#and All Those Sweet Things

[aheckinmess]

Lucky Lexicon & Papa's Pop Tarts

(Part 1 of Apotelesma - a child of Thor fluff collection.)

Read on AO3.

Tags: Original Child Character(s), Thor Odinson, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avenger's Tower, Tony Stark, Loki Odinson, Thor is a Good Dad, Tony is a Good Uncle, Loki is a Good Uncle, OC Has Her Father's Spirit, And Loki's Sass, Gods Help Them, Overall General Cuteness, Fluff, and All Those Sweet Things

Word Count: 776 words

Summary: While Thor is out on a mission, his daughter Dalia must entertain herself in the Tower. Soon, a hungry belly prompts her to ask Uncle Tony for a favorite treat she inherited from her father: Pop Tarts!

Chapter 1: Lucky Lexicon & Papa's Pop Tarts

Tiny little feet pace in tiny little circles. Dalia sighs and returns to her coloring project. She scribbles and scrubs a heavy blue across the horizon of her paper until her tummy roars to announce its vacancy.

“Uncah Tonyyyyy…” She looks over to the genius billionaire, who’s bent over a glowing hologram. “Is Daddy on the way home yet?”

“No, Dollie. I told you he’ll get here when he gets here.” 

“But I’m hungry!”

“JARVIS, what do we have to eat for the little stinker?” He snaps his fingers and the hologram scatters.

“Currently, you’ve got an array of fruits and berries… ” Dalia zones out until one very important word tantalizes her taste buds. “ ...Pop Tarts–”

“I want Pop Tarts!” Dalia raves, rushing over and reaching up for her favorite uncle.

Tony frowns as he pulls her into his arms. “Hold on, sweetness. JARVIS, is it the last box?”

“Yes, sir.” 

“Sweetheart, we might want to hold off on the Pop Tarts for now. Your dad loves eating them after a mission…and he eats a lot.”

“He’d let me have some.” Dalia says matter-of-factly. “I’m his little princess!”

Tony chuckles and sets her on his hip to whip out his phone for a Pop Tart order. It’s more likely that Thor will return before the order arrives, but Dalia might wait longer with the anticipation that more are on the way.

“I tell you what, little princess. If you can wait ten more minutes and your dad isn’t back, I’ll let you have a Pop Tart. Sound good?” 

Dalia’s young face contorts as she considers his compromise, and then she wiggles one foot. “Fine. But you gotta pinky swear!”

Tony smiles and links his pinky with hers. “Scout’s honor, kiddo. Now, go play and wait for your daddy.”

Nine minutes pass when the door opens. 

Thor’s lumbering figure doesn’t even make it all the way through the threshold before Dalia tackles into his sturdy legs.

“Daddy, you’re back! Can I have some Pop Tarts?”

Thor’s laughter rumbles through the Tower.

“There’s only one box left, so we were trying to wait for you to come back before we let her lay waste to the remaining population.” Tony teases. “Although you made it here a minute before reinforcements arrived.”

 “Ah, then that means we still have the final box to share.” His tickling stubble brushes Dalia’s cheek as he lifts her into his arms. “That’s my girl! Let’s go finish off what’s left together.”

“Yeah!” Dalia pumps her fist. “Then I can grow big and strong like you, Daddy! And I’ll fight off the big bad guys!”

“That you will, my little warrior.”

Thor digs out the familiar blue box and juggles Dalia in one arm while he rips open the crinkly packaging of their favorite snack. In seconds, sugar frosting and strawberry jelly dots Dalia’s face.

Once she sighs with a full belly, Thor grabs a paper towel to wipe her face, drawing squeals from her chest as he swirls the napkin around and then pinches her cheeks. 

“Your turn!” Dalia takes the napkin, being much more serious and delicate in her attempts. “There’s so many crumbs in your beard, Daddy. Your face is sullied!”

“Sullied, huh? Who taught you such big words?” He guides her hands to get the final remains.

“Uncah Lucky. We did painting before he had to go. He said I sullied my shirt. He said that means dirty!” She finishes cleaning and then squirms out of his arms to throw away the trash. “He’s real smart! He says I can be smart just like him, too.”

