#about the family who had their son stolen. who tracked him down in America. who asked the family to see him

[badolmen]

Everyone talking about adopting Palestinian kids needs to read Scott Carney’s The Red Market and a brief definition of genocide outside of the physical destruction of lives.

[ad1thi]

2020 fic recs!! [Part 1]

this idea was stolen from @iam93percentstardust cuz i just,,,thought that this year was absolute shit and it would be nice to make a fic rec list of fics from this year that helped me through it. this will be over a range of fandoms and ships, but all fics were written this year. 

fics are ordered by the month they were published. ive tried to keep to five fics per month, but this is not obviously all the fics ive read that month - i just didn’t want to make this insanely long. 

im releasing the first half of this on the 1st of December, and the second half on the 1st of January 2021 - because otherwise it would just get so long (and also so i will actually have fics for December)

happy reading!! hopefully you find fics on this you haven’t read yet

***

January

The cat is mighty dignified (until the dog comes by): @five-wow

Steve and Danny find them on the pillow in the corner of the dining area, where Eddie is on his side, ass half on the floor because the pillow is more cat-sized than lab-sized, and Pickles is nestled between Eddie’s front legs, essentially being spooned and looking very I-got-the-cream about it. Pickles’ head is tucked into the crook of Eddie’s neck and Eddie’s head slots perfectly on top of Mr. Pickles’, like a furry jigsaw puzzle.

“They’re cuddling,” Steve points out, unnecessarily.

Or: There is a love story unfolding under the McGarrett roof.

Captain ‘Socialist Rage Muffin’ America: @baffledkingcomposinghallelujah

It takes three months of dating Steve Rogers for Tony to understand why Aunt Peggy once shot at him in sheer frustration.

Alternately titled, Honey, I committed treason again.

The Best Laid Plans (Of Mice and Men): @arboreal-elm-ash-oak

His Dark Materials AU

It was Annalise who noticed their small visitor first.

“Tony,” the spider daemon said softly, skittering up the collar of his dress shirt, two of her eight legs resting delicately against his cheek, “Don’t startle them, but I believe we have a guest. Look, by the coffee table.”

Fourteen Million to One: @tunastorks

Six months after Thanos, six months after Tony’s death, six months after Steve returns to his own timeline, Tony Stark turns up on their doorstep.

Brewed Awakening: @iam93percentstardust

Two years after he comes out of the ice, Steve is drifting through life. On his teammate's recommendation, he decides to go back to school where he meets the grandson of an old friend. He finds happiness with Tony but Steve won't be in Boston forever and someone is out to hurt the Starks. Will Steve and Tony be able to reach their happily ever after?

February

the young, the reckless and the foolish: @bruciewayne

In most universes, they don't know each other, not in the slightest, or they hate each other, in a way that's perfectly logical for anyone who were to find themselves in a similar situation.

In this one, they've known each other since they were four years old and naively idealistic.

This is them over the years, against the odds.

a giant sign: @areiton

“Think you can get him to open the weapons division up again?” his CO asks, his voice hungry and Rhodey laughs because this--

“No. Tony hung up his weapons.”

“That’s not what the suit says,” his CO objects, and Rhodey shrugs.

Tony has always had rules, rules he expects the entire world to live by.

And then there was Rhodey, slipping under them.

my heart is driftwood, floating down your coast: @nethandrake

Tonight, there’s a stranger in his backseat. That’s not unusual.

He’s also sad. That’s not unusual either.

What is unusual is that the stranger is silent.

(One night, a stranger enters Steve's taxi. Nothing is the same again.)

Just A Cold: @/delighted 

There’s a new text waiting for him. It’s from Steve of course, and it’s vaguely threatening as most messages from Steve are these days. Still Danny ignores it, and now he’s really playing with fire. Maybe it’ll burn the cold out of him.

Or, Danny’s sick, and Steve can’t stay away. The usual comfort fluff. With a little cameo from a gently meddling Grace.

An Unexpected Guide: @/Rachel500

Danny Williams has hidden his Guide status to keep being a detective, but his time of hiding is up when he unexpectedly finds his Sentinel, Steve McGarrett in the midst of a tragedy.

March

Why don’t we (Collide the spaces that divide us): @five-wow

When they finally catch sight of each other again through the milling crowds, they’re both a little worse for wear. Danny’s left side is covered in glitter and every time he brushes a hand over his hair, more blue and purple confetti rains down. Steve is- Well, Steve is randomly shirtless, which is all things considered not excessively remarkable, but he’s also covered in smudges of colorful paint and has a very nicely printed bloodred lipstick kiss mark on his cheek.

“What did you do?” Danny asks, because it looks like Steve had a lot more fun than he did.

Or: Steve and Danny accidentally end up in the middle of something entirely new.

A Little Unsteady: @finduilasclln 

Written for the Tumblr prompt meme : "Hey! I was gonna eat that!"

Tony lashes out at Bucky for eating his dessert. Only, it really isn't about the dessert.

a national treasure: @starklysteve

Steve isn't looking for an apple and Tony decides his passion is to inspire young souls. -x- OR: the AU where Tony is a Youtuber and Steve is Captain America and somehow they still save the world together.

April

cycle through: @ambivalentmarvel

Twenty-five years ago, Tony Stark disappeared from his family home a month after the tragic deaths of his parents, Howard and Maria Stark, leaving a billion-dollar tech conglomerate without an heir and the world wondering what happened.

Twenty-three years ago, HYDRA gained another super soldier.

Ten years ago, Peter Parker’s parents died in what is ruled as a home invasion gone wrong but he knows was murder, plain and simple, because he spoke to the killer.

And in the present, Project Insight fails, and the Iron Soldier pays the price.

FOREVER-LOVE YOU-I: @/Eudoxia

Tony Stark is twenty-one when he loses his voice. It shouldn't matter, but in a world where the first words your Soulmate says to you are marked on your skin, it can be pretty damn annoying.

Especially for Tony's soulmate.

--

Companion piece to my fic Thumb, Index, and Pinky Extended. This is Steve's POV, with a few extra scenes, as a treat.

(Edit: Sorry if you guys get multiple notifications for this. I just realized (about two hours after posting it) that I fucked up the grammar in the title and I HAD to fix it. YOLO, I guess.)

come build a home out of me: @maguna-stxrk

Steve clears his throat.

“What if I went with you?” he asks nonchalantly, like his heart isn’t threatening to beat out of his ribcage.

Tony blinks a few times, looking at Steve, his mouth ajar. “As a— As my date?”

“Yeah.” Steve nods, feeling a little breathless.

“You don’t mind?” Tony furrows his eyebrows.

“I don’t. In fact, you can just tell them I’m your boyfriend. I’m sure they’ll back off, wouldn’t they?”

What.

“I— Huh?” Tony stares at him, brown eyes blown wide open.

What. What. What.

“Huh? Uh, I mean— You know, that way people will see that you have definitely moved on. Monica will see that you have moved on. Right?” Steve smiles, hoping that it masks his inner panic, because what?

Steve Rogers, what have you done?

i don’t have a choice (but i’d still choose you): @nethandrake

There’s a name inked onto his chest, a name written in an all-too familiar scrawl. And it’s— It’s—

Steve doesn’t realize his body is quaking until he’s tracing the tattoo with a shaky finger.

Because of course that is the name etched into the skin. Like a brand, a reminder for everything he has done. An appropriate retribution.

Anthony Edward Stark.

(When Thanos snaps half of the universe away, he unknowingly leaves the other half with soulmarks.)

ua haʻalele ʻoe iaʻu (a ua hoʻomālamalama ʻoe iaʻu): @just-fandomthings

"The truth is, I was shot in the chest and nearly died, and not even three days after I was released from the hospital, you up and left-- and of those two, I'm not sure which one hurt me worse!"

(Coda to 10x22 because come on, we all need a better ending than the one given to us.)

Title loosely translates to: "You left me in the dark (you lit me up)" -- inspired by the brilliant song "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur

May

A Piece Of The Past: @hddnone

It had been so many years since Bucky had gone undercover in the Stark family's mob, he thought he'd gotten away clean.

Then Tony Stark slid into the seat across from him at his breakfast diner, and Bucky's boss has a new case for him.

the privilege of loving you: @starklysteve

“Why won’t you let me touch you?”

It’s a desperate plea, half-shouted and half-whispered, Steve’s voice cracking at the end. Tony stops in his tracks, halfway to the stairs. He doesn’t dare to turn back, and he really doesn’t want to fight, or to leave, to spend the last month of his life away from his husband and their son. But Steve can’t know, can he?

-x-

Or: Tony has palladium poisoning, but he doesn't tell Steve and Peter

your pillow feels so soft now (but still you must advance): @firebrands

When Bruce is 13, he decides to go to boarding school. It's an opportunity for him to learn about other people, and how to interact with them.

Bruce has the misfortune of meeting Tony Stark upon his arrival in Roxbury. Bruce is moving into his room, and Tony opens the door of his room to watch. He looks a bit younger than Bruce, hair wild and eyes bright. Bruce has never seen a boy like him before—handsome and confident.

Bruce doesn’t like it.

IMPORTANT: This fic has them meeting at 14, then progresses slowly until they’re 17. Includes underage drinking and kissing.

This is set before Bruce becomes Batman and Tony becomes Iron Man and I have no explanation as to how or why they just DO Canonically, Bruce is 17 when he finishes school and goes around the world to train, so we're sticking with that

The Real MVP: @sword-and-stars (part of a series)

[“I have saved this Tuesday!” Sokka announces, rattling the bag upon reentry.

Zuko doesn’t even look up from his phone as he deadpans, “It’s Thursday.”

Okay, so Sokka is still having trouble getting his days right without checking. At least he’s gone back to sleeping at night! Going to bed at night is way easier when you have a cute, cuddly boyfriend who starts falling asleep around eleven o’clock. It also helps that he and Zuko are on solid gold butt-touching terms.

It’s been a while since Sokka has been on butt-touching terms with someone and it’s amazing.]

Or,

Sokka knows a guy, gets laid, and introduces Zuko to the merits of an afternoon delight.

When is a bed not a bed? (When you’re not in it): @riotwritesthings

There’s a tiny safe house, with one tiny window and one tiny couch.

And one tiny little bed.

June

Nice Fingers: @anthonyed

A single compliment given by Tony stirs Bucky restless until he caves in and asks him out on a date.

With Steve’s help of course (whether he likes it or not).

The Darkest Touch: @starkrogerrs

This is the story of how Steve finds that it has been ordained that he is to marry a monster he cannot resist aka the God of Love himself, Tony.

It's Cupid x Psyche retold, but with thrice the amount of porn.

The Night Shift:  @weethreequarter

Welcome to the Emergency Department of San Antonio General where Dr. Tony Stark joins the team fresh from his most recent tour in Afghanistan and - much to the consternation of the other staff - strikes up an instant rapport with Nurse Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, new resident Bruce Banner refuses to give up on his patient, and Dr. Sharon Carter learns something from her own patients. Throw in a pissed off hospital administrator, Clint using the coffee pot as a mug again, and a major car crash and you have, well, just another night shift.

Wind Beneath My Wings: @iam93percentstardust

Sam first meets Tony Stark in 2005 when he joins the EXO-7 Falcon program.

In jest: @/apathyinreverie

“No, babe,” Danny shakes his head with a grin. “If the apocalypse were to go down while I’m elsewhere for some godforsaken reason, then you stay put and I’m coming to wherever you are.” His grin widens. “And I expect you to have cleared any aliens or zombies or whatever else might be messing with us off the island and to have set up a nice, comfortable military dictatorship for us to rule over by the time I get back.”

It’s a joke.

Of course it’s a joke.

Until it isn’t.

(A the-day-after-tomorrow-style apocalypse AU, where the world decides to end right when Danny is visiting one of the other islands with Grace. Because, of course, it does.)

[fiftymilehighclub]

Crash Course: Billy and Tommy

For the uninitiated who just found out about these two via WandaVision, here is the sequence of events that leads to a) why the boys have different last names and b) why Tommy has white hair:

   Vision and the Scarlet Witch, 1985: Billy and Tommy are born while Wanda and Vision are living a ‘normal’ life in New Jersey. It is later established that Wanda’s pregnancy was, initially, only a psychosomatic ‘hysterical’ pregnancy due to jealousy over her brother’s marriage to Crystal Amaquelin (Inhuman) and birth of their daughter Luna.

   It is also later established (in Young Avengers Presents: Wiccan and Speed) that Billy and Tommy were actually created by Wanda, using her reality-warping powers and the power of an eldritch god which had inhabited her body, using fragments of the soul of Mephisto, lord of Hell.

  During a battle, Wanda momentarily loses the focus which keeps the souls attached to the twins’ bodies, and they vanish. However, the fragments of soul which created them were purified by her love, and instead of returning to Mephisto, were instead reborn in the bodies of two boys living in separate parts of New England: Billy Kaplan, in the Upper West Side (later Chelsea), New York, and Tommy Shepherd, in Springfield, New Jersey.

Though it has been considered dubiously canon now, early on it was hinted that both boys were adopted at the same time; Billy also mentions having two brothers who are never named and only mentioned once.

   Young Avengers v1 issue 1-6, April 2005: After the events of Disassembled. The Avengers are defunct, due to Wanda’s mental breakdown over the loss of her children caused a causality chain-reaction that led to the deaths of several Avengers (including Jack of Hearts and Ant-Man, Scott Lang). A group of boys, led by a time-displaced youthful version of Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards, a distant descendant of both Tony Stark and Reed Richards) is determined to change his destiny as a supervillain by reforming the Avengers and being a hero called Iron Lad and leading a team consisting of Patriot (Eli Bradley, nephew of Captain America/Josiah X, America: Red, White and Black), Hulkling (Teddy Altman, son of Captain Marvel [Mar-Vell] and Princess Anelle of the Skrull Empire, who is unaware of his heritage at the start and believes himself to be a mutant), and Asgardian (Billy Kaplan, who aside from being a massive Avengers fanboy doesn’t have an immediately recognized connection to the Avengers). Cassie Lang, daughter of the late Ant-Man, demands to join the team, calling herself Stature (she has stolen Pym particles and can grow and shrink at will) and later, after rescuing her family from a hostage situation, Kate Bishop insinuates herself into the team as well and is, at the end, simply called Hawkeye.

House of M, August 2005: The Young Avengers are too new to be ‘involved’ in the event, but the twins (and their creepy ‘brother’ Tyler) are present as small children in Wanda’s delusion. She re-lives their birth, and re-traumatizes herself in their loss. It’s a whole thing. Her daughter with Nightcrawler (TJ) from another reality shows up. (Nocturne is an actual bean please read up on her).

Decimation, January 2006: “No More Mutants.” 198 mutants out of millions are all that remain after Wanda’s proclamation. Fortuitously, two of those who remain are Billy and Tommy (and TJ)

Young Avengers v1 issue 7-12: Teddy is caught in the middle of an intergalactic power struggle: both the Kree and Skrulls want him, as he has significant positions of power with both races, and his mother (who he discovers was really his nursemaid who spirited him away from the Skrull homeworld to protect him) is murdered by the Super-Skrull. In order to rescue him, the Young Avengers use the Vision’s programming (now stored in Iron Lad’s old suit, now named Jonas) to track down another potential linked mutant. They break Tommy out of a mutant-research facility his mother had remanded him to after a run-in with the law. Tommy is unstable and violent, but it’s immediately clear he and Billy are twins and there is More To The Story. Billy drops the Asgardian name, starts calling himself Wiccan, and accidentally outs himself as gay (and dating Teddy) to his parents.

Young Avengers Special: Wiccan and Speed: Billy and Tommy go back to Vision and Wanda’s home in New Jersey to look for clues to their past. The Mephisto connection is established and it is confirmed that they are, in fact, Wanda’s children.

Civil War, 2006: After the New Warriors cause Nitro to detonate in front of an elementary school, killing hundreds of innocents in the process (known as the Stamford Incident), the government pushes through the Mutant Registration Act, forcing all superpowered individuals to either register with the federal government or else be deemed a risk and placed under arrest. This divides the Young Avengers -- Cassie, Kate and Jonas believe it is for the greater good, since they could still work as superheroes, just with government oversight, but Billy, Tommy, Teddy and Eli join the faction led by Captain America, which deems it unconstitutional and just plain wrong. They have a run-in with the Runaways, where they are captured by a mad scientist using Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy) as a mind-controlled soldier. Wiccan’s ears are covered with sound-dampening devices to prevent him using his powers, and he is forced to watch as the scientist attempts to study Teddy via surgical means. (it’s a little gruesome, fair warning) Later, during a night patrol these four are caught, and though they are quickly rescued, after Wiccan and Cloak transport them to another location, it turns out to be a trap, and Billy is captured and imprisoned in an extra-dimensional prison called 42.

It is speculated that he was imprisoned for anywhere from one to six months. It is also speculated that during this time, due to the verbal component of his powers (he must speak his will into being, at this point) that he was either comatose or muzzled during this time.

After being freed, Billy spends several months in shock, sitting at a window in a near-catatonic state, unable to react as his friends and family try to bring him out of it. Eventually, Teddy approaches him, and lays down an ultimatum. He proposes marriage, on the condition that Billy gets out of that window. In the issue’s last panel, they share their first on-panel kiss.

Tiny queers all over the world rejoiced.

The Children’s Crusade, 2010: The Young Avengers work on the sidelines for a while, until Wiccan accidentally overloads his powers during a fight with the terrorist group Sons of the Serpent. The Avengers want to put him on lockdown until he can control his powers, but he knows that if he can find Wanda, she can teach him all he needs to know. After busting him out of his ‘suite’ at the Tower, the rest of the Young Avengers accompany him to Wanda’s last known location -- Latveria, specifically its capital Doomstadt, ruled by Dr. Doom. There, they meet Magneto, and learn that Wanda has no memory of her past, and is a guest of Dr. Doom in his palace -- in fact, she is his fiance, and they are due to be married! Billy can’t let this rest -- he knows there’s more to it, and sneaks out of the inn they are staying at, leaving an apology note for Teddy and striking out on his own to break her free. It is revealed that Doom was taking advantage of Wanda’s amnesia in order to get access to the Cthonic power she still possessed, but after taking it for himself, Wanda’s memories return, and with the help of Billy, the rest of the Young Avengers (and absolutely no help from the Avengers or X-Men, who both show up to try and fight it out). In the end, Wanda embraces her two sons, promising to be a greater presence in their lives.

Sometime during this time, both Tommy and Teddy have begun permanently residing with the Kaplan household in Chelsea, NY.

Young Avengers, vol2, 2013: In an attempt to bring Teddy some happiness, Billy browses all possible realities to find a version of his mother who had not been murdered by the Super-Skrull. He appears to find one, but she turns out to be an extradimensional parasite called Mother, who can influence adults (here meaning anyone over the age of 21). Loki (still in his 10-year-old form due to having died and been reborn it’s a long story) appears, claiming he can help them vanquish Mother if they trust him, but America Chavez also arrives to try to discourage them. Kate and Noh-Varr have some sort of friends-with-benefits thing going and arrive with a spaceship. Tommy works at a tech-assembly company as a temp, where David Alleyne (formerly Prodigy, who lost his powers on M-day) also works. I admit my memory of this series is spotty since I wasn’t a huge fan, but it establishes that Billy is an entity known as the Demiurge, who created the reality America Chavez was born from and may, possibly, be the most powerful entity in the Marvel universe.

New Avengers vol4, 2016: Post-Secret Wars, in which a Cosmic Cube broke the Marvel multiverse and Dr. Doom attempted to put it back together again, with varying degrees of success.  Bobby Da Costa (Sunspot, formerly of the New Mutants) has inherited the vast wealth and criminal empire of the organization formerly called Advanced Idea Mechanics -- A.I.M. Now calling it Avengers Idea Mechanics, he gathers a team to protect the Earth from extradimensional foes who are, apparently, spawned from a hyperfuturistic alternate version of Reed Richards. Chimeras with floating crystals for heads are nullifying magic all over the globe, but Wiccan and Songbird figure out how to use her scream to shatter them. Then, a Cthulhu-like entity called Moridun infects Billy, and a future version of the Avengers arrive in the past to kill him, including a beardly, barbarian-looking version of Hulkling. Eventually, Billy figures out that Moridun feeds on negative emotions -- and well, I’ll let Billy’s words speak for him:

“”I know what poisoned thoughts are like, Moridun. I always have. I get anxiety. I don’t think I’m good enough. I don’t like myself, even though I know -- rationally -- I know -- doesn’t matter. I have bad days, bad thoughts. And sometimes... sometimes, yeah, they’re hard to fight. But I don’t let them win every day. And I’m damn sure not going to let you win today. You’re just a cheap little bully who likes breaking toys, Moridun --

and you shouldn’t have let me see you! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

I freaking love this comic okay you get to see future Teddy go back home to his husband who’s standing at the sink washing dishes and talking about their daughter Katie and I cried when I first read it.

Bobby also gifts the boys a SUPER SWANKY PENTHOUSE RIGHT OFF CENTRAL PARK.

At this point, there is also a Scarlet Witch solo series, which I highly recommend reading. She is shown owning her mental illness, cutting Pietro out of her life in order to maintain it, and coming to grips with the loss of Vision and reconnecting with her sons.

There is also the Death of Magic run, which establishes a lot of lore about Billy as the Demiurge. Unfortunately, during a lot of this era Tommy is nowhere to be seen.

However, at the start of the latest event, Empyre, we find out why: He’s moved out of the Kaplans’ and in with David, who he has been dating since the events of YAv2. He seems genuinely happy, which makes me happy.

Now: Billy and Teddy have finally gotten married. Billy is still working toward becoming the best damn sorcerer and potential pseudodeity he can be, Teddy has put down his destiny as the Great Unifier, and everybody’s just happy.

I don’t care what Marvel does in the comics anymore my sons are happy.

I’m sure I missed some details but this got WAY LONGER THAN I INTENDED IT TO.

