#also the glasses because the only character with glasses I can think of is gadget

[cryptocism]

So, out of curiosity (AND a slight fear of messing with what you've laid out so clearly in Frequency, which I see as the most reasonable and rational explanation to Thad's character inconsistencies basically, ever), I am wondering if this version of Inertia from Flash #760 fits into the Too Many Thads AU anywhere? From what I can tell, he's the only one not mentioned in your very thorough (and impressively detailed, he was at boomerang's funeral, excuse me sir why are you here???) timeline of Thad appearances. Would you consider him one of the clones we get from the AU, like Six? Or maybe just Thad himself given he's sort of just... chilling in the Speedforce lol. Or did you just not consider him given it's yet another instance of Thad appearing, doing something wild, then disappearing as quickly as he came haha. (Also, I just noticed he says vibrational FREQUENCY, nice👏)

i did... kinda include this iteration. but admittedly it's pretty brief, and the bits of story that take place in the speed force sit in dreamy abstraction rather than solid prose

start of chapter 2 when Thad is running thru the speed force:

He thinks he sees the Flash, once or twice. Tick tock tick tock. You’re running out of time, Barry. But he often thinks he sees lots of people. Once, he thought he saw Max. But the memories exist in his mind the same way a daydream would, and he can’t be sure if it was real.

The "tick tock tick tock" line is taken directly from #760

compared to the other threads of canon that Frequency is written around, it's definitely more on the borders of believably. The "tick tock" line and the bit where Thad threatens to snap his fingers and "blast Barry's mind to pieces" harkens back to the Kid Zoom era and Rogues Revenge, which fucks with my attempt to differentiate this Inertia as a separate person from Kid Zoom. but the hiccup feels minor enough that i think it still works

(and on a tangential note the whole "i'll snap my fingers and blast your mind to pieces" line straight up doesn't make sense to me because YES Kid Zoom famously snapped his fingers and exploded a baby, but he accomplished that by fast-forwarding that baby's timeline so quick that its literal molecules shook apart under the stress. Barry is a speedster and would not respond to timeline manipulation in that way - if at all - because his molecules are already used to that kind of shit. it's a weird and out of place threat to make and i think Williamson may have gotten the impression that Kid Zoom acquired the power of spontaneous combustion which he Fucking Did Not ok rant over)

the general idea i was going for was: Thad is running on rage, sees Barry, has the brief confrontation in #760 where Barry mostly just feels bad for him, and then disappears back into the storm. Implication being that Thad has actually had a couple different interactions with people during his 5 years in the speed force (Eobard, Max, Barry, etc) who try to convince him of things or promise him things, but staying for that long in the speed force (without being dead) fucks with perception a little bit, especially perceptions of Time. so when he's out and looking back on it, Thad can't totally discern what happened, what didn't, or in what order.

also the attendance at Captain Boomerang's funeral gets a shout out near the end of chapter 8 when Bart is going through Six's collection of Four's old stuff:

Some of the items on the shelf he didn’t recognize. A shot glass. A funeral pamphlet for one Digger Harkness. Several empty syringes and auto-injectors all meticulously arranged. A variety of small gadgets and devices that Bart couldn’t place.

because the funeral is technically Inertia's return after the events of Mercury Falling, I translated that as Four's first appearance in the 21st century

[etinceelle]

Do you have any Penny (or any other RWBY characters for that matter) headcannons you can share with the class? I love your content!

Oh yes of course !! Aaah I'm happy you love it ! Happy to share these headcanons as well :p

So for Penny I have a few ideas (consider them as only for when she gets her human body) :

She's asexual, or demisexual (but I'm more on the first idea). Same for Ruby btw, so as I ship them together they would definitely be the purest couple of Remnant with only kiss, cuddles, holding hands, sleeping together, going on dates, just, pure love and tender ;;;;;;;;

She would definitely love gardening and taking care of plants, animals, and to be in nature. She would enjoy even the simpliest things ever such as walking in a forest, petting an animal, enjoying swimming into the ocean... I can imagine her having her own little garden or plants she would take care of everyday (and she would be good at this !).

She would love beta fishes, and that's mostly because her VA (Taylor McNee) loves beta fishes too ! I can really see her be passionate about these fishes, and aquatic creatures in general.

She would definitely have weird tastes when it comes to food, liking to combine aliments that would just surprise everyone as it would be considered weird or disgusting xD But she would like it. Also, she would love pineapple on pizzas aha (but Ruby would hate that-).

Penny could have this habit of star gazing for a while everynight before bed, trying to learn all constellations and just admiring the stars. She would be alone and quiet most of the time at first because that's a ritual she's done by herself for a long time, but at some point I'd love her to invite Ruby so they could share this moment together, talk and enjoy each other's presence.

We could imagine Penny being really sweet and delicate (and she is), but when it comes to music... I really imagine her loving BASSES and having the time of her life when loud music is played (also she's DJ ready so she would love to create her own mixes from time to time).

If Nuts and Dolts had to be a thing, I could see her confess first to Ruby, being hesitant and scared but still confident enough to want to share that to her. Or they would just confess to each other at the same time, naturally, as they are on the same page most of the time.

Penny's love language is physical touch, no need to say that it's how she expresses she loves Ruby by hugging her, if they were more than that she would just touch her everytime she could aha

Without the Maiden powers and her robotic body, Pietro would make her gadgets so she's still able to use some of the functions she had before : rocket boots to fly, some glasses/headset to keep night vision/detectors/sensors !

For now that's what I had in mind, if I think about something else for her or other characters I'll share it :]

[sinning-23]

Kinktober 2022

October 2

Day 2

Prompt: FemDom, Chains, Toys

Character: Uta

Warnings: Yall I said this in the last one…$MUT MINORS DNI duh. Also, I haven't watched Tokyo Ghoul in literally years so sorry if this is a little OOC for Uta. Despite this, I love a good sadistic, goth.

Spinning is the cause, and being dizzy is the effect. You can help but play with Uta’s stools while he works on the masks surrounding the two of you. His jacket practically engulfs you since it was already sort of big on him. But you're warm, content, and observing every pin, nail, and grommet Uta places onto the base of the mask. He's always so quiet when he works, muttering here and there about how something doesn't look right and proceeding to fix it to his liking. 

You were known to be the jittery type, hence why you're spinning to keep yourself occupied. However, spinning is getting boring, and the way Uta looks being so focused fills your pretty little head with memories of him being fixed on…you. The way those eyes saw right through you and bore into your own. How they practically ate you up whenever you smiled or made a suggestive remark. You two just clicked most of the time, so having each other wrapped around one another's pinkie was easy. It was time to play another cause-and-effect game.

“You've been working hard, how about a break?” You suggest, standing from the chair to wrap your arms around him. 

He doesn't give though, only humming in response and sticking more pins into the mask. He breathes heavily when you don't move, not in annoyance but in frustration. He knows he's been pushing off this mask for a while and shouldn't stop, but the tone of your voice suggests you want more than just a quick break. It's been a while since you two fooled around and he's feeling spontaneous. Cause: Uta stopping his work because you asked for a break. 

“You want more than a regular break don't you?” He questions, only to have you throw your arms around his neck and smile. 

“Guilty, I just wanna have a little bit of fun before I have to go out and grocery shop.” You joke, peppering his pale skin with kisses, black tinted lips leaving prints in their wake. He shivers.

“How about this, I test out this new toy and we see how well it works, then you can get back to your work, yeah?” You suggest, toying with the silver chain around his neck.

 He knows you've got more up your sleeve but he agrees nonetheless. If it means can get work done, then of course he’d let you play and have fun. After all, your favorite pastime was toying with him. Uta hums a yes in response and you skip towards your room, shuffling echoing down the hall. The couch you had moved in was your ideal spot, something comfortable enough to sit on but big enough for the two of you to get a lil active. 

You take a seat and speak your legs wide enough for him to fit and in your hands was a black wrapped box. You pat the space and he sits snugly between your thighs. You're warm, the jacket he lent you earlier was doing its job. There's a bit of silence while you move your fingers from the chain to his hair, then back to the chain, and then to the box. 

“What is it?” He asks, only to have you shrug. 

“My guess is as good as yours, It was in a blind bag but I’m sure we’ll have fun with it don't you think?” You hum, removing the contents of the box with an excited ‘ouuuuh’

In your hand rested a semi-hard silicone ring big enough to fit about 3-4 fingers in and small paper instructions. You and Uta had experimented with toys before so this was of no shock to the two of you. Just another little gadget to add to your collection. 

“It's a cock ring, Oh and it vibrates!” You gasp, excitement now seething through you. It buzzed in your hand and Uta’s eyes were slightly wide. 

Of all the things you two tried, a vibrating cock ring had never really been on the list. Well sure your tried wands, double vibrators and glass dildos, and a fuck ton of other items mainly he had gotten for you, but Uta's more electronic toy collection was a bit small. He was more of a BDSM type, the chains and whips wand leather was more his style. You blow on his ear to get his attention.

“You zoned out, you know we don't even have to do this if you don't want.” You suggest only for him to shake his head and flash a very faint smile. 

‘No, let's. We need this.” 

Nodding you press kisses to his face, making your way to his lips, hands tangling each other. You can taste coffee on his tongue, bittersweet as you pull the chain around his neck to lightly choke him. His mouth falls open in a moan when you do. Your next instructions are simple. 

“Show me how you touch it.” You hum, still tugging the chain, still staining his face and neck with your black lipgloss.

He doesn't hesitate to pull his dick out and stroke from base to tip, his heavy breathing filling your ears. He was gorgeous. You can't help but stare at how slowly and intentionally he moves. Spitting into your hand, you moved to help, the saliva running down the side as you press your thumb against the tip, his hips jerking upward. He’s responsive, precum mixing with the saliva and sliding down his length. Uta wasn’t a loud moaner, he was more grunts and faint ‘ah!’s’ and ‘mmh’s’. Nonetheless, you loved the sound filling your ears.

“Feels good?” You hum, hearing him struggle to speak against the grip you had on the chain. 

You squeeze his face, signaling him to open his mouth and he goes so willingly, tongue sticking out as you place the cock ring onto it. If this was gonna slide on it needed to be wet first. Lube would’ve been a better option but seeing the way he licked the edges of the silicon and flicked his tongue around was by far better than squeezing a bottle.

You praise him, sliding the ring down and pressing the slow setting first. His hips buck and he groans, moving his hand to his mouth to cover but you quickly regain focus over the chain and warn him to ‘keep that pretty mouth open’. He nods, the vibrations making it harder and harder for him to contain his moans, hips thrusting into nothing.

“Tell me how it feels, I wanna know.” You hum, still stroking him while the cock ring did its job. 

“Good, so good. May I cum? Please?” He asks, knowing to be polite with you if he wanted something. You can't help but take pride in denying him, turning the ring off. Yes, this break would be far longer than anticipated.

“No, now take a deep breath and we’ll work out way up, ‘kay?” You answer, seeing the frustration in him begin to build. 

Nonetheless, he does as you say, taking deep breaths, then letting you know when he was ready to go again. So, you moved to the medium speed, a louder moan following close behind as the effect.

The wetness between your legs is becoming unbearable, but right now was about Uta, and you'd be damned to miss a performance like this. He’s whining now, fists clenched as he tries to hone in on the feeling that creeps up behind him. He’s close again. 

“Trying to chase it on your own hm?” You question, tugging the chain again as he gasps in response. He knows he's guilty, not asking permission. 

“That's fine, but guess what?” You turn up the speed again, his hips finding a rhythm with your hand and the feeling of the cock ring. 

“Since you wanna break rules, I’ll break you. We’re not stopping until I’m satisfied.” 

His eyes are rolled back now, the first orgasm washing over him with ease, a second one now building up.  His hands clench at his sides, your fingers stroking the sensitive tip, a mix of saliva and cum sticking to your skin. There's so much of it. He’s sensitive but you already know this and so does he. He brought this onto himself though.

Effect: a break Far longer than anticipated.

AYOOO DAY 2 down...uhhhh idk what's for day 3 I'm kinda playing kinktober roulette rn lmao. anyway, see yall for the next upload!

[realitysperception]

A'ight

Me and Spector_Author went to go see Rise of the Beasts and ho boy do we have words on it. Spoilers under the cut below (fair warning it's long).

First off, instead of the regular seats we accidentally bought the 4D tickets. 4D differs from 3d that on top of the glasses and pop-out effects you get smell-o-vision and your chair moves.

