After those particularly tough missions, Sam lets his frustrations out in the shower. Lets the water wash away that heavy feeling in his shoulders as his tears are lost to the warm stream. It feels forgiving as it cascades down his aching body, taking all of his tension down the drain along with the blood and the dirt; along with the fading screams. It feels like it absolves him. Almost like a warm embrace. There's something safe in that feeling. Sam stays there until the water runs cold.

This Sam with this Bucky…

Now this Sam with this Bucky

So, who is writing the fic?

I want to but what should it be about 

Sam and Bucky on the run 

@mariahthelioness29​ yes, but give Sam his Earth-61610 backstory where he’s a scientist and secret agent. 

Here’s a premise for you to do what you like with it: Dr Sam Wilson is in possession of some very dangerous but defunct alien tech that some evil organisation wants him to reverse-engineer. The organisation realises that Sam was planted there by another group to get to the tech and take it off their hands. He ends up in danger and held captive just after getting a message off to his people. The people he’s working for send another agent to extract and protect Sam. Enter Bucky. His directives are to extract some scientist and escort him to safety. Easy enough gig. But Sam Wilson isn’t some damsel who needs saving. He is a very capable agent himself, but he keeps his cover and lets Bucky do his job. For a little while, at least. When the people who are after Sam follow them in a car chase, and catch up with them, Bucky goes to protect Sam, but finds out he doesn’t need to when Sam takes out a whole squad of goons before Bucky can even draw his weapon. Heart eyes and boners ensue. They end up fuckin’ on hood of the bad guys’ car. 

P.S. The tac gear he is wearing is Bucky’s. 

I AM IN LOVE !!!!! 

If only I could write action scenes 

I believe in you @mariahthelioness29! Action scenes aren’t that different from sex scenes, honestly. You just describe:

1. What the people are doing to one another

2. Where they are positioned

3. What they are feeling e.g. short of breath; hearts racing; perspiration; adrenaline excitement etc. 

4. A climax

Short sentences work best to give the scene urgency. For example, if we wanted to flesh this idea out, let’s look at Bucky breaking Sam out of the facility he’s being held in. 

Beep. Beep. The timer is set. Barnes looks at his watch and pulls up his mask. He has ten minutes to get in and out with the scientist. A door unlocks. His weapon is raised. Two shots. Head and chest. Clean kill. The guard falls to the floor. Barnes rounds the corner, takes out another. Doesn’t even break a sweat. Takes out his device and checks the schematics. Three more doors to get through. He picks up his pace. Enters another corridor. One minute has passed. Someone steps out of a door. He snaps their neck, clears the room, and shoves the body in there. He moves again. Light on his feet. His boots silent against the concrete floor. Two more shots. Another body falls. Barnes keeps moving. He finds the door and goes in. Another minute passes. He clears the room. Three more clean kills. He takes a swipe card from one of the bodies. Moves to the next door. Beep. Beep. Click. Another two shots. One more door. He swipes the card and the door opens. One more minute has passed. Eyes scan the room. Steely blue meet warm brown. 

“Target acquired,” says Barnes into his comms while looking at the man in question. “Doctor Samuel Wilson?”

“Who are you?” asks Wilson.

“I’m here to get you out,” he says while cutting the ties from Wilson’s wrist. 

Beep. Beep.

“We got five minutes, now move, Doc.”

“Wait,” says Wilson. “The device.”

He points to where the tech he was working on sits behind a thick glass window. 

“We need to take it.”

Barnes sighs, removes the glove from his left hand, and punches the glass as hard as he can. It cracks. Then shatters. He grabs the device, then he grabs Wilson’s arm. They move as Barnes secures the tech to his pack. 

“Stay close,” says Barnes as he places Wilson’s hand to his shoulder and raises his weapon. 

They exit the room. Wilson keeping pace with Barnes. His fingers digging into his shoulder. They get to the corridor. Barnes keeps his body in front of the scientist. Two shots. A body drops. The pair keep moving. Two more shots. Someone yells. Beep. Beep. An alarm sounds. Barnes grabs Wilson’s hand and says, “Run!”

Sam 👏🏻 is 👏🏻not 👏🏻 a 👏🏻therapist

I don't mean this just in terms of how people make him do emotional labor for Bucky or whoever without any type of reciprocation. I also mean literally by profession, he is not a therapist or a psychologist. He was a counselor.

Agreed. Sam was probably a peer specialist at the VA. This is a real role. You don’t need to be a therapist to run a support group.

Sam always called himself a soldier, not a therapist.

waitwaitwait

So I've always known he's a counselor, not a therapist (duh) in relationships or as a job

But what's the actual difference between therapist, psychologist, and counselor?

I think someone else in the reblogs answered this, but it’s overall kind of professionally messy.

A psychologist is someone with a phd in Psychology who went through the licensure process to become a psychologist. Psychologists are usually therapists and they have additional training in assessments.