Thor smiles, ready to encourage her, before a thoughtful look comes over his face. Dalia’s lips turn into a frown.

“I can be smart, too, can’t I, Daddy?”

And suddenly Thor’s arms toss Dalia into the air as he laughs, catches her, and then hugs her close. 

“Of course you can, my love. But I don’t want you to be as strong as me, or as smart as Loki.  I want you to be as strong or as smart as yourself . If you end up smarter or stronger, it'll just be an added bonus. But, don’t look to us for comparison.”

“Well, why not?”

“Your dear old dad has learned a thing or two,” He chuckles, weaving his fingers through Dalia’s hair. “If you compare yourself to others, you might find that you’re growing into someone entirely different than yourself.”

“Oh.” She looks out the window as they walk towards the living area. “Well…I guess that's okay. But I still wanna be strong and smart!”

“With a determination like yours, I know you will be.”

[cloveang3l]

Hi so board exam results come out in approximately 5-6 hours and I'm losing my fucking mind to my anxiety so here have Tim wearing merch

Don't know what else to say tbh just enjoy!!!!1

[majoralynx]

Welcome back to I have nothing to post so I share silly doodles!!!!! These pages started with just ravioli but I didn’t know what to fill the empty space with,, and when idk what to draw, silliness happens…. The Fledge page was drawn for mother@leaperfr0gg !!

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

heyy bakuhatsu!! have you seen the new oneshot from the fanbook? what are your thoughts?

I sure have. My thoughts are that 431 was such a convoluted, miserable mistake that Horikoshi's editors held him at gunpoint until he fixed shit, because public stock in the series was PLUMMETING LMAO.

Jokes aside, this is what people actually wanted to see in those extras pages in volume 42. This is what everyone wanted out of an ending beyond 430's beautiful, heartfelt, outstretched hand: some closure for everyone's journeys, a reminder of the bonds Izuku forged, hope for the future, and the wonderful joy it is to see that Katsuki and Izuku's shared childhood dreams ultimately became reality. They are heroes, together.

It is, quite frankly, a travesty that this exists solely within the confines of a short bonus in the back of a character book. They deserve better. And for many people, this is too little, too late. I'd love it if the anime just skipped 431 entirely and ended with this little scene, but I know better than to hope for that.

The fact that Horikoshi still dodged the question of whether Izuku and Ochako are romantically entangled in any way is a hysterical cherry on top of this weird-ass cake.

But when all is said and done, Bakugou Katsuki got his man. And he's gonna chase him forever, which has always been his truest wish.

And I love nothing more than for Kacchan to get exactly what he wants.

[frobby]

kurosawa yuichi is one of my favorite but also funniest to explain love interests in any romance. Everytime im like "oh hes obsessed with him.....respectfully!!!" Like no hes not a stalker but its hard to describe it as anything less than an obsession that hes just very respectful about

[heuldoch7b]

four of them

[dreamyblanket]

Sorry guys, wafer on the brain, it's terminal u.u

Anyway, I'll elaborate on this in the tags bc omg I'm going to yap your metaphorical ear off.

[bixels]

Be honest, what are your thoughts on appledash? Do you hate it or its more of not a big deal

Not a big deal to me. I like it, I see all the appeals, I just personally like Rarijack more.

[demaparbat-hp]

Want to know what I believe? It's right here

Dig a little deeper and it's crystal clear

.

(WIP)

[pencilofawesomeness]

How Fairy Tail could have had a really cool thematic parallel if they Committed to the Bit:

I often joke about my constant urge to spew essays on characters and topics I have thought too much about, but I refrain because translating all the thoughts in my head to words takes time and effort, and sometimes I am speaking to the void. However. I am spinning in my chair, gnawing at the bars of my enclosure, and frankly thinking way too much right now so I must scream.

It would have been so impactful if Fairy Tail emphasized Jellal being brainwashed.