So I gotta say, because I have the body mass of a single dried out skeleton, seeing Optimus Primal and Optimus Prime fighting with explosions is a lot more visceral white knuckled gripping the seat handles trying not get launched forward and smash your face on the floor. I was legit bracing myself for every action scene.

But good times were had.

Alright, Spoilers. Spector_Authors writing this one. Fair warning point form because we both had ADHD and pinball from subject to subject.

This is long.

We both liked the pacing of the movie, both Prime and Primal had their character arcs balanced with each other we though, while Mirage and Noah were the backbone arcs.

Mirage was totally meant to be Jazz and we are okay with this.

Little disappointed Nightbird talked, however briefly, but all in she was pretty neat. The glowing double katanas are perfect.

More weapons should glow.

Spent all of the movie not knowing Battletraps name, but love the way he used the tow lines of his alt mode.

We need more alt-mode chases and alt-mode battles like that.

Wheeljack. Look what they did to my mans, they gave him sUsPeNdErS. There was no need for him to have such a drastic redesign, it added nothing to the plot, and in fact took away from continuity with the Bumblebee movie because he had a full fledged good design in that. But maybe they wanted to show new planet, new look, then just augment the old one. He can still have the colour change of white to brown, still have a pair of suspenders and glasses slapped on, a face too? Sure, just have retract his battle mask when he meets up with Prime. The helms fins? They were there, but only for a microsecond or a few frames in the battle scene. The battle scene, why would you bring in the gadget and explosive character if he doesn't use explosions or gadgets??

The battle scene was also pretty amazing. I got chills at "Maximize!" never have I wanted to hear that yelled so badly before. Like damn.

I would have loved a tiny bit more interaction between the Maximals and Autobots, I don't recall hearing Cheetor or Rhinox talk other than the big meet up scene. Even just a passing word in the background, maybe a supporting word on the plan to take down the warp gate, heck even small talk with Stratosphere (I think he's great too)

(Spector_Author) I refuse to gush/rant on the subspace and mass shifting needed for the Mirage suit.

The Gi Joe thing, the Gi Joe thing. Whhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyy. When the scene started I thought it was a dumb attempt to tie it to the Bayverse, but then he flipped the car and it was shoved in your face GI JOE. And I get why they did it, relaunch it and see if it works better than the last one, but why did they do it like that. Subtly is the best ways to build hype, when its panning over the laboratory floor with the technicians and mechanics, just have the Joe logo on the wall or something. Let the fans work it out for themselves.

That aside, this means that they have to bring Starscream and Cobra Commander together in a live action film.

More on the pacing of film, we both think they did pretty well at putting quips in the script without it feeling forced. humor wasn't used to break tension every single time, the chosen times used often balanced out with action scenes (Like the underground city part) A lot of the scenes and tropes/themes (Wrong words but idk what else) you could see coming and yes they were a bit corny and campy but in the best way possible. You could see them coming and you were excited for it and cheered when it actually happened.

This visuals were great too, from the settings to the CGI to the costumes with the extras. Just Mmm. The hologram ability was great and very near to my (Spector's) heart, the car chase with it was amazing. And the little scuttle creatures the Scourge releases give the heebie jebbies. The fur effects on the Maximals. Ahhhhhh! And the tumble down the hills in peru? Using the setting for plot devices?

I really like Noah/Mirage dynamic, very Tracks/Raoul and close to my heart, I think it could have been balanced more with showing Elena's talking with either Aziazor or Arcee, I felt like she got shoved to side quite a bit. (I really did like her character and motivation tho)

We had such a good time.

[skaruresonic]

For a positive SA2 query, how about your favourite level for each character? :)

Sonic - Crazy Gadget. City Escape is iconic and all, but Crazy Gadget is one of my all-time favorite Sonic levels because it shows an incredibly vibrant and dynamic side of the ARK, one which elevates it from "cool space station" to the "feels Sonic enough to me to count as a proper Sonic stage" category. This is a side of the colony rarely, if ever, glimpsed in subsequent games. (As much as I love ShTH, The Doom and Lost Impact feel too clinical and gray at times.)

The environment is alive with constant motion; you see cargo get shipped and loaded outside the observation glass; the gravity changes with a flip of the switch; you can slide down upside-down rails and take a ride through pneumatic delivery tubes. Propelled by high-speed platforming, it's just a blast all the way through.

I'm amazed that sections of the floor light up under your feet. That couldn't have been easy to implement on the Dreamcast. (Don't forget the Xbox references on the walls!)

From a narrative standpoint, Crazy Gadget is one of those Sonic levels where the story lights a fire under your feet. Because there are high stakes attached to your typical goal of "gotta go fast," you feel it more keenly, I think.

Deem's voice acting really sells the intensity of the situation. Even knowing he's programmed to bark at the player every two minutes, it seldom fails to have an effect on me when he chides Sonic for being "too slow" and warns him that if he doesn't "come here, she will die!" I love it.

---

Tails - Prison Lane. I love the environmental details they included in order to make it feel like you're traversing a treacherous maximum-security prison while making it seem neglected at the same time, crowned with rust and plunged in dreary gloom. The prison is simultaneously crammed with robots and strangely lifeless, what with a lack of facilities and cafeterias. You're always being watched by the cameras Portal 1-style.

The gears churning as the elevator carries you up; the steam spouting from the pipes; incandescent tube lights bolted to the walls flickering erratically, despite that never really being anything the average player would be given reason to notice... All of it paints a pretty sordid picture of the prison, and you can suddenly see why Tails worries about Sonic being stuck here.

Plus it's just plain fun to shoot everything in sight and this is the quickest level in which to mow them down lol

--- Knuckles - Tie between Wild Canyon and Aquatic Mine. The former because it's easy to navigate while providing interesting sights and the latter for letting us relax a little with a mysterious, lowkey vibe nice for spelunking. I also like how few enemies are in both; it really makes you feel like you're on your own.

--- Rouge - Dry Lagoon. While normally I'm not wild on SA2's desert stages, this one's really pretty with its butterflies and oasis theme, and fits well with Rouge's general character. It's lowkey enough to be pretty stress-free, which is fitting for a first level. It's also the only level that really takes advantage of Rouge's ability to swim; it's a shame she doesn't get to swim more in later levels. Can't forget our helpful friend, Mr. Turtle ;A; In addition, Dry Lagoon boasts a unique glitch wherein Rouge can climb walls and dig underwater. If you stop at certain points, she might be able to stay there indefinitely.

--- Shadow - White Jungle. Despite being the Dark counterpart of the frantic Green Forest, the atmosphere is different enough to distinguish it as its own thing. Moodier, more somber. Almost ethereal.

The sound of rushing waterfalls and the white sheens of mist blanketing the jungle almost make you feel as though you're experiencing it for the first time alongside Shadow. The landscape is full of hidden dangers and curiosities we don't have time to stop and contemplate. Fog... it doesn't bother him.

--- Eggman - Why must I choose. Cosmic Wall go whee. But Iron Gate also go whee. Fucking shit up is really fun in both these stages and you'd practically have to do nothing in order to win like Luigi get anything less than an A rank in the former. Lost Colony also go whee with a quieter more mysterious tone. hhhhh

[igniting-quill]

hi i dont think i can send asks on your other account so i'll do it here

So my dumb prompt is (for my prompt ask game challenge thing - not sure what it is either okay shhh im TIRED)

Helga and Serenity meet and Helga discovers what guns are

Shenanigans ensue

This is in response to a post I made on my other account @uc-beepboop. That sucks that you can’t send asks in the other account. Perhaps it’s because it’s my side account? IDK. Anyways, I tried to take your tired prompt into an actual sustainable fic and I ran with it. Also will probably brush this up more, but expect it on the good ‘ol ao3 some time. Some time may range from 3 business days to 3 months. Depends on when I’m satisfied.

Characters: Helga Hatebad (Arc 8: The King is Dead) and Serenity Sapphire (Arc 9: Once Upon a Crime)

Preface: This would technically not work because of the timeline difference between Arc 8 and Arc 9. I think Serenity and Helga were alive during the same time, but Idk how old Helga is, so I didn’t know how to write that. Due to this time gap, I elected to ignore it and just write Serenity and Helga as they are in canon. That being said, I took them as they were pre-Arc and plopped them into this questionable time-bendy fanfic. 

Enjoy.

—

BANG.

The sound, piercing fast and loud, halted Helga Hatebad in her tracks. It was like a fireworks blast, but with none of that ending sizzling noise. Threatening and so efficient too! It had the power to emit a sound that caused her, shocked, to stop walking. Then, it was gone in a second, the only evidence of its existence was the auditory whiplash ringing in her ears.

Helga was just about to leave for the plane of fire. She left, for the time being, for some Hatebad family gathering, so she bound over to Glacrian for a short visit. But now, she really needed to go back. Her cute, giant, slobbering hellhound was waiting for her on the other side. 

However, after that noisy blast, her curiosity beckoned her to go investigate. It sounded like some sort of contraption, made of physical parts that were non-magical… maybe a weapon. She was a weapon maker, so if her guess was correct, she would love to see what was in store.

She grabbed ahold of her Hatebad-made battleaxe, placed a hand on her Hatebad-made plate armor, and finally combed through her Hatebad-made beard. She proceeded to stroke her facial hair, considering the possibilities, while sauntering over toward where the sound came from. She squinted, shifting her gaze around in hopes of seeking answers to her questions. 

Instead, she saw a busted window on one of the local Glacarian banks, The Glacarian Bank. It was an obviously Lovejoy-owned property, the rival family to Hatebad’s, so Helga didn’t particularly care for the destruction. She approached the wreck, and with her last remaining braincell, decided to squeeze her small dwarven body through the jagged broken glass of the bank’s window. 

Only after she managed to land inside did she consider the implications if she got caught. The Lovejoy’s would find yet another reason to go after the Hatebads. Helga shrugged. Oh well. She walked deeper into the bank, but paused once she noticed that there was someone else past the corridor. There was a harengon. From the back, long hare ears that drooped from her head, an old yet well-cared for leather jacket. Now, she seemed to be fiddling with some contraption in her hands, some stick-like wood that was meshed with different metal pieces. 

Helga took another step forward, only for her foot to crunch against a piece of glass on the floor, shattering the quiet and giving away her location.

The harengon jumped up in surprise, but once she landed, she turned around and confidently turned the gadget towards Helga, a sharp metallic portion pointed at the dwarf. 

Nothing about this weapon clicked with Helga’s background knowledge. What was it? How did it work? Could the Hatebad's manufacture those and add them to their new products line?

“What’s that?” Helga asked, gesturing towards the unidentifiable weapon.

“Are you a Lovejoy?” The harengon asked, ignoring Helga. The bunny did not sound that threatening. What it looked like, at least to Helga, was that the harengon was stalling for time. Well, why not appease an audience?

“Me? A Lovejoy!” Helga laughed. “That’s the funniest thing I have ever heard. First of all, the Lovejoys are high elves. I’m a mountain dwarf. Second of all, I’m Helga Hatebad, and my family, the Hatebads, hates the Lovejoys! It’s a rivalry. My mother, especially, hates their guts.”

“Oh. Wait so you hate the Lovejoys?”

“Yeah.”

The harengon pointed the pointy weapon downwards leaned in. “So… you won’t tell on us?”

“Well, you’re doing us Hatebad’s a favor, so I’m not inclined to.”

For a moment, the harengon looked suspicious. But, in a way that showed that she was a little too trusting, she extended her hand for a handshake.

“Serenity Sapphire. I’m here with a crew and we’re breaking into the bank. Either we got hired by somebody or Art, my boss, just wanted us to do a mini-heist for the fun of it.”

“The Lovejoys are rich, they’ll be able to afford spending a little cash for you.” Helga nodded approvingly. She didn’t bring up that, these days, the Hatebads also had a lot of money as well. “Also, I you didn’t answer my question.” 

“Shoot.” Serenity said, asking for Helga to repeat the question again.

Helga pointed towards the item held in Serenity’s hands. “As a weapon’s maker, I have to know: what is that?”

“This?” Serenity shifted the large apparatus in her hands. “This is a gun.”

“A… ‘gun.’” Helga approached the new word hesitantly. “What does it do?”

“It shoots bullets.”

“Bullets?”

“You know. The way a cannon shoots cannonballs, but here it just happens on a smaller scale.”

Helga pointed to the shattered glass on the ground. “Is that how you broke the window?”