OH YEAH THERE’S A WHOLE COMIC WHERE VISION TRIES TO ‘RECREATE’ THE FEELING OF BEING PART OF A FAMILY AND INSTEAD OF CONSULTING WITH HIS ACTUAL LIVING SONS HE BORROWS WANDA’S MENTAL ENGRAMS AND MAKES HIMSELF A CUTE LITTLE WIFE AND TWO CUTE LITTLE KIDS AND IT ALL GOES TITS-UP IN A HURRY GDI VISION

I don’t like 616 Vision he’s kind of a selfish prick

Viv Vision is a Gift though she doesn’t deserve half of what’s happened to her

[ellana-ravenwood]

NEW PART : “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” 2/3 - Batfam x Fem!Reader (Marvel crossover)

Well, almost two months of not writing as I really lacked the motivation to do...anything, here I am. Back, with the part two of my little Batfam/Marvel crossover ! This is a transition chapter just to settle a few things before the big final chapter where the all action will take place ;). I hope you will still like it :

If you wanna catch up, here’s PART 1 And here’s my masterlist : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

“Wow, this looks a LOT like Wayne Manor !”

Damian exclaimed as he looked down from the jet and spotted a gigantic house in the middle of the trees. Even the grounds looked like his home, with the forrest surrounding it, and it’s remote location a bit out of a big town. 

The basketball court opened, and the “X-jet” slowly lowered down into it. 

The guy called Wolverine absolutely refused to take one of the Avengers’ planes, saying that the S.H.I.E.L.D tracked those down, had all kind of surveillance on them, and didn’t want one of them inside the school. Too many valuable informations could be stolen and used against them. 

When “Iron Man” assured him he checked those planes daily to make sure they weren’t rigged, Wolverine just raised his eyebrows, smiled and said : “Sure bub, sure. Nick Fury would totally let that happen, and your technology is definitely superior to the S.H.I.E.L.D. They most definitely do not steal and copy everything you do, and know how it works”...And they ended up taking the X-Jet.

According to your youngest sons, it looked and was much cooler anyway. Kinda reminded them of the Batplane...It made Bruce smile, that they liked the X-Men’s plane better just because it kinda looked like his. 

You were landing inside a bunker like place, when Wolverine said :

“Welcome to Xavier school for gifted youngsters.”

************

A few hours before :

Shortly after Wolverine announced you needed to go see a certain “Charles Xavier”, and after a quick introduction, most of you got ready to leave. 

It was decided that not all of the Avengers would go to the school because searches and investigations were always more effective when multiple groups would work in multiple places. And there were a LOT of those dudes, so they could most definitely cover more grounds by scattering all around, and asking questions. 

You absolutely refused to be separated from your family again, and even if Bruce thought it would’ve been better to split up and each go with a search team, he didn’t push it too much. 

Obviously, none of the kids wanted to be separated either, and when you had an idea in your head, it was very difficult to change your mind. You’ve always been a very stubborn woman. 

So Bruce relented and it was decided you’d all go to the Xavier school, as you were the one that knew Klarion the most, and could help Charles to narrow his search down a bit. 

With you came Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Storm of course, the Xavier school was their home after all. Along also came that Captain America guy, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor. 

Hawkeye, Black Widow, the big green guy and a few other Avengers you could not remember the name of for the life of you (there were so many new people ! Even with your “charity” practice, where you often faked remembering people’s name, you just couldn’t keep up...it didn’t help that they obviously all had code names rather than simple easy to remember ones like... “Kevin”, for example. Or John. John was good, short and easy to remember) left for other places where the trail was still warm.  

And so multiple “teams” were formed to cover multiple grounds. 

Your family and a few others were going to the school in the hope that Charles Xavier could find Klarion thanks to his mental powers, while other teams would go investigate the Brooklyn Bridge where Klarion was last seen, and yet another team was going to find a certain “Dr Strange” since he was apparently able to travel through dimensions or something ? 

You weren’t too sure, honestly, after hearing so many new infos and names you kinda zoned out and expected Bruce to remember everything for you (as often, really, more than once he was the one to help you remember the name of a politician or actress, whispering it in your ear as they walked towards you).

As you were in an elevator that would lead you all to the roof’s airport so you could go and try to find Klarion, Dick bended to whisper in your ear :

“Do you remember any of their names ?”

You turned to him and, as discreetly as you could, answered :

“Absolutely not. Except for that Spider kid, because he’s adorable and Damian seems to like him. And the one that got Jason and I here, Deadpool. Though he’s not even here anymore. I can’t recall any of them...I think one is like, Odin or something ? The one who brought Tim, I forgot which one but I know he’s a viking god or something.”

Your son let out a little snort, trying to suppress his chuckle so none of the people can hear you, but...

“I wouldn’t blame ya if you can’t remember many of us. After all, travelin’ in another dimension and seeing all those new things is a lot to take in, I know what I’m talkin’ about. So rememberin’ our names ? Tough.”

The short man who made you blush earlier said. He had a sort of gentle smile on his face that you’re pretty sure was rarely there, but it seemed yours and your son’s inability to remember much of anyone’s name made him genuinely smile. He adds, his voice lowering a few octave in an intimate way :

“I can help you rememberin’ in the plane if you want to.”

“I’ll help her, thank you very much.”

Your husband says, interposing himself between you and that...Badger guy ? Was that his name ?

“Logan.” 

He answers the question you didn’t ask, and you’re genuinely surprised. With a charming smirk that you thought only Bruce could have, “Logan” adds :

“It was written all over your face you didn’t remember my name. And hey, I’d like for you to call me Logan more than Wolverine y’know.”

Bruce gives an outraged look to “Logan”, as you try your best not to blush (that guy had a strange kind of aura...he was essentially a hairy midget who was totally not your style and yet he seemed to have a strange effect on you).

Wolverine answered your husband’s glare with an infuriating knowing smile, and you could almost feel Bruce’s blood boiling. 

It’s only Tim and Damian laughing quietly that eased the atmosphere. But their laughter most definitely finish to vex your Broosh, who threw an arm around your shoulder and looked proudly high in front of him. 

Jealous Bruce always made you smile, and here, doing some PDA while on a mission ? Yup, definitely jelly. 

The elevator quickly brought you to the top floor, where you discovered a rather big “airport” for such a building. Quite the fancy place. Even Bruce never even though about putting an airport on his roof. A heliport was amply sufficient. 

The man called Tony Stark, who had a rather advanced armor around his body, casually walked towards one of the plane stamped with a big “A” on. 

“Seriously, those people don’t know the meaning of the word “discreet””. 

Your husband said as he saw the planes. You roll your eyes, but don’t say anything. You don’t think any less though, because those words were coming from a guy who had a “bat” aesthetic in everything he did, including flying vehicles so...Not particularly discreet either. 

But Logan grabbed Iron Man’s shoulder before he could reach one of the “A” plane, and said : 

“Ah where are you going Stark ? We’re not taking one of yours.”

Tony rolled his eyes the hardest he could, as he shooed away Logan’s hand and said, beyond exasperated : 

“I’m telling you for the thousands time Logan, our Avengers planes aren’t tracked !”

“Says you. We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“But there’s more space on our planes.”

“We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“They’re faster !”

“We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“I promise you they’re safe, they won’t spy on your precious little school, the S.H.I.E.L.D has no hold over our planes !”

Short silence. 

“We’re still taking the X-Jet.” 

“Be reasonable Wolverine please, this is getting ridiculous.”

“Bub, do I look like someone who’s reasonable ? We’re taking the X-Jet.”

“But-”

But the short hairy man known as “Wolverine” was already leaving, clearly not about to listen to more of that Stark guy’s plea. 

Well apparently...you were taking the X-Jet.

************

It must’ve been less than ten minutes since your family, a few of the X-Men and a few of the Avengers climbed into the jet flying in the direction of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, when Logan jumped on his feet, put the plane on auto-pilot and rushed at the back of the vehicle.

“The hell is wrong with that guy ?”

Jason asks as you all turn to look at him run across the plane. Your husband looks insistently at you as if to say : “see, I’m better” (like you needed a proof of that). Clearly not quite over the fact the clawed mutant managed to make you blush. Twice. 

For the past fifteen years, he was the only one that ever managed to do that !

Dick says :

“Maybe the toilets are over there ? I mean, when you gotta go, you gotta go.”

But then Logan comes back with Deadpool, dragging him by the collar.

“What are you doing here Wade, I thought we told you to leave and never come back !”

“Wow alright Scar, tell your hyenas to lower their guard please I’m not here to cause trouble; honest !”

Deadpool says, his hands up as he faces the Avengers taking a fighting stance in front of him. 

The man who brought you to the Avengers’ Tower was immediately kicked off of the building as soon as you all started to make plans to run after Klarion and Loki.  Somehow though, and oddly enough it didn’t really surprise you, he managed to get onto the X-Jet. 

“Wade, whenever you’re around trouble just comes by itself. We told you not to tag along already. Three times at the watch tower until we forcefully throw you out. So now, time to leave.”

Wolverine was opening the jet’s hatch, but before he could get a hold of “Wade”, Deadpool jumped on his feet and went to hide behind your husband.

“He’s clearly a mad man, he’s trying to kill me ! Hey, you’re very against killing right ? I read it somewhere in a comic once...”

“What ?”

“Nevermind, I’m crazy. But I deserve to live, just like everyone ! Just stop him from trying to kill me ! PLEASE GOD OH GOOOOOOOD, I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE !! I STILL HAVEN’T SEEN ALL THE FANTASTIC BEASTS MOVIES AND I’M...TOTALLY A VIRGIN !! I’VE BEEN A FAN OF J.K ROWLING FOR DECADES, I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEEEEEEEEEEEN !! I DESERVE TO KNOW REAL LOOOOOOOOOOoooOooooOoooVE !!”

Deadpool was yelling dramatically, latching his arms around your husband’s leg.

And you had to admit, there was something comical about seeing a grown ass man holding the big scary Bat like that. Bonus point for the face Bruce was making, clearly unsure as to how to react to all of this. It was rare to see an unsure Batman.

Ah, but in the short time you’ve known that Wade Wilson, you already realized that he was probably the only person that could destabilized anyone with his behavior. You kinda liked that. 

Logan was rolling his eyes now, and with a sigh walked resolutely towards Deadpool and Bruce. 

But your husband stopped him by putting a hand on his chest. And though Logan was at least an entire foot smaller than Bruce, he still looked impressive as his eyes narrowed at your husband and his muscles tightened, fists slowly closing. You had a bad feeling about all this...

“Listen, bub. You have no idea what this guy is capable of. And believe me, if I throw him out of the plain  he won’t-”

“I can’t let you do that. He might be clinically insane, but we can’t just kill him like that !”

“But he can’t die and-”

“YES ! YES I CAN, I’ll die a horrible death if he throws me out.”

“Wade you-”

“Please mister Batman, don’t let him throw me out ! Show that you have a heart and ignore all the bad writing you’ve been a victim of lately !”

Once again, there’s a small silence following Wade’s apparent words of madness...But you have to say, you’re not a big fan of throwing people out of planes either. So before everything turns sour, as you can see both Wolverine and Bruce getting wayyyy too tense, you interpose yourself in-between all of them. 

You know that Bruce already having prejudice against Logan because he flirted a little with you is not any good news, and Wolverine himself ? Well it seemed like he also could suddenly snap if pushed too much. 

“Wow wow wow wow. Let’s be reasonable about it. Yeah yeah I know, you’re not a reasonable guy. Well you’re going to be right now.” 

Your words surprise the Wolverine so much, that his fists unlock and his eyebrows raise. Your husband gives him a sneaky look that most definitely means : “haha, she got you didn’t she ?”. But he’s immediately put back in his place as you glare at him too, and he relaxes as well. Forcibly.

“Ok. I must admit I don’t know Deadpool since very long, but he’s the one that lead us to the Avengers. You guys are the one that instantly attacked him without giving him any chance ! Now maybe you gave him lots of chances before -at those words, all the Avengers and X-Men nods- but just give him one last one ok ? I have a good feeling about him.” 

************

You were sitting next to Deadpool...Who was literally taped to the wall. You guessed in this world, the black electric tape was very strong. According to Logan, this was the only way to make sure he wouldn’t do anything stupid. Dangerous for everyone, or for himself. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t convince them to let you join and all.” 

“Ah well no worries, at least they didn’t throw me off the plane ! I hate when that happened. Regenerating from being as flat as a pizza is very painful.”

“You can..regenerate ?” 

“Yup ! Haven’t you noticed, the tear your kid made with that knife looking like a bat in my awesome costume I definitely clean often...is still there. But the wound isn’t.” 

“Oh right. Neat.” 

“Not really. Healing powers mean I can’t die, and I really want to die...” 

“...That’s awful. Are you ok ?” 

“Does someone that tell you they want to die sound ok ?” 

“Well if they say out loud they want to die it’s like a cry for help, so a sort of step to recovery you know ?”

“I-Wh-...What ? I never saw it like that. I mostly just talk about it out loud because I hope someone will hear me and finish me off somehow.” 

“Oh.” 

After that, it seemed like Wade did not want to talk anymore as he turned away from you, and somehow managed to put on a pair of knock-off air pods in his ears, and blasted the main theme from the movie “The Godfather” so loud that you could hear it as you were sitting next to him. 

************

There was a long silence that installed itself in the plane, as no one talked and thought of the task ahead, completely focused on...

“So, I have no idea what you guys’ names are. I zoned out half-way through the little man’s explanation, as I already listened to it when I found him and my friend Hulk was holding him upside down.” 

Thor said casually, shattering this all impression of seriousness. It makes you chuckle, even more so when Dick exclaimed : 

“OH THANKS GOD (literally) ! I was so afraid to ask ! I’m so glad you started. Because except for Logan, Ororo and Kurt who literally saved my life, I cannot remember who any of you are !”

You full on laughed, as the idea that none of you really knew how the others were called and yet still managed to trust each others was very funny to you. Quickly, your communicative laughter reached the rest of the team (well, almost, Bruce and Logan only exhaled a little bit of air, like a millisecond chuckle). 

It takes you all a little while to calm down, but as you all stop to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, Thor continues : 

“So, should we introduce ourselves again ? This time there’s much less of us, it should be fine. Guests must start, it is the norm. Go ahead now, little Red Robin’s sidekicks. Introduce yourselves.”

“...Red Robin’s sidekicks ?” 

Your entire family turns to Tim, who turns very pale all of a sudden. He smiles awkwardly at you all and says : 

“Um. To my defense, I was hung upside down by a green goliath who was threatening to “smash” me and the subject of family seemed a little iffy with Thor here. I said the first thing that came to my mind.” 

This makes you and your husband smile, and your two oldest son to roll their eyes. Your youngest however, jumps on his feet and says : 

“I’m Robin ! And most definitely not his sidekick ! I’m...”

There’s a pause where Damian looks at his brother almost sadly, and oh you know exactly what he’s about to do. 

“I’m his brother. His equal. Or so I thought...” 

Oh. Smart little Damian. Guilt tripping your Tim, so that in a near future he will do something for him. Tim reddens even more in embarrassment and adds : 

“It really was just to save myself ! I don’t think of any of you as my sidekicks ! Of course you’re my equal Dam-Robin ! And um, I’m Red Robin by the way. Like the restaurants. Um.”

Thor shakes his head, lost in thoughts, and then says : 

“Robin and Red Robin. Very smart. I see how much research you put in your aliases.” 

You weren’t sure if the man was serious or being sarcastic...But the way he was nodding thoughtfully made you think he was actually more serious than anything else. The blond bearded man continued : 

“Well my turn now ! I am...Thor ! GOD OF THUNDER ! Son of Odin, God of all. We’re going after my brother, Loki. Who befriended that Klarion of yours. Your turn again now.”

Thor points at your oldest son, who doesn’t hesitate to jump in and say : 

“Nightwing ! Son of Batman, the Black Knight of Gotham ! I’m the oldest of our ass beating organization. Criminals. I mean, we’re not criminals...Well, depends of your definition I guess. But what I was saying is, we beat the asses of criminals. Um. Yes. Have I said I’m the oldest of the family ? Well technically my dad is the oldest, but I mean-”

“I’m Jason. Perpetually helping my older brother here to avoid embarrassment by cutting him off rudely and fulfilling my little brother’s duty at the same time. Two birds with one stone. I like guns. Unlike my dad...”

Bruce just gives an exasperated look to Jason, and your son rolls his eyes : 

“I just gave you the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself ! Amazing transition ! But I guess you weren’t ready, so um...Discout Bruce Wayne, go.”

You slap the back of your son’s head at his disrespect towards your new friend, and give an apologetic look to the one you think is called “Iron Man”. But clearly, your son’s jab doesn’t bother the man (probably because he has no idea who Bruce Wayne is) and with a hint (a big big hint) of arrogance and pride, he says : 

“Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Also Iron man, I saved this planet multiple times.” 

“...And very modest. Not over the top at all. Mm. Reminds me of someone, before I met him, and with less charisma.”

You say, giving a look at your husband. He smiles and winks at you, while Tony Stark frowns, pretty sure you just insulted him. But you don’t leave him the time to say anything as you continue : 

“(Y/N). I don’t have a superhero name because technically I’m not one. It was kind of...unlucky for me to be there. At the same time lucky, I would be dying of being worried sick right now if I wasn’t there and knowing where my family was. And...That’s all.”  

“Wolverine. But y’all can call me Logan.” 

Ah. Short (like him). To the point. You liked it. 

“Batman.” 

Even shorter (unlike him), you liked it even more. 

Turning to your husband you smile and forgetting for a second you were surrounded by a bunch of strangers, you cuddled a little closer to him. 

“I’m Storm. Or Ororo. As you wish. I control the weather, and I teach at the Xavier school, I help young mutants to understand their power more. As I wish I had that kind of help as a child.”

Wow. Majestic. You were quite impressed, and clearly, so were your sons. You had to close Jason’s mouth. And Dick’s. Tim and Damian got the message. 

“Spider-Man ! I um...Can do whatever a spider does. According to that song at least. Sorry. I’m not good at introductions, my teachers always said so. ”

You smile encouragingly at him. He was one of the only one you remembered the name of, only because he brought your youngest son and seeing how Damian talked about him, he seemed quite fond of him already. And it was rare, that your kiddo was fond of someone that fast, so that Spider kid must be quite something. You got it though, he did have a relaxed, nice vibe about him, if not a bit awkward. 

“I am Captain America, please to meet you all, I am very glad we’re on this mission together. Let’s hope for a peaceful coalition until this is all over. Now that the introductions are done, I think we should-”

“Oh, typical American to forget the German guy ! I’m Kurt, an X-Men since many years. But a lot of people in the circus called me Nightcrawler and it stuck. You can call me whatever you want.”

“In the circus ! No way I used to be in a circus ! I was an acrobat !”

“Oh me too !”

Dick excitedly jumped on his feet, so did Kurt, while the one called “Captain America” was clearly feeling very uneasy. 

“I um, am sorry, Nightcrawler. I did not pay attention. I would never-”

“Relax Kapitän, I was only teasing. I know you would never forget me on purpose ! It was my fault. I was standing in the shadow. I disappear, in the shadow.” 

Damian’s eyes widen as he witnessed Kurt slowly becoming invisible as he retrieved to the shadows. 

“WOW ! So cool !”

Nightcrawler came into the light again, and smiled brightly at your son : 

“Thank you very much young man, it is rare people think of my ability as rare. Usually, they’re frightened.” 

Damian looked curiously at Kurt, and asked : 

“...Why ?” 

You could clearly see the shock on the mutant’s face, at the candid and innocent question Damian asked. It was probably the first time in a very long time he met someone that did not judge his appearance at all...You were very proud of your son, in that moment. 

“Wow is that really what you’re all going for ? What a joke ! And you say I’m the dishonest one ? Well let me re-introduce all of you.” 

The cute and sweet moment is shattered by Deadpool sly laughter, the shift in the mood is brutal and you wonder how it happened. He continues : 

“I can’t say anything about you all...Batfamily, I don’t know you, only through a few terribly written comics. I’m sure you’re much more than the cliches in there...Proof is that little Tim here hasn’t had a drop of coffee in hours ! And Jason didn’t shoot anyone, also that Damian kid totally accepted Nightcrawler seconds ago and wasn’t a brat !” 

Silence. What ? Comics ? What was he even on about...

“You’re such hypocrites though, all of you -he points at the Avengers and X-Men- Stark for example, he’s an ex-arms dealer. He likes to think of himself as a philantropist but he really never did something for someone else that didn’t benefit him in some ways, so he really isn’t like your husband. I don’t know why people in the real world always compare the two...”

“What ?”

“Nevermind. Wolverine. He killed more people in his life than me, and my job for a long time was literally to kill people. Granted his life is long, but the man can get crazily out of control and kill anything that moves ! It happens a scary amount of time. Storm, thought she was a goddess back home but really was just a pickpocket that gullible villagers put on a pedestal ! Kurt ? Act all nice and religious, but did some pretty terrible thing in moments he had to survive ? Isn’t that right Kurt ? Oh and Cap ? A literal war criminal. Well, I mean in some stories, but like he fought during World War II and was most definitely not always nice and did questionable things...As for Spidey here ! ...Well he never did anything wrong. I refuse to hear about all those times he supposedly was an asshole. Spider-Man is amazing. That’s all.” 

There’s a big silence, as your family looks at the Avengers and X-men suspiciously. But then Deadpool adds : 

“Oh, and by the way, I’m Wade. Completely crazy, and highly unreliable. I hear voices. A lot of them. Well not a lot of them. Just two. But it’s two more than most people do.” 

And then he laughs like a mad man, and the sudden tension falls just as fast as it rose. Wether Deadpool was telling the truth or not, you couldn’t know. But there was something sure about this all thing : he was most definitely not all there in the head. 

Plus, you had a gut feeling that you could trust those guys, after all, they did look like a lot of people you knew back in your own world. Like if they were their counterpart in this universe. Plus it seemed you all had the same goal...Stopping Klarion, and whoever that Loki was. 

It was vital, to avoid chaos across the multiverses. 

************

The introductions made, you started to all talk about your respective world. How it was where you were from, and how it was here. 

“Registering mutants ? It sounds very...Germany nineteen forties.” 

