#notcaycepollard

[somekindx]

Sent my mother a Natasha-centric fic* that I thought she might like after her reaction to BW and have been told, so far, that:

- Unfortunately the link doesn't work - It only shows the header information and won't let her read the fic

Naturally, living in a different city, I recruited my sister to help her bypass the AO3 age verification page on her phone. Two days elapse without word. Then today:

- This fic is very long

*For the record, the fic is when I die I'll sacrifice (more than enough for the afterlife) by notcaycepollard and is one of the best damn Natasha fics out there: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18968164

[peopleareaproblem]

She's got a body like an hourglass That's ticking like a clock

Y'all are absolutely sleeping on a major part of Katya's arc.

Obviously we all love the queer subtext and shipping Katya and Sofia, but like. I'm honestly pretty tired of all analysis of media just boiling down to ships and romance. Katya is a really interesting character as-is, and it's worth exploring.

I've seen posts on here (this one by @notcaycepollard is really good) exploring the themes of food and eating in the film. And like yes absolutely. To quote that specific post (bold emphasis mine):

the rigid enforcement of domesticity as represented by the meals goncharov conspicuously fails to eat with katya [...] to me I think it speaks just as much about how trapped katya is by social expectations too. she tries so hard to perform the role of the good wife, polishing the fucking silverware and making blini [...] by the end of the film these conflicts are resolved with goncharov and katya at the table on the street, finally eating together but in a way that’s not constrained by the trappings of domesticity or the expectation of remaining true to your roots, katya is finally seen by goncharov as a whole person with her own internal life and he’s able to break bread with her, that final shot of them drinking wine with the church behind them, it’s just, the catholicism in this film is a lot okay

And this is an excellent analysis of these scenes, I totally agree with this take. BUT I think it leaves off a really important element. These scenes, Katya's struggle with performing domesticity with Goncharov, or arguably his failure to hold up his end of the marriage, are a direct metaphor for their inability to have children.

Throughout the film everyone's running out of time, the clock symbolism throughout, and then the scene where the men are assembling their weapons intercut with Katya getting dressed and putting on makeup — because her body is her weapon, and instead of her life being what is at risk of ending, for Katya it is her biological clock that is ticking. Her figure gets literally compared to an hour glass by Mario, and visually that metaphor is implied a couple of times as well.

Yeah I know it's a kind of misogynistic trope nowadays but this movie is from the 70's and was honestly kind of groundbreaking at the time (but it's for sure written and directed by men so like). I absolutely 100% believe that Goncharov and Katya as a couple cannot have children.

It's really conspicuous when you start looking for it. Obviously all the times Katya tries to make her husband food, always always traditional russial food, she's so clearly trying to cling to a traditional family life when it absolutely is crumbling in front of her. And idk if she's literally infertile or if Goncharov just won't sleep with her or what, that's a whole other discussion tbh, but I think Katya wants, or believes she should want, to have children. When her brother Valery pops up he makes these comments about their house being quiet, immediately followed up by talking about his own wife being pregnant again — very clearly implying like "why don't you have kids??". And once you look at the cinematography with this perspective in mind you can really see how shots of Katya and Goncharov are framed in these like kind of wide shots that really would make a lot more sense if there were kids in the shot, and like. Her walking past the playschool? The bit at the market where we see the mother and daughter, and then pan to Katya all by herself? Come on.

Which brings me to Sofia's character. And yes again we all love to read this relationship as sapphic af and this theory isn't necessarily incompatible with that? But basically fundamentally Sofia is written as a parallell to Katya. Really well portrayed in this image by @mimiadraws:

And a HUGE aspect of that is the fact that Sofia has children and Katya does not. Sofia's effortlessness when it comes to the gelato and the anchovies compared with Katya's struggles with food throughout the film really underscore the food as a parallel to motherhood to me. Katya sees in Sofia something that she does not believe she can ever have: this figure of the effortless woman, doing what she believes a woman is supposed to be doing: having children, making food, having a "normal" domestic life. Interestingly we never actually see inside of Sofia's own home, and we barely meet her children. But Katya still projects this perfect version of herself onto Sofia. (Which like I honestly think makes the sapphic reading more interesting? Who among us has not struggled to recognize wether we wanted to be her or be with her?)

And then you have Katya and Goncharov's final scene together, finally effortlestly eating together at the market. They have both finally embraced Naples and left their old life behind, and only then can they fulfill this element of their relationship...

Anyway Katya is pregnant when the movie ends. Change my mind. (You can't.)

[lettuceleafbird]

“Honestly, literally the worst, we should have left you in the freezer.”

