#already have osborn sketched out

[spectremarvel]

Sketching out different compositions for this arkham jason todd painting and making myself sad

[lazypanartist]

Hobie Brown x Artistic/DIY Reader

I love him 💙

pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4

Warnings: maybe spoilers for ATSV, IDK. Reader's in the punk scene and from Hobie's universe. Whole lotta projection. Canon-typical injuries

Features info dumping and personal Hobie HCs I guess. It's long ASF. And just self indulgent

Please RB, likes alone don't do anything for the algorithm!

-----

DIY/punk Hobie Brown

If you're in the scene, you know the basics

Patches?

Hand-Stitched

Usually with dental floss for durability/cost efficiency

And originally painted with white-out for the same reasons

Spikes or studs?

Cheap, bulk buy, screw em on yourself

Or just make em out of cans

Hobie's fit looks like it fits the bill

Old leather or denim jacket with the sleeves cut off

FN/SM painted on the back

Shirt's kinda tattered iirc

Spiked collars are easy

Same with the wristbands

When he meets you?

Whoo boy

It was one of his shows he was putting on

New songs, new faces in the crowd

He spots you from a distance at first

Little sketchbook in hand

You stay through his whole performance

When he's chatting up the crowd afterwards, though?

You're already gone

(Bitch writes a song about the pretty thing watching from afar, bc ofc he does)

He next sees you during one of President Osborne's speeches

Standing in the front row of a gathered crowd, shaking your head at the screen

He drops down after a few minutes, hanging upside down and blocking the less-than-pleasant view

He takes a few moments between questions from others

Little explanations

A promise to do what he can

Takes just a glimpse to look you over

You have a similar touch to the rest of the crowd

Worn out boots, tattered clothes, hand-sewn and painted patches

And your sketchbook still in hand

It's a little peculiar for the crowd

But he doesn't question it

What he does question is where you've gone after he turns to look at you

He only took a second for more reassurances

But when he goes to see you again

You're gone, just like the first time you caught his eye

He realizes then

That he's intrigued

He doesn't know what it is about you

Until he keeps seeing you pop up again

Riots

Concerts

Shows

Speeches

His immaterial object of interest

He finally starts actually talking to you the third or fourth time he sees you

At another of Osborne's liefests

An ambassador on a stage, surrounded by punks

Speaking of the President's virtues

Yeah

Spider-Punk shows up pretty quickly to run him off

And gets to chatting with you

When he first approaches, you ask for his opinion on a patch idea

And turn your sketchbook to show him the page

His spider symbol backpiece

But instead of FN/SM, it simply states

"Down With President Osborne"

He takes your pen and signs as a seal of approval before swinging away

Sure, it was a short interaction

But it led to even more meaningful ones

Like, say..

Him practically dropping out of the sky into a park

You were just minding your business, sketching the scenery

When he almost fell on top of you.

Covered in injuries

He laughs when he looks up and sees that it's you

Because of course it's you

Tries to resist when you start futzing over him

If you're the parent friend like me?

Patch him up

PLEASE

Even if you can't see him back together

Just

Bandaids and gauze pads

And maybe some candy

Bc suckers help with creativity

Or it's just my neurodivergence? Idk

Just. Offer him one in case he needs to bite on something while you're putting alcohol on his injuries

When you're done he looks them over

Promptly winces when he twists his arm 🙄

But then thanks you for your help and swings off

Again

These kinds of interactions become common

He'll find you hanging around the city

Either doodling or just vibing

And drops down to talk for a bit

Or get patched up

Loves when you offer to fix his costume

Bc it looks just as nice & homemade as the rest of your/his fits

Grins under his mask when he sees a new patch or two

And starts snickering if you deny their application

He really appreciates everything you do for him

And figures he should prove it

Sure, he's saved you

But he's saved a lot of people..

He wants this to be special

Unique

And he thinks he knows how to do that..

---

Click for next part

[thebibliomancer]

Earth X #11

We’re getting really close to the end. Let’s wrap up some subplots while we can.

Before this series began, Black Bolt blinded Uatu the Watcher to conceal his actions and then set off a Terrigen Bomb that mutated all humanity into Inhumanity. He had his reasons.

Uatu recruited Aaron Stack, Machine Man, to be his seeing eye robot. Aaron discovered that Uatu was hiding a dark secret - that inside Earth there is a Celestial egg which will one day hatch and destroy the world.

Humanity has long been manipulated by the Celestials to serve as guardians for the egg. In fact, Uatu claims that everything that makes humans human was just a beneficial trait to make humans evolve the power to protect the world from outsiders and themselves.

A terrible psychic teen known as the Skull has risen up and brought thousands under his control. He shoved President Osborn out a window and plans to take control of everything.

The Skull, too, was part of the Celestial plan. Not that he knew it. Meant to bring the chaotic mutated population under control so in-fighting wouldn’t threaten the planet and the Celestial egg.

Cap raised an army to fight the Skull but failed because he tried a full frontal assault on the guy with mind control powers.

Now the world is basically the Skull’s.

Aaron has flipped Uatu the bird and gone to recruit Reed Richards, telling him all the horrible cosmic egg stuff.

Reed asked Black Bolt for a favor and then went to confront Uatu on the Moon.

He has a lot to talk to him about. Like how Alicia Masters is so cool that she proves humanity would still have worth even if they hadn’t been altered by the Celestial seeds.

Then, Reed realizes that Galactus was the natural balance against the Celestials but whoops, Reed turned him into a star.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Add a tally to the counter. Other stuff would borrow Earth X’s idea that Galactus’ role was to balance out the Celestials.

Peter Parker has suited back up as Peter Parker Spider-Man after seeing his daughter May/Venom in the Skull’s creepy clutches.

Fat Spider-Man is one of the things most known about Earth X.

In all honesty, Peter just has the middle-aged out of shape look. But deciding to wear a Halloween costume that’s many sizes too small isn’t a great look for him.

I don’t even know why he did it. His identity is public. A Halloween costume doesn’t offer any more protection than his civilian clothes they actually fit him do. I feel like this is in here because it was one of the concept sketches. So whether it makes sense or not, Peter has to wear a costume that doesn’t fit.

Honestly, maybe it was to psyche himself up. Let’s just say that’s the case.

Between issues, he has rescued Captain America from the Skull’s forces.

Now that he got his ass kicked again, Steve has an actual plan and goes to visit Thing to borrow Alicia’s living clay sculptures.

The Skull can’t control something that doesn’t have a mind.

And it’s not going to be several issues of globe-trotting to gather forces for a counterattack. Steve already burned through those resources!

On the Moon, Black Bolt attacks the Celestials.

Fruitlessly.

They blow him the hell up.

But his real goal, the favor Reed asked of him, was to use the most powerful voice in the universe to send an SOS from the Moon. Shouted into space.

To who? Dunno. Another mystery for later.

But we learned what favor Reed wanted and that Black Bolt’s face is kinda messed up from his body adapting to the rigors of space so that’s why he started wearing a mask.

Hope that SOS plot thread also gets a prompt resolution. We only have so many issues to go.

And there’s still dangling plot stuff like Mar-Vell or why Loki decided to help Aaron.

Cap vs the Skull gets a round three. The clay sculptures work great since the Skull can’t control them.

But they work best as camouflage.

Disguised as one of the clay statues, Captain America sneaks up on the Skull and breaks his neck.

Bye, the Skull. You were horrible but you were funny.

His particular brand of bratty menace has been stopped but the day is not saved. Actually, the day got worse.

When the Skull dies, the Celestials head towards Earth.

As Uatu explains in the appendix, the Skull was a fail safe to keep the people of Earth from threatening the planet. With him dead, the Celestials are going to wipe out all life on Earth so nobody down there causes more trouble.

(The appendices in this issue are particularly good. Uatu desperately wants to know what’s happening and Reed agrees to tell him if they trade questions and answers. Uatu reveals that the Celestial seed germination comes in different stages. Earth is mostly at stage 1 - just a chaos of different powers being triggered. Mutants, Hulks, Spider-Men, Fantastic Four. And so on. Stage 2 is where the Skrulls are. Homogenization of people and power. Interestingly, Uatu claims Reed himself represents what a stage 2 human would be. Given time, all of humanity would become Mr Fantastics. There’s a stage 3 but Uatu tells Reed to ask Aaron about it.)

Anyway, the Celestials are coming to wipe out all life because Cap broke a kid’s neck.

Luckily, Iron Man has a giant robot he got from Osborn and has been building an army of Iron Men for years to usurp the dude.

He never did it because Tony didn’t want to be in charge but it’s sure handy now that Tony has continued to be Tony. Ridiculously prepared.

Tony fighting Celestials in a giant robot? Another tally for Earth X.

[fandom-lover20]

Hello 👋 I was wondering if I could get a marvel match-up? Maybe with a bit of nsfw ?

-i have pale skin, hazel eyes, blue hair/silver hair (I dye it every few months), im 5"4, a bit chubby, I got big cheeks that give me baby face 🤣 its such a blow to my already non existent ego

-my pronouns are she/her/they/them , I'm demi and pan, im nonbinary, my preferred nickname is M. Im pretty open so I wouldn't say no to a polyamorous relationship as long as its all mutual.

- I'm both a scorpio and libra (born right on the cusp) and im an INFP. I border being an ambivert but i lean a tad bit more on the introvert side. Im a pretty intense person especially when it comes to close relationships. I'm obsessive and overprotective as well but in more subtle ways. Im quite the gremlin as well, I can be a bit wild. Im sarcastic but I mean well. I use humor to cope with depression. I have a small history with suicidal thoughts and tendencies but for the time being im doing quite well.

Im an artist and a writer. I love sketching and coming up with story lines. I also love music my go too music is usually 70s rock. Im a fan of alternative music to as well as indie. I love cryptids and otherworldly things ( I love mothman).I have daddy issues (just gonna sprinkle that in here). Im a navy brat so im used to moving a lot and due to that staying in one place to long gets me agitated. Im a very neutral person when it comes to good vs evil because i can see and feel for both sides. Usually I won't get involved in the fight but more so with the people in the fight.

Thank you 😊 💓

Okay, love. I've got two so pick who you like:

Norman Osborn

Okay, let's start with the chubby face. You cannot tell me that Norman would not love that. Norman, to me, is a very touching, loving partner so he'd constantly have his hands on your face, just holding you or holding your face as he kisses you. I feel like he'd be open to pretty much any relationship but Gobby might have a small problem with sharing so it could depend. He might mess up a couple times with pronouns but give him time (a month?) and he'll be correcting everyone. Scorpio and Libra, come on. That personality fits him and Gobby perfectly. Obsessive and overprotective? You and him fit together even more perfectly. The two of you are covered in marks and bruises and hickeys etc. of telling the other one that they're yours/his and leaving the marks to prove it to whoever decides to flirt with you/him. Also he may tell you off for some of the jokes but he'd understand and he'd definitely understand the couple attempt/thoughts/feelings so the two of you wouldn't be going through it alone. Norman would happily display your work and he'd happily beta read your writing if you needed him to as well. Just not too late at night or there might be a small argument as that's when the biggest battles with Gobby tend to happen. Also, 70s music, Norman would love that kind of music. Most people would expect him to listen to like classical but you play some rock from the 70s and he'll grab your hand and get you to dance or just jump around with him. You can also bet the two of you dancing and jumping around will lead to a few other activities. Honestly I feel like Norman is constantly travelling for work, am I the only one? Like he's the owner and CEO of a MAJOR company about science. He's going to be moving about a lot even if its only for a little while like a week. The longest he's been gone was a month and that was because things kept going wrong with the stupid contracts. This needed its own paragraph. Norman is so in love with you for being accepting of Green Goblin. He needs someone who's going to understand it but also someone who actually helps him and stays when they find out and don't just leave him to deal with it.

Bruce Banner

Bruce loves all the different hair colours. The blue/silver is his favourite but he loves all the different styles you've had it. And he loves that you've got a bit of a baby face as well. Bruce would catch onto the pronouns very quickly and he'd always use your preferred nickname unless he's using a cute name like 'sweetheart' or 'darling'. If you don't like those though he wouldn't. Also your personality suits Bruce so freaking well. When you're not being more introverted the two of you are ranting ideas to each other and even when he's focusing really hard on something, when you come to him needing help with writing especially when it's a sciencey thing he'll happily help you out. Bruce loves it when you're being overprotective, he's never really had anyone be like that with him before so he's loving it. And he's used to the sarcasm with Tony being around all the time. Again, Bruce would also totally understand the suicidal thoughts and the two of you would be helping each other out all the time. I feel like anytime you'd go to him with some kind of sketch he'd keep it until you'd left and then "secretly" go ask Steve for help and ask him to help him give you some tips, if you need any. You found out about the third or fourth time it'd happened and Steve had seen you later and complimented the work before begging you not to tell Bruce he spilled. Bruce's favourite music would be the alternative or indie music but depending on the song he'd quite happily listen to the 70s rock as well. Yes, Bruce is a scientist but considering he’s made the other guy I think he’d also believe in a few cryptids, also it’s just what he’s always believed in. You're constantly going with Bruce on missions, not actually taking part, just going with him and trying to help him out with the big guy.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I feel a sort of reverence in going over these scenes in this most beautiful country, which I am proud to call my own, where there was such devoted loyalty to the family of my ancestors – for Stuart blood is in my veins.

- Queen Victoria on Scotland

For a British monarch, Queen Victoria was extremely quick off the mark in making her first visit to Scotland in 1842, only five years after her coronation as Queen. Hooked on the stories of Sir Walter Scott, Queen Victoria toured the country with Prince Albert, spending several days in the capital at Edinburgh.

Then in September 1844 she returned to Scotland with Prince Albert and her young daughter Vicky at her side. This time she visited Blair Castle in Perthshire. They all enjoyed not only Scottish oatmeal porridge but its spectacular fresh landscapes, especially the Highlands, which captivated them both and inspired a rich new adoption of ideas. Later, they took on Highland life in the fullness of its tastes and traditions, something which was recorded in a wealth of artwork, not least in the Queen’s watercolours.

Victoria and Albert loved Scotland so much they inspired a trend for tartan and tweed across the kingdom. They returned over and over again, and after taking possession of Balmoral in 1848 they actually built a castle of their own.

Queen Victoria was a keen diarist and kept detailed records of her stays in Scotland, writing exhaustively about what happened each day: whether Albert’s hunting trips had been successful, who they dined with, her thoughts on the landscape, Highland pony riding, plans for scenes to sketch, details of the people she met, whether she liked them or not.

One of the most common urband legends of Victoria’s time in Scotland is that she and Albert got lost in the Highlands and sought shelter and hospitality in a poor family’s cottage.

Queen Victoria certainly never mentioned getting lost in the forest alone with Prince Albert on horseback, as depicted in the recent British drama series Victoria.

Queen Victoria never mentioned being forced to seek shelter with a kindly poor couple who cooked delicious trout over an open fire and let them stay the night, and there’s no record of her hiding her identity as Queen and learning to darn a sock like a “normal” person.

Still – you can see where this fanciful storyline came from. What we do see in her journal is that, for her, the wild Scottish Highlands were an escape from reality.

“After the constant trying publicity we are accustomed to, it is so pleasant & refreshing, to be able, amidst such beautiful surrounding, to enjoying such complete privacy & such a simple life,” she wrote in her diary.

And while and Albert avoided getting lost, they did have an idyllic pony ride accompanied by only one servant – as close to privacy as the monarch could really get.

“When I awoke the sun was shining brightly & it lit up the mountains so beautifully,” she wrote. “At 9, we set off, both, on ponies, attended only by Lord Glenlyon’s excellent servant, Sandy McAra, in his Highland dress, to go up one of the hills.

“We went through a ford, Sandy leading my pony, and Albert following closely, and then went up the hill of Tulloch straight over a very steep cabbage field, afterwards going round zigzag to the very top, the ponies scrambling up over stones & heather, & never once making a false step. The view all round was splendid & so beautifully lit up. From the top it was quite like a panorama.

“We could see the Falls of Bruar, the Pass of Killiecrankie, Ben y Gloe, and the whole range of hills behind, in the direction of Tay mouth. The house itself & the houses in the village looked like toys, from the height at which we were. It was very wonderful. We got off once or twice, & walked about. There was not a house or creature near us, only pretty Highland, black faced sheep.”

She added: “It was the most delightful, and most romantic ride and walk, I had ever had.”

Another time they cut it fine on a pony ride, with the Queen suddenly becoming worried about nightfall – “Got alarmed at seeing the sun sinking, for fear of our being benighted, & we called anxiously for Sandy to give a signal to Albert to come back. At length we got on the move, skirting the hill & the ponies went as safely & securely as possible.”

But they made it home just in time: “A long day indeed, but one which I shall not easily forget.”

And as for visiting a couple of unsuspecting-yet-kindly Highlanders at their cottage?

The only mentions of a “cottage” make clear this is no poor man’s house: “We got out at the Cottage, which is pretty & beautifully situated. There are some good Landseers in the room we went into.” With paintings by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer on the walls this is not exactly a poor man’s hut…

As she prepared to leave at the end of September, Victoria reflected on her time in Scotland: “I am so sad at thinking of leaving this charming place, & the quiet, liberty, & the pure air we have enjoyed. The action life we have been leading, peculiar in its way, has been so delightful.”