“Ah yes, some of our mutant compatriots think the same. But us, X-Men, still hope for a peaceful and nice way to resolve everything.” 

(...)

“But what are you really avenging ?” 

“I’m telling you it’s just a name !” 

“...It makes no sense. Like, the X-men are called like that because of the X genes, if I understood. Back home, our League of Justice is called like that because...Well, pretty self-explanatory, but you, why “Avengers” ?” 

“It just sounded cool ok ?!”

(...)

“And so we did that trick in the circus, where I would jump and teleport to the other side and in the dim light people would just think I did an impossible jump !” 

“That is wayyy cool !” 

(...)

“Are you a mutant too ?”

Damian asked Spider-man, and Peter answered : 

“No, I was bit by a radioactive spider.”

“Oh ! Were can I acquire such a spider ?!”

“Damian ! Stop trying to get superpowers , you’re perfect as you are !”

You scold your son, and Damian continues, looking dad : 

"I used to have superpowers...When my father resurected me with a crystal from Apokolips.”

“You died ?”

“Yeah. We all died once. Or faked our death.”

After those words your youngest son glares at your oldest, who yells : 

“OH YOU’RE NEVER GONNA LEAVE THAT DOWN ARE YOU ?!”

(...)

Conversations were happening a bit everywhere, as you were steadily flying towards The Xavier school for gifted youngsters, slowly discovering each others, and the worlds you were coming from.

************

“Wow this looks a lot like Wayne Manor !”

“Wayne Manor ?”

“Our house, back in our World.”

Damian exclaimed, and his father cleared his throat in a scolding way (a talent, really).

“What ? Do you seriously expect them to come to our dimension and tell everyone who we really are ? The chances are thin father. They’re the good guys of this world as well. Plus look at them, none of them really hide their identity. Except for Spidey.”

“Well they’re wrong. I already told you keeping your true identity secret is crucial. This is why we keep our aliases, even here.”

“AH ! Couldn’t agree more dude !”

Spider-man says, turning to your husband. Bruce continues :

“Very poor choice of them. If any of their enemies truly know who they are, their home will be targeted.”

“RIGHT ?! They all parade around with everyone knowing their real names like what’s their problems right ?”

“I have to agree young man.”

“You know the X-Men ? Their school was blown up like, thirty times because everyone knows where they live, and because they dox themselves all the time !” 

“Irresponsible.” 

“RIGHT ?! I’m so glad you agree !” 

Ignoring the current conversation about secret identities, Wolverine, or rather “Logan” as he himself told you to call him (most definitely have a problem with the concept of code names and secret identities, in this universe) lands and says : 

“Welcome to the Xavier school for gifted youngsters.” 

************

“So, how dangerous exactly is this Klarion boy ?”

Charles Xavier asked, sitting in one of the salon in the school. 

“He’s already extremely dangerous, but if paired with someone like Loki, he’d be even worst. At least according to what Thor told us about his brother.” 

Your husband answers, all stoic and serious, and then Thor awkwardly says, as if ashamed : 

“He’s adopted.” 

“Adopted brothers are still brothers !”

Damian fiercely said, narrowing his eyes at the god of Thunder. It made your heart warm, to think how such a long way he came. A few years ago, when he first entered your life, he would’ve never defended adopted sibling with such convictions. 

Tim ruffles Damian’s hair, and winks at him before saying : 

“Look at him Dam-Robin, he clearly didn’t think before he spoke ! And I think it was a joke, right Thor ?”

Thor nods, even though he wasn’t sure he was really joking. He most definitely loved his brother, but it was true he was adopted ? The God of Thunder was a bit confused as to why the little man took it so personally. Ah, but they were raised in very much different ways...

In any case, the focus of the conversation went back to Professor Xavier.

“So, do you think you can find Klarion ?” 

Your husband asks, his seriousness back (he might have been a little on the softer side when he witnessed Damian defending his “adopted” brothers as being really his brothers, but now he was all back to business). 

“Well, we won’t know if I do not try, right ?” 

************

You, Bruce, Tim, Jason, Dick, Damian, Storm and Charles Xavier went to the school’s underground, while Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the Avengers stayed in the upper levels. 

Logan didn’t seem to trust them much, especially not Tony Stark. And if he stopped Tony Stark from going down to Cerebro, then in all fairness he had to stop all the other Avengers too. 

You and your family ? It was different. He had a good feeling about you, and his guts never lied. Plus Charles needed you to guide him to find Klarion, the infos you had on the boy being crucial in his search.

And so Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Nightcrawler stayed up there, discussing any plan of action possible once they’ll find Klarion. If, they find Klarion. 

Deadpool was there too, now taped to the wall in the salon, as no one was quite ready to give him his freedom yet. He was softly whistling an unknown song, all the while carefully listening to his “friends”. 

************

Cerebro was an impressive room with a single helmet in the middle. Was this huge size really necessary ?

“The size of the room is indeed necessary. It permits for a lot of components to be added, and for it all to function. All the walls are made of very complicated circuits without which the all machine wouldn’t work. 

Wow ! It was as if he-

“Read your thoughts ? I am sorry, I tend to indeed do so with people I just meet. It’s a...defense mechanism if you will, to make sure they’re not ill intentioned. But in your thoughts, I perceived no malice, which is why I’m allowing all of you here, in my Cerebro. Plus, your common knowledge of that Klarion boy is crucial to finding him.” 

Ah. So this is why the X-men left you alone with their leaders so easily. He was a telepath, not just able to find people with his mind. He could read them, and know if someone was thinking something bad or not...Well, at least, it was easy to build trust. 

At least on his side, because thinking about someone always reading whatever you thought were made you uncomfortable. What if you suddenly thought about a wild night you spend with Bruce ? Oh my God, here you were, thinking exactly about that !

“Ah, do not worry, I read into the minds of those I do not know up until I trust them. And I trust you know, so you can...Think of whatever you want. I’ll just add that you most definitely find each others well.” 

What Professor X implied as he smiled at you and Bruce made you both blush, and you quickly looked away, trying to think only about Klarion. Thankfully your son had been completely oblivious to it all, or...Well, those poor souls.

“Stay perfectly still, please.”

Before you could ask why, the machine started and WOW, it was overwhelming ! Millions and millions of voices all talked at the same time, and silhouettes of people started to appear everywhere. 

How the hell did that Xavier did...whatever he was doing ? 

Slowly but surely, less and less people floated into the air, until eventually, only one person remained...

“It’s Klarion !” 

Tim exclaimed, and sure enough, in front of you, was Klarion. He was sitting on something, and saying unintelligible things. 

“Where is he ?” 

Bruce asked avidly. But Professor Xavier’s forehead had more and more creases, and sweat slowly pearled at the corner of his temples. 

“Hey, hey what are you doing you sneaky little rat ?!” 

Klarion. That was most definitely Klarion. Looking straight at you all. Did he just sense Charles ?

“I’ll have you know I’ve been train about mind invasion, it’s witch school 101 ! Now, get...OUT !!” 

And suddenly, the entire machine shut down and with a groan of pain, Xavier took his helmet off. You rushed to him, worried, but in his calming voice he said : 

“I am alright my dear, but this Klarion boy is much stronger than I thought. I wasn’t quite able to get his exact location, but I think we can work with what I have...”

************

Charles managed to have an area where Klarion could possibly be, but it was very vague. However he projected the 3D image he found of him as he searched with Cerebro, and showed it to everyone in one of the X-Men’s many briefing room. 

“This is what he looks like. I can actually manage to print a decent quality picture of him, based on the mental image I have in my mind. If we go to the area I spotted  him, we could...”

“Heyyyyyy ! I know that little Wolverine haired guy !” 

Cutting the professor off, Deadpool, who, from his spot handcuffed to a heater (it was still an improvement from being taped to the wall) said. He had managed to catch a glimpse of Klarion, and clearly...recognized him ?

“You’ve seen him before ?” 

Bruce asks, suspicious. After all, Deadpool had proven so far to not be the most reliable guy indeed. Yet he still somehow tried to help nonetheless. 

“Yeah I did ! You should’ve told me what he looked like, would’ve saved us a lot of work ! I kinda thought he was just yet another one of Logan’s kid, I mean, the dude NEVER uses protection ! Anyway I saw him on my way to get you two from the subway station, and I saw him go in a very special place, from which I was coming out. He’s at my ex-wife’s Shikla’s place...And I mean “ex” as in we’re no longer married, not like, she’s part of the X-men; They’d never accept her, she’s a total psycho ! She kinda rules over the world of monsters and often plans for the end of the Human race. Should we go visit her ?”

And that’s how you embarked for a new adventure down under...Literally. 

To be continued...

__________________________________________________

Well after months of not writing...I tried :/. I hope you still like this little transition chapter. You probably noticed a lot of characters had almost no “screen time” even though they were present (and how Deadpool has a lot of said screen time...i needed him to find the witch boy), I’ll do better in the next chapter ! It’s just I needed a little sort of transition to go from searching Klarion to finding him, if that makes sense ? I hope you’re not disappointed and think things are moving too fast, or things aren’t making sense/are a mess, with this more lighthearted chapter, real action coming next chapter, and thanks for reading ! 

If you did like it, as always : feedbacks and reblogs are more than welcomed <3. Thanks in advance !

[multiverseforger]

Kraven's real name is Sergei Kravinoff (Сергей Кравинов). He is a Soviet immigrant, the son of an aristocrat who fled to the United States with his family in 1917 after the Russian nobility was decimated by the February Revolution and subsequent collapse of the reign of Tsar Nicholas II.

Kraven is a maniacal big game hunter who seeks to defeat Spider-Man to prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world.[4] Unlike other hunters, he typically disdains the use of guns or bow and arrows, preferring to take down large dangerous animals with his bare hands. He also lives by a code of honor of sorts, choosing to hunt his game fairly.[5] He consumes a mystical serum to give himself enhanced strength and dramatically slow the aging process. Kraven was trained as a hunter largely by a mysterious man named Gregor, a mercenary who once battled Ka-Zar.[6] Kraven was, at one point, the lover of the voodoo priestess Calypso.[7]

He is contacted by his half-brother the Chameleon to defeat Spider-Man. He leads Spider-Man to Central Park with the help of the Chameleon, who disguises himself as Kraven to use himself as a decoy while the real Kraven ambushes the hero. However, despite Kraven having weakened Spider-Man with a poisonous dart, Spider-Man prevails in the end. Spider-Man proves a frustrating quarry because Kraven continually underestimates the superhero's resourcefulness.[8]

Kraven becomes a founding member of the Sinister Six when he accepts Doctor Octopus's offer to form a team to fight Spider-Man where they capture Aunt May and Betty Brant. He attacks Spider-Man in Central Park with three tigers. Spider-Man easily fights off the attackers and secures the next clue to where Aunt May and Betty Brant are being held. After Aunt May and Betty Brant are rescued, Kraven the Hunter and the rest of the Sinister Six are arrested by the police.[9]

While in the Savage Land, Kraven the Hunter found Gog in a spaceship that he stumbles upon. Realizing how useful Gog can be, Kraven the Hunter decides to use him in a plot to conquer the Savage Land. After kidnapping the visiting Gwen Stacy from a camp in the Savage Land, Kraven and Gog battle the heroes Ka-Zar and Spider-Man.[10] While Ka-Zar deals with Kraven, Spider-Man defeats Gog by luring him into a patch of quicksand, which he sinks to the bottom of.[11]

Determined to end his life as he becomes older, frustrated with his failing health and continuing failure to defeat Spider-Man, Kraven sets out a final hunt for Spider-Man. After capturing Spider-Man, he shoots him with a coma-inducing drug and buries him alive on his estate.[12] To complete his victory, he attempts to become Spider-Man's clear superior by impersonating him in a brutal vigilante campaign and capturing Vermin, the one foe Spider-Man had never been able to defeat on his own (Spider-Man's last battle with Vermin required Captain America's assistance).[13]

After Spider-Man emerges from his grave two weeks later, Kraven explains his actions to him and sets Vermin free, reaffirming to Kraven that his foe is an honorable man. Spider-Man goes after Vermin to prevent his killing again, giving Kraven the opportunity to leave a final confession of his crimes against Spider-Man and then commit suicide.[14] Because of his suicide, his soul is unable to find rest until Spider-Man confronts his risen corpse on Kraven's behalf.[15]

Kraven is resurrected from the dead by Sasha Kravinoff and the Kravinoff family with a ritual using the blood of Spider-Man.[16] He is shown to now be explosively psychopathic and cold towards his family, beating his son Vladimir and daughter Ana and expressing little attention towards his wife. After being stabbed by his daughter Ana, Sergei recovers, stating that Sasha restored him with corrupted blood which he calls "unlife". They pull off the mask of the corpse of Spider-Man hung in their mantel and discover that Kaine is in Spider-Man's costume.[17] Spider-Man, in his black costume, confronts Kraven and the rest of the Kravinoff Family. Spider-Man is tempted to kill Kraven, but he refuses to do so when he is reminded by Julia Carpenter (who has inherited the powers of Madame Web after her death) that committing murder is not in his moral code. Following their defeat by Spider-Man, Kraven and his family escape to the Savage Land. While there, Kraven brutally kills Sasha (who complained that Kraven would have to hunt them to prove their place in the Kravinoff family) and euthanizes Vladimir. Alyosha flees in disgust of what his dad did to his stepmom and half-brother afterwards. Kraven and Ana discuss rebuilding the Kravinoff family, which leads to Ana running off to hunt Alyosha to prove herself worthy to Kraven and rebuild the Kravinoff family.[18]

It was later revealed that back in the 1950s, Kraven the Hunter was a member of Nick Fury's Avengers alongside Dominic Fortune I, Dum Dum Dugan, Namora, Silver Sable, Sabretooth, and Ulysses Bloodstone, tracking a stolen version of the Super-Soldier Serum combined with the Infinity Formula that had been stolen by a group of Nazis attempting to create their own Captain America.[19]

While he is in the Savage Land, Agent Venom lands in the area on an unrelated mission from the federal government. Mistaking him to be Spider-Man, Kraven attacks him and gains the upper hand before Venom escapes.[20]

At one point, Kraven is contacted by a doctor who once treated him when a past hunt went wrong, the doctor requesting that Kraven track down a recent patient of hers - who had been used as a test subject to duplicate another man's electrical abilities — as well as asking that he capture the Black Panther — currently acting as a 'local' vigilante to regain his sense of self after the destruction of Wakanda's vibranium - in return for her help finding a way for him to die. With the aid of Storm, T'Challa is able to stay ahead of Kraven long enough to convince him that the doctor had lied about being able to kill him, Kraven agreeing to leave T'Challa alone and take the doctor's mutated animal subjects back with him into the wild.[21]

When their identities became fractured after a temporary separation, the Hulk discovers that Bruce Banner had hired Kraven to find the lost city of the Sasquatches. Although the Hulk was uninterested with helping the Sasquatches deal with Kraven, he changes his mind and beats up Kraven.[22]

Kaine, in the alias of the Scarlet Spider, later encountered Kraven the Hunter, who was dressed as the Scarlet Spider in order to torment him.[23] With the help of Ana, Kraven kidnapped Kaine's friends in order to motivate the Scarlet Spider to fight him. In the end, Kaine delivered Kraven a fatal blow in the chest, which paralyzed his heart. But using the same attack, Kaine brought him back to life supposedly still breaking the curse. Following the fight, both Kravens disappeared.[24]

Kraven, still claiming to be cursed, next battles Squirrel Girl at Empire State University, having earned her ire by lashing out at the local squirrels, including Tippy-Toe. Kraven departs when Squirrel Girl informs him of the existence of sea monsters like Giganto and challenges him to hunt them, instead of limiting himself to going after the same prey he did prior to his resurrection.[25] He later returns to abduct Howard the Duck,[26] but gets trapped with Howard and Squirrel Girl in a manhunt as the hunted. After surviving, he vows to only "hunt the hunters".[27]

During the "Avengers: Standoff!" storyline, Kraven the Hunter was an inmate of Pleasant Hill, a gated community established by S.H.I.E.L.D. who used Kobik's abilities to turn Kraven the Hunter into a zookeeper. He rallied some of his fellow inmates to help him find Kobik and bring her to Baron Helmut Zemo.[28]

During the "Opening Salvo" part of the "Secret Empire" storyline, Kraven the Hunter is recruited by Baron Helmut Zemo to join the Army of Evil.[29] At the time when Manhattan was surrounded by a Darkforce Dome, Kraven the Hunter raided the Daily Bugle in order to find information to the identity of Spider-Man. Knowing that J. Jonah Jameson would be in danger, Phil Sheldon's daughter Jennie headed to J. Jonah Jameson's house to warn him. After Kraven the Hunter attacked J. Jonah Jameson, Jennie Sheldon fired a signal flare into the sky. This attracted the attention of Spider-Woman, who defeated Kraven the Hunter. Jennie Sheldon even took pictures of the fight.[30]

At the time when Venom encountered some Dinosaur People in the sewers, Kraven the Hunter followed Venom and killed an Ankylosaurus-type Dinosaur Person before engaging Venom in battle. He was fended off by Venom, who vowed to fight Kraven again.[31] Upon the news of Dinosaur People being found beneath the streets of New York City, Mayor Wilson Fisk and NYPD Commissioner Chris Rafferty appointed Kraven the Hunter to lead a SWAT Team into the sewers and eliminate them. When Venom deactivated each trap and confronted Kraven, Venom was caught off-guard when Kraven the Hunter revealed his secret ally Shriek, who used her attacks on Venom and then collapsed the ceiling over him. Shriek then tells Kraven the Hunter that she can have Eddie Brock's head after the mission is done.[32] As the Dinosaur People feed on the rats that enter their lair, Kraven the Hunter sneaks up on some Dinosaur People and kills them. Venom catches up to Kraven the Hunter and fights him and Shriek. With help from Tana, Venom stated that the Dinosaur People were not killing anybody and that they are only surviving underground. Kraven the Hunter and Shriek are arrested by the NYPD, as the captain stated that he never liked Kraven the Hunter anyway.[33]

Kraven the Hunter was hired by the evil organization Rampart to lure Captain America to them. After a brief struggle with Kraven the Hunter, Captain America was frozen in ice by Rampart's freeze cannon.[34]

Squirrel Girl has helped Kraven reform, teaming up with him to fight other villains, even establishing a friendship with him. She helps Kraven realize that Spider-Man is not even close to being the most dangerous prey in the Marvel Universe.[35]

In a prelude to "Hunted", Kraven the Hunter reminisces about how Sasha, Vladimir, and Alyosha were killed by him and Ana for not living up to his legacy. After cutting a deal with the High Evolutionary, Kraven the Hunter has 87 clones of him created, trained as the Sons of Kraven, and sent out to prove themselves by being hunted by each other. This motif caused Ana to leave him. The one that hunted and killed the other Sons of Kraven was labeled as the Last Son of Kraven. With help from the Taskmaster, the Black Ant, and Arcade, Kraven the Hunter starts hunting various animal-themed characters, like the Beetle, the Kangaroo, the Owl, the Puma, the Serpent Society, the Squid, and the White Rabbit. In the case of the King Cobra, the Rhino, the Scorpion, Stegron the Dinosaur Man, the Tarantula, and the Vulture, they were grouped together as the Savage Six.[36] While making the final preparations for the "Great Hunt," Kraven the Hunter recaps on his own immortality when it was revealed that the Kraven the Hunter that was stabbed by the Scarlet Spider was actually a clone. Kraven the Hunter sends the Last Son of Kraven to capture Spider-Man for the Great Hunt.[37] After a Hunter-Bot created by Arcade Industries is demonstrated on the Iguana, Kraven the Hunter and Arcade begin the Great Hunt, where Central Park is surrounded by a dome that is from the same technology as the Planetary Defense System.[38] It is revealed that the moment the individual connects to the Hunter-Bot and if it is destroyed, then the individual is killed, which is what happens when the Vulture destroys Bob's Hunter-Bot. Kraven the Hunter plans this from the beginning to punish the hunters for killing animals for sport.[39] Kraven the Hunter has Arcade tell the Vulture that there is a chance to break the force field by killing more Hunter-Bots.[40] During a fight between the Hunter-Bots and the animal-themed characters, Kraven the Hunter's secret motive is to force Spider-Man into killing him again so that he can be free from his dreadful curse. He does this by trapping Curt Connors when he tries to rescue his son, Billy. Spider-Man was forced to "kill" Curt by tearing out the implant chip that prevented Curt hurting humans as the Lizard, despite the risk that taking out the chip would kill Curt.[41] After Spider-Man found the dead bodies of the guards that were killed when the Lizard escaped, he was confronted by Kraven the Hunter. During their fight, Spider-Man figured out that Kraven the Hunter was the one who killed the guards to frame the Lizard, as the wounds are too precise for the Lizard's feral claws. In order to guilt Spider-Man into becoming a hunter, Kraven the Hunter attempts to force Spider-Man to watch the Lizard save Billy and the Black Cat from the Last Son of Kraven, but Spider-Man rejects the idea that this can only be accomplished through violence. Upon realizing that he was the beast that he was wanting to kill all along, Kraven the Hunter released all the surviving animal-themed characters and sends Spider-Man to protect Mary Jane. Kraven the Hunter then dons a copy of Spider-Man's black costume to act like him once more. When the Last Son of Kraven was conned into strangling Kraven the Hunter to death, he soon realized that he was fooled when he sees Spider-Man swinging away.[42] His funeral is later attended by the Last Son of Kraven. The Chameleon is revealed to be one of the attendees, as he is pleased that Kraven the Hunter spared him from the Great Hunt. As he walks away, the Chameleon quotes to his dead half-brother to sleep well and states "You needn't worry. The world is no longer your burden. Besides, there won't be much of it left soon...not by the time I've finished"

[seriouslyhooked]

The Same Soul Part 10

Available on FF Here and AO3 Here. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9.

Our world AU where Emma and Killian knew each other as teenagers. Killian was sent to spend a summer with family in America. He met foster kid Emma while there. They fell in love but then he was forced back home and she couldn’t take the memories so she ran away, trying her best to move on from the dreams they’d always hoped for. A chance meeting brings them back together years later, and this time nothing and no one will keep them apart. Rated M. 10 Parts.