Absolutely obsessed with notcaycepollard’s fic “Warm Blood (feels good, I can’t control it anymore)”. 

[ghostret]

…Bucky is peeling an orange, the scent of it sharp in the air, and Sam just stops and watches him for a minute. His fingers deftly pulling away the rind, the cloud of volatile oil misting up into his face. The juice running sticky and golden down his wrists.

“Goddamn,” Bucky laughs, and sucks metal fingers into his mouth, licks them clean. “That’s gonna be a mess for hours now it’s in the joints.” He eats a wedge, slow. Closes his eyes. “Goddamn,” he says again, appreciative, and peels off another segment, offers it to Sam. Sam reaches out, takes it. Bites into it, feels juice drip down his chin.

“Yeah, ‘s good,” he agrees, and Bucky grins, soft.

“You’ll give me shit if I talk about how we got one orange a winter, but, y’know, we did only get one orange a winter.”

“The poor little match girl, that’s you,” Sam says, wry, and watches Bucky’s eyes crinkle in amusement. Sam licks his lip, tries to catch the juice he can feel sitting wet in the dip of his lower lip, and sees Bucky’s gaze suddenly go sharp and a little hot, narrowing in on Sam’s mouth.

“Yeah,” he says, “that’s me.” Picks the knife up off the table and flips it absently, skimming sharp over his fingers, and Sam can’t look away. The blade catches the light, gleams even in shadow. The movement of it, it’s mesmerizing.

“You—” Sam starts, and doesn’t know how to finish. His throat is dry. Bucky reaches for another orange; there’s a string bag of them on the table, like he stopped by the fruit market before arriving at the hotel. Maybe he went out just to buy it. Sam has no idea what Bucky does when they’re not here in these liminal spaces together.

“You want some more?” Bucky asks, and Sam nods, watches Bucky score the blade down the rind and into the flesh. Lifts the knife to his mouth, licks it clean, sets it down on the table and digs his thumbs into the orange to pull it apart into two neat half-globe segments. It’s a blood orange, vivid crimson shading almost to black, and the juice stains Bucky’s fingers dark and startling.

“Well,” he says. “Ain’t that a thing.”

we could jump the state lines (we only get the one life) by @notcaycepollard​

[writerkenna]

Hi, I have a question, if you had to choose a sambucky fic as the best, which one would it be? or do you have recommendations?

I don't know if I'd say i have a favorite fic, per say, but I have tons of recs!

Virtually anything by @problematicturtle (aka cm) is totally awesome but here are my favorites:

behind everything that we do-5k, hurt/comfort, sam whump, bucky caretaker (literally sam is such an idiot and so stubborn in this it's great, and we need more sam whump like this)

30 days and a night-27k, multi-chp, dubcon, underage, WS Bucky, underage Sam (this one is not for everyone, considering Bucky is early 30's and sam is a teenager, but it is so heart breaking and beautiful and just painful, I've come back to it so many times just to cry)

identity crisis-33k, multi-chp, coffee shop AU, identity porn (it's a coffee shop-that Steve and Bucky own omg- and secret identity, what more can I say)

ice. hollow. nightfall-50k, multi-chp, wingfic, HYDRA Sam, Forced Bonding, mild dubcon (Bucky is an asshole, Sam is a beautiful falcon, and the writing is so gorgeous I want to weep, also I beta'd this which was so amazing to get to do!)

Other than cm, here are some other fics that I'm obsessed with:

In the Heart of the Home by lionessvalenti-7.8k, mpreg, getting together (i love mpreg, this is known, and the build here is so good and wonderful, as is the dynamic between Sam and Bucky)

Muscle Memory Series by seapigeon-3 works, 13k, getting together, breaking up, ALPINE (this series is just *chef's kiss*, the final work especially so, and by the end of it is so clear that both Sam and Bucky have grown so much and become the people they needed to be to be with each other, also Bucky opens a cat rescue, which on it's own should be enough to get you to read this)

Grounded by Margo_Kim-23k, multi-chp, Bucky's diary entries, depression/suicidal thoughts, recovery, slow burn-ish (best insight into Bucky's mind I've ever read, heartbreakingly sad at some points, but amazing pay off)

gasoline, pretty please (i wanna get off but you're such a tease) by notcaycepollard-10.9k, mild references to HYDRA trash, orgasm denial, friends-with-benefits-to-lovers (fun, funny, and sexy, a good time from start to finish, and one of my favorite sam and bucky dynamics)

bury the ghost by @watergator -60k, multi-chp, post-CWS, pre-CACW, hurt/comfort, flashbacks, memory loss, Bucky is recovering (I was HOOKED on this as it was coming out, and that is because each chapter is so wonderfully enticing, and watching Bucky slowly heal and Sam slowly start to care for him is so lovely, one of my fav 'sam searching for bucky in Europe' fics ever)

Okay, so that was ALOT, anyways, these are my all time favorites, if you wanna give them a read!