Having already lost her beloved husband Albert, Victoria found solace in Scotland and its people. John Brown was famously associated with Queen Victoria.

The Queen first mentioned Brown in her Journal on 11 September 1849, and from 1851 John Brown, at Albert's suggestion, took on the role of leading Queen Victoria's pony. In 1858, Brown became the personal ghillie (shooting guide and gun-loader) of Prince Albert.

After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria went into deep mourning, becoming almost a recluse. In 1864, her daughter, Princess Alice, noted that the Queen had always been happy at Balmoral, especially when taking a ride in her pony cart. Why couldn't pony cart rides be made available at Windsor and at Osborne (the Queen's home on the Isle of Wight), with the Queen in the care of the man who so effectively led her pony at Balmoral? The Queen agreed and in December 1864 John Brown became a full-time servant. He was, as Queen Victoria put it in her journal, "indefatigable in his attendance and care".

By 1866 gossip about the relationship between the Queen and her extremely informal servant had started. Brown was the only person around Victoria prepared to "tell it like it was", and he often proved abrasive with members of the Royal Household: even, it is said, on at least one occasion giving the Prince of Wales the rough edge of his tongue. Rumours soon spread more widely, and Brown was featured in the satirical magazine Punch on 30 June 1866, and Queen Victoria came to be referred to by some members of her household (behind her back) as "Mrs Brown".

Speculation about Queen Victoria's 20 year relationship with Brown, following the early death of her husband Albert in 1861, started in court circles almost as soon as the unlikely friendship itself did when the queen was in her mid-forties.

Victoria's daughters joked about "Mama's lover", and the then Duke of Edinburgh (the queen's second son) claimed he had been evicted from Buckingham Palace because he refused to shake the servant's hand.

The news of 1866 carried a piece in the Gazette de Lausanne, a Swiss paper, that read, “On dit…that with Brown and by him she consoles herself for Prince Albert, and they go even further. They add that she is in an interesting condition, and that if she was not present for the Volunteers Review, and at the inauguration of the monument to Prince Albert, it was only in order to hide her pregnancy. I hasten to add that the Queen has been morganatically married to her attendant for a long time, which diminishes the gravity of the thing.” Most assuredly, no British paper carried such a tale, but once the word spread of the Queen’s supposed affair, there was no reining it back in.

In the United Kingdom it was Alexander Robertson’s pamphlet “John Brown: A Correspondence with the Lord Chancellor, Regarding a Charge of Fraud and Embezzlement Preferred Against His Grace the Duke of Atholl K. T. of 1873” that first openly suggested that Queen Victoria and John Brown had married morganatically - this being related to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of higher rank.

Citing one Charles Christie, ‘House Servant to the Dowager Duchess of Athole at Dunkeld House,’ Robertson claimed that John Brown was regularly noted as entering Queen Victoria’s bedroom when the rest of the household was asleep. Robert purported that Victoria married Brown at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1868, with Duchess Anne standing as witness. The Duchess of Atholl vehemently denied Robertson’s allegations. Robertson went on to make other incendiary allegations without any proof including that Brown and Queen Victoria had a love child which as given up for adoption in Vaux, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, in our more recent times  various newspaper revelations went as far as suggesting that the two had actually married based on newly unocvered letters from Victoria’s courtiers. Indeed a film was even made: "Mrs Brown" became the title of a 1997 film about the relationship, starring Dame Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as John Brown.

In 1872 John Brown knocked down a would-be assassin in what was the fifth attempt on Victoria's life. John died at Windsor Castle on 27 March 1883, aged 56, by some accounts because he was too devoted to Victoria. It is suggested that had he taken to his sick bed at the first sign of a chill, he would have survived, but his sense of duty was such that he carried on working until it was too late. He was buried at Crathie.

Were Queen Victoria and John Brown married? Historians are divided over this contentious claim. Those that have believe it have based their views on four pieces of information, none of which is in itself conclusive. But they believe that, when taken together, help swing the balance of probability in favour of a wedding having taken place:

After Victoria's death, two sets of mementos were placed in her coffin, at her request. On one side was placed one of Prince Albert's dressing gowns, while on the other was placed a lock of Brown's hair, along with a picture of him and a ring worn by Brown's mother and given to Victoria by Brown.

The published diary of the Liberal MP, the 1st Viscount Harcourt, for 17 February 1885 related a second-hand story told to his father, the then Home Secretary, by a renowned gossip, that on his deathbed in 1872 the Revd Dr Norman Macleod, the chaplain to Queen Victoria,stated that he had conducted a marriage ceremony between John Brown and Queen Victoria.

The Daily Mail on 2 September 2006 reported a similarly second-hand story in which a late senior member of the Royal Family had said that documents confirming a marriage had many years earlier turned up in the Royal archives at Windsor, and been destroyed.

After Victoria's death (a full 18 years after John Brown's own death), Edward VII tried to destroy everything connected with Brown, including busts and photographs. A life-size statue of Brown at Balmoral, commissioned by Queen Victoria after his death, was only saved by being moved to an obscure part of the estate where Edward was unlikely to find it.

My own view is that it’s a much ado about nothing. Although much of the gossip about John Brown and Queen Victoria was seen as ridiculous steps were taken to suppress information, for instance, when Queen Victoria died her daughter Princess Beatrice removed pages from the queen’s journal ‘that might cause pain” in her own words. People have msiread the intent behind such actions. The Royal family down the ages have always doused more petrol on the fire by simply trying to quell any rumours of impropriety that it invites unfounded wilder speculative tittle tattle.

It is clear, despite public gossip, there was nothing immoral in Queen Victoria’s relationship with John Brown. Queen Victoria would never have contemplated sex with a servant. People forget how rigid social roles really were and how seriously people viewed them in Victoria’s age despite the hypocrisy we have come to see them with.

Furthermore, she was never alone to carry out an affair having court ladies always within shouting distance. That was the whole point of having a royal court and doting ladies in waiting about the place.

The significance of Queen Victoria’s attraction to John Brown was that he - at worst - made a career out of her. He never married, had few holidays and devoted his life to the queen, and he was a walking encyclopedia of her like, dislikes, moods and needs. As a downright selfish person this greatly appealed to the queen. She liked him because she needed to be fussed, cosseted and spoiled. He told her the truth, spoke boldly to her and importantly too; unlike her family and senior courtiers, he was not afraid of her. Above all, when Prince Albert died Queen Victoria needed a male friend — she never really made close friendships with women — and someone to lean on. John Brown supplied all that.

Victoria’s visited Balmoral in her beloved Scottish Highlands in the late autumn of 1900. The Queen could not know it, but it was the last time that she would see the new castle which Prince Albert had erected in her words as his ‘own work… as at Osborne’ and which had become a box of intensely personal memories.

So deeply did the Queen feel her first visit to Balmoral after Prince Albert’s death in May 1862 (in pouring rain) that she wrote with painful dread to her eldest daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia of the strange reality of everything: ‘Oh! Darling child… the stag’s heads – the rooms – blessed, darling Papa’s room – then his coats – his caps – kilts – all, all convulsed my poor shattered frame!’ (cit., Delia Millar, Queen Victoria’s Life in the Scottish Highlands, 101). Even the Queen’s lonely pursuit of spinning wool, which later became synonymous with her early widowhood, had been a vigorously traditional Highland activity (Ibid, 76). Now her widowhood of waiting was drawing to an end, forty years later, with the Queen’s approaching death.

The Queen’s unknowing leave-taking of Scotland took place gradually, over these last days at Balmoral. Touchingly, she was still referring to ‘tea’ – although by now, it consisted only of arrowroot and milk  – drinking it at her secluded Highland retreat of Alt-na-giubhsaich. Queen Victoria’s last day included luncheon in Prince Albert’s rooms with her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice and her Battenberg children. She left Balmoral fittingly, with the weather ‘wretchedly gloomy & dark’ whilst with her, she had a wreath to take back to Windsor, to place on the tomb of the Prince Consort at Frogmore; possibly it also contained the Balmoral heather she loved so much. Perhaps there may have been a presentiment, within the sentimental.

The Queen’s trusted doctor, Sir James Reid was with her at Osborne when she died, so presumably, the Queen would have had the comfort of a Scottish voice at her side, in between her lingering states of consciousness.

After her death, the Prince of Wales spoke a moving sentence of gratitude for Reid’s devoted service: ‘You are an honest straightforward Scotchman… I shall never forget all you did for the Queen’ (read Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria: A Personal History, pg. 494).

Significantly, the Queen instructed amongst the many sentimental items to be put in her coffin ‘some of which none of her family were to see’, a photograph of her devoted Highland servant, John Brown, which she ordered to be placed in her left and, with a lock of his hair. These were both tactfully hidden inside a silken case, the handiwork of the Queen’s late wardrobe maid Annie MacDonald, wrapped in tissue paper.

Afterwards, the Queen’s left hand was covered with Queen Alexandra’s flowers. Also put into the Queen’s coffin was a simple sprig of Balmoral heather, which Sir James Reid covered with a quilted cushion – made especially to fit the coffin – to preserve the Queen’s privacy in death.

Scotland was at her funeral, in the form of her Highland ghillies, as the Queen’s German grandson, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, wrote in his private memoirs: ‘[The moment] when her coffin was lowered in the mausoleum at Frogmore, remains unforgettable to me… I remained a moment there alone. When I looked about me, there were kneeling near me all of her ghillies [Highland servants] from Scotland, all strong, sturdy men, who were weeping there uncontrollably like sons for their mother…’ For her funeral, the Funeral March by Handel was substituted as per the Queen’s instructions, for music by Chopin and Beethoven and importantly, Highland dirges.

The sarcophagus or tomb chest was hewn from a flawless block of grey Aberdeen granite from the quarries at Cairngall in Scotland. Three attempts were made before this one was successfully carved out and it is purportedly the largest of its kind ever to have been hewn for such a use.

It was an appropriate Scotch bed for the Queen’s final sleep. Upon this sarcophagus, the effigies of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria lie still, a more sublime rendering of their marriage bed, staring into the beyond. Touchingly though, the head of Queen Victoria’s effigy is half-turned towards that of Prince Albert, as if it somehow suggesting that he died before she did. As in life, she is leaning, straining after the beloved husband that she mourned for half of her life.

The fact that their sarcophagus was quarried in Scotland is an appropriate choice for a royal couple who loved that country so much, becoming a little more Scotch with every visit. Appropriately for the Queen, parts of Eastern Central Scotland still celebrate Victoria Day, the last Monday before or on 24 May, Queen Victoria’s birthday.

Scotland was indeed with them, in the end. And continues to be with the House of Windsor.

[avatarvyakara]

Excerpts from Strands of Webbing telling Peni Parker’s story in the Noir-Verse (so far):

28. Moniker

The first time Peni learns the name of Peter Parker, it’s when he’s already dead.

The second time, it’s when a tall man—he sounds old and he looks old and he feels old and yet he’s young—introduces himself.

“Or...one of them, anyway,” admits the other Peter. “I guess I don’t know what name to use here.”

She calls him Gray. It seems to fit. He calls her “doll” or “kid”. It works out okay.

31. Monochrome

Of course everything isn't always gloomy, that would be ridiculous. But where Peter’s from, colours are almost like miracles—if they’re there, it’s like an extra layer added atop reality. They're for the supernatural, and they're very, very rare. The sky might be blazing like a fire, or pearly-smooth, or dark as wine, but not “blue” like it is in Miles' world. “Blue” is for things that are, well, different. Same with “red”.

Peter learned to see and know Red first. That’s what the Spider-God gave him.

(It could have been worse. He could have been like Norman Osborne, and seen Green instead.)

3. Refusal

“Nobody, and I mean nobody, comes to my world without my say-so,” comes the terse reply. “Not ever.”

Especially the little ones. Five years younger than him at most, maybe, but Peter feels decades older. He can’t let these amazing people, these people with colour, into his world on their own—they’d never make it out alive. The Depression is no place for such bright sparks. Maybe Porker would be alright, but the rest of them? He can’t take the risk.

(He won’t let the Spider-God consume anyone else.)

65. Allowance

The portal journey is as fun as ever, and when they get there—

“You stay close by,” Gray warns her. “You don’t wander off, and you listen to your Sixth Sense like a heartbeat.”

But Peni’s too excited to do more than nod.

Gray opens the balcony door, and breathes out a deep sigh, relaxation and regret intertwined.

“Home sweet home. I’ll give it that.”

It’s tiny. New York is like a model village. The tallest building is the Empire State, of all things; it doesn’t even have a water-slide yet, that’s how fresh it is. And it’s all in greys and blacks and whites that somehow look more textured than normal. Like they’re drawn in pencil, with every detail carefully sketched in.

And in its own way, it’s beautiful.

68. Thunder

It’s not that there isn’t chaos. It’s slower, but it’s there—a drip-drip of oil, people trudging randomly, slower and slower like they’re being turned to stone. Times are hard, people are harder, there’s little room for “her kind” among those who are already struggling and less still among those who are doing just fine. A thousand taboos and customs, impossible to understand. And there are monsters here, monsters that Gray has to deal with every day, crueller and more vicious than anything she’s ever had to face.

And yet—

On mornings like this, with the white sun rising in a grey sky, the noise of New York is just a distant rumble of thunder. Everything is slower, quieter. There’s no flashes of light here, just the rattling of streetcars and the soft sound of gossip from the balconies below, muffled by lines of washing. The earth itself purrs like the biggest kitten in the world, easing the Depression and the depression if only just for a minute or two.

Peni could stay here on Gray’s balcony with her eyes closed and listen to the thunder all day long. Because it’s so soothing here.

(Just like him.)

72. Unexpected

Of all the things to come back to after having egg creams, this is probably the worst.

So much Red.

“Keep back!” he warns Peni, trying to shield her. “Run!”

But she doesn’t move.

She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be exposed to this. Not Peni. Not her. He tries to draw the Red into his own mind, tries to pull the menace into himself and expel it as words.

“What are you doing here?”

come now, peter parker, says Anansi, in that deep voice which reaches into the soul and instils absolute terror with a single word. you can't expect me not to be curious about a rift in the dimensions opening into your house. i might have…competition.

There is an automaton in his apartment that's currently dead and cold, while the spider within it—Takara—sits on Peni's shoulder and stares directly ahead. That’s fine. There is a giant eldritch spider in his apartment and somehow it doesn’t quite seem to fit without actually touching anything. That’s less fine. There is a girl from another dimension, who's very quickly becoming his best friend, in the same apartment—the same room—as the giant eldritch spider, and she's not running away. She's barely moving. This is least fine.

Three eyes bear down on them.

hmm. one of my children. but not one of my children. and with their own bearer, too, this is intriguing. i wonder… The Spider-God's eighty-eight eyes all turn to face them. Face her. what is your story, little one? aren't you going to introduce us, peter parker?

Once upon a time, Peter would have been terrified. Now, he's…he’s just so tired. And he's angry.

"They're not yours. They're a bond of their own. You don't get them."

The Spider-God rears back slightly, as if mildly surprised.

really, now, peter parker. i know boundaries better than that. besides—a cold, hairy limb touches his cheek—you're my champion. remember?

Takara chirps. Peni blinks.

oh. oh, i see. well, i'm glad someone around here has some manners. peni parker, takara. my name is anansi. you've met my bearer before, it seems. he really should have arranged a rendezvous for us quite a while ago.

"It's not like you normally pay house visits."

The Spider-God laughs. It sounds like one laugh on repeat, deep and black and echoing and fractured.

“...this was your spider?” asks Peni quietly, with an unreadable expression on her face when he turns to look at her.

"Uhh, kind of."

my children bit him, little one. he survived. not many do.

"And hey, look at that, everybody here's been bitten. Nothing else for you to do. Unless there's a new assignment? And this one had better come with a paycheck."

your insolence is pleasant, peter parker. i see something's managed to get past your guilt complex at last. or…someone? what an intriguing plot development. so very…colourful.

Peter stills.

but i digress. so nice to meet another truespider.

Peni gasps. Something Red clouds the air around her, and Peter won't look but—

and another champion. and to hear another story.

"If you know what's good for you," Peter growls slowly, grinding every word out past the crooked glasses and into the Red, "you'll scram. Right now."

Takara chirps again, this time more angrily.

Anansi laughs again. It should scare him. It just makes him furious.

what a pleasant little cluster, what a wonderful web. i can't wait to see what comes next.

It's only when the Spider-God's presence (and the Red) has completely faded away from his apartment that Peter turns to the other two.

"That was your spider," she repeats, in a flat voice. “And I brought it back.”

"I'm sorry," he says, softly, and he means it. "You should never have had to see that."

And then he realizes how badly she's shaking, and how badly he's shaking, and he's not sure who starts the hug, but he holds this precious child close and lets her cry into his shoulder because he's forgotten how.

SP//dr sits in the corner. The red is just red, and beneath the red is blue.

74. Blasphemy

Takara is six when she meets God.

It's not even in her universe, it's in Gray's. And it's completely out of the blue—or, well, red. She wasn't even in SP//dr, she and Peni and Gray were out getting some kind of drink so she was tagging along in Peni's special box. Nice place. It took her about thirty seconds to assert dominance over the local spiders, after which she had a late lunch.