A/N: Hey everyone! So this epilogue is a short and sweet birthday gift to myself. I thought about what I wanted most in terms of my writing, and a tidy, fluffy ending for this fic is exactly what the doctor ordered. I wanted you all to rest assured that Emma and Killian do, indeed, have a happy ending in this AU (not that anyone would doubt that given the rest of the story). Nevertheless, we’re flashing forward into the future, and I am including some CS kids fluff and a little stolen smutty moment for our lovely couple. I love these kind of chapters, and though this isn’t very long, I hope it will brighten your day a little bit. Thank you to all of you for reading and supporting me along the way. This one is for all of you just as much as it’s for me!

(12 Years Later)

Gazing out the window as their family minivan traced the familiar route to Uncle Benjen’s house, Emma let out a soft laugh. 

On the one hand, things were exactly as they’d left it, unchanging in the more than twenty years since she’d first come to this magical place. Now though, the circumstances of her visit were very different. She was no longer a little lost girl en route to one remarkable but fleeting summer. Instead she was an exhausted but elated mother of four trying to wrangle her kids to a few weeks of well-deserved summer beach time.

“But how much longer will it be, Mommy?” 

The question came from her youngest daughter, Leia, who at five years old was precocious and adventurous but not exactly patient. Leia loved life and was a very happy child, but when she had to wait, as she had in this hours long car ride… well things could get dodgy quickly. Emma tried to craft a response that would suffice. They were very close, but at the same time, rewarding Leia’s impatient questions was never in any of their best interest.

“Leia, what do you want to do first when we get there? I was thinking we should swim in the pool. You could show everyone your new vest.” 

The words of encouragement and distraction came from their eldest son, Jack, and Emma let out a sigh of relief at his handling of this. Jack was brilliant at picking up on energy. He’d always been observant, and at fourteen he was the oldest of the Jones children. He might not technically share any DNA with her or Killian, but he was still a carbon copy of her husband. They had the same dark hair and similar features, but it was their manner and personalities that were most alike. Killian and Jack were caregivers and guardians. The most important thing to them was protecting their family and doing right by the people they loved. In the end, it made absolutely no difference to any of them that Jack had come to them through a different means than Leia and the others. He was as much a Jones as anyone of them, their first child in every way, as they’d had Jack since he was six and placed in foster care. Back then, Killian worked on a case involving Jack’s placement, but it was Emma who took one look at their son and knew that he was meant to be their family. By that tie, she and Killian had been married a few years and had already discussed their want to adopt, and they were ready for the challenge. Luckily though, Jack proved no challenge at all. Their son was quiet but loving, gentle and kind, but mostly he was smart, both with books and with people. 

“He’ll be a hell of a man some day,” Killian whispered to Emma as Leia chattered on with Jack about her want to see the beach, collect shells, and build sandcastles. Emma smiled in response to her husband’s apt assessment, but was precluded from answering when their eldest daughter replied to Killian first.

“Dad said a bad word. That’s two bucks for the college fund.”

Eight-year-old Hope didn’t so much as glance up from her book as she said the words and both Emma and Killian laughed at her matter-of-fact tone. Killian had whispered low enough that no one should be able to hear, but Hope had a gift. When there was a chance to catch her parents at something or to reap a decent reward, their daughter was a true hawk. She’d been doing this forever, and Emma was prone to thinking this was an inherited trait. Hope was, in many ways, what Emma might have been if she’d been blessed with family. She was confident and sure and always honest. She had a thorough sense of right and wrong, and, as it happened, perfect comedic timing. 

“Sorry, lass,” Killian replied, catching her eye in the rearview mirror. Emma turned around to look at Hope who spared them a brief look and a pleased smile.

“Don’t be sorry. I just made two bucks.”

Again they laughed, but then the car’s slight moment of quiet was interrupted with a loud and happy squeal from their youngest, Leo. Their baby boy had been somewhat of a surprise, with Emma thinking she had birth control totally covered, but sometimes the universe had other plans, and thank God it did. At just about a year, Leo was healthy and happy and another true joy in their lives. Oh he was a certifiable rascal to be sure, causing complete mayhem when crawling or walking anywhere and everywhere, but Emma knew they were totally blessed in the sweet tempers and real goodness that all four of their children shared.

“Yeah, Leo, we’re almost there. Right Mommy?” Leia asked and Emma hummed out a sound of agreement. 

“Just about. Look out your window, honey and you’ll see it in 3…2…1.”

Sure enough the trees gave way at that moment to Benjen’s grand estate and immediately all the kids cheered. Emma made to cover her ears from the onslaught of sound, but despite the noise, she was too happy to care. As much as the kids loved this place, Emma and Killian loved it too, and she knew that the next two weeks would be filled with the best parts of summer and family and fun. 

As expected, the lot of them were quickly greeted by many of their favorite people. Uncle Benjen and Eleanor were first, and though it had been years since they’d married, Emma always smiled at how Killian’s first instinct was to call her Mrs. Potts. Each time his Uncle would correct him, calling her Mrs. Jones, and it resulted in the sweetest moment between two older people who were very much in love. This trip they were also here with Liam and his family, his wife Elsa, and their three kids, Ayana, Hunter, and Claire. This chance to hang out with their cousins brought joy to every Jones child, and for Emma and Killian it meant that there might actually be more time for just the two of them. It would be foolish to count on that, considering how little free time parents of four ever managed to find, but between Benjen and Eleanor and Liam and Elsa, Emma could imagine a few possible date nights with her husband that could be enjoyed in the coming days. 

“So I think we’ve finally done it,” Liam said excitedly as he tossed little Leia up on his shoulder at her request. Emma listened to her daughter’s infectious giggles at the attention from her Uncle as Liam continued on. “I think we’ve finally filled the unfillable house.”

“Oh Liam, how wrong you are, my dear,” Eleanor said, taking Claire by the hand as they all headed inside. “We’ve filled two wings, but the west wing is still totally empty.”

“Well you heard that, love, we best get busy on filling the rest of the rooms,” Liam said to his wife and Elsa rolled her eyes, shoving at him playfully but blushing all the same.

Emma and Elsa shared a knowing look. If things were up to either of the Jones men they’d each have half a dozen children at least, but the broods they already had seemed big enough. Emma had only actually had three of her babies herself and that felt like enough, but she did sense that another adoption might be somewhere in their future. She and Killian never said as much aloud, but it was understood that if another child in need found their way to them, they would make room without any hesitation. Elsa, on the other hand, might pretend to be put off, but she’d definitely be persuaded to have a few more children of her own. Emma’s sister-in-law adored her children, after all, and she had made being their Mom her full-time job.

Emma respected that choice, and she too spent as much time with her kids as she possibly could, but she hadn’t let her work go completely. Oh she was finished with being a bail bonds person, realizing that the danger and the chase held nothing of real value to her anymore, but now she worked with Killian and his partners in one focused, but critically important area: tracking teen runaways. Despite Killian and many others in their city working hard to change the system and provide safe spaces for all children in their area, there were still many kids who felt the dangers of the streets were preferable to a group home or their grim realities of their home lives. Emma felt for those kids, knowing that she had faced a similar sense of grief, fear, and alienation. Her work now was in tracking these kids down, and when she did, she made sure that she and Killian advocated for their care and their safety in every possible way. So far this year she’d managed to find twelve young people, eight girls and four boys, and she was proud to say that every single one was doing much better. Through counseling, special programs, and safe homing, they were all being given another shot. That being said there were plenty more kids out there who still needed their help, and Emma knew that as long as she had a gift for finding people, she would never turn her back on that need. 

“I know you want to save the whole world, love, but we promised two weeks of no worries, remember?” 

Killian’s question came as his arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled her back against him. Emma closed her eyes, soaking in the strength of her favorite person and partner. All this time together and she still never got used to how right it felt when he held her close. It truly was is if they were two pieces to one whole, but with their love she never felt herself slipping away. They were perfect compliments, but still their own independent and unique people. 

“I remember. But seeing how hard it will be to not worry, maybe you could give me some incentive?” 

Emma backed up ever so slightly to tease her husband and his low growl reverberated through her and sent a lush thrill through her body. Her eyes flashed to the kids who were all fixated on their cousins and their grandparents and then she turned around to look at him. The hunger in his gaze was rivaled only by his admiration, and she trembled with her own want building for this beautiful man. 

“Kids!” Killian called, breaking eye contact to look over at their clan. “Your mum and I are taking a walk. Heed the grands and your aunt and uncle until we get back.”

“Aye, aye captain!” Jack, Leia, and Hope all exclaimed, partaking in a years long family joke about Killian running this family like a captain on a ship. Even little Leo tried to get in on the action, saluting like his siblings as Uncle Benjen held him close. 

Killian nodded to the adults and Emma looked at them all before shrugging, as if she had no idea why her willful husband would steal her away like this, but she totally knew, and so did they. He moved to the car and quickly grabbed a picnic blanket she had stowed away ages ago, and her heart skipped at why exactly he would bring that now. Her desire for the moment only grew as Killian took her hand and led her back through the winding path and towards the glen where they were married. Emma thought not for the first time how perfectly situated this place was. It was close enough that if the needed to rush back they could, but far enough away to be out of sight and out of earshot from the others. 

When they made it to the meadow, Emma was not surprised but still delighted at the flowers that were in bloom, coloring the emerald green grass with pops of purple and blue and white. They were the height of summer wildflowers, standards in this oasis, and familiar to her now after years of coming back. On a day like today where the heat of the sun was strong and enduring, it made the fragrance hanging in the air all the sweeter. The light wind through the trees cooled her skin enough to be comfortable, but nothing could tamp down the yearning she felt for this alone time with her husband.

“If history holds, we’ve got roughly an hour before the kids go feral and make a break away,” Killian said, spreading out the blanket and pulling her down to the ground on a soft patch of earth with an overgrown maple behind them. 

“A whole hour? Do you really think we need that?” she joked, and damn did it pay off. No sooner had the teasing words left her lips then her husband was on her with a possessive, demanding hold designed to make her dizzy with even more need. 

Even after all this time the way he kissed her fueled her fire, his hands and lips tracing rough and gentle lines across her skin made her pant in the summer sun. It felt so good to be claimed this way, and the sensation of it all left her breathless. With frenzied anticipation she tasted his kisses, feeling his lips trail down her jaw and her neck, nipping and soothing as they went. He toyed with her breasts, tormenting her with things she wanted so badly, but by the time he licked at her aching flesh, she was mindless. Her eyes closed as she felt every perfect press and pull, she was so close, so sure she’d break from how good it felt, and then he hummed against her sex and told her to let go. When she did she broke apart in a million pieces, but came back together more alive and rejuvenated than ever before.

“I love how good you love me,” Emma said, not sure if she made sense, but knowing Killian took her meaning as he kissed his way back up her skin. He’d mangled up her sundress, pulling the straps down low and pushing the skirt up high, but he only seemed to love her state of mess. If anything, the expression in his gaze said that her man was perfectly happy with her just exactly as she was.

“We were meant for this, Emma, meant for everything,” he said, coming up above her and bringing his hard length to her entrance. She moved her legs to take him and they both moaned aloud when he plunged in, filling her completely. “This is exactly where I’m mean to be. This is happiness made real.”

Emma agreed in every way, and as they came together first slow and steady and then fast and hard, she let how right this was wash over her. She always knew that this was fated, but it still felt like magic to experience this with him. Crashing into bliss was heaven itself, and even as they both came down from their high, holding onto each other, and drawing lazy lines along each other’s skin with nothing but the tips of their fingers, Emma smiled. She knew she must be glowing right now, for nothing could contain how truly joyous that she was to have this man, and their beautiful life together.

“Part of me wishes we could stay like this forever,” Emma murmured, pressing a kiss to his neck and feeling against her lips the gentle beat of his pulse. 

“Aye, me too,” he whispered. “But the other part, a greater part, knows that what’s coming is somehow even better than this.”

Emma agreed whole heartedly, and she knew he meant that their life and their kids was all a part of their happily ever after. They had each other, yes, and Emma knew they always would, but they also had so much more now. Their world was so much bigger, so much grander, and their love, as a result, was just as giant and all consuming.

“We’re lucky to have had this long already,” Emma said, bestowing on her husband a final kiss as she straightened herself out and rose to her feet. Killian’s eyes tracked her, appraising her motions, but soon he joined her, getting himself together and gathering the blanket to take back with them again. Soon enough they set back to the house, both of them eager to see the kids and enjoy the day. With the weather this nice, they’d likely hit the beach and have a cook out, ringing in the summer in the best possible way, but just when she could see the house again, Killian stopped, his hand holding her steady and halting her motion.

“Everything all right?” she asked and Killian nodded, but let go of her hand, walking towards the edge of the trail. Emma didn’t know what he was after, but when he pulled back around and offered it to her she smiled. Leave it to her husband to find a wild rose in the middle of nowhere. She should have expected such a gesture – seeing as how Killian had filled her life with these tiny, perfect gifts for years now.

With steady hands he took the flower and placed it behind her ear, making her feel like a young girl again as he looked at her with unadulterated love. She knew it was sappy, and maybe a little corny, but she didn’t care. With this man she felt like a princess, a goddess, and like the most important person in this world and the rest.

“It takes my breath away each day, love,” he whispered as he cupped her cheek, running his thumb along the corner of her lips.

“What does?”

“How much I love you. Every day I fall a little more, and every day I’m glad as hell to do it.”

Unable to help herself, Emma moved against him for another kiss, but this time they were spotted, and, as expected, her kids feigned disgust at an open display between them of their love for each other. In typical fashion Killian told them to get over it, before grabbing little Leo and Leia and engaging with the others in their selected summer game. He was the best kind of father, and the kids loved him so much that it made Emma’s eyes water up with tears. She watched them for a moment, just a few seconds strung together, but in that span of time she let herself know the truth of her charmed life – she was the luckiest woman in the world, and as long as she had her family, she always, always would be.

Post-Note: So there we have it! I know the chapter is shorter than all the others, but I hope that you will all forgive that and enjoy this fluffiness for what it is meant to be – a sweet, fun send off to a story that means so much to me. It’s always hard to say goodbye to a cute fic like this, but I do so knowing that this is where I always pictured this story winding up. I also am comforted by the fact that I have not one, not two, but three new stories I am currently working on. So keep an eye out in the coming months for some new fics from me that will carry this same cute, fluffy energy. Thanks again so much for reading and hope you all have a great rest of your day!

[whitefoxed]

Little Wonders

Starter for @algrimthestrong​ | Written to this | Chapter 1

1991, August 10th. Rock Creek Park. With summer coming to an end and fall just starting to begin, the air was much cooler and dryer than it had been the whole season. Yellowing greens and the sounds of soft footsteps muffled by the fallen leaves and insect song imprinted strongly into the young boy’s eidetic mind. Lise had taken in a deep breath, scenting damp and the nature around him.

His family had came to Washington, D.C. a month before his birthday, to fulfil some father-son bonding ritual Daniel was intent on having since he was allowed to take a vacation from his work, so this was the boy’s first time experiencing this change of season in America. His mother had remained in the city to do her shopping, while his father - Daniel - brought him to the park to teach him its history and how to recognise the tracks of the different wildlife here.

Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be.

Daniel had went to secure horses for them both, leaving Lise to his own devices. Bored, the young child found a secluded corner and started playing with magic. Though his mother always told him not to do so without her supervision, he truly couldn’t resist satisfying his curiosity about whether or not there would be a difference using his ability in a different land. Besides, he made sure there was no one else around. Gathering energy, Lise threw little spells without a sign of fatigue, seemingly unlimited by how much energy he could collect from his surroundings. It was crude, blunt even, but that was only because the boy was untrained still.

But in an instant, without being aware of anything, Lise had already lost consciousness.

The next time he woke, he found himself dangling by his shirt in some dark hallway. His mind felt heavy, as he listened to two people talking next to him, one of them being the person holding him like this. Then, that person’s hand came closer, drawing his attention and causing him to look up at it as it covered his small face and also reveal that he had already regained consciousness. Lise’s big grey eyes shrunk to silver pinpricks, sensing his natural glamour shatter and his half form brought to light. Tiny white ears peeked out of white hair bleached from brown and nine tails spilled out from his pants behind him. His fingernails too, sharpened slightly into small, slightly dangerous, opal claws. But throughout all this, he felt like lead, unable to feel fright like he thought he would. The hand holding him shoved him into the other man.

“… Where am I?” Lise clutched onto the cloth, concerned about falling to the floor. His pupils had dilated back to its original size as he looked up at the one holding him this time. Again, he felt calm, but as the footsteps of the one who shoved him over went further and further away, the fear that made his heart beat harder started bubbling up, adding a light of confusion and worry to those bright silver eyes.

Dark eyes pinned the child with wary intrigue, watching as what had been hidden was forcibly brought to light. Vulpine ears, as white as snow. Nine tails, agile and sleek. The claws, while still tiny and short, seemed sharp enough to open a man’s throat. Not quite a hound but not a hunter either. A strange hybrid, a cross between man and beast, his small body heavily saturated with magic. A part of Algrim felt sorry for the boy, who had been taken from his world, snatched from his parents, thrust into a foreign world with no choice but to surrender to fate, the life he’d known forever barred to him.

Midgardian lore was rich with tales of babes stolen from their cribs, swapped for a changeling to spy upon the guileless parents. When the boy’s father would return to collect his child, he might, perhaps, notice an air of wickedness surrounding his offspring, a glint of malignity in the little one’s eyes that had not been there before, and yet he’d take the wretched thing home and treat it as his own flesh and blood.

The Accursed, Algrim knew, desired no son to follow in his footsteps, no heir who might threaten his reign. The boy was not meant to be a successor, but a slave. A tool. A puppet on strings to do the king’s bidding. A new and prestigious addition to Svartalfheim’s fabled bestiary.

The Lord of the Hunt, however, had neither the time nor the patience, let alone the emotional aptitude to rear a child, and so the mantle of raising the boy had fallen to Algrim; Algrim, whose children had perished in ice and snow, leaving the aggrieved father to live on in a world darkened by loss and sorrow. The boy was a burden and a blessing. A millstone round his neck to remind him of everything he had lost, and a precious gift to lighten his heavy heart.    

He held the young whelp gently in his arms, watching his lord depart and disappear into the gloom of the castle. “You are in Svartalfheim, child.” Algrim’s tone was soft, gentle, comforting even as he turned his gaze back on the boy, watching large, innocent eye peer up at him with confusion and fear. How long had it been since he’d last held a child in his arms? An eternity, it seemed. A different life. The eyes of his children had been black, unreadable, the colour of obsidian just like his own, but the eyes of the boy were silver, shining as bright as starlight.

Algrim’s fingers splayed on the child’s back, adjusting his hold on the boy as the slightest of smiles graced the elf’s lips. “You are home.”

“Svartalfheim?” Repeated the child with perfect intonation, as large silver eyes took in the elder’s face. The smile and better support holding him helped soothe Lise’s mounting fears and the way he immediately started looking around them and back over his shoulder at the man leaving after being told he’s home, showed his quick understanding of the situation despite his age.

He had never heard of Svartalfheim, nor seen people like the one holding him, his gaze flitting at those pointed ears and hair as white as his against dark skin. Young as he, Lise couldn’t help trembling while he looked around again, as if searching for something. The quivering on his tiny tufted ears was most obvious, along with his tails which all curved downwards, tucked tight to his body. When those bright orbs returned to those dark ones, large with hope, another question fell from his lips again. “Is A- are.. my parents here?…” He asked quietly, changing how he addressed them to something more appropriate for people who weren’t family nor familiar with the language he used.

While Lise was still too young to hear of tales about changelings - his mother having started with stories originating from their homeland and gradually spreading from it - he had long been taught to be wary of being kidnapped. Recalling that he had been playing with magic just before this and how he was not supposed to - it was against the rules, his mother had once told him bad people would come take him away if he was found - the child was immediately both worried and regretting having done so earlier. He was wrong, he broke a rule and now he was taken away!

The boy was truly frightened now, even if the man holding him hadn’t done anything to harm him. He wished to see his parents, to tell them he was sorry for playing with magic and for his mother to scold him not to do it again, because that meant she’d be around to protect him. And that was why, he still clung onto the hope that they were here, enough to ask it aloud.

The flawless pronunciation with which the foreign word rolled off the boy’s tongue earned a look of approval from Algrim. “Svartalfheim,” he confirmed, “the realm of the Dark Elves. One of the Nine Worlds nestled amidst the roots and branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, of which Midgard – ‘Earth’ as you call it – is but one.” He lapsed into silence, granting the boy a chance to process what, without a doubt, was a lot to take in. He felt the child tremble in his arms, shaking like a leaf in the wind, distress and confusion reflecting on his young face.

The boy’s next question had Algrim’s features softening with sympathy. It was the bane of all children to think themselves invincible, to believe their parents would always be there to shield them from the evil in the world. Coming to realise their misconceptions was one of life’s hardest lessons to learn, and experience could be a cruel teacher. The little fox was still young, though. Young and pliant enough to be shaped and moulded to fit into his new life. “I am afraid not.” Algrim shook his head, carefully watching the boy for his reaction. He could easily relate to the child’s plight, the pain of separation and the despair that came with it as life as he had known it was torn asunder from one moment to the next.

There was, of course, the option of plying the distraught child with stories of uncaring parents who gave away their unloved offspring or traded the little one in for ample riches. Algrim, however, thought it best to tell the truth, to let the boy wail and grieve rather than risk building his fealty upon lies and deception.

“You are special, little one. So special that the king of the elves himself came to spirit you away.” He offered another smile, lightly rubbing the boy’s back. “Surely you heard about elves before? I heard our kind became quite popular on Midgard in the modern age.”

Gently, he set the boy down on his feet, both of his hands coming to rest on the young one’s shoulders as he stooped to speak to him at eye level. “The Accursed King sees great potential in you. You are to live with us and be taught the ways of the fae. I was appointed your guardian and mentor. You may call me Algrim.” Placing his index finger under the boy’s chin, he gently tilted the little one’s head up to look him in the eye. “What is your name, child?”