[liminal-zone]

fic rec

i’ve been on a hydra trash party journey again like it’s 2014 and collecting GEMS and ideas. this one is deliciously fun in that the htp is all heavily implied but off screen and in the past, and it’s all about the comfort vs. hurt/comfort, and it’s SAM!!!/BUCKY in TFATWS era and it’s FUN AND FUNNY and SO HOT. Hydra broke Bucky’s dick, and he and Sam figure out how to make it work again, and it’s everything I love about the healing tropes in the htp genre~. Torres is also present being v. cute. 

fic link: gasoline, pretty please (i wanna get off but you're such a tease); author: notcaycepollard

fandom: mcu; ship: sam/bucky; rating: explicit

tags: D/s overtones, orgasm denial, dubcon, casual sex

summary: When Bucky's libido shows back up, it's basically proof that his life is cursed. Like, obviously, hooray that his dick works again, it's been a long fuckin’ road (and a long road of no fucking, his brain helpfully adds) but—Jesus, fuck, Hydra really are just dedicated to making his life a misery in every possible way, even years down the track, because it turns out there's some operant conditioning Bucky did not know about until now. Specifically: he can't fuckin’ come unless someone's giving him the order.

[mitsususu]

Endgame? I don’t know her. Below are my Top 5 Favorite Fix-Its:

“Promises to Keep” (T, 9k) by odetteandodile

In his life, Steve has made four promises he wishes he'd been able to fulfill.

Returning the stones, he finds himself with the time and means to revisit them.

+ When returning the stones, Steve visits Erkskine, Peggy, Bucky, and Natasha

-☆-

“All My Chances Again” (E, 20k) by hitlikehammers

I love him, Steve thinks into the spiralling ether; I love him; let me tell him. Give me the chance to set that one thing right. If I can’t rest for saving him, let me give him all of me and hope that it’s enough.

Or; Steve gets lost in the time matrix, and begs for an out. Seems confession is good for the soul—or so he hopes.

+ 13 times Steve gets to tell Bucky he loves him 

-☆-

“a question of worth” (T, 30k) by Deisderium

Bucky can't explain to anyone how strange it is to wake up in Wakanda with five years gone in a blink, in a second. The last thing he remembers was trying to get to Steve, and then General Okoye is telling them—because it's not just Bucky, it's so many people—that five years have passed and the rest of the world went on without them.

He should be used to it, he supposes, but he had really thought that he was done sliding through time, finished missing years. He had promised himself—had promised Steve—after that last time in Wakanda to get rid of the trigger words that it would be the last time, that he wouldn't leave like that again. He had thought it was a promise he could keep.

~o~

In which Steve and Bucky return the Infinity Stones, and return to a world drastically changed from the one Bucky left five years ago, and Bucky has to struggle with the knowledge that his best friend held Mjölnir, and at least briefly had the power of a god. So where does that leave an ex-brainwashed assassin?

+ They return the stones together and Bucky finds his place beside Steve

-☆-

“And I think to myself (what a wonderful world)” (E, 4k) by BeanieBaby

“You know, if you’d planned to come back as a legendary LGBTQ+ icon, you could’ve given us a heads up, Cap,” Sam says drily.

“Was it as awesome as it looked?” Bruce asks.

“Steve thumbs his lower lip thoughtfully and smiles, “Best kiss of my life."

+ Bucky gets a V-J Day kiss and everyone (I mean everyone) is Fine

-☆-

“when i die i’ll sacrifice (more than enough for the afterlife) (M, 41k) by notcaycepollard

The fall is longer than Natasha expects.

It’s tears cold on her face, teeth bitten all the way through her lip and the taste of copper in her mouth; she’s falling and falling and then, bracing for impact—she wakes up.

+ Natasha-centric with Stucky. After Vormir, she wakes up in the Red Room, saves her sisters, saves Bucky, saves the world. Slight poly Sam

-☆-

*More Endgame fix-its in the Mom list

[pearwaldorf]

🔥 (CA: TWS)

Do I have any unpopular opinions about this movie? I thought the story and Steve’s character was weakened by the supposition that he wouldn’t have torn SHIELD down if it wasn’t sekritly HYDRA. The Steve I understand wouldn’t want a surveillance state like that under any government.