*xiel fics, the tropes that the authors majorly used became so irritating that it was almost impossible to find something outside the popular headcanons going around.

The majority of M*xiel shippers who write fics are either

A) Daniel fans who use Max as his accessory because Max makes their guy look irresistibly perfect and sunshine personified, or

B) Max haters who get some strange sense of achievement thru using him in their fics because the ship is very popular and thus writjng fics make them popular. There are so few M*xiel fans/authors that are normal about them and write/make normal fanworks, but they are the minority, so the ship turned sour quite quickly for me.

Category A writers write Max as either this unfeeling robotic, emotionally stunted and loveless manchild, or as a merciless brute who is also in depression, or with the maturity of a 5 year old in a grown man's body. They do this for plot's sake and to make their main fav Daniel be his prince charming/knight in a shining armour and it is so fucking overused that it makes me want to puke.

Category B people are in it for Daniel (they think being his fan means holding the moral highground LOL) and even though they hate Max, they write because they enjoy the attention their fics bring to them. Tragic.

N*rstappen is like a safe haven for me. I love their friendship. Lando's humor is edgy and yet blunt and makes an interesting juxtaposition to Max's more innocent, out there way of joking. They also look good together in a very soft way. I mean, they don't have sharp edges when together. They are easy on the soul if you know what I mean. And I must say, I am a sucker for their size difference and the way Max is so careful and loving with him. I hope people write more fics for them. Which reminds me I have to finish my abo fic about them too 🙈🙈

L*stappen is my current obsession. I am not reading much fics on them so that it doesn't affect my own writing style, even though I am not writing much. Yet, as far as I read of them before they became this popular, some people used to write Max as a brute and Charles as a crybaby and many of my mutuals used to talk about how much they hated this stereotyping. I can't say much on this, but I have read my fair share of them, so I avoid reading more as soon as I realize it is written with this characterization. Yes, Charles is female protag coded, but there are more ways to write him like that instead of as a weak damsel in distress.

I am not reading his other ships, like with Horner (i see him as his father figure so imagining them fucking disgusts me), Nando (he fucks Seb and Kimi, not a guy that can be his son), Lewis (i have no idea how people can even ship them after all the shit that went down 😬), Checo (that guy has four kids lol c'mon, it is not believable even when I desperately suspend my disbelief till the end) or George (i have no respect for the serious shippers of this abomination 🤣), but I must say I like the idea of him with Alex, too. His friendship with Mick and Este is also a very intriguing one. And I like him with Charles and Lando as a threesome, too (I can even be the only person on here using the norlestappen tag. And I am fairly sure I am the first person to use it lol)

[newsmutproject]

Hello, I am considering writing here but had a few questions regarding themes and kinks that were allowed, so I thought I'd get them all into one question. Firstly, are fantasy and Sci-fi settings, ok? and if so, are we allowed to use preexisting ones? secondly, are non-human characters allowed? alien species, fantasy races like orcs and dwarves, or Anthros?

Fantasy and sci-fi settings are more than okay! The first piece in the first volume of Erato is a prose poem about polyamory on an alien planet. Also, over the past few days we've shared author interviews from another previous anthology that answer your question: Tiana Talaria's story in Cunning Linguists has some amazingly hot ship's AI/captain dirty talking, Louise Kane's "Welcome to evolWorld" is about sex and love in alternative reality, and Seb Palumbus's "I Ought to Be Thy Adam" is a romantic and electrically playful T4T retelling of one of the spec fic originals, Frankenstein.

Pre-existing settings: If you created them and hold copyright, definitely. If they're in the public domain, sure. We can't publish stories set in Middle Earth, Pern, the galaxy far far away of Star Wars, etc.

Non-human characters: Hopefully a clear yes from the answers above and from the fact that we point out in our guidelines that "sex robots" are a hard sell but "robots who have sex" is not (both Erato and Cunning Linguists have some hot stories about sex and romance with robots, as well as aliens, goblins, and other beings who are able to affirmatively consent).

You can check out all the author interviews (including excerpts from stories) from the first Erato under this tag. This month as its release anniversary approaches, we're also re-sharing author interviews from Cunning Linguists, which can give an idea of the stories we publish. At the same time, we love to be surprised by new concepts, and we actively want to expand the range of identities and perspectives we publish with each book. So please send your speculative smut right in!

[7clubs]

ok not a yumimei ask this time but I’m curious to know what you think seb’s childhood was/how blaise treated her

whew. (TW for discussions/depictions of abuse [seriously tread carefully here...] brief mention of death/suicide in AA cases.)

tl:dr: Always walking around eggshells around Blaise. Awful mindgames. Might promote my fic chapter real quick actually since that delves into that a little... And I might talk about some of these more in a later chapter. But yeah...

I'd say she has some faint, nice memories of her mom, but she vanished when Seb was maybe 5-6. I think she was musically minded, though not financially powerful, maybe a teacher. Some of Seb's most vivid early memories are of sitting beside her, watching her play on their nice acoustic piano.

But after that, it was just her and Blaise.

Most of Seb's keepsakes of her mother disappeared except for that piano, only because it was too nice a statement piece to destroy. Though Seb only played it whenever he wasn't listening. (Thankfully, she acquired it after Blaise's incarceration, so she gets to play with her new family now.)

Straight off the bat I'm gonna say: I've seen a lot of people HC Blaise as having been physically abusive to Seb, burn scars, etc, in addition to the canon verbal abuse. Totally understandable, given the horrifying implications of this bit.

Which is to say that I don't see him """actually""" laying a finger on her even once. A big part of it is probably because it feels too heavy for the tone of AA, just for me personally... which is a WILD thing to think about considering the many murders and suicides and "matricide" AA DOES depict!!!

But they've always skirted around that kind of behind-closed-doors physical domestic violence (i'll be using this term in the familial/household sense rather than partner violence) as a serious theme in the games (as slapstick... not so much, unfortunately...)

Relatives do attempt to harm each other, again, see the "matricides" in the series and general Fey family drama... I don't know if this makes sense, but it's just less intimate and easier for the general viewer to stomach when these happen as part of grand schemes with robots and channeling thrown in the mix.

Seb flinching when they see Blaise approach and him taunting them when they do does Not hit that way. Seb willingly putting out the possibility that Blaise "wanted to kill her for being a nuisance" in her Logic Chess does not hit that way.

When I HC for stuff, I tend to find myself trying to match the tone of the original since I'm a boring stickler for canon. But I can't ignore how haunting that scene is, so this is the compromise I've found for myself. It's still really heavy, though.

Yeah, Blaise never ""actually"" laid a hand on her. But Seb was always, always keenly aware he could and was terrified for it. She's still terribly traumatized for it, and a big part of it is the second-guessing and guilt over how it "wasn't actually that bad."

One aspect of Blaise's deplorable character I find interesting and very characteristic of him is how he constantly dresses it up in being jokey and playful and, basically, layers of plausible deniability. It's a fucking mindgame minefield and I feel so bad for Seb.

Alongside the terrible verbal abuse and controlling her finances/life path/etc, one thing I could see him subject her to a lot is, yes, making a show of destroying stuff. Wrecking her stuff as punishment, or destruction for the sake of showing his own strength and, again, capability to hurt. I could see Blaise in a temper going on the warpath with Seb as a witness, and doing his shit apology later asking her to understand that his emotions just got the better of him, while Seb just nervously looks over to a chair he's reduced to splinters.

So that's really the undercurrent of their entire relationship: Insults and abuse dressed up as affection and jokes, constant uncertainty and tiptoeing on Seb's part because surely her pops really isn't that bad, he's provided for her all her life, she must understand how hard it is that he's a single father, it's not as if he's actually hurting her. He's scary when he's on a temper but at least it's not them. He's just got a peculiar personality, he's imperfect, but he's their pops. All the while wearing them down mentally so that they'd do anything for his favor, anything so he wouldn't actually cross the line, cling to a false sense of pride for stability. Always, always making excuses for him, to the very end. She eventually comes to terms with how awful it all is, through the 7yg.

