#I don't have to point out that I tinkered with the gifs right it's way too obvious and I'm just paranoid

[slowlydiving]

let's play 'spot the extrovert'

[girls-alias]

Cockblock - Dean Winchester

Title: Cockblock - Dean Winchester

Words: 4,401 (Long but hope you enjoy)

Relations: Dean Winchester X Reader

TW: Foul language, sexual content. Smut!

SMUT! LAST WARNING... Third-person POV:

"Dean, what are you doing to-" Sam started as he approached his brother, Dean had the hood of Y/N's car up and was tinkering inside. Dean hushed him quickly. Dean looked around the perimeter of Bobby's house in case Y/N had heard. When there was no sign of her Dean sighed with relief. Sam looked at him confused. "Are you messing with Y/N's car?" Sam asked remembering to whisper. Dean chuckled, beginning to once again remove as many bolts as he could and removing the spark plug. Dean smirked triumphantly as he threw the spark plug in the air a small distance and caught it. The grin on his face never faded.

Sam was perplexed by this, he saw no reason Dean would be messing with her car. If anything he should be making her car perfect as Sam knew Dean wanted her. He's never wanted someone so badly. Dean denied that he was in love, and claimed he simply wanted to fuck her but deep down every single one of them except Y/N knew he wanted more than sex. Sam scoffed as he shook his head realising where Dean had found the motivation to mess with her.

"She's going out again isn't she?" Sam asked, leaning against Y/N's car, watching his brother with a smirk. Dean's reaction told him all he needed to. Dean pretended to play it cool, thinking he had hidden his widened eyes but Sam saw it and knew he was right.

"Nope, just playing a prank," Dean shrugged, moving the stand which held the hood up and shutting it just as Sam had moved out of the way. If Sam had been a second later he would have been hit. Dean smirked as he pocketed the spark plug and began gathering his things to take the evidence with him.

"Dean," Sam urged, going ignored by Dean. "You can't just keep messing with her till she wants you," He explained but Dean chuckled.

"That's not what I'm doing," Dean tried but once his eyes landed on Sam he knew he didn't believe him. Dean rolled his eyes making his way back inside the house, as soon as he heard Y/N's music upstairs he knew she was getting ready and he would soon be running out of time to hide the evidence.

***

"Dean!" Y/N angrily shouted from outside. Dean seemed to forget for a second but as soon as he remembered he made a bolt for it. He rushed to the back door away from Y/N's car where she was furious.

"I told you not to mess with her," Sam commented, not looking up from his book before taking a sip of his coffee. Dean rolled his eyes as he opened the back door. He nearly screeched when Y/N was standing in front of him looking furious. She had been smarter than Dean and knew he would try to escape out the back.

She held her hand out to him not saying a word. Breathing heavily as she debated punching him in the face. Dean was like a deer in headlights, not only was she gorgeous but she was also angry which made Dean want her more.

"Y/N, what's up? You look nice," Dean tried playing it cool, wrong move. She smirked evilly as her tongue ran over her teeth, her bright lipstick making her lips even more appealing to Dean.

"You might want to run," Sam commented, still not looking up but hearing her crack her neck which was something she did when she was about to kill a monster. Dean gulped. He hadn't had time to react before she hit his chest with a flat palm, pushing him back a few steps. While he gained his balance she squeezed a pressure point in his shoulder, the pain searing through his body, he winced as his knees gave out and she knelt in front of her, looking up mentally begging she would let go.

"Give me the spark plug," She demanded, pausing after each word, a telltale sign of Y/N's anger. Dean gulped wincing as he tried to fight the pain in his shoulder which seemed to immobilise him.

"I don't have it," He strained, she squeezed a little harder making him exclaim in pain.

"What the bloody hell is-" Bobby announced as he started making his way into the kitchen where the whole thing was going down. He paused as he looked over the sight. Dean was on his knees wincing as he breathed, Y/N holding his shoulder keeping him down. If he had brain cells he would have walked away but he knew from how angry she looked there was a possibility that she would kill him. "Dean, what did you do?" Bobby asked sternly walking further into the room.

When he didn't reply fast enough Y/N squeezed a little harder making him exclaim in pain. "He took her spark plug so she couldn't leave," Sam explained, unfazed by the scene as he had seen it multiple times. Dean was always doing whatever he could to stop her from going out. Dean knew she was too hot to go home alone after drinking in bars, hearing her have sex with men in the next motel room only broke him. She wasn't loud and he couldn't hear much noise from them but enough to know what was happening. He usually only heard the bed springs creaking or the bed frame hitting the wall but it didn't stop him from being jealous of the men she invited inside.

"Dean, give it her back," Bobby sighed not wanting to clean blood off the tiling.

"No," Dean strained.

"No?" It was hardly a question, her tone showing nothing but rage.

"No," Dean repeated looking into her eyes, determined this time. Bobby groaned as he rubbed his forehead sick of the stress of Dean messing with her, he was acting like a little boy on the playground. Dean had tried flirting and she happily flirted back but seemed unfazed by his advances as she had a power about her that made him weak. He would only be able to build up the courage to say one remark before she flirted back and he lost his tongue.

"I have spares downstairs," Bobby explained, sighing as he walked away to go into the basement. Dean groaned as he knew she would be able to leave soon. "Come on, what do you need?" Bobby called up the stairs. Y/N released her hold on Dean enough to let him stand but still present enough that if she even coughed he would be back on the ground. She used his shoulder to guide him down the stairs following Bobby. "Will you let him go now?" He asked Y/N but she didn't react, he had his answer. "Well, lock him in the bunker, you can let him out when you get back," Bobby explained, sighing wanting the whole ordeal to be over.

She smirked evilly as she led him to the Bunker door. "Thanks a lot, Bobby," Dean sarcastically remarked. Y/N stood in the doorway before letting go of Dean. He stepped away from her looking back as he rolled his eyes. She smirked. With a push from Bobby, she was falling forward. Dean caught her so she wouldn't hit the floor as Bobby slammed the door shut locking it.

"Now either kill each other or make up, I'm sick of you's fighting," Bobby exclaimed before shutting the peephole and retreating from the door. Y/N stabilised herself before pushing Dean away from her. She stormed to the door.

"Bobby, let me out!" She shouted but heard nothing back. She slammed her fist into the door a few times. Bobby climbed the stairs before locking the basement door. Sam continued to be unfazed as he heard the ordeal.

"I'm going out," Bobby sighed as he passed Sam in the kitchen.

"I'll come with," Sam commented as he placed his things down, grabbing his jacket on the way out as he followed Bobby. Sam knew if he stayed he wouldn't find any peace or quiet with them locked in the bunker.

Y/n turned around, eyes instantly on Dean. He backed away. "You," She called him out. Still as angry as when he first saw her. She began storming over to him as he hurried around the bed to create an obstacle for her.

"I'm locked in here too," He tried playing innocent.

"I wouldn't be locked in here if it wasn't for you," She shouted, easily stepping onto the bed and closing the distance between them. Dean tried hurrying around again trying to stay away from her but she jumped down in front of him. He backed away as she continued to advance toward him.

"I'll give you the spark plug, calm down," Dean tried but it only made her angrier.

"Calm down?!" She shouted, Dean gulped knowing he had fucked up. "I don't need a spark plug now, I need to get out," Her voice demanded as Dean had mixed emotions. On one hand, he was terrified of what she would do to him, on the other he was incredibly turned on. "I should kill you right here," She explained as Dean's back hit the wall. He gulped knowing he couldn't escape her. "I should kill you for every time you've messed with me. Every time you pretended to accidentally lock us in a motel room, every time you made an excuse for us to stay put and now for messing with my car," She was breathing heavily.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Dean quickly explained holding his hands out in front of him to stop her from moving any closer where she would be able to hit him. "I shouldn't have messed with you, I won't do it again," He tried but she scoffed.

"But you will Dean. You always do. The amount of times you have cockblocked me should be embarrassing for you. What you can't have me so no one else can. Is that it?" Her tone was twisted, her jaw clenching as she waited for his response.

"Yes," Dean confessed. She studied him for a second, her anger never fading. She scoffed before chuckling. She turned away, pacing slightly as she cracked her knuckles.

"You're a stupid son of a bitch," She explained, her tone dark. Dean gulped wondering how she would really react to his confession. She already knew why he did all those things. She knew he was cockblocking her every chance he got but she was too sexually frustrated to put up with it right now. Her sex drive and frustration only got worse with each man she slept with as none of them pleased her the way she needed to be but she kept trying hoping one of them might actually do the job right. She could hand it to them on a silver platter, give them a map of her body and make a dot-to-dot pattern she wanted them to follow and yet none of them tried.

She stopped in her place, her pacing coming to a halt. Dean worried as he figured she had finally come up with a plan to hurt him but she looked at him annoyed rather than angry. He brought his hands out in front of his chest ready to block any attack he could. She rolled her eyes.

"You want to stop me from going out so I'll make you a deal." She began explaining. Dean looked at her apprehensively but was intrigued by the proposition. "If you can satisfy me then I won't go out anymore. I won't sleep with random men and I'll come to you every time I need it," She continued. Dean gulped not caring what the rest of the deal was. Yes. Yes! He thought wanting to instantly start. She slowly approached him. "But, if you're just as bad as them then you stop messing with me and even drive to and from the bars, never leaving the car or complaining, you got it?" She finished, standing arm's length away from Dean as she waited for his response. He pondered it.

If he takes the deal then he gets to sleep with her, if it goes well then he gets to sleep with her multiple times and from the rate of her going out he knew she would want it frequently. But if it didn't go well he would have to look at every man, he'd have to watch her in the back seat as he drove them to her room, he would have to wait in the car knowing what was happening behind her door. He sighed, not sure if he was sure enough in his abilities to please her. He bit his lip still thinking it over.

Y/N rolled her eyes growing impatient. She sighed watching him think wondering if he actually wanted her or if he was just messing with her. She sucked her teeth continuing to wait. Dean finally looked her in the eyes before grabbing her harshly, a hand on the back of her neck and a hand on her hip pulling her to his lips.

Their lips connected in a hungry kiss, their lips quickly finding the rhythm and turning into making out. Her tongue was the first to advance as he opened his mouth allowing her tongue to taste his. Her hands were on the sides of his neck keeping him close. He began walking her backwards towards the bed. She smirked against his lips before he pulled away. Grabbing the top of her dress and harshly pulling it down. Exposing her bra.

His lips soon found hers again, connecting and resuming the rhythm they had previously been doing. He backed her onto the bed, hovering over her, continuing to make out. She began growing impatient for him to take this further. She pulled away.

"Are you going to fuck me or waste my time?" She asked a little annoyed he was taking so long when she needed him now. Dean smirked, moving back in to connect their lips before he pulled his shirt over his head.

Dean pulled the dress straps past Y/N's arms and pulled the dress down her body, admiring her matching white bra and panties as he pulled the dress off her body. He unbuckled his belt and jeans quickly pulling them down and kicking them off once they hit the floor. Now only in underwear, Dean moved back over her, holding his weight on his forearm and hand on her hip. Her arms lay over Dean's shoulders a hand digging nails into his shoulder harshly as they made out. Dean's hand moved from her hip to snake around her back and unclasp her bra with one hand. She was mildly impressed. He yanked at the bra, pulling it from her body as she moved her arms to allow it to be free of her. Dean was quick to reconnect their lips before trailing kisses down her jaw and neck, his lips finding her left nipple as he began to suck and nibble, causing her to moan as her head fell back, finally finding some pleasure she longed for.

Dean's hand trailed down her side and gripped the side of her panties as his hand continued down. She lifted her hips automatically, her panties dragging down her hips, her thighs till they were loose and stripped from her legs. The motion alone was enough to make her weak. Dean seemed to understand where she wanted things fast and where slow. Once her panties were thrown across the room, Dean's fingertips trailed up her leg, and her smooth skin soon ridged with goosebumps from his touch. His hand continued up her leg, going even slower the closer he got to her pulsing vagina. She craved him, she needed him. She has never been so turned on by someone before. She was always left disappointed and even now she knows she will only turn to Dean when she requires satisfaction.

Dean's fingers grazed across her clit, a gasp escaping her lips. Dean smirked, moving from her nipple to reconnect their lips. Y/N was eager to taste his lips, and his tongue again. Her kisses were sloppy as she was desperate for him. Dean smirked as she reacted to her touch, moans escaping her mouth as he played with her clit, he had always thought she was quiet during sex but she was already a moaning mess. Dean attached his lips to her neck, nibbling and making out with her skin causing her to moan more, he found satisfaction in pleasing her. His cock throbbed painfully as he slid his fingers inside of her soaking wet heat. He moaned, imagining it wasn't his fingers but his hard cock inside her. She moaned as his fingers went deeper. He rested his forehead on her shoulder begging himself to calm down as he wanted nothing more than to be inside her. To make her moan louder, maybe even scream.

"You've never moaned like this before," He commented, softly biting her shoulder as she chuckled lightly.

"I've never been touched like this before," She finally escaped through a moan. Dean groaned as he begged to calm down, not knowing how much longer he could resist. Y/N's hand found Dean's cheek, guiding his lips back onto hers. She smirked as she kissed him. "Please, Dean." She whimpered against his lips. He moaned into her mouth as she did, his fingers not stopping as he pumped them in and out of her. She pulled back to look deep into his eyes. "I need you inside me," Her voice breathless as he continued to twist his fingers inside her. Dean smirked as he pulled back, sitting up slightly before she hungrily began stripping him from his boxers.

She gulped, butterflies flying around her ribcage at his size. He was 100% bigger than any man she had been with. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she gawked at him. He smirked as he leaned down, she lay back with him following her. They made out as Dean moved between her legs and smirked as she moaned feeling his tip at her entrance.

"I'm not even inside you yet," He chuckled against her lips. She rolled her eyes playfully. Dean bit his lip as he admired her, a smirk tugging on his lips. He waited, his hips begging for him to move inside her but he resisted. She instantly understood his teasing.

She gave him a bitch face, rolling her eyes again. "De-" She started saying his name but as she did he penetrated her, deep and hard. She screamed the rest of his name. He smirked evilly as he admired her, her eyes rolling to the back of her head, her back arching up from the bed. He bit his lip, watching as she trembled beneath him. "Mmmm, please," She begged, her eyes finally opening wider to give him puppy dog eyes. He chuckled before connecting their lips.

Dean's breath quivered as he pulled out of her before slamming against her G spot. She practically screamed as he did. Her nails dug into his back as her inside clenched around him. He groaned, wanting nothing more than to do this for the rest of his life. If he died right here inside her he would be happy as he would have died doing something he loves... her.

He chose a slow rhythm, her hips rolling to meet his every time. Her moans were music to his ears. He rested his forehead on her shoulder begging to never forget this. His motivation from her moaning kept him going, the need to satisfy her making his hands tighten as he grabbed her hip. His nails dug into the skin on her hips making her moan rather than wince like he expected. He smirked recognising she likes it rough.

He smirked sitting up and pulling her legs down with him so her hips were against his as he sat back. She smirked as he dragged her down the bed with ease. She feels like a rag doll to him. "You going to take this dick like a good girl," His tone showed his demanding manner. She didn't see the worry in his eyes at how she might react. She nodded quickly as she bit her lip. Dean smirked recognising her submissive behaviour. He smirked as he held her hips in his hands and held her still as he ploughed into her relentlessly. He had her screaming in seconds. He grinned watching her as he felt himself building up.