The harengon looked sheepish. “The first shot, yes. Gun’s are a pretty new weapon, so I never knew how bullets would react with glass. Turns out it just kinda goes through. It made a tiny hole, some cracks around it, but it didn’t do much more to weaken the structure. Juniper gave the rest of the window a nice kick, and that’s what really broke it. All I caused was a loud sound. So yeah, I got put on guard duty instead of getting to do any of the fun stuff.”

“Can I see the… gun in action?”

Serenity shook her head. “Julian chewed me out bad. I mean, what brought you here? The noise right?”

“Yeah.”

“Exactly. Julian was all like, ‘that’s the downside to a gun! The sound of it firing is real loud, everyone will hear it Serenity, that’s a stupid idea.’ But, I argue, that what it loses in subtlety it gains in power.” The gun was larger than Serenity herself, so she stretched the full length of her arm to showcase the weapon. “For a long distance attack, you load up the bullet and then shoot an enemy with a press of the trigger. Up close, I can fight with the bayonet.”

“The sharp part right?”

“Yes, attached to the end of a gun’s barrel. At least, I think, that’s what my dad called the sharp part when I last talked with him about the gun? The gun’s from him, and he got it from a guy… Bor— Ple? I don’t know. It's written on the side of the chamber.”

Helga looked at the name “Borple” and proceeded to immediately forget the name, unknowing that she would meet a member of the artificer family later.

Serenity continued. “I honestly don’t know too much about guns, only that it is the first of its kind. Something like a bow, a canon, a sideways firework, all with a dagger-like point at the end. My old man, Mr. Sapphire. gave it to me when I told him I wanted to become a criminal.”

Helga cackled at that. “Hilarious. You know, my mother was apparently a criminal in her younger days. A sky pirate.”

“Wait, that’s so cool. I’d love to meet her”

“Yeah, right?”

Suddenly a blaring alarm rang across the bank, intruding right into their conversation.

“Serenity!” A voice yelled out. “We gotta go, we’re gonna get caught!” 

A door opened from the far wall behind Serenity. A purple tiefling with stark white hair, giant curled horns, and blank white eyes appeared. In their arms they struggled to drag out a giant black bag, presumably filled to the brim with money. Yet, even as they failed to drag it, the bag already had giant rips that proceeded to stretch larger and larger. That was probably from the shattered glass on the ground.

“Do you need help with that?” Helga shouted above the loud shrieking pitch of the alarm. “I’m quite strong.”

“Now… Who are you? Serenity’s friend or something?”

“Riot… uhhh” Serenity shrugged, “Long story.”

“We won’t make it in time, slowpoke. Give me that.” Another voice called out. A figure emerged from the door: an aasimar with bronze skin, blue eyes, blonde hair, and only one wing. She was already carrying a lot of her own luggage, which she held above the sharp pieces of glass on the ground. It was clear, she was straining to hold onto everything, but still attempted to grab ahold of the tiefling’s, Riot’s?, load. Out slid a few coins, but it did not seem like the one-winged aasimar even noticed.

Everyone proceeded to dart out of the building, away from the crime scene. All the while, Helga and Serenity ran side by side, huffing and puffing out breaths of exertion.

Helga looked up, noticing the setting sun, golden light seeping through the allies of Glacaria. She really had to go now. Oh, her poor hell hound was waiting for her to come back while she went on a whole side quest adventure. 

“I think—” Helga sucked in a breath as she ran, “this is where we part ways.”

“Aww—” Serenity panted, but was already beginning to split off in the direction her crew was running towards. “I guess,” Breath, “I should follow,” Breath, “this money on the ground,” Heaving breath, “It was nice meeting you!”

“Same!”

The harengon finally darted away, ignoring how the butt end of her gun dragged on the ground.

Ah, what Helga would give to learn more about this exciting new weapon. But duty called. Helga jogged away from the crime zone, and slowed down after she got out of range. Hopefully Serenity’s crime gang would be smart enough to prevent people from following their physical money trail and snatched some Lovejoy money while they did it. Helga headed back towards the plane of fire.

[seagull-scribbles]

Drawn all the freedom fighters besides Rotor so here’s a quick sketch of him in my style

[palant1r]

Decided to throw my hat in the ring of Athena designs! Design notes under the cut:

I traced the body, face and hair from some official art

I kept the hair, glove and earring because I like them

I wanted to go for more of a futuristic look, to set Athena apart from other characters, go along with her Gyaxa background, and show that she symbolizes the future of law, leading the courts out of the Dark Age. I then wanted to incorporate more traditional Japanese-style elements for a few reasons. First, it calls back to her mom. Also, it parallels Simon. I think this parallel works really well: Athena as the Japano-futurism, Simon as the ronin stuck in the past

I incorporated more black into her look to parallel Simon as well, and also not make her glove look so out of place

In her canon design, the badge blends into the jacket, so I made it into another earring

I don't think the canon design committed enough to Athena having cool gadgets, so I gave her some futuristic glasses! I figure they can become more opaque for sensory overload, act as a secondary projector for the mood matrix, and be a smaller mood matrix screen if Athena doesn't want to be obvious about her analysis.

I made the rope around her obi be orange so that her hair isn't the only instance of that color

I like Athena having a skirt! I gave her a skort that also looks like the bottom half of a short kimono

Cool boots! Every lawyer in Ace Attorney has boring shoes except her, so I decided to dial the cool up to 11

I think it would be cute if the hairpiece was a birthday gift from Simon :)

[amazingphilza]

twitchcon :: cc!multiple x reader

fluff , platonic , gender neutral ! some mcyt headcanons if you were to attend twitchcon w them

cc’s included in order: tommyinnit , tubbo , ranboo , wilbur soot , philza , technoblade

cw: kinda lengthy for the minors (i think), not as much for the hags LMAO /hj

tommyinnit

this man is so excited to be at his first twitchcon & being able to hang out with all his best friends makes it a hundred times better

when he isn’t at a panel or doing meet & greets, he’s dragging you everywhere to see the whole convention center (clingyinnit)

he is just so at awe despite this not being his first convention to attend

you’d be surprised he gets tired pretty quickly & stops over to the partner lounge

you both rest for a bit against a wall in a pretty packed hallway despite it being an exclusive area to twitch partners

every time a famous streamer walks by he will yell it out and record it then vlog your reaction, even if they’re surrounded with bodyguards & trying to get to another place quickly

he’d zoom in his camera to their face at a horrible angle and be like

“oh my god it is THE ninja. ninja famous fortnite player, HELLO.”

but he gets completely ignored

then the camera pans out to you, still really zoomed in that the capture is blurry

“ninjainnit?”

“EH?”

tommy is so confused, forgetting the bit ninja did on his twitter where he renamed himself ‘ninjainnit’ for a split second

okay tommy isn’t that athletic but he will chase you and the rest of your group down a hallway if he had to

he’d probably find a toy gun from the artist alley/seller booths and shoot you and wilbur with it

but if tommy stumbles across any of the dream team, it’s about to be minecraft manhunt but irl

and he will def play his stream music while walking or smth when he’s bored (or trying to jump dream & sapnap)

** DO DO DO DO MANHUNT MUSIC **

oh my god,, now thinking about it he’s probably the one to open like random doors of empty rooms and steal stuff while you film him

like he will take a random empty glass, a bunch of pens, a freebie t-shirt, everything he sees he takes with him and you’re just panic

“tommy we’re literally not supposed to be here, and i’m stuck here filming you. it’s surely a felony in action”

“well, it’s their fault for leaving the doors open! plus this is great content. who’s the dirty crime boy now, HM?”

you’d tell wilbur about this and he’d scold tommy and threaten him with the same pen tommy stole

tommy probably would also drag you some weird event happening outside twitchcon along with tubbo and ranboo

“pokimane is giving out free pizza to everyone if we go to this one restaurant down the street!”

“we are literally gonna get bombarded. have you forgot you’re like three of twitch’s top streamers? i’d rather pay for all of our meals than try getting free pizza from pokimane against all her other fans”

“DEAL! let’s go to five guys then!”

you unfortunately end up paying for all 3 of their meals and picking on their food instead of buying your own

even with all of them making way more money than you, they still happen to be cheapskates

OR tommy will end up getting a burrito from a taco truck, immediately making a mess of himself, then proceed to complain how messy the food is to eat despite knowing what he was getting himself into before even ordering

“shit my clothes are all ruined now!”

“well that’s your fault you got a burrito, as if it’s your first time having one”

“i mean the food is good, i’m not complaining about that but i don’t think it’s that good that it’s worth costing my red and white shirt, im just saying”

tubbo

same with tommy, he is so excited

i don’t know why but i imagine him overpacking his suitcase and you making fun of him for it

anyway tubbo has his irl backpack on and streaming EVERYTHING

probably spends a lot of time at a bunch of different booths, checking out all the pointless gadgets he could buy for his stream

you’re the one to stop him from doing so

“TUBBO IT’S LITERALLY OVER TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, STOP. DONT GET IT.”

“WHY NOT?? IT WILL BE COOL FOR MY STREAM AND I WILL USE IT EVERYDAY”

“okay theoretically speaking, how the hell are you going to even bring it home? which—let me remind you—is across the country for you and not to mention the giant ocean separating america and the uk”

“free ship-pang!!!”

“i hate to break it to you tubbo but there is no way you can get free shipping on a FIVE FOOT PC. it’s nearly as tall as you! what are you even gonna do on it, hack the government???”

the arguments are all lighthearted but eventually you give in and let him splurge over a thousand dollars in different devices he claimed he “needed”

i could honestly see him visiting the beaches in san diego and going for a swim or even renting out a boat to use for a bit :D

also he’d bring benson along with him and taking a bunch of scenic photos with it in them

i have a feeling he’s the type to schedule a spontaneous meet & greet because he was bored & gets in trouble for causing a mob in a certain part of the convention

he’s like “oh god, i did not expect this many of the bois to show up AHAHAH oops”

tubbo would def pull a lilypichu and bring his melodica or ukulele and play themes while following random people/cosplayers

at the end of the day, you’d find his bag just stuffed with crap he either got for free or bought in the convention

“how did you get all that stuff? i was with you all day??? and it’s only the first day of the convention, hello?? it looks like you’ve been collecting as if twitchcon has went on for a week already!”

“HA i have my ways, do not underestimate my powers”

lani would probably tag along for the vacation honestly

like whenever someone comes up to her giving her gifts/asking for pics, you and tubbo would tease her about how famous she is

and i dunno but something about tubbo just gives me this amusement park energy and going to legoland and spending the whole day there since it’s near by and because he can

ranboo

he is like a beacon in a sea of people, that’s it .

i honestly just see him causing as much chaos as the other two

ranboo would probably like take someone’s camera whether if they’re streaming or if it’s for the vlog, hold it up high, and point the camera directly above someone’s face

it did not matter how tall you were and if you had platform shoes on, ranboo was a skyscraper next to you

“HAHAH this is how i see you from this height, this is funny”

then he shows you the vid of the recording of him getting like an aerial view of your face

like you see your nose and all your pores and just overall a bad angle to be captured in

“OH GOD RANBOO DELETE THAT, ITS HORRIFIC”

i dunno why but i feel like he’d jump scare every person that was cosplaying as his minecraft character from behind for some reason

“BOO!”

“ranboo i’m not even remotely dressed as your skin—”

“don’t worry i’m practicing it’s fineee”

“you’re like the height of 2 people combined, i think you will be fine as is. you even intimidated the security at the front”

i feel like if he had his own panel he’d like pull up some undertale song in the middle of it and scare all the people in the crowd

“lore but in real life”

probably would get some matching keepsake with you from artist alley/the booths!

i could imagine like a cute keychain or smth :D

i feel like he’s the type to like randomly volunteer as a participant for those mini events in a booth thinking it would be funny but regrets it the moment he’s on stage

after introductions the presenter is like “okay ranboo, you will be given a random meme prompt above your head you won’t be able to see until after and you will have to make a random face to compliment it!”

and you can just tell by his facial expression he’s just thinking

oh god what have i gotten myself into

what is this game? who came up with this idea?

you’d laugh at him the whole time, even after he’s off the stage and finished with that small fiasco

“that was horrible. never again.”