When they get back to Gray's apartment, God is waiting for them there. His presence seems to fill the whole room, and for a while there's very few thoughts in her head save bliss and obedience and eagerness to hear new stories.

And then she catches the wave of shock-terror-shame-guilt-depair that rises out of Peni and floats in the air, and she hears God laughing. God wants Peni's story, and didn't ask for it properly.

There is not a single being, supernatural or otherwise, that she will allow to hurt Peni Parker if she can help it.

She tells God to leave. God leaves. (God is kind to his children.)

That doesn't dampen the guilt she feels for letting her angel down like that.

[perpetuelledaydreaming]

BACK TO YOU (CHAPTER VIII)

Summary: Y/N Stark and Peter Parker are unconditionally and irrevocably in love with each other, being friends for years was just the step before making it official. BUT, just the weekend they did, Thanos and the snap happened, leaving Y/N broken: without friends, avengers family or Peter Parker. So, she has to move on, at least that’s what everyone’s telling her and she really tries to do it and who better to help her than Harry Osborn. But, has she really let Peter go? What if Tony Stark -genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist- knows how to bring Peter back? And what happens when he does? Is Y/N going to avenge again? Who’s going to lead the avengers now? Who is she going to choose? Harry or Peter? and who the hell is mysterio? *He doesn’t even go here

word count: 14k (sooooo long, i’m so sorry)

author’s note: It has been a while but I love this chapter so much and i’m so happyyyy how it turned out. It took a while but this helped me so much for my mood the past few weeks. My birthday wasn’t nice so ugh okay, this helped me. 

SERIES MASTERLIST

“So, are we not going to talk about this Mysterio guy?”, Harley asked as you watched the combat between Lila and Cassie.

It had been over a week from the attack and you had met with Mysterio and Fury a few of times, basically him explaining ways to attack the probable new appearances of an Elemental; apparently you were still missing two.

Peter and Quentin had been hitting it off just fine, a possible mentorship blossoming by the way Quentin placed his hand on Peter’s shoulders, patting him as if he was a puppy when Peter said anything mildly right. While you, you remained quiet a lot of the time, intervening when you thought it was necessary, trying to work with Beck -which now had been named Mysterio, making you want to gag at the sound of it- who didn’t seemed to like you either.

Instead for Peter, it had been a breath of fresh air.

Quentin Beck seemed like a Tony-like-figure for him, he was as enthusiast as Tony was with Peter once he had warmed up to him, but it seemed to be easier with Beck. He had a similar personality to Tony’s, a suave-like mood that could make you believe in yourself just by him saying it.

The only thing that was different from Tony, was the underlying twitchy and unstable look on his blue electric eyes. Peter imagined it could be because of the trauma of his planet being destroyed by the Elementals, he felt kind of bad for him and somehow related to. Peter knew that, although he had gotten a bit better since you guys came back to speaking terms, he still was struggling with his anxiety and the nightmares from the snap. And now you, who could usually ground him with your hands on his curls, your laugh or by simply holding his hand, didn’t do it anymore.

“What about him?” Peter asked as his gaze was still focused on Lila and Cassie, realizing that Lila clearly had the upper hand.

You didn’t really answer to Peter or Harley, simply glaring at Harley as you turned back and focused on the combat that would be over soon, you realized as Cassie’s back hit the mat.

It had been a long weekend of training with the new recruits, Sam and Bucky were the ones that would be usually directing these trainings but since they were on a mission in Europe, it fell on your hands, with the help of Wanda and Peter backing you up.

Wanda was excited by the prospect of being a teacher but you had asked her to just be a bit down since he usually trained with the hardcore ones that were Nat and Steve or Bucky, because of the advantage of magic. She huffed at your request but she was still useful as she helped Harley learned the basics, while you later helped him with some of the new suit’s tricks. Peter, although you hadn’t talked a bunch, was really helping you with Cassie and Lila, mostly Lila who already had experience thanks to Clint.

Nonetheless, it was still nerve-wracking thinking that you were responsible for this new generation of Avengers and if they didn’t really learn everything that you could teach them, they could be in great danger.

“I win!”, Lila screamed as she breathed heavily with a smirk on her face, shouting a victory cry while Cassie rolled his eyes and lay down in the mat.

You smiled lightly and walked over to Cassie, helping her stand up as Lila was still gloating on her victory. Lila and Cassie reminded you a bit of Peter and you when you would train together, always riling each other up but at the end still enjoying the other’s company. These were the trainings where you began learning how to be in sync with each other.

“It’s not fair! You have been trained by spies since you were born”, Cassie taunted as she stretched her back while glaring at Lila.

Lila turned around and smirked, “You know I’m going easy on you, right?”, she said as she bounced towards Cassie, while she smiled devilish.

Cassie simply gulped for a second but then she rolled her eyes and motion on her hand for Lila to keep going, while turning around to sit in the mat next to Wanda who was reading a book silently while she waited for them to finish.

“Don’t worry Cassie”, Wanda offered with a slight smirk. “Y/N felt the same way when Peter won their combats”, she laughed as you watched her with bulging eyes, extremely offended at what she said.

“Hey!”

Peter smirked as he heard Wanda, folding his arms over his chest remembering the times -not when he won- but when you wouldn’t complete a task because of your banter; which ended with Steve and Nat furious at you two.

“It’s true”, Peter muttered, while you turned around with a gaping jaw.

If this was back then, you would have totally made a move on Peter. You would’ve probably tripped him over and then climbed over him, ordering him to take it back before he would overpower you and then stamp a kiss in any part of your face.

But this was now and it didn’t work like that anymore.

“It’s totally not”, you cried as you held your head high “I’ve kicked your ass as well”, you bickered.

Peter laughed at your answer and you couldn’t avoid but to let go either, laughing at past memories who could feel like as if they had happened yesterday but at the same time, as if they had happened in another life. To a distant you who didn’t exist or fit anymore, still it didn’t change that your heart jumped as you heard Peter’s laugh.

It soon died down, your gazed linked together with a little glimpse of feelings of the past; and god, how you wanted for that glimpse to last a little longer but Peter quickly walked away towards Harley.

“It’s now you and me”, Peter said to Harley, lips a bit pressed together.

Although Peter understood that Harley was part of the Avengers, it didn’t mean that he simply liked it. Harley, as the lovely asshole he was, liked to rile Peter up and Peter for any reason whatsoever always gave Harley that power over him. It was so stupid for you but you thought that the root of the problem which was you and your dad didn’t exist anymore so there wouldn’t be any more trouble.

You were wrong.

“What!?”, Harley cried to you as he completely disregard Peter who was in front of him,

You rolled your eyes, thinking Harley was being a baby. “Now Harley, go ahead with Peter”

“He has superpowers!”, Harley complained once more as if he was a toddler, which made you give him a look while raising your eyebrows.

“I can take him and I don’t have superpowers”, you replied seriously.

“No, you can’t”, Wanda said quickly.

You simply huffed while Peter smiled softly and so did Lila and Cassie, completely entrance by the situation in front of them.

“You should prove it”, Harley chuckled, raising his eyebrows as he crossed his arms.

“I can’t believe you are in MIT, you are not as smart as you think you are”, you shrugged. “Plus, can’t you just shut up for a second?”

Harley and Wanda giggled at the same time as they heard you, Harley’s eyes quickly connecting to Wanda’s who gave Harley a toothy smile. Harley and Wanda had actually been getting along through the weekend, on your dinners and while you trained. It seemed as if Harley was constantly chasing Wanda like a lost puppy, but in the cool and suave way that only Harley had.

“Whatever, if this irritates you more than talking about Mysterio…”

You quickly snapped your neck towards Harley as your jaw clenched. You huffed, annoyed by Harley bringing up Mysterio once again who was your least favorite topic at the moment.

“Oh! I saw that he was trending this week on Twitter”, Cassie exclaimed as she quickly ran to her bag and grabbed her phone while you rolled your eyes as she tapped furiously on her phone.

You couldn’t believe that everyone seemed so blindsided by a man who was clearly a sketch ball and that was sure that he, only him, could save the earth. While you and Peter, seemed to be a collateral from this own personal mission to avenge his planet. It really did seem like a comic book that had been pulled from someone’s as-

“Yeah, I saw that everyone was talking about him. Like how did he do that?”, Lila screech, making you lose track of your thoughts as Wanda and Harley walked towards them to watch the video that Cassie had playing on her phone.

Peter simply smiled, as if some old friend was being recognized.  “We don’t really know but he was really helpful. He also said we were great”

“Did you got to know him?”, Cassie yelled as she watched Peter with puppy-like eyes.

“Well yeah…”, he hesitated. “We have been working with him, me and Y/N”

Cassie almost dropped her phone as she nipped over to where you and Peter were standing, “You should get a picture with him! Everyone saying his like a new avenger”

You could feel your eye twitching at Cassie’s comment.

“He isn’t”, you stated coldly.

It became really clear to you that you needed to get this over with regarding Beck, because by the way everyone was talking about him, he would believe he was an actual avenger. It simply didn’t feel right with you, the gut feeling you had simply intensified as you spend more time watching the guy. Being very quiet on the meetings gave you a chance to really analyzed him and he was clearly unhinged.

“Yeah, I’m not buying it”, Harley agreed with you which made you snap back to reality “He seems like an asshole the way he was flaunting himself in that green cloud”, he mocked.

You smiled at Harley, mentally thanking him for not following the crowd. But Peter? Peter felt offended as he glared at Harley.

“He wasn’t flaunting”, Peter replied as he walked towards the mat and gestured to Harley to come.

Harley sighed, as he seemed to accept his destiny but also a sudden and devilish smiled formed on his lips as he saw Peter’s attitude.

“Oh, come on, is so obvious he has a praise kink”, Harley continue as he quickly threw a right hook towards Peter who barely duck it, as he was a bit thrown off by Harley’s sudden move.

“I’m with Harley in that one”, you whispered to Wanda, but Peter was still able to hear you.

Peter huffed, quickly he threw a lower punch at Harley’s ribs making him hiss. Peter knew he had thrown it with a bit more strength that he usually used when fighting with ‘normal’ people, a flinch of guilt ran through his back of his mind; but Harley quickly recovered -which was new for a scrawny boy like him- and he blocked Peter’s uppercut.

“What happened Parker?”, Harley teased as he blocked Peter’s punch.

It seemed to be actually a good fight, Harley was really putting in the effort but Peter, on the other hand, was losing its patience. Soon, Peter threw another lower punch at Harley’s rib which this time released a small crack along with a howl from Harley’s part and soon Peter knocked him flat with one swing of his feet.

You gasped at the sound of Harley’s body on the floor, it made you stop breathing for a second. Harley groaned while Peter simply gaped at the sight of Harley on the mat. He knew he had maybe gotten a bit carried it away, Harley could rile him up without much but now he felt guilty. You soon came into the picture glaring at Peter, he winced at the thought of you being angry at him. But you didn’t give him more than two seconds as you kneeled down next to Harley whose eyes were closed, Cassie and Lila followed, Wanda was a bit behind but with an uneasy look on her face.

“Are you okay?”, you asked as you lifted his shirt and checked for any major injuries by touching the area, the only thing you could see was a bruise that was starting to form on Harley’s abdomen.  

“I’m okay”, Harley let out slowly, finally opening his eyes. “You are still so in love with me that you want to undress me?”, Harley muttered smugly. “Jeez, lady”

You sighed in relieve as you stood up. “He’s okay, he’s still making jokes”, you said as all of the others could finally let out a breath.

Peter quickly walked towards Harley and helped him stood up, shame colored his face as he watched down at Harley, touching the back of his neck, quickly muttering an ‘m sorry’ to Harley, who simply gave him a light smile.

“This was a stupid discussion”, you said as you stood up from your knees and glared at both boys, who had already fixed it apparently. “Nonetheless, I have a Cap moment here”

“You don’t say”, Wanda muttered which made Harley snickered.

You shook your head as you directed yourself to the others.

“Harley and Peter are a good example on how not to have a good relationship with your partners.”, you explained as you pointed at them, making Peter look down and Harley blush.

“You have to be sure about the person that is next to you on that field or in a moment of need”, your eyes connected with Peter’s and it made your heart twist inside of you.  “There’s no way this can work if there’s not a minimum of trust, I have to know that my partner will understand my choices and if he doesn’t, he will be there to catch me in case that I mess up”

Your voice died down as you finished, everyone remained silent and it seemed like they were actually trying to digest what you just had said because it was way too real. Especially if you thought about the job you were doing but you… you were thinking about your relationship with Peter, not as the superhero duo that people on the outside saw you as but the real way that you saw him and he saw you.

“Dismissed”, you then proceeded to say. “We are done for the weekend, you did a great job for your first training”, you sang proudly as you watched their faces light up with a smile.

“Thank you!”, Cassie giggled as she and Lila hugged each other.

It didn’t take long for everyone to start packing up their things from the gym and you giving calls for the Quinjet to take them to their respective homes. Cassie and Lila quickly said goodbye as they ran together to their respective room to grab their bags and then fly home, since they had school the next day. You could hear Lila saying to Cassie that she was going to help her and show her all her moves as they exited the gym.

On the other hand, Harley had decided he wanted to stay a few more days on Stark Tower to work on his suit, that it didn’t matter that he skipped a few classes if he mentioned his new position on Stark Industries but you silently saw how he was waiting for Wanda to finish stretching.

Just like clockwork, he threw his shot.

“Hey Wanda, do you maybe want to go for a snack?”, Harley asked her a bit timidly as Wanda picked up her book with a swift hand motion and placed it on her other hand, the red energy that emerged and surrounded her hands almost left Harley in awe.

Wanda blinked a few times as it dawned to her what Harley was actually saying, it was clearly that she wasn’t expecting it. Maybe it was too intrusive from your part to be watching them from a far, crossing your fingers and hoping for Wanda to actually say yes; you were also so sure that Harley was in the verge of his heart stopping by the way he was gazing at her.

“Only if you are buying”

Wanda gave Harley a light smile and it seemed like the tension had been popped, Harley seemed like he could breathe once again, he was trying so hard not to smile as brightly as he wanted.

“It was implied”, he said with cockiness dripping from his voice as they exited the gym without even saying goodbye.

“I’m glad”, Wanda simply said as she walked out, a little bit ahead of Harley who followed her swiftly without looking back.

You shook your head while you picked up your own stuff. You couldn’t even avoid smiling at the memories of Peter asking you for the first time to go get something to eat, just days after your first encounter in the lab where Tony was showing him around while you were working on your own suit. It felt like your stomach twisted at the thought of those first few moments of getting to know each other, just maybe if you closed your eyes you could remember the cold wind on those days.

“Hey, you did a great job today”, the voice of Peter startled you, as you turned around wide-eyed, you had almost assumed that he had left since he had been leaving trainings rather fast the last few days.

But there he was, the boy you were in love with for what you think was forever. The more you thought about it, it was simply stupid to assume and be upset that your love for Peter hadn’t faded away, it was stupid because you knew you would never feel the same way about anyone else and although it might have brought you more than one headache since he came back, you were somehow grateful.

Yes, you were grateful for Peter Parker, even though you weren’t really on talking terms, even though if he hated you even a little for your actions, even though he made you question every decision you ever made, even though it hurt to see him because you connected him with moments with your father who you had lost.

But how could you not be grateful when he was standing right there in his dark blue t-shirt that he used for training that framed his muscles perfectly and those grey sweatpants that hanged a bit low sometimes. How could you not be grateful for the caramel curls that fell on his forehead, pink lips that had a similar shade to the a small blush from the workout on his face, along with his freckles that seemed like a galaxy that decorated his cheeks and those chocolate milk eyes with gold specks that lingered a bit longer to yours and dripped adoration.

“Oh- uhm”, you stuttered as you stood up and looked down, wishing he didn’t see you blushing. He did. “Thank you”

Peter gave you a tight smile, his eyes still lingering on your colored rosy pink cheeks that were accompanied by your heartbeat that was stammering non-stop. It made him shake his head, as he felt like he could punch the air in success by your reaction.

“Yeah, well I got to get going”, Peter muttered as he walked backwards while you finally filled yourself with enough courage to look back at him.

“You got something?”, you stated. You couldn’t deny that you were a bit disappointed as you saw him leaving but also glad that this was his first approach to you, some compliments here and there that could maybe strengthen your relationship of partners in the future.

But Peter stopped abruptly and he blushed too. “No, not really”

The way he answered, his voice stretching at the end and you caught it right away. This was your chance to finally have a real talk that didn’t involve The Avengers, this time you could really discuss what was left unsaid at the funeral.

“Do you mind if we talk?”

It simply rolled out of your tongue but not as an unwelcoming guest but more as a shy guest. Peter knew it was coming, he did open the door for this and he knew you understood how his mind work -just like he knew yours too-.

It had been a couple of days where he had been entranced by your leadership skills, by your determination and resilience but also, just spending that much time with you made him recall past days where you guys spend every hour together without stopping. He saw everything that you once were but now in such a new light that it made him want to know you more. It was almost like a magnetic effect, he needed you close and by the way you were acting at the moment, you needed him too.

“No, it’s okay”, Peter answered with a tight smile.