(Re: Seb being trans... I don't think she'd describe her journey with the like "trapped-in-a-boy's-body but i was always a girl" narrative, more the "I was a boy for a long while and now I'm a woman" path of transness. She did hold back on some impulses though, wanting to experiment w/ presentation as a teen, because she knew that would Not go over well with Blaise. )

Anyway in the AAI3/AA7 I imagine in my brain the very first victim is Blaise Debeste. world is abundant, goodnight <33

[stressed-chaos]

Memories - Part 24

Finally, some work on getting them together! I hope whatever is in this one is within reasonable bounds (or they're again just being idiots).

I'm considering splitting this whole fic into two, since it set up all that was needed but got too long in the process. Maybe I will do it after a few more...

As usual, hope you all this one! Comments are appreciated! If anyone wants to be tagged, they can let me know!

Warning: Angst, then some angst, Seb calling them out on their shit, language, smoking, rain, guilt, regret, drinking, my shitty writing, fluff (cause I am a sucker for that)

The heavy pitter-patter of the hard pouring rain filled the background. He saw people rushing to find shelter, protecting themselves from the water attack. Ben was on the porch, safe.

He did not know if it was his tears or the rain that was blurring his vision. Or was it the smoke? 

He heard the door open and close, footsteps growing closer. A blanket was draped over his shoulders, and a body collided with his. Familiar scent filled the atmosphere as the person sighed, resting their head on his back. 

Y/N shuddered, “Why are you freezing yourself off?” Ben shrugged. 

“Benny, you’ll get sick. Come on, let’s go inside.”

Ben did not answer, he just blew out a puff of smoke. Y/N threw her arms around his neck, her body holding the blanket up, “Since when do you smoke?”

“Since when do you care?” 

Y/N was stunned, “What do you mean?”

When he did not answer again, she called his name and tried to face him. Ben was like a robot at this point, letting her move his body. Y/N adjusted the blanket and looked at him, eyes becoming wide at his state. She quickly took the cigarette from him, put it out with her foot and pulled him inside the house, both slightly shivering.

She brought out a towel, her thoughts going a million miles per minute. What the fuck did he mean by that? What gives him that idea? And why was he smoking? And— she would get her answers later. She wiped his face and hair, and wrapped his shoulders in another towel afterwards. 

His eyes were red and puffy. She did not know if it was from the cigarette and crying but got worried the same. She sat down beside him on the couch, giving him space. When his shoulders shook and light sobs started filling the silence, she forgot the space and took him in her arms. Y/N held him while he cried. She whispered comforting words in his ear, but did not try to shush him, he needed to get it out of his system. 

Ben’s sobs reduced to whimpers and he realized what was happening. He pushed Y/N away, not with enough force to hurt her, but just to create some distance between them. Y/N had a shocked but understanding look in her eyes. She just asked him, “Do you need anything?”

“Just need to be away from you.” He could have worded that better. But he was just too hurt to care.

“Okay, just, don’t smoke.”

“Don’t pretend that you care.”

“I don’t have to pretend, Ben. I do care.”

“If you did, you would try.”

Seeing her confused look, he clarified, “To remember.”

Y/N was stunned yet again. Seeing her silence, Ben continued, “Do you realize how hard it is to watch the lo— your best friend, look at you like a stranger? To see them look at you in a new light everyday? Like they’re seeing you for the first time? They forget all that you have been through and live their life, while you wait, wait for them to show a flicker of recognition. To have them with you but not have them at the same time?”

Y/N opened her mouth to object, when a crack of thunder broke through the sky, but Ben continued, “You hope, you hope every single day that they will remember you now. It’s the same cycle everyday. But there they are, not a care in the world if they remember you or not, just moving around,  purposely ignoring what they forgot.”

He had many more words he needed to say, or rather, take back. Sure, he felt like that. But he could not blame it on her. Yes, maybe he felt like she wasn’t trying, but she did not have any control over it. 

He did not know about all the headaches she had endured when he was asleep, trying to remember him. 

He did not know of the hours she spent crying in the bathroom, drowning her failure in tears.  

He did not know of her ranting sessions to Sebastian, her doctor. He did not know she had been calling his family and every time asked about him and their relationship. 

Y/N’s head was pounding. Anger filled her being over Ben not thinking she cares, because she does. She cares the most about him. 

Instead of correcting him and regaining his hope though, she lashed out, “I am trying. I am fucking trying. But why does it matter for you anyway? I’m just your best friend anyway, you also have Sebastian, right? WHY DOES IT MATTER IF ONE OF THEM DOESN’T? IT’S NOT LIKE I MATTER!”

“YEAH, MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T!”

Y/N could see the instant regret in his eyes. 

Ben wanted to kick himself. Couldn’t he just have screamed ‘I love you’ or something, like people do in stories?

But neither of them did anything.

After a few tense moments where the tension could be cut by a paper, Y/N looked away and nodded, “I wish I didn’t. Perhaps you don’t matter to me, Ben, maybe that’s why I forgot.” She picked up a jacket and shut the door loudly on her way out. 

Y/N had forgotten about the rain and was thankful she had grabbed the jacket. She put the jacket over her head and was immediately engulfed in the sweet scent of Ben’s cologne mixed with a hint of petrichor. She leaned into the scent and frowned, looking at the jacket. A wave of anger washed over her and she shrugged the jacket off, resisting the urge to rip it to shreds. 

She looked around, realizing she had almost reached Sebastian’s house and threw the soaking jacket in an open dumpster. She stood still for a moment, debating before ultimately deciding to go over to Seb’s. She hadn’t realized her tears were getting mixed with raindrops. A shocked Seb had ushered her inside as soon as he opened the door.  She had messed up, bad. 

Ben had sunk to his knees, his back supported by the wall. Tears had again started creeping out his eyelids. He let out an agonizing scream, enough to scare a grown man to death. He had messed up, bad. He blamed himself for her running away, again. Maybe she was correct. Maybe he hadn’t ever mattered to her. He was just living under an illusion.

It wasn’t his fault, no. Fate had played with their relationship cruelly. Forgetting was hard, but being forgotten was worse. It was just like his character had said—

“I’m not afraid of dying. It’s far worse for those left behind.”

-

Y/N had made herself comfortable on Seb’s couch, the one that Mackie had said so much about. She was wearing one of Seb’s hoodies and a pair of denim shorts, sipping on a cup of coffee. A shower had helped her get her to stop crying at least, but had not eased her mind. She had said some pretty hurtful words to Ben, but she just did not think she mattered that much in his life. Hadn’t he just wished that she shouldn’t? her mind put in, trying to ease her. 

He was angry. People say things they don’t mean in anger all the time, she argued, immediately needing to defend his actions. 

Ben was just angry, but what were you then?

She did not have an answer for that. What was she feeling at that moment? Angry? A little bit. She was mostly angry with herself for letting Ben think that. Terrified? If they don’t fix this, she is going to lose him anyway. There was one thing for sure, regret. But he was telling the truth…wasn’t he? She needed to prove to him that she was trying. And she will, except the crying sessions. 

Yes, she just needed to fix this. And maybe profess her undying love along the way.

Sebastian was sitting on a chair nearby, giving her time to gather her thoughts. He understood it had something to do with Ben, since she held a faint scent of him. Plus, she wouldn’t be walking in the rain if she did not need to get away from him. She broke the promise. Does she even remember it?

It took a few more moments, and Y/N spilled everything to him. She excluded the loving part, but Seb’s look told her she didn’t need to tell him anyway. She did not avert her eyes from her cup, waiting for Seb to call her out on her stupidity. 

“You two are idiots.”

He elaborated, but could sense a taken aback look on her face. She isn’t the only one in the wrong here, both are and Sebastian was the reasonable voice in their friendship, when Ben wasn’t and those were the matters of their relationship. He was the reasonable voice during their obliviousness (even though they did not believe him much then). People underestimate his matchmaking and setting people right skills sometimes.

“You care and of course you matter. You are the best thing that ever happened to him. He just broke down, it is hard for him draga, you have to understand that. Being forgotten isn’t a walk in the park. And how could you say he’s just your best friend? Your own heart probably doesn’t know how much it cares for him, Y/N. You’re clearly in love with him.”

Y/N didn’t even look surprised that he knew. 

“It was inevitable anyway.”

Now that was something.

“Why can’t I remember him, Seb? At first I was fine with new memories, but it hurts. He always looks at me with hope, and whenever I see it breaking little by little, I wish someone could just burn me alive. It feels like he is sometimes walking on eggshells around me. I’m not going to blow up, especially not on him.”

