#only Thor and Hulk are a threat to him in a physical fight

[antvnger]

Blood Brothers AU - Tony survives the Endgame

((I see your proposal, Anon, and raise you...something bigger.

Yes, I completely agree Scott would, and that will certainly be included here. But there’s definitely more to this here than just that.

You know the more I think about it, the more I realize the Russos were just mean and the more annoyed and angry I get. Tony did not have to die. And in my head, he didn’t. I’ve got my own ideas of how he survived, quite a few indeed. Heck, in one version of the story, it’s not a Time Heist, it’s a Quantum Heist and I threw in an OC to make sure he lives, but that’s neither here nor there…

Anyway, in the Blood Brothers universe, Tony does in fact live. So does Nat but that’s also neither here nor there. Here’s how.))

Thanos had just blown up the van. Captain Marvel was this close to escaping with the Stones to the Quantum Realm, but Thanos blew that idea to hell.

We know what happens next. Thanos and Carol fight, and just when we think Carol is really going to end the threat once and for all, Thanos remains one step ahead and knocks Carol into next week with the Power Stone.

And then…the look. Where a chess-master sorcerer and one who seems to defy all with an iron will lock eyes and know the moment has come.

But in this universe, the look doesn’t go unnoticed.

Ant-Man and the Wasp survive the exploding van in a similar fashion to how Scott survived Thanos’ initial attack on the compound. From the rubble near where the van once sat, a tiny Scott Stark groans, shakes his head, and slowly gets up. He hears a large crack resound and flinches, looking around frantically to see just in time how Thanos has gotten the better of Carol.

And somehow, for whatever reason, Doctor Strange catches Scott’s attention. That look of solemn urgency as he holds up one trembling finger. Strange did say they only had one shot at winning…and the look on his face makes Scott realize this was it.

Then his eyes travel to where Doctor Strange was looking, and his heart drops to his boots. No.

That’s another look Scott can recognize. Resolve. Resignation. He’s worn the same look himself on many occasions. Hell, he’d be wearing the look right now if he wasn’t feeling such panic and desperation to get to his brother as quickly as possible.

Because so many things are running through his head right now. Things like Bruce’s screams by just putting on the gauntlet, never mind the damage he endured after snapping his fingers.

Things like the fact that if it wasn’t for the part of him that was the Hulk, Bruce more than likely wouldn’t have survived the snap.

Things like Bruce saying the radiation coming off the Stones was gamma.

Things like Tony’s own words to Thor:  “...that glove's channeling enough energy to light up a continent…”

Things like Rocket describing what it felt like to feel the effects of one Stone, never mind six. 

Things like Tony was about to die. Scott was about to watch his brother die, and he knew it.

Panic propels the tiny Ant-Man forward towards Tony just as he sees his big brother cleverly swipe the Infinity Stones from the iron gauntlet. 

But the younger Stark is clever too, and an idea - a desperate prayer really - blooms in his mind, one he would follow through in full force…whether it ends well for himself or not.

“I am inevitable,” he hears the Mad Titan exclaim with a calm that sends shivers down Scott’s spine. Thanos snaps his fingers, and nothing happens.  Scott’s almost there.

Tony reveals the Stones in his gloved hand, and he flings his head back with a grunt as he bears the electric weight of six Infinity Stones. “And I…” He’s yards away now. “Am…”

Scott gets ready, mentally and physically, as he closes the gap between him and his older brother. He’s going to have to time it all perfectly. One shot to get this right.

“Iron Man.”

In the span of a second, three things happen. 1) Scott activates the Pym Particles with the button on his left hand to make him grow. 2) As Scott grows, he reaches out his right hand and grabs Tony’s right shoulder. 3) Tony snaps his fingers, and the world goes white.

This is where the world freezes for one very brief moment, and Tony is transported to the Soul Stone’s realm because he’s the one who snapped his fingers.

The world doesn’t freeze for Scott though.

As he grows giant, he gets down on one knee to keep his hold on Tony’s shoulder, and he struggles to hold on.

Scott feels everything and nothing all at once.

He learned something from hearing Rocket’s encounter with the Infinity Stone. They can be survivable if you don’t carry the burden alone. And/or if you’re big enough. Tony wasn’t but with Scott’s help, Tony could be.

Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it transfers and transforms. As if sensing a larger mass to consume, the energy of the Infinity Stones drains out of Tony’s shoulder directly in and up Scott’s right arm to the rest of his giant form, rumbling through him like a chain reaction of TNT.

Scott had never felt heat like that before.  Heck, he’d never felt anything like that before.  He almost expected death instantaneously simply from the sheer force of what electricity coursed through him, yet, miraculously, it didn’t come. 

He doesn’t remember how or when he ended up on his back.

He doesn’t remember Hope was about to shrink him back to normal size, but he does remember hearing Doctor Strange shout, “No! If you want him to live, you leave him be!”

For a brief moment, Scott wonders who Strange is talking about.

He doesn’t really remember what Doctor Strange and the princess of Wakanda discuss so quickly and urgently. All he remembers is hearing the princess say, “Two more white boys to work on, and one is a giant.”

Oh, Scott realizes, they’re talking about me and Tony.

He remembers staring at the sky and seeing a beam of sunlight break through the clouds of ash. That’s all he remembers.

Until he wakes up with a start in an exotic and really cool looking hospital room…or lab. There’s so much cool tech, he thinks it’s not exactly a hospital ward.

His suit’s gone, and his right arm, chest, and upper right leg are bandaged up. “Weird…wha–what’s going on?” He looks around, and before he can call out if anyone was there, he finally notices another bed nearby with his brother lying on it, unconscious or asleep and missing an arm.

But very much alive according to the readout of his heartbeat on the nearby screen.

Scott learns many things later on, filling in the gaps in his memory.

He learns that while Scott could not save Tony from losing his arm as a result of actually snapping his fingers, the transfer of energy really did save his life.

He learns that Shuri had to run tests and scans on him while he was giant to make sure the radiation and the energy from the Stones were completely out of his system before he was shrunk back down. Doing so beforehand might have killed him because that would have thrown him into the same dilemma he spared Tony from. He was big enough as a giant to handle the energy, which is why he’s only escaped with bad burns. The scars look like lightning webbing across his skin.

He also learned Hope had to use her disks to shrink him. Any particles he had in his suit had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps absorbed by the Infinity Stone energy, but that was speculation.

He learned he had been out cold for five days. Between breaking records in size and timeframe of being giant and the Infinity Stones, that was enough to make Scott sleep undisturbed for that long. Shuri had to assure everyone that he really was not dead. “He’s literally breathing on his own and mumbling incoherently every once in a while,” she informed them. “He’s sleeping very deeply.”

Tony went through surgery to remove the arm, and Shuri had to use some Vibranium on his heart to strengthen it. Even Tony’s heart can only take so much, but it’s strong and stable now and probably in better shape than it was before.

But the snap knocked him out cold too, and Tony wakes up a full day after Scott does. And he has no idea how in the world he’s alive until Bruce fills him in on everything that has come to pass.

Tony and Scott design and build an arm for Tony out of vibranium with the blessing of the Black Panther of course, they wouldn’t dare otherwise.

The mystery of the missing Pym particles gets solved soon enough when Scott gets frustrated with the pain in his hand and arm and suddenly bangs his head on the ceiling. And the. He freaks out whenever he sees how he’s drastically changed, and then he’s suddenly very small. “What the hell is going on?!”

Seems the Infinity Stones made him absorb all the Pym Particles he was carrying in his suit…but that's neither here nor there.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

What do you think could’ve been a way to make Loki AA’s primary antagonist AND keep him in-character? Would’ve been my dream movie tbh

It wouldn’t take a huge amount even if you leave almost the entire plot the exact same. He could have been an infinitely more effective Big Bad, but that would be more structural work and that kind of major overhaul isn’t necessary if you just want him to be in character.

There is some stuff to work with. There’s already emphasis on him being in a very bad way physically and it’s already implied he suffered some kind of torture, so the most generous reading of the film as it exists is that Loki’s mental state is so poor that he isn’t in touch with reality. For example, when he says Thor threw him into an abyss- the charitable reading (and the only thing I think makes sense with TH’s acting choices) is that he genuinely doesn’t remember it accurately. His trauma and paranoia, spending however long in a void obsessing over what happened and trying to reconcile his own actions, spending however long being tortured, etc. have distorted his perception of events.

Now that he’s been forced to go on living, he can’t admit that he tried to kill himself. The whole reason he tried to kill himself is that he can’t cope with the reality of his situation and what he’s done- there’s nothing to live for in that moment of lucidity when he offers everything up to Odin and Odin rejects it.

So, lean into that way more. Make the coercion more explicit and take out all the stupid, wrong ‘you want daddy to make it better’ power speeches (fy JW), the ‘a throne, any throne, at any cost’ stuff, delete that awful (pointless anyway) scene with Black Widow, and give him an actual plan that makes sense from his pov. Have him still motivated by his desire to be a worthy son, a worthy prince of Asgard, and desperately trying to consolidate an identity of his own. He does not care about power, he never pursued power, what he wants is love, respect, belonging. He wants to prove that he is just as valuable as Thor.

He’s not a ‘full-tilt diva’ who wants his name on a building. Fame and adulation are not what he desires or what he’s missing. He’s missing self worth and a sense of place. He is a terrified and insecure emotional-child who absolutely loathes himself and has had every anxiety-thought he’s ever had apparently vindicated by reality. His meltdown came about because being the temperate and sensible one (his natural disposition) is inextricably linked with being ‘other’ and ‘less than’ in his life. He had thought the problem was Thor’s impulsive, arrogant behaviour overshadowing everything, needing to babysit his brother rather than accomplish anything on his own, and that his pragmatic approach to life was obviously superior- if only Odin would acknowledge him, but then he discovers he’s a monster and so they must have been right all along.

A very substantial part of his original motivation was also genuine concern for the realm. He’s diplomatic and relatively sober-minded until his very personal fear-buttons are being pushed; his anger is cool, only his hurt is hysterical. Nothing he ever does is done for no reason or just to make someone suffer (even his lies to Thor are intended to keep Thor from ever trying to return to Asgard, not solely to humble or wound him). He’s callous in pursuit of goals he considers very important (in an unthinking, I’m-royalty-this-is-the-fate-of-the-kingdom kind of way), but he’s not sadistic.

So to get him to act as the big bad, what makes sense? He has to think what he’s doing is necessary. He has to be able to justify it to himself as a greater good to cover the child-like, selfish, vulnerable primary motives; he does not want to be in charge and would never consider his own rule a ‘greater good’. He doesn’t consider collateral damage but doesn’t cause it on purpose, and he is only driven to direct, extreme actions by panic and desperation. He should be a cerebral villain (Joss thinks he is in AA, but he’s not), so he should be playing 3-dimensional chess and should have at least two apparently contradictory layers to his plan (as he does in Thor1, where is seems like he’s aligned himself with the Jotuns and will allow Laufey to kill Odin until it’s revealed his real plan was to lure Laufey to a vulnerable position and secure that total victory for Asgard Thor has been boasting he’ll get since they were children while also gaining an opportunity to personally rescue his father). He never stops adapting to changing circumstances, but his solutions are surreptitious and non-violent until he’s backed into a corner.

Therefore, a story where we think he’s just trying to usurp a world to find self-worth in ruling it for the first half (preferably one where he beats the shit out of Cap and Iron Man before allowing himself to be captured so the audience actually understands that he can and so he feels like an actually dangerous threat to the heroes), but it’s revealed that he’s really playing a triple cross. He is trying to prove himself to Odin and be vindicated, but he’s doing it by deliberately conning Thanos out of the Tesseract and protecting Midgard from harm; controlling and negating the invasion from within. He managed all this so he could be a ‘defender of mortals’ as Odin and Thor are, so he can take home a powerful artefact like Odin did the Casket of Ancient Winters. Planning to drop these spoils at his father’s feet while pretending he didn’t orchestrate the entire situation. Like Thor1, this plan could essentially succeed completely even while parts of it blow up in his face and he struggles to keep believing it’s worth it, and the point is that his parameters aren’t acceptable, it’s not okay to use whole planets as pawns, etc. and the heroes have to thwart him right as it’s coming together.

So instead of randomly disappearing leaving everything necessary to defeat him lying around unguarded and being completely superfluous to the climax as he is in the actual film, there is a meaningful fight with emotional stakes. Instead of Our Heroes vs Organic Battle Droids for forty minutes, there is a genuine conflict and genuine tension. Loki remains consistent and very sympathetic while still being a major existential threat. The film doesn’t slap him around as comic relief or render him pathetic when you’re still supposed to fear him, he doesn’t become a ridiculous cartoon misogynist space Nazi, he doesn’t feel like a total damp squib of a villain who really didn’t merit the big team up.

[syiano]

Avengers x Male!Reader

Link to Part 2 is here.

Marvel Preferences: When They Get Protective Of You

---------------------------

Steve becomes protective of you during a mission, and normally has you near him or at least in his sight so he can keep an eye out for you. Despite you proving that you can defend yourself, the though out of losing someone else when most of the people in his past are gone scares Steve, and he can't help but show it. Now that he has not only the courage but the power, he wants to use it to protect you, also as his duty as a Captain. If you were to even get hurt, he feels as if he's still failed himself.

He scolds you about your safety, and he often will sound stern when he does. It sounds like he's lecturing you, but truly all he wants is for you not to get hurt.

Bucky is protective of you most of the times, but it's due to his fears, especially due to his reputation as the Winter Soldier, there's enemies in his past and in the present who haunt him, and his terrified that they will use you to hurt him or against him. His biggest fear is for you to be in the hands of the same people who tortured and hurt him, and he never wants you to gone what he went through.

Tony becomes protective of you when someone hurts you, verbally or physically. His usual demeanor is all calm, but that all fades away when you're down because of what someone said or did to you. He wants you to stay in his room, and has FRIDAY look after you when he's gone.

When he comes back, he checks up on you for any signs that your distress had gotten worse. After that, he will bring you whatever makes you happy and then cuddle with you.

Sam isn't really protective, because he's certain and knows that you can handle and fight for yourself. However, if you're hurt, he will immediately go to protective mode. He will be the first to run to you and get you to safety and will do anything to make you feel safe again.

Peter gets protective of you when he's suspicious of someone who be suspects doesn't have good intentions. He doesn't want to cause a scene in public, but when the both of you are alone, he will tell you that that person just doesn't sit well with him, and that you should be careful. Peter would sometimes spy on the person, worried they would do plan anything to hurt you.

Pietro becomes protective of you around strangers. Since he has trust issues, he thinks that strangers would try to take you away from him, and always expects the worst out of them. He can be immature sometimes, butting into conversations you and the person have and then goes to questioning them and asking them about their true intentions.

Other times, he might pick you up and steal you away, and will become angry when you tell him what he did wasn't necessary.

Thor becomes protective of you if he senses your in danger or if there's a threat. Your life is his priority, and as a duty to keep you safe or at least unharmed.

Loki is protective of you all the time, and it surprises everyone on how he cares for you, since he's usually so subtle. Ever since he's been with you, he feels like he actually has someone who won't judge or look down on him, and also someone who he can call his and protect.

He's afraid of one day you leaving him or someone taking you away from him.

Bruce becomes protective of you when it comes to controlling himself, due to Hulk. He knows what he's capable of, and at the beginning of the relationship, he was still worried about your safety, but when you cupped his face and told him that he could never hurt you, and reminded him you're the one who can calm the Hulk down, he felt a rush of relief, though knowing Bruce, he would still be worried at the back of his mind.

Clint will become protective of you when you're dragged into a dangerous situation or when someone mentions you when he could've sworn he would keep your relationship a secret. He knows his job is dangerous, and he doesn't want you to interfere with his job, and when someone mentions you, his first instinct is to aim an arrow to their heads. (It will take convincing for him to put his damn weapon down, though.)

He doesn't want to leave your side and steps into a room first to see is there's any danger before you can enter.

[awkward-gay-bro]

M-Day

Wanda couldn’t take it anymore. Her father and Charles Xavier were yelling over each other. Each man telling the other what she needed to do. Neither man talking to her. She was just a tool for their causes. These men were always telling her what to do. She couldn’t take it anymore. It was time for her to take the power back from these men in her life. And with a simple utterance under her breath, she did. 

“No more masculinity.”

In an instant the men behind her were gone. What stood in their place could hardly be called men. The years had faded from their faces, and the muscles had faded from their body. Their fighting ended as they locked eyes, seeing what the other had become. Wanda opened a portal in a blaze of scarlet red energy, and left her father and his friend, rival, and soon to be lover behind. 

It had been a year since Wanda Maximoff had changed the world. Some people had adapted to their new lives quickly, while others were still struggling to accept the new reality she had created. Bobby Drake was one of the few men that had been left unaffected by her power. He’d heard on the news they were being called the 198, apparently less than 200 men had been left unchanged.

As Iceman worked out in the danger room, his mind began to wonder through all of the people he once knew and what they had become. 

Rogue had told him what she found when she’d gone on the hunt to find Remy LeBeau. Gambit had disappeared the day it all happened, didn’t even give Rogue a chance to say goodbye. Just left a note saying he couldn’t bear to face her this way. She feared he’d return to his family in New Orleans, that he would return to a life of crime. So she made a trip to the Bayou, to confront him for leaving her, to let her know she didn’t care what he looked like. But when she arrived she found that the Thieves Guild had been disbanded. The Assassins Guild, too. It seems with all their men diminished, the warring had finally ended. Rogue was distraught that she couldn’t find her Cajun. 

She’d almost given up her search when she found herself at a bar. She’d grown weary from worrying and a drink was the perfect thing to cut the edge. Rogue chose the bar cause it looked  like it was mutant friendly, but she hadn’t realized how friendly. It seemed this particular bar had employed mutant bois for a very particular role. She’d watched a dozen or so of them walking around in skimpy outfits, offering to dance on the women who were patroning the bar. A swarm of the bois had surrounded the one member of the 198 there, sat in a booth getting his drinks and dances for free. But seeing a real man wasn’t the most surprising thing for Anna Marie. A skinny boy in a trench coat had walked out from the back, and the bois surrounding the man parted like the red seas. The skinny twink stripped off his trench coat and threw it to the ground, revealing a gravity defying pair of globes that looked comically large on his tiny frame. He dropped his hands to the ground and shot his ass to the air as he began gyrating his cheeks in the air. As his mounds danced hypnotically they began to build up kinetic energy, and slowly his leather pants began to glow brighter and brighter with a neon pink aura. The man reached out to touch, but before he could the leather pants exploded off of the twink’s frame, leaving his gyrating hips in nothing but a magenta pink thong. The man grabbed hold of the twink’s globes and slipped a hundred into the pouch off his thong. The twink took the man by the hand and led him into a backroom. Rogue didn’t see him again until the bar was closing, when finally he and the other man came back out to the bar. She kept out of sight until the bar was closing, the kinetic twink the only one there to close out the till. Then she came out of hiding, walked over and placed a gloved hand on  the twink’s shoulder and said, “Chère?”

Bobby had found out later that Rogue had decided to stay there with him. She was going to prove that what had become of him wouldn’t stop them from loving each other. He’d heard rumors that the both of them had moved in with the man from the bar. Gambit wanted the emotional love he could get from Rogue, but he needed the physical support he was getting from that man. 

Looking around the danger room Bobby was reminded of the first time he’d entered the Danger Room after the change. Bobby, Emma Frost, and Jean Grey were making their way down to the danger room with a handful of the remaining active duty X-Men. Emma and Jean had put aside their differences for the good of the team, with so many of the power players out of commission and Storm in Wakanda taking care of T’Challa, they’d become the defuncto leaders. It took them a long time to compile a team. With most of the X-men not really being men anymore, the team was predominantly made up of women. 