“AHAHAH IT LOOKED SO AWKWARD YOU DID GREAT”

“I CROSSED MY EYES AND PUFFED MY CHEEKS BECAUSE I COULDNT THINK OF ANY OTHER FACIAL EXPRESSION. THE PROMPT ENDING UP BEING ‘WHEN TWITTER CANCELS YOU FOR USING PLASTIC STRAWS.’ AND WHEN I SAW WHAT IT WAS—LITERALLY WHAT KIND OF GAME–”

“I GOT PICTURES AND EVERYTHING ITS PERFECT AHAHAHAH”

wilbur soot

honestly with wilbur it’s slightly more chill

he already experienced twitchcon before so he’s just glad to see his friends again after so long

insists that you explore the convention yourself rather than sticking with him the whole time but you do anyway!

wilbur would probably have like a mini concert and gets you front row seats with the rest of the group

but that doesn’t mean before it that you’re not helping him set up

“y/n please– my amp is so heavy, i can carry it”

“don’t worry! i’m strong” :D

and musically talented or not, he will probably bring you and the rest of his friends up to stage to just vibe and sing a bunch of random acoustic songs

it’s not like some big concert hall stage,, i imagine more like a casual thing w a slightly higher platform from the ground yk?

after spending a long day at the convention he’d also bring everyone across the city to la jolla or smth !

you’d all probably have dinner there and chill, watching the pretty sunset

“this place is really pretty but oh my god im gonna lose my breath hiking up this stupid hill, please slow down”

and wilbur is like ??? because he’s completely fine with his long legs and everything

“just walk faster”

“no, you walk slower”

AHAHAH and for context traversing through la jolla by walking around the town is a bit hard since it’s basically on a bunch of hills (walking up from the beach to a restaurant actually is actually sm work, trust me ive been there)

wilbur honestly doesn’t spend that much time in the actual convention center, he’s probably sightseeing a bit of san diego with you instead

but i could imagine him staying at the tabletop games area playing dnd or smth

“c’mon y/n, come join!”

“uhh i’m not sure, i’m not the best at roleplay and...”

“it’s fine don’t worry!”

he’d pull you in with him and end up enjoying yourself even if it was your first time

and if you’re of age, you’d be wilbur’s +1 at the twitch partner party and make sure mans doesn’t too drunk

if it’s not too late in the night, you two would chill at the beach after the party

it’s just a nice, calming moment after all the loud music mixed with hundreds of conversations at the party

also something about like taking polaroids pictures with wilbur just seems to go hand in hand for me

i’m not sure why but you will be taking lots of pics with wilbur for sure (not necessarily you both in the photo, but of sceneries as well while you’re together!)

philza

literally a dad on vacation with his children, it doesn’t matter how old you are

need sunscreen? surprisingly has it

want a snack? probably has a small granola bar somewhere in his bag

but same with wilbur, he’s more chill like this isn’t his first time at twitchcon

omg he’d def bring you to the artist alley and just buy a bunch of fanart and stuff tho

“oh wow look phil, someone made a giant poster of the dream smp and shit!”

“holy shit that’s so good what the fuck!”

and he’s like rushing to that artist’s stall to buy a poster or print

idk why but phil seems like the person to know where he’s going all over the convention center

he probably had a copy of the directory map but yk

you just have trouble reading it bc all the signs seem to be misleading to you

nothing really crazy screams out to me of what phil would do at twitchcon besides like go to a few events, spend a bunch of time w his friends, etc

HOWEVER i could see him wasting a lot of his time at the gaming area and testing new games that are currently on the works of being developed

like “woah y/n, this vr game is sick, you should try it out!”

ngl i feel like phil would plan a visit to disneyland for everyone, like he gets the tickets and everything but once you’re at the park it’s free reign, y’all go everywhere with not much of a plan

the minors would try to cheap out phil and pay less than the others even though everyone else fully paid phil back and everything LMAO

ok but if he’s feeling nice, phil will buy everyone cotton candy/pretzels :D

and if you’re not hungry, he’d at least get you a mickey balloon

HE WILL HAVE MATCHING MICKEY EARS WITH MUMZA YES .

ALSO STAYING FOR THE FIREWORKS THOUGH OMG

just in general, best idea phil had for taking everyone to disneyland :D

technoblade

surprisingly techno is really calm despite this being like one of his first conventions

but when he finally settles in and gets comfortable, he’s showing the same energy

if you’re playfully yelling, he will yell back

however there’s still those awkward moments that are unavoidable

idk why but something about him makes me think that if you feel tired and want to go back to your hotel room, he’d go with you just to make sure you get there safe

he probably also needs a break from being around everyone else for a moment too LMAO

i could also see him searching far and wide in the artist alley for fanart of himself AHAHAH

walking around with him in the convention consists of someone yelling “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD” every 5 minutes but you don’t really mind

something about him makes me think he’ll be forced into playing minecraft twitch rivals along with the rest of sbi or smth

and he’s like “oh god, i’m going to be on stage? and people will see my face while i play minecraft?”

“i’m sure it will be fun!”

“i mean i like being competitive and feeding my ego, but i’m not that desperate.. well”

do i imagine techno getting easily tired of being surrounded by a bunch of people and just going back to his hotel room with phil and watching some anime with him? yes

and will you watch even if you have no idea what’s going on? also yes

i feel like after a while of you guys hanging out in techno’s room, the rest of the gang will just slowly join you guys

like eventually everyone is there; you, techno, phil, wilbur, niki, tommy, tubbo, ranboo, etc

and techno is like “wha– where did you guys come from?” because his room is basically packed

and niki could be like “oh we can go if you want!”

then techno just insists that she’s fine “but who let the child get in?” clearly implying tommy’s presence

“OI!!”

eventually techno gives in with the company and someone gets a bunch of board games to play from the front desk

lots of yelling and laughing for sure

when it becomes late at night, techno is like half conscious, you’re on your phone, wilbur is staring out the window & enjoying the night view, tommy is passed out on the couch from tiredness, tubbo & ranboo is still wide awake quietly talking, and phil & niki are helping clean up the giant mess

eventually everyone brings themselves to go back to their own room except tommy who won’t budge

you give techno a look and he immediately understands what you were thinking

he rushes to the bathroom to fill up two cups with ice cold water and handed one to you

“on three?”

“okay.. one”

“two”

“three!”

then both of you pour the water on the poor child’s face

he jolts awake and saying a string of curses

“what the fuck techno? y/n too?”

“get out” is the only think techno says that before tommy rushes out with his stuff and you leave right after

a/n: i honestly can’t wait until conventions open up again though,, phil and ranboo were talking about vidcon earlier and omg.

also i kinda want to take in tommy requests but i’m not sure??? it would be both cc! and c! x gn!reader for sure tho. i love writing him to bits but who knows, maybe i’ll only stick to my ideas,, or not. send in a tommy x reader request, might do it, might not, but he’s my fav cc if you can’t tell so! :D (i dunno if i will keep it strictly platonic, but unrequited crushes and stuff are fun to write hehe,,)

edit: let’s hope i fixed all the grammar mistakes LMAO we love writing late at night :) /s /hj

[purrincess-chat]

Under the Moth’s Wing Not-so-Enemies AU CH1: Origins I

Happy Birthday! Wait, no. But for reals, I’m gonna be out of town next week, so idk if I will have an opportunity to share this on June 1st, so I’m dropping it today! And because it’s my birthday you all have to read it and leave a nice comment. My birthday powers say so. Also, also I commissioned art from the one and only @yunyin of this AU, so go reblog it and support her! Okay, I’m gonna shut up now and just let you guys read it! 

Read on AO3

Rating: T

Tags/Warnings: angst, Ladrien, Adrinette, enemies AU, Adrien meta, character exploration, canon rewrite, what if, Gabe tells Adrien his plans from the beginning, Adrien is not Chat Noir in this AU, TW: child abuse (psychological, emotional, pretty much on par with canon, but just in case)

Summary: 

When his father tells him of nefarious plans to revive his ailing mother, Adrien falls head first into a fight he can’t afford to lose, but things change when he’s saved from one of his father’s monsters by Paris’s beautiful new superheroine. Is Adrien willing to risk his mother’s life for the girl he loves, or will he betray his heart to restore his family?

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

Chapter 1

The elevator was cramped. Cold chrome walls encased every side, barely wide enough for one person, let alone two. Adrien huddled closer to his father, heart pounding, but his father didn’t look at him. He stood straight and stiff, eyes distant and pensive—typical. His father always seemed to be looking somewhere else ever since Adrien’s mother disappeared. Adrien never dared to imagine that those eyes kept secrets hidden beneath the surface. Secrets, he supposed, he was about to become privy to.

“Adrien, there’s something I need to tell you.”

When his father entered his room that morning, Adrien hadn’t anticipated being led to a secret elevator in his father’s studio. All of it felt like a secret agent movie. Was his father working for the government? Or maybe he had a secret lair full of gadgets and monitors like Knightowl. It was fun to think about, but the further the elevator dropped, the heavier the pit in Adrien’s stomach became. Where were they going? And what was his father hiding?

The elevator slowed to a stop, and Adrien stepped out as the door opened, wincing against the dim lighting. The cavern was cool and damp, stretching higher than he would have thought possible. How far underground had they gone? And how long had this been below their feet?

His father stepped out after him, pacing up the long runway without hesitation. Whatever the room was, his father must have come down often, for he didn’t seem to share Adrien’s unease.

Adrien scurried after him, working double time to keep up with his father’s long legs. He attempted to peek around him to see what lied ahead, but the aisle was too narrow and the cavern too dark. Goosebumps pricked his arms, and Adrien rubbed them with a ragged breath.

“Father,” he said, finding his voice, “where are we?”

“Somewhere I should have taken you a long time ago.”

The metal gave way to soft grass underfoot, tall plants and vines framing a large pod in the center. His father ran a hand over the top, his touch delicate, tender almost. A sad smile curled on his lips, and Adrien stiffened when he turned to him.

“I hoped we would never have to use this place. Your mother and I prepared it a few years ago.” His father’s smile faded. He pressed a button on the side, and the front of the pod opened, parting to reveal a glass box underneath. Lights clicked on, illuminating what lay inside.

Adrien’s heart stopped.

“Mom!” He stepped forward, reaching out a hand to touch the glass but hesitating, afraid that his touch would destroy the fragile casing. Hot tears slid down his cheeks, and Adrien turned to his father. “You said she was missing.”

“To the rest of the world, she is,” his father said.

“What’s wrong with her? Is she…” Adrien bit his tongue, a hard lump welling in his throat.

“She is asleep. Comatose, for now. Her body is preserved here until I can reverse the damage.” His father placed a hand on the glass. “And I will bring her back to us.”

“I don’t…” Adrien couldn’t find the words, thoughts racing too fast to pinpoint a single question.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. I shouldn’t have kept it from you this long, but I wanted to be absolutely sure before we started.” His father turned to him. “Your mother was very sick, and there was nothing modern medicine could do for her. So we started researching alternatives—holistic medicine, natural remedies, anything we could get our hands on, but nothing worked. Naturally, your mother didn’t want you to worry, so we kept it from you the best we could.”

He cupped Adrien’s cheek, gray eyes boring into his somberly. Pressing his lips together, his father’s hand fell back to his side, and he turned back to the pod.

“We’d almost given up hope when we learned about two magic jewels.” His father pulled a small box from his suit coat and opened it.

Adrien winced against the bright purple light, flinching when a small creature manifested from inside. A smile curled on his lips, but the creature shied away when he tried to poke it.

“It’s like the genie in a lamp,” he said.

“It’s much more powerful than that.” His father trailed a finger over the purple brooch. “Your mother and I discovered this in our travels. It’s called a Miraculous—a jewel that grants the wearer magical power.”

“Whoa!” Adrien blinked with newfound awe.

“Nooroo.” The small creature flinched when his father spoke its name. “Remind me again what powers you grant.”

“The moth brooch grants the wearer the ability to give people their own superpowers and make that person their devoted follower.” Nooroo explained.

“Whoa, so you can make your own superheroes?” Adrien grinned.

His father turned back to the pod with a frown. “I have other plans in mind,” he said. “The moth brooch is simply a means to an end. The real Miraculouses I’m after are the earrings of the ladybug and the ring of the black cat.”

“Why do you need those two specifically?” Adrien asked.

“It is said that whoever possesses both the ladybug and black cat may obtain the ultimate power and be granted one wish,” Nooroo said.

“And with the ultimate power…”

“I can bring your mother back to us and cure her illness.” His father trailed a hand down the side of the pod with a sigh. “I must have that power at all costs, so I’ve devised a plan to chase the ladybug and black cat out of hiding.”

“You’re going to use the moth Miraculous to create superheroes to help us find the ladybug and black cat?” Adrien tilted his head to the side.

“In a sense.” His father straightened and turned back to him. “What better way to lure out two superheroes than by creating supervillains?”