Sebastian denied. He wasn’t walking on eggshells because he thought she would be angry. It was more than that. The question that popped up, should he tell her? It was a hard fight between his mind and heart.

-

“Yeah, sure. Yes, I will ask him. Oh no, we are at a…park right now. I hope we don’t do that again. Yeah, we’ll stay safe. You sure you can’t tell me anything else? Okay, thanks.”

Y/N frowned when the call ended, looking at her phone. Shrugging, she pocketed the phone just as they were about to reach an intersection.

“Who was that?”

She looked on her right towards the blue eyed man whom she was walking arm in arm with, and informed him it was Ben’s mother. She was worried due to the last time they had their Seb-Y/N/N day and just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Well, nothing was wrong…yet.

“So, where shall we go?”

Y/N thought hard, “Come on, I’ll lead you.”

Ten minutes later, spent by Sebastian asking millions of questions about her plans, they were standing in front of a local bar. Sebastian stood mouth agape, this time not even having to convince Y/N to drink. It surely meant something was wrong. 

When they settled down and ordered their drinks, Seb raised an eyebrow. Y/N shrugged, “Let’s get a few drinks in before we get to that.”

Five drinks later, Y/N was gushing to Seb how cute her roommate was and how hard it was to resist kissing him. If someone got her drunk on a first date, it would be sure to remove all the mystery from their relationship and she would also never see that person again. 

“And he’s just there, walking around without a shirt like he owns the place—well technically he does own the place—hey, Seb? Are you listening?”

He was…partially. He was busy pretty much eye fucking a blonde from his place on the bar. Y/N almost grimaced from the sight. He looked ready to pounce on her. She nudged him to gain his attention and encouraged him to talk to the very interested person. 

Seb declined though, they had slipped her number to him with some drinks and he had promised to make sure Y/N was safe. Plus, he just won’t ditch her on their first Seb-Y/N/N day in a long time. He mouthed a ‘sorry’ to them despite Y/N’s protests, and turned his attention back. She sent him a glare but since that wasn’t changing anything, they continued to talk. Seb motioned for her to tell the reason for the drinking again. 

“I just want to purposely forget him and everybody’s disappointment and everything today. I want to forget he hates me for not remembering. Be with just you, and no other thoughts, just like the old days.”

Sebastian held his drink for a toast, “To loving and memories.”

-

Y/N went home, determined to make everything right. New revelations had come in faster than the speed to light and almost blinded her, she was understanding it all wrong. Thank you for existing, Sebastian Stan. But first, she needed to make an important stop.

Ben was settled on the porch, the rain had stopped. His anger and hopelessness calmed down. Now he was just worried. He only wished she was at Seb’s house, the closest safe place to them. As a cherry on top of it all, he had unexpectedly received a call from Y/N’s brother, per usual, asking about her. He desperately needed to discuss this with her. 

A figure was growing bigger and he realized someone was coming towards his house. He dashed towards the door, his heart on his sleeve. The Saints had ended his suffering and Y/N was there. He only now noticed that she was carrying his crumpled jacket. He took her in his arms, basking in the safety of having her back, not caring that they both were wet and that his jacket was smelling different.

When they broke apart, Y/N smiled sheepishly and held his jacket up, “I, uh, kind of…threw it in a, um, dumpster. Sorry about that.”

Ben chuckled, “I surely deserved that. I, uh, also, kind of, threw your…favorite hoodie in the, um, rain,” he looked ready to disappear.

“Yeah, I deserved that.”

They moved inside the house, opting for some privacy during their conversation. Before Ben could even close the door fully, apologies were tumbling from Y/N’s mouth.

“Ben, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said all that I did. You matter for me, even when I don’t remember you. I never thought you didn’t, not even for a trillionth of a second. I promise you, I will show you how important you are and I will try even harder to remember you. I can’t live without Ben, and just thinking about having to do that, makes me want to doom the whole world.”

She was softly smiling through the fresh tears that had started pouring from the corner of her eyes, “I’m so sorry I hurt you. I did not realize you were feeling all that, Benny. I should’ve tried harder. I was happy making all those memories, but clearly, you weren’t, and I should have caught on that. I’m so sorry I didn’t. I would understand if you don’t want to see me again, though.”

Ben furiously shook his head, as if he would stop for a moment and she would leave. He should have told her he wasn’t happy and she would have understood. It’s never healthy bottling your emotions, especially when they concern someone else and even more so when that someone is a person you love, more than yourself.

“Y/N, love, I should have told you. I am happy with those memories too, but a stupid side of my heart isn’t ready to part with everything we had. And that part is so fucking optimistic that it when it broke, it channelled all my anger and you were the one it cared for, and just…lashed out. I know you try, you aren’t really discreet in burning holes in my head. I felt like a fucking failure when I wasn’t able to help you and I just took that out on you. Also don’t push yourself, love, you are trying and that is more than enough. You don’t have to prove anything to me. I believe in you even when you don’t.”

An emotion filled Y/N tackled him in a hug, conveying all her emotions through the hug. She nuzzled her face in his collarbone while Ben nuzzled his nose in her hair, noticing a lingering smell of afterain. He pulled back enough to say, “Just, promise me, you will never walk out on us, not walk away from a fight. Never leave me.”

She nodded, “I promise.” That was all the assurance he needed.

In the end, one thing was more clear than a transparent surface, she will never leave him and he will never want her to.

[thesunlightismanufactured]

everyone is so fucking taken in by that fanfiction of this canon text. nobody ever wrote out the entirety of sassacre joke book fanfiction. i was thinking about seb he robot bunny for 30 seconds. i like to imagine pony pals even more pretentious. I tried reading this game faq fic once but it was an oc anyways and also i am skimming the faq things in the comic bro i know how the kernelsprite works i want a chuckle. i am also skimming nanna expositions . i have repeatedly thought about how my childhood ended and i wasted it over the past few days. I'm 19 and I can't carry a conversation. I don't know what else people do with each other.

[andthebubbles]

Pairing: Seb/Kimi

Summary: At twenty-seven, Seb has never seen fireworks before in his life.

Warning: character death (sort of/entirely yes… but also sort of no, but yes…)

A/N: robot Seb!

[lookosndhsk]

“Seb, aren't you freaked out?” Every human who doesn’t work with mimic engineering hates seeing mimics down to their components, it's said to ruin the illusion. Sebastian didn't even hesitate to help him.

“Why would I be? It's just you,” Sebastian replied without much thought, his concentration on shaping the lattice to the gash.

-

Charles is an android who should have had his memory wiped at the start of the season per regulation, Ferrari decided otherwise. Sebastian doesn't know.

[bsaka7]

🧠 for the fanfic ask pls!

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

omg thank u this was fun to think about because there are SO MANY! I have a little list and I really only work on one thing at a time...I've been toying with a max who becomes f1 engineer and pit crew after having to quit racing with his parents divorce and obv still having the sorts of questions like, what does it mean to have been the youngest in that position? and like, the competitive aspect both in wanting to win and wanting to be the best of your team, despite working together etc? what does his relationship with his family and their expectations now look like?...and then what does daniel's career trajectory end up looking like without max coming in to red bull. so it would be like...they meet whenever he moves to whatever other team and have a very different sort of relationship but i think max is still this kind of strange competitive lonely guy and he's like. why does the literal no1 driver here want to hang out with me like im just an engineer. but daniel is still daniel and max could never bring himself to say no....blah blah blah become friends, probably there is some pit issue at a race and it blows up a little....get together eventually u know how it is. i think theres like a 40% chance of me actually writing this one but we will see...anyway fun little morning thought project <333

[jayankles]

The Culmination: Endgame

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x Reader

Word Count: 2362

Summary: Y/N doesn’t feel so good and it’s not like her to not answer the phone to Sebastian. He was right to send over Josie, Y/N’s friend, over to find out what’s wrong.

Warnings: Angst, Implied Smut, Fluff

Written for: @anyfandomangstbingo​ | @anyfandomfluffbingo​ | @anyfandomgoesbingo​ 

Squares Filled:  Sick fic | first time | “I really don’t like doing this over the phone”

A/N - Blake Lively is not a representation of the reader; it’s just for the dress. And the other beautiful woman is exactly who I pictured for Josie.