Bobby was one of the few men left unaffected from their former roster, which is why Emma had extended a hand to the all too giddy Wade Wilson. Deadpool had been so excited when the change happened, with him left unchanged his sexual options had expanded vastly. Most women were now without partners and excited at the prospect of any man, and even the burliest of men had now become cherubic and willing. Bobby was taken aback when they first brought Deadpool onto the team, but he quickly proved himself as a reliable asset, saving the day countless times. Of course, he’d also used the Institute as his own personal buffet. Bobby had walked in on him once with the barely legal Hellion and Elixir. The two former rivals had been pit against one another time and time again, but nowadays they spent most of their time trying to complete a common goal. Much to Wade’s delight. The merc with a mouth had justified it to Bobby by saying that Elixir’s biokinesis meant he could ignite every pleasure center at once while Hellion’s telekinesis meant they could do positions he’d never imagined. This wasn’t the last time Bobby had walked in on Wade’s excursions.  

Before any of that happened though, and before the team ever went on any missions, Jean had wanted them to practice. She knew that most of the team had worked together at some time or another, but they needed to make sure they knew each other’s powers and fighting styles inside and out before they ever stepped into a mission. So she programmed a rigorous series of sessions in the Danger Room so that they could be ready for anything they encountered. But nothing could have readied Jean for what she was about to encounter. 

Emma and Jean weren’t the only one’s who’d ended their feud after the change had happened, and they both had to come face to face with that fact at that very moment. When Jean had opened the door to the danger room, she found her former suitors writhing around on the Danger Room floor. She’d commanded that they stop fighting, when Emma placed a hand on her shoulder and gave a knowing look. They’d both dedicated years of their lives to Scott Summers, but it looked like he was finally done with telepaths trying to probe around in his head. Instead, he was living it up as Logan’s tiny cocklet probed around in...other places. 

Emma and Jean both fled from the scene, Wade running after the both of them. He’d told Bobby that they took out their anger on his body that day. But after that, they had both used his body for other reasons. 

The X-men weren’t the only team that had been shaken up by Wanda Maximoff did that day. Being one of the few unaffected superheroes of his power, Iceman had forged a strong new relationship with Nick Fury. Nick was in transit when the world changed, so he didn’t find out what had happened until he entered the Avenger’s Tower. 

And Fury had told Bobby in confidence what he saw when walked in. Half a dozen of the male Avengers were huddled together, their uniforms strewn on the floor. Fury had looked on in horror as Earth’s mightiest heroes had been reduced to an orgy of young twinks. At the center of the storm of bodies was Steve Rogers, once the epitome of masculinity now even smaller than he was before he took the serum. Tony Stark, the billion dollar playboy had been laying on the floor, going and back and forth between pleasuring the hulk and planting his face in America’s ass.

Fury later found out that Bruce Banner had been hulked out when the change occurred. When wasn’t the Hulk, Bruce turned back into his normal human form. But many debated whether he was a part of the 198. As whenever he got horny, he reverted to his twinky green form. And now that his fellow Avengers were always there to offer him a helping hand, he didn’t stay Bruce for long. 

Thor and Dr. Strange had been there to advise the team on a new mythical threat, but once the change occurred their attentions had drifted to each other. Strange had enchanted his tongue so that the Norse God could feel it inside him, while Thor had found a new use for his faithful mjolnr, determining which ass was worthy. He’d shoved the handle into Dr. Strange, and from the moans escaping the sorcerer supreme, he was definitely worthy. 

Scott Lang had tried to use his pym particles to bring him back to his normal size. He’d thought it had worked at first as he’d grown back up to his normal six foot, but the particles had an unexpected effect as his formerly tight pair of buns expanded outwards into a pair of massive pillows. He’d reached for his pym particles again, but Fury explained to Bobby that it was no use. By that time Strange had cast his enchantment again, and when Lang felt the mystical tongue between his cheeks he’d fully embraced his new body. After that Scott had used his pym particles instead to shrink himself down to doll size, and he was quickly passed from hero to hero. None of the men there had a large enough member to alleviate the other’s desires, so it had come down to Scott to fill that role. 

Fury had also told Bobby Drake about Shield’s attempts to reverse the change. The super soldier serum had turned Steve Rogers into Captain America once before, they were certain that if they adjusted their equations they could do it again. Fury waited in anticipation when Steve underwent the procedure, but what emerged was not the masculine wonder they were hoping for. Captain America had been changed, but not in the ways they’d hoped. If anything, he was even more feminine and shapely. His body had shrunken down even more, standing five foot nothing. His lips had grown plump and rosy, something even Fury couldn’t keep himself from imagining wrapped around his member. But the biggest change came from Roger’s lower half, the only thing to grow. His massive cheeks seemed to move independently of his body, as the slightest shift of his weight caused them to jiggle indefinitely. 

Fury had insisted that they keep their testing, but the moment it was revealed Cap’s old sidekick Bucky was a member of the 198 that all went out the window. Bucky had come to find Stevie, his feelings finally able to be revealed. The two had run off together and been on the move ever since. Bucky had always looked up to Steve, but now that Stevie was the one looking up Bucky wasn’t willing to let that change. Now he got to be the protector for Stevie, and he couldn’t think of anyway better to service his country than to let America’s hero service him. 

Not every team had been decommissioned because of the change, though, Bobby recalled. His close friend Johnny Storm had been texting him like crazy ever since the change took place. “Flame on!” had taken a very different meaning for the now nubile twink. Bobby had taken him up on his offers once or twice, something sexy about how steamy things got when Iceman’s frozen rod entered Johnny’s flaming form. 

But he’d shared some pillow talk about how The Fantastic Four were doing. They’d been on the space station when Wanda uttered those three words, making it the second time their bodies had been changed while in space. The suits they were wearing were made specifically to contort to their environment, so they were spared some of the humility of their tiny members being on display. Johnny had been very thankful that he hadn’t had to face his own sister naked in his new form. 

The last time they’d changed, Ben Grimm had gotten the short end of the stick, but this time it was Mr. Fantastic himself that had been struggling to accept reality. He’d spent the first few weeks focusing his energy on stretching his body out to resemble his original masculine form. He’d even tried to stretch the hairs on his face to make it look like he had a five o’clock shadow. But Sue eventually sat him down and said his focus on trying to be something he wasn’t anymore meant he was never completely focused on the mission. Sue had taken on much more of a leader role in the team and had said that their relationship would have to come second, and that it was an order. 

Ben and Johnny on the other hand adapted very quickly to the changes. Ben was ecstatic he wouldn’t have to buy customer made clothes or furniture anymore. And now that the bois who were once men were so much more touchy feely, his attempts for romance were a lot easier. Johnny had always been a bit of a womanizer, and he’d quickly adapted those skills into being the sluttiest hero around. He’d gotten with almost every member of the 198, even those reluctant to admit that bois were just as good as women. 

Johnny had even mentioned the time he dragged Reed out with him on the prowl. After getting a few drinks into Mr. Fantastic he’d convinced him to put his stretching powers to good use. Dressed in already too small booty shorts, Reed pushed the fabric to its limit by stretching his cheeks out a foot off his frame. Johnny had chosen the bar specifically because he knew his buddy Peter, one of the 198, liked to hang out there. They’d seen him on the dance floor, and once Reed pressed his gravity defying globes into Peter’s crotch, he almost shot his web right then and there. 

The Fantastic Four weren’t the only heroes still in action, either. Bobby had heard stories that Hawkeye and his ex-wife had teamed up to train a new archer to take his place. But Clint had always believed the best placed to train was in the field, so Hawkeye and Mockingbird had taken the new hero out on the prowl. Clint had tried to continue on with his previous uniform, but the baggy clothes were distracting. So Mockingbird put together a new outfit for him. Now he’d added a new weapon to his arsenal, and he’d become a true homme fatale. Once the training was over, Hawkeye decided to continue his fighting crime, using his feminine wiles and the support of his protégé and ex-wife when he needed the back-up. 

Being invulnerable meant Wonder Boi was still able to fight just as hard as when he was Wonder Man. But after his sister had run into him on a mission, she’d decided she’d have to take a leave of absence from the X-Men to help him stay on track. Psylocke had discovered her brother writhing around on the floor of an abandoned warehouse with the Absorbing Boi, and it was fair to say that Wonder Boi was doing just as much of the absorbing. Betsy had to pull the two apart and psionically remove Wonder Boi’s passion before she could get him to arrest the criminal. She’d explained the whole thing to Bobby the last time she was at the X-Mansion, it was he that had a coined the new names for the hero and villain. 

Bobby remember when he’d run into another hero on a mission of his own. Walking through an alley in search for the Callisto, he’d run into none other than Iron Fist. Seeing Bobby Drake in his still masculine glory had pushed Danny Rand to the edge. Iceman, on the other hand, was focused on his mission. That is until Cessily Kincaid rang in that she’d apprehended Callisto. Bobby had to admit that he’d found Rand stunning back when they could look eye to eye, but in his shrunken state he’d become completely beautiful. Before Bobby even had time to react, Ironfist had focused his chi in order to tear Iceman’s frozen suit right off his frame. Bobby picked up the tiny twink as Danny wrapped his arms around the larger man’s torso. Bobby absorbed moisture from their air focusing it on his arm which grew even more massive, getting ready to show Danny what his own iron fist could do. 

Bobby shook the thoughts from his head, the memories getting the icy hero hot and bothered. He knew still had a work-out to do, and some fun already lined up for that night. He instead let his mind to drift and began to wonder how far Wanda’s hex had reached. 

He knew that the denizens of Atlantis hadn’t escaped her reach. He’d seen Namor when they were recruiting mutants for the new roster of X-men. The king of the sea had been reduced to a lithe little twink, and Bobby had remembered wondering how he could possibly stay submerged with the massive flotation devices his ass cheeks had become. 

Bobby also knew that those in space hadn’t escaped Wanda’s reach. He’d seen what had happened to Starlord. Rocket Raccoon had been affected, not that anyone could tell. But he’d been sending intergalactic communication about the adorable new Petey Quill. Starlord had opened up an intergalactic brothel, hoping that in space there were more than just 198 men that could fulfil his needs. Bobby’s old flame Kitty, from when he was in the closet, had dated Quill for a while. Bobby reminded himself that if he ever found himself in Knowwhere he should make a stop at Quil’s. 

Not even Wanda’s own family had been protected from her hex. Well, her son Wiccan had, but most people believed that was due to his similar powers. As his twin brother had not been spared. Billy and Tommy were hardly identical twins now, Speed looked much more like a little brother. Wiccan’s partner had not been spared either, Hulkling becoming a comical name for the green twink now. The only thing that had remained hulking on Hulkling was his ginormous ass. The three of them had moved in together. At first Wiccan had been trying to find a way to reverse the hex. But as time went on he began liking being the man of the house.

Bobby gathered his thoughts as he finished his workout. A text came through on his phone and his hurt fluttered, hoping that it was from the person he was going to meet. But it was just a message from his friend, Peter. Something about Nick Fury needing them both for a mission this weekend. While reading, he thought about what Peter had told him happened to him when the change took place. Peter Parker was in search of the villain, Mysterio, fighting his way through illusions and nightmares when suddenly they all vanished. In the change, Mysterio’s suit had fallen to the ground, his plexiglass helmet had rolled to the ground. No suit meant no illusions, and without his illusions to hide him, Spider-Man was able to see Quentin Beck in nothing but his skivvies. Parker had described how the situation played out in detail. Beck had fallen to his knees, and Spider-man assumed he was going to beg to not be taken in. But instead of begging, he grabbed for Peter’s spidey suit, and planted his face directly up against the old web shooter. Peter didn’t let his urges stop him, and immediately bound the criminal up with his webs. It didn’t stop the writhing twink though, it would seem that Quentin Beck had a thing for bondage. 

Iceman realized he was letting his thoughts get to him again, quickly shaking the fantasies out of his mind. He’d spent his whole shower reimagining the story Spidey had told him, giving it a much happier end for Mysterio. But now Bobby was on his to something he’d been waiting a lifetime for. He’d gotten an email a few days prior asking to meet with him, and since the change happened, bois only reached out to Robert Drake for one reason. 

He turned his car into a long winding driveway, having to stop at a gate just to gain access to the giant manor in front of him. 

“I’m sorry, the Worthington Estate is not accepting guests at this moment,” a soft voice rang through the intercom. 

 “Hello Warren, it’s Bobby.” The gates opened and gave way for Iceman to enter the estate. As he walked up the steps the front door opened. Standing in front of him was one of his oldest friends, Warren Worthington lll. 

“Hello Warren, you’re looking good.” Bobby had been hiding feelings for the spoiled rich boy since they were both teenagers on the first ever team Xavier put together. Back then he was so put together, his golden hair always coiffed perfectly. His chiseled abs and pecs always on clear display, a necessity to fly he’d argued, before their uniforms were built. Of course, once the uniforms were fitted it didn’t seem to change. But Angel was always smitten with the girls on the team, and Bobby was never willing to let anyone see his gay side. But now the tables were turned. 

The name Angel had never been more fitting. The short young man in front if him was completely beautiful. The cherubic face with glimmering blue eyes and rosy pink lips in tandem with the smooth hairless body and narrow shoulders made Warren the perfect image of a twink. His angelic wings were spread aside, as he was no longer able to comfortably rest them on his back with his massive rear end pushing them out. 

“Hi Bobby, I’ve been meaning to reach out. I need to ask you for a favor.”

“I know what you want to ask, and you don’t know how long I have waited for it.”

Bobby took no time running over and grabbing the smaller man by the waist and leaning in for a kiss. The feeling of his soft lips melted the icy hero’s heart as a heat took over his entire body. He grabbed a handful of Warren’s massive cheek as Warren began grinding his shrunken cock into Bobby’s leg. Iceman slipped his fingers in the back of Angel’s daisy dukes and slowly pushed one ice cold finger into the cherubic man’s hole. Moans of pleasure escaped Warren’s mouth as his wings started flapping with a mind of their own. The two men took flight as they continued their thrusts of pleasure. Repositioning themselves in the air, their clothes slowly fell piece by piece to the floor. Once fully stripped Bobby was able to fully enter those angelic cheeks. 

[boop-le-snoot]

PARTY FAVOURS I A VENOMOUS INTERLUDE

Did y'all know symbrock is canon? Well, now you do. Reader's favourite deadbeat surrogate uncle is in town and he brought a... Friend. No warnings, just a boatload of crack and fluff, as usual. Reader being mouthy. Takes place a little bit into the future - around after chapter 32: spoiler alert is useless because we already know a tonybrucestrange/reader quartet is the endgame. 💖💝✨

"What," I had to pause for a second for my brain to catch up with my eyes. "The fuck?!"

It was truly a miracle I could say anything out loud, at all. Words weren't valid enough to describe my shock and confusion. The scene unfolding in front of me resembled and unholy cross between a B-rated horror movies about demonic possession and some deep-sea Eldritch monstrosity.

The eight-feet tall black, oozing dude in front of me? Yes, you, with the teeth. Ctulhu called, he wants his tentacles back.

The creature honest to god rippled, like some nightmare-fuel goth Jell-O, rapidly shrinking in size within seconds. As more of the black tar-like substance receded, a much more human form started to appear under it. Worn jeans, leather jacket, ungroomed beard and the look of a biker gang member coming off a serious bender.

"Uh, Princess?"

"Eddie. Fucking. Brock. Uncle Idiot." I punctuated each word with an increasing widening of my eyes. The world was fucking nuts. Two and two did not compute - Eddie might have looked threatening to some people - like white suburban Karens - even without the... Gooey squid-on-steroids thing he had going on. The man was built like a fucking brick shithouse, but I knew him way too well. Eddie couldn't be that badass to save a life.

"You two know each other?" Tony shrieked indignantly, a coarseness in his voice that indicated only one thing: my boo was well into his third drink. Hell, I didn't blame him - that gaping toothy maw was fucking gnarly.

Hands on my hips, I caught myself slipping into a mute rage, storming over to the 200lbs worth of pure dumbass and knocking him right in the face. "You! Didn't tell! ME!" A black tendril wrapped around my wrist, carefully but firmly securing it and preventing me from causing my non-related uncle any more physical damage. Although I must admit, my knuckles probably were more affected than his jaw. "You! Are! A MUTANT!!! HOW COULD YOU?! How could you NOT tell ME?"

I trusted the man with my soul and most embarrassing drinking stories. Hell, I called Eddie in a stoned haze the very same night I lost my v-card. I just thought we were bros, you know? I saw his whole fucking life implode more than once and personally flew to California to ice his injuries and his hurt ego countless times. I was done dirty in the worst way.

"I'm not-" Eddie's sigh was long-suffering. "I, uh, I have a parasite..." He sounded meek, in the same way he used to describe his drunkenly misconduct when I made our family driver bail out his ass outta jail in the morning.

"TAKE THAT BACK!" A deep gravelly voice thundered, seemingly coming out of his chest?

"Okay, okay," Eddie smiled. It was strangely soft and un-eddie-like. The only person he smiled like that was... used to be Anne. "This is Venom. They're an alien and we're, uh, a thing. It's a recent development." The tentacle unwrapped itself from me as I took an involuntary step back.

Even barring the fact that Eddie was dating an alien, this was way too fucking weird for 3 o'clock on a Sunday. I always knew the reporter was, for the lack of a better word, a little weird but he really took it to new heights. With Thor and Loki looking... Like that, I could see a human dating some sort of a hot alien. But with Ctulhu looking the way he did just minutes ago? Did Eddie seriously let all of those teeth in close proximity of his dick?

I had a "ERROR 404, common sense not found" hanging over me for the longest time. The others were quiet behind me, too, even Tony - one of my boyfriends, the most likely to cause utter chaos, was hanging back and expecting me to do something.

"Venom," I clarified, just to fill the silence with some noise while my brain processors re-synced.

"WE ARE VENOM." The tentacle that was sleek and black now had two completely white eyes and a smaller-scale version of the toothy grin that had drooled all over the common room carpet. Their voice had an interesting effect: it was so deep, the air around them vibrated slightly when they spoke.

I tilted my head examining the appendage. It was considerably less terrifying when it wasn't five times my size. "What are you?" And most importantly, are you a threat to my favourite non-related family member? I left that statement unspoken although it was obvious I was ready to fight it? Them? If need be.

"A SYMBIOTE," They replied, swaying the head-tentacle slowly. "WE LOVE EDDIE AND KEEP HIM ALIVE AND HEALTHY." So, they understood the actual question.

"Which is fucked up because Klyntar usually behave in the opposite way." Hearing Thor swear was, perhaps, even more unsettling than finding out about the symbiote-alien-boyfriend thing my uncle had going on. The thunderer himself was nursing a jug of golden liquid. The good Asgardian stuff, he must've been really fucking bamboozled.

"Okay. So anybody wanna fill me on the details before I beat up my favourite idiot?" I sighed, pointedly looking at Tony.

"I thought I was your favourite idiot!" He immediately retorted, hurt, but nonetheless opened his arms to give me a grounding embrace. We may have sucked face for a few seconds, because why the hell not, Tony was an amazing kisser and his tongue down my throat was very calming.

"Hold up, what the fuck?" Now it was Eddie's turn to act all offended. "Aren't you a little too young for him?"

"You and your most likely carnivorous goth space pudding can fuck right off if you're not going to be supportive of my very inappropriate, very polyamorous relationship with three incredibly hot boomers," I shot back, slipping into some resemblance of normalcy. Me and Eddie go way, way back and shitting on each other's bad life decisions was the founding stone of our bromance. Hell, he was the guy who showed me the wonders of sarcasm at an early age! Wonderbaum!

"There's three of them?" Eddie's voice pitched and he gaped, palming his face.