Jellal is my boy, of course, but I’m not even just talking about the impact to his character: I mean the impact of the entire plot. This, of course, if we went the whole mile with the theming. The machination of being controlled, emotionally or magically influenced, or even unable to fulfill a desire due to an insurmountable obstacle, comes up numerous times throughout the plot, to both primary characters, supporting characters, and antagonists. While Fairy Tail is absolutely a series about friendship, it is also about choosing your path, with a large recurring theme of, regardless of connotation, about being selfish, and what that means on both ends of the spectrum. It’s a matter of free will, and the antithesis to this is all manner of external control. So really, it makes sense that this should be a thoroughly explored theme.

I could talk all day about all the different examples and aspects of this but I came here to talk about Jellal. First, the slavery aspect really hits the nail on the head, so we’re off to a great start—this, of course, applicable to multiple characters, which I really enjoy. Things go wild, however, when Jellal effectively chooses to trade himself for Erza in the punishment game and gets the ever-living shit beat out of him at the ripe age of eleven or twelve years old. He is, understandably, not in a good place, and he comes to the stunning conclusion that… he hates the slavers. Yeah. Checks out. Then, he hears the voice of ‘Zeref’ spewing rhetoric about hate, and it overwhelms; this, we know in hindsight especially, to be Ultear casting a mind-fuck spell in order to manipulate him, under the guise of pretending to be a figure young Jellal believed to be a god. 

When I first saw this flashback, watching the anime, I was unbelievably hyped. For all of Fairy Tail’s odd relationship with foreshadowing, I got the gist of it as soon as the magic went into his right eye and overwhelmed him. In Japanese media especially (largely due to the prevailing symbolism of the daruma doll), the right eye is a huge indicator of free will and the future—namely one’s goals. Creepy magic ghost entering the right eye with magic-bind looking things and immediately warping Jellal’s goal? A+ delivery. Of course, at the time Zeref—an unrevealed ‘evil’ entity—seemed a likely culprit, but Ultear being the puppeteer changes little of the result. In fact, it actually creates a super interesting parallel, but more on that later.

First, there are the consequences of Jellal being an antagonist who is not in control of his actions. I see people lament that it “cheapens” the severity of the arc and provides a cop-out redemption for Jellal, and while the execution of the latter certainly could have been different, I don’t think the premise of mind alteration cheapens the overall plot and theme of Fairy Tail at all; on the contrary, it could have been used to further emphasize intra- and inter- character conflict as well as provide a super engaging parallel for the end of the series. The theme of nakama, family, and friendship is huge, so what better way to emphasize that than to show a twisted example of it?

Jellal goes from ride-or-die loyal and ‘good’ to circumstantially loyal to an ideal (and the people attached to it) and ‘evil’ with the flip of a magic switch. Erza gets the immediate short of the stick when she is the first victim (aside from Jellal himself) to this meddling, and the caring friend she had seen days or weeks before is now cruel, insane, and full of threats—threats she takes heed to as she is cast from the island. Now, Erza is also a child, and one full of trauma, so I am not trying to invalidate her fear or blame her for any outcome. This also does not dive into the intricacies of saving friends at cost to oneself, and all of the conflict thereof; if anything, the complication of the matter bolsters the drama and impact. And then, we have the rest of the squad. Sho, Wally, and Milliana buy into the idea without any trouble, and they continue to buy into it as they get older. Beyond morality, it’s a power fantasy, and those are easy for formerly powerless people to latch onto. However, Simon is the only one who realizes that something is fundamentally wrong and twisted with Jellal… and his ultimate goal, developed over the course of roughly seven to eight years, is to wait it out until he finds the opportunity to kill him, or get somebody else to do it. Ultear, even after integrating herself into the group out of nowhere, gets away with her plan, because ultimately nobody questions that Jellal’s sudden change was anything but a result of trauma and his own will—even in a world with magic, where the very first arc revolves around the use and mistreatment of charm magic.

(Now, as an aside, I unfortunately have some experience in friends suddenly changing. In real life, it is rarely so sudden and obvious, of course, and the culprit is usually those horrible little signals and hormones within the mind, and nothing so fanciful or external as magic. I had a friend take a nosedive into some truly batshit ideas—cult-starting worthy—and exhibit wild mood swings and displays of unprecedented behavior. It admittedly took me a moment to ascertain it among the known issues, but once the pieces clicked, it clicked. I wished I had noticed sooner, and even though she was more culpable of her choices than a person supernaturally influenced by an outside force, I still can’t hate her for all the harm done. This is all just to say that I have, especially in recent years, a personal perspective on this trope and an appreciation for the painful nuance.) 