Feedback is gold and appreciated

Of course, you were sick today. The day that Sebastian had told you that he was to take a day at the gym then spend it with Don. You knew that when you woke up this morning it wasn’t going to be a good day, the cold sheets a little foreshadowing of how your day would have gone. The little guttural feeling you had punching you in the gut right now, it had you on the floor, bent over the toilet seat with your head in the bowl.

You felt awful. Unable to move, unless it was your throat spasming. Definitely the worst day so far, you couldn’t move and when you finally were able to move at all you felt like a robot. Not a good look.

You decided that it was time to head back to bed, none of your food would stay down so you made yourself a bottle of water and stumbled into bed with a bucket in your hand, ready to put the bucket on the floor beside your bed.

Pulling at the covers, you curled up under them and took a swig of your drink. Tears rolled down your face as you felt the pain grow stronger, you rubbed your stomach in hopes it would make you feel better; it didn’t.

All you could do was pray that you would fall asleep to not feel this pain anymore. Sleep evaded you. The pain is all there is that you feel. You threw up another three times before you finally succumbed to the pleasures of sleep. Rattling of keys had been the object that had drawn you out of your few moments of slumber. You didn’t dare move though, there was no point, you couldn’t move anyway.

“Y/N! Y/N, where are you?” It took you a minute to realise that it was your friend, Josie, shouting your name in hopes of finding you. “Y/N, Whe- There you are. What are you still doing in bed? Oh...”

She looked as if she sighed out a breath of relief before she retracted, covering her mouth and nose with her hand. Inhaling the stench of the room, she quickly ran out of there, returning with air freshener, spraying it around you to make her feel better.

“You need a bath, babe. Stay here and I’ll run you one. Of course you’re going to stay here, you poor thing.” Josie rambled, you stopped her before she could go on for another hour.

“Jo, pour some lavender in there. Love you.”

Freshly out of the bath after thirty minutes, you were wrapped up in Sebastian’s bathrobe, a reminder that he was home as it still smelt like him. “I hate feeling like this. It sucks. But I feel better already.”

Josie softly smiled at you, pity in her eyes. “Must have been that nap you took but I know it sucks. Could you imagine Seb with this kinda illness, though? It would be 100% worse just because it’s man flu.”

“Thank you for being here.” You said, taking a seat on the couch. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Seb called, said he tried texting and video chatting you but you wouldn’t pick up. I guess he was right to have me come over and check on you.”

“He’s such a cutie.” You groaned as you walked, the bath only slightly relieving some of the pain.

“I know. It makes me wanna barf… not like you, though. That shit is nasty, no, thank you, ma’am.” She tutted through a pinched nose, reminding of just how gross you felt and smelt not even a mere hour ago.

“You’re a pleasure as always, Jo. Always so kind to me, when I feel like shit. Thank you.”

She shrugged knowingly, a smirk on her face as she reached forward for the remote, finding a music channel and turning it down a little so it faded into the background becoming nothing but white noise. “So do you know what brought this on? Eat some bad food?”

“I don’t think so, otherwise Seb would feel the same way right?”

“Well you aren’t pooping as well as being sick so this isn’t a viral or bacterial thing. You’re not burning up? No severe migraines?” She asked and you only had one answer.

“Nope. And no, my appendix hasn’t burst because I’ve already had it out.” You said, becoming tired again as you let out a yawn.

“Well, I think I might need to slip out for a little bit.”

“Why? Where are you going? I thought you were going to take care of me?”

“I am. I’m just gonna head to the store and grab you some stuff to make tomato soup. I’ll be twenty minutes tops.” Josie was true to her word, never taking more than the twenty minutes she promised. Putting the bag of groceries on the counter, Josie pulls out the contents, revealing the ingredients she offered to get for you but you could tell that there was something else in the bag.

“What’s in there?”

Josie was fidgety, her fingers twiddling together. “I need you to keep an open mind because I think I know why you’re grossly throwing up.”

“Hit me. I wanna know how I can feel better right now.”

“It’s a good thing that you’re sitting down because…” She paused, making a face that she knew you weren’t going to like. “Because I think you’re pregnant.” her face unchanging as she pulled out the pregnancy test.

Then it hit you. 

No.No.No. Fuck!

Hands dancing.

Tongues twining.

Passion blooming.

It was everything you could have asked for when he was away but now that Sebastian was back, you couldn’t keep your hands off of him. You covered every area of the apartment possible.

Oh crap.

“Fuck!”

“Yes you did.” Josie laughed at her own joke, the reaction not quite the same on your end.

“Oh god, Sebastian is going to kill me. He’s never going to want to talk to me. Why was I so stupid? Oh, I’m never gonna hear from him again. I’ll be kicked out. I’ll be a single mother. I’m gonna have to live with you and if I have this baby, you’re gonna hate me, then you’re gonna kick me out too. ”

Josie scoffed at you, helping you scurf back your hair away from your face, making you look into her wide eyes. “First of all, chill. I gotchu, you know I gotchu forever. Sebastian isn’t like that, but if he is you will never see him again and that is a promise and maybe a little bit of a threat. He’ll deserve it if he hurts you so. Just be my alibi if anything ever happens. Just go take the test. Negative? You’re just sick. Positive? You call Sebastian and you talk to him like an adult.”

“Why are you always right? Don’t you ever get sick of it?” You huffed before you smiled at her, squeezing at her hand after taking the small handful of the pregnancy test boxes back to the bathroom.

Five minutes passed and you were holding the peed on sticks in your hand, four out of five of them being positive. “I think I need to call Sebastian, and a doctor.”

After making an appointment with the doctor, you took a deep breath and pressed the button to call Sebastian. He picks up the call pretty quickly and you are not surprised.

“Y/N! Finally! Are you okay? What happened?”

“Hey bubba. I’m fine, just a little sickness. But I really don’t like doing this over the phone. When are you coming home. We need to talk.”

Two months later.

It was the night of the premiere of Avengers: Endgame and you couldn’t be more thrilled for the success that the Marvel Franchise had. It was 10 years of absolute lovable craziness. Thank you, Stan Lee.

You had no idea that you would be here on the aptly coloured, purple carpet with Sebastian after all you would have thought that you would still be with him after the whole pregnancy fiasco but the two of you were able to talk things through. Things were thrown, voices were raised, and tears were shed but still after all of that, Sebastian made the executive decision to calm the two of you down. The stress was no good for anyone at this point. You were both going to be parents; it’s what was established.

The two of you walked hand in hand, palms sweating as the cameras flashed, and photographers called out to each and every star that was involved in the production of Endgame. The culmination of the whole franchise was just so surreal, the fact that it was ending with a bang both made you swell with pride but it also made you a tad emotional because this collection of amazing characters wouldn’t continue but the legacy they left would. And that was what mattered.

“Sebastian! Y/N! Over here!” You heard from one of the interviewers, looking beautiful in her outfit, Sebastian rubbed his thumb across your knuckles, you were going to be okay. He was right there with you and you had done this a few times before. He was there for you.

“Hi.” “Hello. You and Sebastian answered at the same time, making the interviewer laugh.

“Wait, I remember you. I bought you a soup in a thermos and Tom gave you his jacket. I see we got lucky with good weather today, huh?” You said, smiling at her.

“Yes. You remember me?!” The woman turned to the camera looking right into the lens of it. “Guys, I’m fangirling so hard right now. Ah!”

Once the woman got her fangirling out of the way, she moved onto the interview, trying to get any information that she could before the movie premiered. Sebastian took over that one, telling her that there was no way that they were allowed to say anything about the movie other than he was dust.

“Now we’ve got that movie non gossip out of the way. Are you okay to talk freely about your pregnancy?”

You looked to Sebastian, it was his decision just as much as it was yours, you knew that Sebastian wanted to keep his private life separate from his professional acting career. “It’s okay, honey. Go ahead.”

“I think you’re good to go.”

“Thank you. I must say that you do look stunning in that dress.” She gushed, you thanked her, hiding your face a little. You loved this dress, the nude under layer and the little white and purple flowers that scattered across your dress, your bump barely visible through your dress.

“How far along are you?”

“Well, we’re in the first week of the second trimester. So I’m a little more confident when telling you that.”

“That’s amazing. Was the pregnancy planned at all?”