“But, Master, the Miraculous must never be used for evil!” Nooroo said.

“I bear no contempt for the citizens of Paris. All I desire is the ultimate power. I will stop at nothing to achieve it!” Removing his ascot, Adrien’s father fastened the brooch to his shirt. “Nooroo, transform me!”

The small purple moth closed its eyes, resigned to its orders. Adrien’s father transformed in a flash of purple light, dozens of butterflies appearing around them. He turned to Adrien, placing a dark gloved hand on his shoulder.

“I will fix everything once I have the ultimate power. I promise,” he said.

Adrien pursed his lips, hands clenching into fists at his sides. “Isn’t there another way? I mean, creating supervillains… Couldn’t that be dangerous?”

“We pay the prices we have to.” His father pressed the button on the pod, closing the casing once more. “I will only make villains as long as I have to. Once we have your mother back, everything can go back to normal.”

Adrien lowered his gaze to his shoes, heart hammering. He hadn’t dared to ask after his mother disappeared, but now…

“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked. “Maybe if… If I went to school like everyone else, I could be on the lookout for the heroes. I could report back to you if I found anything.”

“You know how I feel about you leaving the house, Adrien,” his father said, his tone curt and cold—a warning.

“I know, but if I were allowed outside, I could help you. I could be your spy and-”

“Enough, Adrien. We’ve talked about this.” His father shook his head.

“Please, father? I want to help, and you did say you’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back.” Adrien pressed his palms together.

His father turned to him, stony eyes narrowed. Adrien reflexively straightened, holding his breath.

“Adrien,” his father said, “if anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself.”

Adrien breathed out. At least this time his father didn’t yell, which Adrien supposed was progress. He’d ask again next year. Maybe if they found these Miracu-thingies, his father would be in a better mood.

“I understand, Father.” Adrien tucked his hands into his pockets to hide how they shook, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground to prevent tears from spilling over. He flinched when a gloved hand gripped his shoulder.

“Your bodyguard or Nathalie will accompany you anywhere you go. When a hero does appear, I need you to make sure they lose to my akumas.” His father ordered.

“You’re letting me go?” Adrien blinked.

“I’ve known for a long time that I can’t keep you locked up here forever,” his father said. “This mission is too important to take on alone. I will allow you to attend school if you will help me find and capture the ladybug and black cat.”

“Thank you, Father!” Adrien threw his arms around his waist, leaning against his chest. “I’ll do whatever you need.”

“I’m glad you understand. It’s going to take all of our efforts to bring your mother back.” His father placed his hands on Adrien’s shoulders. “I need you, Adrien.”

Adrien smiled up at him. “Of course, Father.”

***

Late summer sunlight warmed Adrien’s cheeks as he stepped out of the car onto the pavement. Businessmen and women rushed past, paying him no mind. Cars honked at crosswalks, the ever-present hum of the city much louder outside the walls of the mansion. Students were already filing up the stairs to his school, trading yawns from waking up early for the first time in three months.

School.

Adrien grinned, heart fluttering with a giddiness he usually only felt on Christmas. Out of all the shiny toys he got every year, this gift was probably his favorite. How many of the kids passing him on the sidewalk were in his class? Which ones would be his new friends?

Friends! He was going to make real friends. Maybe he’d even meet a cute girl and fall in love. His parents had met at school after all. Was the girl of his dreams waiting on the other side of those doors? His head was spinning, the excitement making him lightheaded.

“Adrien,” Nathalie called, and judging by her tone, not for the first time.

“Sorry, Nathalie.” He turned back to the car.

“Don’t forget your fencing lesson after school. We’ve enrolled you in M. D’Argencourt’s fencing academy. You will train here at the school from now on,” she said.

An actual team!

“Yes, Nathalie.” Adrien nodded.

“Don’t get distracted by your new environment. Remember your father’s mission,” Nathalie said, and Adrien’s shoulders sank.

“Yes, Nathalie,” he said more somberly.

“Your bodyguard will pick you up after your fencing practice. You’ll study Chinese independently until dinner, then practice piano.”

“Yes, Nathalie.”

Her face softened. “Have fun today, Adrien.”

Adrien smiled as she rolled up the window and drove off, turning to face his new school. His real school. With real people. Real kids his age. All waiting for him inside.

He didn’t hesitate, sprinting up the stairs with all the glee of a dog let off its leash for the first time. The courtyard was buzzing with chatter as friends reunited after a long summer apart. Many of the students already seemed to know each other, and Adrien stood at the top of the stairs, wondering where to jump in.

“Adrikins!” A familiar lilt sang, and a yellow designer cardigan latched onto his neck, planting kisses on his cheeks.

“Hey, Chlo.” He chuckled, squeezing her tight. He’d forgotten she went to this school too. They hadn’t seen each other since his mom disappeared. “It’s so nice to see a familiar face.”

“Don’t worry about a thing, Adrikins. I’ll teach you how to navigate the real world. You’re so lucky to have me.” Chloe flipped her ponytail and linked an arm through his. “Sabrina, carry our bags. We don’t want Adrien getting tired on his first day.”

Chloe’s red-headed friend scrambled to take Adrien’s bag. He almost protested, but a throng of students surrounded them, shoving Sabrina to the side.

“Are you Adrien Agreste?”

“I’ve seen your face on ads around town.”

“Will you sign my notebook?”

“Uh…” Adrien looked to Chloe for guidance, but she simply held up her phone to take a selfie with him.

Students lined the hall on either side as Chloe paraded him through the courtyard, and he even signed an autograph or two along the way. He knew celebrities got attention like this all the time, but until today, he’d never considered that he was a celebrity. He picked up modeling for his dad after his mom disappeared, hoping to help in whatever way he could. Pouting for a camera didn’t really seem all that impressive to Adrien, but apparently it meant a lot to other people.

“This is our class, Adrikins. I even made sure to save you a seat on the front row.” Chloe gestured to an empty bench next to a kid with glasses. She flicked her gaze to the dark haired girl in the seat above, her face screwing into a scowl. “Beat it, Dupain-Cheng. That’s my seat.”

“What?” The girl blinked.

“You heard me. This is Adrien’s seat, which means this is my seat, get it?” Chloe said.

“But this has always been my seat,” the girl said.

“Not anymore,” Sabrina said, setting Chloe’s bag on the bench. “New class, new seats, new rules.”

“It’s really not that big of a deal, Chlo. We can sit somewhere else-” Adrien started, but Chloe waved him away.

“Let me handle this, Adrikins. You’re still learning,” she said. “Look, Dupain-Cheng, Adrien doesn’t want a loser like you drooling on him all day, now move!”

“What’s the big deal with Adrien?” the girl asked.

“Ugh, can you believe she doesn’t know who Adrien is, Sabrina? I know you’re poor, but surely your eyes work.” Chloe rolled her eyes.

“He’s only a famous model. His ads are everywhere in town,” Sabrina said, pulling up his latest perfume ad on her phone.

“So?”

“So, I’m his best friend, and you’re a nobody. Now, move!” Chloe ordered.

“Chloe-” Adrien started.

“Hey, who elected you queen of seats?” A girl with fiery red hair stepped in and cocked a hip.

“Oh, look. The new girl thinks she’s a hero come to save her little damsel in distress. What are you going to do superfreak? Shoot lasers at me with your glasses?” Chloe laughed.

“Chloe!” Adrien gaped.

The other girl wasn’t deterred, stepping into Chloe’s face with a hard glare.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she growled, taking the tiny girl’s wrist. “Come on. You can sit by me.”

They brushed past Adrien, the feisty one bumping his shoulder out of the way. Chloe fluffed her ponytail and took her seat, unfazed, but Adrien’s stomach twisted in knots. The tiny girl with pigtails shrank away from him when he looked over at her, and the red-head shot him a cutting glare.

He’d barely been at school five minutes and instead of making two friends, he’d somehow managed to make two enemies. Chloe had always been bossy, but he never imagined she could be so mean. This wasn’t how he pictured his first day at all.

“Hey, Chlo, don’t you think that was a little harsh?” he whispered.

“Oh, Adrikins, you have so much to learn about school culture, but don’t worry. I’ll make sure everyone around here gives you the respect you deserve.” Chloe booped his nose with one finger.

“I really don’t think-”

“Okay, class, find your seats.”

Adrien curled his shoulders as the teacher strolled in, not wanting to make a bad impression on anyone else, and took his seat. He flicked his gaze to the boy next to him, but his seatmate made a point not to look at him.

How had everything gone wrong so quickly? Adrien had dreamed about going to school and making friends his whole life, but now that he was finally there… Things were a lot more complicated than he realized. TV made it all look so easy, so why was everything going so wrong?

“For those that don’t know me, I am Mlle. Bustier. I’ll be your teacher this year. Let me call roll, then we’ll get started,” the teacher said.

Roll call. He’d seen it in movies before. He could do this.

“Agreste, Adrien?”

“Present!” He shot up, every eye in the room turning to him.

A few of his classmates snickered, and his cheeks warmed. Had he done something wrong again? He sank back into his seat, rubbing his neck.

“Bourgeois, Chloe.”

“Here.”

At least he was learning his new classmate’s names. That girl with the red hair was named Alya, and the tiny girl Chloe kicked out of her seat was Marinette. Maybe he could try and talk to them later and see if Chloe would give that girl’s seat back. Or maybe she could have his seat. It didn’t really matter to him where he sat. He just wanted to make friends.

“Lahiffe, Nino.”

“Here,” the boy beside him said.

“Lavillant, Rose.”

“So, your name’s Nino,” Adrien whispered.

“Yeah,” the boy said.

“I’m Adrien.” He held out a hand.

“I got that.” Nino looked him up and down. “You’re Chloe’s friend, right?”

“Well, we’ve known each other since we were kids-”

“Adrien, Nino, is there something you’d like to share with the class?” Mlle. Bustier asked.

“No, ma’am,” Nino said.

“Adrien?” She quirked a brow.

Everyone was staring again.

“Uh, no, Mlle. Bustier. I’m sorry.” Adrien faced forward and leaned against his fist.

“You can talk to each other after class.”

“Yes, ma’am.” They both said.

Maybe coming to school wasn’t such a good idea after all. Adrien thought it would be all fun and friends and learning, but all he’d managed to do was single himself out as Chloe’s best friend—a title he was starting to realize wasn’t a compliment. Just like a crime show, Chloe was Francoise-Dupont’s leading criminal, and he was guilty by association.

Class was otherwise uneventful. He answered a few questions right but got in trouble for blurting instead of raising his hand. With every misstep, he took mental notes on how to do better next time. Adrien was learning a whole other curriculum outside of class instruction—how to fit in. He’d never really thought about it before. All his life he just wanted to go to school. He never thought about what to do once he got there. Socializing was a lot harder than he imagined.

The school bell signaled the end of their first class, and Adrien mimicked the other students packing their bags. He didn’t actually know what to do next. Chloe hadn’t shown him where the locker room was, let alone helped him find which one was his. All she’d really done was show him off to everyone and make two people hate him. And with all the dirty looks coming his way, he didn’t dare ask one of his other classmates for help.

Resigned to his fate, Adrien approached Mlle. Bustier timidly, but a commotion a few rows up stole her attention.

“Kim!” A large boy raised a fist at the boy across the aisle.

“Ivan! What’s going on?” Mlle. Bustier demanded.

“It’s Kim! I’m gonna-”

“Ivan, go to the principal’s office! Kim, up here, now!”

Ivan crumpled the paper in his hands, slinging his backpack over one shoulder. He brushed past Adrien on his way out of the room. Kim slinked down to the front, shoving his hands in his pockets when Mlle. Bustier crossed her arms over her chest.

So much for that.

He could ask Chloe again, but he was starting to realize that attaching himself to her wasn’t the best way to make new friends. Plus, she wasn’t exactly helpful. Maybe he could ask his seatmate…

Nino was already halfway out the door, so Adrien rushed after him.

“Hey, wait!” he called, but Nino didn’t slow his pace.

“What, dude? I really don’t feel like being Chloe’s next victim today.” He rolled his eyes.

“I-I don’t really know what Chloe was on about earlier, but I was hoping we could be friends,” Adrien said.

“What and put me right under Chloe’s diamond-studded heels? No thanks,” Nino grunted.

“I-” Adrien stopped, and Nino did too, looking Adrien up and down.

“Look, dude, if you want to make friends around here, you’ve gotta ditch Chloe. No one likes her.” Nino crossed his arms over his chest.