He pushed into her a final time before gripping her hips tightly and stopping deep inside her. He pulled out quickly as he knew he would cum if he continued. Y/N looked at him disappointed but also concerned. Dean chuckled. "Get on top," He instructed. She grinned as she hurried to move from under him. He bit his lip as he watched her before lying down. She smirked as she straddled him, she sat up and she lowered her hips, pushing him inside her as deep as she could get him. Dean groaned as she took all of him inside her. His head pressed into the pillow behind his head.

She moved her hips, grinding against him feeling him deeper than she's ever felt anyone. She moaned, her head tipping back as she rested a hand on his chest and the other on his thigh behind her. Dean bit his lip as he watched her feel nothing but pleasure. His breath quickened as he watched her moan, her tits bouncing softly as she moved against him. He breathed through his teeth as he felt himself building up just from watching her.

Y/N screamed as she felt Dean deep inside her. His tip rubbed on her G spot with ease. She felt an orgasm nearing and knew the build-up was about to overtake her body. No man has ever been able to make her cum. For years she believed no man ever would and yet Dean seemed to make it seem crazy that he was making it so simple. She stopped momentarily knowing if she continued she would cum, Dean bit his lip recognising this but grabbed her hips and continued to move her.

"Dean, I'll cum," She moaned, her hips automatically rolling with the rhythm he was pulling and pushing her along. Dean smirked as he bit his lip. She moaned.

"Good," He remarked making her even closer. She panted, Dean, watching intently. Admiring her on top of him. "Fuck, Y/N." He grumbled building up as he pushed his hips deeper, her moans turning to screams. His moans turned to grunts as he felt her walls squeezing him.

"Fuck, Dean. Fuck, I'm gonna cum," She exclaimed, nails digging into his thigh as she was almost at her release. Dean smirked, pushing harder into her. Watching every inch of her as she came all over his dick inside her. She screamed, still grinding sloppily as she came. Dean was mesmerised, the only thing pulling him back to reality was the tensing of his penis as he knew he was about to cum. Without thinking he grabbed her hips. Raising her off of his dick as he came between them, mainly landing on his stomach as he grunts. Y/N bit her lip as she watched his face scrunch up as he came. She panted slightly as she watched. Mouth-watering as she watched the cum spurt out of him and fall onto his glistening stomach. She gulped as he resumed breathing at a normal pace. He placed her down so she was sitting high on his thighs. She giggled watching as she saw him happier than she's ever seen him. She could get used to this view. Knowing for a fact she would beg to see it again.

Dean panted looking down at her with a wide smile. She smiled back feeling a little awkward about what they should do now as they are still locked in together and have no way of avoiding the situation. Dean chuckled as he sat up, his hand finding her cheek and pulling her closer reconnecting their lips. Somehow she was surprised by this, figuring the kissing was only for the sex but happily kissed him back. He pulled away grinning widely. He admired her as she blushed slightly, smirking as his green eyes searched her face looking for any signs she regretted her decision. She giggled, noticing worry in his eyes. Pulling him back in to kiss her.

"You're going to be seeing a lot more of me," She giggled against his lips. He smiled, not pulling away for a second.

"Perfect," He added before his tongue slid into her mouth. She moaned softly loving the feeling as he continued to smile.

Dean cleaned himself up with a teatowel he found and water from the old sink. Y/N sat watching his naked body as she admired his back muscles contorting as he moved. She, of course, watched his perky ass as he walked away. He turned back smiling brightly at her, approaching her with a chuckle. He swooped down kissing her as he started moving the blanket and pulled away to help her move under the blanket of the small single bed. He climbed in behind her, spooning her as she rested her head on his arm that was under her and the other rested on her waist. He kissed her shoulder, and she giggled at the sweet gesture.

"I should have taken out your spark plug months ago," He remarked making her laugh.

"You're putting it back in the morning," She retorted but Dean scoffed. "I'm getting contraception that I don't have to worry about so next time I can feel you cum inside me," She explained waiting anxiously for Dean's reply.

"It'll be the first thing I do when we're out of here," He replied, she giggled as she settled in, happy to be sleeping in his arms and not some random guy she found at the bar. He sighed happily, nestling his face closer to her so her scent would engulf him and remind him, even when he was asleep, of the joy he was feeling right now.

They both fell asleep happy and thankful for Bobby locking them in the bunker.

Masterlist

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed it. Comment if you would like a part 2 for the next morning as I wanted to continue writing but knew it was too long already 😬 Thanks for reading this far.

Part 2

[alpaca-clouds]

Trying to figure out Gortash's backstory

As I said before, I am right now very much inspired to write a redemption story for Gortash. Like post-canon, Gortash lives AU (because I still hate that he dies), and he actually gets a chance to redeem himself. Not only like: He turns good, but he actually does something good enough to be considered a redemption. And he does so without dying.

But... Yeah, that story is going to be from Gortash's POV, which means that I very much need to come up with some fillings for the big ass holes that the game leaves in terms of his backstory.

We don't know how old he is, but I would estimate him to be around his late 30s or early 40s. Which means we kinda have like 20 years to fill up.

While the entire timeline of Raphael "buying" him from his parents and him escaping the hell is very vague, he was probably somewhere between 18 and 20 when he got out of the hells. And the exact stuff what happened in between is vague. Even how he escaped the hells is not quite clear. I mean, was Helsink responsible for that? Or how did he get out?

And then he starts to do illegal weapons trading once he is back in Baldur's Gate. Which is fair. I am going to assume that he is actually going to throw some stuff in there that is of his own making, given that he clearly is a tinkerer.

Given Karlach is 30, I do not think he hired her before she was 15, so at max she has worked for him just a couple of years.

I mean, technically those details don't matter. What does matter however is: How does he become a Chosen of Bane, and how does he get into contact with the Dark Urge?

As quite a few people have pointed out: Technically the Dark Urge existing is very confusing given that they have been created by Bhaal and Bhaal was dead for about a hundred years until ten years ago. So unless Durge is ten years old, this does not fully make sense. Sure, technically speaking Durge could be immortal, I guess, but... Well.

See, the issue I see with Gortash is, that I just do not pick him as the religious type. I do not see him going to the Banite church and actually give enough fucks to make himself a name in the church and after some great show of faith getting the status of chosen. I mean, if you talk to him, he just... Ketheric is devoted to Myrkul, sure. And Orin was indoctrinated into the Bhaalist cult from her birth onward. But Gortash? He would follow nearly every god if that god gave him powers. At least that is my reading of him. Sure, the entire tyrant thing plays well with his pompous and kinda narcissistic personality (and I mean this in a neutral way - given how he grew up narcissism in a medical sense is to be expected), but... Like, had Oghma thrown him a boon, he would have served Oghma, right?

So, why is he a chosen?

Usually chosen are either one of two: Either, they are very dedicated to the god and have proofen themselves to them over and over again, or they have something (power, knowledge, influence) that the god is interested in. As I don't see Gortash falling underneath the first umbrella, the second one could be it. Was Bane interested in Gortash maybe, because Gortash had a lot of knowledge about the hells maybe? Was Bane originally interested in the crown or something else that Gortash knew about? That would be one possibility.

Though, there is another one. Because it just so happens that in the lore of Faerûn something happened just 8 years ago, that could have given him chosen status without him doing shit for it. Even though it would also mean, that him being a chosen is almost random. Because 8 years ago the second sundering happened. And during the second sundering for a variety of reasons the gods picked quite a lot of chosen. And yes, that included the Dead Three as well. And a lot of those chosen were in fact not people super dedicated to the gods or anything, but just people who generally aligned with the domain and alignment of the god in question. And I cannot help but wonder: Was Gortash just one of the chosen Bane got from that event?

It would work out fine. Because there is one thing that keeps bothering me: Sure, Gortash kept secrets from Karlach. But she still was his personal bodyguard. And she had no idea that he was aligned with Bane. Which makes me think that indeed he was not a Banite when he sold her off to Zariel.

And yeah, I cannot help myself. The timeline would work out rather well: Gortash becomes a chosen closely prior the events of the second sundering, but after he sold of Karlach. After a bit the Dark Urge (who somehow very much is an adult, because I guess he time travelled or something) finds him. The two hit it off (whether romantically or platonically) and come up with their grand evil scheme. At some point Ketheric joins.

Of course, there is one big hole in that explaination, though: Who are the other people working for Gortash while he just is a black market weapons trader? If he was a Banite it would be easily explainable (other Banites), but like this it leaves open the question: Who are they and what happened to them?

I don't know. I am rambling. But yeah. I like this asshole. And his story is fun to think about.

[idk-bruh-20]

Tony, the futurist

Buckle in folks, I've had some thoughts and I'm about to make it ✨everyone's✨ problem.

Been thinking about Tony Stark, the futurist who saw the end of the world.

Tony, who in IM1 escapes kidnapping and torture and says, "I shouldn't be alive. Unless if was for a reason."

who, in The Avengers, has this exchange with Bruce Banner:

Tony: You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a… terrible privilege. Bruce: But you can control it. Tony: Because I learned how. Bruce: It's different. Tony: Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should've killed you. Bruce: So you're saying that the Hulk… the other guy… saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what? Tony: I guess we'll find out. Bruce: You might not like that. Tony: You just might.

Right after this, Cap tells Tony, "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

And then Tony flies a nuke into a wormhole, tries to call his girlfriend because he thinks these are his last moments, did not go in there expecting to survive.

Although he survives, he witnesses an alien army so terrifying, so unbeatable, it gives him crippling PTSD nightmares and panic attacks, knowing they are not prepared to defend the earth.

I'm thinking about Tony who, in AOU, gets manipulated by Wanda into witnessing his worst nightmare.

Which, by the way, involves losing all of his newfound friends.

Later, he has this exchange with Nick Fury:

Tony: And I'm the man who killed the Avengers. I saw it. I didn't tell the team, how could I? I saw them all dead, Nick. I felt it. The whole world, too. It's because of me. I wasn't ready. I didn't do all I could. Fury: The Maximoff girl, she's working you, Stark. Playing on your fear. Tony: I wasn't tricked, I was shown. It wasn't a nightmare, it was my legacy. The end of the path I started us on. Fury: You've come up with some pretty impressive inventions, Tony. War isn't one of them. Tony: I watched my friends die. You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. Wasn't the worst part. Fury: The worst part is that you didn't.

Tony's worst fear is to survive in a world he's failed to save. He has to "do all [he] could" or else the future he's terrified of will happen and it will be his fault.

(Not to put too fine a point on it, but there's a reason why Tony and Peter are so compatible as mentor and mentee.)

Tony's seen what's coming, and he's willing to do whatever it takes.

Here's the thing, though:

Tony doesn't actually want to die.

In AOU, when they're arguing about why he created Ultron, Tony says this to Cap:

"Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the 'why we fight'? So we get to go home?"

He tells Bruce that the reason they should create Ultron is to have "peace in our time."

He tells Pepper that his constant tinkering, his inability to ever, ever rest is because he needs to keep her safe from the oncoming threat.

Tony has a life he wants to protect, people he wants to keep safe. And, unlike the other Avengers, he knows exactly how impossible this will be to achieve.

Tony is the only Avenger who understands how severely outmatched they are. Maybe Thor understands the threat, but he has no ability to imagine losing.

Tony tries to get them to understand:

Tony: Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's… that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that? Steve: Together. Tony: We'll lose. Steve: Then we'll do that together, too.

Well, they do lose. And they don't do it together.

And it turns out Tony was right about everything.

He was right that he would survive to face his world that he'd failed to save.

He was right that the Avengers would not be enough.

He was right that Bruce's powers would be worthwhile someday.

And, apparently,

some people think he was right that he was only alive for this reason.

Because, obviously, the only "reason" for someone like Tony Stark to be alive is to eventually sacrifice himself, right?

A character so traumatized can only find peace in death.

Right?

No.

Stop that.

Tony Stark may have been willing to risk his life for his family, but that doesn't mean he wanted that to be his end.

Remember when this happened?

Bruce: Saved it for what? Tony: I guess we'll find out. Bruce: You might not like that. Tony: You just might.

Bruce gets to live long enough to like his ending.

Remember when this happened?

All Tony ever wanted to do was make the world a better place.

And, what about this?

You're telling me that Yinsen didn't value family above all else?

That he thought Tony should die and leave them behind?

No.

Tony Stark is a futurist.

He is the Cassandra of the MCU. He warns the others constantly of the oncoming threat that only he, apparently, can see. (Even Thanos calls him "cursed with knowledge.")

No one believes him. Alone, he tries to prepare for the threat that he has witnessed. He sits with his nightmares and tries to find a way around them, constantly.

He builds a life worth living, finds people worth protecting, just like Yinsen told him to.

To protect the future, he does all he possibly can.

Tony deserved to be part of the future too.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi,I hope we are not too annoyed with all our questions.

I'm new to the fandom,and after watching the show I really thought that Loustat would be the popular ship.I know most people are multi-shipper here,but it's funny how Louis and Lestat are not popular together. It seems like you've been here longer than many of us (books and Tv show)from you observations do you see major differences between fans favorite in the show and the books?

Also,have you changed your opinion on a character because of the show?

Not really to the latter.

I think the show cast the characters perfectly, so they fit for me. :) I like this Louis more, if anything. They enhanced him (though they did enhance them all, imho).

We lucked out so badly.

As per Loustat... *sighs*

You have to understand that Lestat is seen by many as the big bad abuser ™, and nothing else. No matter how often cast, crew, writers and creators have said that we have seen only half the story, no matter how often errors in the tale have been pointed out, no matter how often I have dug out the episode insider with Rolin pointing out the "tinkering" even then... anyone who doubted Louis' tale in any kind of fashion was met with accusations of racism and slurs.

I'm not kidding. I wish I was. I still have comments on my fics that I left there, on purpose. I have the asks here. There are people who call themselves my "number one hate blog".

I don't want to rehash all that now.

But imagine trying to write coming from the books, knowing what will happen, seeing the "seeds" in the show (as Assad called it), reading the interviews, knowing the tale will shift... and being met with something like that.

And now imagine not having the book background, and being harassed on anon, or with comments. And not having the background to defend your ship.

And I don't even mean actual criticism here, if valid or not.

No, I mean harassment. Accusations, death threats. Comparisons to the KKK. Whole campaigns against me, and others. Not kidding. I put my rants into my bio if you're interested, lol.

This is the fandom where I started blocking in earnest, and I come from friggin' Hannibal.

A tale like this, with racial changes in a color-conscious way (which actually brought the difficult topics into play (and I love them for it!)), left hanging for 18 months... that didn't do the fandom any good.

And some of the comments in the podcast didn't do it any good either with the expectations it raised, and which will be now... well. Not wholly disappointed, but... some took that as gospel. When it's not. It will be a bit messy soon, and with what's to come wrt to Claudia, too.

Soooo... that is why Loustat isn't particularly popular right now.

That will change though.

Rolin, as well as Sam and Jacob keep repeating that this show is built around Loustat.

Loustat are at the heart. They are the heart.

The books start and end with them.

The show foreshadows their dance at the end.

I for one am continuing to write for them, even if I have currently hit a wall on my current fic, but I was mightily distracted by all the new content^^ (like everyone else I think^^).

I love that they are so complicated, and messy, and petty, and so, so IN LOVE.

Jacob called it that, too. "Petty and in love".

And they are.