You made a face, sucking in a little air, looking to Sebastian for a little light to be shed on the situation. “Not at all. It was Y/N’s friend that actually realised that her morning sickness wasn’t her having the flu. She felt absolutely awful that morning, it was enough to know that it was bad when I tried to call her and I didn’t get an answer.

“We had our issues, you know, we didn’t know what to do, we're new at this. But I think that it’s important to know that you don’t abandon your family.” Sebastian softly smiled at you, subconsciously putting a hand on your slowly growing stomach. “I guess that is what this franchise is about though, right? It’s about family and- and looking out for one another. Everybody’s got a somebody here and I love that.”

“And Thanos, fucks it all up and snaps his goddamn fingers.” The three of you and the cameraman began to laugh at your little outburst about the mad, purple titan. “God, I can’t wait for the premiere tonight but I’m scared. For everybody. But especially for me, you know, I’m an emotional person anyway, add a hormonal woman to the mix and a whole lot of angst. Get my ice cream and tissues ready, because I’m coming for you, Thanos.”

“I heard that!”

“Love you, Josh. For the record, Josh is a nice guy, the character he plays is a big old sack of balls and I have no idea how he does it so convincingly.” Lovingly, you made eyes at Seb. “But it’s just like my Sebastian, a dark hydra assassin but in reality he’s a big ball of sunshine and goofiness. And I love him for it.”

“This is- this is what gets me.” The interviewer leaned in a little as Sebastian’s voice dropped to a slight whisper. “I know that she is going to be the best mom for our child because Y/N loves everything and everyone and that is a great quality to have but she’s also caring and matches my goofy side but her sass outweighs mine of course, no one can beat that.”

“Aww, he’s making me cry already. Seb,” you whined. “My makeup.”

“Well that's it folks.” The woman spoke, telling the audience that this was one of the cutest interviews that she had ever taken, that she could die happy and quickly saying congratulations before the two of you were whisked away to walk the carpet again and pose for pictures.

“You’re way too good to me, you know that right?” You said to Seb as you admired the sky blue suit he was wearing over his plain white tee. “I never even got to tell them that this baby will have the hottest dad in the world as well as the sweetest man. Thank you for being my baby daddy.”

Unbeknownst to you, the cameras had caught every single moment the two of you shared. The kisses you shared together, were now shared with the world, all over social media. At this point you didn’t care, you only cared about the man in front of you and the baby growing in your stomach. And this god damn movie!

Feedback is gold and appreciated

[buckys-other-punk]

Hold on..THIS IS YOU?!

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x Reader

Request: where she is a fanfic writer and Sebastian stumbles upon her blog and messaged her as well not letting her know who he was but being an open person she is as to who she was, sending pictures and all, and until one day, decides to meet with her and she is surprised that it was the one she was writing for?

Word Count: 3.6K

Warnings: fluff, sarcasm (of course) and cussing? i think that’s all

A/N: Hello my lovelies. I am sorry I haven’t been posting as much, but that’s usually how I roll..no jk I legit had no time to write because of my classes this semester, so if this sucks I’m sorry lol. I’m still trying to get back into my writing groove...Also don’t mind my minor mistakes 😅

A/N 2: Anyways I AM BACK AND this is my first request ever!! I’m so excited to write this, I am soo sorry this took forever, but hope I did your request justice and that you like it (and so do others). I feel like I wrote this kinda cheesy, but whatever.

[Y/B/N = your blog name]

As always lemme know if you wanna be tagged in my future works and feedback is very much appreciated. Enjoy! <3

Just another normal day without stress and a less anxiety filled world...no, today was actually awful. You were swamped with work and your best friend was complaining about her boyfriend. Let’s just say that the stress she was having with him was making you feel happy that you were single. Trying to relax you heated up some coffee (a/n: or tea) and sat on the couch of your small apartment. Grabbing your laptop you wanted to unwind reading. Probably some fanfics on Tumblr usually does the trick. 

After reading some pretty good marvel related fics by your mutuals, you got inspired to write some fics yourself. Opening up a new tab you began writing about your favorite actor, Sebastian Stan. That man literally makes your miserable day a little better. Sadly, like all the girls and women who fantasize over him, he doesn’t know you. But, whatever right? You can always use your imagination and conjure up a make believe world where the two of you are happily engaged and have a German Shepard puppy named Stitch. Shaking your head to clear your thoughts, you opened another tab on your laptop to pull up your writing playlist, you began typing away on your keyboard writing a new AU where you’re the celebrity of the world you were creating and he was a huge fan of you. After you finished your new fic, you posted that immediately without edits because you were so excited to see people read it.

*across town*

“Have you guys ever read any fanfiction about your characters or yourselves?” the interviewer asked the pair.

“You know I’ve seen a few that were quite impressive. These writers are damn creative.” Anthony replied with a smile. “I will also not lie. I’ve read a few steamy ones and y’all are dirty.” he added with a slight disgusted face shaking his head towards the camera.

“What about you Sebastian? Have you read any?” the interviewer lady asked, looking over to the man.

“Honestly. I haven’t.” Sebastian chuckled looking back at her. “Maybe, if Mackie here finds a good one about me I’ll give it a read.” shrugging towards his friend.

“Oh man, I got a few that are worth reading.” Mackie laughed, rubbing his hands together.

“Hey, might as well share them with the world. Let’s give that writer a shout out!” she exclaimed, placing her notecards on her lap.

“Well, like I’ve said I’ve only read a bit, but I do have some blogs that I’ve saved. Maybe next time I’ll name drop a few and give fans some well deserved praise.” Anthony smiled looking at the two.

“Alright, well you better have a huge list for me.” the lady said with a smile looking at Anthony. “Thank you both again for your time. For everyone watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes out in March 2021.” She finished off the interview smiling and waving at the camera and the two men followed her actions as well. Once the cameras and mics were turned off the lady came back to the two men.

“Thank you again guys for your time” the lady said to the pair shaking their hands (a/n: ok let's pretend there is no corona in this world so yeah. Everyone is healthy and so is the world!). The two replied with a simple you’re welcome and another thanks in return.

“Wait, have you really read fanfiction before?” Sebastian asked his co-star as the pair walked towards their manager, who was waiting for them outside the room, getting their schedule for the pair’s next interview.

“I mean yeah. I got curious on what people were writing about us and our characters.” Anthony responded with a shrug looking down at his phone.

“Aren’t most of those like fifty shades of grey?” Sebastian asked, staring at his friend as stood near their manager.

“Only if you want them to be..” Mackie stared at his friend with a blank face as they came to an abrupt stop. “Nah man, I’m just playing. Some of them are steamy, others can be sad, like crazy sad and some are like tooth rotting cute. Like I recently read one that was with Captain America and this original character that the author came up with and it made me say ‘aww’ when I finished it. Me. A grown man said ‘aww’ after reading a fanfic. A FANFIC!” he added. Their manager quickly explained their schedule and walked them over to their car to head off to the next location. The two were seated at the back, while their manager sat next to the driver.

“You know what. Send me that story you read.” Sebastian said to Anthony.

“Are you sure Seb?” Anthony asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah, why not.” he replied with a shrug. “Might as well read a good story before our next interview.”

“Alright let me send it to you right now. Honestly I think this writer is one of my favorites. I don’t know if it's her writing style or how she portrays our characters, but she’s amazing.” Mackie said with a smile getting the fic he recently read and sending it to his friend. 

“So all her stories are good?” Sebastian asked, looking at the notification.

“I just said that she is my favorite writer.” Anthony looked at his friend with a ‘are you serious face.’ 

“Okay. Okay.” Seb said with his arms up in defense. After a few minutes of reading the fanfic Sebastian actually said ‘aww’ aloud just like Mackie after he first read the story.

“It was good wasn’t it.” Anthony asked with a toothy grin.

“Yeah this was really good. Y/B/N is a pretty good writer.” Sebastian said looking through your feed.

“You should tell her!” Anthony exclaimed.

“What, like make an account?” Seb asked.

“Well yeah, but I mean not your actual name of course. Make a fan account. Show these writers your appreciation, I know that if I were an author I would love that (a/n: wink wink). I’ve messaged a few writers complimenting their work without actually telling them who I am.” Anthony said, placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“I’m gonna read more stuff from her before I message her.” Sebastian chuckled. Sebastian clicked onto your main blog page to find that you had just posted a new fic about him. “Wait, dude she just posted a new story...About me!” Sebastian exclaimed, showing his phone to Anthony. 

