#<- what is the issue here. why are they fighting. what did martin do.

[plumbogs]

heather is fun and full of whimsy :)

Martin wanted to invite someone over and this dormie was the only one without a job in the way. As soon as he arrived, Martin had to work, so heather had some fun influencing him to put soap in the fountain. She also wanted to invite over someone, and she and Alex Goth were like 2 points away from best friends. They became friends while Martin was away.

Apparently they had an existing slight dislike of each other, because as soon as Martin got home it was on sight.

it was like this for hours. alex just stood there waiting for him to stop crying so he could start shoving him around again. he's so mean for no reason idk what martin ever did to him. martin didn't even homewreck this one what is the problem...

[cheeeeseburger]

I'm an Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso x Reader

Masterlist

A/N: English is not my first language, apologies for the mistakes. Enjoy!

Even at 25, crossing the street was scary. People were driving so damn fast these days. Most drivers didn’t stop to let go you anyway. You were getting impatient, waiting on the corner in your short dress, all dolled up for a fancy dinner. You had gotten a few wolf-whistles already, and a car even honked.

Finally, a very expensive looking car stopped for you. As you were walking, you looked to your left to wave to the nice driver as a thank you. You nearly stopped dead in your track. The driver was a fine ass man. He was handsome and he looked a lot older than you, which clearly shouldn’t have that much of an effect on you. He lowered his gaze to get a good look at you, and he gave you an appreciative nod. Maybe your had pre-drink a little too hard, because you blew him a kiss as you finally crossed the street. You smiled to yourself as you entered the restaurant. This small interaction definitely put you in a good mood.

This dinner was starting to get more and more fun. People were now leaving to go to the dancefloor, and you made your way to the bar to get a drink, just to let loose a little. You accidentally bumped into a wall, which was actually a very sturdy man.

“Oh, excuse me sir!” The man turned around. Holy shit. It was the attractive man for earlier, at the crosswalk.

“Don’t apologize, princesa.” He looked so much hotter now that he was close to you. He had to be at least 15 years older than you, which was a nice bonus.

“It’s you!” was all you managed to reply. He smiled at you. The driver from earlier had an attractive face, and his suit made him look dashing.

“It’s me? Were you expecting me?” He flashed a cocky grin. This man was handsome, and he knew it. You blushed.

“You’re the guy who let me cross the street earlier! Thank you so much for being a gentleman.” You batted your eyelashes, going full-on flirty. This man was way too fine for you to resist the temptation.

He leaned in to whisper in your ear. “I only stop for pretty girls, princesa. But when they get to close, I stop being a gentleman.” You shivered. Goddamn. This was a thousand times better than your ex’s poor attempt at foreplay.

You managed to keep your cool, even though you were starting to get hot all over. “It’s okay, gentlemen are overrated anyway.” You put your hand on his arm. He stared at your eyes for a few seconds, clearly in a fight with himself.

“How kind of you to entertain an old man like me, princesa. Let me buy you a drink as a thank you.” His words made your heart drop in your chest. Did he really think you weren’t attracted to him?

“I assure you, sir, that you’re the one doing me a favour. Being here with a man as attractive as you, talking and laughing is doing wonders for my ego.” It was you turn to whisper in his ear: “Talking with you is also great for my daddy issues. Imagine what sleeping together could do to me, huh? It would be better than therapy.” He flushed. Okay, was this a new version of yourself? Were you finally able to talk seductively to a man you found attractive and not make a fool of yourself, for once?

“Princesa, this is all very flattering, but you’re way too young for me.” You didn’t even know his name, but you were already falling for this man who clearly needed to take a good look at himself in the mirror.

“It’s funny, I think I’m perfect for you, actually.” He laughed at that, and you flashed him your best smile. A connection was definitely forming, because it seemed as if the world stopped. There was only you, him, and something else that was just starting to blossom.

“Why don’t I buy you a drink and I let you go after, huh?” Feeling bold, you put your hand on his cheek.

“Oh baby, you’re never going to want to let me go.” He chuckled and put his hand on the small of your back to lead you to the bar.

(He in fact never let you, and he even put a ring on it to make sure you stay. But you didn’t know that at the time.)

“Tell me, princesa, what’s your drink of choice?” Fernando asked you. People around you were staring at the pair you were forming. Was this guy famous or something?

“I like an Amaretto sour!” He ordered one as well as a whiskey for himself. He paid, and you kissed his cheek as a thank you, letting your lips linger to the corner of his mouth.

“Interesting choice, hermosa. You seem so sweet, not sour at all.” You took a sip of your cocktail, and his eyes did not leave your lips for a second. “Don’t worry, handsome. I can still be very sweet. I just need to balance that sweetness.” You winked at him. This time, it was your turn to stare as he drank his whiskey. He was throwing his head back a little, and it made your imagination run wild with fantasies. You wanted to lock your arms behind his strong neck, and maybe leave a few hickeys there, too.

He laughed. “I like you, princesa. It’s scary because I don’t know anything about you.” His gaze lingered on your body, trying to gather information on you. The only thing he knew for sure was that you were the most stunning woman he had ever seen. And also, the youngest woman he had flirted with in a long, long time.

You felt butterflies all over your stomach when he mentioned liking you. This man was doing something to you. You answered: “Don’t be scared, lover boy. I feel the same, and I don’t even know your name. And I need to know so I can scream it later, when you take me in your bed.” You let your hand run all over his arm.

He looked up at the ceiling and started praying quietly. “Dios mio, hermosa.” He seemed to have trouble breathing. “You were right, I don’t know how I’m going to let you go.”

“How about you start you start by telling me your name, huh?” You squeezed his hand in yours and you gave him a reassuring smile.

“Okay. My name is Fernando Alonso. What’s yours, princesa?” Even his name was sexy. Alonso? That rung a bell. Didn’t that Charli xcx song mention that name?

“Fernando. Fernando. Fernando,” you repeated, liking the way his name rolled of your tongue. Apparently, he liked it too, a little too much. His eyes were full of desire.

“Stop that. It sounds too good. Tell me yours.” His knuckles were white. It was fun to see how much power you had over this near stranger.

“I won’t tell you, Fernando, because I’m afraid you’ll stop calling me princesa. I happen to like the nickname very much, Fernando,” you replied, making sure to insist on every syllable in his name. He raised an eyebrow, and he grabbed your arm and held it tight.

“I see what you’re doing, little girl. But this isn’t a game anymore” He put his hand around your waist and pulled you close. “I understand now why you’re attracted to me. You need someone older, someone to guide you. I could help you with that.” You felt heat rise everywhere in your body, his dominant words and his touch making your toes curl in your high heels. You had never felt his lips on yours, yet you were craving them. This man was driving you crazy, and nothing not PG rated had happened… yet.

With difficulties, you replied: “Then do it, please. You can do anything you want to do to me.” It was like something switched in his brain. All the restraint he had left his body. Fernando grabbed your arm and lead you all the way to a darkened corner. You were immediately against the wall, and his lips crashed against yours. You didn’t care that this was in public, and that this man was getting stares everywhere he went. Right now, the attraction between you two was the only thing on your mind.

Your fingers were twirling his hair to get a better grip on him. He put your leg around his waist, and you arched your back against him. You felt a bulge against your thigh, and that sent heat to your core. Were you really busy making out in public with a hot older man? If this was a dream, it was a damn good one, and you didn’t want to wake up.

“I’m going to take care of you, princesa.” Your moans replaced words. “Such a good girl, responding to my touch.” You nodded, and he wiped the lipstick off your swollen lips. Your legs were already shaking. You unbuttoned the first few buttons of his dress shirt, then pulled him by the collar.

“Fernando, please. I need you so bad, that I don’t even care if you take me right here, right now.” You had never wanted anyone else so badly. There was something special between you two, because otherwise you would have never felt so strongly about someone you just met. You started to leave little love bites all over his neck and jaw, practically begging him to fuck you.

He grunted at your words. “I would love to have you in front of everyone, but I don’t like to share. But I can’t wait, either.” You shivered. You didn’t know you had a thing for exhibitionism. He started to palm your body, and it felt like your skin was on fire every time he touched it. Fernando bit the strap of your dress and pulled it aside with his teeth to suck on that spot.

Thinking was hard. Replying was even harder. “Then fuck me in your car, where it all started.” He stopped what he was doing to immediately lead you out of the room. “That’s a great idea, princesa. Such a smart girl. I’m going to be very good to you. Keep it up.” You practically glowed at his praise. You felt special, because everyone was looking at the famous driver escaping the party with a pretty girl on his arm. Your dishevel hair was a pretty good clue as to what you were doing.

“Are you famous or something?” you asked.

He walked faster. “Don’t worry about it, hermosa.” A secretive man. Umm. He grabbed his keys from the valet, not bothering to get him to bring up his car.

Fernando was practically running in the parking lot to get to his Aston Martin, and you were following him, laughing. It was a very romantic moment. Somehow, it felt natural, casual even. There was a familiarity with Fernando that you had never observed with anyone else before. Your little walk was sometimes interrupted by him stopping in his tracks to stun you with kisses.

Finally, you got to his car. “Oh god. This is it. This is where I first saw you, and where I first noticed you were hot as fuck.” He laughed and pushed you against the hood.

“Don’t worry, princesa. I noticed you too. I saw how beautiful you were. I’m glad that I stopped for you, but I’m also mad, because every other car had to stop, and they all had the time to admire you while you crossed the street. I want to keep you for myself.” Fernando kissed the spot on your shoulder where the strap had fallen.

“Are you this possessive of every woman you just met?” You felt like the siren statues on ship, except that you were on a very expensive car. Just like a mermaid, you had lured him. Just like a sailor, you were drunk, but it wasn’t the alcohol that made you lose all your senses, it was him.

He chuckled and his large hands grabbed your waist. “Just with beautiful ones.” A wave of jealousy suddenly hit you. Had he done this before?

Fernando moved his attention to your neck, on which he left a trail of kisses and hickeys all the way to your jawline. He really was a possessive man, marking you as his. You balanced yourself on the hood of the car because you weren’t sure if your legs would be able to hold you any longer.

“I hope I’m the most beautiful of them all, then.” It was your turn to get possessive, which was crazy because three hours ago, you had never seen the man in question. You wrapped one leg around his waist to pull him forward. You felt his bulge, but there was too much fabric between you two, and you desperately rubbed yourself on him to try and get some friction to ease the heat between your legs. Fernando held your chin in his hands and put his thumb on your lower lip, forcing you to look at him.

“Of course you are. No one compares to you, princesa.” Oh, his words were too good, and you started to suck on his thumb.

“You’re too nice. Let me get you a treat, in exchange. Give me your jacket.” Confused, Fernando took of his suit jacket and gave it to you. With the jacket in your hand, you switched sides so he was the one resting against the hood.

You felt the fabric between your thumbs and winced when you saw that it was high quality. “I hope it wasn’t too expensive, because it might be ruined after this.” You put the jacket on the ground, and you went down on your knees.

“Dios mio, hermosa. Are you really going to do this here, outside?” You looked up at him and smirked. “Are you shy? Afraid of moaning too loudly, of everybody hearing you screaming?” You palmed him over the fabric of his pants and unzipped them.

In response, he pulled your hair and brought your head closer to his bulge. “Careful. You asked for it.” He removed his dick from his pants, and you started to suck on it.

Goddamn. You had enough material to suck on for days. You used your hands for the base, and you took as much as you could in your mouth. Fernando gripped your hair to push you forward. He was right, you had asked for it. Tears were stinging your eyes, but you didn’t mind them at all. The only thing you were focused on were his words of praise.

“You’re doing so good, princesa.” You heard a car door closing somewhere in the parking lot. You gasped and stopped what you were doing. “Don’t worry about it, hermosa. Keep it up, you’re doing so well.” He tilted your head, and you continued sucking on his length, his praise only making you ache more to please him.

When he felt he was about to come, he pushed your head back, but you returned to your original position and swallowed every last drop, your hand going back and forth for good measure.

Still on your knees, you looked up at him and licked your lips: “Did I do good?” Fernando put his hand under your chin. “You were perfect, princesa.” He helped you get up, giving your ass a small slap when you bent to pick up his jacket. You really hoped there were no cameras in the parking lot, but you kind of wish there were at the same time. The thought of everyone seeing you sucking his dick made you feel something down there. It was the kind of video you would like to watch again and again.

“Now it’s my turn to give you something, sweet girl.” Fernando spun you so your back was once again against the hood of the Aston Martin. His lips were on yours in an instant, and his hands were busy palming up your whole body, giving special attention to your breasts. He pinched your hard nipples that were showing up underneath the fabric of your dress between two fingers. You were moaning so fucking loud; it was like you were paid to do it.

“Shhh, we don’t want to get caught,” Fernando said, placing one hand over your mouth. Your plea and your cries were muttered, but if they weren’t, the whole neighborhood would have heard you begging the hot Spaniard to please get inside of you. Even though this man was a near stranger, you two understood each other perfectly, it was like you were in synch. “Now, princesa. Do you want to do this right here, or inside the car?”

You didn’t hesitate for a second: “Here. I can’t wait. Please, please, please, Fernando. You have to get inside of me.” He grunted at your eagerness, then took both of your arms and raised them over your head to pin them on the hood, near the windshield. You were on display on the hood, a dessert for him to enjoy, a sweet treat for him to devour.

“You want this so badly, little girl. After what you did for me, it’s only fair that I give back to you.” Fernando went down to your jaw and left a trail of kisses all the way to your cleavage, where he pushed aside the fabric of your dress to give you hickeys in the valley between your breasts. You wished you were in front of a mirror to get a better view of him savouring you.