Your wide eyes and a light smile gave you away. “Okay, then we could go to my room”, you said as you grabbed your things and got closer to Peter, who raised his brows. “Oh no, but not in that way, I…”

The words crashed against one another in your mouth and you wished your brain would just get it over with but being so close to Peter that you could feel the heat of his body, it made you dizzy.

“It’s okay, we can go”, Peter finally stated and it made you wince at the thought of how stupid you must have sound as you simply nodded and began walking out of the gym.

But Peter only thought it was cute.

The ride on the elevator to the penthouse was silent with some smiles being exchange but nothing more, Peter could hear your heart stammering and somehow, he even became worried about it because it sounded so loud, but then he realized his was beating as hard as yours.

Peter wasn’t really surprise to see the penthouse as he had already visit it when he talked to Pepper, but your room… everything had changed. The once blue paint that decorated your walls was gone to find a white and beige paint, the little traces of your childhood that hadn’t been burned by The Mandarin attack were nowhere to be seen, now your walls were decorated with elegant paintings and even a neon text from Tracey Emin. It was more elegant and grown up but it still had your essence. The pictures in the wall next to your bed hadn’t changed one bit, they were better organized and there he was in most of them but then next to him he saw Morgan and Tony, and there was a picture of Harry and you.

He tried not to think about the voice in the back of his mind telling him he was displeased with the picture.

“You want to sit down?”

Peter sighed and he nodded, his eyes studied you as you sat on your large bed and patted softly a spot next to you. He sat down without saying much while you simply hugged your knees to your chest. As if you were somehow protecting yourself from the possible damages that could come from this conversation.

You felt Peter’s weight on your bed and you looked down, your heart was stammering on your chest and there was an awkward shift in the air. You had never been alone with Peter since that faithful conversation -unless you took into account the fight with the water elemental- but this would be the most important conversation that you had to have.  Your eye lifted and met Peter’s first. Peter was staring at you in trepidation, you felt your cheeks flush and tears dangerously close to your eyes.

It came out as word vomit.

“I- I just wanted to say that… I don’t even know how to begin this but I’m so sorry”, you weren’t sure if it was even your voice, too brittle for just such a small piece of what you wanted to say. “I truly am sorry and I just-”, again your mind trying to fit the words into this small moment that Peter had gave you.

You didn’t know if it was right to say what you truly felt because of the situation you were in but looking at his chocolate eyes and there was this warmth for him that blossom from your chest as you watched him gazing at you. What was the worst thing that could actually happened if you were honest? If you weren’t it would be buried on your chest like a sharp glass and every time you spend time with Peter, it would hurt and, as you studied Peter, it would hurt him too.

“Peter I never forgot you”, you breathe out. “You were always in my mind and it was just so hard to get out of these walls without you and I truly believed I was never going to be the same and I’m truly not but… I just want to say that with everything that has happened, I love you”

Peter’s eyes opened like plates as he heard the words, tears threatening to run from your eyes and rosy cheeks; your appearance being as soft as it was, it was in complete juxtaposition to such a strong confession.  

“Y/N…”

Peter wasn’t sure if you were in your right mind but if he was being completely honest, there was nothing more he had wanted to hear since he came back.

“Listen to me”, you intervened, because you had to say it before he could shut you down again. “I love you but I also found someone who made me feel alive again when I thought you were completely gone. You were my everything and then Thanos erased you from my life, I didn’t even care to continue Peter and…”, you threaded slowly from the words, because as you close your eyes and the tears finally fell from your eyes, you remembered how cold and lonely those days were. How you felt like you were drowning and no one could help you.

“It was like… as if something had completely turned off inside of me. It was feeling numb or not even, just feeling nothing”

The word rang on Peter’s ears and caused a shiver to travel through his spine, it was so strong that he closed his eyes a bit, as if he had been taken back again when he was being taken apart piece by piece. But it went away quickly when he, out of instinct, grabbed your hand and you squeezed it in response. He opened his eyes and he watched you staring at him, tears and everything, He remembered Pepper’s words, how broken she told him that you were but he was still somehow apprehensive about everything, but staring at you with completely transparency… he knew that he could trust.

“I felt that too”, he whispered.

“What?”, you asked as you brushed tears from your own eyes that were still falling without any control.

“Yes, when I was being…”, Peter didn’t know how to exactly phrase what happened to him correctly, because not a word could describe how he felt, “Turn into dust? It felt like someone had been breaking me apart into nothingness”, he closed his eyes at the memory of the feeling, shuddering. “I just…” Peter wanted to cry as he began to shake. The memories of the torturing feeling of being turned into nothing began to fill his memory. “It was terrifying and overwhelming and…”

“As if you couldn’t breathe?”, you asked silently as you squeezed his hand harder and got closer to him.

Peter opened his eyes to see you studying him, a worry expression drawn on your face and he simply nodded, with a slight smile, just because you knew.

You remained silent for a few seconds, to let Peter digest your statement. You knew that it maybe wasn’t fair because he had been literally killed and brought back to live while you, you simply lost him. But deep down, you knew it really felt like you had been dragged to hell after he had left.

Peter simply, held your hand tighter, a part of him was glad that you could understand that feeling and it felt as a confirmation that you were together through everything -through thin and thick- like since you first met each other. But on the other hand, he knew it wasn’t true because Harry had been there when he wasn’t, because you had moved on and the more he thought about it, he was glad that Harry had helped you through the pain; the same way he would’ve helped you if he was there.

“So, Harry made you breathe again?”, Peter asked, sniffling a bit.

He stared at you and it seemed as if the air lightened up a bit as you shook your head.

“My dad”, you muttered with a smile as you remember Tony in silence. “He just told me that you wouldn’t want me to waste my life”

Peter stayed silent for a second as he stared at New York through your windows because if he really thought about it, if he really never came back, he would’ve wished exactly that: for you to live.

“He was right”

“He was mostly always right”, you answered back as you thought of Tony.

You giggled together.

“And then came Harry, he just…”, it was weird to not know how to really put into words what Harry made for you without making it sound so simple. But at the end, it really was that, your relationship with Harry was easy and it was great. “He was just there for me and made me laugh. I just didn’t need more, he made me feel some things that I had only experience with you but in a different way”

Peter winced at the thought of Harry and you, but he didn’t allow himself to dwell on the thought as you scooted towards him and continued.

“I need you to know that I still love you and that hasn’t change in the time that pass but now…this”, you said as you pointed to both you and him and towards Harry’s photo on your wall, “It’s not fair to any of us what happened but we have to deal and I just can’t throw away the last two years of my life and go back”

Peter nodded, although it hurt.

It hurt so much to know that you were right, it hurt so much to know that he couldn’t protest, that he couldn’t move when all he wanted to do is kiss you and pull you towards your bed, he wanted to touch you and spend the day lazily kissing each other as he drew lines on your skin. He wanted to laugh with you, he wanted to train with you and then pepper your face with kisses, he wanted to go back.

But he couldn’t and he couldn’t blame you or anyone really for it.

It just happened.

“I get it”, Peter turned towards you, so he could see you watching him, “It’s hard but I understand, Y/N”

“Thank you”, you breathed as you threw yourself towards him.

Peter thanks to his reflexes caught you, just like he always did. It was the first time you hugged like this since your final battle with Thanos and you couldn’t help to recall how you thought at one point during your relationship that you fitted perfectly into his arms. You were over Peter, straddling him while your arms were tightly wrapped over his shoulders, your face hidden on his neck while his arms were wrapped around your torso.

You weren’t sure how long you stayed holding each other.

You felt the tears escaping your eyes once again, but they were the first happy tears that you had dropped in a while. Peter felt your small whimpers as you cried and he couldn’t help but to hold you tightly. He wanted to take you all in, he didn’t want to let go and he felt that you didn’t either.

“And with everything that’s happening with the avengers, I truly need you to be the Steve to my Tony”, you muttered while you held him a little bit tighter.

Peter laughed as he remembered Steve and Tony together. “So, friends?”

You laughed with him but it soon died down as you began to let go and Peter’s hands fell onto your hips. It was an involuntary move that was born many years ago, you simply didn’t let go so fast and your forehead simply fell against his as you closed your eyes. If this was another time, if this was another reality, your lips would’ve naturally chase each other’s, as hummingbirds chasing flowers. Peter closed his eyes as well, taking you in as one of his hands itched for cupping your face and pull you into a kiss.

But deep down, both of you knew that you couldn’t. You sighed and smoothly stood up from Peter’s legs as you watched him with a disappointed smile.

“The gang misses you too”, he finally muttered after a few moments.

You had thought about the gang a lot the past few weeks, you had wanted to see them more than anything in the world. The thing was, when you didn’t grow with many friends and then found those soulmates that you never thought you would find, you learned to really appreciate them. It had been so long, you missed Ned’s engulfing hugs, Betty’s sweetness and determination, Flash’s comments (when he wasn’t bullying anyone) and MJ’s calm and support. Your mind had wondered to the past in school so many times when they were gone and since they came back you really did want to see them, but the uneasy thought of everything changing scared you.

“I miss them too”.

Peter nodded as he watched you closely, he knew you well enough to notice how you were fiddling like you did whenever you were stressed. He was glad he could still pick-up on mannerisms from years ago. By the way you were pulling your sleeves over your hands, he knew that you had decided to stay away because you were scared. He just wasn’t sure what you were scared about, if these were the people you had called family at one point but he was determined to not let it fall.

“We are hanging out today, later we are going for pizza”, Peter commented, nonchalant.  He stood up and walked closer to you, causing you to breath him in. “Wanna come?”

The offer made you blink a couple of times. Your eyes opened as if you were about to tear up and you couldn’t help but to let out a smile. Deep inside you, you knew you might have not been ready to see the other’s, if you hadn’t made up with Peter.

“Yes, please”, you breathe out as a small smile etched its way to Peter’s face.

Peter right then and there realized how starved he was from you, from your presence, from your kind and loving nature. He was going through withdraw the last few weeks, having you again felt as if he could breathe. Even though, he couldn’t really have you.

“So, do you want me to pick you up or…”

You shook your head, “No, just text me the address and I’ll be there.”

Peter smiled as he got closer to you, he nudged you jokingly on your shoulders, causing you to laugh.

“I’ll see you there”, Peter sang as he left your room, with a smile that didn’t go away for him.

You, on the other hand, remained frozen for a few minutes in your room. In completely awe that Peter had actually invited you to go out with him and the others. You didn’t want to admit that the thought of Peter hating you forever had been eating you alive for the past month or so, you could still recall Peter’s glare when you had confessed at the funeral that you were with someone.

But now, it seemed as if you and him fell back together, as you usually did.

You spent the rest of the day on your lab, with a smile plastered on your face and with no distractions while you still tried to decode the USB that Tony had left for you. Most of the time that you had spent working on it, it had been festering resentful and angry feelings about Tony’s death but that day, it was the first day where you actually came to enjoy working on it. It was still frustrating that you hadn’t managed to crack it, but you were comforted by the feeling that Tony had actually thought about leaving something meaningful to you, something that was so meaningful that you had spent weeks trying to decipher it.

It was about 7:00pm when you realized you were late, HAPPY had the instruction to only bother you when Peter sent the address for the new pizza place that they were planning to go to. Otherwise, you were busy for anyone asking for you, unless it was an avenger emergency.

You hadn’t seen anyone since training and since you had silenced your phone, it was a surprise to see Wanda laying on your bed while you got out of the shower.

“So, how was your afternoon with Harley?”, you asked Wanda with a smile as she was watching the roof of your room. It was clear that she had spent the whole afternoon with the scrawny boy, she was still on her gym clothes.

“Yeah”, she muttered as she sat up while you began changing. “We went to some places he knew; he took me to this amazing bookstore that also had vinyl’s? I mean, we listen to a few records together”

You turned around and watched Wanda’s worried gaze, you picked up right away that this wasn’t a normal conversation. This wasn’t that Wanda had just wandered to your room by casualty, she needed to talk. In past times, it was natural for you to find your way to each other’s room, including Nat’s. There would be small places where you could talk about anything and everything, where you could laugh and cry. You hadn’t had that in a while, with Nat after the snap there had been a few conversations but nothing like before, it seemed like it was too painful to perform the ritual without Wanda.

“What’s wrong?”, you asked as you quickly put on the tennis skirt that you wanted to wear and ran towards Wanda that was begging to shake as sobs escaped her mouth.

“I just…”, Wanda struggled to form words as you wrapped your arms around her. “Vis and I used to spend so much time together and it came to the point that I realized that I don’t know where he began and I ended”

You sighed, because you had been in the same place for a while, you understood Wanda’s mistrust about her own feelings, about her own self. It was the exact same way you felt when you lost Peter, when the caramel curls disappear along with those chocolate milk eyes that you came to adore. You experience withdraw and it had taken months and a pep talk from Tony to get you back on your feet.

“And I don’t know how to be me anymore, it seemed like I gave it all my authenticity and my essence to what we had and then he died which is completely ridiculous because he wasn’t supposed to die!”, Wanda cried as she rolled her eyes with exasperation.

“Wanda…”

“I- I just was somehow happy that I died with him?”

The last sentence shock you and Wanda remained silent as well as she heard her own words slipping out of her lips. Your gazes linked together once again and it didn’t take long for Wanda to continue to spill tears on your shoulders as you tried to support her on the best way you could. The simple statement had touched a nerve, as you remember the nights that the thought of dying with Peter as he turned to ash seemed to be a relieve. A dream.

It lasted for a few minutes and you patiently waited for her tears to stop streaming from her eyes. When she finally stopped shaking, you continue to caress her hair, as you knew she had always liked Vis to do when she was feeling upset.

“It gets better”, you whispered.

Wanda sniffed, “I hope you are right”, she said and you could hear the smile on her face. “He has a crush on me, doesn’t he?”

You smiled and sighed. You wouldn’t lie to her, even if you loved Harley like a brother too and you knew he wanted to be as smooth as he could about this, you knew he cared for her and he understood the situation that Wanda was in. It had been all over the papers at some point, Wanda and Vis together in some part of Europe, even rumors about marriage -which people didn’t liked since she was so young and he was… well-.

“I don’t even read minds like you and I can see it”

Wanda giggled as she finally stood up from the bed, it seemed like she needed the crying session and now she felt better. She watched you on your tennis skirt, bra on and towel wrapping your hair. “So, you are going out with Peter?”

You shook your head with a smile that apparently no one seemed to be able to wipe from your face. “Well, with The Midtown gang”

Wanda gave you a knowing look as you began to look for the polo shirt that you wanted to wear under an oversize dark blue sweater you had already set apart. It was a spring day and you had decided that you would look cute and good, something less stressing that what you had been wearing through the last few years, which most of them were formal outfits.

“That comes with Peter”, Wanda said as she wiggled her eyebrows.

“Yes, it does, but today we finally had the talk and I think that we are actually going to be fine”, you replied with a smile as you finished dressing up and checked yourself in the mirror.

Wanda quickly gave a few steps and wrapped her arms around you, giving you one of those strong hugs that Wanda rarely gave. You smiled as you looked at her on the mirror and tighten your hand that was over her arm. It was comforting, having her again and you thanked Tony on your mind for getting her back.

“I’m glad that you are doing okay”, Wanda whispered as she let go and walked towards the door. “By the way, I saw your boyfriend this week on paparazzi photos when he came to wait for you and he really is nice to look at”

You laughed as you began to brush and dry your short hair, you shook your head as Wanda exited your room while you replied, “He is nice to look at, isn’t?”

Soon after Wanda left and you finished with your hair, Peter sent you another text telling you that they had already arrived as HAPPY told you while you placed some blush and mascara. You thought that you would get on time by car or by metro, but the more you thought about it, the idea became even more annoying to you. You gazed at your windows and gave a look at the bright city; it was quite a view from your room.

Deep down, you knew you wanted to fly everywhere you went. It was something that Pepper didn’t really approve but it was more like Tony to do stuff like that, it was like when he sometimes went to Parent-Teacher conferences on his suit. The more you thought about it, you concluded who were you to not do it like your father did? Without any lingering doubt on your body, you simply tapped your necklace and the nanobots began to surround your body and you smiled.

It didn’t take long for you to get there, basically only 4 minutes if you were counting but you weren’t. Your mind was way too busy thinking about how everyone would react about you. You stood outside the restaurant, mind grinding as you thought how your encounter would actually go. You wanted to somehow be prepared for possible comments or interactions you may had, but if you were completely honest, you didn’t really know what would come your way.

“You realize that you are not in a mission, right?”

MJ was the kind of person that made your entire day without doing much. When you turned around, she looked exactly like you remembered hair, she was lean and tall. Her brown curly hair fell perfectly on her shoulders, framing her face. You remembered how you envied her hair and how she wouldn’t have to work too much on it for it to look beautiful. She seemed like a piece of art, and you were sure she was made for modelling but she had decided she would focus more on physics than any other possibility of a different career.

“MJ!”

You know she wasn’t a hugger but you still threw yourself towards her without any thought. It seemed like it had been forever since you had seen your friend but at the same time, as if nothing had happened. It was as if you could still give each other certain looks and the other would know what they meant, that you could spend hours in silence studying or watching movies. Nothing had really happened and you could feel the relieve washing over you as you hugged her.

“You didn’t forget me!”, MJ exclaimed as she hugged you back.