"SHE HAS A POINT, EDDIE. WE EAT PEOPLE. BEING UNSUPPORTIVE WOULD MAKE US LOOK LIKE AN ASSHOLE." Eddie's buddy stated, sounding almost fed up. So, they were sentient enough to recognize how much of a pain in the ass Eddie could be. I could work with that, disregarding the cannibalism comment, of course. What the fuck was up with that?

"Yes, Eddie, I also periodically bump uglies and trade disgustingly sweet text messages with the Hulk and a badass wizard," I rolled my eyes at the reporter's following gasp and angry muttering. "Venom, I like you."

"WE RETURN THE SENTIMENT. YOUR CHOICE IN MATES IS VERY WISE, CONSIDERING YOU ARE A WEAK MORSEL. THEY CAN PROTECT YOU."

"Shut up, Squid. I'll still kick your motherfucking ass if you hurt Eddie."

The emo space goo laughed, a terse scratching noise, showing way, way too many teeth for me to feel comfortable but I allowed myself to be placed on the couch between Tony and Eddie nonetheless. The initial shock of seeing a talking octopod with fangs passed quickly - I've seen Stephen's "trophies" he brought from his otherworldly journeys and Lovecraftian horrors were, honestly, pretty low on the gross/creepy scale.

"Both of you, explain. For the love of fuck," Tony sighed, emotionally exhausted and drained of his usual bravado.

"Eddie was my dad's friend until he moved to Cali, I've know him for fifteen years, give or take. He taught me how to ride a bike and bake the best pot brownies," I shrugged. There wasn't much to say. "I visited him whenever I could but you know, with school and then you guys, there wasn't that much time to iron out the details." I have Eddie a death glare, pointing to Venom's floaty head with my eyes.

Eddie nodded. "What she said..." And then launched an elaborate tale about some company called Life Foundation, some evil dude named Drake and his own alien pudding named Carnage, who was one ugly motherfucker judging by Eddie's and Venom's combined "ew" face, their aching need for human brains to survive and other, more trivial things, like mental breakdowns in a lobster tank and getting dumped by a fiancé and eating their way through a HYDRA base after being captured and tortured. What a wild fucking ride.

"Sounds like you had a rough year," Everybody's dumbfounded silence was ended by Tony who took a slow swig of his whiskey before speaking.

"Yeah, no shit," Eddie muttered, twisting his black coated fingers in elaborate but frankly pretty shapes. His alien wrapped around his neck like a tube scarf and additional tentacles appeared between Eddie's hands, gently prying them open and enveloping them in a sort of a hug? It was hard to compute, the black mass appeared to be totally amorphous.

"How's your anxiety?" I asked, damn well knowing Eddie's mind tended to run like Tony's: zero to sixty in point five with no clear destination. Having an alien inside of him must've really thrown Eddie for a loop.

"It's, uh, better. Venom helps," The reporter admitted, still staring at his hands but the crease between his brows had disappeared and the expression he wore was kind of fond.

"Good. You know, Venom," I thoughtfully addressed the definitely sentient creature. "Eddie is a bigger dumbass than me, which is saying something. You ought to keep a really close eye on him. If not for me, he'd probably be dead from alcohol poisoning, like, years ago."

"WE ARE AWARE. WE CAN ACCESS EDDIE'S MEMORIES." A head manifested itself on a thicker tentacle, floating over to look me in the face but maintaining a respectful distance and staying out of my personal space bubble. "AND WE ARE THANKFUL. EDDIE IS THE PERFECT HOST. WE LOVE EDDIE."

I felt the corner of my mouth tilt upwards at the alien's proclamation. It was child-like in its blunt honesty but carried a certain weight with it. It told me whoever tries to separate those two in any way would get eaten faster than they could say "SIKE!". And honestly? I would help Venom hide the evidence.

"I literally had you for thirty minutes but I would kill everybody and then myself if you two got hurt. This is too soft, I can't." I snorted, extending a curious hand towards Venom. They looked so shiny. I had to touch them.

And they let me. Venom butted their head into my palm and let me gently run my fingers over their slightly cool, slippery flesh. It felt like putting my hands on a surprisingly sturdy yet bouncy piece of flubber. I purposely avoided the small maw and the endless rows of sharp teeth but managed to accidentally brush against something rough and scratchy - as it turned out, the Symbiote had a very long, very dexterous tongue. And didn't that give me a bunch of interesting mental images.

"Oh my God, NO!" Wanda moaned from somewhere, the voice mortified and disgusted.

"Why are you touching the people-eating alien?" Bruce yelped, entering the room with several people in tow. The scientist looked worried, a little bit green around the edges. The tablet in his hands beeped periodically, signifying the ongoing sciencing bender he was in process of.

"WE WOULD NOT EAT THIS HUMAN. WE ARE FOND OF THE MORSEL." Venom defended, well, venomously. Eddie wisely choose to stay silent, trading a knowing look with Tony.

Stephen Strange sighed, briefly closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with a jagged movement. "One day, Princess, one day you will stop collecting people that are obviously bad for your health and your future. That, or space in the tower will simply run out." With a deeper, calmer sigh, the sorcerer landed in front of me on the floor, sitting cross-legged and subtly begging for a head scratch. Which meant just placing his always neatly trimmed curls under my free hand. His jealousy was about as subtle as a foot in the face.

"I'll just ask Tony to build more floors, duh," I rolled my eyes with force at the obvious solution, giving into Steph's demands, beginning to card through his hair. It was calming both of us, really.

Bruce came over to give me a kiss and my other boyfriends didn't even grumble about the scientist placing himself in my lap, crawling over both Tony and Stephen to get comfortable.

Our dynamic was unconventional and more than a little weird, but it worked for us and the rest of the team most certainly didn't complain about the vast decrease in conflict that came with the territory. Come to think of it, all of us were more tactile than just a group of friends sharing a house and I was very much on board with that. None of us except select few (looking at you, mister doctor) were hugged enough as children and we were making up for it in spades right fucking now.

"Girl has a type," Wanda remarked, like the messy little shit she was. I stuck out my tongue in retaliation.

The Avengers' brain trust began talking about Venom's slightly inconvenient diet that directly resulted in multiple felonies for one Edward Brock, and as much as I tried to follow the flow and make my own, however feeble, contributions to the scientific side of the conversation, the new life form was much more interesting. I asked Venom several questions and they deemed them acceptable enough to answer - which evolved on both of us absolutely geeking out over the differences in our physiology. The space pudding didn't hold back one bit, insulting the inferior human biology with gleeful gusto.

"They need a chemical called phenethylamine," Bruce sighed, having deduced it through discussion since Venom and Eddie both protested aggressively against any kind of invasive testing. "I can synthesize it. No more head-chomping, no more murder."

It made perfect sense. Except it didn't. "Brucie-bear, you're a brilliant fucking scientist but a shit psychologist." I interrupted whatever came next. "Venom is a person, like me and you and, yes, even Hulk. Tell me this: if you found a way to get rid of Hulk, would you stop sciencing in the gamma radiation field?" I looked my boyfriend straight in the eyes, hoping for a spark of common sense. "Do you see my point? You science, Tony engineers, Steve draws and Clint bakes. Venom hunts. It's who they are, you can't give them a pill to make it go away."

The weight of my word landed in the room like lead, heavy. The only source of sound was the TV, playing the news quietly in the background for the longest time. Those few minutes felt like hours until Thor expectantly turned towards Eddie/Venom.

"IT IS SO. WE ARE AFRAID WE CANNOT INFLUENCE OUR INSTINCT TO HUNT PREY. KLYNTAR ARE APEX PREDATORS." The little black goop sounded almost apologetic. It was hard to hear undertones with their voice being so deep and grating. "BUT WE CAN TRY." Okay, I could totally hear the hope. Finding out the Eldritch horror could make puppy eyes was... Terrifying, to be honest, because they fucking worked.

"Got any better ideas?" Tony asked me sarcastically.

"I do, actually." I leveled a look with Natasha. She understood. "HYDRA goons. The aliens that, for some reason, keep invading New York every month or so. Stephen's adventures in Hell. Do I need to continue?"

"Wait, hold on," Steve raised his palms. "We don't kill HYDRA, we deposit them in SHIELD custody."

I snorted at the naïve Captain. "And what do you think happens to them there? Did you honestly think they just let torturing, murdering, world-domination planning psychos back on the streets?"

Steve frowned in confusion. "They go to prison?"

Natasha choose that moment to step up. "It's not uncommon for them to possess certain enhancements to be deemed too dangerous to be released back into society. Some of them are low-tier mutants and inhumans. Trust me, Steve, the lethal injection is a much more humane treatment than solitary life imprisonment in a ultra-high security prison." Romanoff stated with a trace of compassion. "And some mutants, we can't contain for prolonged periods of time." She added quietly, looking away.

Rogers was staring blankly into the wall, mulling over the information in his head. His intensive thought process was plainly visible on his face. I heard about some kind of fiasco with HYDRA agents suicide-bombing a city in Europe few years ago and Steve was there, along with Wanda and Sam.

"Venom is a whole person, and even if they look like they could be the main character in Call of Ctulhu video game, we can't just disregard them like they are some kind of badly behaving pet. They're my honorary uncle's boyf-sorry-significant other, for fuck's sake," I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. "Y'all should know I don't fuck with people who give shit to one of my own. Don't disappoint me like that." I finished, feeling more tired than I had in months. I didn't regret giving into the found family dynamic, however I didn't exactly sign up for hard choices like them vs my long lost uncle, y'know?

Great, now I had a headache and three very concerned boyfriends glaring at me for unknown reasons. The urge to pace always manifested strongly within me as the emotional atmosphere rose in the room. With Bruce dangling off my lap, I couldn't do even that and I felt the restlessness blossom into irritation more and more with each passing second of my existence.

Eddie remained silent, looking down. Venom had mostly receded into the reporter's body, save for a few tentacles tightly wrapped around Eddie's palm.

"Alright," Steve suddenly said. "We can work with that."

"Princess, you look like you're either going to cry or yell any second," Bruce said softly, squeezing my shoulder and pulling me closer.

I immediately hid my face in his chest, taking several deep, shaky breaths. "Eddie is family. Y'all are family. It's terrifying to have to choose between the two." I said, after a brief moment of hesitation.

The reporter made some sort of a choked gasp, quickly masking it with a cough - I knew him way too well to miss the way he was fighting back tears of his own. Bruce understood, he really did understand me - hopped off my lap and let me hug Eddie properly, my happy-sad tears soaking through the collar of his tee.

"You're, uh, welcome to stay. I'll have a guest room prepared." Tony cleared his throat, passing his half-finished glass to Stephen who swallowed the liquid in one gulp. My boyfriends were so fucking emotionally illiterate. Disaster humans.

Huh, I really did have a type.

Later that night, I made the mistake of barging into Eddie's room with a bottle of really fancy whiskey I liberated from Tony's overstocked liquor cabinet. Visiting my uncle and boozing and smoking on the balcony, for old times sake, was my plan and...

I failed the mission successfully.

I didn't bother knocking. As soon as I saw a pair of bare feet, my eyes traveled further up on the couch on their own volition. There were so many tentacles, a writhing, oozing silky black mass and Eddie was making sounds, unmistakable noises-

"UNSEE. UNSEE. OH MY GOD, UNSEE, UNSEE." I stumbled back into the common room shivering.

"What happened, is everything okay?" Bucky stood up as soon as he saw me enter the doorway with my face scrunched in a grimace of regret. I felt like I've gone through the five stages of grief in the shortest time possible for a human being.

Somwhere, I heard Wanda's sudden moan full of pain and misery. "Please, stop THINKING about it!"

"Brain bleach, oh my God," I cringed. "Where's the Clorox?! I have decided I don't need my eyeballs-"

"Oooh," Tony's proverbial lightbulb lit up. The engineer sounded like he was about five seconds away from building a space ship and permanently moving to another planet. "They're together-together..." Tony intercepted me nonetheless, doing the most effective thing to make me stop speaking and thinking bullshit. He kissed me. With lots of tongue.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub ​ @mostly-marvel-musings  @vozit ​ @littlegasps ​ @pilloclock ​ @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads ​ @hermione-grangers-wife ​ @individualistfem ​ @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie @mikariell95

[loveisnotadagger]

Love Is Healing - Chapter One

Chapter 1/?

Description:  What if Loki wasn't sent back to Asgard after being defeated in 2012? What if his punishment matched Thor's and he had to live out his life as a mortal until he learned his lesson? Enter Arianna, a SHIELD agent with a special talent, who might just be Loki's saving grace. Not compatible with the Loki series as I haven't seen it yet.

Rating: T

Authors Note: There are mentions of rape in this story but I didn't tag it as a warning because it's not a major plot point although it is mentioned a few times because it's something the main female character went through as a teenager. It is a trauma that can still get to her even though it happened years ago - which is perfectly normal, in my opinion - but for the most part she's a functioning adult. There are just triggers that make her relive certain aspects of it. There is also mention of the trauma Loki has been through at the hands of Thanos and his on going recovery from that .That being said, I tried to make this as painless as possible, but some pain is necessary for the sake of the story. So there is definitely some angst sprinkled in.

I will tag chapters that mention the rape and any other triggers I can think of and will put a warning on them as well above the start of the chapter

Arianna Grace stood on the top floor of the Stark Tower looking out on Manhattan. She hated that she was stuck inside while all of her friends and coworkers were out there risking their lives. Arianna, however, wasn't a field agent even if she did work for SHIELD. She definitely didn't consider herself a hero.

She didn't own a mythical hammer as Thor did, and she didn't have super strength or a prolonged life span. She wasn't from another realm and she didn't have tales told about her as if she were a god. She wasn't a genius as Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were, and she didn't have a man-made suit of metal to help her fly around and save people. She definitely wasn't a science experiment gone wrong. She didn't turn into a huge green rage machine when she got angry, for which she was grateful. She wasn't an experiment gone right, either, as was the case for Steve Rogers – or Captain America as she had previously known him. She couldn't handle a weapon like Clint Barton – Hawkeye – and she couldn't fight to save her life . . . or anyone else's. Natasha Romanoff had tried teaching her and the only thing that came of that was Arianna not being able to move properly for a few days.

So no, Arianna wasn't out in the thick of things. She was safely tucked away in Stark Tower because what she could do wouldn't be needed until after everything was over. She could do something that the others couldn't do. She could heal the wounded. And she was sure a lot of people would be wounded in the aftermath of the battle that was now taking place.

She hadn't been kept completely up to date on the latest disaster, but she knew the gist. Thor's brother, Loki, was trying to take over Earth. Loki wanted to be Earth's king and maybe even Earth's god – she wasn't sure on that part. She'd seen a news clip of Loki trying to get people to kneel to him in Germany and most had.

The band of heroes that were called The Avengers had arrived to bring Loki in, to lock him up and had succeeded for a little while. He had, however, escaped and now Loki was in Manhattan. Hence the chaos outside.

From what Arianna had been told this whole situation was happening because of some stupid power source called a Tessaract and an idiot with a god complex. She knew the Tessaract was supposed to be a huge source of sustainable energy and that Loki had taken it, which was why the Avengers had been called together. She didn't know what Loki wanted it for. According to Thor, Loki was plenty powerful on his own.

Thor had also said something about Loki leading a war against Earth. Supposedly there was an army coming. The Chitauri, Thor had said. Loki would be able to rule with their help as long as he gave them the Tesseract. Would Loki really let go of all that power?

This Loki frightened her and she'd never even met him. He was an unknown threat. Natasha had warned her about him. He was a master manipulator and he had a way of controlling people. That was what Arianna feared most about him.

Arianna had only just been called in, so she hadn't been with the others when they'd captured Loki, but from what Natasha had said . . . he was something else. He'd even shaken her a bit by threatening Clint. Hawkeye had been put under Loki's control for a while. He'd since come back to himself.

Natasha had also told her about her confrontation with the Hulk, Bruce's alter ego. Natasha had almost been squashed, had almost been killed. Her physical training had saved her life.

Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD, had placed Arianna in the Tower because she needed to be close at hand once everything over. ----------

Arianna had been up in the Tower for almost three hours and had been kept relatively far away from danger . . . until now.

Now Loki was standing on the balcony of Stark Tower. Some science type person was there with him and they had what had to be the Tessaract with them. She could feel how powerful it was and to her it was a good kind of power. In the hands of Loki and people like Loki . . . that power wasn't good at all.

Arianna was hiding inside. She was in the living room of the penthouse. She'd flung herself behind the bar that Tony had deemed a necessary accessory to the room as soon as JARVIS had let her know someone had broken in. A security image had appeared and she'd seen the tall, black-haired image of Loki.

She didn't know how long she'd been hiding, but she hadn't been able to move for fear of being spotted. The whole room was faced with windows. The want-to-be-king couldn't see her or he would kill her or, far worse for her, place her under his control. She'd rather die than be forced into anything.

She heard doors open and then a smooth voice said, "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."

What? Had she been found out? How had he seen her? She was in the only spot in the room that would've been considered a good hiding spot.

"Um . . . actually, I'm planning to threaten you."

Tony! Loki had been talking to Tony. The doors she'd heard opening must've been Tony coming in.

"You should've left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a lot of mileage."

The suit had been damaged? Tony was going to face Loki while unprotected by his suit? Had he lost his mind?

"You've got the blue stick of destiny." Tony was now behind the bar as well. He barely glanced at her, but Arianna could tell he had seen her. "Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

What scared Arianna the most right then was how calm Loki sounded; he was so sure of himself. She could tell that not only did he want to take over the Earth, but he believed that he should, that he deserved it somehow.

"No, no, no. Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves. Sort of like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes type of thing."

"Yes. I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give ya that one. But let's do a head count here."

Arianna didn't know Tony Stark that well. She'd only met him on two other occasions, but she liked him enough to not want him to die. She hoped he wasn't doing something stupid. He was supposed to be a genius.

Tony stepped away from the bar and went around. Arianna was sure that was an attempt to keep Loki from her.

"We've got your brother, the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend that kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger-management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella . . . you've managed to piss off every one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a hulk," Tony said.

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

So they were missing the one person that could actually probably defeat Loki? This was going great.

"You're missing the point. There's no throne; there's no version where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

There was a tense moment where Arianna wanted to know what was going on. She was tempted to peek and would have had she not realized how stupid that would've been.

"How will your friends have time for me when they're too busy fighting you?"

There was a ping and then another ping and Arianna felt tears fill her eyes. She'd understood that threat. Loki was going to take control of Tony and use him for destruction, use him as a distraction – and Tony knew where she was!

'You can stop this,' she thought. 'You know you can!'

"This usually works," Loki said, and for the first time Arianna heard something other than smugness come from him.

"Well, performance issues, you know . . ."

There was a thud and Arianna knew that was Tony falling to the floor. If she turned her head to the left, she could see Tony's body. He was able to move so he couldn't be but so hurt, but if she could see him then he could see her. If Tony could see her, then Loki would be able to see her if he went for Tony – and she knew he would.

A few seconds later, Tony was being thrown through a window and over the side of the building. She couldn't help it; she screamed, alerting Loki to her presence. Before the lunatic could get to her, however, a red pod looking thing shot out of the elevator in the front of the penthouse and sped out the window after Tony.

Mere seconds after that Tony, in his Iron Man suit, was back and firing shots at Loki, who actually fell over. At least they knew Tony's ammunition system could impact Loki, even if it was just for a little while.

Arianna knew she had to move now before Loki got his bearings. The trouble was . . . where could she go? If she went toward the front door, Loki could get her, but the same thing would happen if she went for the window.

Suddenly there was a terrible boom and Arianna had no clue what it was or where it had come from.

"Right, army!" she heard Tony say. "Arianna, run!"

That set her in motion and she scrambled to her feet. She motioned for Tony to go. The world mattered more than she did. As long as she could make it out of the penthouse –

A flash of blue light hit the wall right in front of her, effectively destroying her escape route.

"Stop!" Loki demanded.