“Nice, but we have to finish these interviews. You gotta read it during your free time man, sorry to crush your dreams.” he chuckled, unbuckling his seat belt and getting out of the car. Sebastian sighed and followed his co-stars actions getting out of the car and continuing the rest of his day filled with interviews.

*later that evening*

After the interviews Anthony and Sebastian had dinner together at a fancy restaurant. During their dinner they talked about how crazy some interviews were. Sebastian brought up the subject of how Mackie publicly announced that he had read fanfiction. With that still stuck in his mind the two finished their meal and after parting ways. Sebastian took a cab and arrived at his apartment, changed out of his fancy suit to some comfy clothes and grabbed a bottle of water from his fridge. He walked over to his couch turning on the tv, not really paying attention to what was playing, grabbing his phone he opened the tumblr app finally creating an account.

*one week later*

Sebastian has read almost all of your works and texting Anthony almost every time after he has finished a new fic giving his reactions to each. He has liked and reblogged everything he has read from you and other writers, but he favors your stuff the most.

Mackie: dude you should tell her you like her stuff and stop texting me!

Seb: Alright I will, I just don't know what to say.

Mackie: Just say you like her work. It's as simple as that.

Seb: okay okay I will

Mackie: ok good, no stop texting my its legit 2 am

Seb: fine

Sebastian opened up the messaging area of the app and began typing away his appreciation to you. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous after he pressed send. Getting out of the app completely he tried to focus on whatever was playing on the tv. Then all of a sudden he heard a notification go off and his phone light up. Looking down on it he saw that it was a notification from you. Again his nervousness took place as he unlocked his phone to read the notification. The app opened and the direct message filled his phone screen.

(a/n: this is my first time using a fake dm thingy so just imagine that Seb is following you)

Seb: Holy shit dude, she actually replied back to me!

Mackie: Well of course she did, she's not a robot. But maybe she is since she’s up so late...

Seb: shut up and why are you still up? I though you were mad at me for texting you

Mackie: well you woke me up so what am i supposed to do

Seb: whatever I’ll let you go

Mackie: alright. bye lover boy 

Sebastian shook his head at the text, he went back to the app to reply back to you. “What should I say?” he said to himself. “Maybe she’s in a different time zone or lives across the world or something… Okay okay. Maybe be chill and say I hope i didn’t wake you? No that sounds weird.” he shook his head trying to come up with something to say. Eventually he fell asleep trying to think of what to say to you.

*the next morning/later that day*

Sebastian woke up with his phone gone from his hand. He quickly got out of his bed in panic to look for it. Maybe you had said something to him or he had said something dumb to you. Once he found his phone he quickly unlocked it to check and thank god he didn’t say anything stupid. But he didn’t say anything. He shook his head clearing his thoughts. “Alright I think I know what to say.”

Y/N’s POV

You woke up to the sound of cars honking, groaning you looked at your clock. “How is it already 10 am?” you said aloud to nobody in particular. You sat up on your bed and grabbed your phone scrolling through various social media apps. At the top of your screen you saw a notification from tumblr. Opening the app to the notifications section, you noticed it was a blog that had messaged you from earlier in the morning.

sebstan_fan: Nice to meet you Y/N. I’m Carter. I don’t know where you live, but I just woke up and had a dream about one of your fics. (wow I hope that didn’t sound creepy)

You smiled at the message, since you loved interacting with your followers.

y/b/n: haha its ok. I actually live near New York City and I also woke up. What was your dream about? (if i can ask)

Sebastian’s POV

Sebastian had just finished taking a shower and began preparing his late breakfast. “Holy shit she replied again!” he said to himself looking at the message.

sebstan_fan: Wait, you live near NYC! Me too! Wow such a small world. But anyways my dream was honestly just a reenactment of your fic.

y/b/n: that’s so crazy how we live near each other lol. But that's so cool how you dreamt about my work. You must have really liked it.

sebstan_fan: yeah it was really interesting how you wrote such a life like scenario.

y/b/n: thank you Carter <3

sebstan_fan: ok I now this is random, but what’s your favorite place to eat in New York?

y/b/n: ooh that’s tough. Let’s go with Lombardi’s since its the very first pizza place to open in the US

sebstan_fan: oh wow an excellent choice :)

*a couple weeks later*

You and your new tumblr friend have been talking about one another’s favorite hobbies and interests for the past few weeks. You feel like you have grown a new connection with your new friend and telling them about your shitty days at work. Today your best friend wanted to bring you with her and her boyfriend to some fancy restaurant. 

y/b/n: Carter, I’m practically third wheeling with her and her boyfriend. 

sebstan_fan: well that sounds awful. Where is she taking you?

y/b/n: idk to some fancy restaurant I’ve never heard of. Anyways she’s making me wear fancy clothes, but I just wanna wear my pajamas!

sebstan_fan: y/n come on. you gotta dress nice if other people are dressing nice too 

y/b/n: ughh ok I think I found something nice. *sends picture of yourself in an elegant dress* what about this?

Seb’s POV

Sebastian got a glass of water and sat back down on his couch. Unlocking his phone to see the new dm from you he spit his water out of his mouth wetting the coffee table in front of him. “HOLY SHIT SHE’S GORGEOUS!” he yelled aloud staring at his phone in awe of your beauty.

sebstan_fan: Y/N, you look amazing! That dress is literally making you glow!

y/b/n: stop you’re making me blush..my friend just pulled up. I’ll dm you later once this stupid night is over. 

sebstan_fan: alright have fun 

y/b/n: <3

Sebastian quickly called Mackie to tell him that you sent him a photo of yourself. 

“Dude, she is unbelievably gorgeous. I actually spit my water out all over my coffee table when I saw the picture. ” Sebastian said on the phone.

“Man you are so obsessed with her, it's kinda creepy.” Anthony replied through the phone.

“What? No man, we just clicked. We have a bunch in common and she’s really easy to talk to.” Sebastian gushed to his friend.

“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that you’re lying to her about your real identity. You’re like fucking Superman with a secret persona!” Anthony snickered at the man on the other line.

“Dude no, but I’ll tell her eventually that I’m me.” Seb replied back to Anthony.

“Well you better do it soon because I’m tired of hearing about you gushing over this woman.” Anthony huffed under his breath. “Anyways I gotta go so bye bitch.” 

Sebastian laughed at his friend hanging up the phone and heading to his room getting ready for bed. As he laid on his bed he couldn’t take his mind off of you in that dress. You were so open with sharing your life to him, a complete stranger, yet he couldn’t do the same.

*the next day*

y/b/n: Carter! I forgot to dm you once I got home, but that dinner was terrible. I hated every minute of it.

sebstan_fan: what happened? Also good morning :)

y/b/n: good morning, sorry if I woke you. But anyways my best friend and her boyfriend brought some dude to make it a double date and the guy was a complete douche. I couldn’t stand a minute being there.

sebstan_fan: damn I’m sorry to hear that. I bet if I was there with you the night wouldn’t have been so bad haha

y/b/n: creepy..jk But I bet we would have completely ditched my friend and her boyfriend lol

sebstan_fan: wait, I got an idea! I mean since we live around the same area why don’t we meet!

y/b/n: what like in person?

sebstan_fan: no through zoom, yes in person!

y/b/n: wow the sarcasm in this one, but that sounds like a lovely idea. I feel like I already know so much about you tho...

Sebastian huffed under his breath, “not everything.”

sebstan_fan: lol yeah but it’ll be different to meet in person. Anyways where should we meet?

y/b/n: lol that’s true. Well I know this small cafe that’s so cute and I heard they have pretty good pastries. It would be awesome to meet there :D

sebstan_fan: alright how about Saturday afternoon? You don’t have work right?

y/b/n: nope I’m off! but that sounds good to me! I’m so excited and nervous at the same time. Like what if you’re some creepy stalker...

Sebstan_fan: why would you accuse me of such a thing?!

y/b/n: lol you know i’m just messing with you. But I gotta go my friend is now calling me, probably about that douche from last night...but I can’t wait to see you Carter!<3

“Yeah, me too.” Sebastian said to himself smiling.

