#if he introduces himself to Steve with a rifle in hand though- that’s his business | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

artiststarme · 16 days

Text

Steve couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a proper night’s rest. It had to have been before Vecna started haunting people’s dreams that made the entire Party afraid to close their eyes. Before Max fell into a painful coma and Eddie succumbed to bat bites in the Upside Down. Maybe prior to Spring Break completely, before the Russians under Starcourt and the demodogs and demogorgons. Maybe before his parents became too disappointed in him, before they started punctuating their disgust in him with well-aimed fists. Perhaps he’d never had a restful sleep at all, he couldn’t remember anymore.

But ever since his eyes had landed on the bloody form of his new friend surrounded by carcasses in the desolate trailer park, he couldn’t sleep a wink. Whenever he tried to rest, he imagined the pain Eddie must have gone through (he knew how those teeth felt as they gnawed through thick layers of flesh). He thought of how they had been forced to leave his body down there to rot, how alone Eddie must have been in his final moments. He could vividly picture Eddie’s last breath and gurgling pain every night in his nightmares. Steve would snap awake every night, gasping for air and jumping at shadows.

For weeks, he isolated himself. He only went to work and back and even that was taken away from him once he dozed off at the counter on one of his shifts with Keith. Without Robin there to gently wake him up and cover for him, he lost his job then and there. Without anything to drag him out of the house, he began spending every minute cowering from his own thoughts. He couldn’t sleep at night and he would hallucinate during the day. He’d see shadow figures in the corner of his eye, hear distorted screeches and screams of pain. On the bad days, he’d even hear Eddie’s voice amidst the chaos.

Steve thought he’d lost his mind.

After so many years of dealing with the impossible, the craziness had caught up with him and poisoned his mind. Or maybe Vecna had finally caught by up to him. Had he finally decided to stop targeting teens in high school to move onto more traumatized targets (i.e., Steve)? Unfortunately, he couldn’t find it in himself to care either way.

He never expected his new turned dead friend to shake his shoulder gently to wake him up from a nightmare. Steve jerked awake to find soft brown eyes staring at him in concern.

His reaction was completely valid. He screamed his head off.

Steve screamed and cried as the Hallucination Eddie’s eyes widened in fear before frantic shushing and spastic hand waving began.

“Shh! Harrington, Jesus H. Christ, calm down. Holy shit, I thought you’d be the calm one. Calm down, please god.”

When his throat finally lost its ability to scream, he took a good look at Eddie. His eyes were dull, shadows bruised his face, and his skin was far paler than Steve had ever seen. New scars marred his cheek and lower jaw right where the bats had gnawed.

Was… was he really here?

“Eddie?”

The man in question beamed in response, “I see we’re on a first name basis now, Stevie. If I knew this was all I had to do, I would’ve almost died a long time ago!”

Steve threw himself forward into Eddie’s arms and ignored both his own aches and pains and Eddie’s oomph of surprise.

“You’re not going to be here in the morning, are you?” Steve whispered into the crook of his neck.

Eddie’s shaky hand latched onto Steve’s shoulder to deepen the hug. “Hell Steve, I’ll never leave you again if you’ll have me.”

Steve fell asleep in Eddie’s arms and when he woke up, he was curled against the warmth of his chest with a cold towel on his forehead. It hadn’t been a dream after all. Eddie had saved himself and had come to Steve’s. From that day forward, Steve had Eddie. He made the days meaningful and the nights restful, just as they always should have been.

#Dustin goes to check on Steve and finds them sleeping in bed together and flips his shit #when he said he wanted his two older male friends to get along- that was not what he meant!#uncle Wayne doesn’t mind that Eddie went to his pretty boy first just that he came back from the dead at all #if he introduces himself to Steve with a rifle in hand though- that’s his business #stranger things #steddie #fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #should I do a POV for Eddie?

569 notes · View notes

etherealwaifgoddess · 4 years

Text

Run To You - Chpt.2

Summary: Steve calls Bucky to tell him he was right and the two get to know each other a little more. Still drawn to one another, the guys go out on their first date. Master list is HERE :)

Content Warning: mention of past child neglect/ abuse in regards to how Bucky lost his arm. It’s only a couple paragraphs but it’s depressing AF.