Arianna had no choice but to listen as her exit was now blocked.

"Turn around."

She obeyed. She noticed the pleased expression on his face. His smile would've been beautiful if he hadn't looked criminally insane.

"Were you there the whole time?" he asked, moving toward her.

Arianna didn't know how Loki was still standing after being shot with what had been a missile, but there he was.

"I – I was." She hated the shake in her voice, so she took a deep breath to steady herself. "Why are you destroying my world?"

"I don't want to destroy it, Midgardian. I want to rule it."

Loki was so close now that he was towering over her. She had to bend her head back to meet his eyes. She noticed how blue they were. They were another thing that would have been beautiful had they not seemed maniacal.

Her breaths came out in pants and she began trembling. Men like Loki scared her. He could be charming, she was sure, but he could also be cruel. That was a deadly combination.

"Look at you. Lost, alone, frightened . . ."

The way he spoke, he sounded disgusted with her, and to be honest she was disgusted with herself. She was not this little shell of a person. She may have been once, but not anymore. She shouldn't let Loki get under her skin, but he did and she couldn't help it.

"Loki! Turn off the Tessaract or I'll destroy it!"

Thor! Arianna had only met him hours earlier, but she would recognize that deep, authoritative voice anywhere. More importantly, it drew Loki's attention away from her.

"You can't. There is no stopping it. There is only the war."

----------

So . . . should I continue?

[rabidfirefoxfan]

Loki Comic Read Through - Silver Surfer (1968) - Vol 4

Classic Loki Masterpost:    Rating: Mod (Great)

Plot: Loki tricks Thor and the Silver Surfer to fight.

Favorite Moments:

We start the story with a usual Loki Tuesday: Loki sitting on a throne, having bad posture, drinking wine from an extravagant cup that I have no idea how you are supposed to put down, bitching about how he’s awesome and how everyone else sucks. Great shot.

Oh that’s how he puts it down. He doesn’t. Instead, throws it at the wall and complains about Thor.

Loki leaves his palace(?) riding a horse. So Loki doesn’t like to be cooped up for too long or he gets frustrated. Relatable. He’d probably hate this quarantine right now.

So Loki needs Black Coffee to wake up in the morning.

The potion allows Loki’s spirit to explore the cosmos. Why couldn’t he just have used Space Skype. Oh yeah, he needed his coffee to start the day. He look’s at the other Marvel Heroes to set up a play-date fight Thor. Hulk and the Thing are out because they are mortal. Loki thinks about Hercule but say that he doesn’t want to piss of the Olympic gods. Admit it Loki, Hercule and Thor would have WAY to much fun fighting each other and that’s why you can choose Hercule. Besides, Thor needs new friends to fight and a make-up fight with his boyfriend doesn’t count. Loki finally decides on setting up a play date fight between Thor and the Silver Surfer, because the Silver Surfer is strong and pretty I guess.

Loki comes back and tells the Warriors Three his plan to defeat Thor. Warriors Three then tell Thor and Thor prepares for a fight.

Loki: Mwa Ha Ha. Thor is doing exactly as I want. My plan is perfect.

Counselor: Are you sure about that? Wouldn’t the element of surprise be better.

Loki: Shut Up, my plan perfect. I’m leaving now, BYE!!!!

Why did Loki talk to this guy about his plan? Wouldn’t the counselor be able to warn Thor about the Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer is well known enough in the Marvel Universe that one of Thor’s friends should know about him. Oh, well I guess none of Loki’s Girlfriends or Frenemies were available and the counselor was the next best thing. Loki needs more good friends. 

The Silver Surfer is hanging out in Africa with the local Wildlife. There, he remarks that even the wild Male Lion have less hate and malice than the average person. Even begins from other worlds agree that most people are dumb assholes.  Silver Surfer, never go online. Your faith in any intelligent life with be truly squashed.

Loki: Silver Surfer, I’m awesome and a God and you should bow down to me.

Loki attacks the Surfer, proving to the Surfer that Loki is a threat not to take lightly.

Just an awesome Shot of Loki sizing the Silver Surfer up. It reminds me of the power up scenes in DBZ.

The Silver Surfer defeats Loki, but then Loki pleads for Silver Surfer to help him. After all, Thor is the evil one and the Silver Surfer is Loki’s only hope. Just don’t ask anyone about Thor. Remember, always trust Loki.

Silver Surfer tells Heimdall that he wants to meet Thor, Heimdall allows it.

Loki chilling on his cozy throne. Looks comfy.

Counselor: OMG, your plan is actually working. How long till you screw it up?

Loki: ha, ha. My plans are always perfect. Now shut up, I need to think.

The Silver Surer is looking for Thor.

Silver Surfer: Hey, Is Thor in there?

Guard: Yeah, he’s eating. Why?

Silver Surfer: I’m going to fight him.

Guard: Seems reasonable. Go on head stranger.

Hey an allude to ‘The Last Supper,’ or, well, very nearly.

The Silver Surfer tells everyone that he wants to fight Thor, so the Warriors Three threaten him.

Thor first calms everyone down.

Besides, Thor has a different idea.

Thor: We can fight, but first we have to eat.

Priorities. Everyone knows that for a proper date you have dinner first, movies and tTHEN you get physical. Thor is just begin a courteous. Just make sure you guys use protection.

Silver Surfer and Thor checking each other out.

Wow, been on a date for like 5 minutes and they seem to be hitting it off pretty well. Loki is a great match maker.

Apparently Thor was in the middle of hosting a Tournament that the winner would get a cool sword. After a lot of fighting, a victor is determined. Just after getting the sword, Loki convinces the winner to throw the Sword at the Silver Surfer in the Name of Thor. Silver Surfer Blames Thor and all the Aesir and starts to attack everyone.

Loki having fun with all the chaos and destruction going on.

Counselor: So how does this plan work?

Loki: Well, I give the Silver Surfer all of my powers and that should beat Thor.

So a messenger tells Odin what happened.

Messenger: Your Son, Thor, and a Stranger are fighting and destroying a city block. Should be do anything.

Odin: Ehh, it’ll probably be fine. I’m going to bed. 

Greatest Dad Ever.

Thor and the Silver Surfer keep fighting, but they eventually figure out this is all Loki’s fault. Lot’s of things are.

To prevent anyone from proving it’s Loki’s fault, Loki sends the Silver Surfer back to space. No one will be able to find him there.

Thoughts on Comic:

This comic a fun versus between Thor and Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer’s characterization isn’t great, it makes him way to naive. How the story gets resolve is kinda dumb and doesn’t really do anything. However, seeing Loki begin over-dramatic and the play-date between Silver Surfer and Thor is really cute.

Oh my Lord, all the Loki back and butt shot in the comic though.

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Obscure Marvel fancast of the day: Rachel Shelly as Dr. Tania Belisnky aka Red Guardian aka Starlight!

Tania Belinsky was a brilliant neurosurgeon from Russia, written back when the USSR was still in power. She grew up a devoted patriot to her country, and though she found some of what the government did to be (in her own words) repulsive, she was still dedicated to the positive Communist ideals of unity and the individual serving the many. However, when her father was exiled to Siberia for being a dissident, Tania become a costumed vigilante who fought crime, but also protected other dissidents, in hopes to reform Soviet society from within. For this reason, she was considered an enemy of the state and a wanted criminal herself by the Russian government. As a vigilante, she called herself the Red Guardian, after a previous superhero, a man who had been Russia’s answer to Captain America during the 50s. She had no superpowers, fighting purely through athletic skill, hand to hand combat, and the use of a bladed belt buckle as a weapon. Tania came to US at the request of Dr. Stephen Strange. Strange did not know she was secretly a superhero; he merely wanted her help as a fellow neurosurgeon in performing a brain transplant. The operation was a success, but right afterwards, Strange was attacked by the supervillain Plantman. Tania revealed her secret identity as Red Guardian, and they defeated Plantman with the help of Power Man. After that, Tania stayed in the United States to serve as another member of the Defenders alongside Dr. Stranger, Power Man, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, the Hulk, and other heroes. Alas, she only had a few adventures with the Defenders before she received a call from Russia, threatening her loved ones if she did not return. She did as commanded, and when she returned home, the KGB was waiting for her. They informed her that they knew of her secret identity, but it was not the government that they were taking her to…but instead to the most powerful man in all of Russia, the feared being known only as “Codename: Sergei”. It was he who had ordered her return and orchestrated this kidnapping. Tania fought her captors, but a mind-calming cowl was placed on her head, so that she was in a subdued state when she was brought before this man–Sergei Krylov aka “The Presence”, a mad scientific Soviet genius who had caused a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster in the “Forbidden Zone” by using cobalt radiation that had transformed him into a superhuman being. He had been monitoring Tania and her activities, and while he considered her heroic ideals to be naive and misled, he had decided she was his ideal mate. Tania was forcibly subjected to the same radiation, and granted superhuman abilities as well—flight, super-strength, invulnerability, and the power to shoot blasts of pure nuclear radiation. However, these powers came at a terrible cost: her free will. Tania was now in mental thrall to the Presence, as little more than his zombie-like slave…though even in this state, she always begged him not to hurt others. However, the Presence was a supervillain (what a surprise) and when the pair inevitably came into conflict with Tania’s former teammates, the Defenders, Tania regained her free will when Presence was about to kill her friends. She rejected him, and when he called her the thing he loved most, she called out how his very words showed he just thought of her as a THING, and said that he didn’t really love her, he loved a fantasy he had of her, a zombie he had created. Basically, the Presence was a gross incel before a term was invented for it, and she called him out on it. His heart broken and ego deflated, the Presence departed. As for Tania, she was kept isolated at a Soviet research facility, til the Presence unleashed a giant radioactive amoeba on Russia. Tania was unleashed to do battle the amoeba and stop him. When she arrived on the scene, she realized he wasn’t the blame for the giant amoeba, but was fighting it himself…and failing with their combined powers, they destroyed it…and then Presence confessed his love to her and as if that weren’t bad enough, SHE STAYED WITH HIM! And, surprise, she was later shown to be under his mental control again later! which makes me think that his control never really left her in the first place, and that her getting away from him physically helped her stave it off, but when she got close to him again while fighting the amoeba, that re-activated it, and THAT’S why she agreed to stay with him once more. Anyway, Presence starts going mad with power…which just means he gets more egotistical and gross. he decided he should not just be content with ONE mind-controlled consort, but should have ALL the sexiest Soviet superheroines. So he sends the mind-controlled (yet still aware enough to cry) Tania (who now goes by Starlight instead of Red Guardian) to kidnap her fellow Russian heroines, Black Widow and Darkstar. Darkstar, by the way, is the long-lost daughter of the Presence. And he knows this at this point. And yet he still wants her in his little Soviet Harem. Seriously. It’s so gross. Starlight says that this shows how he isn’t mentally well, but his “symptoms” seem to be just being egotistical and thinking he’s entitled to a bunch of hot women being under his command including his own daughter, he doesn’t seem insane so much as just disgusting to me. In any case, Starlight once again manages to snap out of his control, but “chooses” to return to him since she believes that her love can heal him. Yeah, I don’t think that’s really her choice. I think her “love” for him is just more mind-control. And if it’s not, it’s Stockholm Syndrome. And the tragic thing is, if she ditches him for real? She’s all alone. His radiating her didn’t just give her powers (which seem to have been simply to enable her to do his dirty work, like KIDNAPPING WOMEN) they also make her radioactive herself, so she can’t be around other people long or she’ll irradiate them, killing them or making them sick. He’s ensured that he’s the only person she can be around, it’s either him alone or total isolation. Just like a real abuser often isolates their victims through mundane means. Anyway, yet again she “chooses” to be with him after he is defeated by the Avengers in another villainous effort. Tania begs for his life to be spared and accompanies him into custody despite the fact she did nothing against the Avengers during their conflict, only looks sad. The exposition says that Thor shakes his head at her choice, but…as I’ve said, I don’t think it’s a choice. It’s either some degree of still-active enslavement, or the “choice” of any other abused victim when they “choose” to stay with their abuser. That’s what so many people don’t get about abuse—that victims usually “choose” to stay with them, because of how much the abusers warp their mind. And that’s just in real life, where super-powered mind-control doesn’t exist. Starlight and Presence are later released from custody to fight a greater supervillain threat, Kang the conqueror, and Presence plans to use their regained freedom to do more villainy, but Starlight talks him out of it. That’s usually what she does, try to persuade him not to be a supervillain or hurt innocents. So she’s not under totally robotic control, she can have free thought like that, she just…can’t leave or disobey him. In a way, that’s almost crueler than if she was just a robotic zombie, because it means she’s aware of what’s going on. No wonder she looks sad a lot, huh? But then again, her “persuading” Presence not to go rogue while fighting Kang…was by threatening to him that she would leave him if he did. And he agreed. So he at least does believe she can or would leave. Maybe his control waxes and wanes. Or maybe she really is choosing to be with him, so long as he doesn’t go too far in his evil, because she thinks she can change him or because, as mentioned, she can’t be around anyone else. Of course, HE can’t be around anyone else either, so does that give her one bit of leverage too. Abuse victims do sometimes have that, and it doesn’t invalidate their victimhood or make them “not really victims/not really abused”. Anyway, at some point offscreen, she grew able to control her radiation seepage, so that she was able to be around others again, and she left Presence. She became a superhero again, and joined the Winter Guard, the Russian superhero squad. Darkstar and Vanguard, the Presence’s long-estranged children, were on this squad…and Starlight started a romantic relationship with Vanguard. The son of the man who enslaved her and forced her to be his lover and servant. And as weird as that is…I get it, actually. Abuse victims often desire to go back to their abusers, and many do. Others have to fight themselves on it, even years after escaping. It’s quite possible, likely even, that Starlight still “needed” Presence, and thus getting with his son was a way of coping with that, a way to be with him without returning to him. So yeah it’s weird and squicky but it makes sense. As for Presence, he took up with a Dire Wraith sorceress named Fantasma (who was a former member of the Winter Guard herself) When the Winter Guard fought them, Fantasma was thrown into Limbo…and she dragged Starlight along with her. Neither has been seen since. My problem with Tania’s story isn’t the content itself. A story about a smart, powerful woman with her own interesting life who has everything taken from her because a man decided he owned her is a very realistic one, despite the fantastic trappings of this scenario, and it’s worth telling. But it needs to be handled with care and attention. This should be TANIA’S story. It should be ABOUT her. We should see her tragedy and triumph up close and personal. The writers should CARE and ask the readers to care too. But that’s not what happens. This cool lady joins the Defenders, has an interesting personality set up with an interesting personal conflict set up (her loyalty to her country vs her hate of its government) and then all of a sudden she just gets swept off the playing board and is kind of forgotten, popping up here and again over the next 20+ years to remind us that she belongs to this gross guy now and has limited to nil free will, escapes a few times but only temporarily, and the heroes she was friends with just all kind of ignore it. This isn’t like Bucky Barnes or Laura Kinney where the story of her trauma and enslavement is the focus, where she’s the main character, where careful attention is paid to her arc, where she HAS an arc. Tania doesn’t have an arc. Hell, when she finally gets her free will back and her radiation-seep under control, it’s completely offscreen! Her victory is never shown! She just shows up with the good guys again and we’re left to infer what happened, as if it’s some insignificant detail! And just as she’s done this—she gets tossed offscreen, forever. At least forever thus far. It’s just…so unfair. And I don’t mean on an in-universe level, where drama and conflict and unfairness should happen just like in the real world, and to keep the story moving. I mean it’s unfair in how it was handled on a meta level, and this character and her story deserved a fuck ton better.

[the-mcu-theory]

Here it is! Our first ever “what if...” scenario!

I bet you’re excited! (And if you’re not, then why are you reading this?)

Okay, here it is... Drumroll please.

What if...

Steve fell off the train instead of Bucky? (written by Rebecca)

Well, the whole timeline of Steve becoming Captain America would be very different, indeed.

One of two things could happen.

Bucky becomes the new Captain America and joins the Avengers as an OG Avenger, instead of Steve.

Bucky doesn’t join the Avengers at all, leaving a place of leadership to be missing.

Well, let’s go through each movies that Steve was in and evaluate each one, shall we?

<-------------------------------->

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The following is a Wikipedia entry of what happened in this movie AFTER Bucky falls from the train:

“Using information extracted from Zola, the final Hydra stronghold is located, and Rogers leads an attack to stop Schmidt from using weapons of mass destruction on major American cities. Rogers climbs aboard Schmidt's aircraft as it takes off. During the subsequent fight, the Tesseract's container is damaged. Schmidt physically handles the Tesseract, which opens a wormhole into space, sucking him into it. The Tesseract burns through the plane and is lost in the ocean. Seeing no way to land the plane without the risk of detonating its weapons, Rogers crashes it in the Arctic. Stark later recovers the Tesseract from the ocean floor but is unable to locate Rogers or the aircraft, presuming him dead.”

Now if we analyse each of the things that could’ve happened if Steve fell instead of Bucky...

This would turn out the exact same, except replace the face of Chris Evans with Sebastian Stan and visa versa. But of course the Peggy relationship would be different (maybe that what if scenario about Peggy becoming Captain Britain might come true?)

None of this would’ve happened if Bucky didn’t become Captain America. Barnes would’ve been still stuck in the 1940s and died there as he wasn’t injected with the super soldier serum that Steve did. Of course, Steve would’ve taken Bucky’s place at HYDRA (cue HYDRA Cap, but that will come later in the sequel)

<-------------------------------->

The Avengers (2012)

I’m not going to copy and paste the whole Wikipedia plot of the Avengers onto here, otherwise that would be too long to read, so here is a shorten version that someone wrote on IMDB (trust me, it is shorter than the Wikipedia entry).

“S.H.I.E.L.D. has located the mysterious Tesseract device and the Army's super soldier Captain America. The Tesseract is actually a gateway to an entirely new world called Asgard. A mysterious being known as Loki arrives on earth and immediately assumes that he can rule all human beings. But that irks S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury the wrong way. As Loki escapes with the Tesseract, Nick Fury believes this is an act of war against Earth. His only hope is to assemble an actual team of super heroes. Dr. Bruce Banner, who turns into an enormous green rage monster known as the Hulk. Tony Stark and his venerable Iron Man armor. Captain America, the Stark Enterprises created super soldier. Thor, the god of thunder, protector of Earth and his home planet of Asgard, and Loki's brother. Master assassins Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff. Together they will become a team to take on an attack that will call them to become the greatest of all time.”

Let’s analyse again... 

The whole movie would be the same, except for a few bits. Whilst the whole boxing scene would be scrapped, the introduction of Bucky as Cap would be similar (with the memories of the events of the First Avenger and Steve falling off the train). The leadership part would be missing. Bucky considers himself as a very introverted person, so the leadership skills would turned towards Stark, which would be different for the other movies (as well as Iron Man 3).

For this scenario, the introductions would be the same, except the Cap intro. That would be replaced by either Carol Danvers, Scott Lang or Hope Van Dyne (probably not Scott but it could’ve been a possibility).

<-------------------------------->

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

This is the most important part of the franchise. Again, this is another IMDB plot summary of the Winter Soldier cause it’s shorter than the Wikipedia entry.

“Two years after the alien attack on New York, Steve Rogers starts to adjust to the modern world and works as an agent of SHIELD. However, Steve disagrees with the rules of today as he faces a world of threats and complexities. When Director Nick Fury is killed by a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier, Steve is warned not to trust anyone, only to find himself being framed for not sharing information. On the run, Rogers launches an investigation into a deadly conspiracy which reveals that SHIELD has been infiltrated by his old arch nemesis HYDRA, who have been hiding in plain sight. With only Black Widow and Falcon as backup, Rogers must once again suit up and defeat HYDRA from launching their ultimate weapon before it's too late.”

Analysing...