*Saturday*

You sat at the cafe where you told your new tumblr friend to meet you. You ordered a drink and once it was finished, you grabbed it and sat near the windows saving a seat for Carter. As you waited you pulled out your laptop and began on typing away a new fic idea drawing inspiration from the small cafe and the gloomy weather outside. 

“I’m sorry that seat’s taken...” you muttered to a man who pulled out the chain next to you, looking up at the figure. “Holy shit!” you exclaimed to the man who sat next to you.

“Shhhh...Please don’t say anything.” Sebastian whispered to you, sitting on the chair next to you and taking off his sunglasses.

“What? But how? You’re!? I can’t breathe.” you exclaimed erratically looking down at your drink.

“Hey, hey Y/N, just calm down and take slow deep breaths.” he said calmly placing his hand on your back.

“How the fuck do you know my name?!” you exclaimed again staring wide eyed at the actor. “Am I getting pranked or something? Where are the cameras?!” you nervously laughed looking around the empty cafe.

“No, you’re not getting pranked. It’s me Carter…” he said quietly rubbing the back of his head.

“You’re Carter?! I thought you were a girl!” you said looking into the man’s blue eyes.

“I may have lied about who I was, but I wanted to meet you.” he started as he stared down at the ground. “I didn’t want you to freak out knowing that it was actually me.” he said looking back up at you.

“Let me just gather my thoughts for a sec.” you said, putting your hand to your temples.

“Wait, why did you assume I was a girl?” he asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know! Carter is a unisex name.” you frantically said with a shrug. “And I mean most of my followers are female, so I just assumed you were one too.” you added grabbing your drink and taking a sip to calm your nerves.

“That makes sense I guess.” he said chuckling, looking out the big window of the cafe.

“This is so crazy that you are here. Sitting next to me and talking about my stupid tumblr blog.” you uttered. “Like you’re famous!”

“Yeah so what.” he looked back to you. 

“I mean aren’t you busy filming and stuff?” you asked the man.

“Nope, we just wrapped up the interviews a couple of weeks ago. I’m on vacation.” he said with a toothy grin, which made you blush. “Aww look she’s blushing.” he said sweetly towards you.

“Shut up. It’s not like I get to meet my favorite actor who I’ve had a crush on since forever sitting next to me and casually conversing with.” you muttered quickly hoping he didn’t hear your profession of love for him.

“You got a crush on me?” he smiled at you.

“Fuck you. I do not!” you exclaimed looking away from him.

“Aww I think you do.” he said, nudging your shoulder.

“Whatever.” you said under your breath trying to hide your embarrassment.

“Hey, I’m in awe too.” he began, which made you look at him. “It’s not like I get to see a beautiful woman who I like.” he smirked at you.

“I think I’m dreaming. Did you just say you like me?!” you asked pinching yourself back into reality.

“I mean yeah. I really like your work as a writer and the past what month we’ve been talking I think you’re a really cool and sweet person.” he said now blushing. 

“I bet you say that to all the women you meet.” scoffing at his comment.

“No I’m serious Y/N. I think you’re a really talented writer. And I think you’re also really pretty.” again blushing, but this time he looked straight at you.

“Oh, wow. Thank you so much Sebastian.” you hesitated, your cheeks heating up. “That means a lot coming from you.” you smiled.

“Of course. And also I wanted to ask you in person if after coming clear about who I actually am, if you wanted to go out sometime. I know its weird and all sudden but-”

“Yes!” you exclaimed quickly cutting him off. “I mean. I would love to.” you said more calmly. “God, I’m trying so hard to keep my inner fangirl in.” you huffed under your breath. 

Sebastian laughed at your comment and then asked, “Alright then. What about tomorrow I take you out for dinner?” 

“That sounds delightful.” you smiled at the man. The two of you fell silent watching the people who passed by the small cafe.

“Oh, but can I ask you one more question? Why are you wearing a hat? And shades earlier? It's legit rainy and cloudy as hell outside.” you asked, looking at the man with your head resting on your hand.

“I’m going incognito. I don’t want my fans to recognize me.” he replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Are you embarrassed of them seeing you with me?” you hesitantly interrogated.

“No, I just don't want them to interrupt our first date.” he responded with a smirk looking at you.

“Wait, this is a date?!” you exclaimed with wide eyes.

“Only if you want it to be sweetheart.” Sebastian smirked, winking towards you.

“Fuck you.” You said with a smile.

A/N: Yay you finished! Was that good? bad? cheesy? lemme know lol Again if you wanna be tagged in future fics, have any requests or just wanna chat hit me up! Thank you guys for reading and I hope you get excited for more stuff to come.

Tags: @lostinthoughtsandfeelings @sebtheromanianprince​ @aquabrie @who-the-hell-is-sebastianstan​ @princess76179​ @anbrax5553​ @wintersoldierissucharide @caplanbuckybarnes​ @miraclesoflove​ @kitkatd7 @msgreenverse @saiyanprincessswanie​ @fandomsandxfiles @hailmary-yramliah @coffeebooksandfandom​ @thefallenbibliophilequote

^please lemme know if you wanna be added to future works or removed for tags^

[luninosity]

Okay, so, some Falcon and the Winter Soldier thoughts (will have some spoilers) for episodes two and three. General non-spoilery comment first: I feel like these were both *okay* episodes - neither as good as the first, but I didn’t dislike them, either. I’m still really curious to see how we’re going to wrap this all up in three more episodes; it doesn’t feel like we’re halfway done yet!

Okay, more spoiler-y notes below the Read More, not in any real order, just as I think and type. I’ll probably forget some things, but for now, here’re some thoughts...

--I like ep 3 slightly more than ep 2, mostly because of Zemo!

--I actually really love Zemo here (I liked him in Civil War, too): complex, sardonic, enjoying poking at people, a villain we do feel sympathy for even as he’s still sharp enough to remind us that he is a villain. Daniel Bruhl has always done a fantastic job flipping between calculated cruelty, wry humor - the whole “I am a Baron” moment was great - and pain that for him is still raw, about the loss of his family. (Some things’re awfully cliche - look, the supervillain’s playing chess and reading Machiavelli in his cell? really? - but, y’know...sure. Why not. We expect some cliches in the superhero genre, and this is an inoffensive one.)

--also Zemo dancing. That’s it. That’s everything.

--moving on from that: I’m also really liking how they’re writing John Walker. He does have charm, and there’s a certain amount of sympathy - especially as we see him worrying about filling the Captain America shoes, in ep 2 - but we’re also getting this really subtle sense of wrongness about him. He’s clearly vindictive and angry when things (and people) don’t act according to his mental script for them, and he’s willing to use his name and power to do things like get Bucky released...which in context and given our sympathies for Bucky is a good thing, but...it’s also an indicator of his willingness to do what he wants, because he can. (To be fair, Steve Rogers also often did that! - but Steve earned our trust, both in narrative and character. From his first introduction to WWII leadership experience to all the Avengers stuff, Steve consistently acts to protect people, and he’ll also listen if someone else has a good idea or if someone needs to talk, like with Wanda.) So I’m really liking this slow-fuse character development.

--mixed feelings about Sharon. I love that the show’s acknowledging how much she sacrificed for our main heroes, with no reward. On the other hand, she also clearly knew the consequences that could happen; she said as much at the time. The level of bitterness seems like a lot. But I’m also interested in everything we still don’t know about her - if she’s not the Power Broker herself, she’s obviously Up To Something. So that should be fun.

--hey, look at that X-Men location, with Majipoor! Also a nod to Wolverine’s favorite bar there, I think?

--I love heist and disguise plots!

--I also really like Bucky’s having to revert to the Winter Soldier - Sebastian Stan does it so brilliantly, with so many layers of emotion: not wanting to, loathing it, recognizing the necessity, shutting off all emotion and just coldly doing it, hurting but covering it up...just fantastic, and you know I love some hurt/comfort, and this seems like such a great set-up for emotional hurt

--but! this also seems like...a weird plot hole, kind of? Bucky’s pretty famous at this point, right? I imagine the criminal underworld knows he’s been pardoned and deprogrammed, right? or do they assume Zemo, with his knowledge of Hydra, still has some special control over him?

--along the same “this seems like someone didn’t think this through” path, Sam, you’re a professional, turn off your phone on a mission. Oh my god. Face-palmingly stupid - and I think somewhat lazy writing, as the writers plainly needed a giveaway, and went for the first idea they had. Even if it made a main character look incompetent.