“How could I ever forget you”, you whispered with a smile as you finally let go.

MJ was smiling as well but her face quickly became plain, she looked down and cleared her throat. You knew what was coming, MJ was not one for being sentimental but the heaviness of her moves made you realize what she wanted to say, you winced.

“I’m really sorry about your dad”

You looked away from her for a second, you thought about how your dad actually liked MJ and that you had finally had a girl friend who wasn’t an avenger. “Thank you”

She held her hand for you and you didn’t even think as you gave yours and squeezed hers as a small gratitude gesture. This was one of the things you loved about MJ, she was transparent and kind. She didn’t walk around eggshells and she always had the empathy that many lacked. MJ had become one of your best friends as soon as you met her, which made Peter crazy because it had taken years for her to warm up to him and Ned. But there you were, you understood the other so well that it didn’t required any time.

“We have to go in, you know?”, she said as both of you watched the Pizza Place from outside.

You could feel your heart on your chest, hammering away and you took a little breath. “Yeah, sure”, you whispered as MJ guided you to the door.

Ned, Betty and Flash were sitting on a table while Peter was grabbing a couple of more seats for MJ and you. The Pizza Place had a couple of people, but nothing out of the ordinary. They hadn’t notice that you arrived until MJ cleared her throat and then sat down, giving the others space to greet you as they wished.

“Y/N!”, Ned’s screamed rumbled through the whole place, making the few people on the place to turn around, worried about what could possibly be so important. But you couldn’t care a lot as Ned threw himself towards you and engulfed you into a big hug.

Ned had been a handful for you at the begging of your friendship, since you were rather on the silent type while Ned was anything but that, always leaving little crumbles of knowledge or ideas that were running around through his head, even if no one had asked. But as time passed, you warmed up to him until you became as loud as he was when around him sometimes and he came to understand your silence. Enjoying building things with you, tinker in some tech that you had showed to him and even do your homework together.

You had missed him even more that you thought.  

“Ned!”, you replied as you wrapped your arms tightly around him as well.

“Babe, it’s my turn!”, you could hear Betty’s harmonious voice as Ned finally let go.

You smiled widely as you wrapped your arms around Betty as well. She was now even shorter than you, but she still smelled like a brand-new book. Betty and you had always gotten along nicely, you had been partners in a couple of classes and you had similar styles for working, when she and Ned began to date it simply brought you closer. Betty was the kind of person that was always busy, but you loved that about her. She always had something to do, or somewhere to go, the determination that she had was admirable.

“I can’t believe it’s you”, Betty gushed as she let go. “I’ve missed you so much”

You smiled back. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve missed you, guys”

“Even me?” Flash asked as he came from behind Betty.

You shook your head; Flash was clearly still trying to grow a mustache and you couldn’t help to laugh as you quickly gave him a small hug.

“Even you”, you said as he let go, but his hand still lingered on your shoulder.

“Let’s seat”, Peter’s suggestion startled you, you could still he was still annoyed with Flash constant flirting with you. But you shook it off and walked towards him, quickly giving him a peck on his cheek.

“Thank you”, you whispered with a smile.

Peter was unsettled by your sudden kiss but he couldn’t lie about how much he had loved it. His heart was melting as he watched you closely. Peter felt a lingered sensation of your relationship, he loved your kisses and how you used to pepper his face with them. You never missed a chance to gave Peter a kiss, even tame ones like on his cheek -who at the end of the day, ended up being the majority of them-. Peter felt his cheeks get warmer, he simply tried to hide them as he took a seat.

Peter didn’t reply anything but you saw how bright and pink his cheeks turned, it made you smile as you sat down and began to chat. The conversation went smoothly without any hiccup and it seemed like your fear of them was now so stupid, but you tried to still dodge as many questions as you could, mostly focusing on school and work. It seemed like everyone except Peter had their plan laid out for the next stage of their lives, Ned was definitely going to MIT while Betty would go to Yale and MJ to Columbia, Flash still was deciding if he was going to go UCLA or stay close by in any university on the East Coast.

Nonetheless, Peter was surprised when he heard you saying that you had also applied to Harvard and Columbia and you were wishing for Columbia to accept you. Peter really though that you would go to MIT, as you had planned with Tony but he sensed that the same feeling of responsibility for New York that he felt, was also weighing on you.

But the conversation faded quickly on how Ned and Betty were planning their long-not that long- distance relationship for next fall.

“You two are so cute!”, you said as Betty leaned on Ned with a smile.

You had always had a weak spot for Betty’s and Ned’s relationship, it seemed so fragile but strong at the same time. Two people that you never thought would work out, where there making it.

But Flash’s laugh distracted you, “You know who would be cuter? Us”, he said as he wiggled his eyebrows and got closer to the table.

You rolled your eyes so back to your head that it seemed like they would get lost on your skull.

“Oh god Flash, just stop”, MJ rolls her eyes while you couldn’t help to burst into laugh as you watched everyone’s reaction. Everyone soon joined in on the laugh, even Peter with a small giggle.

“What?” Flash exclaimed annoyed as he tried to be heard over everyone’s laughter. “I’m serious”

Everyone began to laugh louder, except for Peter who deep down wanted to smack Flash across his face; even if you two weren’t together anymore, it still annoyed him.

“Not gonna happen”, you muttered as everyone’s laugh began to die down. Some giggles still escaped your lips as you saw Flash’s brows bumped together, clearly upset. “Sorry Flash”, you muttered sweetly, as you drink a bit of water.

“Parker here told us you two broke up”, Flash grumbled as he glared at Peter, who glared right back at him. “Thought we had a chance”

You choke a bit on the water as you heard Flash, you quickly gazed back at Peter who was looking down. Peter really didn’t want to touch on the topic, he had in fact told them about what was going on with you but he thought that it was a silent understanding that no one should bring that up. Peter now really wanted to punch Flash on the face. You turn back to see Flash again, with a quizzical smile.

You didn’t know if Flash was kidding or if he was throwing his real shot.

But you knew that if you didn’t bring it up, they would know. Harry had already been caught near the tower the last week, it was only a matter of time until people knew that you were together.

“I’m actually with someone else…”, you muttered as you then pressed your lips into a thin line waiting for everyone to react.

“WHAT!?”, you were sure everyone through New York had heard the shriek of MJ, Flash and Betty. You watched carefully how Ned hadn’t actually screamed along, you figured that Peter had already told him about Harry.

“Peter!” MJ growled.

“Why didn’t you tell us!?” Flash replied again while Peter sighed.

Peter felt the intense gaze of everyone looking at him, when he lifted his head his eyes met with yours, a glimpse of exhaustion and disappointment flashed on his eyes. He felt his stomach turning right away, he knew deep down he didn’t want anyone to know that you guys broke up because you were with someone else. If it was just a breakup, he guessed that people thought that you would get back together but if you were with someone it meant that his chances were lower, and although he knew that… he felt like it would feel so final if everyone knew.

The sting on his chest was bothering him more at the moment, his ears were drumming and he decided he needed a break.

“Well…”, Peter began but he quickly stood up from his seat. “I’m going to pay the bill”

All of you watched as he stood up and watched him going to the register. You examined him close by, you knew that look on his face and you were worried this was one thing that could worsen his mood. Deep down, you knew you were really worried that you would hurt him again, that bringing this up again would hurt the few steps that you had taken that very same day.

“Are you going to tell us who is it?”, Betty mumbled as you snapped out of your trance.

“Yeah, it’s -uhm- Harry Osborn?”, you answer startled as you began to play with the sleeves of your sweater.

“From Oscorp”, Ned stated.

You simply nodded, “Yeah, he was running it while his father snapped…”, you muttered as you remember the first time you saw Harry. “And for my non-profit I just contacted him and we started dating”

It was the simplest way you could put it, you looked around the table as everyone was somehow digesting the fact that you were with someone that wasn’t Peter Parker. You bite your lips as you watched them carefully, you knew that this was an adjustment and this was a topic you wanted to avoid, but as you saw them… you knew you couldn’t. This was a family you had made outside of the Avengers and you were so happy that they were again in your life.

“You should meet him someti-”

“Already paid for the bill”, Peter cut you as he arrived to the table with the bill. Peter spoke as if nothing had happened and he guessed it was the best thing he could do; he had heard how your heart was hammering and he watched your grimaced as he was returning.

This was a safe, and you knew it.

“Great!”, you exclaimed as you raised from the table, more than ready for this conversation to be over.

Everyone felt startled by your statement but no one doubt for a second to follow the lead of you and Peter. Soon, Betty began chatting about something regarding a homework and MJ and Peter followed the conversation as you exited the pizza place.

“Yeah, well this was nice”, MJ muttered as she felt the spring wind on her face as she put on her coat.

“It was great to see you Y/N, we’ve missed you”, Betty said as she gave you another hug and Ned followed.

Flash nodded as he placed a quick peck on your cheek, “We have to do this again, the pizza was great”

You smiled as MJ hugged you one last time.

“Don’t go MIA again, please”

“I won’t, I promise”, you whispered back.

You felt a warm on your chest, spreading across your body as you watched your friends say goodbye, it had been such a while since you had felt like this. Everyone left slowly, Flash gave MJ a ride since his driver was already waiting for him on a black car. MJ rolled her eyes but at the end she accepted the ride with a smile, while Ned and Betty decided to walk home since it wasn’t too far away from Betty’s place and Ned like to always leave her at her own door.

And soon, two were left.

Peter didn’t want to admit it, but he was still lingering at the front of the pizza place for you. And you, you were doing the exact same thing. It was silent, the noise of the street felt like a lullaby as the wind blew your shorter hair, while Peter fidget with his light blue sweater and played with his own feet.

You were the first one to break the silence.

“Are you doing something right now?”, you asked silently as you leaned against the building, watching Peter carefully. The way his eyes flashed as he looked at you with a broad grin.

“Not really, what about you?”, as he walked closer to you.

You smiled, maintaining eye contact as you gave another step closer towards Peter. A sneaky grin grew on your face and Peter felt like he wanted to melt right then and there, as he watched you watching him like that.

“What do you have underneath that sweater?”

Peter almost choke. He awkwardly looked at you but as he saw your eyes and how your brows raised, he understood what you really meant.

He looked around for the moment, so the people passing by didn’t saw as lowered the neck of his sweater so you could see the red fabric. He was wearing his first spider-man suit and it gave you a shiver as you recall old times when you began to Avenge together.  

“You want to go… patrolling?”, you whispered as you remembered a soft kiss on one of those nights.

“Are you sure?”

There was something in the back of your mind telling you that there actually was something that you had to do instead of go patrolling. But watching the moon lighting Peter’s skin, his chocolate eyes with golden specks, the little freckles that adorned his face and your mind couldn’t avoid going back to the nights you spent on roofs.

The memory felt like cold wind on your cheeks.

//

“Do you think your dad knows about us?”, Peter asked you as he swung through Manhattan from the tallest buildings you could think of while you flew besides him on your suit.

But you didn’t answer as you thought about how Tony was looking at both of you as you ate dinner. The memory of your father being cut and sharp was a new thing, he didn’t talk much through dinner but what he did do, was glare non-stop at Peter. He didn’t ask about school or training, which were always a must when you were at dinner. He didn’t even talk much to anyone at the table, Pepper called him out for not paying attention and he mumbled a “m’ sorry” that you could feel wasn’t very transparent.

On Peter’s part, he knew exactly that something was up. Tony was never cold towards him, he always called him a nickname or he could say his name but in a certain familiar way but the way that he had said his name tonight, it seemed as if he had spit poison. Moreover, he could feel Tony’s lingering glare on him, which caused Peter to look down all the time through dinner.

But what really tipped Peter off was when you guys were leaving, he usually didn’t ask where you were going or that your bedroom was out of limits, even after you told him that you were going patrolling he had establish a curfew with the excuse that you guys had to be ready for school tomorrow, big day or something like that -which wasn’t true at all-.  

“Should we tell him now? Or is it too late?”

Peter’s words sounded distant as you continue to navigate New York, your mind was going 3000 miles per hour.

You had been dating Peter for over five months, it was after your first kiss on the medical wing after The Scorpion attacked. It was like all your feelings that had been held down for so long, exploded and now Peter couldn’t keep his hands off you. He couldn’t believe you kissed him back, he couldn’t believe you had said yes as he had asked you if you wanted to be with him, he couldn’t even believe when you had begged for him to take you, to make you scream his name, on a late October night when everyone else was away for a mission.

As time had passed, you believed everyone actually knew about it but it seemed to be an unspoken thing to not tell Tony. You had only officially told Wanda, Nat and Pepper at different times, Peter hadn’t really told anyone but Aunt May officially but then May forgot to discuss about it when Happy was around -she made him promise not to tell anything to Tony-.

Then, Sam and Bucky had caught you kissing Peter on the medical wing after he got hurt on a petty crime, the day had ended up with threats to both of them if they told anyone about what they saw and a threat from them to Peter to never hurt you. Then there was Vis, who just passed through the wall of your room in a bad time, Wanda had bothered you non-stop about it. And that last week, Steve had asked you while he picked you two from school, he didn’t like the idea about not telling Tony but he had agreed reluctantly.

“¡Y/N!”, you heard Peter’s scream, which made you dodge the building one second before you would’ve crashed against it.

“Sorry”, you mumbled as you waved your hand to the couple of people working on it who were startled by your presence -or near crash experience-. “Jeez, HAPPY you are supposed to let me now before I crash against anything!”

“I did Miss Stark, apparently you were too busy inside your own head”

You rolled your eyes as you decided to stop at the top of one of the buildings around. Your own head was eating you alive thinking how could you even tell Tony about you and Peter.

“Babe, are you okay?”, Peter’s soft voice and the thump of his landing in the roof next to you made you turn around.

The nanobots of your suit fell from your body, they crawled back into your necklace, you were trying to breathe deeply and figuring out what you should do next. It felt as if there was a pressure on your chest while you thought about what Tony could possibly said about it, not because you hated the idea that he knew but because you knew how protective Tony was about you and your safety, as well as Peter’s.

What if Tony disapproved of your choices?

“What we are doing something wrong?”, you asked. Your voice sounded wobbly and tears began to blur your vision.

You knew it was a stupid statement and that as soon as the words got out of your mouth, they made Peter went cold. He quickly took of his mask without any thought so you could see his chocolate eyes as he grabbed your face softly.

“Hey, hey- we are not doing anything wrong, okay?”, Peter said with a strong tone, his brows furrowed as he watched you.  

It was one of those times when Peter’s natural born leader and confidence showed up. You knew that as he came to himself, as he grew, he could be a great leader and it made you smile just looking at his serious face.

“But-”

“Do you love me?”, Peter asked, pressing his lips together as he watched you closely.

“Obviously I do”, you answered right away, a slight tone of offense and you turn your whole body towards him. “I just I have the feeling that if my dad disapproves of this, he must have a good reason because there’s no other way he wouldn’t love the idea of us together”

Peter nodded as he took in your answer, his brows still together as he watched you. “Are you happy with me?”

You rolled your eyes as you took a hold of his hand, “Are you going to keep asking me obvious questions or are you going to help your girlfriend feel better?”,

Peter huffed with a smile as he pulled you to the edge of the building so you could seat there, facing the city. You obliged happily as you lean against his shoulder.

“Y/N, Tony loves you with his whole life and I believe that if this, what we have, makes you happy then I swear that there won’t be a problem”

You stayed silent as you ingested Peter’s words, the pressure on your chest dissipating as each moment pass while you imagine Peter and Tony together. They were so close, Tony even becoming like a father to Peter and it made you happy to have both of them, you loved them both. Now you imagine them talking about you and Tony sending you off to a very official first date or maybe even to Prom, then in a really long future dancing with both of you at a small wedding.

“He loves you too, you know?”, you stated as you watched Peter closely with a smile.

“What?”, Peter asked with a smile.

“He won’t have a problem because he cares about your happiness too”, you replied with a smile as bright as the one Peter had.

Peter simply swooped one arm around your waist, pulling you over him as you straddle his waist and wrapped your arms around his neck. He cupped your face and took a hold of your long hair, it made you whimper. He tasted like honey and the chamomile tea that you had before going out, his nose was cold as it bumped on your cheek and you smiled into the kiss as your lips played together. It was a sweet and tender kiss, it always surprised you how much love Peter could squeeze into a single kiss, a single touch; after every kiss it felt as if you were drunk on him and you loved it.

“Okay!”, you stated after a few minutes of kissing, you heard Peter’s whimper as you placed your hands against his chest so you could breath. “I’m done having a meltdown, are we patrolling or not?”

Peter huffed. “I was in the middle of kissing you”, he replied as he saw you stand up from his lap and walk on the roof of the building.

“We are on duty; we can’t be kissing”, you stated seriously, with a glimpse of malice on your eyes as Peter chased you on the roof.

“Oh okay, no more kissing then, ever”, he replied with a frown as he crossed his arm arounds his chest.

You gasped, “I was kidding!”, you said as you went towards him and place your hand on his arms, shaking him a bit like a little girl having a tantrum.

Peter laughed as he grabbed you by the waist and pulled you in, “I know”, he whispered to your lips and he chased your mouth.

He barely touched your lips before you stepped away from him, another whimper left his lips as you laughed.

“No, no, it isn’t that easy”, you beamed as you got closer to the edge.