PS: And no worries re asks :) I love talking to you guys^^

[neon-junkie]

In the Heat of the Moment - Chpt.8

Summary: “Less than ten percent of domesticated species go into heats,” accord to Tech and his research, and (un)fortunately, you’re one of that ten percent. What else are you meant to do? Trapped during a heat cycle with five men - five willing men who are happy to help relieve you, but not all have the confidence to say so.

Relationship: The Bad Batch x fem!Reader (she/her)

Tags: Heats, Mating, Sex pollen, Friends with benefits, Friends to lovers, Slow burn, Sex, Jealousy, Pining, Tags to be added.

Word count: 1.2k

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 9]

Chapter 8 - Scorching

"So, you… haven't been taking them?"

Hunter's voice throws you off guard, causing you to drop your tool with a clank!

Is there really any need to discuss this right now? The repairs are almost complete, and you can all finally leave this forsaken planet with its two cursed suns! However, your Sergeant, the one that has been avoiding you for weeks, now feels the need to address the Bantha in the room… or in this case, the desert.

You turn to look at him, barely a meter from you; his eyes flicker between his work, and your dazed expression. "You mean the supplements?" you question.

"Yeah," Hunter confirms with a light shrug of his shoulders.

"Nah, I haven't," you shrug back, and pick up your tool, returning to your work. It's not really his business, is it? There's no need to be nosey about such a thing.

A moment of silence becomes present, the sound of tools tinkering away fills up the void, yet you can feel the pulse of adrenaline rushing through your veins. You're getting defensive, and for good reasons.

"Why not?" Hunter finally quirks up, not bothering to look your way. It seems he isn't letting this go, is he?

"Didn't want to," you simply reply, matching his monotone demeanour. It doesn't take a Jedi to pick up on Hunter's sarkiness. Why he's bothered is beyond you, but if he can freely ask, then so can you! "Is that a problem?" you follow up.

"It has been, yes," Hunter confirms, finally looking your way as he continues working. "I won't deny that I find your… scent rather distracting, especially during missions."

"We're always on missions," you point out. Even if you aren't physically in action, you're either heading to your next target, or unwinding from the last one. Better yet, you're making amends from your previous one, and they can't come fast enough.

"Exactly. How am I meant to work with… that?" Hunter dares to comment. Now, work is no longer your priority. The tool in your hand becomes motionless as all of your attention turns to your Sergeant, whose defensive expression matches your own.

"I'm sorry that my biological needs are such a distraction to you," you snap. "Maybe if you followed your training better, then you'd be able to ignore my scent."

"And maybe if you'd taken the supplements like I originally asked, then I wouldn't have to put up with your scent, nor the sounds of you kriffing all of my squad!"

The nerve! The audacity!

The tool in your hand hits the sand with a soft thud, and you rest your hands on your hips, chest puffed out. It's just a smell, something that Hunter can easily ignore, but it seems his true intentions are coming to light. "I haven't slept with all of your brothers," you say with a mindless shrug, not that it's any of his business. Jealously really isn't a good look for him.

"Most of them," Hunter barks back.

"It's not my fault that they offered to help me out. I'd rather do that, then pop some mystery pills that you shoved into my hand! I don't even know where you purchased them from!"

Hunter's lips purse in annoyance as he takes a step closer towards you, attempting to one-up your stance. The sweat above his brow is clearly visible, possibly from frustration, or the blazing Tatooine heat. It doesn't help that he's chosen to work shirtless, his toned chest almost pushed into your face as he looks down at you, tanned and covered in a soft trail of hair. There is no need for him to be this close, and the more that he gets into your face, the more irate you become.

Hunter goes to open his mouth, but you beat him to it. "Get your boobs out of my face," you say as you swat his chest, taking a step back away from him. "If you want to help me out, then this isn't the way to approach it."

"I…" Hunter sputters, crossing his arms across his chest in some lousy attempt to cover up. "This isn't what I'm trying to do-"

"-Then what is it?" you interrupt him again. "Because it's pretty obvious that you want to 'help me out', rather than giving me those supplements," you shout, using your fingers to flex quotation marks. This is probably some elaborate scheme just to sleep with you, although you weren't expecting Hunter of all people to stoop that low.

Hunter's lips fall silent as his eyes refuse to meet yours. His furrowed brows fail to relax, as does his jaw, clenched firmly as his patience continues to run thin. He sucks in a deep breath whilst pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. Seconds pass, and you're waiting for him to burst, but when he finally speaks, he's as calm as ever.

"Finish up. The ship should be ready to depart."

And with that, Hunter leaves you to it, entering the Marauder. You can overhear him talking to Tech, muttering something about getting the engine running.

Now, it's your turn to suck in a deep breath, and attempt to steady your thumping heart. You've never argued with any of your boys, much less your Sergeant. A light squabble here and there, but never full-on arguing.

You almost feel… guilty, although you had every right to defend yourself! No matter.

As your eyes open, you're greeted by someone who is only going to fuel your fire. Crosshair is leaning against the Marauder's entranceway, arms crossed over his chest, a smug grin on his lips. He chuckles as you scowl at him.

"Not going to give Sarge a chance?"

"Kriff off."

Crosshair chuckles once more, and watches as you pick up your discarded tool, using it to secure the Ship's side panel into place. He allows you to finish before speaking up, instantly turning your concentrated expression sour.

"You know, hate sex is awfully pleasant," Crosshair states. Whether he's hinting at himself, or Hunter, is beyond you. Probably both, knowing Crosshair.

All you can do is barge past him, your shoulders clashing with force. "What's with you?" you scowl, meeting his gaze for a brief moment.

"I'm only pushing your buttons, Princess," Crosshair shrugs as he allows you to pass, keeping his stance despite wobbling from your aggressive gesture.

Not wanting to allow yourself to become even more angry, you don't bother responding, and instead head straight to your room. The repairs are somewhat done, and Tech is already firing up the engines. It's time to leave. Whether this ship will make it off this planet is beyond you, but right now, all you need is some space.

It's time for you to take a breather, and isolate yourself for a while.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Neurodivergent!Hobie Brown Headcanons - Hobie Brown having AuDHD

Hobie Brown has AuDHD (Autism & ADHD) because I have AuDHD and I love him and want him to have AuDHD :) i was reminded of this and this is mostly me projecting so uhhh...here

____________________________________________________

Love the idea of Hobie Brown having ADHD and autism

Like his attention is shit. And he doesn't care.

He's always working or tinkering or planning away at something, writing some song, but he's never doing what 'he's supposed to do'.

He's Hobie - he's going to do whatever he wants to do and whatever strikes his fancy.

It's the ADHD. He procrastinates, and if you tell him to do something - yeah, he's not doing that

but when he needs to get something done he gets it done. ALWAYS. Somehow.

Miguel is asking for mission reports and he's like 'piss off m8'. He gets it done when he needs to don't ask questions

Super truthful. He doesn't see the point in lying. He's never mean about it, but he never hides the truth.

Stims a lot.

Always fidgeting with something. Doesn't carry stim toys cause he always loses them - fiddles with anything his hands come across instead

Chews on pens when he's trying to think or write a song

Fiddles with his piercings and lip ring a lot

Constantly losing his guitar pick, gets pissed off and can't find it even though it's right in front of him

He has ADHD-combined so sometimes he's pacing back and forth and other times he's just zoned the fuck out daydreaming

DOODLES on everything.

STICKERS everywhere.

Doesn't mask AT ALLLL

If he doesn't understand a joke he will ask - especially if he can tell it's meanspirited

Sleep schedule is wrecked. He hates the AM - and gets up at like 4pm. he's up at 2am playing electric guitar on the loudest volume and drinking a coffee at 8am before going to bed

Bounces his leg really really hard then tells people to piss off when they demand he stops

VERBAL STIMS. OH MY GOD

CONSTANTLY repeating song lyrics, even random ones. Repeats them to himself while pacing as a way to relax

Stims on his guitar, plays the same chord over and over and over.

The chords of 'Immigrant Song' - by Led Zeppelin is a popular choice of his

Gwen stims by tapping and drumming on things so they can be sitting there and play-stimming a song without even noticing

Doesn't follow rules he doesn't understand or thinks are unreasonable

Will argue with someone over it when confronted and tell them exactly why their rule makes no sense

He'll 'talk back' to authority and someone will be like 'Hobie you can't say that!!!' and he will genuinely be like 'why???'

Used to get put in 'time out' A LOT. Big 'problem child', always talking in class, wandering off, etc

Light sensitive.

His room dark as fuck boooooyyyy

Black out curtains, no clothes in the drawers, 12,000 unattended water bottles everywhere

NEVER makes the bed but has other cleaning routines he HAS to do

loves planning shit, planned out all of ASTV in detail, keeps really detailed notes of stuff

but his handwriting only makes sense to him

remembers everything about his friends but doesn't know what day it is

Time Blind as FUCKKKKKKK. So hard to get a hold of him or get him to text back.

You see him when you see him - either he's early or he's late as hell.

Says 'five minutes' but gets distracted or severely underestimates the time.

Special interest is his records and they mean a lot to him

Knows everything there is to know about every album he owns, takes really good care of them and his player - the only thing he'll spend money on

Very creative, has many creative projects he starts and stops and never really completes

10,000 half finished patches and prototypes

But he's really talented and handy because of it

Like he knows random ass statements in dozens of languages cause he memorizes the weirdest stuff and sometimes run into situations where he really needs it

Like the first time they go to Mumbattan looking for Pavi Gwen is like "ugh how are we gonna ask people 'have you seen this boy' in Marathi?" and Hobie is like "i got this" and she's like "Bro HOW"

REAL ASS AUDHD EXPERIENCE: Being able to memorize copious amounts of information about things that don't matter at all

Hobie has so many facts inside of him that he just drops so casually

And people are like how are you so smart

and of course he's like 'i was smart this whole time'

People think he's rude or an idiot because he doesn't make eye contact or doesn't face people when spoken to

but he's not at all, and he's very good at picking up little details

Dry but hilarious sense of humor that takes seven layers of irony and 3 years of context to even process

Probably has one completely left-field unrelated hyperfixation that catches people off guard. Is completely unashamed about it

When he's overstimulated he gets very irritated and snappy and fidgety -

Has to leave the room immediately - will stop everything and just get up and head straight to the door

If he can't leave he'll start covering his ears or put his head down against a table

Has loss of speech episodes sometimes, but not only when stressed. Lots of times it happens while relaxed or really deep in thought/daydream. His closest friends can understand him perfectly fine, and can tell when he's just chilling vs when he needs support

Will stand up in a 'quiet' room and say "what's that noise??" cause he can hear electric buzzing and it's pisses him off

He still blasts his music loud as hell in his headphones

Puts something into one of his many pockets then immediately begins to look for where he put said thing

Always pulling stuff out of his pockets, looking slightly impressed but confused as to how it got there, or how long it's been there

Has the weirdest palette. Weird ass food combos. The type of guy to put one sauce on everything

Probably eats beans on toast like twice a day

His comfort food is a Gregg's Sausage Roll from a very specific branch in East London, others taste a bit off to him and he can tell if it's not the right one. He'll still eat it, but he can tell it's not right

Most of these are SUCH a projection but I love him so so so much ok bye bye

[americas1suiteheart]

Weird Science | Chapter III

Egon Spengler x Reader

Notes; This is sort of poorly written at the end, but I think most of it is okay. Nothing else to add.

Warnings; Lots and lots of mentions of drinking and foul language.

Part 3/? | <Previous Chapter | Next Chapter>

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶︶︶꒦꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒦︶︶︶꒦꒷

Music blared throughout the building, the clinks of glass and people talking and laughing added even more to the noise. The smell of cheap colognes and perfumes somehow overpowered the smell of alcohol.

You look around to see Ray sitting next to what you assumed was Peter based off of the way he looked, and another man sitting next to Peter right next to him, tinkering with something.

You walk up to the group and tap Ray's shoulder.

"Hey, Ray! Sorry I'm a little late, I underestimated how long the walk from my apartment was." You say, your voice louder than how a person would normally speak, trying to be heard over the noise.

"Y/n, hey! Don't worry, we've only been here for 10 minutes. You look great! Sit down. This is Peter, though I think you said you remember him, and that's Egon over there." Ray says, pointing to the man tinkering with some piece of metal and wires.

You go to shake your hand with Peter and he holds it, bringing your hand to his lips.

"Y/n, long time no see. You look just as beautiful as before, if not even more." Peter says flirtatiously.

You pull your hand away, grabbing a napkin from the table and wiping your hand off. "Yeah, uh, great to see you too, Peter. You haven't changed a bit I see." You laugh dryly.

You look beside Peter as he lightly slaps the man's arm to get his attention. "Take your hands off of that thing and say hi to the beautiful lady and introduce yourself, Egon." Peter says, sounding like a mother.

The man turns around to look at you and fixes his glasses before he extends his hand out to you, a slight look of annoyance on his face.

"Hi, I'm Egon." He says in a monotone voice.

Oh.

You do the same, shaking hands with him. "I'm Y/n, I used to study computer science and parapsychology at the University." You say, smiling.

You remembered him now. He often sat with Ray and Peter during lessons in the class that you took parapsychology in. That's where you met Ray and Peter. Though Egon wasn't much of a talker so you guess that might've been the reason why you didn't talk to him much.

You thought he was handsome and you'll admit that. You often caught yourself staring at him during classes or when you sat with the guys during lunch.

You release your hand and go to sit next to Ray, you look over at Egon to see he's gone back to tinkering with his piece.

"So, how's moving the stuff out of your lab been going?" Ray asks, taking a drink from his bottle.

"Well, it's been going. I don't really have any other place to put everything except for my apartment so it's cluttered in there right now, but regardless of how much I hate the Dean I'm really happy that he gave me a month to get everything out because it's going to take a good amount of time."

"We can always help you, you know. Just speed up the process. Oh! I almost forgot to ask you, I know it's only been a couple of days since we started talking to each other again, but I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join this thing that we're doing right now. I know you used to like doing the whole studying about phantoms and all, and we started this ghost busting business so-" Ray rants excitedly.

That's one thing you always liked about Ray. He was always so enthusiastic and passionate about everything that he talked about, easy to talk to. There was never a time that when you were talking to him you felt that he was bored or not interested in what you were saying. He always listened intently and responded well. And that's how you were when having conversations with him too, it's what made you grow close to him over the span of the 4 years that you hung out and talked to him regularly, and it feels like you still have that same closeness with him even after 7 years of not talking to him.

"Woah, woah, woah, now, Ray. We never talked about letting someone else in this biz." Peter says, interrupting Ray.

"Oh, come on, Peter. Y/n's one of the best engineers I know, we could use that kind of stuff for this." Ray argues.

"We have Egon for that, Ray. I th-"

"I would love to. It would be nice to have something to do and to get to work with you guys again after so long. I did miss talking with you guys, I'll admit." You cut Peter off, taking your bottle of beer from the bartender.

"That's great! Hey, in that case we could just move some of your equipment with us! This'll be fun, just like old times, right!" Ray says, patting your shoulder with a smile on his face.

You look at Peter as he shrugged his shoulders and took a drink from his cup, probably out of defeat.

"What do you mean move my stuff in with you guys? Didn't you get kicked out of the University, too?"

"Well, yeah. But we found a place where we could all do our stuff and run the whole Ghost busting thing we've got. We could move some of your stuff in there and you could work with us."

"Really? How'd you guys find a lab that fast?! it's only been what, two days now?" You say, looking at Ray in shock.