“I know she’s not perfect—I didn’t know exactly how not perfect—but she’s the only friend I’ve ever had,” Adrien said.

“You definitely need better friends, dude,” Nino said. Something in Adrien’s expression must have changed his mind because he sighed. “Fine, I’m in, but if Chloe says anything to me, I’m out.”

“Really?” Adrien perked up.

“Sure.” Nino shrugged. “You’re like a lost little puppy, so someone’s gotta teach you not to pee on the rug.”

“I’ve never peed on a-”

“It’s an expression, dude.” Nino draped an arm around him with an eye roll. “You have a lot to learn, my guy.”

“Great, can we start with where my locker is?” Adrien held up a slip of paper, and Nino shook his head with a laugh.

“Come on, dude. I’ll show you around.”

Nino knew a lot of people in the locker room, and Adrien studied the ease of his interactions with their peers carefully. He didn’t want to mess up again.

When they passed the two girls from earlier, Adrien’s shoulders curled.

“You should stand up for yourself. Don’t let her walk all over you,” Alya was saying to Marinette.

“It’s hard. Chloe likes to make my life miserable.” Marinette twisted one of her pigtails around a finger.

“You just need more confidence, girl. It’s like Majestia says, ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good people do nothing.’ Well, Chloe and her little posse are evil, and we’re the good guys,” Alya said.

“Yeah, but I’m not a superhero,” Marinette said.

Adrien’s ears pricked.

“Don’t worry. If she picks on you again, I’ll punch her for you, okay? My sister’s a boxer, so Chloe won’t even know what hit her.” Alya patted Marinette’s shoulder.

Confident, strong, good and evil. If Adrien was looking for superheroes, Alya would be his first pick. It made sense why she hated him. After all, he was the villain of this story in the proper sense of the word. Pretty soon his father’s plans would be in motion, and he had no choice but to help. It was the price he paid for freedom.

“Ya know,” Nino said, “Marinette is actually really cool. I’m sure she’ll forgive you if you just talk to her.”

“What?” Adrien blinked.

“You were thinking about earlier, right? How you can make it up to Marinette?” Nino asked. “I’ve known her since we were like eight. She’s really nice—clumsy—but nice. Talk to her, I’m sure you can work things out.”

“Oh, uh, yeah…” Adrien shook himself. “What should I say?”

“Just tell her you’re not like Chloe. They’ve had beef since they met. Chloe has always tormented her, so she probably just thinks you two are the same. If you’re nice to her, she won’t hold a grudge,” Nino said. “You wanted to make friends, right? Lots of people love Marinette. She’ll be a good place to start.”

True, Adrien wanted friends more than anything, and he did feel bad about the seat thing with Chloe… Squaring his shoulders, Adrien approached the two girls, whose faces fell the moment they spotted him.

“Hey.” Adrien waved.

“Is your locker not good enough? Do you want this one too?” Alya asked.

“No, it’s fine. Actually, about earlier, I-”

“Kim!”

The doors to the locker room flew from their hinges as a giant rock creature burst in with a guttural roar. Students dove for cover, racing for the exit as the creature ripped through lockers in its search, but Adrien only sighed.

Did his father have to pick now to start his plans? Couldn’t he have given Adrien a few hours to make friends first? And what was that thing? When his father said supervillains, he expected a wizard in tights, not a giant rock monster!

“What is that thing?” Marinette gasped.

“I dunno, but I’m gonna follow it,” Alya said with a grin.

“Are you crazy?” Marinette blinked at her in disbelief while Alya checked her phone and pockets.

“Don’t you know what that is?” Alya asked. “It’s a supervillain! Which means, superheroes. I’m not missing this.”

“Marinette is right. It could be dangerous,” Adrien said.

“Take a hike, daddy’s boy. We’re not interested in a lecture.” Alya brushed him off as the creature stomped through the wall in pursuit of Kim. She gave chase, calling over her shoulder, “If you do anything to Marinette while I’m gone, I’ll kick your butt when I get back!”

Marinette’s eyes were wide with fear, and Adrien’s stomach flipped when she pressed her back to the lockers. He hadn’t thought of the repercussions of supervillains running around destroying the city. People were scared, and they should be. Everything they knew and loved was crumbling before their eyes, and none of them knew if they were going to make it out or not. If they didn’t find the heroes soon, there wouldn’t be a Paris left for his mother to wake up to. How could his father go through with something so destructive?

“We should get out of here.” Adrien reached for Marinette’s hand, but she shied away from his touch.

“I’m going home,” she said, backing away from him.

“Marinette, about earlier, I-”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish before she raced from the room. Now probably wasn’t the best time for apologies. He’d have to work on his timing later.

Adrien shoved his hands into his pockets with a sigh. Somehow, his father creating a supermonster wasn’t the worst thing that happened that morning, and at the rate the akuma was destroying everything, there probably wouldn’t be a school left for him to attend. He’d say the freedom was fun while it lasted, but…

He shook his head to clear it. There would be time to worry about friendships later. He needed to get home to his father.

The police were lined up at the gate when Adrien arrived, and he worried that his father had been discovered. But one of the officers waved him on, urging him to get inside where it was safe. The ground shook as heavy footsteps approached their block, and Adrien darted up the stairs, racing into his father’s studio and finding the buttons on his mother’s painting.

His father was in the lair when the elevator landed, and he turned to Adrien with a smirk.

“Things are going according to plan,” he said.

“That monster is one of my classmates,” Adrien said pointedly.

“Yes, his emotions are strong. It made him easy prey for my akuma.” His father tapped the cane on the ground.

A little warning would have been nice, but Adrien didn’t say as much. Arguing with his father rarely led anywhere good in his experience.

“What do we do now?” Adrien asked.

“We wait for the heroes to come out of hiding.”

Adrien thought back to his encounters at school with pursed lips.

“There was this girl in my class. She was really brave, and she stood up to Chloe. I heard her talking about heroes, and she didn’t seem scared at all by your akuma.” He reported.

“Good. We will keep an eye on her,” his father said.

The elevator clicked behind them again, and Nathalie approached with a tablet.

“Sir, take a look at this.” She passed the screen to him, and Adrien huddled close to see.

“I’m following a real live supervillain! No heroes on the scene yet, but when one does show up, you guys will be the first to see it,” Alya said.

“That’s her!” Adrien gasped.

“Wait, I see something!” Alya gasped. “It looks like a girl in a red and black suit with some kind of… yoyo?”

“The ladybug,” his father and Nathalie said in unison.

“So, she’s come out to play after all.” His father smirked.

Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps this nightmare would be over sooner than they hoped. It wouldn’t be long before he saw his mother again. The thought was enough to send his heart racing.

“What are you waiting for, superbug? The world is watching you!” Alya shouted.

“Something’s wrong,” Nathalie said.

“What? What’s wrong?” Adrien’s head snapped back to the screen.

“She’s alone,” his father said. “Where is the black cat?”

“Maybe taking a cat nap?” Adrien joked, but no one laughed.

“Stoneheart, get her Miraculous!” His father ordered, and the creature changed course.

“She’s only a child from the looks of it. If we can get her to use her last resort, she won’t have much time left before she has to transform back,” Nathalie said.

“Yes, it’s what I’m counting on.” His father nodded.

Adrien watched the battle on the screen with bated breath. They were so close to getting their family back. Once they had her Miraculous, all of the horror would stop. Maybe then he could go back to school and make up with Marinette and Alya, have real friends, his mom. The life he’d always wanted was finally at his fingertips.

“She’s summoned her lucky charm.” Nathalie reported.

“Is that… a wetsuit?” Adrien titled his head to the side. “What kind of superpower is that?”

“The ladybug Miraculous summons an object as a last resort, but from the looks of it, her childish inexperience seems to be leeching into her powers.” Nathalie explained.

“Let’s see how clever our little ladybug is,” his father said with a sinister grin.

“There’s no way she beats a giant rock with a wetsuit…right?” Adrien bit his lip.

“What’s she doing?” Alya said on the livestream as the heroine tied the limbs and stuffed a hose into the neck.

With her prop in place, the girl charged straight toward Stoneheart, tossing the wetsuit and leaping right into his hands. He caught the suit in one hand and the girl in the other.

“Uh, did she just let herself get captured?” Adrien asked.

His father narrowed his eyes. “Crush her, Stoneheart, and bring me those earrings!”

“Alya! The tap!” the heroine called.

The live stream camera shook as Alya scrambled for the faucet. She focused on the villain as the hose hissed to life, and after a moment, Stoneheart’s hand popped open.

“Rip the paper ball, Alya!”

“Okay, got it!” Alya said.

“No!” His father gasped.

Stoneheart collapsed into a pile of rubble, revealing a dazed Ivan underneath. The heroine helped him to his feet with a smile as Alya rushed up to greet her.

“That was so awesome! Do you know who’s creating these villains? Are there more heroes like you? Will there be other villains in the future?” Alya asked.

“Uh…” The heroine rubbed the back of her neck.

“Never mind all of that! What’s your name super red bug?”

“You can call me… Ladybug. Just Ladybug,” she said, waving two fingers before leaping off.

“Wow,” Alya said to the camera. “Ladybug, a real superheroine! This is so amazing-”

Nathalie dimmed the screen, tucking the tablet back under her arm. Adrien’s father stared forward with a pensive frown, drumming his fingers on his cane.

“So, does this mean we lost?” Adrien asked.

“No,” his father said, a smile curling on his lips. “She didn’t capture the akuma, I can still feel it.”

“So, then…?”

“Akumas can multiply if they’re not cleansed. Our little Ladybug hasn’t finished her job,” his father said.

“Which means?”

His father turned to them with a dark grin.

“It means we’re only just getting started.”

[maxwell-grant]

On Final Crisis: Secret Files, Grant Morrison describes Doc Fate as part of the Society of Super-Heroes, and says that amoung it's members is, sometimes, "the mysterious Bat-Man". Obviously, this Bat-Man haven't appeard in Multiversity. But how do you think this pulp version of Batman should be? It thought of him as Kirk Langstrom, the Man-Bat.

It being Kirk Langstrom could work. Maybe Bruce Wayne could exist in this world but he's not really Batman, maybe Batman's agent or secret identity or the source of Langstrom's money. I'm not particularly interested in Man-Bat as a character but the idea of him being this world's Bat-Man, or at least "a" Bat-Man, could be a good idea.

I find most versions of "Batman but he's pulp" to be generally really boring because they largely just go by the painfully standard route of "Batman but his outfit looks shabby and he's got a gun" and it often seems like it just amounts to a Batman that now kills and is less of a character than just an amalgam of pulp cliches (which is what Batman used to be before they created Robin and the iconic villains and the no-kill rule and started fleshing him out as a more unique character).

In fact I'm gonna just go ahead and stipulate that "Pulp" Batman should at least adhere to the main dude's policy of no guns. Whether he's killing or not, or how effectively he can manage himself, is up to debate, but let's get the obvious out of the way. Bill Finger described once that he envisioned Batman as combining traits from Douglas Fairbanks, Sherlock Holmes, The Shadow and Doc Savage, so we're gonna use these as some of the basis to work with.

Personally the best take on a Batman redesign schewing closer to pulp that I've ever seen would be "The Batman Investigations" by Imson on Deviantart, you can read more about it's respective designs there but I'll post it's idea for Batman below

Bruce Wayne was born with high sensitivity to sunlight, keeping him indoors most of the day, and forcing him to wear tinted glasses when not. When his parents were killed by a mugger, the blast from the gunfire damaged his hearing, forcing him to wear hearing aid from an early age.

Bruce had a knack for mechanics, and living off the remaining funds left by his parents, he developed a few surveillance gadgets for police use. While trying to market them for the local police, he was hired by commissioner Gordon as a freelance detective. As his involvement with the force continued, he got the nickname The Batman from his striking appearance.

As a hired gun, his role grew to take on undercover investigations. He could use his equipment to take the cases further than regular detectives could risk, and the police would turn a blind eye to these acts, provided Bruce denied any involvement with the police should he get caught.

His most useful gadget is his mechanic surveillance bird dubbed Robin, used to keep watch on suspects without gathering attention.

This one I think works particularly well for a take on Batman that's more centered around street-level detective work, and I mean actual detective work. A Batman who's strong, but not much of a fighter, and his hearing disability doesn't lend itself to superpowers, it's something he has to work around through allies and gadgets and quick-thinking once he starts getting further into trouble. More of a Sherlockian Batman who contends with the kind of darkness that doesn't come with a status quo to sort itself out.