Peter began to feel a bit eager as he saw you without your suit and near the edge, he loved how playful you were with him and only with him. You could be so mellow around people and introverted but with him you were just… you.

“What do you mean?”, he replied as he walked towards the edge in front of you, he watched in wonder as he saw you standing right in the edge.

“You have to earn it”, you whispered with a wink.

“Y/N?”

“Catch me if you can”, you giggled as you gave another step back and fell from the edge.  

You yelled as you fell from the skyscraper laughing, with your eyes closed. You trusted Peter so deeply, that the gut-feeling of falling didn’t make you want to cry like it once did when you had begun to play with your suit.

Peter, as you very well knew he would, followed you without any doubt. He quickly placed his mask over his head and jumped from the building. He saw you free falling and he corrected his position so he could catch you quicker, and soon he had you in his arms with your nanobots beginning to appear on your body. Without any warning, you quickly lifted his mask and placed a kiss, playfully laughing before the suit covered your mouth.

Before you knew it, you were already flying while Peter threw a web towards a building and begun swinging by your side.

//

“Catch me if you can?”, you muttered as you watched Peter carefully, his eyes widened as he heard the phrase and was taken back to the same memory.

You smiled as you backed into the alley, being sure that no of the people passing by saw and pressed your necklace, the suit began hugging your body and soon you were in the air.

Peter blinked a couple of times as he saw you disappear into the dark and then he heard the very characteristic clicking sounds from your suit. For a moment, Peter didn’t know if this was right but his heart was dying to follow you. Was this in the deal for being friends? Partners? And clearly not a couple? He didn’t know, you hadn’t set limits and although you were the queen of limits it seemed like right now there weren’t any as you discovered this new territory.

Peter quickly followed you into the alley, he quickly took off his clothes as he packed them in his bag which he quickly webbed on the wall. Maybe it was right, there weren’t any limits and he was going to be thankful and take advantage of that grey zones in your new relationship.

Soon he was jumping to find you waiting for him on the roof.

You were waiting for him, sitting on the small building roof as you watched Queens, you heard the familiar twhip!  sound and smiled as you turned around, the nanobots disappearing from your face, “Thought you would never come”

Peter smiled with a giggle and soon you were off.

The rest of the night passed right through your eyes, it felt like an eternity but you felt like you still needed more time to be with Peter, you felt like the day was missing more hours and minutes. Going patrolling with him felt even better that what you already remembered and you were sure your cheeks were going to be sore because of your smile. Peter, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped laughing and for one second he managed to forget that you weren’t together as you flew through New York. Both of you realizing how your lives didn’t really felt complete without the other.

It was like both of you had been starving and savoring these moments, that once had been something from every day, gave your life.

And you weren’t the only ones mesmerized with your return. People didn’t stop taking photos as they saw you and Spiderman together again, through the different neighborhoods of New York, from the tallest skyscrapers to the smaller buildings.  It ended up being a very productive night, you managed to stop a crime in a supermarket and had carried the guys to the police station even, and old lady from the supermarket gifted you some cashews for your help. Also, you help a couple of young girls who were waiting for a bus late at night. Peter carried one and you carried the other so they could get home safe and sound.

But also, you had the quiet moments of quality you missed the most with Peter, you had come to forget how good those nights out felt and how good it was to be side by side with Peter. In the quiet moments of the night, you talked about past memories on Midtown and also with the avengers, you laughed and even cried a bit with them.

Harry’s name didn’t come up once.

And it felt the same, it clearly felt as if you could tell Peter anything. So, you didn’t really give a second thought about telling Peter about the USB.

“What do you mean?”, Peter replied and felt somber as he looked at you while sitting on the edge of a building in Williamsburg.

“He left me something and I don’t”, you breathe out in order to not panic or cry as you remembered Strange giving you the USB, “I think that I’m figuring it out but it’s taking a lot of time and…”

“What did he leave?”, Peter grumbled as you turned around, his eyes move as such speed. You knew he was thinking already how could he help.

“A USB?”, you replied with the same confusion Peter had drawn on his face when he turned around to face you.

Peter stood up rather quickly and he placed his mask over his head. He already made up his mind and he was more than convinced that you could manage to decipher whatever Tony had left for you, and in a weird way he felt deep in his heart that it was something for him too.

“We should be working on it right now”, Peter stated, already placing his mask.

“Peter it’s literally 2:00 am”, you replied as you stood up next to him.

Peter was startled by your answer as he lowered his glove and confirmed the hour with his watch.

“oH”, he grumbled still looking at the watch, a hand scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, “I have school tomorrow”

You suddenly felt the weight of coming back to reality, it was dawning on you that this wasn’t your normal life like it had once been.

Fuck, you thought to yourself as you began to feel the urgency of something that you had forgotten. It had been pushed back so hard because of your night with Peter that you couldn’t really put a pin on it.

“I have to go to Boston tomorrow, fuck”, you grumbled as you took a hold of your phone and deactivated the “no disturb” setting you had placed it in all day.

“Boston?”

“Yeah, you know MIT and all”

“oH”, Peter said again as he cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I have to go with…”, you stopped dead on your tracks as your phone began beeping around, all the notifications coming in at once and the sudden realization of what you had forgotten. “FUCK”

“Y/N?”

You felt out of breath as you ran towards Peter, quickly giving him a quick kiss on his cheek over his mask as your suit began to appear. “I have to go, but thank you for a great night”, you said sincerely. Your touch lingering a bit more than it should on his body.

“Hey what about the USB?”

“I’ll text you soon”, you said as you jumped from the building and flew as fast as you could to Stark Tower.

It felt like forever to arrive and the more you thought about it, the more you knew Harry was going to kill you. He had left over a million calls on your phones, texts, everything as you checked them while you arrived. There were also a couple of calls from Pepper and even there were Instagram notifications of people you didn’t even know. More messages from Pepper and Wanda, even Harley.

You cursed to yourself as you quickly landed on the terrace of the penthouse, the suit quickly dematerialized as you entered the living room where Harry was clearly waiting for you.

The whole place was dark, it was clear that everyone had gone to sleep except for him. You felt your stomach turning as you saw him sitting on the large sofa, the only light in the room was the one on his computer as he typed angrily. His bags were around him and you cringe at the thought of Pepper telling him to wait for you there and him being respectful and not going to your room right when he noticed that you weren’t answering.

He raised his head as soon as he heard your steps. His brows bumped together and you could see his sharp glare as you walked towards him.

“I’m so sorry”, you muttered as you sat in the sofa next to him.

“I’ve been waiting for you since 9:00 pm, Y/N”, he snarled as he watched you cautiously.

“I know, I know. I messed up but I was…”, you groaned as you placed your hands over your face in an effort to explain but he quickly cut you off.

“Avenging?”, he asked sharply. “Heard all about it from twitter”, he said as he took out his phone from his pocket.

You could see the irritation on him, with his frown and downturned lips. You had seen Harry like this a few times, but never to this level and you realized that you hadn’t had a real fight during your relationship. This was going to be a first and oh boy, you weren’t prepared.

“Harry…”

“It seemed as if you were on a date with Spiderman”, he spat as he passed you the phone.

You had never told Harry about Peter being Spiderman, you had kept his secret well even after he snapped but by the gleam of jealousy in Harry’s eyes, it seemed like he knew more than what he was letting on. You watched the phone as you saw the various articles and pictures of you and Peter flying through New York, your heart thumped on your chest as you remember the last few moments of your night.

You stood up as you watched away from the phone, “I was working”, you hissed.

Harry huffed as he rolled his eyes, which your served to make you give you a pinch of annoyance as you saw his behavior.

“Patrolling is part of my work as head avenger and I will not stand here as you question me regarding a job that you clearly don’t have any idea about because you don’t even care to ask about it”

You felt like your whole body was on fire as you tried to defend yourself to your boyfriend. There was a time when both of you passed a lot of time together, working on the same thing and there was nothing to disagree about, but this was different.

“I was worried for you! You never did this to me and then I go on twitter and see these he said as he showed a photo of you and Spider-man through Manhattan”, he growled as he stood up, “You can’t even call me and let me know so I can at least book a hotel?”

You exhale in annoyance at his statement. “I know I messed up but Harry, these things will keep happening because I don’t know if any threat will come and I don’t have a schedule for that. I’ll have to go on missions and maybe not even say goodbye”

“That’s not you”, Harry barked as he maintained your eye contact.

It startled you, “What?”

“I’m your boyfriend, I know you and I know that Y/N would not just runaway and leave everything for…”, he refrained himself from continuing and you watched him closely, a part of you thankful that he didn’t finish the phrase. “It’s … you are just being selfish”

“Selfish? Are you kidding me?”, you snapped as a satiric smile was drawn on your face.

You could feel the blood boiling on your veins and you felt like your body had been covered in flames. There were a few things that would make you feel like that, pure rage, it was hard. The few times you had felt them… it hadn’t been good for anyone involve. You didn’t even want to think about how you and Harry would end up after this. But selfish? After everything that Tony had taught you… it was more than an insult. It felt like someone had pinch your heart with a needle and the pain was amplified as each second passed.

“You have to think about me too”, he explained.

You felt your cheeks getting hotter and hotter as you watched the tall boy with dark hair and almond eyes. You watched him closely as you somehow expect him to take it back, but he didn’t. And you weren’t going to stay quiet, the pangs of physical hurt on your chest getting stronger as the seconds passed.

“I told you that I know and I’m sorry but don’t ever call me selfish for following my father’s legacy”, you yelled like you had never yelled at Harry before, your cheeks bright red and your face was pinched. “And if you don’t want a girlfriend that avenges, then go ahead. Be my guest to find someone new”

It was so final that Harry seemed startled, a hurt expression drawn on his face.

“Y/N that’s not what I meant”, he mumbled slowly, tiredly. “I just want my girlfriend”

You almost didn’t give him time to finish the sentence.

“I am your girlfriend Harry, I just decided to do something that I have the responsibility to do and I need someone that can support my choice”, you spat as you gave a step back. “If you don’t want to then we can finish this right here”

Harry remained silent as he watched you closely, tears were definitely building up on your eyes. You hated it, you hated that it seemed like these days’ tears would be so easily drawn from your eyes but your heart stung by what he had said.

You watched him closely, but with a disapproving gleamed and frown. It seemed like you didn’t recognize him anymore, this wasn’t someone that you would be with.

You quickly began walking away from him, into the terrace, not really thinking where to go next but surely you knew you didn’t want to be there. As you exited the living room, you pressed your necklace and your suit began to surround your body.

But quickly Harry grabbed your hand as the suit finished it’s placing on your body. You turned around startled as he was holding your wrist, the touch -even being over your suit- made you feel like he was burning you.  

“I’m sorry, I love you”, he promised as he looked at you, tears of remorse flooding his eyes.

You watched him carefully. Your felt your heart being squeezed as you watched him, as you remember all your moments together and how he made you laugh, you were so thankful for him. Harry wasn’t the enemy, he wasn’t bad at all and you hated it even more. If he was really bad, you could’ve been able to simply leave but nothing was that simple. Harry was still the kind and elegant, smooth and intelligent boy you had met before, this was simply a new time in an already established and loving relationship.

But in the back of your brain, you knew that what had just happened, was bad. It was really bad, but you didn’t want to acknowledge it just yet, you weren’t ready to be wrong just yet.

“I know, it’s okay”, you replied as your suit began to contract again as Harry pushed you into a hug.

But it didn’t sit well to say I love you, so you stayed quiet.

______

TAGLIST:  @SPIDEYLOVIN @ERINDANUS @SPIDEYLOVIN @ZLAMANESERCA @BETHANYSTAN @CEDRICISNOTONFIRE @ERIDANUSWAVE @LYZALOVEALK @BABEBENHARDY

[agatharights]

Some of Itsy-Bitsy's (my spidersona) villains in sketch form. I went with the Scorpion I already did earlier, but felt a strong desire to draw him being casual. Like, you can't supervillain all the time! Sometimes you need a smoke break. Then there's the resident "Doc Ock"- Doctor Nautilus. His human body is degrading, almost completely stripped of motor function at this point- but he's trading up. Why settle for Jan limbs when you can have hundreds of multipurpose limbs? And while you're at it, why not a new brain, one to replace your own failing nervous system.... And the Green Goblin. The Green Goblin of Clearwater is a recent urban legend, glimpsed here and there. Wherever they are, things decay and dissolve- handprints that turn metal to rust, concrete crumbling into dust, plants dying and people falling ill, accompanied by the sound of hysterical laughter. Some locals theorize that this purported "Green Goblin" is connected to a nearby research facility and their shady operations. Nora Osborne, head of said facility and genius chemical engineer/biochemist, is quick to point out such claims are nonsense. If there were some sort of shapeshifting, corrosive creature on the loose, it would be obvious.

[ultimate-miles]

Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man (2014-2015) - Not with a Bang, but a whimper

Post Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #19, Miles Morales’ written career as Spider-Man has not been great. After fridging one of the only central supporting female characters in his cast – Rio Morales, his mother – the state of the narrative became preoccupied with manpain, and framing the grief of a teenage boy as, in the words of Miles Morales, someone who “didn’t understand what it meant to be Spider-Man” (Ultimate Cataclysm: Spider-Man #1), which required his entire supporting cast to shame and emotionally manipulate him back into the job. 

If there was any good that came out of the last five issues of UCSM, it was probably the introduction of Ultimate Cloak and Dagger and Ultimate Taskmaster. 

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, unfortunately, offers very little in the way content improvement outside of one side story and its art direction. Otherwise, it doubles back in circles on subjects and issues that should’ve been laid to rest and ends on an inconclusive whimper.

Ultimate Spider-Man #200 + #Issues #1-7

Death in comic books means nothing, and holds no weight unless you’re a wildly unpopular (or non-white) character that any given publication is looking to get rid of in order to appease their narrow minded (and white) audience. When the Ultimate Marvel universe was created, one of the creeds it presumably lived by was that “death mattered”. When a character died, it would mean something, it would impact the narrative, and every character that died would remain dead.

It’s a shame, then, when they chose to stick their guns, they let Jeph Loeb decimate almost half of the Ultimate Universe’s roster in one of the uglier displays of wanton violence, sexism, and just plain shit writing, with the 2011 “Blockbuster Event” Ultimatum. Ultimatum more or less ensured, despite maintaining the promise that no one would return from the dead, none of the deaths mattered – a lot of it was just Loeb masturbating to his own cruelty if we’re being honest.

With the “Death of Spider-Man”, Brian Michael Bendis added salt to an otherwise unhealed wound that was Ultimatum, which wasn’t even a year old at that point. To his credit, he made Peter Parker’s death matter – book ending it with the first villain that more or less was responsible for the creation of Spider-Man (Norman Osborn) – with reverberating consequences throughout most surviving series in the UM. Yet, following the introduction of Miles Morales – the new and Black Spider-Man (reportedly meant to honor Bendis’ Black children, whom I pity) – you could tell, in the years preceding the removal of Peter Parker as the protagonist of the Spider-Man title, Bendis was regretting his decision.

After a 160 issue run (where Peter made actual appearances and was the protagonist until his death), the questionably numbered Ultimate Spider-Man #200, once again sees Bendis fantasizing about what he might’ve done had he not killed Peter Parker and replaced him with Miles Morales. Most of the original cast of characters that were central to Peter Parker’s story – plus Miles and Ganke – gather together at the Parker House at the behest of May Parker and Gwen Stacy (who appears to be a creep perving on underage teen boys no matter what), to commemorate the life of the late Peter Parker. Considering the previous three iterations of “Memorializing Peter Parker” in the UM, Ultimate Spider-Man #200 brings nothing new to the table, but should’ve been a red flag to anyone paying attention to the declining quality of Miles’ title.

Miles’ final title in the Ultimate Universe, Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, begins with the reintroduction of a supposed-to-be-dead Norman Osborn – in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. – and two generic Spider-Man copycats robbing banks. There’s nothing really of note to say about the first seven issues of this thirteen issue title. Bendis decides, with the Ultimate Marvel universe doing the death rattle, to undo the death of both Osborn and Peter Parker – with Peter getting a half-assed excuse for his being brought back from the dead (to sum it up: “because reasons”).

I don’t think a Spider-Man comic has made me quite as angry as this series has. In the moment I read the issue wherein Peter Parker tells Miles, “It’s time for the Original Spider-Man to get back into the game”, I could’ve torn the book into shreds and smote its ruins if I thought it was going to hurt Marvel’s sales and not be an even greater waste of my spent $3.99.

“I can’t believe we’re beating this dead horse again” was what I was thinking and I just stopped buying the book altogether. I think that the first step to mine ceasing to see Miles Morales as a legitimate character, but wasted potential in the hands of non-Black creatives. I only ended up reading the trades for the sake of reference and fact checking and it’s only this year, three-four years after the fact that I bothered to do that.  The only thing worth noting about the first seven issues of this title is that it sets up the last four, which are even worse.

Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man #1-3 + Issues #8-9

Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man is one of seven miniseries titles part of the “Blockbuster Event” known as Cataclysm, which sees Ultimate Galactus (or 616 Galactus, I’m not sure which tbh. There’s very little difference between the two when you get to the nitty-gritty) attempting to destroy the 1610 universe and devour it all. You get the distinct feeling that, before someone came up with Secret Wars, Cataclysm was meant to be the true end of the Ultimate Universe – but someone upstairs changed their mind and rendered it to a mere false start. Long story short: The grand majority – if not all of – the Ultimates (the Avengers of the 1610 universe) are killed or sent into the void with Galactus by Ultimate Shadowcat – who is later hailed savior of the world. The All-New Ultimates are formed. 

Das it. 

But, within Miles’ slice of the Cataclysm story, Bendis finally decides to focus on the elephant in the room: Jefferson Davis and his open and his fantasy xenophobia toward superhumans and how it has literally silenced his own son from admitting to his double life as Spider-Man. Moreso since the death of his mother, Rio Morales, at the hands of Ultimate Venom. I’ll be perfectly honest – I don’t think Jefferson Davis is a great guy – I actually ended up liking his no-account brother (Aaron Davis, gone too soon) far more because he was upfront about his ideals and his mission statement. He never pretended or tried to be a better person. He was just rotten and enjoyed it.

For that one piece of sage advice Jefferson offered Miles in the earliest tenure of his first title, Jefferson is the perfect example of a man who expects his son to “do as he says, and as I do”, but expects no consequences visited upon him whenever he dehumanizes people. He’s a walking metaphor for the heterosexual Black father who spews homophobic slurs in casual conversation around their gay daughter or son and I’m sure as hell that was intentional despite the incompatibility of the allegory.

Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man doesn’t do much to repair his character, if anything it makes him thrice times worse. When Galactus starts wrecking all of New York City and Brooklyn, Miles, Bombshell (Lana Baumgartner) and Cloak and Dagger, struggle to save the people caught in the monster’s wake – all while recounting where they were when the Ultimatum event occurred.

In Miles’ flashback, we see Jefferson lose his head over the knowledge that the title wave was caused by a mutant (Magneto), all while loudly proclaiming everyone stuck in traffic was going to die. The most important nugget of information taken away from Miles’ flashback is the knowledge that his father more or less promised that he would abandon or disown Miles if he ever found out his son (then, probably only 11 or 12 years old at the time) was a superhuman. 

I never had much sympathy for Davis (I tolerated him because of Rio), but the moment Miles tries to convince his father to come with him out of the city to safety, and Jefferson decides to blame a now fourteen year old Miles for the death of Rio and Aaron, I just outright hated him. Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man is not a bad read all things considered. It tells its story concisely and never loses focus of its characters in relation to the catastrophe. The downside is that you have to read the rest of the Cataclysm series to know what was going on. I’d probably recommend you read it, especially since it ties into two issues of The Ultimate Spider-Man. 

The conflict between Miles and Jefferson is left hanging until issues #8 and #9 of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man – also known as “The Only Redeeming Thing About This Comic Book Title”. The eighth and ninth issues of MMTUSM sees Jefferson Davis finally owning up to his past and basically just spilling the beans about his life as a criminal with Aaron and how he became involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. during the 80s – when Miami Vice, Jerri Curls, House Party Flattops, and ill-fitting suits with shoulder pads were all the rage – and how he met a young, already-at-it, Nick Fury. 

The complete tonal and visual shift in the issues are a welcome respite from the Peter Parker nonsense of the previous seven. The story arc, “Miles Morales: An Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”, carries with it the kind’ve of visual flair I see a Tim Sale illustrated graphic novel (like Spider-Man: Blue or The Long Halloween), but it’s still David Marquez illustrating the story from beginning to end. 

It’s got the look and feel of a pulp novel, or one of those old newspaper comic strips where the spots of the print were obvious through the inking and character sketches. The narrative, which sees Jefferson and Aaron working for smalltime criminals to Jefferson’s eventual graduation to protecting the Kingpin (with a minor explanation as to why he loathes mutants), is, in my opinion, the highlight of a story that could’ve worked as a full-fledged miniseries about the Jefferson brothers.

My only quibble with the framing of the narrative is that the early inclusion of S.H.I.E.L.D makes Jefferson look more like the unwilling participant of crime he was manipulated into thinking he had to do for “the greater good”, as opposed to some young blood who didn’t give much thought to right or wrong (which is how the early issues framed it) before he had an epiphany. I always assumed the crime came first, then S.H.I.E.L.D, then Rio. Honestly, if you’re at all interested in this storyline, just look for the single issues and don’t buy the trade. You’ll be doing yourself a favor.

#Issues 10-13

Marvel and its twisted, present-day romantic relationship with Neo-Nazism is a fairly ironic one, given most of its early artists were white Jewish dudes with alternate names designed to explicitly hide their Jewishness on account of antisemitism. But, I suppose the publications preoccupation with Nazism to begin with (even if it was denouncing it) would’ve inevitably steered its future publishers to romanticize it in the end. I mean, that’s what happened after all.

You know shit it bad when Marvel wants you to pity [white] characters like Grant Ward of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D for joining a Neo-Nazi group, despite the repeated and angry affirmations of protagonist Daisy Johnson, who flat-out reminds the audience, “You are a Nazi if you join Hydra”, who is undermined anyway by the narrative that continues to bleat, “pity the Neo-Nazi.”

Brian Michael Bendis, in all his infinite lack of wisdom, decides – the biggest way to differ Miles Morales’ love life from Peter Parker’s, is make an underdeveloped character, his girlfriend, Ultimate Kate Bishop, a member of Hydra. Miles’ white girlfriend rides on the agenda of the Aryan Ideal and white supremacy. Brilliant.

The Ultimate Spider-Man issues, #1-#4 and #7 prelude the last four issues with Miles deliberating whether or not he should tell Katie Bishop about his double life as Spider-Man. Instead of being supportive, everyone from Ganke to Cloak and Dagger warns Miles against telling her, thinking it would be a bad idea. He does it anyway, Katie panics and runs away. 

The aforementioned issues give the reader a glimpse into Kate’s life with the Bishops, with one conversation with her older sister casually mentioning that “they” would have to kill Miles and the seventh issue concludes with her uttering the phrase, “Hail Hydra.”

If The Ultimate Spider-Man had something to say about the issue of Nazism, especially in relation to Miles’ life as a Black teen – or the cautionary tale of “you never know someone until…”, then I could maybe understand the decision to make Kate Bishop (a wildly popular Avenger in the 616 universe, be she an adult or a teenager) a Nazi.

But, it doesn’t, it basically does exactly the same thing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D does with the Daisy Johnson/Grant Ward dynamic. The narrative depicts a “Sympathetic Nazi” (Katie) trying to explain their position, and a furious significant other (Miles) outright declaring their relationship is over. Only, where AOS more or less dragged that subplot out to its natural conclusion (“Sympathetic Nazi” isn’t really sympathetic and dies), 

The Ultimate Spider-Man did nothing to that extent. Readers barely have gotten to known Katie Bishop since her introduction in issue #23 of UCSM. She was given no time actually to be anything other than “Miles Morales’ girlfriend”. And when it comes right down to it, the Hydra subplot was nothing but an excuse to bring Dr. Doom into the narrative at the last moment. So, the “My Girlfriend is a Nazi” storyline just falls flat.

On a smaller note, the way the last couple issues decide to use Judge – the minor character from Ultimate Comics Spider-Man – is sigh inducing. It’s like Bendis realized his book was coming to an end and figured the best way to a handle a character that barely had any face time since the first twelve issues of the UCSM, is to just plop him in the middle of the story with his already knowing Miles is Spider-Man. 

But, he does it in a way that, if you removed him from the story, nothing would change. It’s a superfluous addition and kind’ve discourteous, especially since Bendis doesn’t do anything with Judge later on in Miles’ new 616 title, the unfortunately named Spider-Man.

Outside of issues #8 and #9, Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man is a sad conclusion to Miles Ultimate Universe solo-title career. It reminded me why I stopped reading his title four years ago, and knowing that none of his recent stuff isn’t any good either kinda makes me glad I made the decision so early on.

[bearpillowmonster]

Spider-Man PS4 Review

 I just finished the game so here's my official review. I've been taking some notes throughout playing it so don't think I didn't have time to think it over or anything. This will be a long post so bear with me. (NON SPOILERS)

I started by wondering if I should get this game, E3 looked hype from the trailers but it never stood up front the crowd, losts of speculation from me. A few months ago I watched a video where these guys got to play it early just to share game mechanics (I think it was GameSpot or something) I know what they meant in a lot of things they were talking about now. Now here's the kicker, there's DLC. I hate DLC, never get it despite a lot of it looking cool, however I saw Black Cat as one of the DLC. I have a soft spot when it comes to Black Cat, I just have to check it out when she's involved...leading me to not only buy the game but the deluxe edition as well.

Let me start from the intro of the game. It is actually very visual oriented and easter egg filled. It explains the story of Spider-Man, where we are, and the timeline in less of a minute without saying a word. A spider drops down from the window (Pete getting powers) There's a pic of Uncle Ben and May and Peter then one of Mary Jane and Harry (they've met, been friends, graduated) Next picture has only Peter and May (Ben's death). There's a notebook with concepts for a web shooter (throwback to the 2002 movie sketches) A magazine with Norman Osborn that's labeled "Secrets" with some green nerf darts (Green Goblin is the secret (hence green darts) so not yet introduced) There's a wall of newspaper clippings with some of the villains on them (The big ones that have already been fought in this timeline) Next is a series of post-it notes but the most visible says "RENT DUE". (Peter owns his own place and is struggling) Now that's what I call an intro (it gets more epic right after but i wont spoil)

One complaint I see is the graphics. "They aren't as good as we saw at E3" or something along those lines. BOI this game has great graphics for starters and second How noticeable is the texture on a wall or a puddle compared to the actual character models? This game has a perfect excuse for toning down some ever so slightly. It runs better. It's an open world game and there's maybe one small loading screen and then this bad boy of a town is all yours, If these cutscenes were prerendered (a select few are but for the most part) then it would seem weird going from that to a loading screen. THERE ARE NO LOADING SCREENS AFTER CUTSCENES! It's straight into the action. Seamless. Having the graphics of both cutscene and gameplay match each other just enhances the experience for me so good on them! Also you can look in most windows and actually see stuff in there like computers or if the light is on or chairs/tables etc. That's next level! There are tips on the few loading screens you have (such as if you start a side mission, which I'll get to here in a minute) and they go by so fast you can just barely read the tip, it's that quick for me.

Next complaint I don't see much at all anymore but saw when this game was announced was the voice cast. Yuri Lowenthal wasn't the first pick for a lot of Spidey fans but he does an excellent job in this game like I mean they all do but you can really tell that the cast went all out for this game, it's great. Yuri even shares a name with one of the characters so yay. Also he voices older Ben from Ben 10. Even though it would be cool to have different voice actors for different suits such as Tom Holland for the Homecoming suit, Yuri does a nice job. Jameson is in this and he hosts a podcast that plays sometimes while you're swinging, that's a good modern take on him but nobody will ever beat JK Simmons just saying.

The Spiderman juggernaut that was Spiderman 2 (preferably the GC version for me) was a big game to stack against, nothing has beat it until this game in my opinion. Spiderman 2 I could get lost in just doing side missions, I would literally spend my time saving people hanging from roofs, getting mugged and car chases and still be satisfied with that game, it was that good! (also I wasn't too good at knowing what to do in games as a kid so eh) The swinging, the jumping, all felt natural and fun. This game can perhaps even beat that even with nostalgia, the web swinging is the best we've seen, it applies parkour and acrobatics and gravity and momentum to define what I say is the word to describe this game "F-L-O-W". Everything has a flow and it feels good for it to flow. It does a good job of trying to keep what everyone liked with SP2...even a few character chase sequences, which I've always hated and still do but it's still nostalgic and would probably be missed if it wasn't in there. Wallrunning is a lot simpler and easier, web shooting is a lot more fun and gives you control, lots of different variety, lots of different unlockables. Also you can actually unlock that super jump like in SP2 and I love it! You don't get stuck nearly as often, if you're swinging, you don't lose momentum if you run into stairs or a building, he goes straight into wall run mode or just swings around it, feels so good. There's actually a throwback to the Spiderman 2 train sequence where he mentions "That worked last time" when trying to use his webs to stop a train.

I made sure to give a fair amount of effort to do as much as I can in this game. I did all the landmark missions, backpacks, black cat stakeouts, collected most of the suits, unlocked every skill, tried different play styles with webbing and such. (I can actually recognize how someone's play style is different than mine when I watch because I've played it so much) You don't like the white spider suit? Well you can unlock others and play as those instead, you barely have to use the white spider suit but doesn't go without saying each suit interchangeable quirks but not making any more powerful than another. Use the environment to your advantage, there's some stealth involved here but you don't have to use it, it's actually pretty fun. You can throw trash cans and concrete mix and shock people with stuff. You can crawl in vents.

Side missions and side stuff. Are they fun? I'd be lying if I said every single one was great but there are a lot of really good ones, some even bring in certain characters that I shuttered when I saw. Backpacks were awesome because it's always a mystery where they'll be as well as what's in them, plus it unlocks a certain suit. Black Cat missions, obviously I love, get a suit out of that too. Landmarks are kinda fun, I didn't think I'd like it much but I just did it and was like "Wow that's actually a really cool shot" it makes me feel like a photographer (Have yet to try Photo mode though). But here's something cool. If you go to a side mission, it will take you out of your current situation so you don't waste time or get distracted by certain elements and puts you in a separate but same version New York and if you're in a phone call with someone and you go to do a side quest during it, Peter will say something like "Sorry about that, continue" and it will either pick up where you left off in the call or rewind a little bit so you remember. Here's something I didn't think I would see though. Minigames. Yeah...so apparently you can scan an element for it's components and you have to match the lines and then there's one for the neural interface which has you making a path from one side to another, and it's not the best but whatever, it does what it does.

The story is on par. If it were separated into a movie, it might actually work, it's of that quality. The characters are great as well, each being unique to this story without breaking their comic origin too much. Spidey actually got me to laugh quite a few times with his quips. I want to go in depth with the characters because I really like how some of them are handled but I don't want to spoil who all is in this game. The AI is pretty good, I like that it tells you if an enemy can see you and can highlight where all the enemies are by pressing R3. I even had the final boss dodging some of my attacks, I had nothing but respect for that though, no salt.

Now this game is among the greats but that goes without saying there are some aspects that could be improved upon. People complained about Quick Time Events when this was revealed and I didn't blame them but now I do because I see a few scenes that look like "Aww I wanna play that" because it was probably a scene meant for QTE but they took it out because of fan backlash (QTE is still in there but not a lot fyi). At the end Peter is faced with some decisions and that's what Spider-Man is about, we even see it at the end of the first Spider-Man movie and done masterfully. This one is done really well but I almost wish we could've played that, and made the decision for ourselves just to see what the outcome would be then go and play it again to do the other route. The problem with that is this isn't a "Mary Jane will remember that Telltale/Detroit" kind of game so putting that in right at the end would feel a bit cheap. Just like the Marvel movies, there's a post credits scene so stay tuned for that. Overall a really good game, highly recommend it and await the the DLC/sequel?. I'm over 80% done with the game after finishing the story so I might as well just 100% it and complete all side missions and stuff.

[bradytgeorge]

[IDA_PROCESS MATERIALS]

Top left is the Mood Board, with the Style Tile to the right of it. Then below those are my sketches and various options in search of a good layout for the information and graphical elements.

Design Proposal: 

There are many corners of the world, each with massive diversity, and impossible to recreate conditions. Above them all though, stands the Amazon rainforest, that is home to 10% of the world’s biodiversity, and that counters global warming on an incredible scale just by existing. Advocating for the protection of the Amazon Rainforest therefore, is a must. The target audience for this project is the younger generation in South America who have started to fight against their governments on the issue of destroying the forest. The main offender of the Amazon is Brazil’s president, so Brrazilian teens and young adults are in particular a major part of the target audience. Additionally, American teens and young adults are part of the target, though for a different reason. American teens cannot be there to help protest, but they can share social media efforts and “signal boost” information about the issue. Therefore, American teens are a secondary audience.

This topic is important due to the climate and wildlife loss that our planet is in danger of, but also due to the dangers of the countries where the forest is themselves. The Amazon rainforest is being cut and burned largely to make more land for farming, a trade that while important, can be done on the land that is already clear. This means that the Amazon is being cut, burned, and destroyed due to the government’s selfish desires to expand agriculture for monetary gain even more than it already has. In the poster, communicating this selfishness and the innocent beauty of the forest are paramount, since the harsh dichotomy between the two is vital to reaching the intended audiences. To communicate this, I plan to use a lot of graphics showing the damage done to the forest over recent years, as well as what is at risk (like biodiversity, animal and plant life, et cetera). I plan on creating statistics in the text that pop out in order to draw reader attention without the need to read the entire poster, and small graphs/charts for the graphic side of this communication.

As far as design goes, pushing the forest look is a must, without letting the poster get too busy in the process. As a result, I elected to create paper-cut looking shapes of rainforest leaves/trees that can be layered to create the illusion of a dense forest, while still being relatively flat-looking and not distracting the eye away from the text. Since I’m working with a forest, there are a lot of greens in the palette, but a strong use of off-white will also be present to make whatever is in that color really pop out from the forested background. As far as the typefaces go, something that is cleanly yet not too dull was a must, so the current plan is to use the Bahnscrift typeface, which has varied weights/strokes, all of which are very legible.