"Well, it's not really a lab, more of an, old fire station." Ray shrugs.

"A fire station! That's so cool! Does it have the pole to go down and everything?" You say, with wide eyes and a big smile on your face.

"Yeah it does! That's what I was most excited about too!"

"Don't encourage him, Y/n." Peter says, looking away from his glass as he gives you a disappointed look, to which you roll your eyes to in response.

It would be awesome to work with them again. And although when you were in college with them you never really got to work with each other all that much, you had fun doing so. The only hard part about working with them was that it would take forever to finish something due to the amount of time that was spent cracking jokes and talking to eachother about completely unrelated things.

You finish your bottle and order another, taking a long drink from it before continuing to talk to Peter and Ray.

Egon stayed tinkering with what he was working on, didn't really bother to get involved into any conversation and didn't bother to drink.

You were a little upset he wasn't talking but you were too scared to try to spark a conversation up with him. You kept glancing at him more than you would like to admit, just like you used to all those years ago, and you weren't being very sneaky about it unfortunately.

"You got your eye on something, Y/n? Or, someone?" Peter says teasingly.

By now you were already three drinks in, a little farther in than a buzz. Your tolerance to alcohol was way lower than it was when you were in college as you never got together with friends like now or bothered to drink that much when you started working at the University.

"What?" You slur.

Peter only gives you a wink and a smirk, and goes back to his conversation with Ray.

You feel heat rise to your cheeks and the tips of your ears. Was I really being that obvious? You sit and stare off at the other people playing pool to try to distract yourself.

"Y/n, we're gonna head out in a bit. Are you gonna need one of us to walk you back to your apartment?" Ray says, putting his hand on your shoulder, snapping you out of your trance.

"Oh, okay. And yeah, if you guys could that would be great. I don't think I'll be able to make it there without getting lost." You laugh.

"Great, we'll send Egon with you then!" Peter says, butting in.

You look at him wide eyed and see Egon look up at Peter to give him a look.

"Alright, Egon. Be a doll and help Y/n get to their apartment safely. Me and Ray will be at the station. We'll cover your bill, Y/n. Our treat." Peter says, turning to look at you and smiling.

You'd be absolutely happy and thankful that Peter was covering your bill if it weren't for the fact he was going to have Egon walk you to your apartment *alone*. The only reason why you had asked for someone to take you was because you immediately assumed it would be Ray. This was 1,000% Peter's idea of a joke or some sort of torture. He really hasn't changed then in that case.

"We'll be on our way now, guys. It was nice seeing you, Y/n! Hopefully it'll be more often." Ray says, putting a couple bills on the table and then getting his jacket on. Peter and Ray walked out of the bar and left you and Egon there.

Assholes.

You sigh and grab your things to get ready to leave, putting a 10 dollar bill on the table for the bartender to have as a tip.

"So, where do you live?"

"Huh?" You say, looking up and pausing before realizing what Egon was asking. "Oh, uh, it's that apartment complex on 121st street."

"Alright then." Egon says, leading you out the door with the parts he brought with him in his hands.

You stumble a bit trying to catch up with him but to no avail you couldn't. The cold New York weather made you regret not putting your jacket on before you left, as the cold began to sting your arms.

"Egon, jesus, wait!" You pant.

Egon turns around and walks to you as he realizes how far ahead he was of you.

You continue to pant, trying to catch your breath as you put your coat on and button it up.

"Do you uh, do you think you could slow down a little?" You say, pausing every other word as you caught your breath.

After a couple of seconds to recover, you and Egon continued to walk to your apartment building.

"Oh, sorry." Egon apologises.

The whole walk was quiet. You were too buzzed and awkward to even try to make any small talk, and Egon didn't seem to be much of a talker. It was very awkward for you at least.

"Thank you so much, Egon. I hope that this wasn't too much trouble for you, I really appreciate this." You say opening your apartment door.

"Of course, it was no trouble at all."

"Well, um.. I'll be going to bed now, sorry for keeping you up or anything because of this. Goodnight, Egon." You said, tapping on your doorframe nervously.

"No, you didn't keep me up, don't worry. Goodnight, Y/n." Egon says, looking at his trinkets and parts he was working on earlier.

You wondered what he was working on that had him so immersed in it at the bar. You could work with music, but all of the other noise like the bottles clinking and the people talking distracted you greatly. You have no clue how he could do that.

You close your door gently and lock it. You do the usual; throw your keys onto the kitchen island, hang your coat, navigate your way through the towers of boxes, brush your teeth, dress out into your sleep clothes and go to sleep. You fell asleep faster than you usually did, very obviously because of the alcohol that was still in your system.

I forgot just how handsome he was.

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶︶︶꒦꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒦︶︶︶꒦꒷

I had done 3/4 of this in 2 hours, and then I pushed it off for a month or so, and I'm so sorry about that, guys 💀💀. This is longer than the other two chapters though!

[green-tea-in-absinthe-bottle]

Hell's comin' with me

Aventurine and Boothill are on a mission to send Oswaldo Schneider to hell. You have your own reasons to team up with them. Implied Aventurine x reader.

GENERAL MASTERLIST

It was getting harder to breathe. At this point you weren't sure if you should blame your tight dress chosen by Aventurine for this evening, crowd of powerful people surrounding you or expensive wine you indulged in for this strange heaviness in your chest.

Everything about your appearence from expensive jewelry matching golden attire to artistic but elegant make up you spent hours doing had one purpose - getting people's attention off your partner in crime and his attempts to get more informations about Marketing Development Departament's head, Oswaldo Schneider from his assistant's private devices.

Your eyes scanned the room impatiently while you desperately tried to keep up your conversation with one of the most important IPC workers hoping he won't realise somebody is tinkering with his phone, foolishly left inside his bag by the table. Not an easy task if you don't speak the business language of numbers and statistics.

Old man paraded his knowledge and experience in finance, seemingly hoping to come off as a professional and wealthy man to impress you. You smiled at him politely and did your best to ignore the way he stared at your body.

Wave of relief washed over you when you saw Aventurine giving you a discreet sign that he downloaded all of the needed information already. Next thing you know gambler was right by your side.

- My dear, I hope you didn't get bored already... - he interrupted assistant's monologue, taking you by the hand. - I know very few people able to stand my lovely coworker once he gets a chance to talk about his job.

- Sir, we were in the middle of conversation... - old man looked at Aventurine with irritation, inhaling sharply.

- Unfortunately, this needs to end right here. - Sigonian gave him a fake smile. - You see, I still need to introduce my partner to my colleagues from Ten Stonehearts. - he guided you away from other male, towards the exit.

***

- Do you have everything we promised to that guy? - you spoke up to break the uncomfortable silence.

- Not really, Oswaldo's assistant isn't stupid enough to keep such personal information about his boss in his phone, even if he looks like a complete idiot. - Aventurine smirked maliciously, opening the door of his car for you.

- Do we have enough to make sure Schneider won't be able to hurt what's left of my planet or any other inhabitet place in this universe? - you glanced at Aventurine. He carefully drove past the wall littered with IPC recruitment posters before responding.

- Yes, it's enough to make sure Oswaldo can't do anything like that in the future, but it doesn't really matter. Once he's gone somebody else will take his place and do exactly the same things.

- If you think so then why are you doing that? - you argued. - I didn't expect you to be optimistic about the outcome of our mission, but come on. What's the point of this in that case.

- I have two reasons. First of all I work for Ten Stonehearts, my departament and the one ruled my Oswaldo are competing with each other. - he stated calmly. You rolled your eyes at his words in disbelief. - My second reason is much more important. Schneider is responsible for IPC's reaction to humanitarian crisis on Sigonia.

His gaze turned cold and sharp. You gulped nervously, knowing history of that planet. Conflict on Sigonia in it's last stage resulted in wiping out almost whole clan of Avgins, with only one survivor left. The man sitting by your side. You were more than eager to help him get his revenge for broken promises of safety.

- And you? - he turned his gaze to you. - Why do you want to take part in this mission?

- My family lives on one of the planets terribly indebted to IPC. In exchange for quick advancement IPC took over our independent government and made sure our debt could only grow. - you sighed, rubbing your temples. - They control our politics with threat of punishment for all the money we own them. My sister is one of the brave people who work towards setting us free, she hopes to get some of the debt forgiven by legal means. Somebody ordered to get her eliminated, with all evidence suggesting it has a lot to do with Oswaldo. She made it this time but as long as he's alive I won't be able to stop worrying about her.

- I understand. I know how it feels to lose your family and the whole world you used to know. - Aventurine squeezed your hand soothingly. - I will make sure you won't know this feeling.

***

- Is this all you have? ! Mudlefudger! Weren't you supposed to give me his full data and everything about his past as Nameless? - tall man with metal body and cowboy attire growled at the two of you.

- Hey, why not concentrate on what we have, Boothill? - Aventurine suggested. - Oswaldo's complete, detailed harmonogram for the next three days.

- Why would I give a love about how he spends his time?! I need to know his weaknesses, not what he eats for his fudging breakfast. - Boothill lashed out at gambler.

- No need to argue, guys. - you interrupted their friendly banter. - I noticed interesting break between bussines meetings and usual off-duty activities in our target's plans...

- That's exactly what I wanted to point out. - Aventurine glared at cowboy. - I checked his closest coworkers and their schedules in our system. It seems that for about an hour none of his official bodyguards will be guarding him. I don't know why is that so, but it might have something to do with his past. He might want to keep some secret from everybody, including his own subordinates. If we spy on him and make sure he's completely isolated at this time...

- I will finally be able to avenge my little daughter. - Boothill completed the sentence through gritted teeth. His fingers clenched around his gun.

[greetingfromthedead]

Green Horror (Wolfwood x GN!Reader)

Plot: You catch a cold and Wolfwood has a magic remedy you aren't too happy with.

Pairing: Wolfwood x GN!Reader

Raiting: Everyone

Tags: domestic fluff, sickfic, hurt/comfort, flu, common cold, caretaking, banter, play fighting, forceful administration of medicine, some swearing, WW is a little shit

Word count: ~ 1.1k

Author's Note: (H/Cr)appy flu and cold season! A Wolfwood sickfic to match Vash's.

You woke up with a scratchy throat but chose to ignore it completely, certain it would go away on its own. But instead of leaving you alone, the sore throat continued to worsen throughout the day. You keep your talking to a minimum, afraid your voice will be gone before long. You keep a low profile, avoiding Wolfwood and slinking between the kettle and the bed. You really don't want him to know that you're feeling a bit poorly. It's better to just soldier through and hope it passes soon. You'll get better with tea, rest, and willpower; you're sure of it. Just stay quiet, and hope he doesn't notice.

As you settle into bed after getting your fifth cup of tea, you feel the scrathing getting worse. You hurried a little too fast out of the living room, where he was tinkering with something you didn't see. Now you are a bit winded, and the heavy breathing causes your lungs to spasm violently. You try to muffle the sound with your blanket, but it's too late.

"Did I hear you coughing?" Wolfwood's voice sounds from the other room.

"No, you didn't!" you reply, nearly starting another coughing fit.

Footsteps approach, and you see his figure appear in the doorway as you settle into bed, holding the cup and book with as much composure as you can muster. You look over to him with a forced smile. You're not very good at acting natural around him when you have something to hide.

"Really?" He leans against the doorframe and acts nonchalant. "Man, I must be hearing things then. I could have sworn I heard some coughing. I must be wrong."

"Wouldn't be the first time." You turn your gaze to the book again, but you have completely lost where you left off.

"Yeah… Guess my eyes are also playing tricks on me, and you don't actually have a red nose and puffy eyes, Doll."

You can feel his eyes on your skin, and you shift the book to hide your face from him.

"Yeah, you should get them checked, or perhaps go take a nap. You're being delusional." You swallow, but you manage to do it just a little bit wrong, irritating your throat in a way that makes you cough again, and you nearly spill some tea. You quickly cover your mouth with your arm, trying to hide your face from him.

Wolfwood lets out a laugh, and you glare at him.

"I'm glad it's just a cold!" He chuckles with his arms crossed. "I thought you were mad at me! You've been avoiding me all morning! A cold I can deal with. But if you were actually mad at me, I wouldn't know what to do."

He pushes off the doorway to head out, and you know what's coming next.

"No! Nico! Come back!" you yell after him as he disappears. This outburst was too much and leaves you coughing again.

"I will be in a bit! Stay put!" You hear his voice calling out to you, and a shiver runs up your spine.

You put aside your book and sip on your tea, comforting your burning throat. You're halfway done and feel much better by the time Wolfwood comes back, and you see that he is holding something.

"No! Go away!" You try to be commanding, but you see the grin on his face.

"But, love, it's my duty to take care of you. In sickness and in health. Right?" He approaches you, and you see the green liquid in the shotglass he is holding.

"Lucky, we aren't married. Feel free to leave. Don't bring that near me!" You point at his hand holding the mysterious concoction.

"Oh, Poppet, don't be like that." He is unable to mask the amusement in his tone. "I'm here to cure you! It's Miss Melanie's recipe! All the kids in the orphanage got rid of their cold with this magic potion."

"I don't care. I'm not drinking that." You scoot further along the bed after putting away your mug. "It's horrendous!"

"Don't be dramatic, darling," he purrs as he reaches your bed. "It's just a little booster, and you'll be all better."

"I don't need it!" You say a bit nasally, "I just need to drink tea and rest. I'll be better tomorrow!"

"But this will fix you in an hour." A mischievous glint appears in his eyes like a cat hunting a mouse for sport. "Won't you take it willingly?"

You shake your head rabidly. "No thanks. I'll stick to my tea."

Your mind is more sluggish than you realized, since before you can truly react and roll away from him, Wolfwood has already bounced. He left the green horror on the nightstand as he wraps you tighter in the blanket and sits on top of you.

"Piss off!" You try to fight him off, but he catches your arms and tucks them under the blanket that he keeps tightly around you like a straitjacket with his knees. "You little shit! Get off me!"

You feel another fit coming on despite your soothed throat. Wolfwood just laughs and says, "Calm down; it's for your own good."

"Never! I know what an atrocious concoction that is!" You try to wiggle out of your captivity with no results. Wolfwood smirks and reaches for the shotglass. "I'll cough on you! Then you'll be sick too!"

"No worries, Poppet, I'll just drink one of these and be better in no time." He raises the glass like he is cheering you, "Now do me a favor and hold still."

To your surprise, he downs the horrible green liquid himself, but before you realize what is happening, he grabs hold of your face and presses his mouth on yours. As a reflex, your lips part a little for the kiss, but that's your mistake, since the bitter and sour taste of the so called medicine engulfs your tongue as Wolfwood forces it into your mouth. You don't want to taste the horror, so you swallow it quickly.

Wolfwood loosens his grip on your face and pulls away with a satisfied expression.

"Wasn't so bad, was it, baby bird?" he laughs.

"Bleh!" you let out a disgruntled noise and stick your tongue out. "I hate you!"

"I love you too, Doll!" He chuckles and places a gentle kiss on your forehead before getting off you. "You'll be better in an hour, promise!"

And that annoying fucker is right.

Did you like this? Go check out my MASTERLIST and drop a follow for any and all future projects!

[strawwritesfic]

Avengers Guys Taking Care of You When You're Sick Imagines

Hello! I caught some sort of very fun disease doing work-related things last weekend, so I came up with these imagines! I thought I'd post them for funises and because making you think of the dialogue yourself is way easier when there's very little oxygen entering my brain.