His hands were busy lifting the hem of your dress and drawing circles higher and higher each time on your thighs. When you felt his fingers through the thin fabric of your underwear, you let out a moan that was good enough for a porn movie. You were holding on to the hood for dear life when he put one finger inside of you, then two.

“Oh my god, Fernando, oh my god!” you nearly shouted, panting. You must have done something good recently because you had never experienced anything as good before.

“If you keep it up, princesa, the whole fucking parking lot will hear you. So be a good girl and keep quiet.” Anything for you, hot stranger.

“I just need to have your dick in me so bad. I saw how big it was, and I need you to fill me up.” He shut you up with a kissing frenzy that left your lips swollen and your mind fuzzy.

“Who am I to refuse anything to such an angel?” He parted your legs and removed your underwear, letting it fall on the ground. Somewhere in his pocket, he found a condom and rolled it on.

Just the tip was enough to make your eyes roll to the back of your head.

“Oh god. I don’t think it’s going to fit!” He laughed, but you heard him let out pained noises. You had just given him a massive ego boost. Slowly, inches by inches, he managed to make it fit.

You wanted to scream at each thrust, but he always kept you quiet with a kiss or his hand over your mouth. In the back of your mind, you were thinking about the huge risk you were taking, fucking a stranger in a public place and all, but all you could focus about was the way he felt inside of you. You were gripping hard on his shoulders and on the car to stay standing up, because your legs were oh so very weak.

“That’s it, take it all in, princesa. You’re so perfect, all put on display for me. Thank god I let you cross the street earlier.” He caressed your hair and whispered words of praise in your ear that you would think about every time you used your vibrator for at least the next 10 years.

You were about to give in to your orgasm. He had found the perfect pace for you. In fact, everything he did was perfect for you. It was sad to think you would never feel anything this good ever again.

When you came undone, your legs started to shake uncontrollably, and you slipped of the hood. Fernando held you in place as he did a few other sloppy thrusts as he was himself finishing.

You both stood there, panting, appreciating the beauty of what you just did.

"I think I know why you're famous. You must be a pornstar, because you sure fuck like one." He chuckled and his lips lightly brushed your bare shoulder. "Don't be silly, hermosa. I'm not in this business. But I do ride for a living." Ok, that just left you more confused. Fernando softly kissed you.

“Now, princesa, do you think you could give me your name?”

[littlecrittereli]

YOU CANT JUST POST A CHAPTER LIKE THIS AND JUST- ENDED IT LJKE THAT???? WHAT KIND OF CLIFHANGER IS THAT- I AM DYING- HOW AM I GONNA WAIT FOR A FULL WEEK UNTILL THE NEXT CHAPTER SHEJDJZKEJ-

Fr tho i loved this so much thank you and i can see why u liked it alot like when i tell u i imagined everything in great detail like it was the coolest movie ever in my head i freaking did like omg that was one of my favourite chapters in like all of au-

On a second note imma gonna drop my speculations here bcuz i fr wanna yap abt this cuz its just too good i gotta get it outta ny system lol do ignore it since its not imp

So since the 2 figures that talked/made eye contact w martin and aviva has a mask that resembles other wild cats they r working with big d over here im guessing they are either passed out/ been kidnapped by force (for martin in guessing he got drugged) it would be kinda ironic how the falcon that should be aware of everything beside him got drugged. now i think Dora's cousin took those too specifically is 1 aviva is the master mind he can get her(by force obv) to make those prototypes real for martin i think he took him outta revenge since our boy is who threw him out of a plane and he is prolly gonna torture him or hold him hostage untill chris has no more fight than him and finally surrenders or just a cruel joke as chris already has no regard for his life so he took what made him still believe theres hope still just to let him know whos in control bcus this guy has no mercy at all or maybe jimmy comes up clutch and either get chris not to fall somehow or find where aviva and martin are.

AHHHH IM SO GLAD!!!! I HAVE BEEN LOSING MY MIND OVER CHAPTER 7 FOR LIKE 4 WEEKS NOW......and im so glad i finally get to share it beCAUSE SO MUCH CHANGES FOR THE PLOT AND I FINALLY GET TO TALK ABOUT IT HEHEHE Also yes the irony of Martin and his falcon suit... Though I've been hinting since the summary of the fic, (actually long before that, since the beginning of Reprogrammed) but really emphasizing it in Decoded, that Martin has some issues when it comes to taking care of himself. While Chris' complete lack of self preservation is a recent development, Martin's has been taking root since childhood and as such isn't as noticeable. He's the oldest sibling, he's the team leader, he prioritizes others above himself because it's all he's ever known. And while there's nothing inherently wrong with that, he takes it to the extreme and becomes neglectful of himself.

And with Chris needing more support than usual, Martin's self-neglect is becoming more apparent...

I would also like to take this moment to point out ahem... Martin never broke his promise.

Martin squeezed his shoulder before letting go. “He won’t be taking you anywhere, I promise.”  Chris took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before fixing the green gazelle mask over his face. “I trust you.” 

-Decoded Chapter 6

[cult-of-the-eye]

Jon angst!! He gets a therapist. It makes him worse.

tw: grief, unhealthy coping mechanisms, scars

“So how have you been?”

The question is a completely anticipated one. Jon enjoys the structure of the sessions. The chairs are always facing each other and slightly uncomfortable, the sun is streaming through the window overlooking the car park and she always asks Jon how he’s been. And he always provides the same answer. 

“Alright.”

“Yeah?”

His hands smooth over the scar on his thumb. Soothing circles over what was far from a comforting experience. 

“It’s been…difficult.”

“In what way?”

Many. He wants to say. Abruptness and off-putting behaviours are out of place at a therapist’s office. She’s trying to help you, Martin would coax him through his thoughts like a feral cat out of an alley. 

“I guess, I just-”

She nodded. It wasn’t tea and soft looks but it would have to do.

“I was in the supermarket and I thought I heard Tim’s voice. I left things…badly and it was completely my fault, but I…I don’t know. I just really believed it was him.”

“That must’ve been tough.”

Such a cliche, therapist thing to say. They can’t empathise so they just provide sympathetic looks and synonyms for difficult. Martin’s not exactly here to stop him from hating her in his mind. 

“What did you do?”

Jon took a second to remember. The whole scene felt like thinking through fog. Pulling his memories out of his brain with a pitchfork. How he felt stayed with him. It wasn’t too different to how he currently felt. 

“I…froze. It was like…it was like all the bones in my body were…calling out for something.”

“Yeah?”

“But I knew I couldn’t reach it, so I froze. I think, my body made the decision for me.” 

“It sounds like your fight or flight response kicked in. It’s a way, as you’ve put it so well, of your body taking care of you.”

His body had weathered damage after after. It bore scars of worse and better times and Jon could barely stand to look at it some days. See the way they curved around him, more gentle than any hand had in a while. It disgusted him. 

“Maybe.”

“You’re allowed to disagree with me, Jon. This is an open space. You can share how you feel with no repercussions.”

“It isn’t quite an open space when you don’t know anything about me.”

Martin would be so disappointed in him. But Martin wasn’t here. 

“Did I say something to upset you?”

Jon groaned in frustration. His hand ground into his thumb, in dizzyingly strong patterns. 

“You didn’t say anything to frustrate me. I just- I need to have something and I can’t get it back.”

“That makes sense, Jon. I understand your reaction.”

He nodded, curtly. A small jolt of the head. Barely passing for an acknowledgement. 

“What is it that you can’t have?”

Sasha. Tim. Martin.

“Sleep. No chronic pain. A good cup of tea.”

“Would that make you feel better?”

-

It was that question that played and replayed through his head. He walked to the tube, tossing it around in his head like one of those tennis balls that Tim always had. The effectiveness of this therapy couldn’t be discerned so soon, as Georgie was quick to remind him. But this was the first time something could be accused of sticking. 

The tube was packed. That’s why he got off early. Sensory issues had been playing up all day, he had felt it from the moment he woke up. Walking was clearly the best option, here. And if he stopped for a couple of minutes to catch his breath, who would blame him? His cane could immediately clear up any suspicion around that. The house in front of him hadn’t had people in it for 6 months and 11 days exactly. No one would even notice how scheduled these rest breaks had become. 

She was right. A good night’s sleep and some paracetamol wouldn’t make him feel better. 

Getting them back, however, would. 

[zooophagous]

“No. Absolutely not. Out of the question.”

Ursula set her mug of weak tea down a little harder on the table than she meant to, for emphasis. Along with an authoritative ‘thunk!’ it also left a split puddle on the cafeteria table. She snatched a napkin from the metal holder and furiously blotted it up.

“You already know that stepping out of the grounds at this moment is VERY stupid. Stepping out for the express purpose of finding a murder suspect to chat with? Doubly stupid. Exceedingly stupid. Stupid even for a vampire.” She huffed.

Artemis gave Strauss a pained expression. They were sat across from Ursula on the table bench, trying to present a united front. It wasn’t much of a front. Mostly because they knew that ultimately Ursula was correct.

“Look, we’ll have the tracker on him as well as the body cam. It will be as if we’re right there without actually being there. Besides, it’s not like the cops are going to be able to find Sylvain. Even if they did… it would be better for everyone including the general public if we found her first.”

“Mhmm. Remind me, Mr. Strauss. Have you met Sylvain before?”

“Yes.” Strauss replied tonelessly.

“And remind me again, what was the outcome of that meeting?”

“I was struck by an SUV and shattered my ribs and femur.”

“Right, right. And what do you think the outcome might be if Sylvain catches you wearing spy equipment while talking to her? Do you think she’d be pleased?”

“No, I expect she would take it as a violation of trust and a threat to her own well being and she would defend herself with extreme prejudice.” Strauss shrugged.

“And how do you expect to mitigate that issue?”

“By not getting caught.” Strauss replied flatly. “And, should I get caught anyway, I will simply have to fight my way out. I am in better shape now than when we last crossed paths. If She thinks I am to be an easy target, she will be surprised by what she finds.”

“Oh, so we would have to put you up in the sick bay again, then? I’m beginning to think you just enjoy being waited on by the pretty nurses.” Ursula scoffed.

“The nurses are not pretty.” Strauss idly picked at his nails, avoiding eye contact. “What of the possibility that I end up winning this fight? Perhaps I could return her to the custody of the Institute. Even if she is not guilty of this specific murder, I take it she is a high priority.”

“You, winning this fight? That’s rich.” Ursula scoffed.

“Why is that funny?”

“Because Sylvain doesn’t fight fair, and you will.” Artemis interrupted with a sigh. “We already know from experience that she wouldn’t hold back.”

Artemis absentmindedly touched the scar on her face that snaked over her clouded eye. “You haven’t ever had to fight like she has, and she was a former hunter to boot. She’s probably the clear winner here.”

“And you think I’ll fight fair?”

“You won’t be fighting to kill. You want information, not blood. Sylvain is a wildcard.”

Strauss sighed and sat back in his chair. “Be that as it may. I still have a much better chance of surviving the encounter than Vicar Martin or any other fool stupid enough to put their hand in the tiger cage.”

“Yes, and get accused of running and killing with her. No, no more talking about this. When I have a plan, if you are useful to it, I will be the first to inform you.” Ursula snorted. “Until then everyone will do as I say and keep their heads down and their mouths shut. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.” Strauss replied.

“Good. Try to focus on work for now. I know it’s difficult but the gears of the project cannot stop turning due to stress. As far as we’re concerned, this has nothing to do with us right now, so we will not plan around it or worry about it for the time being.” Ursula pushed herself up from her chair and turned to leave.

Artemis sat in stony silence as her aunt’s authoritarian heavy footsteps clicked away down the halls. Strauss leaned in towards her conspiratorially. “So. What is the plan?”

She let out a frustrated huff and drew herself up and closed her eyes. She exhaled loudly as she opened them again. “We’re going to do exactly as she says. We are going to focus on work, and we’re going to run experiments as if it’s business as usual.”

“Yes?” Strauss asked, probing. “And what might our experiments entail this evening, Frau Van Helsing?”

“We’ve gotten a full physical workup on you, but there’s a very large piece of your puzzle missing.” She grinned. “We’ve never documented a vampire’s form shifting sequence before. Maybe, for argument’s sake, we take some tracking and biometrics equipment and stick them to you, and take you outside to stretch your wings for a bit. Just for a bit.” She winked.

“I see. And perhaps while we are doing our very scholarly experiments, I happen to be blown off course ever so slightly. Just long enough to see if anyone would like to talk.”

“Exactly.” Artemis got up and began her march towards the equipment room. “Come with me. We’ll need to figure out a way to get a listening device on you that you can wear without it being easily seen. You’ll have to carry out some clothes and figure out how to hide the stuff yourself. Can you figure out one of the cameras?”

“Troy has been educating me on the use of various ‘gadgets and gizmos,’ as he calls them. If you show me which button to press, I am sure I can remember what to do.”

“Good. We’ll give you a smart watch. I’ll show you how to use it… And I suppose…”

“Suppose what?”

“I suppose while we’re at it…” She sighed. “I should actually take some notes on your shift sequence. For science’s sake.”

“Yes, that would be best. It is quite painful, so while we’re at it, we should do it now.”

“Yeah. And if Sylvain gets you, this could be our last chance anyways.” She said sadly.

“She will not.”

“How are you sure?”

“If she wanted me dead, I’d be dead by now.”

The pair made their way to the outdoor exercise arena. Artemis swiped her key-card and the automatic door slid open. Strauss had his eye on the fence line. It would be easy to clear, once he had his wings on. He’d done it before. Just not with permission.

Well. Technically, this was still without permission.

“How quickly do you think you can find her?”