Dark Elves. Nine Worlds. None of those meant anything to the little fox, though the name Yggdrasil caught his ears in a familiar way. He remembered then, a short excerpt about western fables in the book of mythology his mother gave him. And it wasn’t wrong to say that elves were very popular back home either, what with them appearing in every fantasy game and how famous the Lord of the Rings were worldwide. But all Lise could hear was that his parents weren’t here and he clung onto that little hope just a few heartbeats longer as he fought the tears welling up in his eyes.

He was scared and clinging onto the elf who held him, trembling. For all the little boy’s pride and effort not to cry, his face soon scrunched up as crystalline tears ran down his delicately soft cheeks. He was wrong… he’s sorry… but his natural ability to sense truth that he himself did not yet understand ebbed strength out of the pup as he visibly wilted, ears and shoulders drooping and tails curling tighter. It was as if he was trying to make himself smaller and without a doubt, be hiding if he wasn’t held. The elf’s smile did little to soothe the boy’s grief, though the rubbing helped keep him calm as he started sniffing, a pup-like whine escaping from what little control he managed to have.

Lise didn’t want to be special. He already knew he was. That’s what his Eomma always said. And that was why he shouldn’t practice magic outside on his own. But he did.

Tightly curled fingers clutched the elf’s robes tightly even as he was placed down on the ground, reluctantly letting go to grab onto the front of his own shirt instead, a hand raising to wipe his sleeve over his eyes again and again. Both his blurry sight and sleeve couldn’t obscure how intent and kind those dark eyes were looking at him as his shaky sniffles gradually ceased. “Al-Algrim.” He repeated after the elf, pronunciation only marred by his weak voice and stuttering.

It took the boy a moment or two longer before he visibly made effort to gather his wits back together after his head was tilted up to look at Algrim properly. Blinking away his wet and sore eyes, Lise tried to stand taller, straightening his back even while his tails twisted together.

“Lise… my name is Lise…”

Compassion was in Algrim’s gaze as he watched the boy’s eyes fill with tears, feeling the child’s hold on him tighten with the strength of desperation as the elf’s words wormed their way into the little one’s mind. He let him cry. At times, crying was the best of medicines; to flush out the shock and sorrow, to wail and grieve, to let it all come out in a rush of tears and relief so acceptance could follow in its wake. The small, soft sound of distress that slipped past the young fox’s lips tugged at Algrim’s heartstrings with a poignancy that triggered a flood of memories. This time, he would not fail to protect the young life entrusted to his care. This time, he would keep the precious child safe from harm.

Giving the boy a moment to get his bearings after learning of his fate, Algrim stood back a little to watch him, noting the way he endeavoured to face his future with courage and dignity as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve before straightening his back to make himself look taller in the face of the tumble his life had taken. This one was strong. Proud. A fighter. Algrim could already tell that much. He could not keep the smile on his face from growing a fraction as the child repeated the name of his mentor to-be, testing its sound on his tongue, attempting to adapt to the situation rather than succumb to despair and cry for his mother to come take him home. Admirable.

“Lise,” Algrim repeated in turn, enjoying the ease which with the name flowed past his lips. He nodded approvingly at the little fox. “A beautiful name.”

He spent a moment carefully deliberating how to best introduce his protégé to the new environment he was to live in before reaching for little Lise’s hand, his fingers curling gently around the boy’s. There was no need to rush things. A well-fed, well-rested child would be far more susceptible to his teachings than a stressed one. “Well then, I suggest we get you a new attire, yes?” He paused to consider the child’s Midgardian clothes with a sceptical glance. “And then you can rest a little. How does that sound to you?”

Prompting Lise into tagging along with a gentle tug on his wrist, Algrim began leading the way through the castle’s labyrinthine passages, passing grim-looking guards and busy servants as they advanced deeper into the Accursed King’s realm. After a while, they arrived at a heavy wooden door which Algrim pushed open to usher the boy inside. “You will be staying with me for a while until I deem you ready to occupy your own quarters.”

The room was spacious and lavishly furnished. The dwindling light of the day filtered in through the gauzy curtains that framed several large, arched windows. The room was equipped with a bed, a heavy, elaborately carved desk, a smaller, lighter but no less intricately fashioned bureau, a table with several chairs, and a divan in front of a fireplace. Well-stocked bookcases lined the walls along with several cabinets, a dresser, and a full body mirror.

Letting go of Lise’s hand, Algrim turned to face the boy and gave him another warm smile. “Are you hungry, Lise?”

Lise. A beautiful name. The fox child latched onto the elder’s soothing baritone for comfort, white ears twitching in the dark Svartalfain halls. For a boy whom normally liked open spaces, the place suddenly felt too large and foreign. Lise huddled closer to Algrim’s side, clinging the moment his hand was taken.

Wide, soaked eyes peered up at the elf from near his hip, nodding to that suggestion merely in attempt to please. Honestly, Lise didn’t know what he should do. He wanted to try and get home. But fear and confusion reigned his little heart and mind and all he knew was this man was kind to him. So he followed the tug and through the many twists and turns, cataloguing the pathway and encounters in the back of his mind.

Ever the curious child, he couldn’t help stealing glances at the guards, servants and decorations, despite how they terrified him and sent him hiding into the skirts of Algrim’s robes with his little ears trembling. By the time they had reached the wooden door, the boy’s tails were all firmly tucked between his legs.

Into the new room he went with the elder and for the first time since he had woken, Lise found some form of security in his surroundings. The windows provided sufficient light unlike the shadowed hallways and there were no grim faced guards nor terrifying decorations. Unnoticed shallow breaths and rapid heartbeats gradually slowed and Lise loosened his tight grip on Algrim’s hand, just in time for it to be released.

Swivelling eyes which were looking around the room and soaking in every detail returned to the elder when he was addressed, pink lips parting slightly as his guard dropped even more at that smile. Even a child could recognise the elder’s beauty. Then his gaze fell and flitted back shyly, about to shake his head out of instinct to not be troublesome, when he felt his stomach gurgle.

His father had promised to bring him to the forest restaurant after the horse ride before he found himself here, not even knowing how long ago that was. Lise simply assumed the same amount of time passed was from the morning he was last awake on Earth to the coming dusk he now saw beyond the window.

Finally having a purpose instead of simply feeling lost, the boy squared his stance and looked back up at Algrim with determination and hope. “Yes!… Please!” He added after a second’s thought, remembering to be polite despite not having been offered food yet.

Curiously, Algrim watched the boy for his reaction, pleased to find Lise looking about the room with budding curiosity rather than trepidation. The younger they were, the better they adjusted to their new surroundings; the sooner they forgot about their old lives. His own heart ached with sympathy for the boy’s parents, who would have no choice but to live on, trapped in a never-ending cycle of grief, despair, and foolish hope, never to know of the fate that befell their little one. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, banishing the thought from his mind. This was neither the time nor the place for regrets.

He observed the young fox carefully, glad to see that Lise had lost some of his initial fear. Even his tails, which had been tightly twisted together and tucked between his legs in distress, seemed to have relaxed fractionally, he noted. A brief chuckle trickled past the advisor’s lips as little Lise’s stomach beat its owner to an answer, and he nodded approvingly as the dear boy made an effort to be polite.

As if on cue, the door opened and two servants came striding in, bearing silver platters with food and drink. None of them spared Algrim’s little guest a glance as they marched past. They set to work without preamble, dutifully laying out plates and silverware on the table and lighting the torches mounted on the walls, turning to bow low to their superior before departing again.

Algrim turned towards Lise with a smile. “Well then, dinner is served.” Taking the boy’s hand in his own, he led him to the table and helped him climb on one of the cushioned chairs. He went on to pour them each a drink, blackberry juice for Lise and wine for himself before taking the chair on the opposite end of the table.

Algrim had deemed it best to stick to dishes the boy might already be familiar with, saving the more exotic cuisine for when Lise had properly settled in and adjusted to his new life. On the table, a selection of roasted meats, steamed vegetables, baked potatoes, and sweet desserts was waiting to be enjoyed by the pair.

Now this was the crucial part, for only after the boy had consumed the enchanted faerie food would he truly belong to the realm, unable to ever leave. “Eat,” Algrim prompted gently, nodding encouragingly at Lise.

Not expecting to have his wish granted so soon, the little fox jumped with a startle and hid back into Algrim’s skirts, bolting behind him faster than he knew what he was doing. Staring at the servants coming to and fro, their appearance still so foreign to him, Lise couldn’t even pay attention to the food they brought in until he had made sure they left the room. Only then did his tension loosen and let himself be led to the table and helped onto a chair. He could jump on it, but he was also on the smaller side and Algrim’s aid meant being less clumsy and avoiding accidents.

Once there and able to see the spread on the table, his eyes brightened as he found comfort in familiar sights and scents, recognising the food offered. He was still making sure that he somewhat knew what meats and vegetables they were when Algrim spoke to him again, making him look up from the food and remember that he was hungry. With the faintest, hesitant smile, both in hope and ingrained manners, Lise nodded and answered as he picked up the utensils. “잘 먹겠습니다.” Jalmukesumneda. I will eat well. Such were the words to say to be polite at the table.

Still, he didn’t start eating. Holding his fork and spoon, he looked and waited for the elder to start patiently, ears starting to twitch left and right slowly along with his tails’ swaying, idling movements to help pass the time and hunger. Even though the child was very hungry, he naturally observed the customs his mother taught stringently. Subconsciously, the boy buried a newborn fear deep down in his heart, afraid of disobeying a rule again.

Algrim granted Lise a moment to take in the variety of dishes on the table, noting the look of bright-eyed wonder on the boy’s face at being offered what could well pass for a small feast.

The advisor caught himself smiling. This sweet, gentle-mannered child was very special - and that had nothing to do with the fact that Lise was a magical being. The boy was a rare gem, a diamond among pebbles, that only needed to be cut into shape and polished to brilliant perfection.

The wish to please was obvious in the boy’s demeanour, the phrase he uttered when picking up the cutlery a product of his strict and meticulous upbringing. Algrim moved his head in an almost imperceptible nod of approval. In a way, young Lise reminded him of— Algrim smothered the thought before it could blossom to life. If he began to view Lise through the eyes of a father, he’d throw objectivity to the wind, and this was something he could not permit himself. The boy was his responsibility. A task he had been charged with. An asset to groom and raise into a loyal follower of the Accursed, not a foster son to fill the void inside him.

“You may eat,” Algrim told the boy, seeking to dispel Lise’s hesitation (misgivings?) by offering a reassuring smile. “You need not be afraid.” Noticing the way Lise glanced at him, he realised the little fox was waiting for his host to start eating first despite his gnawing hunger. Whether such hesitation was born of fear, uncertainty, or politeness, Algrim could not say for certain. Reaching for a bowl of potatoes, he heaped some on his plate before proceeding to add spoonfuls of braised vegetables and a slice of venison. Algrim began to eat without hesitation, keeping his eyes on Lise to see whether the boy would follow his example.

Witnessing the elder eat, Lise started too. Though Algrim verbally gave him permission to do so, it simply confused the child even more when he was keeping so strictly to the rules he was brought up with. Thus he hesitated until he saw the given cue, almost pouncing on the food and helping himself to a share of them onto his own plate. Only his ingrained manners kept him from making a mess, naturally preferring meat over vegetables and other forms of food. He did take his greens however, just not as much as the other.

Digging in, the boy chewed as quickly as his tails wagged, eager to fill his grumbling stomach. The act of eating was comforting and the familiar food reassuring. It was with keen instinct that Lise focused greatly on his meal, to keep his fear and sorrow at bay, innocent to its true intent to chain him to this realm. Perhaps if he had known, he would not have wolfed down as fast as he did.

By the time he was done, though he had eaten more than he usually did, the amount was still not much. Yet it was also enough to give him a small contented belly. Sitting back in his chair and drinking water, Lise finally had the leisure to study Algrim and his surroundings once more and his large watery silver eyes rolled this way and that doing so. Of course, he was also waiting for the elder’s next instructions, not knowing what to do after meal when he was neither dismissed nor told to help wash the dishes.

[dvrkprinces]

&&. ( alexander barrett ) was just spotted in amsterdam. rumor has it ( he ) is a ( 34 ) year old ( alpha werewolf ) who resembles ( jamie dornan ). ( he ) has been said to be ( quick-witted & determined ) but also quite ( cunning & hard-headed ). with all the chaos surrounding the magical underworld, ( he ) has chosen to align with ( the werewolf rebellion ). ( he ) is currently serving as ( a werewolf rebel spy in the inferno ). hopefully the city doesn’t devour them whole.

— ❝  fine. make me your villain. ❞

( hi there, kiwi here! last but not least, we have the official intro for my angsty edgelord, alexander barrett. daddy issues and brooding galore, this is a character who is exceptionally near and dear to my heart. as per usual, please let me know if you’d like to plot; i’m available through both the group’s discord and tumblr ims. ♡ )

name: alexander henryk barrett

birthplace: the bronx, new york, u.s.a.

birthday: may 3rd | taurus

scent: bergamot, violet flower, tuscan iris, campfire, black pepper oil, warm woods + ( signature cologne: noir - tom ford ) 

appearance: 6′3″ and muscular from years of working as a skilled hunter and undercover member of the werewolf resistance. with curly chestnut / honey brown hair and piercing blue eyes, he strongly reflects his irish heritage. alex prefers to keep a full beard at all time, just as a personal preference.

personality: ( + ) quick-witted, determined, intelligent, crafty, ambitious ( - ) cunning, hard-headed, hot-tempered, sly, self-serving

biography: In the heart of the Bronx, a boy was born to a starry-eyed single mother who wanted her son to be better than the world he’d entered into.

Financial instability and strife reigned over young Alexander Barrett’s life; poverty and crushing responsibilities became the weight he was forced to bear. Never truly exposed to anything but life in the projects, Alex spent most of his younger childhood years roughing around with some of the neighborhood kids and dreaming of a day when they’d all make it in the big leagues; some of his friends aspired to excel in sports, while others prayed to God that they could keep their asses in school long enough to earn degrees and get solid jobs in the more middle-class areas of the Bronx or even, God willing, another one of New York City’s heavily-populated, compact boroughs. But Alexander, with a mother who was barely able to scrape up enough money to get by for the two of them in their closet of an apartment with two weekday jobs and an additional one on the weekend, knew that getting out of the city and onto making a decent income was less than realistic. See, Alex was different from the other neighborhood kids; his mother was a runaway--an omega werewolf refugee who had escaped Ireland after she had been sold to an alpha werewolf from her pack in the hopes of reproducing and “fulfilling” her duties as an omega. After being impregnated with the alpha noble’s child, she escaped on a refugee boat leading to the Americas. Her pack, being Roman Catholic, had considered their union as concrete as marriage--and the only way Genevieve could escape her husband was through death. So she disappeared. It was there, in the heart of New York, that she raised her only son with all of the love and devotion inside of her; but, having been exiled and written off by all family and “proper” wolfish society, Genevieve found herself stranded in a foreign country as a single mother with no support, no means for a reasonable income, no resources available to her at all.

As Alex grew up under a loving, but hopelessly poor, roof, he found himself turning to the streets for some semblance of stability in a world where he feared his mother would fall under the pressure placed on her shoulders. Still, the world continued to spit on the boy from the Bronx with a hardened heart and a battered soul. And so young Alexander, pessimistic about the world around him, stumbled into a life of crime and mischief from a young age.

As soon as he was old enough to understand what poverty meant and how hard his mother–his beautiful, caring mother–worked to provide for him, Alexander decided to help her out as best as he could. As Genevieve was an Irish immigrant hiding from her past, expenses such as healthcare, as she tirelessly worked to try and obtain her American citizenship, were hard to come by. So, when Alex was too young to get a job, he’d shoplift clothes from secondhand clothing shops and would tell his mother that some of the older boys at school had traded him for it in exchange for some help on their homework; he’d snatch food from local grocery stores and would scatter it throughout their kitchen, praying to God his mom didn’t catch on. And the minute he was old enough to legally obtain a job of his own, Alex started working for one of the local car garages. First as a mechanic’s assistant, and then, finally, helping out with the cars themselves. But still, his lust for power and security–for stealing what he believed was owed to him and his mother–grew with age, and by the time he was sixteen, Alex was eaten up with the urge to control the world around him. So he hung out with kids on the wrong side of the tracks; began to make a name for himself on the streets. He made an effort not to terrorize people, but took what he thought he deserved. He was just, but stern; he was understanding, but not forgiving. He refused to let his mother become a victim of the streets, and so he made the streets his own. 

So without his mother knowing, Alexander plunged into a life of crime, putting school–and his other responsibilities–on the backburner. He was raking in more cash than he ever had before, and even more so, he was making a name of himself. His mother was proud of him for all the wrong reasons; she thought her son had gained a promotion at work and was working long and tireless hours in the hopes of helping them and saving up for an education for himself. Alex, who still worshiped and adored his mother, couldn’t bear to break her heart by telling her the truth. For a long while, he told himself that things were best this way; that it was easiest and safest for Genevieve Barrett if she didn’t know who (or, more specifically, what) her only son had become. He lied, cheated, and gambled his way out of everything. He was a smooth talker, a charmer, ruthless, and ambitious as hell. If he had to lie, cheat, and steal to help his mother afford to pay rent or put food on the table, then it was something he could live with. Easily. He was an alpha werewolf who knew that the “duties” allotted to his wolf ranking and status would soon be imposed upon him--but until that day, Alex was content to use whatever resources available to him in order to get by.

While he was a teenager, roughly seventeen years old, his mother--having never committed to any sort of romantic or physical relationship with any sort of meaning since his birth--fell into a relationship with a local restaurateur named Antonio. He owned a deli shop down the street, and though he came from a humble background himself, Genevieve fell head over heels in love with the human man who made her sandwiches every other Thursday. Alex disapproved of the relationship, having never been around the man much himself, but couldn’t bear to tell his mother and risk her ending a relationship over his own discomfort. Despite the nagging sensation deep in his gut, Alex pushed aside his ill will towards his mother’s newfound love and instead channeled his energy into street fights and the small heists and coups he hosted with other neighborhood boys. It was just the general unease of his mother entering into a significant relationship when she had otherwise feared men for years that bothered Alex, that was all; that was what he continued to tell himself, at least.

Life has an uncanny ability of catching up with you, Genevieve Barrett would have said, and the words ricocheted through Alexander’s skull like a restless bullet the day his mother died. A balmy spring evening, with promises whispering through the trees, rustling their branches and whistling through the busy city streets, Alex came home after a long day of working at the mechanic’s garage when he found his mother being forced into a van, kicking and screaming as no less than five men held her down and shackled her to the back of a nondescript van. No, not men--wolves. Werewolves with strong and thick Irish accents whom Genevieve seemed to know and fear. Blood thundered through Alex’s veins and pounded in his head as he raced towards her, screaming her name as her mother’s lover stood to the side, clad in a business suit and speaking urgently with a large and imposing alpha--the leader of Genevieve’s old clan, who had been hunting her in the years since she escaped. Alex pieced things together just as the man turned to face him, a queer smile on his face that sank straight to the pit of Alex’s stomach. The man had never loved his mother--he’d been a mole. Sent by Genevieve’s former pack to retrieve one of the precious jewels that had been stolen for them: an omega.

Alex was held back and forced to watch as he and his mother locked eyes, screaming for one another and scrabbling to reach each other through the barrier that separated them. Overwhelmed by panic, Alex nearly missed what happened next. Antonio explained to the wolves that Genevieve was barren; that she’d had a surgical procedure done to keep her from bearing and rearing any more children. Already a fugitive of the clan’s law and now virtually useless to them, Alex was forced to watch as one of the men holding his mother back took her head in his hands and twisted, snapping her neck. The grief and overwhelming flood of emotions over watching his mother executed in front of him pounded through Alex’s veins, and before he was able to control himself, he was shedding his human form and emerging as an alpha wolf, attacking and killing no less than three of the other wolves who had harmed and mutilated his mother before eventually being shot with a tranquilizer. Alex viewed it as a manifestation of his grief--the lead alpha saw it for what it truly was: the physical manifestations of an alpha wolf in full bloom.

And if they couldn’t have Genevieve, they would have him.

By the time Alex woke up, he was in a cargo holding cell on his way to Ireland; deciding he was a virile alpha and would do just fine in replacement of his mother, Genevieve’s former pack had stolen Alex from his home and transported him across the pond to serve in Ireland for their unseemly purposes. Soon after arriving at their clan’s stronghold just outside of Dublin, Alex hatched a plan to escape. He might have been in a foreign country and damn near penniless, but he had grown up a street rat who clawed his way through the food chain to emerge on top, and he wasn’t about to let that stop him now. He was able to escape from the clan that hoped to transform him into a breeding alpha, making his way through Ireland in search of anything that would tie him to his mother’s name and past.

Eventually, he found fellow rogue wolves, who would later become the foundations of the burgeoning werewolf rebellion, and joined up without hesitation. He’d never had much of a thing for authority or organized government anyway. He soon took Nadya Kingsley under his wing, a fellow werewolf from a broken home who needed a cause to call her own. She has become his closest confidant in all matters; the closest thing Alex has ever had to a “best friend” or family since his mother’s untimely death. Together, the two make an unstoppable duo and have garnered the respect and admiration of much of the underground rebellion.

It’s been close to twenty years since his mother’s death, and Alex’s current assignment for the rebellion is to infiltrate The Inferno and work as an informant to gather intel on what the fallen angels and vampires have planned in the supernatural war raging against them. Alex is cold and callous, cunning, and always thinks before he acts; he can be the loyalest of friends or the bitterest of enemies.

But above all, Alexander Barrett fully trusts nothing--and no one--but himself.

wanted connections: i’d be super down for some rebellion or werewolf-human coalition connections for alex in particular ! hit me with what you’ve got !

[thunder-the-ranger-wolf]

Stolen Dreams

Summary: A traumatic event in Yagi’s childhood shapes his will to become a Hero. All Might still exists to save people with a smile, but only as a last resort. The Broker is an extremely persuasive hero, able to dismantle hostage situations and calm rivalries with a well-placed word. Few people know that the Symbol of Peace and the Broker are one and the same. Fewer still know that he has anything resembling a personal life. That just might change soon.