Disclaimer: I don't really do imagines, so I'm not even 100% sure that's what these are. They might just be headcanons? Listen, man, I'm an old person on the Internet. I don't know what I'm doing.

Also, I wrote these starting in the middle of the night after having only eaten marginally for three straight days and sleeping about a total of two hours over the course of 48 hours. Also, I didn't proofread them on account of the cinderblock shoved up my nose being very distracting. (But if there's something wrong, do feel free to bring it to my attention, and I will change it.)

Pretend these are in a world where COVID isn't a concern. I didn't feel like dealing with masking and isolation.

Let me know if you'd like to see later phases or groups!

EDIT: I forgot Clint. I blame the cinderblock. He's been added.

Enjoy!

Tony Stark

Let's face it. This guy is not in any position to play nurse. He hardly knows how to take care of himself; you're a different person entirely! Plus, he's not exactly into the idea of catching your cooties. Once you've got the ick, he is out of the bedroom and camping in his lab until you're no longer showing symptoms.

But that doesn't mean you're facing this alone. If this is before Pepper takes over Stark Industries as CEO, Tony's got her and Happy running around making sure you have anything you want--anything. More cold medicine? Done. A house call from your doctor? Called them 20 minutes ago; they're on their way. An authentic pizza directly from Italy? It's yours. If it's after, he will go get everything for you himself; it's just going to take a lot longer, and it'll probably take him five trips to actually get the right thing.

He won't leave you completely alone either. He'll call you up on one of the tablet phones and talk to (or at) you for hours. Heck, if you're bored, he might even set it up so you can watch him tinker on the suits from bed.

James Rhodes

You don't want Rhodey to find out you're sick. He's a busy guy, whether he's working with the Air Force or the Avengers. But he's gonna find out. Maybe he isn't able to call you as often as he'd like, but as soon as he makes contact, he's going to know you're sick from the word "hello."

He hates that you're often sick when he's quite literally half a world away. He doesn't want you to deal with your illness alone--and you won't. If he's still working primarily at the Air Force, you're on base with loads of fellow military officers and their spouses, and soon you've got more casseroles than you know what to do with. If he's with the Avengers, things are a little trickier. He can't ask Dr. Cho to fly in from Korea for a cough, and it's not like FRIDAY can answer the door for Uber Eats. Pepper and Tony aren't going to let one of their best friend's SO suffer, though! They love you, too. One or both of them is going to make sure you've got a house call from a doctor very soon.

As soon as Rhodey is off work, he's back with you. He'll cook dinner--something healthy that he knows you like. Then you'll both head to the couch or bed, snuggle up under a big blanket, and watch old movies until you fall asleep beside him.

Thor Odinson

Asgardians don't get run-of-the-mill illnesses, and any illness they do get is way more spectacular than what Midgardians deal with. Because of this, Thor finds your run-of-the-mill illness fascinating. Like, almost annoyingly so. Although he's fine to leave you to go on missions or the like, he is otherwise right there with you, delighting in every cough, sniffle and sneeze. If anyone on the team points out that you're, you know, sick, Thor is quick to remind them how incredibly tough his SO is. He knows you'll pull through!

Still, he doesn't want you to feel awful, so he's going to seek out advice on what he can do to help you. The results that come from this depend on who Thor decided to ask. Dr. Strange? Probably earn you some decent medications and/or treatments, even if Thor isn't 100% sure exactly how to use them. Loki? Then you're probably going to end up with Thor trying a dozen different things that don't make you feel worse but definitely don't make you feel better either. Hey, Loki's got no vested interest in helping out his brother's SO.

At the end of the day, at least you won't be left alone very often, and there is something endearing about a guy who thinks it's cute when you're so full of snot you can't think.

Loki Laufeyson

Loki is a much less...obtrusive companion than his brother is. Sick Midgardians are boring. They just lay around all day, producing the most horrible liquids from every part of them. He's got better things to do than sit around all day watching that...

...is what he wants everyone to think. He knows you don't like be smothered either. So Loki does go about his day as usual for the most part, but that doesn't mean he isn't checking in quite regularly. He'll slip into your room every few hours or so just to make sure you're resting. He won't wake you if you are. And the things you need have a funny way of appearing on your bedside table whenever you wake up: the remote control, a container of hot tea, even clean pajamas if you aren't feeling capable of walking to the bathroom for a shower.

But just because you don't like being smothered doesn't mean you want to be alone the entire time. Loki knows that. He's probably not going to crawl into bed next to someone who is coughing and sneezing and already warmer than they want to be, but he's perfectly content to pull a comfortable chair over to your bedside and sleep there. And when you get bored of watching TV or just need something quiet to fall asleep to, he's always happy to read aloud to you from whatever book he's reading.

Steve Rogers

Steve may no longer have the ability to get sick, but he remembers being sick when he was skinny, and he knows it's no fun. He also remembers the things that Bucky did for him that helped, and he'll try all of that on you. This leads to a bit of quarreling when Tony reminds him that they live in the 21st Century and have better ways of helping people with sore throats and coughing. But Steve eventually relents, and you get a good combination of things that make you feel better.

He's good at compartmentalizing, so he can put worrying about you aside when he needs to lead the team. The second they don't need him anymore, you're back at the forefront of his mind, and he's headed right to wherever you are. Even if you don't need anything he can provide you, he wants to make sure you're okay.

Since Steve doesn't get sick, he's 100% ready to cuddle. This is great when you have chills, and not so great when you're having hot flashes. He respects you if you ask him to please get the hell out of the bed. He lets you rest when you need rest, and is perfectly happy to just hang out in the room with you, quietly drawing in his notebook so he's there if you do need him.

Bucky Barnes

If Steve remembers getting sick, Bucky remembers being the one to take care of Steve when he was sick (after Steve's mom died). He does not handle seeing you sick well. At all. He cannot stop worrying about you at all. Never mind that all you've got is a stuffy nose and a cough, he's pretty much convinced that you are going to die on him any minute.

He's very reluctant to leave your side when you're sick. Even if there's some world ending-crisis that the team needs him for, he'd rather stay with you. Oh, he'll go to help with the world-ending crisis, but he's going to be thinking about you the entire time. Everybody on comms is going to get real tired of him using any downtime to wonder aloud if this will make [Name] feel better.

If you're lucky, Natasha or Sam or Steve might take pity on you and insist that Bucky take some time away and quit worrying so much. But unless they take him on outing to get you something (food, flowers, medicine, etc.), he's not going to want to go. Unless he's directly looking at you and confirming that you're okay himself, he's just not going to be able to settle. Until your fever breaks, don't expect Bucky to leave your side for very long, if at all.

Clint is a very normal guy wen it comes to his SO being sick. He's not too pushy or too distant. When you wake up with a sore throat, he makes you a cup of hot water with lemon juice in it, brings you a small breakfast in bed, and checks the medicine cabinet before he leaves for work. If there's anything you're low on, he'll make sure to pick it up on the way home. He'll call you at lunchtime to check on you, and if you say you need anything then, he'll pick that up on the way home, too.

If he has to go far away for work, of course Natasha is there to run errands and check on you. And if they're working together far away, you might get a very rare, very strange visit from Director Fury delivering cough syrup. Coulson pops by, too. Clint's got a pretty big support network willing to fill in any gaps he can't when he's working.

When he's at home, Clint mostly leaves you alone. He knows you need rest. There's plenty of work for him to do around the place anyway. But whenever he takes a break, he'll pop into the bedroom and ask you if you need anything if you're awake. He's always quick to tell the streaming service you're still watching, too, just so it's still going when you wake up. And he buys loads of your favorite takeout to tempt you to eat.

[yoursweetestnightmarelover]

The Dance

“Have you heard? They're having a big party, apparently it's to celebrate a new year or something like that” J asked “Yea Lizzy even invited me” V responded, “Are you going to go?” J asked “Yea I am even Tessa and N are going are you not?” V said. “No, I have work” J said, “work?” V asked with doubt, “Yes work, are your audio receptors having problems?” J asked sarcastically, V rolled her eyes, then V smirked to herself coming up with an idea. “You know If your 'work' clears up I hear a certain someone doesn't have anyone to accompany her~” V said a mischievous grin on her face, J glared at her knowing exactly who V was talking about. “Aww come on, I'm just pulling your leg” V said, her grin growing to be Cheshire like “Ugh hate when you do that” J said pushing V away, a bell flashing on her visor. “Oh all ready well I'm going out to have fun see ya~” V said before flying off J sitting on some scrap annoyed.

Uzi, sitting in her room tinkering with various machines, Uzi hearing a knock on the door “Come In” Uzi said the room being illuminated by the pale light coming from the hallway Khan coming in saying ”You know the new year's celebration is going to be starting here soon have you picked out an outfit yet?” Uzi pointing to her bed the black dress she wore on prom set there neatly,” Uzi you don't have to go if you don't want to, Khan said ”I do it's just…” khan cutting in saying you're nervous?” ”What me nervous, I've dealt with way worse, I'm not nervous at all.” Uzi said ”well if you say so” khan said in a sad tone, knowing that she was lying or not telling him the full picture. It wasn't a lie, just she wasn't nervous. It's just a reminder that she well by herself of course she has N and V But that not what she means well N loves her as a sister and V well… Her processor quickly flashed the image of J a blush appearing on her visor. She was the LAST drone she would ask but maybe-Uzi cutting herself off, NOPE she would just suck it up and go by herself… just then she heard the doorbell ring.

Was she really doing this, J thought to herself, standing in front of the door saying Doorman resident's she could just go back no one would know or even care, so why is she here? Did she just want to get back at V? Khan slowly opening the door, his eyes hollowing out staring at the drone in front of him, he never felt comfortable around them but THIS ONE especially. Uzi coming to the front door after putting on her prom dress, she saw J? She's wearing a yellow thigh dress along with a black coat with an open front and what looked to be fur along the cuff and trim Uzi staring at J her visor playing a sparkle effect and a blush. J looking at her, seeing her in a black dress It fit her perfectly it was alright Khan interrupting J staring at Uzi saying “A-Are you here for the new year's party?” Khan said his visor showing beads of sweat going down it “As a matter of fact I am, and I'm here to pick up your daughter. Isn't that right Uzi~” J said Uzi, still lost in J eyes hearing her name, she responded with a “yea” only for Uzi to snap out of it realizing what she just agreed to. Khan still in shock “O-Oh okay” Khan stuttered out slowly handing Uzi over J extending her hand out for Uzi to grab who just slapped away “let's just go” Uzi grumbled out walking off with J.

J and Uzi entering the gymnasium, feeling the beat of the music N Tessa Thad and V came over Lizzy tagging along. “Uzi, so glad you could make it hey J” Thad said doing a double take upon seeing J glaring at him “hey Uzi? What is she doing here?” Thad whispered “I can hear you AND for your consideration I'm accompanying Uzi tonight” J responded in a snarky tone. Everyone But V looked shocked, Thad speaking up “Uzi blink twice if you're being force to do this” Thad whispered “No I'm not being force to do this” Uzi said J rolling her eyes. N piping up “Well I think it's nice to see you two together and not fighting” Tessa nodding “You're taking my advice about getting out more and doing less work.” Tessa said “Yep” J responded forcing a smile then a random drone called out. “HEY THAD TESSA, WE GOT THE JERRY CANS ALL SET UP COME ON DON'T CHICKEN OUT ON US NOW” cutting the awkward silence Thad and Tessa running over. “Thad challenged her to a drinking contest and well you know her, I'm going to make sure she doesn't over do it.” N said walking off waving to J and Uzi Lizzy following him, “so I'm guessing your 'work' wasn't that big of a deal? And I also see that you took my advice about 'accompanying' someone” V said, a smug grin on her face, “Advice?” Uzi asked, “Oh just that a little birdy told me that you were going to come to this event alone, and I may have let that slip out” V answered her question, “Let me guess this little birdy happened to be Lizzy?” Uzi scoffed, “even now she still wants all the detes of drama” she added, Uzi heading over to the table severing cheap ethanol “I'm going to need a drink for tonight” Uzi grumbled to herself. J following behind her grabbing Uzi's drink “For me why thank you” J said in a smug tone, Uzi glaring at her getting herself another drink as J walked off.

Uzi and J have been avoiding each other for the most part, occasionally meeting up. Uzi, mainly been hanging out with N and V, all three of them watching Thad and Tessa drinking challenge. ”Okay Tessa, you beat me I surrender,” He said Tessa letting out a hearty laugh, ”shouldn't have challenged me little man I will always win” Tessa said having a bold stance. ”Uh wow she drank like three bottles of alcohol, is she going to be okay? Isn't alcohol poisonous to humans” Lizzy asked, ”In significantly large amounts yes, but she's just going to wake up in the morning with a killer headache and regretting this” J said, ”Hey I don't regret, nothing” Tessa said, slightly sluggish N Rushing to her side ”lets just take it easy for now” N said kindly ”maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea” Tessa said leaning in to N giggling a little. V snicking to herself, V was about to say something, but the DJ making an announcement.

”SLOW DANCE STARTING IN T MINUS ONE MINUTE” Lizzy eyes lighting up ”OH come, come on V we gotta do this” Lizzy said grabbing V's hand dragging her along, V chuckling to herself ”The romantic as ever.” Tessa looking at N a blush on her face, ”Would you like to dance with me?” she asked ”sure” N responding a warm smile on his face, his tail gently wagging. As N and Tessa walked off, leaving J and Uzi with just each other, ”Sooo…” Uzi said, not really sure how to ask her god her thoughts felt fuzzy J already knowing what she was going to ask and was going to say no but looking a Tessa N and V she felt Jealous? She was fine, she was fine, she lied to herself J's eyes glancing over to Uzi, but maybe it would be okay. ”Sure” J said offing her hand, Uzi was shocked, but she took her hand, as they both walked to the dance floor Uzi looking up at J saw that she's blushing on her visor. J looking down at Uzi, saw her eyes quickly dart away looking to her left blushing, J chuckling to herself she was so cut- J cutting off that thought as they both reached the dance floor. She realized she was boxed in she couldn't get out now, J felt her core rhythm increase J slowly starting a Tango with Uzi, but she was messing up she felt sluggish no they both are sluggish ”Wow you are not good at this” Uzi whispered a smirk on her face ”Yea because you keep messing me up what did they build you with two left feet?” J whispered back Uzi glaring at her, J was starting one of her speeches about how she should count herself lucky that she would even do this with her and blah, blah, blah. GOD COULD'NT SHE JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE NIGHT, Uzi thought to herself, J face getting closer to hers. God, she just wanted her to shut up Uzi got an idea the ethanol in her systems clouding her judgment, without thinking she shot forwards and kissed her J panicking she needed to pull away, so why wasn't she? J hands pulling her in closer and Uzi left hand grabbing her head and her right hand holding her waist Uzi and J sinking into each other embrace, Uzi felt weak. After what felt like an eternity, she never wanted to end they both pulled away both of them letting out light pant's staring at each other slightly shaking Tessa interrupting their moment with a ”AWW MY BABY'S IN LOVE” both of them snapping out of the haze both of them realized what they both had just done. Looking around, everyone was staring at them, Uzi ran and J flew off breaking the roof, both of them leaving with one thought WHY DID I ENJOY IT.

[tinseltina]

You can feel free to ignore this until you feel like rambling, or forever, but do you have any strong opinions or headcanons or anything about Pixie Hollow you feel like ranting about? I adored that series when I was younger and I'd loved to be dragged back into it.