Word Count: 3.3k

Author’s Note: Hello lovelies! There is a smidge of angst in this chapter and I had never really intended for it go that direction. Damn characters not behaving the way I want them to! I apologize in advance for giving you some sad feels on this one, I got myself with them too. But hopefully there’s enough fluffiness to balance it out. XOXO - Ash

Chapter Two

Becca sleeps the day away but it’s a restless fever ridden sleep with her waking up every few hours to cry that her stomach hurts. Bucky manages to catch cat naps while she sleeps but they’re both exhausted by the time the day is over. He manages to get some fluids in her once she’s fully woken up and she keeps most of it down, much to Bucky’s relief. He hates seeing his baby girl sick and is thankful for his medical training, so that he knows what to expect and look out for. It’s just past seven o’clock at night and while they would normally be doing Becca’s bath time routine, he doesn’t have the heart to disrupt her. She finally drank the rest of her Pedialyte and is half watching an episode of Wonder Pets while her eyes droop sleepily. He waits until her eyes stay shut for a few minutes before awkwardly scooping up the little girl to carry her off to bed. He doesn’t have a free hand to turn off the TV, having taken off his prosthetic the second he got back from the bodega, but figures he needs to go back out to clean things up for the night anyways.

“Bucky?” Becca slurs sleepily as he lays her down in her bed.

“Yeah, Becs?” He pulls up her comforter, getting it tucked tightly around her body like she prefers.

“Love you.” she half says, half yawns.

Bucky fights back the tears that prickle in the corner of his eyes. “Love you too, bug. Get some rest.”

Becca gives a little nod and then sprawls out into her usual sleeping position.

Bucky shuts off her lamp and closes the door, leaving it open just a crack in case she needs him in the night. She seems to be getting to the otherside of whatever virus she’d caught but he knows it isn’t always a sure thing. He hopes he’ll only have to miss one day of work staying home with her but knows it’ll most likely be two.

There isn’t too much of a mess to clean up but Bucky busies himself with turning off the TV and clearing the coffee table. He’s washing the dishes and debating his dinner options when his phone buzzes angrily in his back pocket. Drying off his hand, he pulls out his phone and sees Steve’s name on the screen. Bucky swipes to accept the call and nestles the phone between his shoulder and jaw. “Hey, Steve.”

“Bucky, hey.” Steve replies eagerly. “So I’ve spent the last six hours doing nothing but reading history articles and I gotta say, you were right.”

Bucky smiles as he rifles through his cabinets for something to eat, “I suspected as much. How far off is it? Out of curiosity.”

Steve sighs heavily through his nose and Bucky wondered how exasperated the other man must look. “It’s pretty fuckin’ terrible.” he finally admits.

Bucky laughs, “Wow, you really do know how to curse!”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, ya jerk. It was just… surprising, I guess, to see how much these so-called experts missed. Don’t get me wrong, I know some people had it okay and some people had it a lot worse, but the way they make the whole thing feel so… sterile... I don’t know. They don’t seem to capture the feel of the times. Like yes we had food rations, but they don’t tell you how small those rations were. And how even if you got your stamps you might not be able to find the food you had a stamp for. My mother had to go all the way to Queens one time just to buy eggs so we’d have something with protein to eat.”

“That sounds terrible, I can’t even imagine.” Bucky juggles the phone carefully as he pulls down a tin of tuna.

“We made it, somehow. And it wasn’t all terrible all the time, but it was a sight worse than they make it out to be. It’s like that now too, isn’t it? The world isn’t quite as progressive as people like to think it is?”

Bucky pauses, trying to sort out his words. “It is and it isn’t. I think my experience is a little different than most but it’s definitely not the rainbows and goodwill that they say it is.”

Steve’s voice is low and rich like good bourbon pouring across the phone lines. “Tell me what it’s like for you, then.”