To be honest, this whole movie would’ve been the same, but instead of Bucky being the Winter Soldier, Steve would’ve revealed himself as Hydra Cap (or Militant, as it’s known in the comics). Probably not with the whole green and black suit colours, but with red and black (just like Bucky had in the CA:TWS with the red star on his metal arm). Bucky would’ve still met Sam Wilson and their TV series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would still go on (but more on that later).

The events of the movie could’ve still happened (due to Pierce’s plans and Sitwell being an undercover SHIELD agent working for HYDRA). But Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton would probably be the main protagonists of the movie, fighting Hydra Cap together.

<-------------------------------->

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Here is yet another plot summary from IMDB about this movie.

“After a successful raid on a HYDRA base, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner create an Artificial Intelligence called Ultron, a peacekeeping protocol designed to help the Avengers protect the world from their enemies. But things go wrong when Ultron sees the human race as a threat and sets out to destroy it along with the Avengers. Now the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, must reassemble to stop Ultron from causing mass destruction. Aside from this, the Avengers also must take on the powerful twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as well as the new entity called Vision. Also, the Avengers find that things may never be the same again after discovering a power beyond their comprehension.”

Analysing...

This movie would be the same, as well as Pietro dying (RIP Pietro). But it is a possibility that Clint would not have a family, due to the fact that he was on the run with Tasha. Also, it is a possibility that Brutasha (Ship name for Bruce and Natasha) would still happen, but it is a low one as maybe during the events of CA:TWS, we find out that Clint and Tasha have a secret relationship that we don’t know of until the Black Widow movie, (which won’t be mentioned in this post but probably in a later post about the Clintasha ship).

With Bucky out of the way, this bit of the movie (courtesy of Wikipedia), “As Stark leaves and Barton retires, Rogers and Romanoff prepare to train new Avengers: Rhodes, Vision, Sam Wilson, and Wanda...” will happen without him. Barton would not retire and help Tasha with helping to train them. But the theory that Stark went to his safehouse (mentioned and visited in Endgame) could happen in this version. But of course, if the, before mentioned, characters in the first Avengers movie were to replace Bucky, then they would train the newbies with Tasha.

<-------------------------------->

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Here is another important movie in the franchise! And here it is, another plot summary!

“With many people fearing the actions of super heroes, the government decides to push for the Hero Registration Act, a law that limits a hero's actions. This results in a division in The Avengers. Iron Man stands with this Act, claiming that their actions must be kept in check otherwise cities will continue to be destroyed, but Captain America feels that saving the world is daring enough and that they cannot rely on the government to protect the world. This escalates into an all-out war between Team Iron Man (Iron Man, Black Panther, Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, and Spider-Man) and Team Captain America (Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant Man) while a new villain emerges.”

Analysing...

Again, to be honest, this whole movie would’ve been the same. Yeah. That’s it. But number two, on the other hand...

...Would not happen at all. Well, actually, the Sokovia Accords were about the Battle of Sokovia in AoU, but the whole argument between Steve/Bucky and Tony wouldn’t happen. Unless either Carol, Scott (probably not Scott) or Hope would disagree with Stark, then it would go along with the original movie. But for the sub-plot (which is Hydra Cap killed Tony’s parents) would only be mentioned. So that’s mean Baron Zemo’s introduction would have to wait until the Falcon and Winter Soldier series. As of Spider-Man and Ant-Man’s introduction (of course, after Scott’s solo movie), that would be the same (unless of course Scott was the OG Avenger to replace Steve or Bucky).

<-------------------------------->

Avengers: Infinity War & Avengers: Endgame (2018 and 2019)

Two plot summaries from IMDB... (Points number 1 and 2 will be for Infinity War from both scenarios and points 2 and 4 will be for Endgame)

“As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artefacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment, the fate of Earth and existence has never been more uncertain.”

“After half of all life is snapped away by Thanos, the Avengers are left scattered and divided. Now with a way to reverse the damage, the Avengers and their allies must assemble once more and learn to put differences aside in order to work together and set things right. Along the way, the Avengers realise that sacrifices must be made as they prepare for the ultimate final showdown with Thanos, which will result in the heroes fighting the biggest battle they have ever faced.”

Analysing...

So, for IW, Bucky would be back as Captain America to fight Thanos with the rest of the Avengers (except Hawkeye as he is playing tag. I’m just joking xD). But instead of him being the one to help Vision and Wanda, and take the others to Wakanda, it would’ve been Sam (maybe to foreshadow the fact he will become the next Captain America in Endgame). Steve, of course, will be awoken from his cryogenic sleep from Civil War and reunited with his buddy. But when Thanos snaps his finger, Steve would be the first person to be disintegrated (or maybe it would turn out the exact same as the original with Bucky going with Wanda etc...  and Steve staying?).

As for Endgame, Barnes would probably lead grief counselling sessions for survivors (like Steve did). Then, the same thing will happen like the original. But the ending will change. Bucky will give the mantel of Captain America to Sam Wilson and maybe, go back to return the stones, find Red Skull, of course, and maybe go back to the first Cap movie to reverse the roles (so he fell off the train instead of Steve, like in the original MCU timeline).

For the second scenario, I think the movie will go along as normal. But if Carol replaced Steve as the “Captain”, then Fury would never need to send a distress signal to Carol, as she is already there (and the mid credit scene is no longer needed, but I think that wouldn’t happen, due to the fact that Carol is too strong when she is put up with a Norse god, a Gamma radiation monster, two SHIELD assassins with no superpowers and a tech genius with a sarcasm as a superpower. Of course, for Steve and the cryogenic sleep would never happen because no one rescued him in Civil War and he would still be with Hydra.

Endgame, however, would be totally different to the first scenario. There would be no “grief counselling sessions”, only Banner, Stark and Lang would go to New York (which means no Cap v Cap fight). It is possible that the “going back to the 1970s” plan could work with just Stark, but Scott would go with him as well. Unless Carol went with them, then the Cap v Cap fight (with Carol instead of Steve) would still happen. Both the funerals for Stark and Tasha would still happen. But who would return the stones? Probably either Scott or Barton.

<-------------------------------->

Now time for the last part (finally!), the future movies and TV shows!

First up is the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. There isn’t an official synopsis for the show yet, but here is a Wiki entry...

“After being handed the mantle of Captain America at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson teams up with Bucky Barnes in a worldwide adventure that puts their abilities to the test.”

This part will be a combination of the two scenarios to save time.

The casting of the show has only got 4 characters, in line for the show. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp).

And, of course US Agent (the “fake” Captain America) played by Wyatt Russell.

For scenario 1, the series will play out the exact same way (depends on if Bucky goes back in time to fix everything). 

Scenario 2, however, would be very different. Sebastian would be missing from that cast list, but would be replaced by Evans (who would play Hydra Cap once again). As for Zemo, this would be an introduction to the MCU (unless he would get introduced in the Black Widow movie).

Secondly, it’s the Black Widow solo movie and other TV series (such as the Hawkeye series and WandaVision). Here is a unofficial synopsis of them (that means it’s not official by Marvel Studios).

“Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romanoff finds herself alone and forced to confront a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Romanoff must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.”

“In April 2019, a limited series focused on Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton / Hawkeye was reported to be in development, with the plot involving Barton passing the mantle of Hawkeye to the character Kate Bishop.”

“Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Wanda Maximoff and Vision begin to suspect things are not as they seem as the two live their ideal suburban life.”

Even though, we don’t know exactly what will happen in the future of the MCU (especially Phase 4), I cannot say what would happen if Steve fell from the train instead of Bucky. But maybe check in with us in about 4 to 5 years when these TV series/movies have come out fully.

So, that’s it for this scenario! Hopefully you have had fun reading this, as much as I have had writing this. If you have any suggestions on other scenarios, just send an ask in to us!

This is Rebecca signing off.

Until next time!

[gangrenados]

✔️ & ❌ : for X-Men ; Deadly Class ; MCU --- elaborate why woman! we wanna know the tea lol 👀)

Uhhhh I was gonna do it anyway lol 💓

Deadly Class:

✔️

•Saya Kuroki: Saya is one of my favorite characters for so many reasons: she's cool and strong, also doesn't fear to fight when the situation needs it.

But Saya can be pretty cold and distant, manipulative even. I guess it's a side effect of the harmful environment she grew up with.

•Willie: He was just an innocent kid in the wrong place. Willie tried really hard to appear tough, without fearing to pull the trigger but we all know that was lie.

He was much more than that, but King's Dominion consumed him before he could do anything to get free...

•Maria: Another victim (but all of them are, right?) I find her way of trying to have fun and forget about her horrible past intriguing, she's just trying to survive the day and not breakdown.

Maria is a sweet girl with a burning desire of running away from her hellish life and have some peace. I just adore her.

•Marcus: He has been through so much, the death of his parents, the abuse in the boys home and his time in the streets had made him what he is today a manipulative, pessimistic boy and with a lot of unsolved traumas that consumes his head in such a painful way.

But even with his twisted mind he tries to connect with others and have friends so he won't feel alone again, the sad thing is that he always end up pushing others away.

•Zenzele: My favorite of new bunch. She a literal angel, but hellish when pushed too far.

She just wants to have a good future for her parents and have a decent life without breaking the rules of God (which is ironic considering the place she's living) I think she's the most pure of them all.

❌

•Master Lin: That old man is just creating weapons without caring about his kids health (physically and mentally), he tortures them and puts them against each other.

Fuck! The test to pass to the other year is killing each other like if it was the hunger games, that man is a monster.

•Shabnam: That pig can choke. He's a little bitch with such low self-esteem that he makes people to stick to his side by blackmailing them or threats, it's pitiful.

Also, he claims that nobody cares about his sorry ass,but he will not hesitate to betray a friend when he can benefits from it.

I hope he dies.

•Petra: I don't hate her, I rather feel sorry for her, however I'm still bitter about Billy's death.

Petra was a lonely girl who was just trying to fill that void with friends, but her need of survive surpassed her in such a horrible way.

The days after the juniors finals she was a complete different person, trying to pass as one of the lagacies and completely losing herself, also I think she was off meds (if I'm not wrong, I think she was schizophrenic)

I am happy shad found some peace of mind with Helmut, I think it benefited her and made her more happy. It's sad that didn't last long :(

X-men:

✔️

•Peter: Peter is a carefree guy who just runs around wrecking havoc and avoiding responsibility, which is pretty harmful cuz he still have a teenage mindset when he's in his thirties.

But he's the first character I fell in love with, his personality and scenes were to good to not fall for him, but I'm sad he didn't grew as a person and that he didn't told Erik he was his son.

•Warren: He was so intriguing in the movies I couldn't help myself. The short screen time hooked into adopting this character.

It's heartbreaking all the horrible things he had to face just to suffer a gruesome death.

•Jean: She's a powerful girl ready to protect her loved ones, but at the same time is pretty broken because of it. It's interesting.

I like her personality and the way she's all smiley when her friends are near or when she's with Scott.

•Ororo: The old Ororo was my role model when I was a kid. I mean, this strong woman controlling the weather with glowing eyes while looking fabulous? Fuck I wanted to be like her even I didn't knew what the hell was going on!

She's strong, protective, witty, compassionate and so much more...yeah, I still want to be like her 🤷🏽‍♀️

❌

•Raven: She's a horrible person, she threw Kurt into a river when he just a baby, is a horrible mother, I mean, she really doesn't care about her kids.

Her movie version isn't like this, but I found her annoying, especially in Dark Phoenix; the only exception I have towards her is in First Class because her presence was important to the plot.

•Charles: I think he has his low and highs as the average person, but I find it extremely hard to accept that he has put the X-Men towards risky missions just to prove the humans that they were friendly and capable to bring in hand anytime they needed it.

Also hiding Jean's past was a horrible mistake, telling her about how she get to the mansion and what happened with her parents could have prevented a lost of unfortunate events.

MCU:

✔️

•Wanda: I found her story interesting, it's really sad when you finally know all the things this girl had to face, so much loss and so much pain had caused her mind to break.

But she let herself love and be loved, her relationship with Vision and Clint it's a prove of this. To not mention she's so powerful, that is slightly scary.

•Gotg: Yeah, I know this was supposed to be just one character, but I really love this family because that's what they are.

The story behind the guardians of the galaxy is heartwarming in my opinion, a bunch of outsiders finding safety and comfort in each other. They have trough so much, loss, pain, anger, but those things just had made them stronger and closer.

I love this family more than any other found family.

•Peter Parker/Miles Morales: They're both innocent kids who wanted to make a difference and that's pretty cool.

I love them both, they're personality is so bright that you're happy when they're happy on screen...it's crazy.

❌

•Thor: Thor is strong, humble and positive. I don't hate him by any means, I find him rather cute, but there's something about him that just doesn't sit right with me.

Maybe it's because he can be so happy go lucky with everything and everyone, a trait that it's really nice to have ,but let's be real a person whose like that all the time will explode in the worst way possible when everything crumbles...

•Carol Danvers: She's just meh for me, not great, not bad just meh.

Her personality was too cocky for me, in a way that it seemed that she was trying to appear better than anyone and I dislike people like that.

However, an scene I really liked was when she was with her bestfriend because to me it feel more natural, just two "friends" (cuz to me it seemed more than that ngl) finding each other again. I must say, it was really cute.

•Bruce Banner: For me he always was a crybaby, and I get it, being the Hulk must be hard, but there was so many times he was just being plain rude to others.

I'm happy he grew as a person, but I still don't like him that much

[nerdypisces160]

Pietro Maximoff - Soulmate AU

Pairing: Pietro Maximoff x Avengers!Reader

Warnings: fluff, angst, swearing

Word Count: 4,561 words (I finally made a long one!)

Summary: Y/N has been with the Avengers for six short months. She is a mutant with the power of telekinesis. She mastered her powers long ago, but occasionally she over does it. This can lead to her body practically shutting down on herself. How far will she go to save her soulmate?

*****

When people talked about soulmates they all said that the world just made sense. It seemed as if everything finally had a plan or purpose to it. There was no physical mark that showed if a person found their soumate; it was just a mental connection that joined the two. Nowadays soulmates aren't as common as they once were, but that didn't stop some from finding theirs. Even without having a soulmate people learned to live happily, but when someone did find them it seemed that everyone could feel their powerful emotions and connection. The ones that do find their soulmate recount that they were going about on a normal day. Nothing ever stands out, so when Y/N was out on a mission with the team she didn't expect to find her soulmate.

*****

Storming the newest Hydra base, Y/N was flying past Natasha and Clint swiping away the enemies. They all continued to fight taking out anyone they could. Y/N chuckled to herself seeing Cap drag a body behind him. "What are you laughing about kid?" Tony asked. "Nothing much, just watching Cap drag around some garbage," Y/N replied. Flying past with the rest of the Avengers Y/N made a small force field around her body in order to tackle down the approaching Hydra agents. "Shit!" Tony exclaimed. "Language," Cap countered. Y/N stifled her laughter hearing Cap's response. After her brief pause Y/N continued to fight along side with Thor. "Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint said. Y/N rolled here eyes and growled, "Really Clint what told you that? Was it the fucking guns?" Of course hearing her language Tony then mentioned that Cap said 'language.'

Tired of hearing the bickering between her team mates she ignored them all. All at once Hydra agents surrounded her believing they could take her down; this made her smirk. Once they surrounded her, she began to concentrate on their weapons. She absorbed the energy from them that way they were useless. The agents all looked around confused on why their weapons weren't firing. Absorbing all that energy gave Y/N a tingling sensation in her fingers and up her arms. Using all the newly absorbed energy Y/N punched the ground creating an explosion that killed the surrounding Hydra scum. With her fist still connected to the ground, Y/N felt an unfamiliar presence. She tried to tune into the presence from the distance, but it was moving too fast. Noticing that it was heading towards Clint's location Y/N took off in his direction.

Just before Clint fired an arrow at the bunker Y/N hid behind a nearby tree. "What do you need kid?" Clint asked. "Figured you could use the help old man," she smirked. He began to grumble, "Old man my ass." Before Clint could fire his second arrow a force took both him and Y/N out. The force of the fall had knocked the wind out of her, so she wasn't able to get up for a few seconds. Though she did hear a foreign accented voice say, "You didn't see that coming." Finally getting up Y/N felt a strong wind push her back down. Growling, Y/N got back up only to have Clint fall on her. "What is your problem?" she growled. "Kinda got hit Y/N," he grunted. Natasha quickly ran over to the two. While Nat was assessing Clint, Y/N put a shield around them. Quickly the Hulk took down the attacking bunker.

Soon after the bunker was destroyed and Stark got the shield down Y/N flew over into the Hydra facility. As Tony went to download the files Y/N went throughout the building taking out anyone and everyone that crossed her path. Out of no where Y/N was grabbed and pushed against the wall. "What do you think you are doing?" a mysterious voice asked. Looking up Y/N saw clear, crystal blue eyes. Both parties' eyes widened realizing what they were to each other. All the rumors were true when people say things start to fit together. They were stuck in their own world, sadly it ended quicker then either would care to admit. All at once a young woman with brown hair put her hand on Y/N's soulmate's shoulder. Before Y/N could blink they were gone.

Back on the quinjet Y/N didn't know what to think about the situation. She wasn't ready to admit that her soulmate was with Hydra, in the end she decided that she wasn't going to tell anyone. Lots of people don't have soulmates, so what is the worse that could happen with ignoring hers. Once back at Headquarters, Y/N walked with Steve and Maria listening to them talk about the twins. Just hearing his name, Pietro, practically made her knees weak. Steve seemed to notice this because he stopped. "Are you okay Y/N?" Steve asked. "Yeah just a little tired. I guess I overworked myself," she said. He slowly nodded his head knowing occasionally Y/N overworked herself in the field. "I'm actually going to go rest," Y/N said. Before she could walk away Steve yelled out to her, "Don't forget about the party." "Do I have to go?" Y/N moaned. This caused Steve to smile to himself, "Yes if I have to go, you have to." "Fine," she grumbled. Y/N went to her room to shower and rest.

*****

Only one person in the world could love partying so much and that was playboy philanthropist Tony Stark. Only he would want to have a party a few days after a mission. Since that particular mission all Y/N could think about was Pietro. He wouldn't escape her mind, she thought about how things could be different for the two of them. Most of the time she imagined that he wasn't Hydra and that she wasn't an Avenger. All Y/N wanted was to have met her soulmate in the most boring way possible. Since that last mission Y/N had started behaving differently as well. She began to withdraw from her friends and started spending more time in the gym. None of her team mates really knew what was wrong with her, but one had a sneaking suspicion.

Once Y/N made it down to the party she went straight to the bar; her hope was that she could finally get her mind off Pietro. "What can I get for you ma'am?" the bartender asked. "Let me get a single malt neat," Y/N ordered. Whilst sitting at the bar, Y/N watched her team mates. Rhodey was standing by a group of women telling them one of his many War Machine stories. Natasha was making her way behind the bar. Steve and Thor were talking to an older gentleman. By the looks of it Thor was going to give the man some of his Asgardian mead. Giggling to herself, Y/N was excited to see the man's reaction to such a strong alcohol. All at once Bruce walked up to the bar where Natasha was now pouring drinks. "How did a nice girl like you wind up working in a dump like this?" Bruce asked. While making a drink for him, Natasha responded, "Fella done me wrong." "You got a lousy taste in men kid," he commented. Leaning forward she started to speak again, "He's not so bad. Well, he has a temper. Deep down he's all fluff. Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known. All my friends are fighters. And here comes this guy, spends his life avoiding the fights because he knows he'll win." Bruce, flabbergasted by what Nat said only replies with, "Sounds amazing." Taking a sip of her drink Nat admits, "He's also a huge dork. Chicks dig that." Bruce looked down sheepishly and embarrassed. She then suddenly asked him a question, "So what do you think should I fight this, or run with it?" Confused on how to respond, Bruce stutters his answer," Run with it, right? Or, did he... was he...? What did he do that was so wrong to you?" Leaning even closer Nat begins to whisper to Bruce, "Not a damn thing. But never say never." With that final statement Nat walked away.