I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

FIRST OFF LETS START WITH THE MOVIE SERIES VS THE BOOKS

right off the bat, all the pixie hollow books take place AFTER the peter pan movie, they don't say when exactly but book 3 (quest for neverland) is like 3 generations (maybe 4?) after Wendy and her brothers go to neverland. And he character spotlight books never really mention quest for neverland (iirc there's ONE reference to vidia and the dragon kyto from that book but no one talks about human girl gwendolyn), but they do take place after it

the first 3 chapter books all occur within like a month or 2 of time and everything else at varying points of time.

i'm still compiling all the evidence to put out a VERY rough timeline (some books are clear about their relation to other adventures/books). however i'm in no rush to do any of that, so don't hold your breath.

Now there IS a HUGE detail in the lore regarding pixie hollow and the fairy dust.

There used to be a different "home tree" (called the Pixie Dust tree) WAAAAY long ago. There was another whole population of fairies there. and THAT tree, produced pixie dust (the stuff that makes them fly and helps their magic etc etc). it was DESTROYED and MOST of those fairies died back then (it was this cataclysmic event in neverland that basically decimated a ton of it, but everything eventually regrew). From that tree grew the new Home Tree where everyone is now.

Another character, Mother Dove (the bird you may or may not have heard of when ppl talk about these books) was basically reborn during this fire when she got hit with the fire. (magical fire, didn't kill this bird. it's implied that neverland's magic basically imbued this bird with her own magic because before then she was just a regular bird). her feathers are magic and when she molts, the fairies take her feathers and grind them down into dust, this is called FAIRY dust. Now a couple of the books have typos and use the term "pixie" dust, but it's not what the lore currently states. pixie dust is B.C. (before calamity) and fairy dust is A.C. (after calamity)

After this calamity and turning magic, mother dove laid an egg and that egg will never hatch, it's a magic egg that she must always incubate bc the egg is what keeps everything in neverland young and/or living forever.

OK NOW THAT THAT'S OUTTA THE WAY LET'S MOVE ON

the tinkerbell movie? that universe has no mother dove and the tree is the one from legend because the pixie dust (yes PIXIE dust) flows from it. there's a dust depot where the dust is portioned out for fairies each day but no dust mill (where the grinding of the feathers into dust would happen)

Now at one point i thought "maybe the movies could potentially just be telling what happened before the books" It's got a mostly new cast, why not?

because TINKER BELL IS THERE. Vidia, and terence are also there. and these 3 are major players in the books that couldn't have survived that calamity. (queen clarion POTENTIALLY). fawn and iridessa and silvermist and rosetta all show up in books later (at one point the books were coming out at the same time as the movies rosetta is the one character to receive a major design change from her book counterpart, so i could even accept her being a different garden fairy with the same name and similar personality)

ok now RAPID FIRE FACTS

dust alchemy? not a thing in the books. but dust is also WAY more interesting and required for so much of the fairies magic in the book (yeah, you can use it for EVERYTHING. ex. garden fairies are like folks with a green thumb, they GET their plants and tend to be good at growing things, but sprinkling dust can help with speed and size of growth or stuff like hybridization. kitchen/cooking/baking talents they dont use fire, they use DUST to heat things and boil water stuff like that. i still gotta check if that's not retconned in places but it makes sense considering how small they are and how quickly fire can spread)

the blue dust from lost treasure? also not a thing, but interesting given the tree situation, and it's interesting to think nothing is actually a neverending resource, but also it doesn't really make sense? cuz like WHAT'S THE POINT OF A TREE THAT MAKES DUST IF IT CAN'T DO IT FOREVER? i can see the argument for either side. but i'm leaning on "blue dust is like fertilizer for a magic tree"

vidia is actually a HUUUUUGE b-tch in the books. like the kinda a-hole that is kinda irredeemable and luckily the books never try to redeem her either. she's not quite "evil" but she is the kinda person who is terrible and refuses to change. but she basically committed a "cardinal sin" by plucking some of mother doves feathers from her to get fresh feathers to make her own pixie dust. (it's revealed that the dust from freshly plucked and not older MOLTED feathers, contain more potent magic) and vidia is obsessed with being the fastest flier in pixie hollow so she wanted special dust. this was a painful process for mother dove and it was done in secret but after she was found out it basically got her banished from seeing mother dove up close ever again (it's like being banished from seeing your mother and the pope all rolled into one. idk it's hard for me to explain motherdove without going "yeah she's kinda vaguely omniscient/telepathic. like she's not God, but she's got some pretty godly powers in relation to the fairies and the rest of neverland ngl, hence the pope analogy) and kicked outta the home tree apartments (paraphrasing for humor). she's not kicked outta fairy society or nothing, they would never go that far, these books are HEAVY with collectivist themes. but vidia lives separate from the other fairies in her own tree (and she actually prefers it. iirc it's implied she could come back to the home tree if she wanted, but she AND the rest of the fairy population prefer the space).

actually all the fairies kinda jerks, but i think that falls in line with the idea of tricky faeries in mythology and i don't dislike it. it makes the vidia thing sting less as well?

prilla (sweet wonderful, she's not actually my favorite but we love her regardless) is the odd one out amongst fairies because she's kinda part human? so fairies are born from a baby's first laugh, right? (if you didn't know now you know. this is the same in both books and movies) well the laugh prilla came from had a little too much of her human's personality, so this effected her memory and her ability to conform in their fairy society (she regularly would mix up british human lingo with the fairy stuff and it bugs the fairies. remember how i said they were all dicks? yeah they don't like humans, prilla is a little too human at first and it bugs them). but it also gave her everything she needed for her talent (she's the one and only "mainland blinking fairy clapping" talent. if you've ever read the og peter pan book or heard of the stage play when tinker bell is about to die and they're like "clap if you believe in fairies!". yeah prilla's talent is to astral project her image to the human land and get them to clap periodically to keep fairies going strong.

sidenote fairies apparently REGULARLY died before prilla came along. and it's sad and the fairies get but also it's very "oh that sucks :/ but we gotta keep it pushin!". now in the movies the fairies are still at risk from like birds of pray or bodily harm, but the dying of disbelief is a non-issue.

it's not that there's NO romance in the books, it's that there's next to none. it's terence and his crush on tinker bell and tinker bell with her unrequited crush on and later heartbreak surrounding peter pan. tink is fully aware of terence's feelings for her, and the feeling isn't really mutual? she's mostly afraid of heartbreak but still she'd rather just stay friends with him.

OH! early book terence is like a legit incel. he used to have a different design too, and like he really looked like something outta the virgin vs chad meme (in fact i DID make a meme about it)

mothertrucker actually used magic to make tinker bell fall in love with him (it doesn't lead anywhere beyond just her being obsessed with and wanting to be next to him all the time. get your mind outta the gutter these books are for kids). and he is RELUCTANT to try to turn her back to normal. oh and she's completely aware after the fact of how she acted and felt and that it was terence's fault. she just like forgives him and moves on without really addressing it.

movie terence sometimes goes a little far for tinker bell but it never feels like he's doing more than any of her main friend group, you know? but in the books terence isn't really a FRIEND like the other characters are, he feels separate from the rest of them.

fairy society? kinda communistic. everyone works for the good of the collective to keep things running smoothly

all talents are important and useful (yes, even art talents and music talents and all sorts of stuff. decor, decoration, beautification of surroundings, and entertainment are all appreciated) i assume this is one of the reasons why the "unable to engage in your talent" type of "incomplete" is so serious and pitied. if you cannot help the collective, then what are you to the collective? (this is not to say however that rest days are not employed and encouraged, they absolutely are! leisure and rest and recuperation are necessary and highly encouraged. it's much harder to get a fairy to STOP doing something involving their talents, BECAUSE it brings them so much joy and self-fulfillment). but to permanently be unable to work for the benefit of the community?

but i digress! my point is EVERYONE is useful. there are even fairies who's talents are "tall tale telling". liars, they're good at lying. but this falls under the category of "storytelling" and fairies love stories. i said entertainment is appreciated!

everyone eats at the same time and meals are provided

their homes are made up and customized for them when they first arrive (read: are born)

everyone can engage in hobbies as well (rosetta in the movies and the books is a fan of fashion and dressing up and doing self care) at any time and basically just have to ask for help or for materials if they want. there may be trading involved in case what you want is something that gets in the way of someone else's work or their own collection. but for the most part fairies are fine sharing whatever excess. (an example shown in "art lessons by bess" the art talents also help make paint and refill storage. they're free to use whatever they want and that includes other fairies as well, but they help make more for whoever needs it)

a talent isn't just the 1 activity a fairy does everyday forever, it can also include a whole host of other duties and activities to help out. some fairies even help in other areas when their specific talent isn't in demand (ex. party planning talents, or celebration set-up talents help to set up the tea room between meals when a party isn't being prepared. garden talents don't just grow flowers they can also grow different kinds of foods, or help with plant knowledge or assist nursing talents acquire herbs for different remedies)

queen clarion has a talent, she is a "queen talent" fairy. she presumably took over after the last queen (it is stated Vidia and the Fairy Crown that there have been multiple queens in the past and the crown with the crown jewels have been passed down to each queen since before the time of pixie hollow and it survived the great calamity). very bee like to have been born primed to be a queen. i think it's also implied that fairies don't grow like humans do, and it's likely that clarion was born in the form she is now and has always been that "age"

(if you apply that logic to the movies, then fairy mary and fairy gary and milori and the scribe from the winter region were also all that old the whole time)

winter fairies dont exist books. their jobs are basically just subsets of the other talents. and i think pixie hollow doesn't snow. i gotta double check on that and finish reading my books.

HEADCANON TIME (admittedly there aren't a lot of these)

i got a comment about this once on tiktok which led to me having to explain a little more about talents in general and how fairy identity works. but someone pointed out that prilla is very autistic-coded. and i was like "they're ALL autistic coded" no seriously bc of talents and how...preoccupied everyone can be with their talents, it gives off a "special interest" kinda vibe. and depending on the fairy they're showcase more symptoms people common have on the spectrum.

i mentioned earlier that prilla has her whole "a little too human" effecting her focus and memories? yeah she talks differently, she has habits that are considered good mannered in humans but really strange to fairies. she regularly astral projects by "blinking to the mainland", and the way it's written it gives off maladaptive daydreaming (disclaimer, maladaptive daydreaming is NOT a symptom of autism spectrum disorder, but i've noticed many folks under the neurodivergent umbrella also have this) as it butts into the current narrative and when prilla "wakes up" she can be unaware of what has happened around her or what kinds of conversations took place (not all the time. in some cases muscle memory for menial labor takes over and she can keep up just fine as long as someone doesn't interrupt the routine. not unlike real life for some folks). the blinking thing also could be read as a form of stimming/bodily regulation. talents for fairies, and engaging in activities involving their talents brings them joy, comfort and self-fulfillment. also she cartwheels a lot, which is also very stim-like.

iris, a garden talent, is also very "common depiction of autism"-like to me, however it's in a kinda negative light. she infodumps about plants, doesn't seem to get the social cue that people want her to be quiet or leave, and is generally seen as a nuisance to others around her. she's also got the quirk that she's not very good at growing plants, which is odd. she's said to have had her own garden at once point and then lost it (i think the implication being she left it unattended for too long and the plot of land was given to someone else, and everyone has since forgotten she ever tended to that plot, but she didn't fight for it either). because of this odd history and quirk of hers some fairies believe her to be "incomplete" (a term that has a few meanings that are all VERY disability/birth defect/developmentally challenged coded. including but not limited to, something wrong with one's wings like them being shaped in a way that makes it difficult or even impossible to fly, missing limbs or extremities, lacking a talent, losing the ability to engage in one's talent and fulfill their role in fairy society, for example a scout that cannot see cannot help protect the home tree and fairies from birds of prey). not everyone believes this, and very few if any would actually say it to her face, this is a very serious claim and kinda taboo to say out loud. I'm making her sound incredibly sympathetic, aren't i? and i want to agree that she is but also she is kinda catty in the books (fairies are dicks. i keep tellin ya. VERY endearing but kinda frustrating all the same)

EVERYTHING about rani after she cut off her wings on a mission to save mother dove. VERY physically disabled coded. she lost limbs (specifically 2 limbs that are also integral to fairy identity. fairies love their talents and they love to fly) and the others pity her and say things like how they "could never do such a thing". rani doesn't regret the decision, however, she got to experience swimming, something she always wanted to do and something fairies cannot do. (they sink because their wings absorb water and drag them down. and yes they can drown and die; even in the rain) and i LOVE that she's proud of both her decision and she enjoys being flightless for the most part, after watching a lot of crutchesandspice (imani) on tiktok and her talks of disability justice and giving more info from a disability perspective, many disabled folks don't hate nor wish they weren't disabled (what they want is for society to accept and better/actually accommodate disabled people) so i LOVE that for rani. and i love the perspective of someone living their best life.

rani also has 2 other quirks, one is because of plot reasons from the 2nd book (quest for the wand) and the other is just a quirk she's always had. 1. rani can finish people's sentences, she's got this sixth sense for what people are going to say and yes it does sometimes bother them to be interrupted. her friends just get used to it and basically ignore it and keep conversations going. 2. she was at one point turned into a bat (vengeful mermaid magic. also MERMAIDS ARE GIANT DICKS. welcome to neverland everyone is an azzhat) and her brain basically fused with the bat's brain because not only did she turn into a bat, that bat ALSO had it's own consciousness? i can't explain that without rereading the book (or you can read it yourself. it's Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand) but apparently when she turned back into a fairy the bat conscious, still lingered in her mind? i literally don't even know what to make of that. i'm not calling it Disassociative Identity Disorder (if you are someone with DID and it resonates with you, more power to you. me with my bachelor's in psychology and VERY basic understanding of the disorder am not comfortable really calling it that mostly because it doesn't really seem like it fits the criteria for that sort of "diagnosis")

terence! terence and all the other dust talent fairies have a special specific teacup to measure dust EXACTLY. autistics and our special utensils, am i right? iykyk xD no but really it's a big deal they all carry those cups around and if they break it's a big deal.

many other talents that also have specific tools to do their jobs (tinkers/pots-and-pans with their hammers or screwdrivers or whatever, sweepers with their brooms, to name a couple) also have their favorites that are painstakingly crafted/selected. and using any other would feel unnatural or inefficient or just plain wrong.

ok that's a lot and everything i could think of off the top of my head and it's like 2am and i wanna sleep. so i'll have to continue this some other day if/when i think of more.

[beauleifu]

hiii!! saw your rqs were open so i swooped right in >:) may i perhaps get a fluffy syntax x reader where the reader tries to drag syntax away from his work because theyre sleepy and want to cuddle him (bonus points if syntax is a bit of a tease cause djkfgdkfg im predictable) ...... i feel like once he gets going on his work he stays there until he either finishes it or passes out. overall hes Very stubborn so we gotta try and fix his sleep schedule with the power of ~love~ (and a lot of convincing). thank you for the opportunity!! the way you write for him is like instant serotonin 🙏💞

HEYYYYY GOOD TO HAVE YOU!