Bucky stills, shocked by the raw earnestness of Steve’s words. There’s an undercurrent too, like something whispered in a lover’s ear in the dead of night. It stirs things inside Bucky that he hasn’t had the time or inclination for in a really long time. Figuring he should reciprocate the honesty Steve has afforded him so far, Bucky hops up to sit on the kitchen counter and gets himself comfortable to tell his story. “Well, I grew up in a little backwater town in Indiana. The biggest export of our town was meth and most everyone was affected by that. People used religion like a weapon and thought The Republican Way was gospel. I didn’t fit in to any of that from day one and it made growing up there hard.”

“What were you like as a kid?” Steve asks, curious.

“I was pretty much everything that town wasn’t. My parents weren’t really able to take care of me so I figured out early on how to care for myself. I was angry a lot because of that once I got older. I didn’t really try to fit in. I studied hard, worried about getting good grades so I could earn scholarships to a decent college and get out of there. I didn’t care much about religion and was fiercely liberal from the time I understood what politics were. And I’m queer, that didn’t help me fit in either. I, uh, I hope that doesn’t bother you.” Bucky falters, knowing Steve’s generation was a lot less forgiving about that sort of thing.

“It doesn’t. I’m bi, actually. We did have homosexuality back in the thirties despite what the historians think.”

“Holy shit.” Bucky blurts out. Captain America is bisexual.

“It’s not something that comes up a lot, but I don’t hide it when asked. Somehow it never seems to make the news though.”

“I think it would seriously fuck with some people’s world view if it did. That’s good, though. That you don’t have to hide it. It’s one of those things that isn’t quite like the news reports it. Sure, things are a hell of a lot better now for queer folk, but we still get bullied, discriminated against, sometimes even killed.” Despite himself, Bucky yawns deeply. He’s beyond tired but unwilling to hang up.

“You sound exhausted.” Steve notes, “I should let you go.”

“No, it’s okay. I just had a long night followed by a long day. I’ll crash soon and hopefully Becca sleeps in tomorrow.”

“Becca is your… daughter?”

“My sister, actually. I adopted her when she was born. She feels like she’s mine but I never wanted to hide that fact that I’m her brother, not her dad. I don’t want her growing up not knowing who she really is.”

“You’re pretty amazing, Buck.” And Steve means every weighted word of it.

Bucky shakes his head, almost dislodging his phone in the process. “Just got lucky enough to make a better life for myself, and her. That’s all.”

“I think there’s a lot more to it than that, but okay. Really though, I should let you go. We can talk another day? Maybe grab that lunch together?”

“Yeah, definitely. My schedule is a little crazy but I have off rotation in a few days, we could go out Thursday while Becca’s at preschool?”

“It’s a date. I’ll text you later this week so we can figure out the where and when.”

“Sounds like a plan. Night, Steve.”

The warm smile on Steve’s face practically shines through the phone line, “Night, Buck.”

Bucky hangs up and stares around his tiny apartment in amazement. If you had told him a week ago that he was going to insult Captain America to his face and end up befriending him, he would have called you crazy. It’s a little odd having to separate the public persona he knows as Captain America, from Steve, the real guy under the cowl, but Bucky is looking forward to getting to know the real him better.

xxXxx

“The best pizza in Brooklyn, huh?” Steve questions, squinting up at the shop’s sign.

Bucky nods enthusiastically. “Definitely. They still use the old fashioned brick ovens and homemade sauce. Fresh herbs, locally sourced cheese. It sounds fancy but it’s really just good, old school, pizza.”

“We’ll see. Sam recently introduced me to the concept of a dollar slice, and I think anything will be better than that.”

“Oh man, yeah. Some places are decent, but most are shit.”

Bucky and Steve order a large pie to share, picking a small table in the back to sit at. Steve is amused when he spots a cooler with real glass bottles of soda and grabs one for each of them. Bucky smiles when he sees the bottles, able to guess Steve’s amusement at seeing something familiar.

The pizza is up before they know it and Steve is moaning at the first bite. “Sorry.” he mumbles around his mouthful of gooey cheese. “It’s really good.”

Bucky swallows quickly so he can respond, “Told ya.”