“Less than an hour. She seems to be able to find me. I don’t expect she will wait long. With any luck I will be able to extract some sort of information from her and leave without breaking any more of my bones.” He shuddered.

“Here’s hoping. Whatever she says to you, be it a full confession or anything else, just DON’T try to bring her in on your own, ok? We aren’t prepared to house her anyway, so even if you think you can do it…”

“I will be a perfect gentleman to Frau Pietra.” He replied, and began to peel off his shirt.

“Do you mean to record this event? It requires me to take off my clothing. I’d prefer it if you refrained from photos.”

Artemis smirked. “Don’t tell me you’re going to be shy NOW after all we’ve been through? But that’s ok. I’ll take notes, not pictures.”

“Alright. This is a painful and energy consumptive activity. Please allow me a moment to complete it.”

Strauss dropped his jeans and stepped out of them, fully naked into the clearing. Being nude outdoors was even more nude somehow than being nude in front of the doctors and nurses. It was a situation that would soon be fixed by a pelt of thick, dark hair.

He shut his eyes tight, both from intense concentration and against the pain of transformation. Luckily he was distracted from the burning pain in his enlongating fingers from the agony of his face being broken and remade beneath his skin.

He stifled a cry. It wasn’t something he wanted to do in front of Artemis. None of this was what he wanted to do in front of her, really. For her, though. Well. Things have hurt more than this.

But not by much. He fell to his knees as hair split the skin and ran down his back and around his neck in a thick, uncomfortable mane. Interstitial fluid dampened the fur as it sprouted making the horrible texture all but unbearable. He writhed under it and began to bite at his own skin with the long muzzle that had replaced his jaw. The itching was cut by the stinging stretch of webbing between his fingers and finally, trembling and shaking in every inch, the bat had taken form.

Slowly he turned on his haunches to face Artemis. She was staring hard, and breathing harder. No doubt years of watching lycanthropy accidents from Troy had conditioned her to run instead of calmly watching a shift sequence. He could hear her heart like a jackhammer in her chest.

His pointy head no doubt resembled a wolf somewhat as well. His discomfort was quickly abandoned in favor of tending to hers. Carefully he stilted towards her on his folded wings and demonstrated his harmlessness by shoving his great hairy head into her shoulder.

She let out a nervous laugh and reached up to wrap her arms around the neck of the great bat. “Hey, hey. Down boy. Take it easy.” She chuckled.

“That was quite a show. I’ve never actually seen it in person up close before. Can you speak?”

Strauss let out a deep hiss like a failing hydraulic. “....No…”

It came out in a soft breath with weak consonants. His strained anatomy wasn’t built for speech. Not now.

“I see. That’s ok.” She gently stroked the soft muzzle and felt the hard tips of his fangs just below the velvety fur. She glanced downward and blushed slightly when she realized he was still very obviously naked, despite what coverage his fur gave.

She turned to collect his clothes and his equipment into a bag. “You’ll have to carry this out. If you can make a call when you’re done I’ll send a car to get you, no need to go through all that again. Remember, don’t try and take her on physically, no matter what. Not even if you see her actively killing someone. Preserve yourself over everything, and I mean everything else. Understood?”

The bat stood silent, though in apparent opposition.

“Please Strauss. We really can’t afford to lose you. I don’t want to lose you.”

He paused, then lowered his head into her shoulder again, looking up at her with his dark, watery eyes.

“Good. Then we’re clear.

She rubbed his velvety ear, and he leaned heavily into the affection.

“You know, we should probably be careful about PDA like this. Cameras are still on out here.” She smirked. “I know it hurts and all, but honestly I’m a little jealous. Of the wings, I mean. It’s sort of cliche’ but I think everyone secretly wishes they could fly. You actually can. That’s more of a talent than just about anything else.”

The bat tilted its head at her, and pulled away and began to walk in a stilted circle around her. She turned to watch where he was going, when suddenly he charged.

He aimed low and bowled her over his head, neck and shoulders, landing her squarely on his back. She gasped and grabbed frantically onto the thick fur, but while she was struggling to right herself, he kept moving.

“Strauss? What are you doing! Strauss! STRAUSS!” She yelled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he began to pick up speed. His awkward wing-walk became a lopsided gallop, and soon he had air beneath them.

She couldn’t waste her air yelling or she might faint. The ground was getting further away as the bat began a gentle upward glide, up and over the barbed wire fence, past the search lights.

Ursula scratched a wrong answer into the crossword puzzle, then frowned and furiously erased it. The ghost of it sat there mocking her. What was the name of that sky scraper in Chicago? No longer the Sears tower, but it’s new name? Was that in Chicago?

Strauss was good at these puzzles but she wouldn’t ask him. Not in a million years. There was a soft knock at her office door. An intern, here to bother her. Great.

“Excuse me. Miss Harker?”

“Can’t you see I’m on break?” She huffed.

“Yeah I see that. But, erm. I sort of think this is important. Maybe. I mean the director knows about it already but-”

“If Artemis is handling it I’m sure it can wait.”

“Ok. I just thought maybe it needed security input.”

“If it needed input Artemis would have asked for it.”

“Oh. Well. Uh. Mr. Strauss took off with her, I wasn’t sure if they had like planned this or-”

“THEY WHAT-”

Strauss could have sworn he heard the distant yelling of an angry head of security. He wasn’t concerned with that at the moment. Artemis didn’t hear much of anything except the loud rush of summer air coming over the treeline. Strauss was keeping fairly low, no doubt not trying to scare her any more than he already did. He was aiming lower, too, looking for a landing spot.

She leaned in as far as she could to speak in one of his enormous pointed ears. “Can we make one more lap before you land?”

He immediately began the ascent again. The powerful beat of his wings made the seat difficult, but he was, as best he could, balancing her as she balanced herself. The shock had worn off, and her stomach had crawled back down her throat. The institute wasn’t a beautiful building. It used to be once, before the more utility focused add-ons parasitized the old facade. But from this vantage point in the dark, it was lit up like a dream.

Strauss swerved wide to avoid the building. No sense getting shot out of the sky by an infuriated security team. He aimed for the empty fields that ran along the road leading towards town. He swooped low and spread his wings out like a parachute, and finally reached down to land leg first and skid to a halt in muddy grass.

Artemis fell from his back onto her feet panting and shaking. She handed him his bag full of supplies, which he took in his mouth.

“That was… really cool.” She said breathlessly.

“Don’t ever do that again. But it was really cool.” She glanced out at the road, visible lights were already appearing on the horizon from the fleet of Van Helsing security vehicles.

“You should go. Remember what I told you. Be safe.”

He nodded his head, and with a single powerful leap he was back into the air. A rush of wind beat down from his wings all around the director, sending her hair flying. He was out of reach of security for now.

She walked to the roadside and waited for her escort home. This was a stupid, stupid gamble. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. With luck and prayer, hopefully nothing lost.

[lestappenforever]

Is it almost 2:30 AM rn? Yes

Am I still hyped for Max? Also yes and I guess here’s my post race analysis for this rollercoaster of a race that (not just the race, but the while weekend since Friday) almost gave me a heart attack but we won’t get to that

Let’s start with both teams that were the most heart broken today. Ferrari pulled a pre-2024 today and honestly all weekend. It was evident in Charles’ radio all throughout and his reactions post quali and race. From not giving either drivers the extra set of softs or enough time in q2 to do a proper run, to a strategy today that did not make any type of sense, especially for Charles, like I couldn’t understand how and why and what were they thinking when fitting slicks when rain (granted it started as some showers then the predictions showed it was possibly going to be heavy rain) when anyone on that wall or in Ferrari’s operation room would have heard that all teams are telling their drivers to stay on the current inters or when the safety car was deployed for Logan, to change to a new set of inters because of the rain, hell GP told Max they might go on full XWets because of the way they saw the rain coming. But Ferrari did pull a disaster class this weekend. And honestly started showing the cracks, from unclear radio messages that Charles got mad at Bryan for to tell him how much he’s loosing, to the PU issue that cost him the chance to race even, to the strategy and the ridiculously slow stops Ferrari pulled. And to top it all off, Carlos crashes into Alex, and knocks them both out, while knowing Checo retired, and Carlos being lose to points that would have put pressure on Red Bull. Ferrari were truly Ferrari-ing this weekend by cracking under pressure, and they have no one to blame but themselves

Williams however, is a very VERY different story. The team was on the right track, Logan pulling some insane times in Q3 to be right behind the Ferraris, Alex making it to Q3, both genuinely fighting fir points and the cars looking somewhat good, which we haven’t seen much of this year, to a slip off the race line got him in the wall, and contact with Carlos caused Alex to crash, which is heartbreaking on a whole different level than Ferrari, and honestly I hope they bounce back.

Honestly speaking, I don’t know or have the slightest clue what the Saubers are doing, they are still pointless, still the bottom of the pack, and honestly you can just feel like the they are waiting for Audi so bad, and are just kind of giving up.

Alpine is coming in HOT. That car is starting to show speed, and not be the tractor we all saw at the beginning of the season, fighting for points, now 2 consecutive points finished for Pierre and the first double points for them this year. You could feel like they’re trying to get by, and their hard work is showing. Also Esteban Masterclass from P18 to P20 to P10, man was ON FIREE (now has more points to prove to snatch himself a seat next season)

Haas were mixed today, that start on the XWets by Kevin, who gained like 10 places in less tab 10 laps and Nico who was also gaining A LOT(though not as Kevin). But their strategy didn’t work today and that pit stop for Kevin was a disaster. Though they are still a team to be reckoned with especially with finishing P11 and 12, just missing the points, and still in contention for that midfield fight

VCARB showed UP today. Speed, present, strategy, present, the really high chance of double points, extending their lead and chasing Aston Martin even more, also present. But luck was not on Yuki’s side in lap 66 when he lost the car and almost crashed. But he had a really REALLY good race till that lap and so did Daniel, who got 4 essential points for the team.

Astons are there, are getting closer to the top, and were really good today, with the fight between Lewis and Fernando, that ended with the slight edge Lewis had with his better car, and Lance really good, gaining positions, and finishing his home race yet again in points, they’re getting there for sure. Also we love hometown heroes scoring at home.

Mercedes, welcome back to the top, it’s been a while. That updated cars looks so good, with the speed, and just how well both George and Lewis looked in this car, and how confident they both felt in it. George was an absolute beast all weekend and definitely deserved that P3, and tbh you could see he was disappointed because he had hoped for a better finish, but granted he did give Mercedes their best finish of the year. Lewis from the very start with the fight with Fernando to the fight with Oscar, and getting him, then the fight with George as to who will get the podium, granted George was on a faster tyre and was a bit better. But Mercedes for sure are on a right foot. And it’s not something we hate to see.

That McLaren (as a Red Bull fan myself) gave me a heart attach, man they are quick. But you could see, for sure, that their strategy wasn’t there today. Pitting Lando late both for fresh inters and slicks, then blaming the safety car, yeah it was on them. No one to blame but themselves since clearly they were the fastest car on track and don’t convince me otherwise. Oscar did really REALLY good, and I won’t blame him for the Lewis overtake simply because Lewis was on fresher tyres, but his race was so good today, with his constant battles with George and a potential if a podium. He was impressive. I won’t go into what happened post race from that team, but I am upset, simply because that team and that driver has been defended non-stop since the start, yet now is disrespectful of the suppoter.

Now last but certainly and definitely not least. Red Bull. First, I’d like to say very very clearly that this team has been the source if my insomnia and my anxiety since Friday, and today’s win will definitely be one that won’t be forgotten for a while. Fridays was scary after the ERS on Max’s car failed, which therefore limited his dry running. Checo did have multiple runs Friday and Saturday, but these tracks with kerbs (Imola, Monaco, Canada) did show he wasn’t 100% confident with the car. His source of stress is now removed with the contract extension and we have a triple header of classic race tracks, and from what we’ve seen so far, he’s excelled on classic track with 4/4 podiums in RB20-suitable tracks, so he needs to wake up. As for today, yeah, loosing grip and shunting the rear into the wall was NOT something that should have happened especially after he saw Charles DNF and a chance at getting closer, while increasing the team’s gap. He just needs to find the form of the beginning if the season, that’s the most important thing. Now for the man, the myth, the legend himself, the goat, the number 1 in this damn grid for a damn reason. FP1 consisting of like 5 minutes of running, 4 laps in FP2 for an electronic issue, FP3 just the proper runs he had. No worries. Q1, Q2, Q3 anxiety attacks from all Max fans to then Match the pole, but start P2 because it was set later. No worries. Not the best start because if the rain, then gaining but no DRS enabled to then be overtaken on DRS, to then gaining the lead and winning the race with a strategy masterclass (I mean you could see that because the Red Bull representative was one of the Senior Strategy Engineers) and CLEAR communication with GP. Helmut Marko said it, tracks and races like this, when the car isn’t the fastest and it just doesn’t seem to work as well as for others, we can rely on the Max Factor. He is the best driver on this damn grid and no one could convince me otherwise. Also, the team is his family and you could tell from his reactions post race. Protect him at all costs.

But yeah, Canada was actually the best race of the season in terms of racing honestly and so much has happened in just 70 laps. To then end with Max being the youngest driver to reach 60 wins (Lewis was 32, Michael was 33 when they reached this number) and the fact that Max is the kindest in the grid. And Now GIVE ME THE CLASSICSSSS

Just leaving this here. 👏👏👏

[the-eeveekins]

The 13th Day of G-Witch: Keep Marching on Instead of Running Off

Delling does what I would consider something of the bare minimum of being a good parent: protecting your child's life with your own. He reveals to Miorine that they decided together that if anything should happen, at least one of them needed to survive to take care of Miorine. Miorine is clearly frustrated that once again her father withheld information about her mother from her, and wonders why they both couldn't have escaped.