"Is it easy to ignore your soulmate like that?" Y/N asked Bruce suddenly. Stuck in his head, Bruce was startled by the question. "I'm not good for her, the universe messed up our connection," Bruce responded. Unhappy with his answer Y/N stood up and began to yell at him, "That's bullshit and you know it! You two were put together for a reason! You shouldn't fight fate!" Realizing what she had said Y/N swiftly apologized to Bruce and ran off to her room. Once alone Y/N began to freak out. She now realized how important soulmates are.

All at once Y/N stood up and began packing her bags. She decided she needed to find her soulmate, but she couldn't do it as an Avenger. After all her essentials were packed she could hear a knock at her door, it was Clint. Not wanting anyone to know she was leaving Y/N used her powers to make everything look normal. It was very advanced, but she knew the risk was worth it. Once Y/N knew everything looked normal she invited Clint in. "What can I do for you Clint?" she asked. "What no 'old man'?" he joked. It was at this time Y/N wished her friends didn't know her so well. "Sorry old man I am too  far in my head right now," she responded. He seemed skeptical about her response, but didn't mention it. "Well we have a meeting in the morning. Looks like we have another threat ready to make us go 'extinct'," Clint said. Nodding her head, Y/N showed Clint the door and told him goodbye. Right when he was gone Y/N stopped using her powers. She felt horrible for leaving her team, but she needed to find her soulmate, her Pietro.

Getting away unnoticed was quite simple for Y/N. She was able to get to the records without raising any red flags. Once in the records, Y/N was able to look up all the information on the twins that she could. This led Y/N to return to her room where she found a wormhole that would allow her to travel to Sokovia. Being there gave Y/N a funny feeling. It was her body reacting to being in her soulmate's birthplace. All she had to do now was wait until fate brought the two together again.

*****

Y/N was late for the team meeting the next day, and no one could find her. It was uncommon for Y/N to be late. Due to her being relatively new she didn't like making a bad impression. Clint being the only one that was suspicious of her recent behavior went to her room to search. For hours he searched her room looking for clues on why she left. No one else on the team searched for Y/N; they were all too worried about Ultron. After having no success he decided to go to the one place he could truly be alone --- the vents. Once he was situated up there  he looked down in Y/N's room. "God damn it, that smart ass kid," he cursed. Clint was right in thinking that Y/N would leave a clue. She left it only where he would notice it. She left a letter addressed to him in the top corner of her bedroom, she painted it the same color of her walls so it would blend. Y/N remembered when Clint told her that he could see better from a distance. Finally retrieving the letter, Clint went back to the vents to read it.

Dear Clint,

I knew if anyone would understand and come looking for me it would be you. Last night I knew you didn't believe me, and I love that you didn't ask. I didn't want to leave you guys, you all are my family. I needed to leave though because I found my soulmate. The problem is I'm not sure I can handle who he is, and if I can't accept him then who am I? I'm a horrible person who is going to throw away the strongest connection a person can find in their life. Please don't tell anyone and don't bother looking for me. I need to find these answers on my own. If I can find the right answers then I'll be back, but if not then this is goodbye. I hope this isn't the end of our family. I appreciate and love you all.

Love, Y/N

*****

Shortly after arriving in Sokovia, Y/N could tell that Pietro wasn't there, but something in her told her not to worry. She knew that it wouldn't be long before they reconnected. While waiting Y/N got to discover Sokovia. She realized that the people there were very close knit. It was a small and peaceful community. When Y/N read the file on Pietro she read of how his and his sister's parents died. She could almost understand why he chose to join Hydra.

It seemed that today was finally the day Y/N had been looking forward to; it was the day her and Pietro would reunite. Waking up that morning Y/N felt a tight feeling in her chest. The thing was she wasn't sure whether it was a good feeling or bad. Leaving her small single bedroom apartment she went into the capital, Novi Grad. Not long after getting into the capital she noticed shadows fly above her. When she looked up she seen many robots preparing to land. Seconds later the ground under her feet began to rumble almost like an earthquake. Once the rumbling stopped she noticed that the area she was on was rising higher than the surrounding areas. It wasn't long before Y/N began to hear the citizen's cries for help. Naturally her body went into protective mode. She knew that she needed to kill the weird robots that were flying around not even five minutes ago.

At first Y/N made a portal that way she could evacuate citizens to safety. When the people around her were safe she started to chase down the robots. Killing them was easy, she was able to just rip them apart with her powers. Going further into the capital Y/N made sure to help anyone she passed. It wasn't until she was on the edge that she noticed she wasn't alone, a helicarrier flew pass her. While helping out Y/N completely forgot the Avengers would come out. Following the helicarrier, Y/N found Steve and Natasha having a conversation at the edge of the now floating capital.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve ordered. "I didn't say we should leave. There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Natasha professed. "You know I would never let you all go, even if that meant going back in time and killing myself over it," Y/N confessed to the two. Both, not expecting Y/N, turn around to face her. Neither knew what to say, it was only a few short days ago that she had abandoned them. Breaking out of her trance first, Natasha stormed towards Y/N. Expecting to be slapped or punched Y/N closed her eyes and braced herself. Instead of a slap or punch Natasha threw her arms around Y/N and squeezed her tightly. "Where the hell did you go?" Nat whispered in Y/N's ear. Squeezing her back just as hard Y/N explained, "I needed to find my happiness, just like you and Bruce." Letting each other go Natasha just nodded to Y/N. Looking behind Y/N, Nat noticed the new recruit focused on Y/N. "Looks like you might get that chance. Go and be quick," Nat advised. While Nat and Y/N were in their bubble Nick Fury was talking about bringing the helicarriers out of retirement. Once Nat walked back to Steve, Y/N walked over to Pietro.

"I never though we would actually be together especially since you are with SHIELD," confessed Pietro. "At least it wasn't Hydra!" Y/N joked. Her comment made him chuckle. Hearing his deep, sexy chuckle made Y/N realize how connected they were. Even though this was only their second conversation she could see their whole future together. Noticing that Y/N was stuck in her head daydreaming Pietro stepped closer and put his hands on her hips. "Are you alright sweetheart?" he asked. Coming out of her daze Y/N responded, "I'm fine, just ready for this to be over." "I'll protect you don't worry," Pietro promised. Feeling the heat of the moment the two began to lean in closer, slowly their lips were inching closer and closer together. "Hey you two lets save the world first then you two can go off and make little mutant babies!" Natasha interrupted. Embarrassed, the two look away and nod, each took off in opposite directions.

Now that Fury and Rhodes were there, they were able to get more of the citizens out of Sokovia. All the Avengers both new and old converged onto the Vibranium core. Then Thor yelled out to Ultron, "Is that the best you can do?" In response Ultron summoned an army full of robots. "For fucks sake Thor you had to ask," Y/N gritted out. Then all of the robots started to attack. Everyone fought valiantly against the robots. Suddenly the robots started to retreat. Too distracted thinking of a way to save Sokovia Y/N didn't hear the new plan. It wasn't until she felt a warm tingle on her shoulder that she refocused. "Sweetheart, you need to get on the boats,"Pietro advised. "I'm not leaving Pietro, I am here to help all the people I possibly can," she asserted. Before Pietro could respond Wanda, his twin sister, spoke up, "Go make sure everyone is on the boats, I am protecting the core for now. Both of you go. Just come back when everyone is safe." Without a word to either of them Y/N took off to look for any stranded citizens. "You have a brave soulmate," Wanda commented. "Yeah she is," Pietro agreed.

Luckily not a lot of people were left on Sokovia. The Avengers were able to get everyone on the boats, or so they thought. Y/N was walking behind Clint and Natasha when they all made it to the lifeboats. Once there, they heard a woman calling out to her brother. "Ma'am what's wrong?" Y/N asked. "Costel? We were in the market. Costel?!" the woman replied worriedly. When Y/N turned around she noticed that Clint was already gone. "God damn that old man," she whispered to herself. Taking off Y/N went to find Clint. Eventually she found him, but the sight in front of her was one she would never forget.

Y/N watched as Pietro stood like a statue for a few brief seconds before dropping down on the ground. Not having time to grieve, Y/N ran down to Pietro's body. Checking for a pulse she was lucky to find a small but weak pulse. Quickly she flipped Pietro onto his back and put her hands over some of the many bullet wounds he had. She began to focus on his wounds. She imagined them all closing and his blood being restored. She pictured him completely healthy with all his abilities intact. As she continued to slowly heal Pietro, Clint crawled over to the two. "Y/N you need to stop. This is too much for you," Clint said. "Would you give up on Laura?" she questioned through gritted teeth. "No," he admitted. "Then let me do this for him," she begged. Now understanding Y/N, Clint stood up and picked up Costel. Going back to concentrating Y/N didn't even hear Cap come up behind her. It wasn't until he shook her shoulder that she broke concentration. "Y/N we need to go now," Cap ordered. Looking down, Y/N took notice that many of Pietro's wounds were closed and that his breathing was stronger. "Understood Cap, just grab Pietro for me," she said. He nodded and leaned down to pick up Pietro. Once was Pietro was picked up, Y/N looked up at the two. It wasn't until that very moment that Y/N realized how much she had drained herself.

While healing Pietro's wounds Y/N was giving him her own life source. Y/N had never healed wounds that severe, and it was staring to show. She could feel her life slipping through her fingers. There was a subtle pounding in her ears where her blood pumped. Her vision began to go hazy and she felt her heart beat fewer and further times apart. The last thing she seen was a dark clothed blob, she could only assume was Clint, run to her and pick her up. By the time he secured her in his arms she had already closed her eyes and began to welcome the light.

*****

The room that Y/N was in was quiet all that could be heard was the heart monitor, and even that was slow and low. After Clint had picked up Y/N both Steve and him ran off to the life boats. As far as the other team members were aware Pietro was dead and Y/N was alive and healthy. Once the four were on the lifeboats the remaining members of the team surrounded them. No one knew what to say. Clint explained to them that Pietro was Y/N's soulmate, and that she knew that she would most likely die to save him. After the city was blown up Vision flew down to save Wanda. By the time he brought her to the lifeboat she was awake and conscious. Once she was on the boat she went straight to her brother's body. She held him close to her and cried into his neck. Suddenly everyone heard and watched as Pietro began to cough heavily. "Why are you crying sister?" he asked hoarsely. At first Wanda was completely shocked because she watched Pietro die. "H-how are you alive?" she stuttered. "I can answer that for both of you," Clint interrupted. The twins watched Clint as he stepped to the side and revealed Y/N's pale and lifeless like body. "She wanted to make sure that you survived this. It was a lot on her body, and we aren't sure she will make it out of this one," Clint said solemnly. To say Pietro was devastated was an understatement. He had barely gotten to know Y/N, and now she might not come back to him at all.

It has been a few days since that dreadful mission and Y/N was still not awake yet. While she has been in a coma she had had many visitors, most of the time it was the twins. Pietro would sit next to her bed for hours. He would move her hair from her face and gently caress her face. When he was alone with her he would cry and beg her to wake up, but nothing ever happened. When Wanda visited Y/N she often was conflicted about her feelings. On one hand Wanda was grateful that Y/N saved her twin brother's life, but on the other hand Wanda was upset because she could see and feel her brother's pain. Another person that was greatly affected by Y/N's coma was Clint. He felt guilty for Pietro having to come save him. He appreciated that Pietro kept Clint alive, but he wished that Pietro would have never been injured in the first place. Clint was ready for Y/N to finally wake up because he had a surprise for her.

It was the first time that Clint has been able to visit Y/N. He came to visit everyone at the tower but mostly the twins and Y/N. Once he got there he requested that he could visit her alone. For awhile he just sat there and watched as Y/N took steady breaths. After a while he stood up and made his way next to Y/N. He sat down next to her and held her hand. "Kid you need to wake up. If you can't do it for me then do it for Pietro. He is a mess without you," Clint confessed. "It's funny how whipped he is already," Clint joked in hope for some reaction from Y/N. He looked down at the hand he was holding. "Besides you need to meet your godson," he added. As he expected he didn't get a response back. Giving up on waiting, Clint stood and made his way to the door. Guess he'll have to try again another day.

"Do I get to know my godson's name at least?" Y/N asked sarcastically. Clint couldn't believe his ears, he turned so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "Nathaniel Pietro Barton," Clint whispered. "Good name and even better choice of godmother," Y/N admitted. Clint didn't know what to do. He figured he should inform the team that Y/N was now awake. "Are you going to just stand there or are you going to get Bruce?" Y/N asked sarcastically. "Uhm actually Bruce is gone, he left during the whole Sokovia incident," Clint confessed. Y/N looked down almost ashamed, "Oh how is Nat doing?" Clint just shrugged, "You know how she gets with her feelings." "Yeah you're right. Do you mind getting a doctor for me?" Y/N asked. Clint simply nodded his head and made his way out the door with a large smile on his face.

"Well Miss. L/N everything looks good, but you need to rest for the next few weeks that way your powers can regenerate," the doctor explained. Nodding her head Y/N agreed, "Understood Doc, I'll rest for the next few weeks." Once the examination was over the doctor bid Y/N a goodbye and left the room. Before the door could completely close Y/N heard a strong whoosh, next to her stood Pietro. "Took you long enough Speedy," Y/N teased. "I was stuck waiting for Sleeping Beauty to wake up," he joked. His joke brought both of them into a giggle fit. When both calmed down they realized how close they had gotten. Pietro brought his hand up to Y/N's face. Slowly he traced her bottom lip with his thumb. "Can I kiss you?" he asked softly. "Please," she whispered. Finally their lips met in a slow yet passionate kiss, both conveying the worry they had for each other. When the kiss finally ended they both caught their breath and slowly opened their eyes. "Please don't scare me like that again Sleeping Beauty,"Pietro pleaded. "Never again my Prince, never again," Y/N confirmed.

*****

Hello my lovelies, I know it has been a LONG time since I have written anything. Recently I have had more inspiration. Hopefully I will update more often. I look forward to putting out more stories.  

[melyaliz]

Canary pt. 16

Canary Masterlist  

Fandom: Marvel / MCU 

Pairing: Loki x Reader 

Notes: A part of me wonders if updates started slowing because I knew this story was coming to a close. I honestly think I have this mental block to ending a story where I don’t want it to end. 

Maybe I’ll go back to this one and add more and make it a more coherent story. 

Then again, I have a lot of fun other ideas for the new year. 

All Masterlists @melyalizarchive​​

Connect with me! AO3 / Instagram / Pinterest

DONATE or REQUEST

----------------------------------------------------------

Normal, what was an interesting word. 

Any life could be considered normal compared to something else. Maybe just having a power was normal. After all, you were just a girl who lived in a normal city doing normal girl things. It wasn’t like you were part of the most powerful team in the world or anything. 

Or maybe being part of the avengers was just normal. Just living your life with people who were just as, if not more, powerful as you. In fact, being around those people could remind you just how normal you were. After all, it wasn’t like you had caught the attention of anyone. You were too normal for that. 

Or maybe having a relationship with a god was just normal. 

Ok no, 

That wasn’t normal.

Not if you were just a normal girl who had lived in a normal town.  

Then again, was really was normal? 

----

“I could snap your little neck without even flexing.” 

“What’s the hesitation?” Loki chocked out as the large warlord held him up by his neck. The large ogre’s hand around the Asgardian prince’s neck. Behind him, the beautiful mistress frowned slender arms crossed over her chest. 

“Tell us where it is.”

Loki let out a hissing laugh before being cut off by the hulking man tightening his gip cutting off his airflow. Several feet away the other avengers were fighting off the Oger King’s army. 

“My sweet prince.” The beautiful mistress of the stars walked toward Loki placing a pale hand on her lover’s arm singling to him to let Loki speak, “Just tell me where my necklace is.” 

Loki’s eyes went from his former lover to the man who would kill him without a second thought. Treaty be damn. (Honestly, he probably welcomed a war against, Oden. They didn’t call him a warlord for no reason.) Then he heard it. That whirring sound. Like a rattlesnake, like the hiss of a mountain lion. 

Warring, angry 

“Oh, my beautiful one,” Loki said flashing them a wide smile. “My canary has arrived.” 

“Wha…” 

“Get off” it was sharp and blunt. Crashing into them and pulling them apart. Loki felt his body being thrown only to slow in the gentle arms of a whisper “got you” 

She was standing there hair flaring like the wings of a falcon. Waves of sound flying around her like feathers. She was a beauty to behold, standing in front of Wanda and Vision fighting alongside her team. Steve let out a barking laugh as took another ogre’s minion in the face. 

“The big guns are here” 

The King let out a scream charging at her. A snap of her fingers and he was gent back. Loki stood up dusting himself before summoning a blade with his reformed magic catching his beautiful ex-lover off guard. She frowned down at the sharp steel pressed against her soft skin. 

“I see you found a new plaything.” 

“She is so much more than anything you could imagine.”

“You were a collector of powerful objects.” 

Loki’s eyes flickered toward his Canary. No longer truly his. She was so much more than his. As he watched her charge at the Ogre king twisting his own screams and threats onto himself. With each sound he omitted it came back twice as hard crashing into his large shield the sheer force pushing him back.  

Loki was an idiot to think that timid woman who seemed to slip from room too room was anything but a goddess among mortals. All that time calling her his canary. 

She didn’t belong to anyone but herself. 

A quick binding spell and the mistress was down her eyes shining up at him seething with pure anger. “You can’t win this,” she hissed before he knocked her out. Her body slumping down on the ground. 

That was when he caught sight of them. The Oger’s guard dogs, large beasts like hyenas only feet foot massive creatures closing in on the queen of sound. 

The pack leader let out a large snarl, teeth barred dripping saliva as he leaped toward Canary. She turned hands up letting her guard down for just a moment. 

Yip

The monster let out a soft whine as Loki stood under him a spree going up from the large animal’s chest clean through his spine. Turning Loki’s gaze met hers. 

“I am here” 

“Seems to me this is your fault.”

“Isn’t it always?”   

Canary turned to him studying him for a moment as if really hearing what he said. Seeing through the bitter vail and maybe reading into it more then she should. 

But that was her thing, wasn’t it? To hear the sounds others tried to hide? 

“Do you have my back?” she finally said, voice soft, words only he could hear. Simple and clean. 

Bowing Loki couldn’t help but smile up at her before muttering a spell summoning another lance from under his cape impaling an oncoming monstrous hound. “Let’s dance.” 

So they did. Locked back to back, shimmers of Loki’s magic as he duplicated himself. Canary pulling the cries of the monsters twisting themselves around the mirages  and back on the monsters.“Best dance partner I could ask for” Loki quipped but Canary just rolled your eyes sending another troll flying. Let’s not forget this man did just make her cry. 

And she wasn’t someone to forget that so quickly. Even if they were fighting trolls and giant dogs back to back. 

It was going to make more than those pretty green eyes and a charming smile to win her back. 

But she couldn’t deny that they both worked so well together. Spinning and twirling until they came face to face with the Oger himself.

“Loki the time has come…” the King said brandishing his sword striding up toward the dark-haired god, “To show you….”

“NO!” the wave crashed into him sending him to his knees. Canary taking a step with each word. “You. Will. Stand. DOWN” 

Her last word was a war cry. Pulled from her lungs piercing through his armor and knocking the King out. 

“Canary” Loki stood behind her, his voice soft. It hurt to hear. Heavy on her soul. 

“I didn’t come back for you,” she said not even bothering to look at him as she walked back to her team. Her family. 

Loki watched her go, somehow watching her walk away this time hurt even more than laying on top of Wanda’s shattered doorframe. 

Yet, he had no one to blame but himself.

-------

I’m not going to lie, I hadn’t realized how much damage I had done until I walked into the compound.