Steve nods, properly contrite. “You did. Thanks for bringing me here.”

“Any time.” Bucky smiles over at him and wonders what it would be like if they were out on a real date. One that ended with Steve walking him home and kissing him goodnight. He tries to shake the fantastical idea from his mind but it lingers, coming to the surface whenever Steve looks at him a little longer than most would find polite.

They’re quiet through Steve’s first two slices, Bucky finishing his first as Steve goes for a third. Bucky has a healthy appetite but Steve is something else. “Super soldier, sorry.” Steve tells him with a shrug when he sees Bucky eyeing up his plate.

“No judgement here. Everyone’s gotta eat.” Bucky assures him.

Steve slows down enough to make conversation after a little while, asking Bucky questions about his job and Becca. Steve is infinitely impressed with Bucky’s job as an ER nurse considering his mother had been a nurse and he knows first hand what a toll that profession can take on people.

Bucky catches Steve glancing at his sleek metal prosthetic but the blonde is too polite to bring it up. “You can ask, you know. Most people just make assumptions about it, none of which are even close to the truth.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve apologizes, “I didn’t want to be rude.”

“You’re not. It’s not my favorite topic but I’m better talking about it now. Go ahead, ask.”

Steve hesitates but trusts Bucky to know his own mind. “Okay, then. Bucky, how did you lose your arm?”

Bucky takes a steadying breath and dives into the polite for public version of how he lost his left arm. His parents took him to the lake one summer when he was six, he’d begged for months and they finally agreed to drive out to spend a day there. He got a scratch on his arm and it got infected from the lake water. His parents weren’t too great on the whole “parenting” thing and didn’t notice when it got infected until he collapsed. At that point the arm was too far gone and the doctors had amputated it just above the elbow.

What Bucky leaves out is that the scratch had actually been a gash and he’d gotten a beating for being careless before they headed for home. Sitting sorely in the backseat the whole bumpy ride home, using his own tshirt to wrap around his arm to help slow the bleeding. It was his transformers tshirt and it had been his favorite. Bucky leaves out the week of agonizing pain as the gash got worse, the infection burning and itching horribly until he couldn’t handle it anymore. Both of his parents were too strung out to notice and he’d tried, the best he could at that age, to put band-aids on it but then he caught another beating for using up all the band-aids. Bucky doesn’t tell Steve that the days he spent in the hospital were some of the best he could remember back then. The nurses were nice and brought him hot food three times a day. On Friday an ice cream cart came around. There were books he could read and other kids he could play with. When it was time for him to go home, he’d cried the entire way.

Bucky notices Steve is staring at him expectantly and realizes he's gone silent, lost in the less than pleasant memories. “Sorry, it was a long time ago.” he clears his throat, pushing past the ugly memories and moving on, “I got this bad boy through a grant from a children’s hospital when I was fifteen. It was strange having two arms at first. Up until that point I’d spent most of my life with just the one. It was after that hospital stint that I decided on nursing. The nurses who cared for me during both of my hospital stays were just amazing. They took what could have been really scary experiences and made them into something good. I wanted to be able to do that for someone else, someday.”

“Nurses are definitely superheroes.” Steve acknowledges. “My ma worked in the TB ward when I was a kid. She just had this way about her that she could spin any negative life threw at her into a positive. She was incredible. And I wasn’t an easy kid by any means.”

“Yeah, I heard something about that in the history books. Something about you being a feisty little shit always getting himself in trouble.” Bucky smirks, waiting for Steve to dispute it.

“It wasn’t quite as bad as they say it was. I only broke up a handful of fights over the years and always bullies who deserved it. I was as sick as they claimed though. The medical records were all real and my poor ma worked herself to the bone just trying to keep my lungs and heart going.”

“I feel for her. Even with medical training, it’s awful watching your kid get sick. Becca has some issues, she was born premature, and even though I know exactly what’s an annoyance versus a true issue, it’s still so hard watching her struggle.”

Steve’s expression falls, “I’m so sorry, Buck.” He reaches out across the table on impulse and grasps Bucky’s hand in his. “What, uh... if you don’t mind me asking, what issues does she have? You’ve seen my list and part of that was from being a preemie myself. It’s not like mine, is it?”