--the Flag Smashers and Karli are...fine. They feel very Generic Marvel Villain - not the big space alien type, but the other type, the “I have a personal loss and motivating pain so I’m a little sympathetic but also Clearly Evil, watch me kill civilians so the audience won’t ever find me TOO sympathetic” type. Meh. Fine. Zemo’s more interesting, but...fine.

--Anthony Mackie is such a fantastic actor - every bit of his reaction to the Isaiah Bradley reveal is so good. The anger, pain, frustration, ferocity...heartbreaking. Actually that whole scene is so good - his emotions at discovering this secret history are palpable, and it’s so painful, because we also understand why Bucky would keep the secret - as someone who knows about pain and trauma and being experimented on, and knowing Isaiah wants to be left alone - we feel really deeply for both characters here, and it’s great.

--I actually liked the abrupt swing from the Isaiah Bradley encounter to the casual everyday racism of the cops on the street - is it subtle, no. But it’s not meant to be: it’s meant to be standing up and shouting about how not that much has really changed, and about how pervasive racism is. I know some reviews were all, “this was just too much!” or “too forced!” but...look, it needs to be shouted sometimes for people to hear.

--Bucky’s notebook being Steve’s, oh, ouch, my feelings. If I had the time and energy to write fic...

--(also, if I had the time and energy to write dark!fic: where’re my fics in which Zemo’s implication about the Winter Soldier “doing anything you want” gets played with? what or who does Bucky have to do to keep the undercover charade going? so many Bad Wrong Kinky power dynamics and explorations of consent and what this would do to Bucky’s head, here, and honestly I’d totally read them all, just saying.)

--Sam and Bucky together...I don’t know. This is one of the elements that I’m not actually a huge fan of, but I think it’s partly a personal genre / sense of humor thing that’s not clicking for me, personally, again. Like...

--I don’t find people shouting aggrievedly at each other to be funny? I’m not sure why it is.

--I mean, I get that they’re doing, like, eighties buddy cop movies, but...it got old really fast then, and it’s not something we needed to bring back. It’s not clever, and it’s...well, shouty and annoying.

--(I say this as someone who genuinely likes the first two Lethal Weapon movies...but the significant difference is, I think, we’re also shown in both those movies that Riggs and Murtaugh care about each other. They don’t want to be partners initially, and they don’t get along initially, and they do argue over tactics**...but they immediately feel responsible for each other and act to protect each other even as they argue, because it’s the right thing to do and we’re shown moments of them awkwardly trying to connect, because they both have that deep sense of...protectiveness...that makes them Good People - like, if they learn something that the other person needs to know, they tell each other. They protect each other’s families / love interests. So by the end of the second movie, with that fabulous character death fake-out, Murtaugh’s initial shock and grief is real and powerful and painful, and so is his genuine relief when the worst isn’t true - and it’s all earned.) (**however, they tend to argue tactics *before* jumping in - “is it 1, 2, 3, go on 3? or 3, then go?” And then once that’s established, they go ahead. That makes a difference as far as...well...competence and teamwork!)

--(Sam and Bucky, as far as I can tell, don’t do the above, and just...maybe shouldn’t be working together?)

--I also don’t find grown men acting like my youngest nephew, when he’s having a temper tantrum, to be funny. Staring contests? Random insults? Sulking in silence? Oh, grow up.

--(Also, yes, writers, we see you with the “couples therapy” and “get closer and make your legs touch” and “landing on top of each other as they hit the ground” moments. I, at least, personally, am very tired of...I don’t know that I’d call it queerbaiting exactly, but this idea that we’re supposed to find these moments funny...because why? Because, ooh, they’re two men getting close to each other, physically or emotionally? Why is this a thing we need to draw attention to? Do you think you’re doing some sort of fan service? Please either make Sam/Bucky happen or stop doing this.)

--both Sam and Bucky are highly competent and professional agents, or they should be. They should know how to work in the field - even with people they may not like - and adapt to shifting strategy, make best use of available assets, include people in the plan, etc. I can’t help but compare this to something like, say, Leverage, which also has a team who mocks each other and makes jokes but clearly absolutely respects each other’s capabilities, has a plan going in and tells everyone what the plan is, and adapts (and trusts each other to adapt) on the fly as necessary, and does it all without random insults about someone’s (PTSD-related) staring and “robot brain”.

--one of the very specific moments that bothers me a lot is the ending of the therapy scene (yay for showing heroes in therapy! but also I’m pretty sure she’s...not a great therapist?). Bucky finally opens up and says something real, about his own self-doubt and wondering whether Steve was wrong about him....and Sam just...brushes it off and goes, “we’re done here,” basically. Not only does that feel wildly out of character for former counselor Sam, it feels cruel. I really deeply dislike that moment the more I think about it. Makes me want to scream.

--Sam insults Bucky way more than the other way around. It’s starting to feel very one-sided (it’d be better if more clearly reciprocal, though it’s still not a dynamic that’s my favorite), and again, feels out of character - maybe this is Anthony Mackie’s sense of humor, but Sam isn’t Mackie, and Bucky isn’t Seb, and it reads as...a weird unbalanced power-trip thing to me. And also out of character for Sam, who can be sarcastic (”If you guys eat that sort of thing,” about breakfast, when Steve and Nat have randomly shown up at his door) but that’s not the same as just throwing unprovoked insults at a person who’s trying to recover from trauma, and a lot of those insults seem to center on things that were done to Bucky, that he had no choice in (the staring, the arm, etc), and that feels....it just feels mean, to me. Make fun of things he’s had a choice in / can do something about, if you have to - hair, clothes, liking “old people’s games” like gin rummy or pinochle, not knowing who Beyonce is, I don’t know, there are so many options that aren’t cruel! Do that instead. Let Bucky have a good comeback for once, too!

--the action scenes are action scenes. Also fine.

--Sam might be right about destroying the shield, and the show may even be (unintentionally?) setting that up as the best outcome, but that’s a problem for the future, Sam; get it back first. Also it’s a problem you caused by giving the shield up - did you really trust the government to leave it unused in a museum? You’re not that naive.

--overall, it’s...a perfectly fine show, so far, I think? Solid, and interesting, but not great. I think some of what doesn’t work for me is because it doesn’t work for me personally, as far as the shouty insult-heavy action “comedy” bits that I’m not enjoying, but I think they’re doing what they aimed for with it, so in that sense, I guess it’s working? There’s a lot of really cool stuff around the edges - John Walker, Isaiah Bradley, that Dora Milaje stinger, the bigger world of a history interwoven with racism and superpowers, the chillingly effective use of Bucky’s past - but I wish I liked the central Sam-Bucky relationship more. Individually they’re wonderful - they’ve both had such powerful scenes dealing with family, trauma, and consequences - but I feel like, in the effort to do the buddy comedy dynamic, the writing has just made me really sure that they actually genuinely don’t like each other? To such an extent that if they show any affection / caring / interest in each other in the last three episodes, it won’t be believable. (I mean Sam and Bucky, not Mackie and Seb. Mackie and Seb’re adorable.)

--I just want to think about Zemo dancing some more.

[antimonyandthyme]

I just found your blog through your last pacific rim au chapter and oh my gosh! I did leave a comment on that last update, but I wanted to underline just how much I have enjoyed that AU.

I feel Jaeger pilot AUs have an element of soulmate AU--finding that one person you connect with and developing a relationship so intimate, whether romantic, platonic, or familial, that your minds are able to connect seamlessly. I think that explains my love for them since soulmate AUs own my heart. The idea of being Known and being willingly vulnerable. Ah, my heart. The development of the Seb and Charles connection and relationship was so sweet with just the right amount of angst for that Drama.

And giant robots are always cool!

Thank you again for your fic 💚

You’re the sweetest, thank you so much! <3 I had an incredible time writing this fic, it’s just such a lush, expansive universe to play in, and I’m so pleased it didn’t disappoint. You’re absolutely right, in many ways I feel drift compatibility is just a different form of soul bond - pilots have to wholly trust each other and are privy to each other’s innermost thoughts; it takes a connection on a different level and a willingness to tango. It was great fun to explore that with Seb and Charles!

And of course, giant robots are definitely a bonus ;))

Thank you for your thoughts, friend, they are so appreciated!