Refusing to reveal this mindfuckery in the arc diminishes the severity of it a great deal, I fear. We, along with the characters, spend time believing he died an insane villain… and then when he comes back amnesiac, it softens his character but does nothing to contradict how awful he had been. It’s not until years later, arcs later, that we get this random instance of the long overdue reveal to tell us that the manipulation has been discovered off screen. Not only is this utterly underwhelming, but Jellal is now actively working with Ultear and is fine with it! He’s still (understandably, after all this damn time thinking otherwise) blaming himself and lighting his own pyre to atone for things started by a factor completely outside of his control, and every character lets him. The discussion of autonomy is wasted. So, too, is all the juicy emotional fallout. We don’t see Jellal grapple with the horrifying reality that he has not been himself, that years of his life were wasted as a mental slave instead of a physical one; we don’t see Erza beat herself up (likely unnecessarily) because she could have potentially protected him but she hadn’t out of fear, and then she condemned him unknowingly; we don’t see the others truly come to terms with the fact that Jellal had been stolen from under their noses and they never noticed; we don’t even get more than a glimpse in Ultear’s head, who committed the deed because she thought her means wouldn’t matter and then they did. 

It’s horrifying. It’s tragic. It was, perhaps, preventable—in that the problem was a punchable one, to a degree—except the people involved were just children, just human, and it wasn’t enough. Friendship and flashy magic power could not trump trauma and entrapment, not this time. No matter how I think the series could have and should have handled it (and I have several ideas, of course), Jellal’s story provides a haunting case of failure regarding the themes of friendship/community and freedom that our protagonists embody. 

Which brings me to the perfect opportunity to follow up this occurrence of stripped autonomy and loss of freedom with a culmination of the affected themes, plot points, and more: the books of Zeref. 

Namely, the idea that the etherious—sapient, cognizant, and fully capable of autonomy via every depiction given of them, from Tartaros to even Lullaby to especially Natsu—can be and have been resolutely manipulated and controlled via the books by Zeref. Now Zeref, infamously hands-off up until the finale, barely utilized this. The most we ever see is instilling a directive and supernatural need to kill Zeref in the texts, which serves as an externally imposed goal. (Sound familiar, yet?) Provided Larcade clearly doesn’t have these instincts, it is not a guaranteed addition either, which further adds to the sense of deliberation. Natsu experiences this only in the last arc, in what I assume is supposed to be a very tense and jarring plot of a friend and protagonist suddenly losing himself, but it does not get expounded on for long enough to hammer the point home. The plot point of reclaiming the book becomes about saving his life only, and not his autonomy. Not only could this have been emphasized to be properly horrifying and devastating, but the effect—and the suspense—would be doubled with the prior establishment of Jellal’s arc and the tragedy therein. 

To back up for a moment, this parallel is further accentuated by the fact that Ultear and Zeref are clear mirrors of each other. Ultear was afflicted by a magic condition outside of her control and she was enslaved as a lab rat for it. When she broke free, she perceived her mother to have abandoned her, so Ultear, in her unresolved anger and grief, aims her entire goal to rectifying it, which culminated in planning to undo the entire timeline in order to make the one she wanted all along. Any casualties, any cruelties—including the mental enslavement of a slave child—are means to an end, and will ultimately be forgotten. Zeref lost his entire family to tragedy, and in his grief, he refused to forfeit the idea of regaining what was lost, namely his brother. He became afflicted with a curse—a magic condition outside of his control—and experienced cognitive dissonance for it. Ultimately, this miserable existence culminated in the idea of erasing the timeline entirely and forging his own. Any casualties, any cruelties—including subjecting his creations to the same lack of complete cognitive control—are means to an end, and will not matter. 