Bucky wants to melt through the booth into a puddle at the warm heavy contact of Steve’s hand over his. “No, not quite so bad. Her immune system isn’t the greatest, she has asthma that we have relatively under control, a heart murmur that the docs still think will close as she gets older, she’s anemic but has meds for it, and she’s never quite been out of the danger zone on the growth chart. She’s just a tiny little thing, but she's the cutest little girl you’ll ever lay eyes on.”

“I have no doubt. She’s really lucky he has you.”

They’re quiet for a moment, nothing to fill the silence but Steve’s thumb rubbing rhythmically over the ridges of Bucky’s knuckles. “Sorry, I didn’t exactly pick the happiest first date topics, did I?” Steve forces a painfully awkward laugh, taking back his hand as he tries to think of a less serious topic for them.

“First date, huh?” Bucky grins despite himself.

Steve blushes from the tips of his ears down past his collar and Bucky wonders just how far down that blush goes. “It doesn’t have to be. Unless you want it to be one. I had a really great time, regardless. I don’t get out mu-”

“Steve!” Bucky cuts him off, waving his hand in surrender. “Breathe a minute so I can answer.” he pauses and Steve takes a slightly dramatic breath, shooting Bucky a wry smile. “There we go. I had a really great time too. And yes, I’d like it if this was a date. And if there are more dates following this one.”

“Oh,” Steve is rendered speechless by the warmth blossoming in his chest. “That would be swell.”

“Swell? Really?” Bucky laughs in disbelief.

Steve’s blush flares to life again. “Sorry, sorry. Old man word, I know. What are the kids using these days? Nifty?”

Bucky groans, “Cool, Steve. Just stick with cool.”

“Okay, cool.” Steve sasses playfully.

Bucky rolls his eyes before checking his watch. It’s almost time to go get Becca, they had spent two hours talking and it still feels like not enough time. “Shit. I gotta head out for Becca. Preschool lets out at three.”

“Not a problem, I’d say I’m sorry for keeping you so long but I really enjoyed myself.” Steve snatches the paper slip with their bill on it and hurries over to the counter to pay. “You were right, so lunch is on me.” he insists.

“That’ll teach you not to bet against me, huh?” Bucky quips.

“I don’t know. This worked out pretty well for me. I learned a lot of new stuff, broadened my perspective on some things, went out with a cute guy, ate the best pizza in Brooklyn, and it sounds like I’ll get to go out with that cute guy again. I think this turned out pretty good.”

Bucky laughs and gives him a playful shove as they leave the pizza shop together. They pause along the brick wall of the shop, neither man wanting to part ways just yet. “I don’t have off rotation for another three days but I’d like to see you again.” Bucky says, toying with the hem of his shirt. He feels like a damn teenager again.

“Whenever you want, Bucky. My schedule is flexible unless I get called away for a long mission. I’ll take whatever time you’re willing to share with me.” Steve doesn’t want to push, but he’s willing to do whatever he needs to in order to see Bucky again.

“I appreciate that. I know my schedule isn’t traditional but it’s my life for right now.”

“And that’s okay.” Steve assures him, though he looks pretty nervous suddenly. He clears his throat twice before he finally asks, “Would it be too fast if I asked to kiss you right now?”

Bucky’s pupils flare at the question, his reaction answering Steve before his voice does. “Not at all.” he murmurs moving closer to Steve.

Steve’s lips are a breath away from Bucky’s as he whispers “Oh good” and takes the kiss that Bucky so freely gives. Steve fights for composure, they’re on a public sidewalk for heaven’s sake. Bucky’s mouth slots against his like missing puzzle pieces, both warm and insistent as the kiss deepens.

Steve kisses like he’s drowning and Bucky is reeling to keep up. How something so innocent turned so quickly is beyond comprehension but Bucky doesn’t want it to stop. The alarm on his phone reminding him it’s pick up time for Becca ends things quickly though. “I’ve gotta get Becca. Like, now.” he breathes raggedly against Steve’s mouth.