And ofc, ofc, we all love a little Syntax serotonin, yessir. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, sorry if this is late! I wanted it to be fun and mushy lmao

P.S. to everyone else, I think this is gonna be my last long oneshot for Syntax seeing as im writing a fanfic for him and dont want stuff for him to get old or repetetive, I have a LOT of requests regarding him so i'll either write short headcanons or not answer them until later <3

as for that yan!Syntax x reader, that's the exception lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SYNTAX X READER

Lego Monkie Kid

Context: Your idiot is back at it again, tinkering late at night at the work bench you realize you regret buying for him. Syntax was never one to value his own health, so it's up to you to, ah . . . remind him. Let's hope your plans don't go sideways.

CW: Tiny suggestive bit, language

‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

When you wake up, it's still dark.

Weird . . . You think, not bothering to sit up. Dull gaze directed at the stone ceiling, you frown thoughtfully.

It's probably sometime around three in the morning.

That doesn't explain the strange empty feeling inside of you. Blowing out a sigh, you look around for the person you'd been spooning all night - only to find the other side of the bed vacant and cold.

Now you realize why you feel empty.

Syntax is gone.

Frustration starts to build up in your center as you slowly sit up and rub your eyes, yawning tiredly.

He's probably working in his signature cave. Just one of many in the vast expanses of the Spider Queen's lair. You've become familiar with the many routes and tunnels that stretch to the surface (the Spider Queen needed you at your top game, anyways). After coming to terms with serving the Queen, you've stayed by Syntax's side to help him with whatever he needs. You're not a tech nerd, you're not even a scientist. But the spider demons seem to enjoy your company, the food you cook, and the items you bring from the surface.

It's too chilly to leave your room without a blanket, so you drape the fluffiest one over your shoulders and slip out of bed, bare feet touching the smooth, stone cold floor.

Urgh. Living underground doesn't have many perks.

You find solace in working with Syntax and befriending the other spider demons. At least they allow you to travel to the surface in order to get your daily dose of vitamin D and other necessities. Besides that, you live down here.

Stretching and scratching your back, you walk aimlessly to the door and crack it open. It's dark outside.

It's always dark.

You've grown accustomed to the lack of sunlight, but you must have access to a nightlight or a lamp if you want to feel somewhat at home. The Spider Queen had allowed you to decorate your room (it's a cave, but you refuse to call it that), and you're grateful to her for that. It's not often she expresses any sort of kindness to begin with.

Eyes wide, you fumble for your phone and beam the light down the tunnel.

Just beyond, where the path curves sideways, you see a light.

Yup. Totally working.

"Damn spider demon," you mumble to yourself, in a slight daze as you leave your room and follow the source of light. "Getting no sleep. What am I supposed to do . . ."

When you finally reach the room, you pause.

Anxiety bubbles in your chest.

Step, step, step.

You've started pacing, you know it.

Slowly shuffling back in forth in front of the ominous door that leads to Syntax's quarters, hands twisting the blanket fabric. Under normal circumstances, you'd walk right in after knocking, with a smile on your face.

Instead, you're frowning, tapping your chin and thinking hard.

It's three in the fucking morning.

Why isn't he asleep!?

You don't understand why the Spider Queen won't send Syntax to rest and charge up if she values his tech skills so much. Despite it being so dim down here in the spider caves, no one ever seems to want to sleep. Unless they do so while you're aboveground, but the time you spend up there recently is very brief. You're ordered to return to the Spider Queen's lair in due time (and you're sure Huntsman keeping an eye on you the whole time, anyways. You don't try anything).

Adjusting the fluffy blanket draping over your shoulders, you fight a yawn and rub your eyes. Just get it over with.

You're tired.

He must be exhausted.

It's that which motivates you to quietly open the door, peeking inside before stepping through. As you expected, a tall figure stands at the work bench, back to you, tinkering away.

You puff out a small, exasperated sigh. "Syntax. . . ."

He doesn't turn, but you detect the smallest tensing of his shoulder muscles as he straightens a tad. You hear the small exhale.

"You should be asleep."

Oh, he wants to play this game? Puffing a sigh, you enter the room and shut the door quietly behind you, leaning against it. "Yeah, well, so should you. This isn't healthy and you know it. Why can't you take a break and come back to bed?"

"You know why. I'm almost finished with the prototype."

"The prototype?? You mean you're not even at the final stage?" Crossing the room and joining him at the workbench, you give him the stinky eye. "That's not almost finished."

Finally, Syntax locks eyes with you, frowning. "Did I say I was almost finished with the project as a whole?"

"No. . . ."

"Precisely. Now if you won't return to bed, then sit and be quiet."

You weigh your options, biting your lip.

At this rate, he'll just refuse your request just to spite you. There must be a smarter way to play your cards. Something that you know he has a weakness for. . . .

"How about a deal?" You murmur.

There.

You catch it, the slight lift of his eyebrows and the brief gleam in his green eyes. But he merely scoffs. "What did I just tell you?"

"Please. Please!" You say, fighting a smile. "I wanna cuddle!"

"I'm not in the mood for bargaining."

He's messing with you. You know he's interested in whatever you have to offer. Puffing a laugh, you slip your arms around his midsection and hug him from behind, closing your eyes. The sound of his breathing against your ear is soothing, even when it hitches at your actions. He's so warm. No wonder you woke up from his absence.

"Pleeeeeaase?" You whine softly, knowing you sound childish but not caring in the slightest. "I thought you liked deals."

A pause. You hold your breath.

Syntax lets out a sigh, a smile in his voice. "What did you have in mind?"

Oh.

"I, uh . . . haven't planned it out that far. I was expecting you to shoo me back to bed," you admit sheepishly, glad you can hide your face in his coat so you can avoid meeting his gaze, which is no doubt amused and mocking.

The spider demon hums, tinkering away. "That was on my itinerary, but you have piqued my interest. . . ."

"Okay, how about I do whatever you want for a bit, and in return you come to bed and cuddle with me," you offer, releasing him. Syntax spins on heel and leans on the workbench.

"'Whatever I want'?" He repeats mischievously.

You consider. "Within reason."

"Understandable. All right," Syntax says, cocking his head. "I have an idea."

A question builds in your throat, for he'd been so very explanatory, but Syntax simply crosses you to the far side of the desk and faces you once more. Hands in his pockets, he nods to the desk, eyes twinkling mysteriously. You frown deeply.

"Sit here."

Now you grimace, face scrunched as you try and figure out his ulterior motives. "Uh-huh. What else? Just sit?"

If this is it, getting him to bed will be shockingly simple.

Of course, you miss the look in his gaze. Smiling casually, he hums; "Yes. That's all." And then his voice takes on a stern dip. "However. You are to sit quietly and obediently until I instruct otherwise. If you can do that, I see no problem in fulfilling your end of the bargain."

There it is, the catch you were waiting for.

Accepting your face, you nod wearily and saunter over to the desk. You make sure the blanket is secure before hopping up onto the smooth, wooden surface.

Syntax steps back, making sure you look comfy. "Good. Now sit there for a bit."

"You're not just doing this to make me shut up, are you?" You accuse as he walks back to the workbench. Shifting to avoid leaning back and bumping the discarded tech gear at your back, you eye him sternly. "You really will come back to bed?"

He merely glances at you.

Oh.

Shit.

You make a quick movement of zipping your mouth closed. Damnit, you still have no idea if you're doing this for nothing.

Syntax cracks a satisfied smile, returning to his work.

His demeanor gives away nothing. Whipping out your phone, you glance at the time. 3:30. Through narrowed eyes, you determine how long he'll make you sit here. No longer than half an hour, if he values your sleep schedule. Somewhat reassured, you settle into the blanket and watch Syntax resume tinkering around. The prototype looks like some kind of mini spider-bot, with sharp appendages and large, x-raying green eyes.

You long to ask what purpose his creation serves. Perhaps it's some kind of spying device, to scuttle around the city undercover of night in search of the Monkie Kid. Then again, isn't Syntax's current task something different? You thought the former was Huntsman's job.

A yawn escapes you without warning, and you clap a hand over your mouth in shock.

Syntax spares you a brief glance. "Giving up?"

He's asking if you're tired enough to abandon the deal and leave him here (as he probably wants). To challenge you in that way sparks a flame that you don't bother to snuff out.

Glaring determinedly, you shake your head. Not in a million years.

The spider demon's face drops in disappointment, and he turns back to his work without another word.

You're inclined to pass the time on your phone, lazily scrolling through entertainment simply thrown at your feet, as they swing back and forth above the cave floor. But as time ticks on, you begin to think this is all quite hopeless.

You struggle against another yawn.

A few more minutes.

It'll be worth it.

Syntax suddenly straightens, having been rearranging the insides of the mini spider-bot for the past five minutes. Blowing out an exhale, he glances at you - or rather, behind you.

His eyes then trail to your face. A slow, smug smile spreads across his features.

Setting the screwdriver aside, he walks over to the desk.

You realize he needs something from behind you, something lost among the many miscellaneous tech items resting against the wall. However, from the strange gleam in his eyes, you doubt that's all he needs, and he hasn't asked you to move yet. So you plant your hands on the table in preparation to scooch over and make room for him.

To your surprise, Syntax stops your motions by politely - yet firmly - placing one hand on your knee.

You swallow. Uh oh.

Syntax smiles kindly at you. "That's not necessary."

"But I-"

"Perhaps you're forgetting your instructions? Move, and the deal is off," Syntax continues, effectively shutting you up. With a gentle squeeze to your knee, he winks. "So stay."

That kind smile was a ruse, a dirty trick that had momentarily lowered your guard.

Syntax finds it incredibly easy to simply lean right over you to retrieve whatever he needed from the table. He's taller than you, his height even more prominent when you're sitting down. You have to tilt your chin upward so it just barely brushes his shoulder, heart beat suddenly wild.

It stops.

It skips beats.

It has no fucking clue how to react.

"U-Um-"

"Just a moment," Syntax says, which is so informative. You can practically feel his smirk, can taste the amusement reeking off of him.

Also his perfume. Not to mention his natural scent.

Smells good. Heat blossoms in your cheeks, your mouth quite dry as you attempt to swallow. The phone in your hands slips from your laxed grip into Syntax's palm, and you don't even try to object.

The scientist fusses with something behind you for a good ten seconds, giving you plenty of time to work up quite a flustered storm in both your head and your face. In the end, when he leans back, you're shivering despite the blanket, cheeks on fire.

The spider demon smirks.

Job well done, his eyes seem to say, green and mocking.

"Enjoying your visit thus far?" He says musingly, eyebrows raised. When you give no answer, he scoffs and brushes his bangs to one side. "You have permission to speak, I suppose. For now."

You simply glare, no longer wanting to cuddle anymore.

No.

You want to attack, like the little gremlin you are. Revenge tastes sweet, yessir.

"Not answering," you huff, hoping for a drink.

Which is certainly answer enough. Syntax's drops and he shrugs as if to say, you're loss. He's still a close distance from you, looking down at your blanket-swaddled frame. "You'd rather go back to bed and give up this . . . whatever this is?"

When he'd gestured to you, your eyes fall to his hands, unwilling to keep eye contact.

"I just . . ."

Angry for being at such a loss for words, you glare at the floor.

Syntax's expression softens.

He seems to realize what's up. With a faint sigh of fond exasperation, he rests his hands on either side of you, on the desk, and lowers himself to your eye level.

"Why did you really come down here. To me," Syntax murmurs, eyes half lidded.

You stiffen. "Well . . . I . . ."

He's smiling now, fingers ghosting along your arm. "Did you miss me that much?"

"More like worried you'd kill yourself working too hard," you grumble.

"Hmm. I'm touched," Syntax comments, gently taking your hand in his. Raising it to his lips, he presses a soft kiss to your knuckles, eyes trained on you. This time, you bite your lip so hard you taste blood.

Say it.

It's certainly a last ditch effort, an idea you're not exactly proud of.

However, as we all say, for the greater good.

"It . . . it just hurts to see you neglect your own health," you whisper, as though your confession is something forbidden.

Your words fill Syntax's ears.

He blinks, lips parting in surprise. You catch the guilt flash across his face.

At that moment, you seize your chance.

Syntax didn't know.

He had no clue that you were also putting on an act to dissuade him from the real deal (although your confession still have a ring of truth to them).

Karma is a bitch.

Hauling the blanket with you, you launch yourself at Syntax and wrap yourself around him, legs hooking around his waist. The blanket had fallen in such a way that it now covers both of your heads, giving way to a new kind of darkness that you quite like.

He gasps, hands instinctively flying down to support you.

With eyes of steel, you grab his face.

"Sleep," you beg, expression set aglow by the soft shine of Syntax's green eyes. Cracking a fond smile, you kiss his nose. "Cuddle with me."

You kiss his forehead. "I love you and I want you to be healthy."

Then, you pinch his cheek. "Don't make me use force."

Syntax is effectively breathless, words simply abandoning him when he needs them most. Your actions had startled him for sure, and thankfully he'd caught you or you'd be on your ass right now, drowning in shame. For now, you remain thankful and patient in his arms, thumb absently brushing his cheek.

Finally, Syntax sighs in resignation. "I knew I'd fail to achieve anything with your constant nagging."

"Is that a yes?"

A yawn - you knew he was tired. "I suppose it was."

Relief pours through you, and you remove the blanket from over both your heads. It falls back around your shoulders like a fluffy cape.

"Then let's be off," you say, yawning ass well.

He obeys, perhaps sad to leave his project yet his body is relaxed. Carrying you still, he leaves the cave and walks down the tunnel. You hug him tighter, burying your face in the crook of his neck and breathing deeply.

"I can't believe you did this on a daily basis before we met."

Syntax clears his throat. "With good reason."

"Give me one good reason, then."

Silence.

He's tired. It brings a smile to your face, because so are you, and it would suck to have forced him to do something he isn't ready for.

Now you can look forward to sleeping with peace of mind.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Mark Henn, loooong time Disney animator who was still with the studio in the recent years, has spoken recently...

He's pretty much kind of done with Walt Disney Animation Studios, feeling that the minimal 2D work he had been doing lately (alongside veterans Eric Goldberg and Randy Haycock) wasn't very "meaningful". He is open to going back to finish a short of his own, that he was working with producer Clark Spencer on, but that's just about it. As the Brew notes, his full-time career there is over. He started on THE FOX AND THE HOUND, which released in 1981, to give you an idea of how long he's been there.

It's quite telling how many of the greats departed or were laid off under both John Lasseter and Jennifer Lee's leaderships. Glen Keane, Chris Sanders, Nik Ranieri, Ron Clements, John Musker, the list goes on... I know a lot of animation fans desperately want Disney to do 2D features again, but I don't see it happening. I haven't seen it happening in years. Whenever a piece of 2D for a short or a promo or a commercial surfaces, twitter goes gaga and says "See Disney?? You can do 2D! No excuses!"

It's not about excuses, they simply DO NOT WANT TO. For whatever reason, no matter how silly it may seem to us.

Henn said it best:

"Since then, I think it’s just too difficult for the studio to justify essentially creating a second studio within this current studio in order to do 2D, which is what you had when we had Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh. We essentially had literally two smaller studios under one roof, and I just think that that became too much of a financial risk. Right now, we’re barely able to house everybody that we have on staff. So, I mean, there’s all kinds of logistical things from where you’re going to put people to taking that risk."