Sadly we never learn what happened. The way the show kept Notrette so vague and mysterious is so frustrating.

Thank you for saving Earth House Nika. And Martin, what she did was save your life and everyone else's life in Earth House, you shouldn't be a little snitch.

So, remember what I said about Guel trying to play the hero around Suletta, and paying the price? Yeah, he does it again here. As soon as the doors open and he hears the Aerial is nearby, he makes a dangerous escape into a mobile suit and jumps right into a life or death battle to...go see her? Save her? I don't really know what he was thinking here, but I think after this he learned not to stick his neck out trying to save a girl who can take care of herself and doesn't need a hero. The people who clamored for Guel to be the main character kind of missed a point. Every time Guel tries to be a main character, he suffers dearly for it.

Look, I have mixed feelings about this scene. I know Guel loves his dad and killing him is an absolutely massive and terrible psychological blow. But also...Vim Jeturk was a terrible man and the world is better off without him. It's a shame he had such a strong grip on Guel's heart.

This scene is amazing and one of my favorites in the series. Suletta is confronted with murder and death up close and is naturally terrified. But Prospera IS correct here. Sometimes you have to kill to protect your loved ones from people who would harm or kill them. But it's the way she applies that logic to her motto and twists into a way to prime Suletta into being so ready and willing to kill to protect her loved ones that makes it truly insidious.

Suletta stating that she's ready to move forward as she steps from the clean floor onto the blood, from the shadows into the light, and repeats her mother's motto with that look on her face. This moment is pure gold.

This fight is fantastic, but almost criminally short! I really wish they had saved a bit more runtime to show the Aerial Rebuild in action just a little more. Especially the criminally underused GUND-BIT Rifle. The music here is incredible, and the parts of AERIAL REBUILD that the show uses in this scene do not do the whole song justice, you should absolutely give the full version a listen.

What a way to end the season. There are many slaps in Gundam history, but this one may go down as The Slap. It was a pretty shocking moment for pretty much everyone watching (except I suppose the tryhard Gundam edgelords). The sudden gore, Suletta cheerfully extending a bloodstained hand for Miorine, who has been splattered in blood. And of course her shocked reaction.

We got plenty of Yandere Suletta takes out of it for the next 3 months. And of course the agonizing wait to see how they would move forward after this.

And thus ends Season 1! Honestly, I always found S1 to be really strong, even if it's slow by Gundam standards. But I really think that's one of the show's strengths. The way it started off slowly, but always had those problems lurking just under the surface absolutely helped ratchet up the tension for when things finally started getting serious in episode 10. I thought it was a stronger approach than just jumping immediately into a war right away.

My biggest issues are the set-up of the mystery around what happened to Notrette (and never explaining it in S2) and the decision to pass on explaining stuff that really should have been explained THIS season (the Space Assembly League).

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter Nine (Part 2)

It’s me who answers the door when he rings. I buzz him in and wait for eternity as he climbs the three story staircase, and he only needs to knock once before I yank the door open. My breath catches when I see him. 

There is blood streaking down one side of his face in one clean, scarlet line, leaving dried stains on his jaw, his neck and staining the collar of his white t-shirt beneath his coat. His eye is already turning purple and swelling, puffy skin almost closing his eye entirely. A gash is clearly visible on his brow, cutting it into two distinct, uneven parts. He automatically raises his eyebrows when he sees me, and a fresh stream of bright red blood cascades down his cheekbone. His smile turns to a grimace. 

“Hello.” He says weakly, waving a hand in front of his injury. “Sorry about this.”

“Come in.” Claire says, adopting a very matronly tone as she ushers him to a kitchen chair and locks the door behind him. “Sit.” He does. She already has her first aid box open on the table, neat little bandages still in their unopened boxes, scissors in a little pink suede sheath, cotton and gauze laid out perfectly as though waiting years for this moment to come. She starts cleaning away the blood with cotton wool and soapy water. Watching it makes me wince, but Jude stays very still, obedient and patient as she carefully cleans the skin around the gash. 

“You’ve been absolutely split open.” She informs him. “Did you get boxed?”

“Kicked, actually.”

“Jesus.” Claire murmurs. “Is that the new thing now? Kicking each other in the head?”

“It makes sense when you consider the situation.” 

Jude winces as she gets closer to the cut. I start chewing on my nails. “Why did he kick you?” I ask. 

“I was being funny.” He explains. “I just made a joke.”

“Did you get in an actual fight?”

“No.” He holds his hands out to me to show me his knuckles, clean and unmarred, save for streaks of his own blood that have dried on the sides of his fingers. “He hit me, I didn’t hit him back.” Claire starts cleaning his neck and he tilts his chin for her. “This isn’t great.” She says.

“Should I call a taxi to the hospital?”

“You’ll be waiting there all night. I think it’s better if you sober up a bit first, and we should at least try to stop it from bleeding. I think I have those stitch plasters in my bathroom. Shane needed them before. I’ll try and find them.” Without a word she hands the cotton ball to me and goes upstairs to look for them. 

I hesitate with it in my hand, pink with water and blood, then gingerly I take the seat next to him. His breath is like whiskey. “You are drunk.” I say quietly, and he shakes his head. “No, but I have been drinking. I was out with some people.”

“Can you go from the start?” I ask him as I gently swipe the cotton along his cheek where blood has dried into his pores. “How did we get here?”

He moves his head to let me get at a spot at the corner of his jaw where it has pooled. “I just thought I’d go out with some people from school, some pub in East Wall. We were drinking. It was alright, I suppose. Actually, no, it wasn’t that fun, I was just there to be there, but this guy comes over to one of my friends from school and starts going on about how much he hates his shoes.”

I can’t help but snicker. “His shoes?” 

“Yeah.” He grins, but it seems to hurt him, because he makes a pained sound in his throat when he does. “He always wears these Doc Martins boots, really old and scuffed up, but I think they’re cool.”

“I like them.” I say. “Actually, I have a pair.”

“I know, I like yours on you. But this guy had such an issue them for some reason.” He says. “He was all like, ‘nice shoes, man, where’d you get those, man? They look like shit, man.’ I think to impress the girl he was with, or something.”

“And what did your friend do?”

“He didn’t do anything, he’s a shy guy, so he just stood there and took it. But I noticed that the other guy – his shoes were actually way worse. He had those brown deck shoes on, you know, with the leather shoelaces?”

“Yes, I had to wear them for school. I loathe them.”

“I thought it was funny. Like, how can someone with those shoes call someone out for theirs? So I said ‘hey, are those Dubarrys?’ just an innocent question, which he took as antagonistic, but I… I suppose it wasn’t that innocent. I drew attention to him pretty purposefully, and all the guys started chanting ��Dubarrys, Dubarrys‘ and kinda crowding around him to look. I thought it might be funny to squat down in the chaos and get my friend to take a picture of me with him to remember the moment.”

“Oh my god. And he let you?”

“For a good ten seconds, yeah, he didn’t really know what to do, he looked a bit rattled and confused by us, like he was a deer in headlights, and his date tried to stand in front of his shoes so we couldn’t take a picture of them. He was all like ‘stand up, man, stand up and look me in the face.’ And obviously I was having too much fun pointing at his feet that I didn’t see the point in doing that, and then he saw that the girl was embarrassed, and,” A shrug. 

“And those ugly shoes kicked you in the face.” I finish. 

“Yeah. And then the bouncers came and chucked me out of the bar.”

“You? Not him?” 

“Us both.” He clarifies. “And then I like, had to leg it away from him in case he did it again. That’s how I landed on the docks, without my keys, trying to call Shane.”

“Oh dear.” I say. “What were you doing in the photographs?”

“This.” He throws up his two fingers on both hands, and I shake my head and laugh. “Seems a bit like you provoked him, if I’m honest.”

“Yeah probably. They were just big words from a little man.”

I hold his chin and bring his head back to the middle, grabbing a fresh cotton ball to wipe off any remaining streaks. His eyes follow my movements closely. “There’s quite a bit of blood.” I say. 

“I know.”

“Does it hurt?”

“It does.”

“Lift your chin for me.” He obeys. “I feel like Claire is a lot better at this stuff.” I confess. “I feel like I’m not very caring, like, by nature.”

“No?”

“No.” I chuckle softly. “You know my mam tried to get me to do nursing in college. It’s what her sister does, and her own mother did it too before she got married, but I can’t imagine anything less suited to me, I just don’t think I have the… whatever you call it. The nurturing touch.”

I meet his eyes as I move to the other side of his face, where a rogue fingerprint is left on the opposite cheek. They watch me curiously, rimmed with thick, spiky lashes. I try not to think about how close we are, or how I can feel his breath feathering over my jaw. “I don’t think that’s true.” He says softly. “I think you’re very nurturing.”

“Thank you.” The clock ticks past midnight on the wall ahead of me, the thunk of the hands the only sound apart from the patting of cotton against his skin. “It’s a pity about your T-shirt.”

“Yes.” He says. “You hardly have something I could borrow.”

“Well actually, your sassy little grey number with the hole in the armpit is upstairs, if you want it back, finally.”

His eyes travel over my face. “Maybe in a minute.”

“Okay.” I place the cotton onto the table. “I think I got it all off, and I don’t know what to do next. I think as long as you don’t move your eyebrow we should be in the clear.”

The corners of his mouth lift. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Do you doubt my blood cleaning abilities?”

He chuckles. “So what’s the verdict?”

“You mean how bad do you look?”

“Out of ten?”

“Eight.”

“Wow, that’s bad.”

“Eight for you.” I clarify. “Probably like four for someone else, you’re lucky you’re so pretty.”

He flutters his lashes. “Gosh, thanks.”

“Do you want to go and look in the mirror?”

“Nah it’s okay, I’ll shock myself tomorrow.” he picks up the cotton and starts dabbing at the blood on his hands, all long fingers, angular, jutting wrist bones and fingernails with little white half moons on them, like he’s never been inclined to bite those bits off. “Thanks for helping out.” He says. 

“It’s Claire, really.” I say. “I would have been useless on my own. I don’t think I even have a box of plasters to my name.”

“I think I’d still be grateful if you used wet kitchen roll on me.”

“Can I get you anything else? Something to eat or drink?”

“Nah.”

“Not like you to refuse a snack.”

“Not hungry.”

I frown at him, and he looks right back, something vulnerable and open in his expression that I didn’t expect to find there, not with one eye almost fused shut now, the gash above it red and open and angry. I’m terrified by the depth of emotion I feel for him at that moment, be it instinctive protectiveness or something else. “I’ll bring over the tub of sweets.” I decide. “Claire and I won’t finish them anyway.” I start making moves to fetch them but he reaches out to me, hand just above my knee and fingers curling slightly to the ticklish skin underneath sending a shiver ripping through my body. “Wait, Evie, can I-”

“Got them.” Claire comes down the stairs and Jude lifts his hand away, whatever spell that was between us unwinding itself, and we fall away from each other in an instant. I hop up to allow her to settle back into her seat in front of him. “They ended up being at the very back of the cupboard under the sink. I didn’t see them for ages. You’re looking nicely cleaned up.”

“All thanks to you both.”

She unpeels the stitch plasters and starts carefully fusing the open skin together with them. I can’t look away, it’s fascinating as much as it is utterly disgusting. Jude’s jaw is clenched and his eyes are squeezed shut. 

“Stop twitching your eyebrows.” Claire chides. “You keep pulling the skin all over the place.”

“Sorry.” He whispers. There’s something a bit sweet about how he’s not trying to pretend it doesn’t hurt him, and how he’s kind of being a bit of a baby about it, no “it’s nothing”s or “It’s just a scratch”es He catches me smirking at him and gives me a questioning look, but I just shrug and turn around to retrieve the chocolate tub from the coffee table. 

“Have a treat, for being so brave.” I say, holding it out to him. “Which is your favourite?” 

“Caramel.”

“Too bad I’ve eaten them all. That’s my favourite too.”

“Fine, I’ll get one of the hazelnut ones.” He plucks one out and untwists its purple wrapper, but his lips quiver as he brings it close. “Ugh, I actually feel a bit sick.”

“It’s probably the shock.” Claire says. “Come over and sit on the couch for a bit.”

“Should I not just go to the hospital?”

She cocks her head. “I really don’t know if it’s worth it. These plasters should hold it closed, and if you’re careful about it for a few days I think you’ll be alright. Here, I’ll give you some more in case they come off.” She slips a few into his coat pocket. “I think maybe a cup of tea might make you feel better. Take your coat off, sit down over there and I’ll make one for you.”

“Claire, you really don’t have to do all of this for me. It’s nice enough that you even let me in, I don’t want to impose.”

“Nonsense. Sit.”

He wrestles himself out of his coat and hangs it on the back of a chair. The massive blood stain is suddenly impossible to ignore. 

“Your T-shirt.” I comment. 

“Yeah, not great.”

“I’ll get you a clean one.” I head upstairs to retrieve the grey one. I’m not certain why I even took it to Dublin with me, but the idea of leaving it in Tullamore to sit in my empty wardrobe was as depressing as throwing it away. Maybe I planned to wear it to bed, even if the idea of doing that feels really intense, considering the cosmic weight it carries. The last time I wore it on my body I was an entirely different girl made up of different tissue and cells, before everything that happened, happened. 

He’s on the couch when I come back down, ignoring the dinky little jug of milk that Claire has placed next to his mug of tea. He’s tainted by his Americanness. He only takes sugar, not milk. He smiles gratefully when I hand him the shirt, and then I turn around shyly to give him privacy as he changes. 

“Oh, will one of you hand me a cotton ball, or something? The blood soaked through my shirt a bit.”