“Okay. Okay.” Steve repeats like he’s convincing himself. “To be continued?”

“To be continued.” Bucky agrees, leaning in for one last quick peck and then heading off to go pick up Becca.

#stucky #stucky fanfic #shrunkclunks #modern day au #modern au #non winter soldier bucky #nurse!bucky #parent!bucky #captain america #steve rogers #steve rogers x bucky barnes #kid!becca barnes #adopted child #marvel #marvel fanfic #marvel fandom

8 notes · View notes

thecomicsnexus · 5 years

Text

The Reminder

DC Holiday Special 2017 #1. February, 2018. By Jeff Lemire, Dennis O'Neil, Mairghread Scott, Tom King, Joshua Williamson, Christopher Priest, Max Landis, Dan Didio, Shea Fontana, Scott Bryan Wilson, Greg Rucka, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Steve Epting, Phil Hester, Francesco Francavilla, Neil Googe, Tom Grummett, Francis Manapul, Matthew Clark, Otto Schmidt, Nic Klein and Bilquis Evely.

It's Christmas Eve and John Constantine is sitting in a bar complaining about the "good will" of humanity and how they are all childish. Bibbo Bibbowski warns Constantine that if he keeps complaining then he is going to throw him out. Bibbo walks over to a gentleman sitting in the corner: Clark Kent. Clark asks for another club soda and admits that he questions the good will of humanity himself, sometimes. Bibbo assures him that everything will be fine as long as Superman is around, but Clark argues that Superman can't be everywhere at once. Constantine agrees and Bibbo throws him out. Turning back to Clark, Bibbo decides to tell Clark a few stories...

Many years ago, an old woman and her grandson, Fritz, were refused shelter from the winter snow. As a result, the old woman died from the cold and the police picked up her grandson and took him to the station. But even though the woman's body was gone, her spirit stayed with her grandson and vowed to never leave him. Flash forward to present day as Batman and Alfred track down the location of a kidnapped family that are being held by, now adult, Fritz. Even though Fritz doesn't like what he is doing, his grandmother's spirit keeps encouraging him to continue. She explains that the husband of this family is actually the son of the family that turned them away all those years ago and left them to die in the blizzard. Fritz waits until midnight to shoot them, but before he can pull the trigger, Batman stops him and gets him to drop the gun. As Batman unties the family, Fritz finally accepts that what he is doing is wrong and tells his grandmother's spirit to leave.

Green Arrow volunteers to play Santa Claus for the little children of St. Joseph's Orphanage. He convinces a reluctant Black Canary to play Mrs. Claus. Black Canary explains that the whole idea of Santa is silly and it is foolish to fill childrens' impressionable minds with empty hope for when they grow up. Green Arrow explains that Santa is also a symbol of fairness and generosity. The kind of things that children need to hold onto. Suddenly, a toy donation truck comes under attack by bandits. Green Arrow and Black Canary spring into action and stop the toys from being stolen. The kids of the orphanage see the whole thing and praise Black Canary and Green Arrow for helping Santa out on his busy night. Black Canary begins to see what a truly wonderful symbol of hope Santa really is.

Private Hammerman was traveling through the snowy wilderness with a German Officer, as his prisoner, when an explosion suddenly occurred. A piece of shard stabs Hammerman in the stomach. Believing him to be dead, the German Officer tries to escape only to find out that Hammerman has a gun on him. The two wait in the snow for days, getting to know each other, as Hammerman slowly dies. When the German Officer finally believes that Hammerman is dead, he takes his rifle and walks off into the wood singing in German. Someone suddenly joins his singing as the Officer turns to see that Hammerman is still alive and has his hand gun pointed at him. The two aim their guns at each other and fire. Both of them collapse to the ground. Sgt. Rock and his troops soon arrive and to find the bodies.