But psychologists are not the only path to becoming a therapist in the US. Master’s level clinicians like me exist. We hold degrees in things like social work, marriage and family therapy, and clinical counseling. You might see us called licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFT), licensed professional counselors (LPC or LPCC), or licensed mental health counselors (LMHCs). There are some others doing more specialized work, like art therapists, etc. The path here is usually a master’s degree with additional two years of supervised field training and a few exams for licensure.

So what’s a therapist and what’s a counselor? Sometimes these titles are used interchangeably. Sometimes they mean different things. We’re all treating mental and behavioral health.

A therapist is an umbrella term for a clinician treating mental health issues, and it falls over all of the above folks.

A counselor might be treating specific short term issues with specific goals and objectives, like a marriage counselor, a grief counselor, or a drug and alcohol counselor. Not every counselor has an advanced degree and not every counselor can assess and diagnose mental health disorders.

Some people would say that means therapists are doing long term exploratory work, but it gets messy because brief therapy interventions also exist! I am trained in Problem Solving Therapy, for example. People might consider those modalities to be counseling rather than therapy.

Generally speaking, a therapist will have an advanced degree and a license to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders. A counselor might also do this or a counselor might not hold a degree to do so, but instead underwent other training for specific and brief interventions.

And a psychiatrist is a doctor who specializes in the management of mental health medications.

Thank you!! That clears it up a lot.

So, to summarize (please correct me it I'm wrong), counselors do not necessarily have degrees or specialize in the same things as say, an anxiety therapist. They do, however, help people work through things, and set goals, but are not there for the long term?

Pretty much! If a counselor has an advance degree and license to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders then they are able to be a therapist. If a counselor does not have an advance degree and a license to assess, diagnose and treat mental health disorder they are just a counselor, but might be helping you with problems that impact your mental health.

At my job, for example, we have recovery support counselors. They do not have advanced degrees or licenses. They have certifications. They are not therapists. They offer short term help in reducing drug and alcohol use or connecting to higher levels of care. They use motivational interviewing to help people identify their desire to change or not change their use and support them where they are. They help people set goals around their use. They lead support groups for people trying to change their use habits.

Still helping with mental health, BUT not a therapist.

okay, thank you so much!!

One more question (I'm sorry to keep bothering you 😭) so why is it bad that people mistake Sam as a therapist instead of a counselor? (I understand metaphorically- obviously he's not there to "console" Bucky or Steve, or be a placeholder), but literally, as his job, why is it not good to mistake them?

No worries. Hopefully I am understanding your question correctly.

Within the fandom context, you really already said it. Sam is often used as a therapist in fanfic - he only exists to unburden white man pain, which feeds into existing stereotypical archetypes about Black characters. It’s just not something Sam fans, especially Black Sam fans, should have to put up with.

And there just isn’t a ton of evidence that Sam is a therapist in verse to support this fanon use of Sam. He runs a support group at the VA when we meet him, but he literally never again returns to this work on screen after meeting Steve. Even after the Blip, he chooses military contract work. Even so, there are hundreds of fics where Sam is the team therapist. As a result, Sam doesn’t get feelings, personal problems, individual treatment.

I just realized I'm a total liar

I have written top Sam, just not fer sambucky, but fer SaM'Baku.

Shameless self plug

Mornings Were Made for This | Explicit | 2,464 words

the chronically online among us might’ve seen this already, but have john nania (sebastian’s stunt double) talking about the sambucky scene in ca:bnw recently :)

Sam 👏🏻 is 👏🏻not 👏🏻 a 👏🏻therapist

I don't mean this just in terms of how people make him do emotional labor for Bucky or whoever without any type of reciprocation. I also mean literally by profession, he is not a therapist or a psychologist. He was a counselor.

Agreed. Sam was probably a peer specialist at the VA. This is a real role. You don’t need to be a therapist to run a support group.

Sam always called himself a soldier, not a therapist.

waitwaitwait

So I've always known he's a counselor, not a therapist (duh) in relationships or as a job

But what's the actual difference between therapist, psychologist, and counselor?

I think someone else in the reblogs answered this, but it’s overall kind of professionally messy.

A psychologist is someone with a phd in Psychology who went through the licensure process to become a psychologist. Psychologists are usually therapists and they have additional training in assessments.

But psychologists are not the only path to becoming a therapist in the US. Master’s level clinicians like me exist. We hold degrees in things like social work, marriage and family therapy, and clinical counseling. You might see us called licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFT), licensed professional counselors (LPC or LPCC), or licensed mental health counselors (LMHCs). There are some others doing more specialized work, like art therapists, etc. The path here is usually a master’s degree with additional two years of supervised field training and a few exams for licensure.

So what’s a therapist and what’s a counselor? Sometimes these titles are used interchangeably. Sometimes they mean different things. We’re all treating mental and behavioral health.

A therapist is an umbrella term for a clinician treating mental health issues, and it falls over all of the above folks.

A counselor might be treating specific short term issues with specific goals and objectives, like a marriage counselor, a grief counselor, or a drug and alcohol counselor. Not every counselor has an advanced degree and not every counselor can assess and diagnose mental health disorders.