Claire comes to the rescue before I can and tosses him a ball, but I take a chance and glance over my shoulder at him anyway, and feel a deep blush creep over my neck and cheeks as I do. His back is facing me, and the sight of it does something extraordinary to my insides. He didn’t look like that when he was eighteen. Claire catches me staring, pulls a face and gives my arm a quick squeeze as she passes by.

She clears up the last few bits and pieces in the kitchen and puts the milk back into the fridge. “I’m going to bed now.” She announces. “Jude, my dear, stay if you want, the couch is free, Evie’ll get you some blankets, if you want to go, that’s grand, just make sure the door is properly closed behind you, it tends to be a bit sticky.”

“I will, thanks Claire.” He’s put the clean t-shirt on now so I’m safe to turn around. He sits back down, and Claire switches off the kitchen light and heads upstairs. We listen to her footsteps across the landing and the click of her bedroom door, and then I feel like holding my breath in the silence that follows. The clock still ticks, and nothing else makes a sound. 

“Do you want to sit down?” Jude asks me in a voice so soft it’s almost a whisper. I eye his bloody T-shirt in a pile on the coffee table. “Can I wash it?” I ask. 

“I think it’s probably for the bin. I’ll chuck it away after I leave.”

“I think I can get the stains out. I actually know quite a bit about laundry.”

“If you want to, but it’s fairly disgusting.”

“It doesn’t matter, really.”

“Does this have something to do with you wanting to purloin another of my T-shirts and hold it hostage for three years?”

“Hmm, I can’t confirm or deny.” I pluck it off the table and toss it into the washing machine behind me. “I’ll give it my best go tomorrow.”

“Fair enough.”

I walk over and sit next to him. “Is the tea making you feel better?”

“Sort of. Are you going to have anything?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” But I don’t move. He smiles at me. “Or do you want some of mine?”

“I couldn’t stomach it without the milk, sorry.”

“Well have you tried it?”

“Yeah like once when I’d already made a cup before I realised we were out of milk. It was sick.”

“Maybe this will be different.” He holds it to me and I take it. The mug, hot in my hands makes me feel warm all over, the feeling enhanced by the cosy glow of the string lanterns around the window that frame the bleak winter scene outside. I take a cautionary sip, and it tastes bitter and sweet at the same time. I don’t like it, and tell him as much. 

“Worth a try.” He shrugs, and lifts it out of my hands. When he takes another sip he puts his lips against the very same spot where my mouth was, and I wonder if he did it on purpose, the idea of which is strangely erotic. I shiver. “Are you going to stay over?”

“It’s not ideal, but I don’t have my house keys. I can get a taxi home but I’m almost sure that nobody will be awake.”

“That’s alright.” I assure him. “It’s a small couch but I can get you blankets and try to make it as comfortable as possible.” I look him over and deduct that the sheer height of him would be one and a half times the size of the couch if he were lying down on the floor next to it. He’s in for a cramped night’s sleep. The corner of his mouth kicks up. “I’ve slept in worse places, Evie. Don’t worry. There’ve been smaller couches than this one, floors without a blanket, out on a friend’s lawn on wet grass. I’ll be fine.”

I nod. “I hope you find your keys.” 

“Yeah, same. Otherwise I’m not getting back into my apartment in Berlin in the new year.”

“Ah, yeah, well that wouldn’t be great.”

He shrugs. “It’s fine, they’re probably in the bar. I bet I dropped them on the floor. They’ll turn up.”

He takes a long, full breath and rests his head against the wall behind him. He looks so tired now, for the first time since he arrived, and the bruises on his face look somehow more painful than they did then too, but I opt not to mention it again. I’m sure he knows. 

“It’s kind of strange to have you in my house.” I say instead, which I somehow imagined would be a not-weird thing to say to him before it came out of me. He looks rightfully perplexed. “Really? Why?”

“It just feels like, I dunno, like I cultivated a different version of me in this house than the version you used to know, it feels a bit like one universe colliding with another.”

“Ah, like Jude Turner doesn’t exist in this universe.”

“Right.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s on the beach in 2010, of course. My life sometimes feels like it’s been split into segments, and the beach feels like one distinct segment, like nothing about that time bleeds into any other time. It was its own unique world. ” I don’t say the part about even to this day, I view my life as ‘before’ and ‘after’ that summer. Before and after Jude left and everything changed. 

“I think about that summer all of the time.”

“Yeah, I do too. We’re so different now.”

“Nah, not really.”

“I feel different.”

“So do I, but then I go away and I live my life and I don’t see you for ages, and I come back and find you and we’re always the same. It always feels like nothing has really changed as much as we think.” 

“You have shorter hair, a tattoo and a third piercing.” I say, as though it proves something, and he smiles. “Yeah, and your freckles are gone, but those things are superficial. It still feels the same to talk to you.”

I brush the bridge of my nose. “My freckles.”

“Yeah you had them during the heatwave, do you remember that?”

“Of course, I only get them when I’ve been out in the sun for days and days. I think that was the only time I’ve had them since I was a child.” 

“They were clearest at the festival, I remember how they made your face look tanned from far away.”

“Well, tricked you. Get close enough and you’d have been blinded by how white I was underneath them.” I grin. “You know, one of my favourite memories from the whole summer was when we went to Pendulum, and we thought we’d hate them, but they were absolutely amazing.”

“Yeah, and I put you on my shoulders so that you could see the stage.”

“It was so hot by then, like all of the heat from the day felt like it congealed in the air and everyone was bathed in sweat, and when I was high up like that they were drenching me with cold water from those hoses, and I felt like I was holy.”

“You were.” His gaze wanders over me. “I remember Jen took a photo on her digital camera, and it’s crap quality because she got her finger in the way a bit, but it’s of you on my shoulders, and you’ve got that cigarette that we shared hanging out of your mouth and your arms are, like, stretched up to the sky and your eyes are closed, you really looked like you’d met God.”

“I was moved by the spirit.”

“Of Propane Nightmares?”

“Yes.” I grin at him, and he smiles back, a small, closed mouth smile that makes my stomach start to quiver. He has such a sensual little mouth. I wish he’d kiss me with it. The memory of what happened right after the Pendulum gig slides into my mind, the vividness of his hot mouth open against mine, and I briefly picture myself crawling onto his lap and repeating history. 

The look on his face near convinces me that he can hear my thoughts. Surely he must know the power he has over me, because he lightly takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilts my head to the side. My heart thuds. He pinches my earlobe. “Do you think that earrings would still go into all of these little piercings if you tried them now?”

“I’m not sure. Probably.”

“But would they make you feel like ‘you’ yet?”

“Maybe.” I whisper. “I’m starting to feel like I’m coming back around to them.”

“Hm.” He says, and I’m a bit terrified of the moment he turns my face back to him, because I am certain I will throw myself at him. I can’t kiss anyone. It’s not the right time. I’m not ready. I’m afraid, and – oh God – Astrid still exists.

As though he has the very same thought at the same time, he swiftly takes his hands away from me and says “Sorry, Jesus, that was weird of me. I dunno why I just went in and grabbed your ear.”

“No it’s fine.” I say, flustered, heart pounding. “It’s no big deal, it’s just an ear.” I spring up and collect his empty mug and the jug from the table and head over to the kitchen to stack them into the dishwasher. “I think I’ll go to bed. I’ll just go up and grab a pillow and some blankets for you.”

“Yeah, okay, alright.” He says, and I go hastily up the stairs to retrieve the spare bedding from the hot press. I can barely look at him as I hand them over, my cheeks still flooded with heat. “See you in the morning.” I say, and I head upstairs to bury myself in blankets, and eventually fall asleep and have the kinds of dreams, of crumpled sheets and golden skin and lips and hands and breath, that will make me feel woozy when I wake up. 

He’s already gone in the morning. Blankets folded tidily on the couch cushions, a note propped on top that simply reads: 

You are angels. 

See you in Berlin? 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[lemonhemlock]

I'm a 'Martin won't ever publish another ASOIAF book' truther but in addition to King Bran being profoundly idiotic, Martin has major structural issues that are now too 'big' to 'fix' imo. Namely, the ages of the characters are ridiculous and are all wrong for where their arcs need to go. The characters on the show were aged up and even the younger ones grew up on screen so Bran and Sansa and Arya were at least into late teens/adulthood at the end of the show - one is 13 and other is currently 11 and Bran is like, what, 8 in books? sksksksksk Just absolutely disastrous.

The characters should have been in their mid to late teens at the start of AGOT, at minimum. Especially because Martin essentially treated them, and has them act, like adults. I'm sorry, but I don't think that man has any understanding between the mental and physical developmental differences between, say, a 14 year old girl and a 17 year old girl. Every character appears and acts like they are anywhere from 3 to 5 years older than they are.

Also, the POV structure, while interesting, has also been disastrous in actually getting the story moving because certain characters have to be in certain places for things to happen while others are just sitting around killing time.

Hmmm, I don't really agree about the POV structure. It functioned fine for three books and offered compelling court drama, battles, magical elements and intriguing plot-twists. AGOT / ACOK / ASOS are pretty well paced and I've even seen someone making the case that the series could even have ended in that point and would have been one of the best fictional fantasy experiments. I found myself agreeing and disagreeing. I think the ASOS ending would have still distinguished ASOIAF from other fantasy series in its toppling of the good-guys-win-everything type of wrap-up, but it would be way less ambitious than what GRRM ended up pursuing.

The pacing problems came about with AFFC/ADWD. And I'm not one to talk here, because I'm an AFFC truther and it's always been my favourite of the series, so my two cents on this is that Dany's Slaver's Bay plotline is too damn long. Tyrion is also taking too damn long to get to her. It's a drag. In the book she is supposed to solve the Quaithe riddle,* escape Vaes Dothrak, get herself an army + navy, make the decision to leave Slaver's Bay AND sail to Westeros, so that in TWOW she can fight Young Gryff, face-off the Others, become a mask-off tyrant AND get deposed? It's a lot.

I honestly think he should just give up the 7 book compartmentation, admit defeat and just add another damn book to the series to get Dany to Westeros and fit in his fAegon plotline. It's not like he doesn't have the pages. No one's gonna care if there are 8 books instead of magic no 7. But my guess is that he's hung up over some decisions he's made in the past and kept trying to make the gargantuan plot fit inside this neat box he envisioned - 7 books, King Bran, Caesar!Jon etc. It would explain why he tried a time skip between ASOS and AFFC and had to scrap it - it would make more sense for the Stark children to be older. But he characterized himself as a gardener-style writing who doesn't plan everything in advance and lets the story grow organically. In that case, he should make allowances if the story grew in a direction he did not initially predict and make the required changes! Maybe King Bran made sense when he first wrote the initial three-book outline, but that was a long time ago & many other plot points changed.

My advice is to just stop trying to make the plot fit the previous designs, stay true to the way the characters evolved and respect the themes you've painstakingly developed over the course of nearly 30 years. Otherwise what's the point? If your original ending doesn't fit anymore, think of another ending ffs. The show is irrelevant at this point, so what if the endgame will be different? IDK, I'd be thinking that this is my life's work and I have every right to do it justice. Perhaps that's what he's thinking too and why it's taking him so long.

I agree that the ages of the characters are ridiculous, but if a time skip really, really can't fit anywhere, it's better to compromise on the age issue and leave off with a teen monarch than it would be to impose a surveillance state in Westeros as the solution with all-seeing, all-knowing Bran. That's a starkly dystopic ending, if you ask me.

Not to mention that it clashes directly with the end of magic - how is Bran supposed to be the Tree of Sauron if there's no magic anymore and everything goes back to normal? On what basis does he even get to be king at all if he's just a regular boy? How will he even survive being pulled out of the weirwood net if magic leaves the realm of men?

*“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.” JFC, if Dany has to get to Asshai, I will fucking scream.

[luwritesomething]

Billy Loomis: Headcanons.

Warnings: swearing, and maybe typos, and mentions of manipulation and (untreated) mental illnessess.

Author's note: i love billy, what can i see. i literally have no excuse. might think about doing a part two to this if someone requests it. also, did you know that the first time we see billy on screen, a cover of this song is in the background? since then, i can't stop thinking about him whenever it plays.

comments and reblogs are always appreciated! requests are open, especially for scream! hit that anon button and tell me your ideas. in the scream fandom, i write for billy loomis, stu macher, mickey altieri, chad martin-meeks, mindy martin-meeks, tara carpenter, anika kayoko, laura crane

i think i project a lot into billy because of the daddy issues and the anger.