I mentioned that selfishness is also a recurring theme and this is a prime example of the dark side of it. For Lucy, claiming her independence and following her own path against the wishes of her estate, it is a wondrous thing. Freedom cannot be achieved without some selfishness, and this is a wonderfully handled theme in Fairy Tail, where our protagonists unabashedly put their friends above concrete morals and follow a creed to live their life to the fullest—the eternal adventure. For characters like Ultear and Zeref, their personal desires—born of horrible tragedy and frankly understandable things to want—come at the cost of the autonomy of everyone else, especially the pawns they use to further their goal. This, in true fictional hyperbole, begs the question of where the line in the sand is to be drawn, of what is acceptable on a moral standard and what is not. It is, of course, colored by the protagonist’s point of view as clear antagonism, but as a viewer of the media it provides to us to question when protecting one’s ideal becomes irrevocably an attack on the sanctity of others. 

Which brings us back to the matter of the books. The intended horror of Natsu losing control of himself, I think, could have been really emphasized in order to highlight these aforementioned themes. Imagine if, instead of a complete menagerie of new characters as the final invading force, Zeref’s key piece of his invasion was Natsu. With the intended goal of undoing time, having Natsu kill him is no longer necessary, so it would be more pragmatic to use Natsu instead as a weapon of mass destruction for his goal. Not only is he inside of Fairy Tail, but Zeref is, theoretically, doing this for Natsu too, and he won’t remember this upon success—nevermind that the Natsu we know, that presently exists, that we have watched develop over the entirety of the series, would be forever erased regardless. 

Armed with the knowledge of what happened to Jellal, and how he ultimately had no one to intervene for him, this increases the urgency within the characters and will likely expedite their discovery of why Natsu turned against them out of nowhere. This time, a resistance is launched, and characters have the chance to intervene on the behalf of a friend. Gray couldn’t save Ur, Lucy spent years ensnared by the will of a family member, Erza didn’t recognize Jellal’s plight until it was too late, but they can save Natsu, and save him quickly. Fairy Tail, Team Natsu especially, can rewrite the book of E.N.D. solely for the great cause of freeing their friend and handing him back his free will, and in the process, Fairy Tail saves their own future as well. This doesn’t preclude the ability to free Zeref from his curse, but with or without that we have a beautiful culmination of fighting for the sake of a friend, for the individual and for the whole group. This time, friendship wins. 

I just think it could have been really cool.

[lyxchen]

Genuienly I can't get behind all the Squid Game promotion stuff Netflix does. It's kinda gross to me. All the Squid Game events in different cities where you get to play the games and people go around taking pictures with the pink guards and idk posing sexually or calling them 'daddy' and don't even get me started on Squid Game The Challenge. Like no hate to the people taking part in this, they're just having fun but I just don't think this is cool. I don't think seeing kids costumes of players and pink guards is cool. I don't think recreating a show in real live and taking out the bad parts, the parts that are there to send a message is cool and fun. I know a lot of shows have serious themes and I'm not against fandom for Squid Game at all and I also think having fun with the show in fandom without always bringing up its serious messages is totally okay (I do that too) and I also think that Netflix can of course promote a very popular show. But I think once it gets to a point where Netflix makes it silly and cutesy is when it has to stop. Netflix going around different citys and putting up the Red Light, Green Light doll and having random people on the street play the game is just... For what? For promotion? For money?? Of course it's for money but I think it's kind of so gross. Nothing else is irl promoted as much as Squid Game is. I don't see nearly as many events for Bridgerton or Stranger Things. But Netflix RECREATED this show about Horrible Things happening to people, who don't know how to help themselves anymore stuck in a system that is actively working Against them, with real live people stuck in similar situations. For Entertainment. And you know who gets the most money out of it?? Netflix!! A show about poor people taking huge risks to get a better and livable life and in the end Netflix is still the one making all of this money off of it. And they're squeezing every last bit they can out of this show. And it's so disgusting to me. Again I'm not blaming people who take part in this, who go to those events. I just think Netflix shouldn't be making these events in the first place

[jakeperalta]

feel free to add where you're from in the tags :)

[vynnyal]

OK, fair warning to the few people I actually managed to convince to try the game??

Rain world does NOT play like hollow knight, and you'll get your butt kicked if you approach it like that.