Some people would say that means therapists are doing long term exploratory work, but it gets messy because brief therapy interventions also exist! I am trained in Problem Solving Therapy, for example. People might consider those modalities to be counseling rather than therapy.

Generally speaking, a therapist will have an advanced degree and a license to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders. A counselor might also do this or a counselor might not hold a degree to do so, but instead underwent other training for specific and brief interventions.

And a psychiatrist is a doctor who specializes in the management of mental health medications.

Thank you!! That clears it up a lot.

So, to summarize (please correct me it I'm wrong), counselors do not necessarily have degrees or specialize in the same things as say, an anxiety therapist. They do, however, help people work through things, and set goals, but are not there for the long term?

Pretty much! If a counselor has an advance degree and license to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders then they are able to be a therapist. If a counselor does not have an advance degree and a license to assess, diagnose and treat mental health disorder they are just a counselor, but might be helping you with problems that impact your mental health.

At my job, for example, we have recovery support counselors. They do not have advanced degrees or licenses. They have certifications. They are not therapists. They offer short term help in reducing drug and alcohol use or connecting to higher levels of care. They use motivational interviewing to help people identify their desire to change or not change their use and support them where they are. They help people set goals around their use. They lead support groups for people trying to change their use habits.

Still helping with mental health, BUT not a therapist.

I've seen a lot of discourse about who tops and who bottoms in sambucky and we should absolutely talk about it.

My full dissertation on this subject is under the cut

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (2021) dir. Kari Skogland

Sam 👏🏻 is 👏🏻not 👏🏻 a 👏🏻therapist

I don't mean this just in terms of how people make him do emotional labor for Bucky or whoever without any type of reciprocation. I also mean literally by profession, he is not a therapist or a psychologist. He was a counselor.

Agreed. Sam was probably a peer specialist at the VA. This is a real role. You don’t need to be a therapist to run a support group.

Sam always called himself a soldier, not a therapist.

waitwaitwait

So I've always known he's a counselor, not a therapist (duh) in relationships or as a job

But what's the actual difference between therapist, psychologist, and counselor?

I think someone else in the reblogs answered this, but it’s overall kind of professionally messy.

A psychologist is someone with a phd in Psychology who went through the licensure process to become a psychologist. Psychologists are usually therapists and they have additional training in assessments.

But psychologists are not the only path to becoming a therapist in the US. Master’s level clinicians like me exist. We hold degrees in things like social work, marriage and family therapy, and clinical counseling. You might see us called licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFT), licensed professional counselors (LPC or LPCC), or licensed mental health counselors (LMHCs). There are some others doing more specialized work, like art therapists, etc. The path here is usually a master’s degree with additional two years of supervised field training and a few exams for licensure.

So what’s a therapist and what’s a counselor? Sometimes these titles are used interchangeably. Sometimes they mean different things. We’re all treating mental and behavioral health.

A therapist is an umbrella term for a clinician treating mental health issues, and it falls over all of the above folks.

A counselor might be treating specific short term issues with specific goals and objectives, like a marriage counselor, a grief counselor, or a drug and alcohol counselor. Not every counselor has an advanced degree and not every counselor can assess and diagnose mental health disorders.

Some people would say that means therapists are doing long term exploratory work, but it gets messy because brief therapy interventions also exist! I am trained in Problem Solving Therapy, for example. People might consider those modalities to be counseling rather than therapy.

Generally speaking, a therapist will have an advanced degree and a license to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders. A counselor might also do this or a counselor might not hold a degree to do so, but instead underwent other training for specific and brief interventions.

And a psychiatrist is a doctor who specializes in the management of mental health medications.

IT IS DONE!!

Here's the series for my comics based ficlets/drabbles!

And heres the series for the mcu ones!

Thanks to everyone who's been supportive towards these. I'm such a slow writer normally and it's really encouraging when these things that were all originally written on the fly are still appreciated

Bucky to Sam in TFATWS:

Captain America Brave New World Deleted scene 2

SamBucky | 13k | M | Complete

Synopsis: It was a bad idea. Sam knew as much. His mission directive was clear: Travel back in time, go to the Stark Expo, and retrieve the stolen Wakandan artefact as a promise of goodwill and a way to make amends with a valued ally. He had finished the first half of his mission and secured the artefact, but he had not activated the Temporal Shift Device to return him to his own time. Curiosity had gotten the better of Sam. Curiosity and a yearning deep inside.He knew that there was a chance that he would see this other Bucky. He knew that if he set the Device to pick-up Bucky’s corporeal frequency, he would find him in the sea of people. The fact of the matter was, Sam missed Bucky. He missed his Bucky.

Content: Thunderbolts Era SamBucky; Possibly Unrequited Love; Vintage Queer Slang; Impulsive Sam Wilson; Charming Bucky Barnes; Angst & Feels; Mission Fic; Dreams & Nightmares; Lovesickness; Messing with the Timeline; Epistolary.

Period Pookie

Call me a hater or whatever, but folks are a little bit too excited - a little bit too prematurely positive about Thunderbolts* for my taste 🤨

I just want to know where all that negativity for the MCU went… it really disappeared overnight, didn’t it?