I've talked about it, exhaustively, myself. It's just, the larger Disney company isn't too interested in being - to quote former Disney storyman Steve Hulett - a "Renaissance art factory". In addition to 2D really not being conducive to editorial and a one-a-year assembly line model, WDAS management are simply making movies that they think the public wants to see. They spend upward $135m+ on them, and they try to get one out every year. They're lucky to even be making movies, since they've been nearly shut down far too many times to name... As recently as 2006, even, because one Steve Jobs felt they didn't need to be a thing anymore now that the company owned Pixar. I see them as a "legacy brand" at this point. Still alive, still kicking, probably by virtue of being the thing that created the whole company in the first place... But that's just it. It's very "Disney, the way you always liked it" these days. I think that's part of why STRANGE WORLD and WISH had trouble theatrically, among many other things. Pixar had one miss with LIGHTYEAR, but a leggy sensation with ELEMENTAL. It remains to be seen how ELIO does a year and a half from now. Universal on the other hand is somehow keeping audiences coming back for both DreamWorks and Illumination's movies. With the rare miss every now and then. (SPIRIT: UNTAMED, RUBY GILLMAN, etc.)

But yeah, I've kind of made peace with it. Disney Animation is currently not in the business of making movies for people who can spot a Milt Kahl head swaggle from a mile away, they're making movies for the folks who put on Disney+, and then put on ENCANTO and such as background noise. It just... Is what is. 2D is still there in some way or another, like in short films and small bits of animated effects and whatnot, but... It's a crapshoot to think that they'll do a full feature like that this decade, I feel. If anything, they'll just keep tinkering with the art style of WISH, which... Didn't work on a lot of folks. So... Do they go back to the tried-and-true TANGLED/FROZEN/MOANA house style? I don't know, I don't have a crystal ball. I don't even know if they'll have a movie by Thanksgiving of this year. That new Disney+ series they made that's coming out next month, IWAJU, looks like a slightly upscaled Disney Junior show.

I still look for something I'll like in the upcoming stuff, because... Well, even though Disney Animation is merely a cog in the massive Disney machine at this point with little of an identity left (much like the live-action/CG tech demo end of things), this studio's output... Decades and decades of it, has been formative for me. At least one WDAS movie was someone's gateway to the wider world of animation, methinks. It was certainly my VHS tapes of BAMBI, THE JUNGLE BOOK, and THE LION KING, among many others in my library at age 8, that's for sure. I even *liked* the recent films, I have yet to see WISH all the way through, but I did enjoy STRANGE WORLD enough, and liked ENCANTO, RAYA, FROZEN II, etc. a good deal. It's just, a lot of it is nothing really special to me in the end. Just fine at best, with some impressive stuff here and there. Like, say, some of the directing in ENCANTO. Just fine, adequate. I don't think that of the Disney animated features made before this decade. Even my least favorite animated Disney work of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s still has something very unique and influential to it. I don't intend for this to be a knock on the crews' hard work, it's only my personal feelings on what I've seen. It's what they seem to want to be making, or what the management is approving of... I can kick and scream, but, that won't do anything. I'll just see what's next and say "Well, let's see... What will I get out of this one?"

I've long accepted that the ship sailed on 2D features at WDAS, and most of the other big theatrical studios for that matter. Many of whom never even MADE a 2D feature. Pixar never made one, Illumination didn't, Sony Animation didn't until FIXED, you get the idea. The only other one that's still chugging is DreamWorks, and they made their final 2D feature back in 2003. Twenty-one years ago. I look elsewhere for that kind of thing, and I found just that... KLAUS, WOLFWALKERS, you get the idea. The best you'll get in theaters is an adaptation of a 2D animated show or pre-existing franchise, like THE BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE. I doubt that pending-theatrical release Looney Tunes movie, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, will be the great decider of the future of 2D animated movies in theaters. Ditto FIXED, *if* that's still aiming for theaters. (It got its rating from the MPA a long while ago. It's done. It's in the can... and there's no release date for it.)

So... Yeah... Is what it is. WDAS seems to refuse to do a 2D feature, and have been refusing for over a decade (I really think PRINCESS AND THE FROG and WINNIE shut the door permanently, like an encore that they fought to make happen), and the kind of movie that they're making now may just not be for me and others for the foreseeable future. We'll see where their next path takes them... As long as they come out whatever happens still making movies...

[twoidiotwriters1]

The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Honestly I love deranged women -Danny Words: 2,089 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'Keeping Your Head Up' -by Birdy

XLV: We Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss Through

It must be sturdy down here because Hazel isn't insisting on going in first before Ara. Unless she's so pissed that she's hoping Ara will die on accident. This wouldn't be the first time in Ara's life that a child of the Underworld prays for her downfall.

The girl walks forward while Leo tries to cheer Hazel up. Ara has a goal and a plan, and that keeps her mind clear, so she's okay... as okay as she can be after hearing her dead sister talking to her. A squeak makes her stop making the two kids behind her collide against her. Gale the gassy polecat is glaring at them from the ground. 

"Not the farting weasel again," Leo groans. "If that thing lets loose in close quarters like this, with my fire and all, we're gonna explode."

The polecat goes off on Leo in a series of irritated screeches and Hazel hushes it. "Be ready," she tells them. "We're getting close." 

"Close to what?" Leo questions.

"Close to me." Answers a fourth voice."Welcome. I've looked forward to this."

The decoration in this new room is screaming: YOU'RE DYING TODAY! But Ara's attention isn't on that. Right in the middle of the chamber, is a set of elevator doors that remind her of the ones leading to Olympus.

"That's it," Ara breathes.

"Yup," Leo sounds less enthusiastic about it. "Those are doors, all right."

Ara spots the chains on each side and her hand reaches for Almighty, but she doesn't move. It can't be this easy.

"Where are you?" Hazel asks tensely.

"Don't you see us? I thought Hecate chose you for your skill."

A dark cloud forms and vanishes just as quickly leaving a tall giant in its place. He's not too different from his brethren, except that he's all black and made of smoke. He's weaponless, which concerns Ara.

Leo whistles under his breath. "You know, Clytius... for such a big dude, you've got a beautiful voice."

"Idiot." 

A woman shows up next to the giant: Full Greek attire, a high updo that reminds Ara of that movie Silena used to love—Pride and Prejudice, the one with Keira Knightley—and a necklace with a miniature maze. 

"Oh!" Ara lets out in understanding. "You're the minotaur's momma!"

"Arae Jackson," the lady sneers. "I have a name."

"Pasiphaë," Hazel replies.

"My dear Hazel Levesque," the woman nods politely.

"You two know each other?" Leo asks. "Like Underworld chums, or—"

"Silence, fool. I have no use for demigod boys—always so full of themselves, so brash and destructive."

"Hey, lady, I don't destroy things much. I'm a son of Hephaestus."

"A tinkerer," Pasiphaë scoffs. "Even worse. I knew Daedalus. His inventions brought me nothing but trouble."

"Daedalus... like, the Daedalus? Well, then, you should know all about us tinkerers. We're more into fixing, building, occasionally sticking wads of oilcloth in the mouths of rude ladies—"

"Leo." Hazel interrupts him. "Let me take this, okay?"

"Listen to your friend—Be a good boy and let the women talk."

Ara's eyes go past the giant and to the doors behind him. She tries to figure out how to run past him, but if he doesn't move, she can't tell how to one-up him. "Easy, child of Olympus," the woman speaks like soothing an energetic puppy. "We'll get to that in a moment."

"Your—your friend doesn't say much," Hazel points out. 

"Pray he stays silent, my dear. Gaea has given me the pleasure of dealing with you; but Clytius is my, ah, insurance. Just between you and me, as sister sorceresses, I think he's also here to keep my powers in check, in case I forget my new mistress's orders. Gaea is careful that way."

"Whatever you're planning," Hazel continues, "it won't work. We've cut through every monster Gaea's put in our path. If you're smart, you'll get out of our way."

"You don't look like much," the woman continues unbothered. "But then you demigods never do. My husband, Minos, king of Crete? He was a son of Zeus. You would never have known it by looking at him. He was almost as scrawny as that one." 

"Wow," Leo grumbles. "Minos must've done something really horrible to deserve you."

"Oh... you have no idea," Pasiphaë's eyes flare up. "He was too proud to make the proper sacrifices to Poseidon, so the gods punished me for his arrogance."

"The Minotaur," Hazel brings up Ara's only memory of the myth.

"Yes. My disgrace was unbearable. After my son was born and locked in the Labyrinth, Minos refused to have anything to do with me. He said I had ruined his reputation! And do you know what happened to Minos, Hazel Levesque? For his crimes and his pride? He was rewarded. He was made a judge of the dead in the Underworld, as if he had any right to judge others! Hades gave him that position. Your father."

"Pluto, actually."

"I knew Minos," Ara declares. "Big-time loser."

"Irrelevant," the woman scowls. "I hate demigods as much as I hate the gods. Any of your brethren who survive the war, Gaea has promised to me, so that I may watch them die slowly in my new domain. I only wish I had more time to torture you properly. Alas—"

The Doors of Death light up a sign letting them know someone is coming. Ara's heart nearly jumps out of her chest.

"There, you see?" Pasiphaë sighs. "The Doors are in use. Twelve minutes, and they will open."

"More giants?" Hazel's voice trembles.

"Thankfully, no. They are all accounted for—back in the mortal world and in place for the final assault... No, I would imagine the Doors are being used by someone else... someone unauthorized."

"Percy and Annabeth," Leo states.

Ara draws out Almighty. "I'm sorry, but there is little you can do to keep me from making sure they get out alive."

"Oh, not to worry." Pasiphaë shrugs. "Clytius will handle them. You see, when the chime sounds again, someone on our side needs to push the UP button or the Doors will fail to open and whoever is inside—poof. Gone. Or perhaps Clytius will let them out and deal with them in person. That depends on you."

"How exactly does it depend on us?" Hazel asks.

"Well, obviously, we need only one set of demigods alive. The lucky two will be taken to Athens and sacrificed to Gaea at the Feast of Hope."

"Obviously," Leo makes a face.

"So will it be one of you two and that annoying boy, or your friends in the elevator? Let's see who is still alive in twelve... actually, eleven minutes, now."

Ara runs into battle only to be swallowed up by darkness. Just like in her dreams, she gets spit out in the middle of a different scenery, with Hazel and Leo on each side of her.

"What the heck? Where are we?" Leo looks around in confusion.

"This is an illusion," Ara turns to Hazel with urgency. "Get us out of it."

Hazel scowls. "I'm trying."

Leo lightly hits a wall with his fist. "Pretty solid illusion."

"Annoyingly realistic," Ara agrees. "But it's beatable. It has to be."

"Got it," Hazel replies grumpily. "Would be more useful if you could just shoot around until you hit Pasiphaë?"

The woman laughs, and the illusion becomes stronger. "Oh..." Ara backtracks until she's right up against the wall. "No no no..." Her eyes widen. "Not this place again..."

"What? What is it?" Leo gets closer. "What's wrong?"

"The Labyrinth," Hazel says with a stringy voice. "She's remaking the Labyrinth."

It's the only thing in the world that makes Ara's skin crawl this way, and now she's back in it.

"What now?" Leo asks anxiously. "I thought the Labyrinth collapsed during that battle at Camp Half-Blood—like, it was connected to Daedalus's life force or something, and then he died."

"Ah, but I am still alive," the sorcesses replies bemusedly. "You credit Daedalus with all the maze's secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. Daedalus was nothing compared to me—the immortal sorceress, daughter of Helios, sister of Circe! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain."

"This place was indecipherable," Ara's knees buckle. "I can't beat it!"

"It's an illusion," Hazel reminds her. "We just have to break through it."

"Too late, too late," Pasiphaë taunts them. "The maze is already awake. It will spread under the skin of the earth once more while your mortal world is leveled. You demigods... you heroes... will wander its corridors, dying slowly of thirst and fear and misery. Or perhaps, if I am feeling merciful, you will die quickly, in great pain!"

Ara remembers what it did to Chris and Clarisse, and how it got Lee Fletcher killed. She wants no more suffering, her people have seen enough of that. "You petty psycho!" The girl hisses. "You're gonna sit there in your centuries-old mummified ass and antagonize a trio of TEENAGERS? You can stick your loathing up your crinkled butt!"

Ara turns to Hazel with vengeful, wild eyes. She's been cornered and hates when others make her feel small. Nemesis told her she'd be a massive pain in the ass for others one day, Pasiphaë's about to find out.

She holds Hazel's face and uses charmspeak. "Hazel, this is your labyrinth. Build us a way out." Hazel raises a hand, opening a hallway before them. The girl runs tugging them forward. "Give her what she wants!" Ara encourages her.

The floor opens and Hazel jumps in, pulling Ara and Leo along. Both scream as they fall, but they land much faster than expected, and it doesn't hurt. The walls around them flicker and Ara spots Pasiphaë.

"You'll rot in your hatred!" She grabs her flintlock and shoots. "Hazel's so much better than you! "

"Eight minutes now!" Pasiphaë speaks over her, the walls building back up. "I'd love to see you survive, truly. That would prove you worthy sacrifices to Gaea in Athens. But then, of course, we wouldn't need your friends in the elevator."

Ara whispers directions to Hazel every time the walls flicker so the younger girl can build a path. Hazel does make a show out of it imagining traps, poisonous gas, and debris that collapses around them, which delights Pasiphaë so much she puts less effort into the illusion.

"Seven minutes now—If only we had more time! So many indignities I'd like you to suffer."

Ara still feels like a scared ten-year-old, she still thinks of herself as the short, vain girl she was seven months ago when she met Leo. It may feel like she has nothing to offer, but she does.

"I'll show you indignity," Ara turns Almighty into a bow. She uses her charmspeak again. "Show yourself, Pasiphaë!"

Ara's voice comes out stronger than the woman's defenses, so distracted that her mind can't reject the orders. The walls flicker away and Hazel sees Pasiphaë, and when the woman lifts the illusion again, it's too late.

Hazel creates a ramp and pushes them forward to throw them into a large pit. This time, the fall doesn't last at all and the trio drops right on top of Pasiphaë. "Ack!" The witch squeals under them and tries to crawl out.

Ara tackles her again and presses her knee on Pasiphaë's chest, then raises her bow and tenses an arrow on it aiming at the woman's head. 

"Three minutes," she speaks, her gaze cold and calculating. "Any last words?"

"You miserable wretches!" The sorceress cries.

"Leo, tie her hands."

"Gladly." The boy gets to work while Ara still aims at the woman.

"You must really hate demigods," Hazel smiles mockingly. "We always get the best of you, don't we, Pasiphaë?"

"Nonsense! I will tear you apart! I will—"

"We're always pulling the rug out from under your feet," Ara doesn't know why Hazel's taunting Pasiphaë when she's already subdued, but she won't complain. "Your husband betrayed you. Theseus killed the Minotaur and stole your daughter Ariadne. Now three second-rate failures have turned your own maze against you. But you knew it would come to this, didn't you? You always fall in the end."

"I am immortal!" She wriggles against the ropes. "You cannot stand against me!"

"You can't stand at all," Hazel grins.

"You're dying," Ara's gaze darkens as she tenses the bow again.

"Are you killing her?" Hazel asks with genuine curiosity.

She freezes, then lowers the bow. Hercules's words come back to her: all children of Olympus are killers. Ara eyes the witch with apathy, turning away from her. "I'm better than that."

"Okay," Hazel points at the floor where the woman is kneeling. "Bye!"

The ground swallows her. Leo stares at the girls with his mouth wide open. "You make a spooky team!"

The elevator doors ding again, Ara glows silver and shoots the arrow at the button to let her friends out. Smoke comes out of it like it's been severely overused, and Percy and Annabeth spill out onto the hard floor.

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