Full Citation List:

11, August, et al. “Brazil and the Amazon Forest.” Greenpeace USA, 11 Aug. 2020, www.greenpeace.org/usa/issues/brazil-and-the-amazon-forest/.

Brazil's Amazon: Deforestation 'SURGES to 12-Year High'. 30 Nov. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55130304#:~:text=Deforestation%20of%20the%20Amazon%20rainforest,August%202019%20to%20July%202020.&text=The%20Amazon%20is%20a%20vital,the%20pace%20of%20global%20warming.

Butler, Rhett A. “Deforestation in the Amazon.” Mongabay, Mongabay, 4 Dec. 2020, rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html.

“Deforestation and Forest Degradation.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation.

Deforestation Fronts: Drivers And Responses In A Changing World. WWF, 2021.

Osborn, Catherine. “SOS From Brazil's Amazon Fire Protesters: 'We Need The World's Help Right Now'.” NPR, NPR, 26 Aug. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/08/26/754292402/sos-from-brazils-amazon-fire-protesters-we-need-the-world-s-help-right-now.

“Why Is the Amazon Rain Forest Disappearing?” Time, Time, time.com/amazon-rainforest-disappearing/.

[turtlestampede]

Day 1 (7/8/18) Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1

December 10, 2008

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Alex Maleev

Colorist: Dean White

Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos

We get a nice page of “previoslies” bringing those who haven’t read Secret Invasion (***waves hand***) in it’s entirety. We learn how Norman saved the world, S.H.I.E.L.D. is dismantled and Tony Stark takes the fall. Osborn is a media hero but secretly calls a meeting with the not so nice types such as Doctor Doom, Namor, Emma Frost, Loki, and The Hood (whodatguy?)

First up is Emma Frost of the X-Men and halter tops. She is dreaming about Kitty Pride. Kitty is lost, unseen and Emma cannot find her. She wakes up, the title card tells us she is in San Francisco. A H.A.M.M.E.R. agent knocks on the door delivering Osborn’s invite.

She arrives at Avengers Tower via an X-Men quinjet type of vehicle and tells the elevator to take her to sub basement nine. Doctor Doom is already there. He warns her to not to probe his mind or she shall incur his wrath. Emma takes a seat.

Namor is next to arrive and greets Doom, these two go way back. Namor leers at Emma, saying it is nice to meet her. She corrects him that they’ve already met and asks if he always smells like that (fish I presume).

Alex Maleev is an excellent artist, very humanistic style. It looks like he takes pictures of his friends and runs them through a photoshop filter. I am not saying he literally does that (not that there is anything wrong with that) but I’ve seen him draw in person, he can draw. There is a sketch he did of me actually that, well, isn’t the most flattering but damn it is a good drawing.

Now, when it comes to Namor, I wonder what his inspiration was. Namor is a powerful and regal monarch. He's described in Wikipedia as

"Namor gives off a sense of charisma which most women tend to find captivating. Many of the ladies that have entered his life made clear their attraction to his masculine, slightly alien personality in ways both subtle and blatant. He reacts to such advances with gratitude tinged with a slight distance born of monarchical etiquette."

Is that a conch in your hand or are you happy to see me?

So the Bendis writing in that he has no effect on Emma Frost is meant to be funny but if who put in a not to Maleev to depict him as a schlep is kind of amusing. I mean he looks like Rob Schneider in a SNL skit

He doesn't seem to convey his 6'2", 278 lbs kingly features.

So between Doctor Doom and Emma Frost, they are able to weed out the invisible attendants of the meeting, The Hood and Lady Loki.

First, Doom exposes The Hood, whom Emma names as Parker Robbins. This guy is new to me. Apparently he can become invisible and likes to use handguns. In a showdown, Emma uses her telepathic abilities to force Hood to put a gun in his own mouth, so now we know who has the biggest dick.

Next Loki materializes, Namor compliments her appearance, Loki is glad that Namor finds her appealing, to which he immediately back tracks his statement because Poseidon forbids anyone thinks he’s gay.

Finally Osborn arrives. He first compliments them by stating they are the kings of their world. Then reminds them of their current state of being ousted and dethroned, facing resistance from Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. He offers them each one favor in return for cooperation and loyalty.

Osborn turns his attention to The Hood. He likes how he operates and took over from the Kingpin. News to me.

A little back and forth between them, they all convey how neither of them trust or like Osborn. Osborn finally reveals that if any of them resists, he will have his friend have a chat with him. He gestures to a shadowed figure in the doorway, no discernible shape can be made. I can only guess it could be Sentry or Ares, being those are beings powerful enough to make Doom or even Loki give pause.

Osborn offers Emma Frost freedom from being rounded up in concentration camps as is being done in Canada, Doom gets extradition back to Latveria, Namor can stay if he chooses, He offers The Hood legitimacy by signing everyone up to the Initiative. He tells Loki he wants Asgard up in the heavens as Loki wants. As he leaves, he tells them to go the way they came in. So Namor goes back through the storm drain? Can you imagine this colorful crew taking the subway or a cab to midtown Manhattan to Avengers Tower? Doom gets a transport back to Latveria. I’m sure he has to stop by the Quality Inn to get his things first.

Doom and Namor are the last to leave. They have a little chat between them. Doom thinks they should let Osborn set up shop and let him implode, as he always does. Otherwise they can take the battle to him down the road.

We cut to Thunderbolts Mountain in Colorado. I remember Osborn had the Thunderbolts prior to this storyline, plus he mentioned it in the meeting. He’s having everything packed and moved to Avengers Tower.

Someone confronts him and is upset based on the use of grawlix. Osborn calls him Swordsman. I remember a Swordsman from the Avengers comics in the 70’s, I don’t think this is the same fella. Swordsman is upset that Osborn went back on all his promises to the Thunderbolts. As the argument gets more heated, Osborn takes the Swordsman’s sword and stabs him with it. Thrusts him through the window and he tumbles down the mountain. I bet at this moment the Swordsman wishes he was Plush Unicorn Man.

Osborn rants that he is in charge, and suddenly mutters “oh no” because of this moment of losing control, that the Goblin is still in there.

Back to Emma’s dream, Kitty is lost, Emma can’t find her. She wakes up screaming. Her bed companion is still asleep because he is a selfish dick.

[wallpaperpainting]

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(Osborne House)

Queen Victoria worries, in adventure 3, about actuality abroad from London; it’s not as attainable to participate in government by autograph letters. At her Osborne House retreat, however, the queen can’t advice but appetite the adorableness and ataraxia of the island.

In the English Channel, aloof several afar off the South bank of England, lies the Isle of Wight. It is actuality that, amid 1845 and 1851, Victoria and Albert had a summer home built. The London artisan Thomas Cubitt was commissioned to body the deluxe sanctuary, and Prince Albert had a abundant duke in the Italian Renaissance palazzo appearance design.

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The pièce de résistance of the Osborne House, the Lower Terrace, offered across-the-board angle of the Solent (the sea amid the island from England). There, Queen Victoria admired to sketch, or paint, attractive out over the admirable landscaped area and breath in the sea air.

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He was advised a hero to the accepted people, and has been hailed as the Father of Hungarian Democracy, and a Freedom Fighter, but he was apparent as alarming by added European leaders for his radically nationalistic views.

Bathing machines on a bank in Llandudno, Wales

In adventure 3, Victoria emerges apprehensively from a bathing apparatus to analysis the amnion of her clandestine bank on the Isle of Wight.

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More so than men, women were appropriate to bottle their modesty, but for both men or women appetite for respectability, a bathing apparatus would accept been capital in Victorian times.

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[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/05/26/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-52617/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 5/26/17

Here we are, on the verge of a 3-day weekend, which means nobody’s gonna read this thing. Still, “the show must go on”…

Well, the week was filled with spider news, as last Friday Sony announced that Tom Hardy will star in a Venom film. If you’re not “in the know”, Venom is a Spider-Man villain comprised of an alien symbiote suit and Peter Parker’s professional rival, Eddie Brock. Sadly, the film’s not meant to cross over with Spider-Man: Homecoming or any bit of Tom Holland’s portrayal. I’m starting to think Sony’s deal with Marvel Studios is actually a bad thing, as it seems like Spidey’s addition to the MCU is to the detriment of his expanded universe to which Sony still owns the rights. I don’t really care about a Venom without a Spider-Man. To add to that, yesterday, Sony announced a film starring Spider-Man supporting cast members Silver Sable and Black Cat, to be directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball). I really don’t think there’s much to say about these characters without the possibility of a Spider-Man cameo. I get where Sony’s coming from; they have all these characters, so they might as well do something with them. That said, earlier talks made it sound like they were building their own Spider-Man-centric film universe, but since the MCU deal went through, Spider-Man no longer seems to be part of the equation.

Meanwhile, the Licensing Expo was this week, and we got our first look at the poster for the animated Spider-Man movie, starring Miles Morales. Apparently it was created by a child. Maybe a Make-A-Wish kid? Seriously, that thing is terrible.

It wasn’t all bad Spider News, however, as we got the third trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming. They’re basically giving away the movie at this point, but I’m still a guaranteed butt in a seat. A lot of people are having issues with it, but I kinda like that this is basically Iron Man 4. I really didn’t need a new Spider-Man, so throwing Tony Stark in there is a good way to get me interested. I mean, I liked Tobey Maguire. I liked Andrew Garfield. I’m sure I’ll like Holland, but I’m kinda tired of the Spider-Man revolving door. Now that he’s tied into the MCU, I hope the Holland casting sticks. Then again, we’ve had three Hulks already, so…

This poster, however, is horrendous, but endearingly so. I mean, it’s really bad Photoshop, but I still kinda like it. It’s busier than Times Square at rush hour, but I love it in all its ugliness. It looks like it should be airbrushed on a denim jacket at the mall.

Across the aisle, things aren’t going so well for the DC movie slate, either. First up, Doug Liman has dropped out of directing the Justice League Dark film due to his commitment to Lionsgate’s adaptation of the young adult series Chaos Walking. In case you didn’t know, Justice League Dark would focus on the more mystical DC Comics characters, like John Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman and others, battling supernatural threats – ya know, like the kind the Suicide Squad had no business fighting. I’ve got no interest in this, but that’s ’cause I don’t really like magic. If they manage to get Swamp Thing into the movie, though, I think it’ll increase its appeal. Right now, though, they’re just a bunch of magical nobodies coasting on the Justice League name which might not even hold any power if that movie fails this Fall.

In sadder news, Zack Snyder bowed out of Justice League post-production work to spend time with his family as they grieve the loss of his daughter, Autumn, to suicide. It was revealed that Joss Whedon was brought in to finish the film, which now has fans cautiously optimistic. Just last week, there were reports that there had been so many reshoots that the film was basically a different movie from what was originally shot. It’s possible, however, that these reshoots were part of Whedon’s plan. It’s really unfortunate what the Snyder family is going through, and it’s deplorable that some folks are making jokes about the situation.

In other movie news, it was revealed that Tom Cruise’s upcoming film, The Mummy, will kick off a Universal Monsters cinematic universe called Dark Universe. I bet they stayed up real late to think of that one! Anyway, Russell Crowe will portray Dr. Jekyll (who also appears in The Mummy), Javier Bardem will play Frankenstein’s monster, and Johnny Depp will play The Invisible Man. The next film in the franchise will be The Bride of Frankenstein, to be released on Valentine’s Day of 2019. Ya know what’s funny? DC’s Justice League Dark film was also going to be called Dark Universe. Somebody’s gonna have to lawyer up!

In TV news, it was reported that Hamilton scribe and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, will voice Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera AKA Gizmoduck in the upcoming DuckTales reboot. Cabrera? Really? He’s even brown now to go along with the name change. I know some folks are gonna have an issue with this. Hell, I even kinda have an issue with it. But if they’re gonna inject some diversity into Duckburg, I guess I’d rather them do this than, say, Launchpad McQuack-Jenkins.

While we knew that Bobby Moynihan was leaving Saturday Night Live, just hours before the season finale it was revealed that Vanessa Bayer would also be leaving. Then, Monday morning, it was reported that Sasheer Zamata would also be leaving the show. I’m really gonna miss Vanessa, as she definitely grew on me. Her characters have this adorable aloofness to them that I’ve come to enjoy. She’s got a big future playing the best friend in romantic comedies ahead of her. Sasheer was simply underutilized. She was always in the background of sketches, or only had a line or two. I hear that she really shined in the writers room, coming up with sketches like Black Jeopardy. I feel like SNL will merely be a footnote on her resume, as she goes on to bigger things, like Noël Wells and Jenny Slate.

Last week, I had the pleasure of joining some of my favorite people on the Nerd Lunch podcast, where discussed some of the greatest pop culture deaths. Nobody was safe, from Santa Claus to Michael Knight! And I finally got to join my pal Vincent (@RobotsPJs) on a podcast, which has been years in the making. We had a great time, and I think you’ll have a great time listening to it, so check it out!

Song of the Week

This week, I’ve got “It Ain’t My Fault”, by Brothers Osborne. Not only are they local boys, but I love the fact that this song/video has layers. Read the title and then watch the video. They’re trying to tell us something – the same kind of thing that sank the Dixie Chicks all those years ago. My how times have changed!

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

Fresh off playing nurse Claire Temple in the Marvel Netflix shows, Rosario Dawson is in talks to play Dr. Cecilia Reyes in the X-Men spinoff film New Mutants. Just go to medical school already, Rosario!

Twin Peaks made its triumphant return for those of you who are fans. Based on the ratings, that’s not many of you…

The Get Down was canceled by Netflix after one season.

Chicago Justice was canceled by NBC after one season.

The Ben 10 reboot was renewed for a second season at Cartoon Network.

SpongeBob SquarePants was renewed for season 12 at Nickelodeon, taking it through its 20th anniversary.

Trial & Error was renewed for a second season at NBC.

The Black-ish spinoff, College-ish, received a 13-episode order on Freeform.

TruTV’s Impractical Jokers will enter national weekday strip syndication this Fall.

The bodies haven’t even gone cold and they’re already announcing a reboot of the Resident Evil franchise, this time produced by James Wan (Saw).

Tom Holland has been cast as young Nathan Drake in the film adaptation of the Uncharted video game.

In the realm of musical sequels that no one asked for, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! will be released July 20th, 2018.

Elizabeth Banks is producing a Charlie’s Angels reboot, scheduled to be released June 7th, 2019.

Tom Cruise announced that a Top Gun sequel is planned to begin filming next year. Fat Val Kilmer is waiting by the phone.

TJ Miller is leaving HBO’s Silicon Valley at the end of the season.

Surprising no one who’s been paying attention, Power Rangers continues the trend of just adding “Super” to the title of its latest incarnation’s second season with Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel

The Boss Baby 2 is a-coming, March 26th, 2021.

Sophia Bush is leaving Chicago P.D. after last night’s season finale

In the UK, there’s an annual event called Red Nose Day, where they’ve been raising money to end child poverty for nearly 30 years. Launched by the nonprofit Comic Relief, the event has since raised over $1 billion globally. The event came to the US in 2015, where you can buy a red nose at Walgreens for a dollar, with the proceeds going to the charity. One of the co-founders of Comic Relief happens to be Richard Curtis – writer and director of one of my favorite movies, Love Actually. Now, a lot of people hate the film because it gave way to Garry Marshall imitations like Valentine’s Day and New Years Eve. You know, those schlocky romantic comedies with an ensemble cast where all the storylines converge at some point. I don’t care, ’cause I happened to like those movies, too, but I especially like Love Actually.

Well, to celebrate this year’s Red Nose Day, Curtis reunited most of the cast of Love Actually to give us a 15-minute sequel to the film, called Red Nose Day Actually. We get to catch up on the characters 13 years later, and I have to say that I was smiling the entire time. It was great seeing those characters again, from Bill Nighy’s Billy Mack to Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister. I could’ve done without Rowan Atkinson’s meticulous shopkeeper, but it was even sorta nice seeing him again, too. You feel old as shit, though, when you see little Sam, who’s now 26 years old. I think his segment made me the happiest of all. Or maybe it was seeing Jamie and Aurelia and their kids. Or maybe it was seeing Martine McCutcheon again (why doesn’t she get more work stateside?!). I don’t know. I loved the whole damn thing.

The special originally aired in the UK in March for their Red Nose Day, but they’ve gone to great pains to keep it off the internet. Yesterday was the US’s Red Nose Day, and a new version of the short aired last night on NBC. Ya know, they should really have everyone celebrate on the same day worldwide, but what do I know? Anyway, I actually missed the NBC version because of things, but I was intrepid enough to find the UK version online. This morning, however, NBC posted it on their website so I was able to compare and contrast. The only real difference is that the UK version cut out the Laura Linney update, with Patrick Dempsey as her husband. It was a nice aside, but I guess British audiences don’t know who Dempsey is, so they didn’t miss out on much. Anyway, I wish more movies would give us short reunion updates, maybe on anniversary edition Blu Rays or something. It was nice to get just a taste of what everyone’s been up to, without them being burdened by a full film that would be more than likely fall short of the original. If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go watch this thing a few more times, but it’s safe to say that Red Nose Day Actually had the West Week Ever.