BUT ANYWAYS,,,

i feel like billy started feeling emotions so much after his mother left. 

like,,, he still feels things, and he laughs, and he has a good time, and he feels sad…. but all those feelings have been weakened since his mother left.

but whenever he does feel strongly, it’s like a explosion. he gets really mad, he gets really sad, and if he likes something, he gets kind of obsessed.

i think that’s some kind of disorder but i’m not here to give him a diagnosis. 

also i feel like he dissociates a lot

but that’s already from a young age

i think his childhood was happy, but now when he thinks about it he remembers a lot of fights between his parents and a sense of emptiness that he’s never really gotten rid of

it’s weird, and he hates it.

his mother is such an important person for him, and her leaving just like that and not taking him with her hurt him way more than he’s ready to admit

he doesn’t like his dad (canon)

like, he really really dislikes the dude. probably hates him.

being angry is his fuel. it’s a constant in his life

i feel like he would relate to jd from heathers. like, a worryingly lot.

he dressed up as jd for halloween, too

it just fits him a lot

he’s a weird kind of popular boy. he’s very selective with his friends, he’s mysterious, doesn’t really like big parties and he can be really rude. but he’s also really charming and he has pretty privilege, so he’s used to getting away with everything

looks like the kind who wouldn’t take notes or pay attention during class but then aces his tests and all

he observes a lot, and in silence. he knows everyone’s names, even if he plays dumb, and probably has a lot of data about everyone around him stored in his brain. very analytic, our billy boy

he’s not a big fan of physical touch. he touches who he wants (his friends, mainly) when he wants (they are all big on physical touch and rarely ever don’t want him to touch them) and only when he wants. 

billy flirts for fun, and mostly because he’s bored. he learned by observing, if not he would have no idea how to do that.

he’s bisexual.

he truly did love sidney in the beginning. his misogyny ruined everything (canon)

he went to a therapist a few times when he was a kid, because nancy (mrs loomis) was worried about him being slightly different and more quiet than other kids. the therapist didn’t pay him much attention and said he was fine.

he canonical has psychosis. the psychotic breakdown came with his mother leaving and him finding out his father had cheated with his grilfriend’s mother.

billy learned to manipulate people from his father.

spoiler, and going back to a previous headcanon, his childhood wasn’t really happy. it takes him a while to accept that, and realize he’s been under his father’s manipulation for a long time.

billy has this black notebook he carries everywhere he goes. he uses it for everything — inside, he has the plans for the murder spree, the people he hates and why, important things he has seen and will use to get what he wants, his anger spurts… it’s all there.

he plans on burning the pages with the murder spree once it’s finished, to leave to clues.

i’ve seen it so much that i can’t remember if it’s canon or if we just made it up, but billy’s father has this cabin they used to go to during the summer and winter holidays. that cabin is his happy place, he loves it and talks about it a lot.

he likes all horror movies, but the fancy ones are his favorites. he thinks he’s better than anyone else, for that, and that’s why randy annoys him so much — randy has a really good taste with movies, so they collide.

probably knows how to cook, even if it’s just a few dishes. it’s not like his father is around too much, so he’s managed to figure it all out.

he’s probably alone in his house a lot, too. even if he enjoys being alone anywhere else, he hates being alone there. 

bitter flavors are his favorite. 

he genuinely enjoys drinking beer. i hate him for that.

he celebrates the fuck out of halloween. it’s always been bigger than christmas, anyways.

his color palette is very simple: white, blue and black. maybe even brown if you push him. and that’s it, the boy’s simple and stylish.

hates being called william.

plays in the football team to release anger. he expects to get a shitty scholarship that will pay some of his college studies and never come back to woodsboro. billy doesn’t care about what he’ll study. ideally, it would be film like randy did in scream 2.

also he’s probably very good at most of the subjects except for one of those a lot of people hate — biology or physics. something like that. 

i want him to be good at english and literature and to read a lot.

and i actually headcanon him as a voracious reader, especially horror novels.

his old time favorite is dracula, but he loves stephen king’s writer. 

will defend carrie with his life.

he’s supposed to have a car? or does he share it with his dad? whatever. he walks to school most of the times, he doesn’t like driving. he gets a lot of road rage and he doesn’t want to disconnect — that’s the word he uses for his dissociative episodes — whenever he’s on the wheel.

if you’re his friend and you don’t like horror movies, no you’re not.

he’d be so good with writing essays, no, i will not elaborate.

probably can’t see shit from very afar. he used to have very good sight but not anymore — that means, he’s slightly myopic. it’s not too bad, though, so he’s refused to get glasses.

he’s very obsessive with his special interests (aren’t we all?)

really likes knifes, but are we surprised? his father probably gifted him one after a few hunting trips together, and the boy’s a goner now.

most parents like him, again, because of his charisma. even with the bad boy vibes going on, he can put on the most perfect sweet boy act and that makes everyone fall for him. he just needs to feel motivated for it to work

he’s a good actor, therefore. i think he’s proven that already, though, even if he acts hella sus all the time he fools people into trusting him

LOVES the feeling of power. billy needs to be a few steps before you to feel in control and be able to relax about anyone. knowledge is power, and he will do whatever to have that power.

mastermind™

has no favorite color — he couldn’t care less about choosing a favorite color.

[lbulldesigns]

Time Travel Fix-It Fic

So a little while ago I made a post about foreshadowing in a couple of Powder's drawings, here's the link to it if you want to read it...

https://at.tumblr.com/lbulldesigns/700252698427179008/mqrmwpi0n00n

I mentioned a head cannon I had where Powder has clairvoyant esque abilities but wasn't fully aware of them, and ended up interpreting them in her art, hence why her drawings had so much foreshadowing in them.

Soooooo naturally I came up with an idea for a fic because I'm weak, and added it onto the long list of fics I need to write but haven't yet because I keep coming up with new ideas as I'm hashing out the details for current story concepts 😭😭😭

🤦 holy lord of procrastination, I'm beginning to understand how George R.R Martin feels now 😂😂😂

Okay so the premise of this story is basically a time travel fix it, but it's done differently because rather than characters returning to the past it's everything that happens in Arcane is just a really long and finely detailed premonition that Powder has.

The story progresses how it does in the show and then some with a brief summary of how (non-cannon) the events after S1 goes. So after Jinx fires the rocket, war breaks out between Zaun and Piltover which goes on for three years before the Void attacks Runeterra. Jinx, after years of fighting, sacrifices herself to close the gate that the Void creatures are coming out from as atonement for her past sins but the Void took so much life that civilisation is basically now gone.

At the moment Jinx dies she wakes up as Powder in her bunk at The Last Drop. She lies there trying to get her bearings, as she's being accosted with memories from the future and her memories from the last few days. The best way to describe how she feels is if two halves of herself are catching up with each other and comparing notes on what they've been up to whilst she sits there trying to follow along, she is left in this state of complete numbness for several days in which during this time her family are wondering why Powder is not talking or responding to anyone. She's expressionless, quiet, and operating on auto pilot (she's basically a living doll), which leaves them really worried about her because they can't get her to snap out of this state and Vi's really worried about what might have happened to make her little sister like this.

After awhile however she snaps out of it and has settled on having her older selfs personality, which is basically Jinx after she's managed to overcome a lot of her issues and found better coping mechanisms. When this happens she just breaks down crying, out of the sheer overwhelming emotions and realisation that she has a second chance to fix everything and make better choices.

She begins making plans on how to save everyone, whilst also hiding the fact that she has memories of a future that hasn't happened yet because she has first hand knowledge of what happens when people believe she's crazy whilst also trying to convince Vi that she's okay because her doll state has left Vi even more protective of her and unwilling to let Powder out of her sight.

Some things to keep in mind:

She's seen everything in the future, including other people's stories. Her premonition works in the same way as if she were actually watching the show.

She doesn't have the same insecurities as pre-premonition Powder because Jinx came to terms with a lot of these insecurities during the wars.

Piltover is still her enemy but she's going to fight them at a different angle then teen Jinx did and recognises that not all Pilties are greedy and immoral.

She doesn't know what to do about Silco, she recognises that he has the best plan (currently) to fight back against Piltover but she doesn't want history to repeat itself or for Zaun to go through a trial by fire like before.

She WILL do whatever it takes to save her family, all of her family.

And, she has retained knowledge of engineering, physics, and magic and will be utilising all of this going forward.

I want to avoid making her too OP, the aim is to make her use the knowledge she's gained whilst "growing up" but also keeping in mind that she will have limitations as she is physically still a child going through her awkward phase of childhood.

I welcome all feedback and ideas ☺️❤️

[specialagentlokitty]

Martin Evershed x reader - coming home to you

Part three:

Martin had grown used to seeing you area now, and he had always grown used to you inviting him to things regardless of if he was busy or not you would still give him an invite.

It was nice, and he began spending more and more time doing things with you instead of just working.

You had been home for a couple of months now, and every Friday you and Martin would meet up and do something, whether it was the movies, getting some food, just taking a walk.

It had quickly become your favourite day of the week, and it was the same for him, he looked forward to it.

Standing in front of the mirror in your room, you adjusted your uniform slightly, and smoothed your hair back as you nodded your head.

There was a knock on the door and you look towards the landing.

“Benny can you get that?!” You called.

“Yeah mum!”

You smiled and grabbing the jacket from the back of your door your swung it on.

“It’s Mr Evershed!”

You wondered out of your room and stood at the top of the stairs, gesturing for him to come in and he did, and Benny came running back up the stairs.

“It’s weird you’re friends with my headteacher.”

“And it’s weird you’re still here when you have school.”

Benny grinned a little and went into his room, grabbing his bag he ran down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Mum are we still going to the dinner?!” Benny called.

“Yes! Your suit is on the back of your door!”

“Okay!”

Benny ran back through with some food and dumped it into his bag then ran up the stairs, hugging you.

“Bye mum!”

“Have a good day and no fighting!”

He grinned at you and barrelled through the front door, and you rolled your eyes at him.

“Hey Martin, give me a second.”

You went back into your room, grabbing your boots and your bag you came back down and led him into the living room.

Both of you sat down.

“What brings you by so early?”

“I was actually hoping you could drop me off? Car won’t start.”

You laughed and he grinned sheepishly.

“I’ve been telling you to replace that old junk Martin, it’s not good.”

“I know! I know.” He laughed.

You laughed, shaking your head and Martin smiled softly as he watched you lace up your boots.

“Yeah I’ll take you, I’m heading out early anyways.”

“Where are you going so early anyway? I don’t think I’ve seen you so ready at this time.”

You rolled your eyes at him, throwing the cushion at him and he laughed, setting it aside.

“I’m going to get everything prepped for the dinner tonight, like tables and all of that.”

“Dinner?”

You nodded your head.

“It’s on base, so we need all hands on deck to sort it out really, everyone from base is going to be there aside from the higher ups as they’re busy. We do it every-time a group comes back from deployment.” You explained.

“That sounds nice.” He smiled.

“Oh it’s amazing, hey if you’re not busy you should come.”

“Alright, I will. Do I have to bring anything?”

“Just yourself in a suit, and since you apparently have no end to suits Martin Evershed that shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

He laughed again and you grinned, standing up you finished buttoning up your jacket and swung your bag over your shoulder.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

You grinned and dropped him off at his work and after telling him you’d pick him up with Benny, you went into work.

It wasn’t so bad setting everything up, it was pretty easy since you could just boss everyone around and tell them to do it.

And you soon found yourself parked outside of the school, car door open as you sat scrolling through your phone.

“Mum why is Mr Evershed coming to the dinner too?” Benny huffed.

You looked up at him as he climbed into the passenger seat and you rose a brow at him.

“Because I invited him and are you really going to make the man sit in the back?”

“My car my rules.” Benny huffed.

You put your phone in your pocket and stood out the car to stretch a little and you looked at him.

“Your car huh?”

“Yup! It’s yours and you’re my mum that makes it mine too.”

You rolled your eyes.

“Come on, he isn’t that bad.”

“You don’t have to spend all day with him.”

“No but I have to spend all day with you, and I think that’s worse.”

Benny rolled his eyes and got out the car as well, standing on the edge of it, he rested his arms on the roof, so you did the same thing.

“What if I don’t like him?” Benny asked.

“What if I do?”

“ew that’s gross mum, you can’t like him!”

“Why not?! I can like whoever I want.” You huffed.

“That’s still gross.”

You reached over and slapped his hand and he slapped yours back with a grin.

“We’re just friends Benny don’t worry, okay? Just friends. I just want to have a friend here, that’s all.”

Benny narrowed his eyes at you.

“Okay. I still don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to, you just have to accept that it’s happening and there’s nothing you can do about it because you love me and I know you aren’t gonna run him off.”

Benny shrugged a little.

“Benjamin (L/N) you are not going to try scare your headteacher away.”

He raised his hands with a grin.

“Okay. Okay.”

“Good, no get down you thug.”

You jumped down and he did the same thing and climbed back into the passenger seat and you leant against your door.

“Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t get away.”

You turned around and smiled at Martin.

“That’s fine, but my son has claimed the passenger seat and won’t move so unfortunately you have to go to the back.”

“I feel like I’ve just been sent to detention.” Martin laughed.

He tossed his stuff in the back and you both got into the car and you waited a moment before starting it.

“You are in detention.” Benny said.

“Why am I in detention What have I done?” Martin asked.

“Nothing. You’re just in detention.” Benny smirked.

You rolled your eyes at him.

“You can’t just condemn people like that Benny it’s not nice.”

“I’m not a nice person mum, you should know this.”

You laughed softly and shook your head, glancing at Martin in the rear view mirror, you turned your attention back to the road.

“How long do we have to get ready?” Martin asked.

“About an hour, I’ll leave the door unlocked so just come through when you’re ready.”

“Alright.”

You pulled up and he went to his house and you went to yours to get ready, pulling out your formal attire, you laid it out and grabbed your badges and medals and set them on the bed as well.

You quickly changed and put on your formal uniform, and you called Benny in.

He walked though, trying to do his tie up and you laughed a little.

“Come here.”

Taking his tie, you did it up for him and asked him to help you with the badges and medals and he did.

Once you were both ready, you went down the stairs and pulled out your shoes and handed him his.

The front door opened and closed.

“It’s just me!” Martin called.

“In the living room!” You called back.

Martin walked over and you finished putting your shoes on and you looked up.

You smiled softly as you looked at him.

He’d fixed his messy hair, combing it up like he had this morning, he was wearing a navy blue suit with a black tie and white shirt.

“So he does have normal ties.” You mocked.

“What’s wrong with the others?” He asked.

“They make you look like an old man.”

“He is an old man.” Benny said.

You looked at the teenager.

“Okay but at least he can do a tie, go wait for the taxi you bully.”

Benny snickered and ran out of the house and you stood up, brushing down your clothes you walked over to the mantle place and pulled your dog tags off it, putting them around your next and tucking them under your shirt.