Toshinori was always good at talking to people. When he was younger and had the looks to back up his words, he could practically get away with murder. Not that he wanted to, or that he would. Besides, it only lasted as long as nobody knew he was Quirkless. It was easy to hide and easier to pass off as a Strength mutation when necessary. Lying about having a Quirk wasn’t exactly illegal. No one could look at your paperwork unless it was required for a background check or some other random reason. Nana saw right through him, with her truth-sensing Quirk. Gran saw right through him because he saw himself in Toshinori. That didn’t make them go any easier on him. But all these things matter for a reason.

Stolen Dreams

The first time Toshinori is aware that someone is kidnapped, it’s him and some other kids from the foster home. He was seven years old and he should have gotten a Quirk by now, but he hadn’t. Nobody cared about him, it wasn’t like he had much to offer. The Quirks among the kids were Strength Enhancer, Speedster, Screech/Echolocation, Cat’s Eyes, and his main bully, Doomer. The kid was called Doomer because anyone he didn’t like got (quite literally) crushed under his large, furry heels, including adults. He was one of the only “long-term residents” of the foster home who wasn’t Quirkless.

The nabbers weren’t so keen on giving them up because it turns out they had quite the range of Quirks. And were easy pickings. The thing that really kept them quiet was the oldest, a woman with a scar that ran from her left eye to the right side of her cheek. She took out Doomer like it was nothing. The kid with the Strength Enhancer Quirk was knocked out immediately. Every time someone used a Quirk, they were punished. In the end, Toshinori managed to get out by asking to go for a walk and heading straight to the nearest police station. They were swamped, but one look at the battered, bleeding child babbling about five other kids being held against their will and two heroes nearby were called in to figure out the situation. In the end, he crept through a vent with a Knockout-Quirk-Suppressant gas and the police gathered everyone up. They attributed the catch to a rookie cop but Toshinori was fine with that. He didn’t need Doomer going after him any worse than usual.

Stolen Dreams

The second time Toshinori is aware that someone has been kidnapped, it was because of him. He was training with Nana and Gran had been called for hero work. Toshinori would learn later that he was helping to diffuse a tense robbery-turned-standoff between the police and the armed robbers. He’d been able to get civilians out before the robbers caught on and trapped him there too.

Toshinori had received a picture to his phone of Shimura’s young boy, Kotaro. The messenger said they would be returned home as soon as he agreed to stop training with the Interrogation Hero, Soothsayer. How these villains could be so cruel as to snatch children from their homes, he’d never know. They were so vulnerable. They relied on you for everything. How could adults take advantage of that and willingly lead them into or leave them in the midst of such danger?

(He knew. His parents had done it, so had millions of others before and many more after them. It was because they didn’t care.)

When Nana asked what had him so spooked, he didn’t bother lying about the situation. She panicked, predictably enough, and would have charged off had he not slammed her into a lamp-post.

“You don’t know how to talk to people when you’re stressed.” He informed her. “No one ever does. I’ll get your child back, Shimura, but this will be the last you see of me.”

Stolen Dreams

Nana wakes up in a hospital after what she assumes is a nasty spill down a flight of stairs. No one could tell her where she’d been before the hospital, only that a young man with bright hair and a solemn smile dropped her off, claiming to be a passerby who’d seen her fall and wanted to make sure she was alright. She could taste the lie as sure as if it had come from the boy himself, but when she was discharged and went home, Kotaro babbled about his day at school as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

“Did anything… strange happen to you today? Anything I should know about?”

Her son deliberated and, with a conviction that she surely lacked, shook his head. The worst part was that since truth-related Quirks ran in the family, she had no way of telling whether he was lying.

Stolen Dreams

Despite Yagi's words, that is not the last she saw of him. He appears on her deathbed, carrying her away from the wreckage she and the villain All For One had caused. He managed to get the raging jackass to leave them be with some line about letting him have the gods-forsaken Quirk when he got Shimura as far fucking away from this as possible. She had wanted to give him the Quirk anyway, and you certainly don’t know what happens when someone dies before they’ve passed on the Quirk, do you? He takes the bait, and when Toshinori sets Shimura down, she asks why he’d lied.

“Oh yes, I’m clearly going to give the most powerful Quirk in the world to the most destructive villain of our time. I manipulate people, sure, but what kind of asshole-.”

“Eat this.” She ordered, shoving a few strands of hair into his hands. He took them, wary of the idea that he was essentially ingesting someone’s DNA, but swallowed them anyhow.

Stolen Dreams

Toshinori keeps in touch, Nana’s last will be damned, which is when he knows that Kotaru has gone into the foster care system after Nana’s death. The boy never finds out how his parents died, and Toshinori doesn’t go looking for trouble where there is none. It’s bad enough he inherited the woman's Quirk, why does he need to unravel her life as well?

“You’re coming with me.” He informed the boy.

“I’m his cousin.” He informed the foster care, giving them his papers.

“Says here that you’re his brother.” The woman behind the counter corrects scathingly.

He looks at the papers. They were legit, Asahi made sure of it before he died. But he hadn’t bothered to look over what Asahi had him sign. They were adoption papers, yes, but he’d never thought himself to be anybody’s son.

“Huh.” Toshinori murmured, eyes wet. “I grew up with them.”

Nana basically shoved him through her front door for dinner every other night once she realized his parents weren’t around. But that was in middle school. And later on, in high school.

“I didn’t know they felt that way.”

He briefly wondered what Gran Torino would say. He never tries to find out.

Stolen Dreams

The first time he gets angry enough to consider burning the world and everyone in it, his coworker’s child goes missing. So does Fumikou, when she goes looking for the little girl.

He works at a bakery because while gaining the title Broker of Peace is immensely more satisfying than being All Might for three years in America, it doesn’t exactly rake in the cash. When he feels like exploring One For All, he takes the odd job involving construction. Or destruction. Whichever is offered, it doesn’t matter to him.

But the coworker’s daughter goes missing. She goes to the police, of course, but they can’t do much until someone is contacted for a ransom. It turns out that someone is him.

We know who you are, All Might.

Toshinori has done his best to keep under the radar. His Quirk works just fine, thank you, Shimura, for the extra societal boost. But his dreams of becoming a hero ended abruptly when he realized what his former mentor went through to keep her family. What being All Might would mean. A family was dangerous to heroes, but he already had one in the form of Kotaru, and now Tenko. People got hurt because of him. People were kidnapped. And when it came to being taken against your will, a Strength Quirk couldn’t do a damn thing.

So he goes looking. He calls in about maybe five favors from people who owe him a million times over. The rest was all him. He found the paltry group who thought to bring down the wrath of a “former hero.” They wanted All Might… they didn’t know what they were asking for.

“I AM HERE!” He roared, eyes gleaming bright blue in the dark labs this very public search led to. “And these… pitifully down-on-their-luck fools will not trouble your family any longer.”

“It’s a trap.” Fumikou hissed warily.

“Well of course.” Toshinori grinned ferally. “They are indeed trapped. Your coworkers will be looking forward to your return.”

Suffice to say that none of those villains was anywhere close to conscious when All Might was through with them, and when they did come to, Toshinori tracked them down and swore them to secrecy under threat of… a lot of things, really. Death would be an escape compared to the Hell that the (someway somehow, Toshinori would never know) Number One Hero could rain on them.

Stolen Dreams

“Fumikou-san, welcome back.” He offered calmly. “There’s a fresh pot of tea in the back room, all yours.”

“Bless you, Yagi-san, it’s been a hell of a week.”

“Was your daughter sick?”

“She…”

Fumikou hesitated, likely wondering how much she should say about what happened to her.

“Yes, she was more than a bit under the weather.” The woman said at last.

“Well, I hope she recovers from such an ordeal.”

“Thank you, Yagi-san.” Fumikou sighed gratefully.

Stolen Dreams

It isn't often that anyone thinks to kidnap Toshinori himself. The opportunistic villain who sees him as an easy target will quickly come to regret that, one way or another. Not many believe that the mild-mannered stick-thin weed of a man has the ultimate strength Quirk at his disposal and knows how to use it. Word gets around when it comes to such situations, and eventually he is left alone entirely.

Or he would be, if the villain Nana had died fighting hadn't made a reappearance.

At any rate, when Toshinori wakes up one day, three decades after his "mentor" died, he knows this is not where he fell asleep. He checks to make sure that Kotaru and Tenko aren't with him. Easy enough, considering one of the Quirks this gods-forsaken juggernaut of a woman passed down to him was X-ray vision!

Regardless of how he felt when it came to Heroes, Shimura was a hell of an example to live up to.

There were thirty other people in similar positions to him, moving slowly and seemingly confined to the wall. Likely via chains, like his. This X-ray vision could detect heat signatures throughout the building, but not much else.

"Yagi Toshinori… such an average name for the man my master has determined to be such a threat."

The ghost before him wore a suit and apparently liked to taunt people about their situation. What villain didn't? This ghost also seemed to be taking orders from All For One, or whatever the hell this immortal creep went by. Toshinori just wanted to go home and make sure his brother and nephew were alive. Maybe he'd call Gran Torino after all this was over. But first, it had to be over.

"I'm not going to bother asking questions." Toshinori yawned. "Since this is likely the same man that killed Shimura Nana, this guy wants me dead, wants my Quirk, or both."

"Both would be nice." The ghost snorted. "If only life were always this easy. I despise the scared ones. Or worse yet, the chatterers."

"Well, I happen to like this Quirk and to my understanding, it is not gained so easily."

"You'll have to take that up with him. I'm just the guard."

"Fair enough." Toshinori grumbled. " What's your name, Guard Dog."

"Kurogiri."

"Alright, Ghastly McGhoul, do I get to see the Big Guy anytime soon? If I remember correctly, he liked to monologue when he killed heroes."

Stolen Dreams

There were at least thirty people in these cells. There could be more, he didn't know what All For One was capable of.

(Untrue, he did. He was capable of many things including bathing in the blood of another. Destruction followed wherever he went and all the skills and Quirks in the world couldn't save Toshinori now. Once again, he was helpless.)

Some paced every day for hours on end. Some had gone silent long ago, and the only reason he knew they were still alive were his heightened senses ensuring their breathing. Some told stories of a past life. Some told stories of the future. He planned. There were many ways out of this chamber of a room. There was only one way out of the facilities that anyone knew of. There were so many people to coordinate with so everyone would be on the same page that if he were any less determined he'd pass on Shimura's Quirk and charge Ghastly the Guard Dog. He still might.

Quirks were a means to an end, in this society. If you were old enough you didn't need one. If you were strong or clever or smart enough you could never hope to match up to anyone who had all of that and a superpower.

But he thought back to the first time he'd ever witnessed a kidnapping and knew that it wasn't quite true.

[the-drunk-game-master]

Norman Osborn wants to be Tony Stark

Spoilers for Spider-Man Far From home ahead! Marvel gets a lot of shit for making all their villians the same. Or at least, they used to. Everyone was a dumb grey monster or an evil businessman that was pissed off at Tony Stark (Or a very similar character, Hank Pym). Obadiah Stane, Justin Hammer, Aldritch Killian. Even Spider-Man's villians are only fighting him because Tony Stark Screwed them over. Adrian Toomes steals from Tony Stark, and tells Spider-Man to stay out of his way. Quentin Beck had his "Glory" stolen by Stark and copies his shtick by flying around in armor and shooting lasers from his hands. 

It would be super easy to make Norman Osborn one of these cookie cutter bad guys. Barely an inconvenience, as a popular youtuber is known to say. He is a chemical weapons manufacturer after all. If I myself were a youtuber, I'd show the scene from Sam Ramey's Spider-Man where Norman Osborn gets screwed over by his shareholders, and edit in Tony Stark at one of the chairs at that table. I don't even need to give him any lines, just have him be on his phone and ignoring William Defoe's great performance. Hell, the special weapon that those bigwigs choose to fund instead of Oscorp looks a lot like an early Iron Man prototype. 

I think it would be more interesting if, instead of hating Stark, Osborn LOOOVES Stark. He wants to be Stark, and copies him. Not the way Quentin Beck copied Stark, just going for the glory of superherodom. Norman Osborn should believe in what Stark believed in. He should believe in protecting Earth, by any means necessary. the only difference is that he should take it too far.

about a decade ago, I was reading spider-man comics, along with some X-Men and other stuff. I wasn't the super nerd that I am now, but I was reading Spidey's arc for civil war. it started with Peter already working with Tony, in his Iron Spider Suit. MJ and Aunt May knew about his life, and even lived safely in Stark Tower. The civil war broke out, and as a show of good faith towards Tony, Peter willingly showed his face and gave his name on national telivision. it showed the reaction of everyone he knew, including his hated enemies. Then Spider-Man realized that Tony Stark (And also Reed Richards) were going way too far in their pursuit to track down and arrest rogue superheroes. Spider-Man realized he was on the wrong side of the war, and had to do the right thing, even though it would put the two women he loved in mortal danger. Shit hit the fan hard, Iron Man's Gauntlets clashed with Cap's shield, and at the end of the day, Peter returned bloody and bruised to a hotel room where his wife and Aunt were staying, ready to leave New York as fugitives. The Civil War story arc for Spider-Man ended with Aunt May getting shot by a mercinary with a sniper rifle, and Peter holding her in his arms.

the next Arc, Back in Black, begins with Peter losing his shit and throwing a jeep throw the third floor wall of a building across the street, trying to kill the man that shot his aunt. Shit gets super dark, with Peter going to Batman or Daredevil lengths of vengeance, and then almost going full Punisher. he even puts on a clothe version of his black suit, to signify that while the red white and blue Spider-Man was a protector, a symbol for justice, the black and white spider-man has nothing but vengeance in his heart. 

The Civil War story also leads into the Secret Invasion storyline, where a shit ton of skrulls impersonate superheroes now that Earth is vulnerable. In Spider-Man Far From Home, we get hints that there may be some kree agents impersonating humans, and perhaps a hint to that Back in Black storyline, although I doubt that would get as dark. the reason I'm bringing Secret Invasion up at all is because it's resolved by Norman Fucking Obsorn shooting the skrull queen in the god damn face. I don't remember how he managed it. the guy dresses up like a skrull all the time, so maybe he just wrinkled the chin on his goblin mask and waltzed on in, figuring Skrulls would never expect someone to impersonate them. but what is super important is that this caused the god damn green goblin to be allowed to run the next friggin set of Avengers.

y'all remember Iron Patriot from Iron Man 3? that was originally Norman Osborn, wanting to merge the styles of the two leaders of the Avengers so that he could be a big dick hero. He had his name run through the mud, and rightly so because he’s an asshole who clones people just for shits and giggles. but he wanted to change how the people perceived him. He got it in his head that he could be a better superhero than Spider-Man. After the Secret Invasion, they had the Dark Reign, where Osborn hired a bunch of supervillians to impersonate the old Avengers team. Wolverine was replaced by his son, Daken, wearing a wolverine suit, while Bullseye got to wear Hawkeye's suit, and venom got to impersonate Spider-Man.

Now, there's also an extra twist in this that connects to the MCU. At the time of the Dark Reign, it wasn't Eddie Brock or Flash Thompson bonded with the Venom Symbiote, it was Mac Gargan. The Scorpion. the guy who got put in jail in Homecoming, and said he had guys on the outside that would kill Spider-Man and his family once they got his name. Well they sure have his name now! I doubt Gargan would become venom just for the Dark Reign storyline, but I can see him getting into the scorpion suit just to go kill Peter. It was originally designed to be an anti-spider-man weapon, and in the Ultimate Comics Scorpion was even a Clone of Peter. So Scorpion being the evil mirror of Spider-Man could work. The suit would give him similiar strength and speed. Osborn could still hire Mac Gargan as his official Spider-Man stand in, and since Spider-Man is labeled as a terrorist, they don't even need to pretend he's Spider-Man, just someone like Spider-Man for theming or branding purposes.

hell, we might have already even seen the Scorpion suit, or at least part of it. Spider-Man keeps his Iron Spider suit in a fancy containment chamber in his house, and never even puts it on in Far From Home. I assume it's an emergency only suit for him. Since the baddies know who he is, it would be pretty easy for someone to break in and steal it, if they know what they're looking for. A few tweaks and a new paint job later,  Spider-Man is fighting a viscious killer who's wearing the suit that helped him fight aliens a short while ago. the spider-legs in the back could be rebuilt into a tail, perhaps by a Doctor Otto Octavious...

Now, that's how the Dark Reign started. you know how the Dark Reign Ended? Thor came back to Earth after Asgard's destruction, with his entire floating city.  Norman framed one of the Asgardians for the destruction of a stadium full of people. Then he led Hammer, which had replaced Shield at the time, on a full on war against New Asgard. 

All the pieces are in place for this storyline to commence. New Asgard is in Norway. The Avengers are mostly either retired or passed on. Spidey's framed. Skrulls and Kree are running around Earth playing Guess Who. Osborn probably already bought Stark Tower during the Blip timeskip.  If they bring Task Master in for Black Widow to fight, he could wear the Hawkeye suit. Although I’d love to see Bullseye in this sort of movie... hell I’d also love to see Taskmaster copy all of Black Widow and Captain America’s moves. Maybe Taskmaster could secretly be a woman who was part of the Red Room stuff? that would be pretty neat for a Black Widow movie...

What I'd especially like to see from the MCU version of Norman Osborn is them introducing him as a guy who wants to be a hero, trying so hard to be both Iron Man and Captain America. It would be a great superhero tragedy if he really believed in Iron Man’s dream of a suit of armor around the Earth, but he became a dictator. Maybe he thinks he's created the next Super Soldier Serum, but it turns out to be the Goblin Serum instead. He could test it on himself, and it could amplify his already present violent tendencies.

[wherelibertydwells]

How about a little background. I'm from the wrong side of the tracks. My siblings would have stolen railroad tracks and sold them for scrap. When we left the farm, we went to the trailer park. The trailer park was, naturally, on the wrong side of the tracks. I wore hand-me-downs and Goodwill clothing. I was a high school dropout who moved out at 15. So I'd seen the bad side of living in the US. I remember my dad sending me in to buy 10 cent candy with a $1 foodstamp so I could give him the change. We did that till he had enough gas in the car to take me to school and he could get to whatever job he had at the time. Or to buy booze. Whatever. So, I'd seen the bad part. It wasn't fun. I enlisted, and the Army was great. When you lived in a trailer with a leaky roof and shoddy electrical and drove a car that you epoxied the passenger door shut, and went to bed hungry on the four days before payday, well, the Army is the fucking life. I went to Europe. Assigned to West Germany. I liked it. Then the Wall fell. Now, West Germany was a modern nation. Luxuries everywhere. Plenty of food. In accordance to the independent streak I still had, I had moved out onto the economy as soon as S2 gave me permission. I wasn't a barracks rat. There were places to see and people to fist fight. When I went into East Germany, I saw East Germany through my own biases and colored by my personal experiences. And I was suddenly glad that I was born on the wrong side of the tracks in America. That girl I mentioned? I knew she was only fucking me to get access to the PX and maybe hoping I'd take her back to the US with me. (Hah, those titties may have been like POW! and that ass may have been like BLAM! but I ain't taking you home) I didn't care. Don't look down on her. Don't you fucking dare. She was East German. Her father had been taken away when she was a kid and she never saw him again. She had grown up, many times, without heat, without food, without decent fucking clothing. She sat on my couch in my little apartment looking at my photo album and asked me what my parents did that we were so rich. My family. She knew what it was like to not have heat in the winter, or have the roof leak, or be evicted from her home. Only it was different. We were evicted because booze was more important than rent. Her family was evicted for 'reasons' she didn't know. Just it was after her brother got arrested and vanished. Like father, like son. Touring East Germany was like touring one big trailer park. The factory parking lots full of rusting junk? Yeah, seen that. I asked what was being made. She just shrugged. They weren't allowed to know. She worked there. I met her neighbors. I listened to them. They told me things about living in Communist East Germany. Learned to hate the Stasi just like they did even though they had vanished into the dustbin of history. Well, were being swept away. I knew about police brutality and excess from being poor white trash. Nobody will kick your ass in the interrogation room like a cop who knows your family can't afford a lawyer. But they aren't allowed to kill you. Not so with the Stasi and the rest. The apartments made me sad. Her apartment made me sad. I had more room and better living conditions in a Cold War Era barracks on top of a frozen fucking mountain than she had grown up in. If I didn't pay my power bill, they turned off the power. Her power was turned off, apparently for shits and giggles. Just random fucking times. She told me, and her mother told me, that it was better now than it was before the Wall fell. The power was on more often than it wasn't. The architecture was brutal, simplistic, dehumanizing, and above all, trailer trash cheap. The concrete was crumbly, the windows had gaps, all of it was shit condition. The trailer I'd moved in to for $50/mo when I'd first left home was better than that block style apartment building. My high school dropout in and out of juvie white trash ass had it better than everyone in her building. Bags of potatoes at the Commisary were $2.50 a 50 lb bag. We're talking half of what I spent on a quad-151 and coke with 2 cherries for a 50 lb bag of fucking potatoes. Well, for her birthday I bought some groceries at the Commissary. Nothing major. I wanted to make corn beef and cabbage stew for her. I spent like $30 at the Commissary. Nothing major. I mean, that's like 1 night of drinking cheap well whiskey. (Yes, I used to measure my expenditures by how much booze I could swill down for the same price. Like father like son) The next internet commie who tells you that food was plentiful in the 1980's in Communist East Germany, feel free to beat with a sack of cheap potatoes. Maybe in the city, but I liked my girls from the country. And it was a small town built to support a factory that everyone was forcibly relocated there in the 1960's. Ever been embarrassed by someone's reaction to something you take for granted. See, in the US, corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, all of that is 'poor people food'. Shit you learn to make on the wrong side of the tracks because it makes a lot, cheaply, and keeps for a few days. THeir reactions still embarrass me to think about. I was a farm boy originally before we ended up in the trailer park. "It's just basic food..." went through my head at one point. I'm Irish descent. Potato, butter, and beer, and I'm good. Her grandmother accused me of trying to buy her. Yelled at me till I left. I sat on the curb, trying to figure out just what the fuck happened, when her mother came out, called me a good boy, and had me come back inside. Grandma apparently had a flashback to when political officers would bribe families with food like that and then take the daughters. And that was when things had gotten better and the Fabulous Stalin Rape Fest of 1945-1952 was over. But sitting there, looking around, smoking a cigarette, I saw that while it was just as bad as the trailer park, I mean, it WAS a factory town, the people did their best to make it into home. They hadn't given up. There was faded colors here and there on that shitty cement. The curtains were bright and decorative. Little flower gardens here and there. There were some kids kicking a ball. But it "felt" different. If you're from the bad side of the tracks, you'll understand this... Sitting there, in the sunlight, smoking a cigarette, the Wall is down, the USSR is losing its grip, there had been a riot that took out the Stasi headquarters in Dresden, but there's a certain feeling. It felt like it did in the trailer park when a half dozen cop cars pull in, blocking off the way in & the way out. That few seconds before the cops get out of the cars looking for a "person of interest". There was nothing to really cause it, not that day, but it was still there. And there was this "gray" feeling to things I guess, that went along with that subtle feeling of dread. I got it, sitting there. Knowing that you're powerless against the State. That the powerful can do whatever the fuck they want to you and nobody will care. Hell, they'll be glad it isn't them if they don't snitch to avoid being looked at too close. It was Communism that had pushed them this far. That had taken the German people, who only had 43 years of difference between their Western counterparts, and done that to them. No beer fests. No fests no pay phone on the corner, no corner butcher, no store full of food, none of that. It had all been robbed from them in the name of collectivism. All funneled toward Moscow and the powerful. No checks and balances. No "equal before the law" that the US at least gave lip service to when someone might be looking. The whole fucking country was the wrong side of the tracks. That's Communism. Dividing a country in half * turning half of it into a goddamn trailer park. Worse than a trailer park. Compared to them, I was lucky. And that makes me mad. /fin

https://twitter.com/TWillardAuthor/status/1074214723711889409

[thewillowbends]

Thoughts on Lucifer (TV) Season 4

So I've spot-rewatched parts of season 4, and I've more or less got a sense for what did and did not work for me.  Lucifer is the kind of trash television I reluctantly love because I enjoy the characters so much, even as they are stuck in a painful mishmash of bad writing with the occasional moment of brilliance carried along by dedicated and talented actors.