It's really hard. Like, really hard. Instead of the game literally giving you abilities in the form of power-ups and damage buffs, the only abilities you gain is from what you learn and your own ingenuity. You're a rat from beginning to end. If you just beef your way through it, it's gonna suck and you're gonna be confused and frustrated all the time. But if you pay attention, take it slow, and learn how the ai works and how everything interacts with each other, you can consistently get through and dominate situations you thought were impossible to do so when you first began. Now get out there, kill some lizards, and bully some old computers!

[maskedchip]

bunch of ryuu faces i like. bc idk where else to put them

[nacreousor]

Frank Langdon is a high functioning addict and pretty damn adept at what he's doing as long as everything is going 100% his way. He needs people on his side that see him as a good guy. He needs to see himself as a good guy. He wears a handmade bracelet that his kid made him to work - brightly coloured with his sleeves rolled up. He sits with David after a traumatic event and tells him that Robby was the best man for the job - within Robby's sight line. He wants to get his four year old the puppy he's been begging for - for his wife to deal with whilst raising both his kids as he's out of the house for 12 hour shifts. When he gets caught, he says c'mon Robby, remember how I helped my mother move all by myself? He's taking risks with his addiction, and he's getting cagey and paranoid about it when we meet him. He's jumping at everything as the season opens. He knows people will see him differently if they find out and he knows his career is at stake.

But he's still a good guy - as long as people believe this, they're all his character witnesses. Enter new residents and interns, and as luck will have it, he gets paired with a friendly, bubbly, eager to learn, genuinely happy to be here resident. Ain't that swell. Her desire to trust and build relationships with people that is the perfect canvas for Langdon to paint the best version of himself. So he's charming, he's kind to her, he gets to show off a little because he is a damn good doctor, and it FEELS damn good to be observed as such, especially by someone fresh who hasn't also clued in to the fact that he's an asshole too. He works his shift building up a mentor/student relationship with her. He's not doing this out of the kindness of his heart or because he likes her; Melissa King is a convenient part of Frank Langdon's ongoing plan of manipulation. Her competence means that none of his agitated snapping gets aimed her way (yet).

That's because he's reserving all that for Trinity Santos - the more jaded and less naive med student who recognizes how manipulative men behave. After all, it's a lot easier to never have to see an abrasive recent grad he's not able to intimidate after one day than it might be to never see a second year resident with experience again. He's playing the whole field here, because in his mind, everyone is on to him already. (and best believe he would have thrown Mel under the bus and dismissed and gaslit her too if she had been the one to piece his little secret together)

[themeraldee]

Fun thought i’d like to share: homelander rarely uses his phone because if someone needs him they can find him somewhere in the tower and if he’s not there then they don’t need to reach him. So when he randomly gets a notification that his storage is full he’s confused…until he opens up his camera roll and realizes you have taken hundreds of photos whenever his phone has been sitting around. Some cute, flirty, and a lot of stupid ones all blurriness and bad angles plus a good bunch of him when he’s not looking…can’t tell if he’d hate it or love it 😂

hate it??? If you don't think he's already printing and framing them all you're wrong 😂 I think that's so fun tho, I always adore the BTS scenes of Antony in costume so all the candid shots of him sound so fun 🩷 I feel like he'd enjoy having someone take photos of him just because. They don't expect him to pose, they just wanna capture the moment because they love him or they like the way he looks, etc... but it's not a staged photoshoot! He doesn't really have anyone close to him to take silly selfies with!

I feel like it'd be like a whole days mission for him to go through all the photos of you and pick which one he likes the most so he can make it his background 🫶 (there's a whole day booked out in his calendar and if anyone asks he's on a super important mission the outcome of which will save the world, i.e. he's butt naked on the couch scrolling though his gallery. speaking of, it's gotta be really uncomfortable to be naked on that couch, why is that his preference?? throw on some joggers my guy, why are you okay with your ass, thighs and back sticking to the leather 😭😭😭)

Idk I feel like he's such a sap. If you gave him a scrapbook with some of the photos printed out with some sweet words etc he'd be even more insane about you lol.