You turned around to find Martin smiling softly at you.

“What? Does it look wrong?” You asked.

“No! No! Sorry! You uh.. you look quite nice actually.”

“I think you’re aiming for a compliment there, you don’t look so bad either, I like the more formal look on you.”

He looked away nervously and you smiled, gesturing towards the door, and he walked out, you following behind and locking up.

On the way there you explained to Martin about how these sort of events usually worked and what happened at them.

He spent most of his time just sitting at the table, not saying much unless it was to you, he watched as Benny danced with a few of the other teenagers there, and you had excused yourself to go somewhere quickly.

When you came back, you looked at Martin and smiled, holding your hand out to him.

“Come on.”

“Where to?”

“Just come.”

Martin rose a brow at you, but he gave you his hand and you held it gently as you led him towards the doors, telling Benny you were heading outside.

Stepping outside, you didn’t realise that your hand was still in his, but he did and he looked down at your conjoined hands.

It was quiet outside, only you two and a few people who were leaving.

You took a small breath and looked at Martin.

“You seemed a little uncomfortable inside.”

“I suppose I’m just not used to events like this.” He chuckled.

Laughing a little, you nodded your head.

“I understand that, we can stay out here for as long as you need.”

“Don’t you have to be inside?”

You shook your head.

“No, I’ve got nowhere else to be. Benny knows where I am, and he has his phone if he needs me and can’t find me.”

Martin nodded his head and you leant against the wall, and he stepped in front of you, looking at your medals he pointed to one of them.

“What does that mean?” He asked.

You smiled and began explaining them all to him, you only had a few, but he was still curious about it.

“How long have you been Sargent?”

“About five years now.”

Martin nodded.

He lifted his gaze from the ground and looked at you, eyes shift nervously and you looked at him confused.

“Martin?”

He looked down at your conjoined hands and so did you.

“Oh sorry.”

You let go and he reached out again, taking your hand back in his and you smiled softly up at him.

“Martin what’re you doing?”

“You’re not seeing anyone are you?” He asked.

“No.”

Martin nodded his head.

“Go on a date with me please?”

“Hmm I don’t know.”

“Come on, don’t be like that, I said please.”

You laughed a little.

“Yeah you did.”

You gave his hand a small squeeze.

“I’d love to go on a date with your Martin, but we’ve also both been drinking. And I fully believe neither of us are tipsy, but ask me again in the morning.”

“If I do will you still say yes?”

“Absolutely.”

Martin smiled and nodded, and you both stayed outside for a little longer until you went back inside.

The following morning came, and you headed downstairs quietly, not wanting to wake Benny up since it was a Saturday.

You made you coffee and made your way out the front, sitting on one of the two chairs you set your cup on the table and kicked your legs on the other chair, opening your book.

It was a peaceful morning, and you wanted to relax, but when you heard a door open and close you couldn’t help but smile.

You waited a moment for his steps to come closer.

“Morning Martin.”

“Morning, can I?”

You nodded and moved your feet, setting your book down you watched as he set his own cup down.

“You’re up early.”

“Yeah, and I knew you’d be out here I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. The company is nice.”

Martin nodded his head and looked at you holding out his hand to you. Reaching out, you put your hand in his.

“Will you go out on a date with me (Y/N), we’ll go wherever you want.”

“I would love to. How about dinner tonight?” You asked.

“Sounds perfect.”

You smiled and squeezed his hand gently, and you both just sat there, hand in hand talking the morning away

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #287: INVASION!

January, 1988

A New Year! We’re getting closer to the 90s! A time where bad art roams the book, Black Knight’s romantic life becomes the big central axis of the plot, and leather team jackets!

This is all what I’ve heard about the 90s. Looking forward to seeing it myself. I’ve been surprised before!

But I’m getting two years ahead of myself and there’s an ongoing story here that bridged ‘87 to ‘88.

As you may guess from this wild cover, its about the Fixer.

Last time on Avengers: the Masters of Evil tried to destroy the Avengers and failed but did beat Hercules into a coma and wreck Avengers Mansion. Hercules is fine. He got kidnapped back home and his dad got super mad at the Avengers but we’re past that now. The Mansion being destroyed has caused the Avengers to move to Hydrobase, an artificial island that they were renting to park their Quinjets on.

Wasp stepped down from chairwomanship of the team and since the people with seniority like Captain America and Thor were too busy and since the ambitious like Dr Druid were too new, Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel was the obvious choice.

Dr Druid may be trying to undermine her though. He was certainly being a creep last issue. Spying on people, going over her head. That kind of thing.

Also last issue, the Fixer escaped custody thanks to a failsafe in his equipment that went off and controlled a random scientist named Todd Martin to bust him out of jail.

Fixer has some Big Plan to Fix Things and tried to collect the Awesome Android for his plan but drove away empty handed when the Avengers showed up. But Namor’s wife and former Alpha Flightateer Marrina tried to show she Wasn’t Just A Love Interest and went off and got herself captured by the Fixer.

Namor doesn’t know that yet.

He’s just doing a frighteningly intense close-up because she ran off and didn’t come back.

He stops a couple of random children cyclists and ask if they’ve seen any yellow women around. TO THEIR UTTER CONFUSION.

After Namor flies off, one of the children decides that they must be filming an episode of Star Trek around here.

To be fair... to be fair to be fair to be faiiiiir ... to be fair, Namor does look like Buff Spock.

Though... After the cliffhanger of last issue where Fixer captured Marrina, he just shoves her unconscious out the back of his truck and drives away.

Its a pretty benign way to deal with a capture superhero. Depending on whether Fixer knew another truck would be coming up the road after not too long.

A truck does come up the road after not too long, right where Marrina is sprawled woozily.

Good thing she has sea strengthened limbs!

Namor is drawn by the sound of a truck crumpling over Marrina and she tries to explain what happened to her. Namor decides that the nonplussed truck driver is actually the Fixer in disguise and prepares to punch him but Marrina stops him. In fact, she tells Namor the truck driver may have saved her by slamming the brake when he saw her in the road.

To his credit, Namor does apologize for doing the man a startle.

Elsewhere, the Fixer completes his journey in his truck to a certain warehouse in a certain suburban industrial park, expecting to meet a certain someone.

Back at the Avengers, the Avengers clean up from the Awesome Android fight and explain to the cops why a barn exploded in their presence.

Captain Marvel explains that the Avengers will pay for the damages and I have to imagine someone Tony flinches and doesn’t know why. I wonder if it feels weird to him to be on one team and paying for another.

The cops are bemused.

A cop, looking stereotypically small town coppish, with the jacket and the sunglasses and the hat and jodhpurs for some reason: “Ma’am, we’re just not used to filing reports about super hero fights with giant androids. It’s going to read like a drive-in movie script.”

Also fun fact: the Awesome Android is part organic. Black Knight takes some science scans of the downed automaton.

After Captain Marvel finishes speaking to the cops, Dr Druid drags her off to the side and asks if maybeeeeee she should be sitting down. I mean, she did just get gassed half an hour ago.

Captain Marvel firmly tells him that she’s fine.

But c’mon dude. Make up your mind. You drag her to her feet, loudly insisting it’ll be bad for morale if she’s laying on the ground in front of the team and now you’re telling her to sit down because she shouldn’t be standing.

Are you even a medical doctor?

To prove to Dr Druid that she’s perfectly fine, Monica transforms into energy but its clear that the effort makes her woozy.

Dr Druid is like well if you ask me you sit down but whatever I’m going to go see how the Android is doing.

And speak of the devil and an Awesome Android will reactivate.

The Android stirs back to life and takes a grab for Black Knight who flips out of the way. IN ARMOR. God damn, dude.

One of the cops tries shooting him, to no effect.

And then She-Hulk BOOMPs the Awesome Android in the armpit again and down he goes again.

So. Do you think BOOMP is a loud noise or a soft noise? I think its supposed to be a thunderous noise, like a BOOOOOM with a puh at the end. But she’s basically punching his armpit-based off switch so it could be more of a button pressing chirp like BOOP! with an m in it.

Let me know what you think.

Anyway, the media shows up to interview the Avengers. And they’re pretty excited! Local news never gets to interview the Avengers!

Unfortunately, they’re also very annoying.

The mistake he made there was being annoying at She-Hulk, the one Avenger present least required to be polite.

The press then doubles down by annoying Namor when he shows up with Marrina by asking him if he’s really the ruler of the mythical land of Atlantis.

Namor: “Mythical? No more mythical than the fabled arrogance and ignorance of newmen.”

Reporter: “But that doesn’t answer --.”

Namor: “Indeed, it does.”

Hah.

Sometimes when Namor is in the right mood, instead of just yelling and threatening to hit things, he gets extremely wry and its great.

The weird note from Namor (and Marrina) appearing on the news due to this though is that Dan Smallwood sees the interview and is shocked because that’s his childhood sweetheart! Marrina, I mean. Not Namor. Namor is nobody’s childhood sweetheart. Althoooough, I think he did grow up with Attuma and Dorma? Whatever. No love lost now.

Back at the Fixer side of the plot, in the Fixer’s secret hideout, he finds the guy he was expecting to find. His old pal Mentallo, who he asked to meet him.

Mentallo assumes that the Fixer is here to propose a partnership between them like old times.

Mentallo: “With your power to fix anything -- cobble any object into a weapon... and my invincible ability to read minds and project thoughts, how could anyone stand against us?”

He’s even undaunted by the Fixer wearing a psychic proof helmet despite their long friendship and the time they almost took down SHIELD together.

Mentallo is a little put out when Fixer tentacles him and prepares to torture him though.

That’s a bit of an unwelcome surprise to him.

... I don’t mean to kick a man while he’s being tentacled but having Fixer and Mentallo side by side makes me realize how boring their outfits are. Its fine when its one or the other but both of them... geez, someone get a chest emblem or something.

Back with the Avengers, they’ve finally gotten Awesome Android to a local airfield in preparation for getting him to Hydrobase, with the help of the National Guard.

Not what the National Guard usually deals with so I imagine it was an exciting day for them.

Namor proposes that they immediately get back to searching for the Fixer for being a heinous dude who shoves underwater women out the back of trucks.

Captain Marvel says yeah sounds great except they need to make sure the Awesome Android is securely secured before they go flying off somewhere. He could do a lot of damage if he woke up again and She-Hulk wasn’t here to punch him in the armpit.

She-Hulk concurs because Monica is the leader and also, pffft, its just the Fixer. Who gives a care?

Black Knight is more concerned that they don’t know what the dude is up to. Concerns validated when Dr Druid receives a psychic scream-o-gram from Mentallo who is being tortured by the Fixer.

Dr Druid broadcasts it to the rest of the team. Which is extremely funny because he seems pained by receiving the message but Monica is just like ‘huh, how about that.’

Whatever else you can say about Dr Druid, props for only broadcasting the helpful part of the message?

Namor repeats his proposal that they go find and beat up the Fixer, which Captain Marvel agrees to.

She tells the team to get back in the Quinjet except Marrina. Because someone needs to finish delivering the Awesome Android to Hydrobase and heyyyy you drew the short straw of not technically being officially on the team, Marrina!

Namor doesn’t say anything but I imagine he’s secretly relived Marrina will be out of the action. Given their conversations last issue. And how she ran off to prove herself and immediately got captured.

Anyway. The Avengers in their Quinjet head towards the location they got from Mentallo’s distress scream.

Not being an experienced superhero, Dr Druid finds it strange that an innocuous warehouse is a secret villain lair but She-Hulk tells him that’s pretty routine for supervillains.

Then an anti-air gun pops out of the warehouse and shoots down the Quinjet.

Oof, ow, Tony’s gonna be feeling that one in the budget sheet.

The Avengers tear themselves free of the wreckage, not much worse for the wear. Superheroes!

The secret supervillain warehouse lair fires missiles at the heroes but that just gives the Avengers an opportunity for them all to show off a little.

Namor catches the missiles and throws them right back at the warehouse.

Black Knight spins his sword to deflect the missiles because he saw Thor do it with his hammer and he wanted to give it a try.

She-Hulk just hops over the missiles and Captain Marvel blasts a missile heading towards her, despite still recovering.

Namor declares “enough games” and charges in through the hole he missiled. Electric cables tentacle at Namor and electrocute him but he grabs those cables and uses them to shock the machine that they came from.

She-Hulk: “Subby -- you okay? Looked like --”

Namor: “I will survive, She-Hulk. Namor ever has.”

That’s pretty cool, Namor.

In a recent comic, someone tries to electrocute him and tells them it was dumb to expect much from that tactic when he plays with electric eels for fun.

So, there’s an answer. Namor electrocutes himself recreationally.

There’s an additional layer of trap/security beyond the anti-air, missiles, and electric cables though.

A powerful fan starts up and sucks the Avengers into two separate pneumatic tubes.

She-Hulk and Black Knight end up in one. Dr Druid is also there, for some reason, and She-Hulk catches him so he doesn’t go into the fan. But that doesn’t leave her a hand for Dane and he goes hurtling at the turbine blades.

But he gets an idea.

An exceptionally cursed sword idea.

That must have made a sound like rocks in a garbage disposal but times a thousand.

Geez, that extremely cursed sword really fucked up that fan.

Namor and Captain Marvel ended up stuck in the other pneumatic tube, without a single extremely cursed sword to bail them out...

Even though Captain Marvel doesn’t feel like she can change into her energy form, she tells Namor to let her go so he can save himself.

He tells her nuts to that and rips a hole in the side of the pneumatic tube and carries them both to safety.

The safety of a dark corridor but, y’know, still better than where they were.