SEASON 4 SPOILERS AHEAD OBVS

Let's get what I didn't like out of the way first -

Stuff That Makes Me Cringe

1.)  Up first is my completely shallow dislike for the new devil makeup.  The wings were really well done, but the face/body is kind of meh to me.  It's not badly designed, per se, but it's definitely narm territory in some places.  (While I do like the whole "king of hell" scene at the end and what it portends in terms of Lucifer's final decision, it is hilariously campy, too.)  In my opinion, season two and three still feature the best up-close devil look, particularly in the reveal scene to Linda.  It's disturbing in an uncanny valley sort of way that gets lost with the heavier makeup, and also...the wet blood is a really nice, creepy touch that I'm sad got dumped after the first try!

Also shallow opinion - Tom Ellis is fine as hell, don't get me wrong, and I appreciate that he worked out like crazy for this season, but I actually kind of miss his slightly less muscular look from the earlier seasons.  I feel like he's a guy who looks better with shoulders that are a tad less broadly defined, yeah?  It felt like it made more sense for Lucifer to be well built but not hyper muscular, since he wasn't a warrior in the way, say, Amenadiel or Michael were.  Samael was the tempter - he's built for beauty and desire, with kind of a sly appeal to him.

2.)  Eve.  I really like Eve as a character over all, but I do wish her motivations were explored more explicitly.  I do really like the vaguely feminist undertones of her story, that she's a woman whose entire life has been dictated to her by God and husband, and her decision to leave Heaven is a rebellion against that, a desire to pursue what she wants for herself even as she struggles to break free of old patterns.  While the story does seem to suggest this is her true motivation, I do wish it was given a little more individual reflection.  The thing I find the most poorly handled about her character is the punishment fascination.  I get that it's part of her tendency to try and mold herself into what she thinks the men in her life want, good or bad, but I would've liked more clarity on whether it held any personal appeal to her - i.e. she discusses her son, Cain, but there's little attention given to what it must have been like for her to watch him walk the Earth cursed, much less losing her son Abel to Hell.  Does she resent God?  Is she angry that human life is so short yet the recompense for a life well or poorly lived is so permanent?  Does she feel like her life was stolen for her in a way that other human's choices weren't?

She's already a foil for Lucifer in that she's daring to go against God's plan to explore her own freedom of choice, with the major caveat being that she left Heaven willingly in contrast to his exile.  So while I do feel she was a relatively well rounded character (as far as she could be with what they wanted to do with her), a little more exploration of those motivations was in order, but I absolutely would love for her to come back in a potential season five.  She has a lot of opportunities for growth and a lot of directions they could take her.

3.)  Mazikeen.  I'm actually not completely unhappy with the direction of her story.  It feels like a natural continuation of her struggles in season 3, learning how to "human" and find her place in the world, but the problem is she isn't being given much to do outside of that.  I like that her relationship with Linda is emotionally complicated (it's honestly one of the best female friendships on the show) with elements of platonic, erotic, and maternal love woven into it, but that the story is making it clear she still needs to learn how to develop herself independently.  In season 2, Lucifer states that Maze is like a "baby bird  that imprints on anything near."  Now that we know demons are naturally inclined to want leadership and direction, that actually provides a literal context for why she's clinging to Linda for purpose afterwards.  We just need to move that into a more strongly defined character arc.  Since we know have the Lilim introduced as a legitimate threat, I feel like that's a no-brainer for what should happen if season five occurs with her.  Let's see a storyline with Maze dealing with her family history (the Lilith), having to confront the fact that Hell is no longer her home, while grappling with a life on Earth minus the companion she's had for nearly all of her existence (Lucifer).  Let her evolve into a fully fleshed out character.

4.)  Cain.  I'm not sad to see him go out with a whimper since they clearly had no idea what to do with his character in season 3, but the fallout gets completely brushed over way too easily.  There's no way a federally investigated criminal revealed to be chief of the LA police wouldn't lead to absolute chaos in the precinct for quite a bit afterwards, and God knows, Chloe certainly would've been under the microscope for her role in what went down.  It would've made more sense to have a throwaway line about how she was suspended for a month and kept away LA proper for a few weeks until they made certain the danger was clear and the drama had settled down media-wise.

5.)  Chloe.  I'll be up front that I actually don't mind her more dramatic response to Lucifer's face.  For how easy it is to want to imagine she would handle it better, we've seen pretty much everybody freak the hell out when they see it, so she really shouldn't have been different.  The context also matters significantly here - she encountered it at a violent crime scene shortly after he killed a person.  HUGE difference from how a lot of the other characters were introduced to the truth.  So I don't find her characterization completely OOC there, but what I wouldn't give for just one more episode this season exploring her feelings during that period, what drove her to Europe, what destabilized her sense of who and what Lucifer is.  What I do like is that we got to see her make mistakes and have to answer for them - up until this point, it's been about Lucifer improving who he was to be somebody worth pursuing, but here we finally get to see Chloe's flaws, her struggles to be the better person she wants to be, to get told 'you f*cked up' and have to accept that she's possibly missed her chance.  I felt like her relationship with Eve was well done, that they didn't go the easy route of them being catty with each other all season, but that each provided a different but ultimately legitimate perspective on Lucifer's complicated character.  She could easily be set up as a primary protagonist of season five now with all the changes she's going through.

6.)  The Father Kinley plot.  I actually have no real problem with it for the most part - it provides a central antagonist that is far more threatening than Cain ever was, but I do wish they'd rethought the story of his introduction to Chloe.  It seems to me it would've made more sense for him to seek her out in America.  As a writer, I would've kept Chloe relatively local and had her confessing her fears and secrets to a local church pastor - who could have contacted the Vatican and brought Kinely to her in L.A.  That would've conveyed a sense of Kinley's operation being part of a vast network of religious authorities "in the know" and provided a possible set up for later conflicts if there were others out there like him.  Kinley actively seeking her out would've also reinforced her sense of how dangerous Lucifer is knowing that authorities had been tracking him for years, which could have undermined her own beliefs about who he is.

7.)  The Caleb plot.  I get what they were trying to do, and I appreciate that the show attempted to go there even as it is didn't fully succeed in treating the subject matter as well as it should have.  I get that it's meant to show us that life can be unfair, and that embracing the right to free will comes with the potential cost of suffering, that we must accept the risks of loving and caring for each other.  However, at the end of the day, you have a male POC killed off for a plot that ultimately leads nowhere, and that's...not great.  I mean, I'd rather them try and stumble then completely ignore such things, but it's definitely not the season's shining moment.

8.)  Other thing this season didn't shine on - the pacing.  I get why it happened, since these writers are used to having more leeway to work with time-wise, and ten episodes is not a whole lot to pack in all of the emotional and story conflicts, but the first four episodes in particularly really feel strained.  Even the humor feels slightly off kilter, like they were struggling to find the right tone.  It's better than season three's tendency to sacrifice pathos for humor, but to date, season two remains their best work in terms of the over all pacing and tone.

9.)  Dan.  His backsliding and self-destructive behavior makes sense in light of his depression and sense of powerlessness, but it does feel redundant in light of Lucifer's own backsliding in season 3 and even here.  Frankly, Dan has a legitimate point about how their tendency to write off Lucifer's worse behavior doesn't help him in the long run, but he's, y'know, one to talk.  I honestly think the best direction for his character in season five is to leave the police force.  In particular, I would not be unhappy to see him team up with Mazikeen to fight some supernatural demon crime, actually.  I feel like their relationship has a lot of potential.

10.)  Dan/Ella.  I don't hate it, per se, but I'm just very neutral on it.  The age difference is a little off-putting (he's fortyish, divorced with a kid, yo, and she's clearly a twenty-something), but I don't mind it being a hook up that occurred when they were both in a low place.  I'm uncertain if I want to see it go beyond that.

11.)  Remiel is a lot of fun, but I vacillate over whether her presence is particularly significant in light of Amenadiel's ultimate decision to stay on Earth.  I highly suspect she's being introduced now as a placeholder for further events down the road if the show gets renewed.  She's clearly there to generate conflict in Amenadiel rather than be the conflict itself, but I wonder if they plan on making Charlie's existence more of an issue if the series progresses.

12.)  As always, I appreciate that the series' maintains an unflagging dedication to diversity.  They cast an Israeli Jewish women as Eve.  All of Lucifer's siblings have been POC.  The show has probably MORE bisexual members in the cast than any other mainstream series that I've seen.  It's not perfectly handled, it it definitely has its stumbles where race and LGBT+ content is concerned, but it's trying.  That's more than I can say for most series.

The Stuff That Gives Me Life:

1.)  Tom Ellis acting the shit out of that script, no matter how ridiculous the scenes they gave him were.  I really appreciate that he's so gung-ho for giving his all to the character even when the material fails to rise to the occasion.  Respect, too, for what I assume was basically him living in a gym for the past year.  If Leslie Ann Brandt had to squeeze herself into leather pants two months after giving birth, I appreciate that he rose to the occasion for getting naked all over the place and providing an ass tight enough to bounce a quarter off it.

2.)  Lucifer's character development was on point for me across the entire season.  I feel like everything we saw building up from previous seasons - the anger, the grief, the self-inflicted wounds he refused to let heal - finally came together here.  That moment at the end of episode eight is the perfect culmination of his character development, the painful realization he has about who really is responsible for everything that's happened to him.  And now he can start making the real journey to being a better person.  What happens at the end of the season is exactly what was bound to happen, no matter what story came before, because he needed to recognize the importance of punishment as a LESSON about the consequences of our actions.  Responsibility sometimes means sacrificing what we want to protect what we care about.  That's actually a rather clever nod to the comic version of the character who ultimately had to give up his individual existence to achieve total freedom - this version chooses submission out of recognition that to love and be loved, to be good is to be fettered to our responsibility to others.

(Which makes me really wonder if they are going to eventually push a story where Lucifer becomes a true king of Hell - not only a tyrant who deals punishment and controls the demonic masses but one who begins to show mercy and help some of those souls find release and forgiveness.  Ah well, don't worry friends, if they don't write it in show, I'm already writing it in a fanfic.)

3.)  Deckerstar 4 lyfe.  I didn't expect them to wind up together because they weren't there yet, but it ended on such a pitch perfect note.  Something this show has done remarkably well is avoid the idea of Chloe as the sole source of motivation for Lucifer to improve himself.  It's emphasized over and over again that he has to want it, that he's the one who had to desire the good in himself.  The worthiness comes with the recognition that you want to be worthy of love - and that you are.  Lucifer had to come much farther than she did, but it was nice to see the dynamic switched up a bit with Chloe having to grow, mature, and reconcile herself to her mistakes.

4.)  Eve was MUCH better as a character than I'd thought.  I'm a little smug about predicting so much about her, but that's not an entirely terrible thing.  While her storyline isn't perfect, I did like that it's a deconstruction of an idea of the "perfect woman/partner."  Eve is in love with the idea of Lucifer and the idea of who she can be with him, not so much the reality of who they are.  It makes me a little sad because I do think if they'd met at a point where she was further along in her character development, or he wasn't already in love with Chloe and so far ahead of her in growth, they could have actually worked and fallen in love with each other.  And that's fine!  Part of the point it's making with her character is how important our individual journeys are.  At the end, Eve recognizes she needs to figure out who she is outside of God's plan or what she THINKS is what she wants.  That honesty toward the end, that she really left Heaven for *herself* and not for Lucifer, is a huge revelatory character point that can go a lot of places next season.

5.)  The demons.  Just...everything with Dromos is gold to me.  From his initial excitement at seeing Lucifer to his frustrated attempts to reason with him...to being much craftier and scarier than anybody possibly expected.  Regardless of how we look at it, he played the endgame to the benefit of his stated purpose - loyalty to the infernal throne.  Hell has a king again, one way or another.  And now we have an established threat to keep Lucifer in line over the next couple of seasons, as well as tying up the arc that was begun all the way back in season 1.

6.)  Pulling in the Vatican and a secret society of "in the know" sects was wise.  While I wish the introduction had been slightly different, it leaves open opportunities for later.

7.)  MY GIRL LINDA.  Rachel Harris is such an underrated part on the show.  She has such great chemistry with Ellis in the therapy scenes, and her becoming a mother feels like a natural extension of the underlying maternal element she provides the show.  I like that we get to see her outside of the office now, engaging in a story of her own, which allows her to stay in the cast without losing significance of no longer being Lucifer's therapist.

8.)  AMENADIEL.  He's probably had the strongest and most well directed character development out of any secondary cast member on the show.  Having him forfeit his power to stay on Earth with the humans he loved is such a nice touch, but I like that it was a decision he had to wrestle with.  The idea of human life necessarily being complicated, messy, even unfair and unkind fits well with the theme of responsibility for our choices.  If he stays on Earth, he has to accept that his son will not have a perfectly Heavenly life, that to be human is to accept all that comes with it.  DB Woodside has great chemistry with the cast, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll do with him in future seasons.

9.)  Lucifer holding baby Charlie for two seconds, awkwardly cooing at him, then immediately passing him off like a hot potato.  That's real character development, guys.

10.)  Amenadiel saying goodbye forever to Lucifer in the baby ward, for what is ultimately and tragically not the reason he expects it to be the last time he gets to say it.  Woodside and Ellis have such great chemistry.

11.)  Ella's loss of faith is handled pretty well.  I appreciate that she had to reclaim it herself and not because she got to see the divine is real.  Fits nicely with the theme that we have to actualize our own beliefs and realities.

12.)  LGBT+ representation was better this season.  It's too late for Lucifer's pansexuality to have any real meaning at this point, but I appreciate him stroking the guy's face while using his eye voodoo in episode 1.  Little touches like that make the "Bi the way" aspect of his character seem less tacked on.  Mazikeen, on the other hand, is where things got much better - she's actually seen dating both men and women, having difficulty parsing her complex emotional relationship with Linda, being openly attracted to and pursuing Eve (also openly bisexual).  Please don't disrupt this improvement next season by giving her a male love interest, Netflix, I'm begging you.  Give us at least SOMETHING here.  She's got the most open-ended story for a relationship, and her development is clearly suggesting she wants family to call hers outside of what she has with the rest of the cast.  (I know I was saying I low key ship her with Dan, BUT I TAKE IT BACK.)

13.)  The dragon wings are admittedly very cool looking.  I prefer the more streamlined devil makeup otherwise from seasons 2 and 3, but the wings can stay.  I imagine the amount of fic tagged "wing kink" on Ao3 is going to increase several fold now.  (Yes, that is an actual thing.)

14.) Lauren German showing up to play this season!  She finally gets to do more than just be the straight man.  All of her dramatic moments with Ellis were well done.  No complaints.  I have way more faith now seeing her move into a primary protagonist role in season 5 if we get it.

15.)  LESLIE ANN BRANDT CAN SING!!!  What a sweet moment and what it says about Mazikeen's development as a character (even if it is ruined by Eve's obtuse logic afterwards).  How much do we want to bet that Lucifer's reaction to that is what made him decide to leave her behind on Earth?

16.)  AJKLSJD;FLSAFDAS THANK YOU FOR FINALLY BRINGING IN MORE SUPERNATURAL STUFF.  We finally get to see the throne!!!  There are prophecies!!!  WINGS!!!  (How cool are Remiel's??)  Demons can possess people canonically!  The Lilim are a well established thing!  Lucifer is back in Hell!  So many place this can go now.

Anyway, I have good feelings for the most part.  It’s still a heavily flawed series, but it’s not so bad that I’m going to dive out of it ala Hemlock Grove, which I’m fairly certain gave me brain damage by mid-season 2.

[hysterialevi]

When the Devil Cries pt. 25

Fanfic summary: (NO SPOILERS IN THIS STORY) After arriving in Saint Denis, Arthur ends up falling in love with a seemingly innocent pianist, only to find himself in a battle with one of the most notorious outlaws to ever emerge from America. Now, between working for Dutch and robbing money for the gang, Arthur has to also protect the man he loves as the two of them try to find their freedom.

Pairing: Arthur Morgan/Male OC

Previous chapter

This story is also on AO3

Author’s note: ***Small spoilers about Arthur’s past in this chapter!***

From Arthur’s POV

THE NEXT MORNING

Sliding the pencil across the paper, I drew a simple sketch of Eddie while he continued to sleep, his entire body submerged under the thick layers of blankets as he got some well-deserved rest. The boy looked perfectly content at the moment and didn’t have a single hint of worry clouding his expression. Instead, he simply drifted away in whatever dream was floatin’ around his head at the moment and held onto the pillow as if it was another person, squishin’ his face into the cushion.

I chuckled softly at the sight and added some details to his portrait, tryin’ to make it more than just a mess of scrawls and doodles like I normally did.

It had been a long time since I last sat down and drew something. With all the mayhem goin’ on recently, I almost forgot what it felt like to lose myself in my journal. But being back in Saint Denis, and preparing for this riverboat robbery -- it all got me itchin’ to sketch something again. And, I figured, who better to draw than the person I enjoyed being around the most?

Lightly scratching the pencil’s tip in a series of short strokes, I scribbled down Eddie’s ruffled hair and added some shadows around the sliver of sunlight runnin’ across his face, trying to make it as gentle as possible. He appeared to be in a complete state of solace right now, and I wanted to capture it as best I could. After all, I doubted it’d be a long while before he’d be this calm again, considerin’ what was coming up in the near-future...and I couldn’t deny that I was scared, too.

I mean, with the direction Dutch was headed in and the way our gang was slowly fallin’ apart, it made me question just how much longer this whole thing was actually gonna last. Civilization was storming through the country at a rate we couldn’t keep up with, and the more we ran from it, the more it seemed to close its walls around us.

We was only delaying the inevitable, s’far as I was concerned. Sooner or later, America was gonna throw us out like it did everything else, and we’d have to be ready for it. Whether we wanted to or not.

Catchin’ my attention with the soft sound of rustling, a gentle sniff reached my ears as I stopped drawing for a second and put down my journal, only to find Eddie sleepily looking back at me from the bed. His eyes were half-open just as I expected, and a lazy smile radiated on his face as he rose from slumber.

I smirked at him, placin’ the journal on my lap.

“There he is,” I teased. “Thought you was never gonna wake up.”

Eddie chuckled at that and glanced at my journal, causin’ him to raise a brow outta curiosity.

“...Are you drawing me?” He asked.

I nodded and carefully began to tear the sketch out, handing it to him.

“You mentioned Rodrick burned the other portrait. I, ah...figured I could make a replacement.”

The pianist sat up and took the sketch in his grasp, admiring it in a fond manner before beaming at me.

“Thank you, Arthur,” he said, his expression dimming with sadness. “I mean it. ...I truly thought I’d never see you again when I was stuck in that cellar with Rodrick. I know I wasn’t there for very long, but...he certainly made it feel like an eternity. I’m just glad you showed up before anything else could happen. If you hadn’t...I...I don’t even want to think about that.”

I let out a guilt-ridden sigh, starin’ at the numerous scars Rodrick had left on Eddie’s body.

“You and me both. I’m just sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”

Eddie’s sorrowful mood was quickly replaced with a sense of vengeance and he firmly shook his head in response, starin’ outside the window.

“I swear, Arthur...before all this comes to an end, I’m killing everyone in that bloody gang. Atticus, Rodrick, and anyone else who laid a finger on you or my family. They all deserve to die. They need to be wiped out.”

I suddenly thought back to what Hosea had warned me about and finally decided to bring up the subject, scootin’ my chair closer to the boy as Hosea’s final words rang in my head like a distant bell.

“...Actually, Eddie,” I said lowly, shutting my journal closed, “I’ve been meanin’ to talk to you about that.”

Eddie perked his head up, softening his tone slightly. “About what?”

I hesitated for a second and leaned forward, tryin’ to get my thoughts straight as the pianist waited for an explanation.