Wally West calls Barry to thank him for his Christmas gift and asks him if he will be coming by to visit. However Barry as Flash is busy fighting Rainbow Raider, who has just decided to rob Central City Airport of all its last minute Christmas gifts. After defeating him, Flash is thanked by the police and explains that the planes have all been grounded, due to the blizzard. Flash looks around at all the unhappy people in the airport. A young girl named Zoey, who is on a school fieldtrip, asks Flash if he can drop off her gifts to her parents in California. But Flash has a better idea: one by one he takes all of the Holiday travelers and rushes them to their final destinations. Realizing how precious family and friends are, Barry goes to visit Wally at Titans Tower.

While driving down the road, Lois is hit by another car. Superman is busy lecturing a new criminal on his life choices when he receives word about it. Lois is fine but she is sad that the car that she loved for twelve years is beyond repair. Clark and Lois travel up the mountains to spend Christmas with family. The next morning Lois wakes up to find a note from Clark asking her to meet him on the roof. She finds Clark as Superman with a seat from her old car wrapped in a bow. Superman flies off, carrying Lois in the car seat as she pretends to drive.

The Teen Titans have just finished up sucking a group of spirits back into their own dimension and are now heading out to spend Christmas with their families. But not Starfire. As she tries to ponder the point of such a holiday, she comes across a man that is about to commit suicide. The man seems to be troubled by past traumas. A rogue spirit suddenly appears to Starfire introducing itself as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Starfire calls the rest of the Titans and, together, they send the Ghost back to its dimension. The Titans celebrate Christmas Day together and Starfire begins to think that the holiday may not be so dumb after all.

From DC Wikia

There are more stories in the book, like a not very moving Deathstroke christmas story...

And a post-apocalyptic Atomic Knights story with living (atomic) christmas trees...

Sorry, not that picture...

There.

So all of this is bookended by Bibbo telling holiday stories to Clark Kent. I am going to assume that he wasn’t telling the stories we just read because they happen in different moments in time, it reveals secret identities and he would need to see ghosts.

The stories that worked better for me where: “Going Down Easy” (Sgt Rock by Tom King) and “Hope for the holidays” (Flash by Joshua Williamson). The Sgt. Rock story is actually a Hanukkah story.

There is a difference between the digital version and the printed version. I am not sure why they did this. The digital version includes the Max Landis story (Drivers’ seat) that was later reprinted in Action Comics Special. The printed version includes a Neal Adams reprint from Batman (1970).

I give the special a score of 7.23

1 note · View note

arachcobra · 6 years

Text

Sofia’s Diary: Entry Two

Sofia was brought in when the MPS set up their first actual base, having had to settle for hotel rooms and rented meeting rooms before that. This meant that when she arrived, there was already quite the cast to meet.

Dear Diary

I'm struggling to find the words. I'm still trying to figure out just what the heck I've gotten myself into. See, when I heard about this group, I guess all I saw before my inner eyes were shining knights and such. Reality is different. Very different. Like, you couldn't have assembled a weirder group if you tried. I was introduced to them all and by the end, it felt so surreal I was sure I had to be high on something. But no.

I really have to order my thoughts.

First off is Leslie Blacklake. She was the one that met me at the front door and escort me. I guess because she was the most normal looking. They didn't want to scare me away. She certainly doesn't look scary. However, when I inquired about her role on the team, she demonstrated her ability to manipulate objects without touching them and explained that apparently, she can see dead people and speak with spirits. Not sure exactly how that works, but okay.

Then there's Lamia. A genie, descendant of both the Shaitan and the Janni tribes. Has a rather fancy way of speaking, though without coming of as pompous. Well, completely pompous. Obviously, as a genie she has the power of wishcraft. There's a superpower for you. Make a wish and it happens. When I pointed this out, however, she was quick to correct me and start informing me about the limitations on wishcraft, such as the power of the genie and the laws that govern it and so on.

Then there's Lafayette. Not only did he steal my diary(Though he insist he must have picked it up somewhere and that I should be more careful), he's also constantly talking. All. The. Time. You'd think that his heart was linked to his mouth so that every syllable results in one beat with the way he talks. Verbal diarrhea of the finest sort. And he never stops. I'm not even sure he ever breathes. Honestly, he might have died from oxygen deprivation at some point and just never noticed.