“Wanda I’m so sorry,” I whispered looking over her broken doorway 

“It’s fine, if my door had to suffer so you could speak your mind it died for the greater good.” Wanda said, “Are you coming down to see them off?” 

I sighed running my fingers through my hair. A headache forming as exhaustion from what had just happened finally catching up to me. Never a dull moment at the Avengers household I guess. 

“I should see Thor off.” 

Wanda nodded coming to my side. “He’s out in the front, or that’s where I left him and Loki. I’ll come with you.” 

Thor met us with a large smile embracing us both warmly. At least someone was chipper after the battle. I honestly felt like I had been run over by a steamroller, both physically and emotionally. 

It had been a day. 

“I am so proud to have gone to battle with you.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that again any time soon” 

“But we had such great fun” Loki’s voice slipped smoothly behind me. Thor’s bright blue eyes drifting from mine to Loki behind him. Turning I sized him up.

“Brother, where did you go off too?” Thor asked, Loki’s gaze locked on mine unwavering there was a glint of something in those eyes. Something that told me he was up to no good. A part of me was glad he was leaving. He was honestly a bit exhausting. All those hidden meanings, those secret glances. It was going to be a lot easier without him here. Especially how everything had ended. 

“Thinking of making a run for it?” I snickered, for a moment Loki seemed to be lifted up at my words. A twitch of the lip with a flutter of his eyes. No, I had no forgiven him but honestly, that was for me to know. It wasn’t like he would be around much longer anyway. 

“Back to Asgard then brother” Loki’s gaze finally breaking with mine to meet Thor’s. Thor nodded at his words holding out his hand for his brother to join him. 

For a moment Loki glanced back at me. I waved back “enjoy the luxury and things that come with it” with that I turned and left. Not in the mood anymore. All those mind games we had played. 

I just needed to rest. And to be as far away from the green-eyed snake as possible. 

After all birds and reptiles have never gotten along. 

-GET TAGGED!- 

Forever tag: @royslittleharper​​​  @the-shadow-of-atlantis​​​ @coffee-randomness​​​ @werewitchling​ @xx3fsxx​ @daisyboobear​​​ @  @jason-redhood​​ @hello-i-lovespiderman-blr​ @ocelysium��� @pinkwitch21 @tomhncharliep​  @cdwmtjb8​

Loki: @wayward-hell​​ @winterssoldierrs​

Canary: @baybay123455​ @rizanendoza808 @dragonrosegardens​ @6-daughter-of-a-witch-6​ @califorina-grown @2s0uls​ @oh-no-a-whovian​ @it-jinxed-us​ @pixiehex1985​ @bolontiku​

[beccarooni]

Ice Planet Chapter 3 - Storm

(A.N: Thorbruce week 2019 day 3! Prompt - Storm. This fic is part of a series called Ice Planet that you can find the rest on my blog, or on my ao3 teamthor. But if you only want to read this chapter, the basic premise is that thor and hulk are stranded on a planet of ice post-ragnarok, and their ship is currently wedged between a ravine.)

"Hello, brother."

Thor awoke with a start at the sound of the voice, low and threatening against his ear. The spaceship walls seemed to stretch and grow in the dark, twisting in and out of the shadows in front of him. 

He couldn't see where the voice came from. He couldn't really see much of anything. Not the sky, not the stars, and more alarmingly the reassuring mountain of green that he'd spent the night with seemed to have disappeared entirely. 

He opened his mouth to call out, but was met with silence in return. His throat felt tight, the words frantically trying to claw their way out into the open air, but dying into pained whispers before they could touch the cold atmosphere that stretched out in front of him. 

His muscles twitched, fighting to get up, but...nothing. 

If he had to describe it, it was a little like the grandmasters disk had been forced back into his neck. Tendrils of electricity paralysing his muscles, silencing his voice, keeping him pinned and muted against the uncomfortable floor. 

"Poor, poor Thor. You're rather pathetic without your friend to help, aren't you?" 

The voice came again, the mocking tones accompanied by the slow sound of heeled footsteps heading in his direction. He couldn't see beyond the ceiling staring back at him, couldn't move his neck to turn and look, but he knew who that voice belonged to. 

"Such a shame." Hela's voice drawled, and he fought back a flinch at the sound of the cold metal biting the night air - the sound of a sword materialising out of the dark. 

He felt the prick of the blade poke against his throat, not enough to draw blood, but enough. Enough. Ice cold fear gripped his veins as the sword made its way up to his face, cutting a fine line of shadow against his skin. Knees met his chest, the weight of his failure laid over him, the weight of his city, his home, burning in front of his eyes stole his breath and pounded against his ribs. The ashes of Asgard clogged in his throat, as the dagger brushed almost cruelly gently against his eye. 

Hela chuckled, darker than the night sky itself. He almost wished she'd say something. Give an evil speech, an evil cackle, an evil something. Anything. Anything but the silence and the waiting for the blade to fall. Anything but that. 

The sword fell across his face. 

Asgard burned. 

Thor woke, cold and somehow sweaty, shooting to his feet the moment his world stopped spinning. Adrenaline thudded through his veins as blankets tumbled to the floor, and he staggered towards the light of the moon and the stars and somewhere, somewhere far out there was home. Home wasn't gone. It was different now, a crawling spacecraft packed with Asgardians and Sakaarians, but still there. 

Still there. 

Hela was gone. He was okay. 

Thor groaned quietly, lowering himself carefully back onto the floor. Shaking fingertips brushed the heavy material of his eyepatch, traced around the dark spot of vision that honestly he was still getting used to. Dark metal met scarred flesh as his hand made its way carefully down his face, reaffirming memories that didn't need revising. They never would. The one thing he could truly be sure about now was that he wasn't going to forget about his home. The golden spires crumbling under Sutur's sword. The fire and brimstone and sulfur choking his lungs would never leave him, not really. 

It was just another thing to add to the list. Loki’s face as he fell into the chasm above the bifrost. His mother’s prone body, cradled in his father’s arms. Odin himself, even, disappearing into golden flakes over the horizon of somewhere he’d told him was home. His mouth tasted bitter at that particular memory. 

He knew he was supposed to be sad. And he was. He’d lost Odin, his father, the constant force in his life that had guided him through so much. And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling of anger that clenched at his soul, sometimes. 

Times like now, when it was the early hours of the morning. Hulk wasn’t awake - no one was awake - no one to keep his mind from wandering to just how unfair things were. Frigga had never had the opportunity to say goodbye, not really. Odin had. He’d had months where he could’ve said something, anything, anything outside of an ‘I love you’ that came years too late. 

It hurt. Faded, somewhat, when Loki had been coaxed into that reluctant hug back aboard the Statesman. But it still stung. 

Memories were something Thor had decided long ago wouldn’t be kind to him. That’s why he lived in the now, in the present, and that was the blinding light where he began to force his mind to crawl towards. He didn’t have time to dwell on the past, not now. Right now, his concern lay with the ship, and it’s frankly precarious position. 

“Hulk? Hulk, come on. Wake up” 

Thor pulled back a layer of blanket, peeking through the woolen shields to find a green face, scrunching up against what little light of day they had.

“Hngh. Too early.” Hulk rolled over, twisting away from Thor with an irritated grunt. 

“Go back to sleep.”

“Oh, come off it. You’re the Grand Champion.” 

Thor neatly stepped around the large mound of blankets, crouching down until blue eyes met green. 

“I sincerely doubt an early morning is above your strengths. Now, up. I need you to help me move the ship.”

To his credit, Hulk did eventually clamber out of his fortress of blankets. He looked a little put out at being woken up from his sleep (even more put out when he saw the state of the sky outside, still black and speckled with stars, like salt sprinkled on a tile of slate), scowling and muttering various threats and grievances to himself until he was stood at Thor’s side, trying to see what was so interesting about the window outside that the demi-god was currently staring at.

It wasn’t much, out there. If he was being totally honest with himself, Thor was beginning to find it a little difficult staying positive throughout all this. The storm still raged, the cold still bit, and his eye hadn’t quite managed to rid itself from the phantom sting of Hela’s sword. But, that wasn’t exactly new. Not to him, at least.

He hadn’t quite had the heart to tell Bruce or the medics about it, because what would be the point? His eye was gone. That was that. No amount of healing magic could knit the flesh back together, could banish the blind spot from the right side of his vision. It was over and done with. If it stung, it stung - and that was all there was to it.

Still, it was a little concerning that the ache hadn’t dissipated yet. That in itself was part of the reason why he was so anxious to get back to the ship. That, and freezing to death after his homeworld had just been set on fire was a little too ironic of a way to go out for his taste. 

“Okay, Hulk up. Now what?” Hulk stifled a yawn with the back of his hand, nudging Thor out of his momentary stupor with one large shoulder in a gesture that felt just north of being clouted by a bag of bricks. 

“Well, we can’t really stay here. Look at it out there - it isn’t safe.” Thor’s hands moved to cling to his arms, sighing softly as he watched the storm. 

His element. The thing he was supposed to control, to harness, to cast upon enemies and to bend to his will. He watched it rage outside of the window, and tentatively pressed a hand against the glass, feeling for the familiar bite of his fingertips that meant that it was listening. 

It wasn’t. 

“Look - regardless of who has the most strength between us, we can both agree that we’re the strongest avengers, correct?”

Hulk tilted his head, blinking as he thought over the question thoroughly. 

“Both strong…” He nodded, pausing briefly as his face broke into a toothy smile. “But Hulk stronger.”

“Oh yes, incredibly strong. Look at you, up by dawn and everything.” Thor rolled his eyes, but his traitorous face couldn’t really help but twitch up in a grin at Hulk’s enthusiasm. 

“Regardless of who’s actually the strongest, we’re both pretty strong. Strong enough to lift this thing, given the right positioning.”

“Why lift it? Ship fine.”

And to prove it, Hulk took what was clearly the most reasonable course of action and pounded his fist against the metal, the loud bang that followed forcing his shoulders up in a tight flinch. 

"Hey- hey! Careful!" 

Thor's hand shot out, tugging Hulk back away from the sides of the ship with an exasperated sigh. 

"Look, you may be able to survive a fall from this height, but I can't. So we need to lift the ship." 

"Pff. Like to see Blondie try."

"Oh, don't you worry, my big green friend." Thor chuckled, albeit a little emptily as he eyed the brewing storm in front of them. 

"I have a plan." 

***

With each gust of wind sending a thousand icey needles into his skin, and the daunting chasm that he’d very nearly taken a freestyle dive into just last night laying before his feet, it was understandable that Thor wasn’t quite as confident about this plan as he had been.

Explaining it to Hulk, he’d sounded perfectly reasonable. 

It’ll be fine, Hulk. I’ll just hop on up to the cliffside and wait until a lightning bolt hits the ship, and then I’ll grab it defying all laws of physics, and things will be absolutely a-ok. 

He’d even given him a thumbs up, he’d been so confident. But now, as he stared at the dark storm clouds brewing in the distance, he couldn’t help but feel he’d been a tad overzealous with his description. Especially considering his powers hadn’t been all that obedient lately. 

Without mjolnir, the storm just didn’t seem to listen to him. Or at least, not in the way it had. 

Before, it had been controlled - a perfectly tameable beast, that would be summoned by a wave of his hammer and that would be that. But now, it seemed to have shifted into something else. Something that, although he’d never admit it, Thor was a little afraid of. It reminded him too much of his nights as a child, laying wide awake and listening to the storms echoing above his chambers, wondering which bolt would be the one to ignite the golden tower and set his home ablaze. 

When he’d summoned the storm to fight Hela, there had been a sickening feeling in his stomach afterwards that maybe it wouldn’t let him go. Maybe the lightning would keep firing, arcs of burning light continuing to light his veins until they drained dry entirely. 

Maybe this gift would be the death of him. 

If it was ever a gift in the first place, and not just another destiny that had been piled on top of him, another weight stacked onto his back that he was expected to hold, another burden he was supposed to carry with his head held high and a golden smile plastered across his face. 

“Ok, Hulk ready.”

Hulk’s voice crackled from the radio strapped to his arm, the loud volume a sharp but not entirely unwelcome break from his thoughts. 

“Alright. Let’s go over the plan one more time, because I do not want to risk electrocuting you.” 

He could almost hear Hulk’s frustrated scowl from the other side of the phone, but he seemed to be keeping his promise not to smash the one radio set they’d been able to find, and soon Hulk’s voice came again after a loud burst of static. 

“Hulk punch ship, get it to move. Lightning hit ship, Thor grab. Thor pull. Hulk jump up after Blondie let go,” 

Hulk’s voice wavered for a moment, and a particularly nasty part of Thor’s imagination decided to supply him with the vision of Hulk, alone on a rocky outcrop, staring up at the shelter he’d been dragged out of, putting his faith in a plan he didn’t know would succeed. 

“Right?”

“Right.”

Thor confirmed, feeling a familiar bite at his fingertips that meant something was coming.

The storm above him curled, like some kind of giant serpent, lightning flashing like the forked tongue of Jormungandr, and he knew it was time. 

“You’re going to be fine, Hulk. This will work. I have complete faith in you.” 

He rolled back his shoulders, taking a few steps back from the clifftop, and considered letting out a careful and controlled breath before realising that wasn’t what they needed. 

Like it or not, the storm didn’t respond to calm. His power wasn’t tied to his happiness, it didn’t conjure itself when he was feeling calm, or content, or held - the rare times those feelings happened. 

The storm wanted anger. It wanted frustration. It wanted to leech the power and pain of his fathers death, his mothers, the burning wreckage of Asgard that still burned behind his empty eye socket. 

It didn’t want Thor. It wanted a God - vengeful, and wrathful. 

Thor opened his fist, and the skies split apart. 

•••

Things happened in quick succession after that. The ship moved with the sound of Hulk’s roar as green collided with metal, and for a few moments it lay suspended in air, like a puppet just after it’s strings have been slashed. 

The first few bolts of lightning missed their mark entirely, carving patterns into the stone walls, sending rocks scattering into the ravine below. But the next one struck true, and so, Thor did the only thing any perfectly reasonable Asgardian would do. 

He grabbed it.

For a few sickening moments, it wavered. The lightning flickered and struggled in his hand, trying to rip out of his grasp and return to the storm it was summoned from. 

“Don’t you dare.” Thor hissed through gritted teeth, as the weight of the ship pulled on his makeshift rope, dragging him a few uncertain steps forward towards the ravine. 

But, thanks to some miracle, it held. He took a few shaking steps backward, and the groan of metal responded - the ship was moving.

It was moving. It was working. Thor felt the beginnings of a smile begin to cross his face as he continued his journey backwards.

Sure, his hands were hurting, and every inch of his body was screaming at him to let go, you idiot, this is a whole spaceship you’re trying to pull with a rope made of lightning, but he was fine. He was going to make it. 

They were going to make it. 

Hulk’s triumphant roar reached his ears, and the ground shook slightly as the giant landed next to him. 

He watched avidly, green eyes stretched wide, but Hulk knew better than to help. Thor had warned him, in no uncertain terms, that this was dangerous. That Thor didn’t want to hurt Hulk, truly, that was the last thing he wanted in all of the nine realms - but he might. 

Hulk couldn’t help him. As much as it looked like he needed it, this was for Thor, and Thor alone. 

The wingspan of the ship appeared above the edge of the cliff, and Hulk’s roar only grew that much louder. 

“Ship! Puny God lift the ship!” 

He saw Hulk’s face break into a grin, lighting up the rest of his face as if he was able to conjure lightning himself. 

The burning feeling was getting worse, a steady pressure building behind his eyes, but Thor knew by now to ignore it. They were this close, he couldn’t falter now. Not even if yellow spots were beginning to dance across his vision, or if he felt a slow trickle of something hideously warm begin to drip down from his nose. Not even if Hulk’s grin fell, and he looked at him differently, with concern. With worry. 

He couldn’t stop. No matter if that was what Hulk was yelling at him to do. 

His foot hit something. A rock, a vine, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was. But it was enough. 

Enough of a distraction that the lightning took the one chance for freedom it had, and shot out of his hands, chasing a burning course through the rest of his body. People had described his veins being alight with the storm before, but he hadn’t realised quite how painful that sounded until he was bearing the full force of it himself. 

A sharp gasp escaped him as the lightning fell, and the ship teetered dangerously on the edge of the clifface. 

But, someone was there to help. 

A few ground-shaking footsteps passed where he was knelt on the floor, a flash of green darting towards the ship. Emerald hands grabbed hold, forest-green legs remained sturdy and strong, leaf coloured eyes narrowing in concentration as Hulk held up the ship. 

The bundle of metal and wingspan was thrown crudely to one side once it reached safety, and soon Thor felt the hot puffs of breath against his neck that meant Hulk was standing over him, a little too closely for his liking. 

“Easy, easy.” 

Large hands lay across his back, holding him upright, thick muscles barely making a twitch whenever a stray spark would pass their way. 

“Blondie ok. Storm over now,” Hulk furrowed his brows for a further piece of advice, his voice turning gentle and soft. 

“Breathe.” 

“I am breathing.” 

“Breathe better.” 

Thor really wanted to scowl. Truly, he did. There was nothing more he wanted than to get to his feet, throw Hulk’s hands off of him, and insist firmly but kindly that everything was absolutely fine, thank you. This sort of thing happens all the time, actually, and I’m great at summoning storms, this is just an off day for me. Won’t happen again.

But he didn’t know that. And Hulk’s hands felt nice, they always did. They’d felt nice, cradling him the night before, under soft words of stories and the stars of the night sky. And they felt nice now, a little cold perhaps, and he could feel the grooves in the skin from where the weight of the ship had landed, but they were firm. Stable. A grounding force, an insulating cable, a tether that told him how to breathe and be. 

Quite unexpectedly, it didn’t matter if it was humiliating anymore. If it was kingly, or stoic, or right. Thor had just lost control of a storm, his body hurt, and he was tired. 

Slowly, he allowed himself to tip over in the direction of Hulk’s hands, resting his cheek against the comforting solidness of Hulk’s leg. 

He allowed himself a glance upward, trying to reassure Hulk’s worried gaze with a battered smile, and a gentle pat to the arm that was currently still curled around his side. 

“You’re getting really good at this whole ‘saving us’ thing, y’know that?” 

“Well...Hulk make pinkie promise.” He bent down a little further, relinquishing his hold just for a moment to nudge the underside of Thor’s chin with his pinkie. 

“Can’t break those.”

“No.” Thor chuckled, trying to ignore the aching protest of his ribs as he did so. 

“Can’t break those.” 

[askcallie]

This scene really struck me, and ever since I saw the movie I’ve been trying to figure out why.

And now that I’ve had a while to think on it, I believe I know.

Here we have Wanda:

Wanda, who has just shown herself to be incredibly, dangerously powerful, to the point that she not only destroyed an infinity stone single-handed (a feat that was supposed to be impossible) but also managed to hold off Thanos and his entire array of infinity stones at the same time.

Wanda, who has just been forced to watch yet another person she deeply loves get slaughtered in front of her - this time by her own hand, for the sake of the universe - and who has at this point simply given up on her will to live.

And then we have Thanos:

Thanos, who has just seen firsthand the power of someone who could potentially take him out (and, if it weren’t for the time stone, would have succeeded) whether he holds five infinity stones or not.

Thanos, who has just watched her make the ultimate sacrifice to keep him from succeeding, and in doing so has proven to him that she will do anything to stop him.

Thanos, who has just had what was supposed to be an easy victory suddenly snatched from his hands by the exhausted girl on the ground in front of him - a girl who is a fraction of his size and laughably weaker than him physically. (He was throwing Cap and Thor and Hulk around like they were nothing.)

And right now, they’re the only two left standing.

Wanda just waits there, lying in the dirt, for him to kill her.