“I know this might sound strange at first, but...if my years as an outlaw have taught me anything, it’s that revenge...ain’t worth the sacrifice.”

The pianist gave me a puzzled look. “...I-I don’t understand. How can wanting to kill Atticus be a bad thing? Don’t you think he deserves death?”

“Of course I think he deserves death,” I replied. “But we may not be the ones to deliver it, and we’d be fools to hunt him down. I mean...just look at Dutch. He’s obsessed with takin’ revenge. It’s the only thing he lives for now. Sadie, too. Their want for revenge has consumed the both of them, and it’s turned ‘em into killers.”

I paused for a second, lookin’ at Eddie with a caring expression. “...But you ain’t no killer, Eddie. And I don’t wanna see you become one. You’re still young. You still have the potential to live a normal life, once all this is over. Atticus has already stolen your past from you. Don’t throw away your future for that bastard, too.”

The boy fell silent at that and thought to himself, clearly experiencing some sorta inner conflict now that I was sayin’ these things. He seemed to see my point and I could tell he knew where I was coming from, but there was still a reluctance to agree.

Tryin’ to make my point more understandable for him, I decided to tell Eddie a story that I hadn’t told anyone else aside from Dutch and Hosea, and took a deep breath, hoping that this would be able to change his mind.

“...Lemme put it this way,” I began, gaining the pianist’s attention. “I was once in the same position as you, Eddie. I know how temptin’ revenge is...and I’ve seen what happens if you give in to it. I lost my family too. Many years ago. Just like you did.”

That piqued his interest. “...Really?”

A mournful breath escaped me. “Yeah. I...I used to have a son, actually. His name was Isaac. He was...such a good kid. And so was his mother, I guess. Just a nineteen-year-old girl named Eliza. They was the closest thing to a real family I ever had. I wasn’t able to stay with them all the time ‘cause of my work with Dutch, but every few months or so, I’d go back home and stay with ‘em for a couple of days. Try to give Isaac some sort of father figure. And for a while, it worked. But...just like everything else, it eventually failed.”

I brought my gaze to the floor, admittedly findin’ this a lot harder to talk about than I first anticipated.

“I came back home one day...and saw two crosses outside. I knew right away what happened. I just didn’t know how. It turned out -- they was robbed. And killed. All for ten bucks.”

I swallowed out of grief and bit my lip, thinking back to that god-awful day as Eddie listened intently.

“Their deaths...” I continued, trying keep it together, “they changed somethin’ inside me. I spent so long tracking down their killers. It was all I cared about for the next few months. I didn’t care about Dutch, or Hosea, or the gang...the only thing I wanted was to find the people who had killed them, and make them pay for it.”

I repainted the killers’ faces in my mind, gesturin’ to an invisible scene as I carried on with the story.

“...One night, I found their camp while I was searching along a river bank.  They were all there, huddled ‘round a campfire and sharin’ drinks. Having a good ol’ time. They almost reminded me of our gang...but that didn’t matter to me. Without saying a word, I stormed in there like an absolute madman and shot the whole lot of them. Set their stuff on fire. Did everything I could to make sure they was sufferin’ in their last moments. And I sure as shit did.”

I glanced down at my hands. “When it was over, though...I felt...strange. I remember I was sittin’ there in the middle of their camp, kneeling on the ground with bodies lying all around me and blood staining my hands. The peace I had been looking for was nowhere to be found. Instead...I just felt empty. Like I no longer had a reason to live now that my family’s killers were dead. I had sacrificed everything for these bastards, and forgotten the man I once was in the process.”

I turned back to Eddie, resting a hand on top of his.

“You’re the only person I’ve found ever since then who’s...who’s made me care again. Who’s made me feel like this ain’t a waste of time. So please, Eddie. Don’t do what I did. Don’t become the man I am. You’ll never find peace otherwise, and there ain’t no goin’ back. Can you promise me you won’t?”

The boy was quiet for a while, evidently taken aback by the story I just told him and surprised about my past while he considered everything I said. There was still a fire in his eyes that told me his desire to kill Atticus hadn’t gone anywhere -- and that it probably wouldn’t anytime soon -- but against all better judgement, Eddie eventually gave in and sighed out of defeat, agreeing to promise this one thing.

“...Okay,” he whispered vehemently. “It’s...going to take me some time to understand all this completely, but if you think this is what’s best for me...then I’ll do it. I promise.”

I nodded in approval. “Thank you, Eddie.”

Having had enough of this melancholic mood, I cleared my throat and stood up from the chair, gettin’ ready to head outside the saloon as I brought my mind back to the robbery at hand.

“Anyways,” I said, “I’ll let you get dressed. Meet me outside when you’re finished cleanin’ up, and then we’ll head back to camp and...let Dutch know what’s what.”

“Alright,” the pianist replied. “You sure we can rob this riverboat?”

I shrugged, makin’ my way out the door.

“I ain’t sure of nothin’ just yet. All I know is there’s money on that boat, and Dutch wants it. So long as he’s got his eyes on that cash, we ain’t going nowhere. The best we can do is be prepared, and keep our eyes peeled. Other than that...” I opened the door, scoffing in an amused tone, “we’ll just pray, I guess. But at this point, pfft...I doubt even God would bother savin’ us.”

[hollyoaksloversx]

Jarry Reunited, The Wicked Step-Father and Louis Love-Dead...

Rounding up a week in Hollyoaks (21st - 25th January 2019)

It was goodbye to the Lovedays this week as the three original members of the family bid farewell to Chester. At the pig farm, Louis was terrified having discovered that Breda was the village’s latest serial killer but he soon came up with a plan to get himself released. Knowing that Breda was keen for Louis to reconnect with Leela, Louis told her that that’s what he intended to do. Breda was delighted with the news and agreed to let Louis go, but her plans hit a serious snag when Simone turned up out of the blue. Having overheard Breda criticising her to Leela, Simone wanted to have a word with her and rather than just head round to the McQueen’s later, Simone decided to track Breda down at the farm. Luckily for Breda, she was able to get rid of Simone, but Louis used the situation to his own advantage and made a bid for freedom whilst Breda was distracted. Unfortunately, having two broken legs and being confided to a wheelchair seriously limits the amount of ground one can cover and Louis didn’t get very far before Breda caught up with him...

Breda was furious with Louis for trying to escape and began to question his trust in her. Her suspicions were confirmed when she discovered her confession down the side of Louis’ bed, and realised that he was only saying what he thought she wanted to hear regarding Leela. Despite Louis pleas, Breda whacked him round the head with a phone, killing him. Later, as Breda disposed of Louis’ belongings, a mystery figure was seen watching her. Meanwhile, back in the village, with Louis out of her life, Simone made plans to leave the village, telling her family that she was going to transfer to another Price Slice store in Derby. However, Martine kindly gifted Simone her air miles, telling her to go to Jamaica instead. Zack was also heading for pastures new when he received a message from Holly. The pair declared their love to each other via video call and Zack quickly decided to join her in Paris. As Lisa said goodbye to two family members she soon gained another, when Breda forced her to spend some time with Daniel by ‘accidentally’ leaving him in the shop. Breda was delighted when she overheard Lisa tell Leela that she’d enjoyed having Daniel around and offered to look after him again in the future.

Elsewhere, keen to discredit Jonny, Sinead got in contact with Ste’s step-father, Terry, hoping that he could provide some much needed answers on the newcomer’s identity. Terry proved to be no help in this department and soon set about trying to worm his way back into Ste’s life, claiming to be a changed man. Persuading Ste to give him a place to stay, Terry then stole from Leela’s purse and conned Ste into giving him money for a job interview. The wool was finally pulled from over Ste’s eyes when he walked in on Terry picking on Lucas and demanded that his step-father leave. Terry agreed, but on one condition; Ste help him steal the new TV’s about to be installed at The Bean. Ste reluctantly agreed but soon got cold feet and called the police, who sadly arrived too late to catch Terry in the act. Terry was furious that Ste had gone against him and brutally beat him up. The following day, with Scott being blamed for the break-in, Ste confided in Jonny about Terry’s role, and the abuse he’d subjected him to. Jonny promised to help Ste, and got his henchmen to beat Terry, seemingly to death, in a car park whilst he was trying to flog the stolen TVs. 

Meanwhile, Harry was crushed when James rejected him again in favour of building a relationship with Romeo. Keen to help his friend move on, Zack set Harry up with one of mates, however, the date was interrupted by James, who was left upset to see Harry supposedly moving on. With a big shove from Romeo, James was encouraged to go back to The Hutch and tell Harry how he really felt. James declared his love for Harry in front of the packed restaurant and was delighted when Harry agreed to give their relationship another shot. 

Also this week, there was delight for Alfie and Yasmine when both were offered internships; Alfie in America and Yaz with the Chester Herald. However, Alfie soon worried about leaving Cindy whilst she was still unwell and decided he wasn’t going. Going against Alfie’s wishes, Yaz told Cindy about the internship, and she begged her son not to put his life on hold for her. Alfie then worried about leaving Yaz behind for the duration of his placement and secretly arranged some work experience for her at a newspaper close to where he would be based. Unfortunately, Yaz didn’t take the surprise well, believing that Alfie thought her placement in Chester wasn’t good enough. She soon came round and agreed to go with him, but wasn’t sure that Misbah would let her go. She’s 18, isn’t she? Misbah gets no say...

In other news this week, Diane was furious when she spotted Lily and Romeo kissing and her aunt’s reaction devastated her so much that she started self harming again. Finally, Sienna was left feeling uncomfortable again after another run in with Laurie at school. 

5 Things We Learnt This Week:

1. Good manners cost nothing. Breda McQueen is a lot of things: Nanny, man hater, serial killer. However, you can’t fault her manners. She’ll always make sure she gives herself the cheap, cracked crockery.

2. Filming restrictions are easy to get round. “Holly’s meant to be in France, but obviously we can’t go there to film just one scene, so how do we make it clear to the audience that that’s where she is?” “I know! Just stick her in a beret and stripy top! Job done!”

3. Money worries are easily forgotten. Remember all the fuss made about Lily and Prince’s money troubles last year? Why is Lily now living with Tony and Diane, when she’s presumably still paying for the place she had with Prince? That’s not going to help the purse strings! 

4. It’s important to make use of every bit of space you have. Location filming can be difficult. It can be expensive and you might not find the right location for the time you need it. It’s far easier, therefore, to stick up a couple of signs in the grounds of the set and make sure that no buildings are in shot. Dot a couple of picnic tables around and have a couple of dressing-gown clad extras and nurses walk about and et voila, you’ve got yourself a private mental health hospital! 

5. It’s important to advertise your business and many people do so using their cars. But forget a window or bumper sticker, that’s going to get you nowhere. Breda advertises her services as a nanny by having a giant teddy bear on the roof of her car. I wonder if any other villagers will start doing likewise? Tony could have a giant knife and fork, Jesse a pair of scissors and a comb and Liam a bag of cocaine and a gun. 

Characters Featured:

Alfie, Breda, Cindy, Daniel, Diane, Goldie, Harry, Holly, James, Jonny, Laurie, Leela, Liberty, Lily, Lisa, Louis, Lucas, Martine, Misbah, Myra, Romeo, Scott, Sinead, Simone, Ste, Sylver, Terry, Tom, Yasmine and Zack. 

Past Characters Mentioned:

Carl Costello, Adam Donovan, Glenn Donovan, Pauline Hay, Ellie Nightingale, Russ Owen. 

[danunbound]

Sebastian "Bastion" Silva a.k.a. The Goliath Spider!

Abilities: Basic Spiderman powers (Spidey-sense, super strength and agility, wall crawling, etc), but with a few tweaks. One, his hands never developed that stickiness and he uses forged claws to make up for when his feet just aren't enough.Two, any kinetic energy he receives allows him to redirect absorbed energy into density control, allowing him to become more nimble and light, sometimes seeming to almost float, or making him denser, letting him hit harder and land heaver attacks. But it's not perfect and he still receives some of the shock from every blow. More kinetic energy absorbed means greater and longer lasting shifts in density.

Tragic Backstory and Basic Background: Bastion's father's Victor background as a supposed anthropologist and a traveling artifact guru of sorts led to a young Bastion's obsession with gold, and the myths concerning the lost city of El Dorado.

In a sick twist of fate it turns out that years leading to Bastion's birth, Victor, had been working with a South American (entirely made up) mafia family, helping to steal and sell priceless artifacts for gold in order to amass enough hard cash to take over the corrupt government that lay in power. However, it turned out the Boss had no intention of helping to reform the country and instead sought to wrestle control and run everything himself under a golden thumb. Once Victor found out, he concocted a plan to take everything out from under the mafia's nose and disrupt their plan forever. Bastion had been born only months before, and it took 4 years to follow through with the plan, the entire time Victor fighting to keep his life a secret while doing jobs throughout Brazil and South America, working tirelessly to fulfill his plan and get his son closer to safety.

He eventually hid the gold in a safe house in the states, in Southern California, leading a false trails all over the globe to cover their tracks. The hoard of gold Iay safe for years, untouched as Bastion and his father led quiet and humble lives until the Family finally found them. Victor hid the 15 year old boy in the hidden vault he'd constructed, leaving Bastion in a room that to young man looked straight out of the legends of El Dorado, only to watch as his father is gunned down confronting the men, refusing to share the location of their stolen gold, the last place he could keep his son safe.

Bastion spent days in the Vault, terrified of being found out, crushed at the loss of his father, left alone with a meager supply of food and water, surrounded only by the gold and his own thoughts. He emerged almost a week later, only when his food had long run out, with a vengeance and a newly acquired lust for gold and riches.

He became a thief, petty at first, using small amounts of gold here and there to finance himself, developing tools of the trade and honing his skill over the next 4 years. He eventually made his way up to armored vehicles and bank robberies, stealing from both good and bad alike, but taking special pleasure in crushing crime families wallets, sometimes going out of his way to steal something merely for the sake of denying someone else the satisfaction.

He lives like this for years, developing networks and gadgets and tools of the trade, earning a reputation for himself as a top class criminal, before finally hearing about a robbery being staged that night by the family that killed his father. Apparently the mafia family were looking to clear out a military research lab owned by some company by the name of Oscorp. Bastion forgoes his usual planning and preparation, desperate to cut the Mafia family off before they can reap any reward, regardless of the cost. He breaks into Oscorp. that very night, the building had earlier that day been closed to the public for what was being referred to only as "simple precautionary measures."

Once in, he eventually comes to a small chamber with what appears to be several very secure and monitored containers. Unknown to Bastion, it turns out to be a biological experiment that Oscorp. had in the works for a military contract, meant to provide various armed forces with sturdier apparel, ropes, and other fibers, by means of genetically modified spiders to provide the silk for these venues. However, as Bastion is going to open one of the containers, the mafia family breaks into the room nearby, and Bastion hastily sneaks a look into the container but sees nothing in the dim light, closing the container quickly, seething and scrambling to get out of the building unnoticed. So focused on his frustration and fear that he doesn't feel the spider bite into his wrist beneath his coat, almost invisible in the dim room, changing his life forever.

He used much of his gold to develop his suit, and tools, making everything from scratch and designing his suit around the gold that both created and tore his life apart and including the horns as a reminder that he should be what strikes out against those that had ruined his life and would ruin still more.

He actually named himself the Goliath Spider after his first major battle after being bitten,with who turns out to be The Vulture (who I want to be his MAIN "villain" . I get the feeling the Vulture is crazy smart in this universe, building all their gadgets and technology themselves with stolen funds. When confronting Bastion at the scene of a crime he'd come to commit, the Vulture kinda tossed Bastion around initially, reading them, figuring out Bastion's fighting patterns as they pummeled him.

But as the fight progresses, the Vulture realizes that the tide of the fight is changing. They can't seem to quite figure out what's going on as Bastion seems to gets progressively faster, hit harder, avoid more and more attacks as the fight wears on. The Vulture, so used to wearing out their enemies that nothing seems to be adding up and all of a sudden Bastion is crushing them, seeming to be constantly on top of them no matter where they fly or how they maneuver. Light as a ghost, but hitting like a mach truck. All the Vulture could think as they were battered repeatedly was that this man simply wasn't this strong when they started!

As the Vulture crashes to the ground, Bastion stands on a nearby building looking down, and names himself as the Bird Eating Spider, the Goliath Spider. Laughing.

(I had so much fun making this character, totally different than what I normally do! What a blast, so inspired by all you other amazing artists on Tumblr! Thank you all so much! Feel free to ask me any questions and please do not repost or use without my express permission! Spider-Man totally not my property, of course!)

[afleetingimpressixn]

“I can feel it all wash over me. The heat. The force. The radiation…the fear. It’s the end of the world - all over again.“

An updated bio post for my fallout 4 sole survivor, Abraham. 

Alias: Bullseye

Alliance: the Railroad

Sexuality: Bisexual

Height: 6′1″

Age: 210+ years ( physically, in his late thirties )

Backstory:

James Ross was not a remarkable man. His parents were Irish immigrants, and his family had a history of working with their hands. James himself was a mechanic, and worked with both robotics and automobiles.

He married a woman named Adrianne Hayes, a brash defense attorney who hailed from a strict Jewish household. Their marriage was largely impulsive, and Abraham was born not soon after.

Adrianne’s work occupied most of her time, so Abraham spent most of his youth in his father’s shop. He was kept in the waiting room with his toys and coloring books until he was old enough to actually work, and his father started teaching him the trade the moment Abraham was able to hold a wrench.

Abraham had always been better with machinery than he was with schoolwork, but he was by no means unintelligent. He was extremely skilled, but struggled to focus in actual class, and whatever attempts his teachers made at getting him diagnosed with ADHD were either ignored or rejected by his father.

After graduating high school, Abraham spent half a term in college before dropping out and enlisting in the military. That was where his true talents were discovered - not only was he good with machines, but he was good with a gun, and excelled both in his training and on the field.

During the short period of time he spent at school was when he met Laura. Like Abraham, she came from a family of immigrants, this time having come over from South America and the Caribbean. She was a nursing student, and almost scarily intelligent. The two of them dated on and off during Abraham’s detours, before finally getting married after Laura graduated.

Their relationship was not exactly stable, especially not in its earlier stages. They were young, and Abraham’s impulsiveness led to several affairs with other servicemen and women, regardless of whether he and Laura were actually together or not. As he matured, and the Sino-American war escalated, Abraham’s affairs were replaced with drug usage. At one point, Abraham was injured and bedridden for weeks, until a military physician offered him what he described as a performance enhancer. He promised that the substance would not only speed up Abraham’s recovery, but make him a better soldier afterwards, and was safer than any steroid on the market.

It was at least partially true. Abraham recovered, and when he returned to his service, he found that he was much stronger and resilient than he had been before. He was also a lot more reckless, willing to take larger risks for whatever goal needed to be met. There were several occasions where he should have died because of this, but managed to walk away barely scathed.

Abraham didn’t discover his addiction until he no longer had access to his drug. This was right after his wedding, before what was supposed to be his honeymoon. Withdrawal was a disastrous and extremely painful experience, and dragged on for days until someone from the military finally came to resolve the situation.

Abraham retired when he found out that Laura was pregnant, but still sought after his drug, mainly via contacts given to him by the military and dealers on the street. Those dealers called it Psycho, because of the violent, reckless behavior it often caused, and the severity of its addiction.

Shaun was the one good thing during this part of Abraham’s life, but he was only a few months old when the bombs fell. It appeared that they were lucky enough to have been allowed into a Vault - that is, until they were unwittingly put into cryostasis for hundreds of years. Abraham woke up only once during this time, only to watch helplessly as his infant son was stolen and his wife was murdered. Abraham was returned to unconsciousness, but did not forget the murderer’s face.

When Abraham woke up for good, it was to an unfamiliar, dead world. He barely gave himself the time to adjust to this place, immediately starting the search for his son. The handful of settlers he encountered pointed him towards Diamond City, and the journey there only uncovered more horrors. Abraham dealt with them as they came. Violence was no longer something that fazed him.

Diamond City was where Abraham first learned about the Institute, and the identity of his wife’s murderer. Kellogg was a ruthless mercenary, and had likely stolen Shaun and brought him back to the people he worked for. Abraham was instructed to steal his memories - not only would they tell him more about what happened to Shaun, but they had the potential to tell them more about the mysterious Institute that loomed over the Commonwealth.

Abraham was successful, and, using Kellogg’s memories, was able to confirm that the Institute had indeed taken Shaun. His hunt continued, and took him to the Railroad.

Abraham had learned about synths during his journey - one had even helped him track down Kellogg. They were feared, but that fear came from uncertainty. Abraham’s experiences with them had been positive. He didn’t see why he shouldn’t help to change how synths existed - in both the Commonwealth and in the Institute.

Eventually, Abraham made it to the Institute itself. Finally, he found Shaun.

However, more time had passed than he’d thought. Not only was Shaun in his sixties, but he was leader of the Institute. Now, Abraham was torn between two choices - initiating a synth uprising, and the destruction of the Institute, or finally being with his son.

But Shaun was dying. Abraham wondered whether he could wait for nature to take its course, if he could make things better when he inherited Shaun’s position as head of the Institute, but he knew that wasn’t possible. These people did not trust him. Abraham had to act while he still had power in this place.

In the end, he chose selflessness. The synth uprising was set into action. Dozens of synths escaped to freedom, and Abraham left his son to be destroyed along with his life’s work.

The aftermath was devastating in a way that Abraham could not begin to comprehend. He had expected it to be painful, tried to postpone it as much as possible. Inevitably, the world could not wait for him any longer. He had to act.

Nothing could have prepared him for this feeling. The resulting depression he sank into felt like an inescapable hole. Abraham spent weeks like that - either high out of his mind, or with the weight of his actions turning him numb.

It was something he heard on the radio that broke him out of that state. A thank you - enough to remind him what he had done all of this to achieve. People felt safe, because of him. That, alone, made everything worth it.

When Abraham finally got out of bed, it was to continue that work. There were still remnants of the Institute out there, in the Commonwealth. Synths still needed protection - not just from the Institute’s leftovers, but from frightened citizens.

His work is far from finished.