Now, if we wanna go more along the route of gritty pulp Batman, a more traditional Batman who's actually gonna out there in the night suplexing crime into the sidewalk, what comes to my mind design-wise is something of a cross between Denis Medri's Rockability Batman and Francesco Francavilla's Batman 1972

A Batman who's not exactly wearing a skintight superhero outfit full of gadgets but instead a coat of surprises, who's only really got a mask and goggles to protect his identity and also protect his face. A Batman who's smart and can do detective work, but really he's going out there every night to get the shit kicked out of him until he figures out what he needs to know to solve the case, no police involved. Sort of closer to how Denny Colt or The Moon Man operate, more in the Robin Hood and Zorro molds. This one is also somewhat in line with Golden Age pre-Robin Batman where his main distinguishing feature as a character was how utterly reckless and prone to jumping into a fight he was even by usual comic book/pulp hero standards.

The third option I'm thinking of is to take Batman closer to the superhero he is but still mired in enough pulp ingredients remixed differently to be recognizably different from his ordinary self. So instead I'm thinking to play up respectively the parts of Batman that are The Shadow + Doc Savage, to create Dark Science Batman. This one I think is a better answer as to the question "What would a fusion between The Shadow and Doc Savage look like" than my initial response of a depowered Black Terror, and this Batman would be considerably more inhuman and grandiose in scope than the other two, this would be a Batman who could dominate Justice League meetings by force of personality and create moon bases and contend with dimension-warping supervillains and whatnot.

This one is inspired by a redesign by Arryn Diaz and Dan Schkade's Jack Kirby Batman:

“In a WORLD gone MAD, this lone DETECTO-SCIENTIST must operate OUTSIDE the laws of society in order to defend its FUTURE!! BEWARE — THE BAT-MAN!!!” - Alternate Universe Jack Kirby, 1972

So these are three different directions as to how I think you could do a "Pulp Batman" well, although maybe not necessarily operating by how Earth 20 works. DC already has a billion zillion Batmen as is so I'm sure all these may have already been done at some point in Batman's history.

Of course, realistically speaking if Batman was a long-running and successful pulp hero he could have gone through variations of these depending on the decade, or the country (see: the many global variations of characters attached to the name Fantomas or Zigomar), if not the same narrative arc outright. Pulp heroes are shapeshifters by nature.

[organabanana]

Up against the (glass) wall || Supercorp

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: None

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers

Additional Tags: Lab Sex, absolute nonsense, lena luthor protocol but it's smut, alex would like a very long vacation, Oral Sex. oh rao     

Summary: Frustrated by the lab's glass walls and lack of privacy, Lena decides to use her genius intellect to build something that'll allow her and Kara to have some alone time in between missions. Alex really only wanted to put her scientific skills to use in the lab, but she ends up discovering Lena's prototype is not quite as successful as it originally seemed.

Notes: this is the result of a totally serious and normal conversation with @emiltons and I feel like it’s 100% her fault tbh.

[ao3 link]

It starts with Kara arriving at the Tower after a particularly challenging mission. She could’ve flown straight home for a shower and some well-deserved rest, but she knows Lena can’t sleep while Kara is on duty, and she knows exactly what her girlfriend does when she can’t sleep. So Kara walks straight to the lab and smiles at the sight of Lena in her element, inventing what Kara has no doubt will be yet another world-saving gadget for them to use.

For a moment, Kara just watches her, grateful for the glass walls allowing her to see her girlfriend work without having to use her powers at all. There’s something soothing about the way Lena works, slow and methodical and precise even when she’s doing it just to keep her mind from drifting to Kara and the dangers she faces as Supergirl. And really, there’s no reason Lena should worry for a minute longer than strictly necessary, so Kara finally pushes the glass door open and walks into the lab.

“Hey, I’m ba—“ Lena turns around so quickly, wraps her arms around Kara so tightly, that Kara can only let out a quiet chuckle and hold on, enjoying the closeness and the scent of Lena’s hair filling up her lungs as Lena lets the tension of the last fourteen hours dissolve into the hug.

“Hey, baby,” Kara tries again, softer this time, breathed against the skin of Lena’s temple, “are you okay?”

Lena nods, lips pressing against Kara’s neck for a parting kiss before she finally pulls away from Kara’s arms to take a good look at her.

“I am now,” Lena says, eyes narrowing just so as she takes in the rips on Kara’s supersuit. Fingertips touch the torn fabric on Kara’s waist and across her left bicep, the smudges of dirt and pulverized concrete on her neck and cheek. “Are you?”

Kara grins. “Takes a bit more than a collapsing abandoned building to stop your girlfriend.”

And then Kara flexes her biceps, playfully, just because she knows Lena gets a kick out of her playing the confident jock from time to time. She definitely (she swears!) isn’t thinking about her supersuit and the small tear right over her left bicep, and she absolutely isn’t anticipating the way the fabric rips over her flexed muscle.

But.

As innocent as Kara is in all this, and she cannot possibly overstate how innocent she truly is, she’s not complaining at all when Lena tilts her head just so, green eyes fixated on the torn fabric and the bulging muscle underneath as she slowly licks her lips.

“Oh,” Lena says — breathes, really — as she arches one eyebrow, “I see.”

And then she reaches up and traces the ripped fabric once again, fingers pressing just so, like she’s testing just how fitting that Girl of Steel nickname really is.

“Who else is here?” Lena asks, voice low and darkened green eyes fixated on Kara’s, “Are we alone?”

“I, um—“ Kara struggles to make her brain cooperate and process Lena’s words when it feels like every single nerve ending in her body has been rerouted to that exact spot Lena is touching, “I think J’onn… lives here?”

Does M’gann live here also? Kara doesn’t know. Kara doesn’t care. Kara can’t quite breathe right.

“It’s pretty late,” Lena says, and her voice sounds like sun-warmed honey tastes, “I’m sure he’s asleep.”

And Kara swears she tries to think about it. About whether it’s past J’onn’s bedtime, about whether J’onn has a bedtime at all, and about whether martians even sleep in the first place. But suddenly Lena’s free hand is grabbing Kara’s and guiding it down, down, down under her skirt, and Lena’s lips are pressing a warm kiss to Kara’s jaw, and Kara suddenly realizes what’s going on.

“Oh,” she breathes out, blue eyes fluttering closed for a moment before they widen in shock at the realization of what’s going on. “Wh— here!?” Don’t get her wrong, she makes no move to stop the path of Lena’s lips towards her ear or pull her hand away from the warm soft skin of Lena’s inner thigh, but still. You know. “Lena, we can’t—“

“Can’t we?” Kara can feel Lena’s smile against her skin, and the way Lena’s teeth graze her earlobe makes her fingers inch just that little bit higher up Lena’s thigh. “Why not?”

What an excellent question. Kara tilts her head to the side to give Lena’s lips and teeth and tongue free access to her neck as she tries to find the part of her brain that knows why they can’t actually have sex in the lab.

“Because…” Kara sighs happily at a particularly well-placed kiss, “…it’s kinda rude?”

She feels Lena’s chuckle rather than hears it, and it makes a little shiver run down her spine. “It’s rude?” Kara can’t see Lena’s eyebrow, but she’s sure it’s arched so very prettily right now. How unfair. “This is my lab.”

And you know, Lena makes a good point, Kara figures, hand moving further up under Lena’s skirt. This is Lena’s side of the Lab. Her office, sort of unofficially, ever since she became an official member of the team. But still…

“You’re such a goody two shoes,” Lena teases, pressing herself a little closer against Kara.

“I mean, I’m Supergirl. It’s kind of my th— oh —“Lena’s teeth nip at Kara’s neck, completely derailing her thoughts for a moment, “—thing.”

And Kara is almost ready to give in. She’s almost ready to accept that yes, this lab counts as Lena’s home away from home so it’s perfectly fine if they want to get frisky in it. Her hand finishes its trek up Lena’s thigh and finds damp lace waiting for her, and frankly, they’re grown ups. She’s a whole super heroine. If she wants to fu—

“Formic acid!” Brainy’s voice reaches them just a second before he walks into the lab, which is lucky because it gives Kara just enough time to disentangle herself from her girlfriend at the speed of light.

Brainy stares through the glass wall separating the main lab from Lena’s smaller area. His eyes move from Lena to Kara and then back to Lena again, brow furrowed just so as he tries to figure out exactly what’s not right.

“Formic acid?” Lena prompts as she opens the door, voice entirely too level for someone who’s just been nearly caught with her girlfriend’s hand between her legs.

“Ah. Yes.” Brainy nods. “Formic acid. Nia’s neighbor has ants. It gave me an idea for the antidote we were talking about earlier. I think if we just—“

“Tomorrow. Brainy.” Kara interrupts him with a smile, hand wrapping around Lena’s wrist to pull her towards the exit. They have things to do. Private places to be.

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Lena agrees, grabbing her coat on the way out of the lab. 

***

It’s been three weeks since the formic acid incident — as Kara lovingly remembers it — when she gets to the Tower after a mission once again to find her girlfriend deep in thought at her desk.

There’s nothing particularly special about it this time. It’s early afternoon, her foes were rowdy but easily manageable, and her supersuit looks impeccable. And yet, when she walks through the glass door, Lena gives her a look.

A Look.

Oh, that look.

Kara knows the look. Knows what it means. And she very nearly offers to just fly them home right away to save themselves the pain of having to stop halfway through to relocate, but you know what? It’s a bit hard to think ahead when Lena Luthor in a deep burgundy dress is walking towards you with that look on her face.

“That was a quick mission,” Lena says, shaking her head just so to make her ponytail swish in a way Kara’s pretty sure should be some kind of illegal, “those bad guys were no match for Supergirl, huh?”

Kara is blushing. She can tell. She knows because she’s having to employ all her kryptonian strength to keep herself from saying golly or aw, gee or a number of other things that would frankly ruin this whole big super heroine fantasy Lena has going on right now. And who is she to ruin her girlfriend’s fun?

“N—no,” Kara manages, voice slightly higher than normal, and she clears her throat before continuing, “I’m super strong.”

Nailed it.

“You sure are,” Lena says with an amused smile, because she’s very sweet and she loves Kara too much to laugh at her, “do you wanna show me how strong you are, Supergirl?”

Kara nods. And then she remembers where they are and shakes her head.

“We should— I can fly us home.”

“But, baby,” Lena takes one slow step right into Kara’s personal space and Kara feels her brain begin to shut down, “I want you right now.”

“It—“ Kara is trying so hard to do the right thing here, she swears, even if her hands are already on Lena’s waist and she’s already pulling Lena close and Lena smells so very good, “but the walls, Lena.”

Kara can tell Lena is trying very hard not to laugh.

“The walls?”

“Yeah,” Kara presses a quick kiss to deep red lips, just because it feels rude not to acknowledge how delicious they look, “I get what you guys were going for with the… futuristic sci-fi interior design, but all this glass is not very private, baby.”

Lena grins. And it’s not just a regular charmed grin. Not the normal one she shows when Kara says something sweet or funny and her heart gets a little fluttery in her chest (Kara’s heard it). No. This is something else. This is the smile Lena wears when they absolutely destroy everyone at game night.

Lena’s won. What exactly she’s won, Kara doesn’t know yet. But oh, Lena has absolutely won… something.

“You know, you’re right. They’re not very private at all. That’s why I made this.”

Lena shows her what looks to Kara like tiny remote and pushes the button.

Lena Luthor protocol engaging.

Kara cocks one eyebrow at Lena, who simply shrugs as a small robot flies from under her desk.

“I named it after the original one. For nostalgia’s sake.”

Kara stares in confusion as the small robot hovers nearby and points what looks like a camera at them. Except it’s not a camera. It’s… some kind of spotlight?

“What’s it doing?” Kara can see the light inside the robot, can see it pointing the ray at them, but she sees no change in the lightning of the lab.

“It’s making us invisible.”

“What? I can see you,” Kara looks down at her hands on Lena’s waist, “I can see me.”

“That’s because you’re not looking through the glass. Look there,” Lena says, pointing at a polished steel surface on the main area of the lab. There should be a reflection there… but there isn’t one.

Kara stares, blue eyes wide and lips parted in surprise. She’s seen plenty of impressive tech since becoming Supergirl — let alone what she grew up with in Krypton — but this is something else.

Of course, the fact that Lena’s body is pressed up against her own, and the fact that she developed a whole new technology just to be able to get frisky in her glass-covered lab may have something to do with it.