She doesn’t fight, or shield herself, or try to run when Thanos starts walking toward her. She has nobody to step in and save her, because everyone else is trapped or unconscious.

Wanda doesn’t even try to get up.

She doesn’t want to live anymore. She has nothing to live for.

She wants to die, and at this point is more than willing to let Thanos be the one to strike that blow.

Even when he physically puts his hand on her head, all she does is flinch.

Thanos, on the other hand, is unscathed.

He’s standing - towering - over the one person who poses an actual, legitimate threat to him. She’s down for the count, hurt and exhausted and with no will to live, waiting for him to finish the fight.

He’s got her at her absolute most vulnerable, and probably the most vulnerable he will EVER have her - this chance isn’t going to come again.

But he doesn’t kill her.

He reaches down, gently strokes her hair, and walks past her to finish what he came here to do.

Even when he brings Vision back and she stands to fight him once more, he still doesn’t kill her.

He strikes her away, and does so gently enough that she manages to recover and crawl over to Vision’s side before she’s taken by the stone.

Given every opportunity and every reason to end her, he doesn’t do it.

Why?

Now it could be argued that Thanos figured there was no point in wasting the effort because he was going to wipe half of all life from the universe as soon as he got the last stone anyway, but as it was mentioned earlier in the film - the selection of who died would be random.

The stone would not pick and choose - it would take rich and poor, passionate and dispassionate, strong and weak, etc. - completely at random.

There was no guarantee that Wanda would be among those that were taken.

So knowing that she is a legitimate threat to him, and that there’s a 50/50 shot of her surviving that final finger snap...

Why would he let her live?

The second thing that strikes me is how gentle he is.

We’ve seen him order half of a world’s population slaughtered for the sake of his goal.

We’ve seen him torture multiple characters without batting an eye.

We’ve seen him crush skulls and snap necks with his bare hands.

But we’ve also seen this.

And this.

And again, the clip with Wanda.

Thanos has instances where he is incredibly gentle.

And it’s honestly a bit unsettling to watch.

He’s so convinced of the true morality of his own objective - so blinded by the end goal - that the means to reach it no longer matter.

Thanos believes himself to be good and kind, and that he is simply making the tough call that nobody else was strong enough to make for the good of the universe in centuries to come.

He’s culling the herd so the rest don’t starve.

Now I’ve seen the comparison made a few times to seeing pictures of Hitler playing with children (and I’ll admit that’s what came to mind for me as well) - it’s disturbing because we don’t want to humanize someone who has committed genocide, and sympathizing is exactly what our brain tries to do when we see someone being gentle and kind to another creature.

We see Thanos not only being kind to a young Gamora, but being surprisingly good at it, and our brains sort of short circuit for a second because we think that he’s not supposed to be CAPABLE of that.

And yet somehow, to an extent, he is.

Hell, even when he’s about to kill half the universe, he doesn’t cause death wantonly.

He traps Bruce in the cliff, but lets him live.

He catches T’Challa by his throat and punches him into the ground but doesn’t break his neck. 

He shorts out Sam’s wings to drop him out of the sky but doesn’t finish him off.

He destroys the suit around Rhody, but doesn’t crush him.

He throws Bucky aside but doesn’t kill him.

He tosses Okoye aside but doesn’t kill her.

He pins Natasha with a bunch of rocks, but doesn’t crush her.

He rips Groot’s vines away but doesn’t go after him.

He punches Steve out, but doesn’t continue once he’s down.

Hell, when Thanos goes after Wanda his gauntlet lights up blue with the teleportation power of the tesseract. He’s planning to move her - not fight her.

And even when that fails, he doesn’t grant Wanda’s silent wish for death.

He lets her live.

Thanos is not crazed, or high off his own power, or running on blood lust - he’s doing what he thinks is truly the right thing, and going about accomplishing it in a cold and calculated manner. When he’s not trying to accomplish his goal, he acts in a way that might even be described as good.

I believe that Thanos is truly Lawful Evil.

And that’s what makes him so scary.

[sorrythatwasmean]

Endgame Spoilers//Is Professor Hulk Out of Character (OOC) or is it his Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID) that makes it seem that way?

Professor Hulk has Bruce’s heart and compassion and brains and Hulk’s strength,power, and invulnerability. Bruce has achieved balance if we take that at face value. It’s jarring to go from normal,skeptical, questioning Bruce in the first 20 minutes ready in his Hulkbuster suit to mess Thanos up on an alien farm to time-skipped calmer, happier Professor Hulk.   We only see the end result.We don’t get to see what happened.It’s surprising and it doesn’t feel right.

But I think it’s more complex than they wrote Bruce out of character. I believe Professor Hulk is either the merging of Bruce and Hulk identities or a completely new one. Both are potential ways Bruce’s mind reacted to trauma or healing. Or both. And both are potential ways to resolve Bruce’s character arc.

Hulk can’t deal with the complexities a dusted universe would involve. Bruce would be devastated.The movies focused on Thor, Tony, and Steve’s guilt. But Hulk and Bruce experienced the slaughter of the Asgardians and swung the first punches. And in Infinity War, Bruce was gunning for Thanos as soon as he showed up in Wakanda only to be melded into a mountain. The last we see of Bruce he’s free of the mountain, but Steve is letting people dust filter through his hands.

All of that is traumatic. With Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), new alters or, if we use the term Bruce uses, “other guys” can form or existing other guys can merge in reaction to trauma. Bruce constantly being Professor Hulk is how Bruce was trying to deal with ALL the problems in a Post-Decimation world. He couldn’t help people if they saw him as a threat. He couldn’t help the most in battles if Hulk didn’t let him transform. Professor Hulk can do both. He even says he feels like he was made to right the Decimation. Professor Hulk was born out of Bruce’s mind specifically to be an avenger.

Professor Hulk means we have a positive media representation of a hero with DID. And in this case, he is not dangerous to people or anti-social like Caitlyn Snow’s Killer Frost or Eddie Brock and Venom. I even think Professor Hulk can be a next step on Bruce’s path. Why? Professor Hulk existence marries multiple themes from Bruce’s journey.

In Age of Ultron, there are multiple uses of the word ‘monster’ which is how Bruce saw himself at the beginning of his journey. I could write another separate piece on that, but I’m thinking of two in particular.Natasha uses the word monster in reference to herself to show Bruce she accepted all of him. She trusts him.

And when trying to convince Bruce to create Vision, Tony said, “We’re mad scientists. We’re monsters, buddy. We’ve gotta own it. Make a stand.” Tony meant they needed to embrace who they were in order to fix their mistakes and save the world. In Thor: Ragnarok, Bruce rejected the notion of ever being the Hulk again. Thor was a friend to both Bruce and Hulk and helped him rise above his fears and be a hero again. Bruce needed to trust himself, embrace all of who he is, and work through his fear in order to create Professor Hulk.

I think the screenwriters intended to portray integrating/merging Bruce and Hulk identities to resolve Bruce’s arc.Hulk and Bruce co-existing means he accepts himself. They agree to share their complementary strengths to be a better balanced whole.Bruce is happier and takes selfies with children. He’s “cured.”

I embrace Bruce finding self-acceptance. What I reject is the notion that constantly being Professor Hulk is the solution.I don’t need him “cured” of having DID. I need him cured of self-loathing and depression and this idea that he is a monster. But execution is flawed and if it seems rushed it’s because we had six different character arcs and the overall MCU arc to resolve. We skipped seeing how Bruce reached this point.And Professor Hulk seems out of character because his character is happy and we didn’t see what lead up to that. Does this means the writers dropped the ball,then? Maybe not.

 Here’s the thing, I don’t think Bruce is happy in the five year gap. @from-andrea suggested that five of the original six Avengers represent the five stages of grief. Steve’s line, “Other people move on, but not us.” means he represents denial. Vigilante Clint murdering cartel and Yakuza represents anger. Natasha continuing the fight and coordinating Avengers and doing her best is bargaining with the universe to help them.Tony moving on from avenging and creating a family represents acceptance. And Thor as a physical and emotional mess is meant to represent depression. I suggested the sixth original Avenger, Bruce, was suppose to represent a combination of all of the stages.

He is accepting people are gone and trying to move forward with his own life by dealing with his own issues. And working on saving the universe they have currently. He’s bargaining because hey, what if I do my best and act happy and use my strength and my brains and am grateful,will the universe give us a way to undo this? He’s in denial about the finality of the snap.He is on board for trying to fix the mess even if Quantum Physics isn’t his area. He’s also in denial about his own condition. He’s putting on a happy face and trying to deny he is still depressed. Hulk was always a physical representation of his distress and anger. If Bruce is okay, why is he still a Hulk? If he is always Professor Hulk, is he still always angry?  Hulk saved Bruce when he “got low” all those years ago.

It’s a small moment in Endgame, but he does mention what happened with him: “First Hulk lost,then Banner lost, then we all lost.” Natasha replies, “No one blames you, Bruce.”

And Bruce says, “I did.”

And Natasha frowns and looks down.Steve and Natasha don’t seemed thrilled about the situation.If Bruce was right as rain, then Natasha and Steve would’ve been happy. He’s taking selfies and joking with kids. He’s happy, right? They’re not. Are they concerned about him? Is Bruce protecting himself from himself?Even if it isn’t that,Professor Hulk’s form visually distances himself from other people. Valkyrie even comments on her discomfort with it. Constantly hulking out means Bruce is never physically vulnerable.He’s always in battle-mode. He’s just hiding it better because he can be there for them emotionally. But he’s denying that he’s still affected by saying  Professor Hulk is a  “cure.”

So if the writer’s intention of integration isn’t the answer to resolving Bruce’s arc. What is? I prefer this option: Professor Hulk is a new alter or other guy. Why? Because it leaves it open for Bruce to accept himself and all his selves.

And if Professor Hulk is a completely new other guy, it explains why he seems so different. I’m not saying he isn’t Bruce.They’re all part of the same person. I’m saying he’s a separate other guy created to cope with trauma. If it seems like he isn’t as burdened as Bruce, it’s because he’s not that Bruce. If he’s smarter than Hulk, it’s because he isn’t old Hulk. He’s new. He’s not nervous. He’s confident. He’s joking. And Bruce’s humor was usually darker.

In Age of Ultron:

Tony: You just roll over,show your belly every time somebody snarls? Bruce: Only when I’ve created a murder bot.

But Bruce can have a lighter sense of humor.He tried to fake a hulk out at the Avengers party in Age of Ultron and he failed because…it wasn’t funny and that was a terrible attempt.His awkward fake-smashing was a very Bruce moment in Endgame.Professor Hulk as a separate other guy means we’re not neglecting all the layers we saw to Bruce in the previous movies.

The writers were trying to solve a problem the comics have waffled and spent decades on. So yes, execution was imperfect. I don’t know for sure which they were going for but this is how it would work in my head.

So, Bruce will eventually have himself, original Hulk, and Professor Hulk. If it’s about accepting himself then for me that includes his DID and having a functioning DID system.It’s not about control or never having the other guys come out. It’s about living the best life and accepting they all have to work together. Many people with DID won’t merge/integrate their alters/headmates. Saying merging and integrating is the only way to be happy would not be fair. And it would mean original Hulk and Bruce wouldn’t be around.I think it’s more hopeful for Bruce to achieve co-existence.

So, for my Endgame headcanon: Professor Hulk is merely part of his journey to self-acceptance.  Eventually, he doesn’t have to hide as Professor Hulk. He can be Bruce. He can be Hulk. Professor Hulk helps deals with situations that require both of their abilities or situations that are very public where they would be at risk if they were attacked during one. They all work together. That is what I would consider a satisfactory arc for Bruce Banner.

[lieutenant-pride]

i was just thinking about that rant i made about avengers infinity war and how i saw avengers endgame a little while ago, well after it got out of theaters because i wasn’t truly willing to give marvel money for that, and now i just wanna go off the hook about the movie because i can  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i’m not even putting it in a read-more for spoiler purposes so much as putting it in a read-more because it might end up being long, but there are spoilers ahead anyway so for those five people who haven’t seen endgame and do care, be wary

funny thing is, i actually didn’t hate this like i expected to when i heard that time travel was one of its core constructs, but you know what i still don’t think it was worth the hype altogether and here is why

perhaps to make up for the fact that they didn’t kill any of the OG avengers, or for the fact that they probably didn’t need to exist in the first place, the snap apparently killed literally every single member of Hawkeye’s family that is not Clint himself. i guess we need an excuse for him to turn into Ronin, so let’s make his family expendable, why not

this film does us the discourtesy of confirming shuri’s fate as one of the fallen from last movie and the russos will pay dearly for this

the idea of destroying the stones with their own power was already proven a thing in the last movie when wanda did just that with the mind stone (while holding off five other infinity stones and a titan worth of power with one of her hands, by the way) but given the massive shockwave that occurred from THAT stone’s destruction? are you really willing to tell me he snapped again, had half his body disintegrate, and then the glove with all six stones just puffed into smoke?

actually how cool would that have been? that they arrive on the garden planet of whatever and thanos is just a fucking toasty corpse in a crater, and they realize what he had to do for that to happen? now i feel a little cheated

man, i knew from square one when i saw the first few trailers for this film that okoye was gonna get sidelined HARD, and she had maybe one or two spoken lines in the whole film? i get it, there are a lot of characters to go over in this big epic conclusion to the MCU’s biggest property/ies, but they definitely could’ve given the black panther cast a bit more love than this. i think i’m just salty over that bit though

did ronin kill in the comics? was that a thing he did? was he basically clint barton going jason todd for a little while, was that what it was? because please point me in the direction of those books if so

i really, really can’t argue much about the pym particle bits and the quantum realm (was that the one?) because time travel is a lot like nuclear physics when it comes to movies and comics and just works however the writer needs it to work in that situation, whether that refers to the means or the ends. i am glad however that antman gets this much attention as if he’s a legit member of the avengers. you know. like how he was one of the og members in the comics.

you know what i can argue about? how they try to sell their first attempt at time travel anWAIT JUST A MINUTE I FORGOT ABOUT BIG BANNER WHAT IS THIS HOW DID HE EVEN MANAGE THAT SHIT

i guess he had like five years to study and figure out how to make himself hulk on the outside without sacrificing the banner brains, but i’m very curious as to what the purpose is in doing that, since he was having more issues releasing hulk during the previous film and also the fact that he really had zero reason to fuse the two together. like, what threats was banner gonna face? what evildoers did he need hulk work for? if he needed some muscle of his own he could’ve just worked out????

you can also say that was bruce’s character arc during the first film actually, which is fine, but i’d like to note that if it is, then his character arc is resolved completely off-screen

listen, i get it. tony and pepper are a thing that had to happen, according to literally every film before this. i still think pepper deserves better or at least someone who doesn’t cause her as much stress as tony has caused for her. i mean i guess if that boy brings in the money though, do what you gotta  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

we get one scene of ronin at work and i kind of love it? i kinda wish we got to see more of his work, but i get why we don’t. this is like, the best thing that clint has to offer in this film

oh right i almost forgot, that first attempt at time travel with scott “having time moved through him.” cute gag, but this definitely doesn’t fly with scott’s first mingling with time travel and the quantum realm or whatever, and if we’re to assume they mostly repeated what they did during the post-credits scene of antman and the wasp, then why did this even have a risk of happening????

that was a cute gag though, mainly because paul rudd is a treasure

and since i’m discussing the time travel bits: the time travel in this movie is handled fairly well, and it introduces the prospect of timelines diverging rather than just having one singular strand of time flow! great! cool! but this has some bumps here and there in the film for the sake of drama, and this is the first instance:

clint travelling back to see his family for just a split moment of time. this is a moment that toys with rules constructed later, though i think that is a mixed bag and maybe i missed this detail. in every instance after this one, when the cast wants to return to a specific time in the future (their actual timeline and present) they sync up their time gps thing, but in this case? clint has no chance to do that. we don’t cut out a single second of his trip in the past, and i don’t recall him even looking at the time gps ONCE, and yet he can be forcibly pulled back to the present???

this is actually one of the only faults i can think of in the time travel, and they probably actually set that gps ahead of time, so whatever, maybe they actually handled time travel well here???

some o y’all people out here had the audacity to tell me that tony stark was the one who called steve roger’s ass “america’s ass” when it was in fact scott lang, and tony in fact called to question steve’s ass in that scene, and it is YOU i will not forgive for this heinous error

tony actually did nothing wrong in attaining the tesseract; he just got his head smacked in by a surprise hulk coming out of the stairwell

actually this made me remember a thing: couldn’t they have sent someone to grab the tesseract in asgard in case something went wrong in new york? they were right about picking the right year and time to get three infinity stones in new york, but they also managed to pick the right year and time to get two stones in asgard, so why not snatch that up as a failsafe?

thor really fucked over an alternate timeline by grabbing mjolnir from them, huh. cap couldn’t return that shit, after all; they need mjolnir for when we finally get the Mighty Thor. like, good moments between him and his mom, and that whole “i’m still worthy” thing was great, but are we gonna talk about the timeline that got fucked over for that???

so did they not discuss WHY they needed two people going to vormir ahead of time, or what? did nebula not tell them? she totally did, right? like did she not mention WHY gamora didn’t come back with thanos after he got the soul stone? why are they surprised when the mention of a sacrifice comes into play???

apparently only women die in vormir, and usually to advance the character arcs of men. i dunno i wouldn’t be too sore about this hawkeye sacrificing himself

i’ll be honest i don’t care MUCH about black widow but like let’s be real how much was hawkeye giving to the narrative???

also apparently they can’t do anything about getting nat back, which is inherently bullshit by the fact that gamora still exists in the past and you could very easily bring a nat from another timeline without fucking up yours. it’s fine; you had no problem doing that with mjolnir

how did they shrink the entire warship thanos was on exactly, and how long did they take to get that tech right???

what exactly is thanos’ weirdass boomerang blade made of that it can shred a vibranium shield?

anyway so they pay homage to every hero from the past twenty-odd films real quick, and they make the right choice in putting the black panther crew first, but i can’t help but think about how this is all just fanservice

wanda comes in to remind us that thanos ain’t shit without the infinity stones and NEARLY KILLS HIM ON HER OWN so someone explain to me why she doesn’t AFTER she gets back up???? like, can we assume killing thanos would put an end to most of this fight and send the rest of his forces running?

i already mentioned the fanservice level that came with the heroes entering on the scene, right? let’s not forget that the shot of all (minus one) the marvel women coming together is also mostly fanservice with no real meaning and it could’ve been cut from the movie and the narrative would not be too heavily adjusted, just as a reminder that marvel isn’t really treating the women of their properties well on film

thanos got real fucked up after two snaps and banner got fucked up after one snap, and you’re seriously telling me tony - a regular ass human being - lasted long enough to snap at all???

seeing peter and ned reunite with one another (i guess they both got snapped if they’re both still high school students ACTUALLY DID PETER’S WHOLE SCHOOL GET SNAPPED OR WHAT HAPPENED????)

okay but actually, the peter and ned reuniting scene got me much harder than any amount of tony’s death and funeral

seeing the wakanda crew serving up looks during tony’s funeral just reminds me that okoye got maybe two lines in the whole film, t’challa got Maybe One, and shuri got shafted for lines, and that makes me sad

i think Old Cap reuniting with sam on the bench is great and all, and a real good closing to steve’s character, however i have some questions to ask about it, namely how steve ended up in the same timeline after we made ABUNDANTLY CLEAR we were playing by diverging timeline rules, unless what you’re trying to tell me is that there was an Old Steve that just existed in our timeline the whole time and the fact that we never focused on Peggy significantly enough allowed yall to sneak that in

i also have to ask how in god’s name y’all didn’t take note of the man sitting at the bench out by the lake where you were performing your time jumping shenanigans?????

but yeah overall not actually a bad conclusion. tony’s dead, so that’s a plus. we won’t get any more of america’s ass in these films, which is a minus, but it could be worse