Captain Marvel: “I’m the leader of the Avengers, and it’s time I began acting in that capacity! This is where my power may aid us.”

And she summons all her reserves to turn into an energy Monica, to light up the corridor AND keep pace with Namor.

Namor: Such a very brave young woman -- not yet up to the task she undertakes... but unwilling to use weakness as an excuse. In truth, she possesses the qualities of leadership, though she has doubt.

She’s not able to maintain her energy form for long but right as she falters, She-Hulk BA-WHOOMs through the wall, reuniting the two halves of the team.

Captain Monica tells Dr Druid enough blundering around. Point them directly to where Mentallo is.

Dr Druid points and Captain Marvel has She-Hulk and Namor just tear a straight line to Mentallo.

Yay, teamwork.

Mentallo is still stuck to the wall so the Avengers help him down. Unfortunately, he’s not much help for finding Fixer.

In fact, he’s a bit out of it.

Mentallo: “Don’t know... can only tell you... he forced me to send... the mental summons. Forced -- me... You can’t -- can’t know what his mind is like! It was not the Fixer -- I -- I knew! The cerebral feedback -- unimaginable! His mind -- huge -- alien! ALIEN!”

And then he passes the fuck out.

Okay. That’s a “the plot thickens” if I’ve ever heard one.

Several hours later and also the next page, the Avengers happen to unravel part of the mystery at Hydrobase.

Since the team got back, Captain Marvel has been standing by and letting Dr Druid run the show.

Mmmmmnope. I don’t like it. Don’t like it at all.

But that’s the situation.

Dr Druid is arranging the Awesome Android to be placed in a containment tube, so She-Hulk won’t have to keep bopping him in the armpit.

 But he realizes that the containment tube has been recently tampered with! Dun dun dun?

Team Scientist Black Knight goes to check it out and fiiiinds...

The Fixer??

Oh, hey, mission accomplished. Bad guy caught. Lets break early for drinks.

One thing though... How did he get in the tube?

Because that’s really the real Fixer, as far as Dr Druid can tell after examination. But he’s been heavily sedated.

So he probably didn’t do a lot of drugs and stuff himself into a capsule to troll the Avengers, right?

Well, Captain Marvel has some insight about that.

Since she’s consistently the one who does her homework, she knows that tube is supposed to contain... THE SUPER-ADAPTOID!

A ridiculous AIM android that adapts to the abilities of adversaries.

It was originally sent to super-adapt Captain America but also fought the Avengers, looking like a truly ridiculous mash-up.

(There’s something charming about the first iteration of the Adaptoid just being palette swap Captain America Player 2. And I called it ridiculous but yes, the ridiculous mash-up is also charming for being a mess.)

Despite being able to copy eight people at a time, the Super-Adaptoid has been thwarted multiple times at the world domination game.

After its most recent defeat, the Super-Adaptoid was brought to Avengers Mansion to be held in a containment tube. But supervillains always break out of jail, even containment tube Avengers Mansion jail.

Somehow, (totally the Fixer’s fault) the Super-Adaptoid escaped when the Masters of Evil were busting up Avengers Mansion. It super-adapted the Fixer and then shoved the Fixer in the containment tube to cover its escape. Because the Avengers didn’t check the containment tube contents before transport.

Sort of a fail there, guys. But things were hectic after the Masters of Evil attack so you get a pass, this time.

But, hey, I’m impressed that the wrecking of the mansion is still paying out consequences! Really makes it feel momentous in the team history!

Captain Marvel warns the team that if the Super-Adaptoid is super-adapting this group of Avengers, they might be in some real trouble.

I mean, sheesh, Captain Marvel, Namor, She-Hulk, and also Dr Druid is there for some reason. Thankfully, Black Knight has no powers except owning an extremely cursed sword and I don’t thiiiiink the Super-Adaptoid can super-adapt magic.

But the Super-Adaptoid the Fixer has made his way to Queens to make a recruitment pitch to Machine Man.

If X-51 helps “the Fixer” with his schemeplan, he’ll bring Jocasta back to life.

No, don’t do it, Aaron! Be a good machine man!

On the other hand, Jocasta is neat... Uh, maybe go for it?

Follow @essential-avengers​ because we like Jocasta here. She’s rad. Like and reblog, if you liked this post and think others would like it.

[fluffypotatey]

f g p r from the fanfic ask game? please?

Hey bestie 🥰 thanks so much for the ask this one took me awhile lol

G - Do you write your story from start to finish? or out of order?

i like writing things from start to finish. key word: like. my brain, however, likes to jump ahead to specific scenes and events. i used to fight that bit and force myself to forge on along and wait until i finally made it to that part in the story.

lmao that was a horrible idea. those scenes would continue to haunt me and pester me until i finally give up and wrote them. so i just stop fighting it and write out of order. (honestly it was a blessing for me to decide to make my lmk one-shot series not in chronological order bc then i’d never get it done lol

it’s why my writing can get slow sometimes because while writing the chapter for the next event, i’ll be hit with some scene 2 chapters later or 3 scenes after some confrontation i haven’t started yet!!! i have ch7 for the dr geyer fic. it’s in my docs but i haven’t finished it bc someone *looks at brain* wants to write more of s6b bc Theo’s in that one >:(

P - Are you what George RR Martine would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance vs letting the story unfold as you go?)

you know, i know i read of this before like years ago but i don’t remember it lol. had to look it up to make sure i was understanding this right.

so… i think it depends?

with my merlin multi-chap fic and my medieval fantasy wip i plan those in advance. the merlin fic? i have that 1st arc’s plot down, i know where the story will lead to, i even know which characters i’ll keep alive or keep dead. 

with my one-shots (and my one-shots that chose to say “fuck you”), those are a spur of the moment kind of writing. i had something playing in my head that’s wants to be free, so i write it down and pray that it’s satisfied (it typically is not which is why you see a lot of my one-shots become multi-chapters or one-shot series). these don’t have a solid plan when i begin. i tend to come up with it as the plot comes together. 

tbh this works well with my fics bc i have a base outline: the actual show/book/movie. with my dr geyer fic, i know where s5-6 begin and end. sure, i’m choosing what gets to happen in-between, but i at least have the comfort of that base. the lmk series? it’s literally just me plugging in an oc and forcing a couple characters to air-out their issues. 

R - Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

oh definitely. tbh my main one would have to be Lemony Snicket. fell in love with the narration of those stories. the snark, the personality, the vocabulary, the inner dialogue. idk it just did something to 9 year old me lol

another big one i’d have to say is Branden Sanderson. not really his writing, but how complex and beautiful his worlds are. i didn’t know that you could create and capture the essence such beautiful worlds in writing but reading his books and seeing them come to life really influenced my desire to write and design fantastical worlds or even just explore snippets of other worlds like BBC Merlin Albion.

F - Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it

babe, i’m so sorry but it took me forever to choose. i debated on whether i should do lmk or teen wolf or abc merlin or even shit i haven’t posted bc i love too many of these T^T

but dw i did find one (it’ll be under the cut bc this got long jfc). i giggled a lot when writing it just because the back and forth with Liam and Mason interjecting was fun. also i picked this one to prove the dr geyer fic hasn’t been forgotten. i’ve just been….preocupied and going feral over immortal monkeys

*

“I’m not here to start anything,” Mr. Doughlas said to them calmly. “I just want the mountain ash barrier open, mh?”

“Yeah, because this isn’t starting anything,” Liam growled.

Mr. Douglas smiled, sharp teeth in full display. Again, he twisted his claws in the chimera. Theo, again, kept quiet. The only indication he was in any being came from his winces. Liam can’t tell if he should be impressed or horrified that getting stabbed in the spine barely got a reaction out of Theo. 

“This is simply a contingency. I just want the barrier open, then I’ll be out of your hair. I promise. No funny business.”

Theo chuckled (well, more like gurgled) and snorted.

“Says the Nazi.”

Douglas drove his claws further into Theo’s spine, polite smile cracking, in response. The chimera grunted, but Theo just laughed again.

“Sorry, sorry.” Theo’s smirk looked almost deranged with the blood coating his lips. “Nazi was the insult others threw at you, right?”

“He’s a Nazi?!” Mason shrieked. 

Doughlas sighed, all politeness disappearing as he addressed them all.

“Must we obsess over my previous occupation? I don’t see how this is important. I was just a soldier there.”

“Oh yeah, being a part of a genocidal fascist group should totally be overlooked!” Liam exclaimed. “Not like you were involved in and advocated for any of that!”

“Yeah, it adds nothing for us to even slightly trust you,” Mason added.

[boyvidae]

thoughts on my favourite episodes of the magnus archives

34 Anatomy class

this one is just so fun. the statement giver is fantastic, i love his inflection. and the fact that the students are like, 80s/90s cartoon multicultural, all with placeholder names. i think it has the best balance of hilarity and horror out of the whole show.

54 Still Life

i partially like this one because 1. taxidermy and 2. the premise is already really funny because yes taxidermy *is* just that expensive. but i also love the statement giver, he's constantly like "that was weird, but i try not to judge". i like in the supplemental when jon breaks into the apartment, that mental image is very funny to me.

58 Trail Rations

i love the pov on this one, i like how much the woman loves her stupid, marriage of convenience husband. it's a creepy one too. especially because that shit really happened on the oregon trail.

i like the supplemental because it's just tim complaining about how paranoid jon is and how he's stalking them and jon being like "i cant believe he thinks im paranoid, im going to do more stalking to prove him wrong"

64 Burial Rites

i like the pov, how she is very cynical of her work but still obviously passionate. a very creepy one too. i love her concluding thoughts about what the egyptians would think of something that couldn't die.

65 Binary

this one is just. so good. i dont have much to say. so creepy and awful. as someone who dredged a lot of the internet back when it was still relatively wild and i was way too young, this kind of thing stirs an ancient fear in me LOL.

this is when tim starts to be basically only angry, i miss sweet tim a lot :[ i get why of course, just makes me sad.

85 Upon the stair

another good creepy one. i love how it's written "and the man was not standing there and he did not ask me" etc etc. very dream-like.

110 Creature Feature

cant out into words exactly why i like this one, but it's really fun. i've had friends just like the director in this story so very relatable i suppose. plus the statement giver is trans.

112 Thrill of the chase

BASIRA READS IT. ahem. i love this one because i love the tongue in cheekness of it wrt true crime. but also just the tone. it's so light and fun and they are all enjoying chasing and killing each other.

116 The show must go on

i was incensed by this one even the first time i heard it. i love how they wrote the unknowing. it's so poetic and fits perfectly and gets just the right imagery in my head. and i love all the imagery of the horrible robots imitating life.

119 stranger and stranger

similar to the one above. the unknowing is just super fun. but i love daisy going feral mode and killing breekon, the voice acting is so good. and basira just being like "well. im still here so im just gonna keep moving and eventually i'll get out." queen you are SOOO normal. and tim gets a great final line, good for him, keep thotting it up in heaven king!!!!

150 cul-de-sac

nothing to say except i despise suburbia and i love when people make it horror

162 a cosy cabin

of course i like interactions with gerard and gertrude, and john and martin, but i just adore the recording of sasha and tim... makes me want to PUKE.. she said "im unforgettable" SOBS

166 the worms

i like this one cuz it's very gross and evocative and heavy. i love when the worms/people fight in the dirt and it's described as like, being unable to tell the difference between worm and dirt and blood. just good fun.

170 Recollection

OBVIOUSLY I LOVE THIS ONE. just 20 minutes of martin repeating himself and it does not get old it only gets better. it's SO. GOOD. like. top 3 episode for me. but you need all the prior context to enjoy it so idk if it can be #1. in my heart tho.

171 The Gardener

this one is. so. GROSS. i love it. the soundscape is intense and vivid. homophobic eldritch entity just tops it off. obviously cuts deep for anyone with self image issues. love how jon thinks its beautiful but then seems to realize himself by the end.

183 Monument

i like the weird rat imagery in this one. the self-importance of the individuals, how they are trapped trying to logic themselves out of the situstion they are in, each believing themselves to be correct. very good.

[jbeaubier]

I just need all of you to know:

It's completely canon that the twins float when they get excited or happy.

That means their ability to control whether or not their body is affected by gravity has an emotional link.

There's this adorable panel of JP as an older teen being Hella excited to be in Paris and he forgets he's in public and he starts floating he's so excited. His circus friend pulls him.down admonishing him.for doing so in public.

Consider that a lot of the twins emotionally constipated attitude isn't just trauma. It's also a way they learned to camouflage their abilities in hostile environments.

JP wasn't safe with the Martin's, nor on the run. He would've lost everything if he was exposed as a mutant during his skiing career though I'm sure he was out as a mutant to his Real Dad tm

JMA literally was fucked from the beginning. Like Jfc there's 0 wonder why JM became so reserved with her emotions but add on that if she did become emotional in certain ways after puberty she would float it makes complete sense she would completely be unable to access her powers when Jeanne Marie is fronting.

Jeanne Marie is doing everything she can to keep them fucking alive and that includes making sure they are never actually happy because if they start floating they are toast.

Amnesia blocks. Thank fucking God. Because if she remembers that (like she does and accesses flight in that one issue) everything's gonna break apart the protections put in place in her mind.

Aurora meanwhile gives no shits and takes no orders because she is all about feeling things. Fuck the nuns she's getting out of here Except Jeanne Marie and a majority vote aren't letting her? Fine. She's going to do what she wants consequences be damned. She will fight a nun.

This also makes Jeanne Marie's development of her mutant abilities even more distressing..not only were her powers saving her but they were also indicating her absolute relief that she would no longer be suffering.

I fucking hate the Martin's and I will find the nearest necromancer and set them on fire after I get them back to life.