Not that I'm going to say that out loud. I also met his husband Angus. One half of an ettin. The other head is named Ramsey. Angus is the resident cook as well as a team member and has an affinity for manipulating fire and plants. Also, he mostly communicates in grunts. Which is better that Ramsey who rarely communicates at all on account of constantly sleeping. But when he is awake, he apparently have some prophetic powers. Neat.

Then we have Victoria, a slag giant, professional storyteller and apparently former prostitute. And quite taciturn for a bard. Not a lot of flowery language, instead favouring getting directly to the point. I can respect that. Especially after meeting Lafayette.

Then there's Harm. Yes, seriously, that's what she calls herself. Well, in so far as she can call anything anything. She's mute, I think and communicates mostly through a digital pad she writes on. I'm not exactly sure what her species is. She looks kinda humanish, but her skin has this weird patchwork quality to it. Like, it'll go from porcelain pale to ebony black without anything in between. Same goes for the hair. Wildly different colours in every lock. I'd have confused her for some sort of flesh golem had it not been for the lack of stitches.

Then we have Darsa. He's... Well, he's a bit of an ass. Kinda dense and self-absorbed too. Very convinced of his own magical skills. Didn't stop him from dying and coming back as a lich. If you hear it from him, he cunningly bound his soul even as he was being killed by giant spiders, which he had been attacked by as part of a trap designed by a jealous rival. If you ask anyone else, that story makes no goddamn sense, not that Darsa seems to care.

Then there's Kazrah. And tiefling tantric monk and former pornstar with a set of abs that was strangely hard to look away from. I blame his demonic side. He looks good, but there's no way I'm desperate enough that a six pack has the same affect on me as waving a stick in front of a dog. Apparently he discovered a sort of enlightenment through sex. He offered to demonstrate, but I decided to say no for now. Now if only I could get those abs out of my head, then that would be great.

Then there's Yaras. I think he's an elf, but hard to say. Possibly an albino. Covers himself in heavy cloth and seems like he's constantly on edge. I got the feeling that just being near me made him antsy, not that I have any clue why.

Then there's Vivian. A perpetually grumpy kobold who was busy designing the most ludicrous trap ever. I mean, it looked kinda like those bear trap things, except she had installed scythe blades and kitchen knives, among other things. Why? Why would that ever be necessary? What does she imagine she's going to be trapping with that thing? A titan? Anyway, she's the team's sniper, going to battle with a rifle that she's very, very protective off. Like, the moment I looked at it, she visibly tensed, as if she was already putting together a plan for murdering me if I dared lay a hand on it. I mean, I've heard kobolds could be paranoid, but sheesh.

Then there's Freyja, the spider. Yes, a spider. A giant jumping spider to be precise. That sure threw me for a loop. Not very talkative and content to remain in the caves beneath the base, so I don't have a clue what she's like personality wise.

Then we have Jaeger, who also serves as a representative of FutureTech. Wears a prototype cryogenic battlesuit. It's very cool and... Oh dear lord I just realised how stupid a pun I just made. Should just burn the page and start over again.

Then there's Steve, the vampire. Yes, just Steve. I was quite surprised. The way he tells it, he used to just be a normal guy until he became a vampire. He's a hero now because he figured he might as well do something good with his new powers. Also to compensate for all the blood he has to drink.

Next I met Grippleknot, who's a troll. Nice guy, though in possession of a very... Inelegant grasp of the common tongue. Not that he's impossible to understand or anything, he just leaves out a lot of words. Kinda Lafayette's diametrical opposite in that regard.

Finally, there's Darren, who arrived in the courtyard on a frickin' flaming motorcycle fuelled by his own unholy powers. A grave knight who's at least a couple of hundred years old, armoured like a tank and filled to the brim with dark powers. Real scary type, except he's a real knightly gentleman. Still, I'm rather curious how somebody like him who seems so noble could be turned into something like a grave knight. Maybe I'm better off not knowing.

So yeah, dear diary, it's quite the group to say the least. Oh well, at least I'll have some time to get settled in. I'll write again when something actually happens.

Sofia

#Sofia's Diary #Tabletop #Dungeon World

0 notes