“What do you think?” Lena does this thing she does where she sort of arches against Kara’s body in a way that makes Kara’s brain feel like it’s sloshing about in a sea of Lena’s perfume, and then presses her lips against Kara’s jaw, and to be honest Kara isn’t thinking at all right now.

“Wh— what?” One of Kara’s hands slides down from Lena’s waist to the curve of her ass, grabbing a handful of it as Lena’s teeth oh-so-gently nip at Kara’s bottom lip. “Wh—“ Kara tries again, barely above a whisper, but frankly she’s much more interested in kissing Lena like she means it — like she deserves to be kissed — and she completely forgets she’s been asked a question in the first place.

“Kara,” Lena pulls away from the kiss, lipstick a little bit smeared, cheeks a little bit flushed, breathing a little bit stilted, “I asked you a question.”

And you know, Kara is sure that’s true. She’s, like, so sure. But Lena is taking a step back to lean right against that sleek glass wall and pulling Kara along, and Kara’s brain is powerless to process anything beyond the fact that her girlfriend is practically begging her to have her way with her up against that wall.

And that’s… well, that’s something.

“Yeah,” Kara chooses to answer, because frankly she’d say yes to anything Lena asked right now and she’s a bit busy kissing up the path of freckles on Lena’s neck to care about the actual question right now, “yeah, baby, of course.”

Normally, Lena is far from pleased when she detects even a hint of Kara trying to placate her with mindless agreement, but this must be working for her because all Kara feels under her lips is an amused giggle right as Lena’s fingers slide into blond hair.

“What do you think of the new protocol?” Lena’s voice has a touch of teasing weaved into the words, like she knows the question is ultimately irrelevant but she likes watching Kara struggle to form coherent thoughts while horny. And, you know, Kara can respect that.

“It’s so good,” the hand that’s not on Lena’s ass moves up to cover Lena’s right breast, and Kara celebrates her own incredible luck by pressing a kiss to Lena’s lips, “you’re so smart,” another kiss, this time to a smile Lena can’t quite contain, “my genius girlfriend.”

Lena’s blunt fingernails lightly scratch at Kara’s scalp, making her hum happily against Lena’s lips. “You’re just horny,” Lena teases, her tone clearly stating just how happy she is that’s the case.

“And humbled! By your genius intellect.” Kara squeezes Lena’s ass and kisses the tip of Lena’s nose, because she’s cute and Kara knows deep down there’s a little part of Lena that will always need to hear how good she is out loud. “I can do both. I’m Supergirl.”

Lena chuckles, low and soft, and rewards Kara’s thoughtfulness with a kiss. “Well, Supergirl,” she says, shooting her girlfriend a look that hits Kara right between her legs, “if you’re feeling humbled, you may as well show me how much.”

And then. Then, Lena uses her grip on Kara’s hair to gently tug down, just so, just enough to make Kara’s eyes widen with the realization of where Lena wants her. On her knees. At Lena’s feet. And frankly, Kara files this under things they absolutely need to explore further, because she swears she feels her body temperature rise by at least a couple degrees.

But she’s not about to make Lena wait. So Kara slowly sinks down to her knees, blue eyes locked with green just so Lena can see. So Lena can see Supergirl kneeling at her feet.

When her right knee touches the floor, she hears Lena’s breath catch in her throat.

“Go on,” Lena says, upper back leaning against the wall, “show me.”

Kara nods, hands wrapping around lena’s thighs and slowly sliding up, up, up, bringing Lena’s pencil skirt along with them. She can’t resist kissing every inch of soft, warm skin she uncovers, lips trailing a path up one of Lena’s inner thighs and then the other, until all she needs to do is push the bunched up skirt up over her hips and ass to reach the lacy (Kara is willing to bet) fabric of her—

“Oh,” Kara breathes out, staring at the spot where Lena’s panties should be but decidedly aren’t. And Kara, to her credit, manages to look up into green eyes and shoot her girlfriend a teasing smirk along with a fake scandalized look. “Miss Luthor.”

There’s a dusting of pink across the bridge of Lena’s nose that Kara finds frankly unfair given the circumstances. “Well, I knew the prototype would be ready by the time you came back.”

“See? Genius girlfriend,” Kara smiles as she presses a kiss to Lena’s mound, pulling a happy little sigh out of her, “so smart.”

And then Kara stops talking, because she has much more important things to do with her mouth. Things like kissing the slick skin of Lena’s inner thighs, humming in delight at the smell and taste of her girlfriend and the way Lena’s fingers fist in her hair.

Kara takes her time, lips and teeth and tongue exploring every inch of Lena’s cunt but pointedly avoiding her clit, just because she happens to think there’s no sound more beautiful than the way Lena says please.

“You look so good down there,” Lena says, breathy and flushed, “right—“ her breath catches in her throat, and Kara smiles between Lena’s thighs, “—there.”

And this is why Kara will never really mind the way Lena teases her and makes her blush and stumble over her words. Because she knows the tables turn as soon as she’s between Lena’s legs.

“Where, baby?” Kara asks, her face the perfect picture of innocence as she presses a soft kiss just shy of Lena’s clit, “Here?”

Lena’s eyes flutter closed and she leans her head back against the glass wall with a smile. “Kara.”

She’s never Supergirl when they’re like this.

“Here?” Kara’s teeth gently nip at one of Lena’s lips, and then the other, “Or here?”

“Kara, please.”

And there it is. Right there, the most beautiful sound in the world.

So Kara decides to reward Lena by finally flicking her tongue against a stiff clit before wrapping her lips around it, and she doesn’t hold it against Lena when she pulls on Kara’s hair instead of saying thanks.

All slowness and teasing forgotten, Kara puts her lips and teeth and tongue at Lena’s service, letting Lena hook one leg over Kara’s shoulder to give her better access as she uses her hold on Kara’s hair to pull her closer still.

Kara feels like she’s drunk on Lena’s taste and smell and the sound of the moans she’s struggling to stifle. She can taste just how close Lena is, she can feel it in the way her thighs quake and her breathing gets more and more stilted and her hips rock harder and faster against Kara’s tongue.

“God, Kar—“ Kara hears the sound of Lena smacking one hand over her own mouth, keeping herself as close to quiet as possible — Kara is delighted for her own superhearing that allows her to hear it all anyway — as she rides Kara’s mouth.

She’s so close. So close Kara feels the one leg holding Lena up shaking perilously as a quiet moan escapes between Lena’s fingers, and Kara is just in time to prop her up with one hand as Lena finally comes, head tilting back and hitting the glass wall with a soft thud.

And that — exactly that moment — is when Kara freezes at the sound of someone walking towards the lab.

It’s been a while since Alex has been alone in the lab. It’s been a while since she’s been in the lab at all, to be honest. And that doesn’t seem fair, right? She may not be Lena or Brainy, but she’s a scientist! She can do science things. That formic acid conundrum they were talking about the other day?

Alex could have helped.

But do they ever ask Alex for scientific input? No. All Alex is good for is apparently acrobatic crime-fighting and daring make-up choices.

And she’s ready to prove her worth. So after checking that nobody’s already in the lab, Alex walks in and starts looking around. Innocently, of course. She’d never do anything really intrusive like go into Lena’s personal area or mess with Brainy’s future toys. No, no. But she’ll look around. Check out what they’re doing. See if anything looks like it could be solved by an actual medical doctor, thank you very much.

And then — then she hears it. Some kind of… thud?

On the other side of the glass wall, cloaked by Lena’s invisibility robot, Kara braces herself with one hand on the wall as she holds Lena up with the other. And Kara may be Supergirl, but there’s something to be said about trying to be quiet while holding Lena through a frankly earth-shattering — if she may say so herself — orgasm with her face still between Lena’s thighs.

It takes skill.

And Kara is managing just fine, mind you, until Lena twitches in a way Kara wasn’t expecting, and Kara loses her hold on her for just a split second before she presses her up against the wall once again.

Alex narrows her eyes. The thud she could ignore, but she swears there’s the faintest outline of a handprint on the glass. And just when she’s about ready to chalk it all up to sleep deprivation, she hears a… squeak. The unmistakable sound of skin sliding against glass.

And now it’s not just the handprint there. There’s something round next to it. Something like—

Wait.

Is that the outline of an ass?

“Oh my God, Kara!” Alex turns around, voice climbing higher in both pitch and volume as she speaks because she doesn’t know whether she’s just seen the outline of her sister’s butt or her sister’s girlfriend’s butt but either way she’d very much like to have her memory wiped right now. Is J’onn home?

“Not this again!” She continues, somewhere between horrified and desperate. To be fair, she’s never walked into invisible wall sex before, but she has interrupted a frankly worrying amount of heavy make-out sessions for the time Kara and Lena have been together, and she’d really rather not think about what those two would have done had she remained asleep for a few minutes longer the last time she agreed to a movie night.

It’s a pattern of emotionally scarring behavior, is all she’s saying.

“And you know!” Alex turns around, eyes squeezed shut because she does not want to catch even the slightest glimpse of that assprint ever again. “You know,” she bangs on the wall for emphasis, just once, “I’m all for pride, but there is such a fucking thing as a healthy amount of shame!”

Alex stomps out of the lab, and her aggravated footsteps can still be faintly heard in the distance when Lena clears her throat. She’s blushing bright red, but her voice sounds remarkably steady for someone whose left leg is still hooked over her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“Joy,” Lena says, and the sleek virtual personal assistant on her desk whirs to life. “Protocol prototype version 1.0 partially successful,” she dictates, “consider one-way glass going forward.”

“Oh, oh! And Joy?” Kara pipes up from between Lena’s thighs, “Please order Alex a ‘we’re sorry’ pie.”

Lena simply nods. “Make it strawberry this time.”

[headoverheelsforramsey]

Hello, hello! This week, we are going on a little:

Home Tour!

Notes: Answer the following with pictures (dialogue from your characters is optional!). Collages are highly encouraged if you want to answer a question with multiple pictures because tumblr mobile only allows 10 total pics. Otherwise, tumblr on a desktop lets you add multiple pictures (non-beta)!

For both:

What does the outside of the home look like? (Front/back yard, garden, pool, etc)

Living room and home office (if any)?

Kitchen and dining room?

Bedrooms? (Master, guest, others)

Other rooms?

Do you own your dream home? If not, what does that dream home look like?

What is your favorite room to spend time in with each other?

Super super late to this, because of my stupid exam but now we are here so let's go! 💃🏽🏠

A/N : I am placing this two years and seven months after the wedding, because I HC Ethan and Meera staying at Ethan's apartment for two years after the wedding and they only start house hunting when they have the baby talk and start trying for a baby. So technically not newlyweds anymore. Now let's get started! ✨

Meera opens the door and greets Bree.

Meera : Hii Bree, welcome to our humble abode.

Bree (chuckles) : This place is anything but humble. I hope I am not causing much trouble.

Meera : Absolutely not. Who else is going to make me feel like a youtuber?

Both laugh, Ethan joins and greets Bree.

Bree : Congratulations on the good news Dr. Ramsey. How far are y'all?

Ethan : Thank you Bree. It's been 3 months already.

Meera (cradling her small bump) : Yup one trimester down two more to go.

Ethan (kissing her forehead) : And then there will be a mini version of you running around these halls.

Meera : Nope it's gonna be a mini you.

The couple shares a look as if challenging each other.

Meera : Fine, Bree, whose team are you on? Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?

Bree : I am happy with either because at the end I'll be interviewing him or her too.

The three of them share a laugh.

Bree : Let's get started, shall we?

Ethan : Sure.

What does the outside of the home look like? (Front/back yard, garden, pool, etc)

Front :

Meera : We were looking for something modern yet chic, something that is totally us. I fell in love with the design whereas Ethan was in total awe of the open space and glass doors. Needless to say our heart was stuck on this no matter how many more houses we visited.

Backyard :

Ethan : The backyard also doubles up as the garden but it's not quite completed yet.

Meera : Yes it's been two months since we moved, and we haven't been able to work on the garden because of work and the pregnancy. Ethan : But we want to build a garden with a tree house and maybe some swings.

Meera (too excited) : Ohh swings! Yes please add it onto the list. Why didn't I think of it before?

Pool :

Meera : Definitely my favorite part!

Ethan : She is a water baby through and through so that's no surprise.

Meera : Don't act like you don't appreciate me in a swimsuit, Ramsey (winks)

Ethan : There is no denying that.

Living room and home office (if any)?

Living room :

Ethan : Meera was hell bent on having an L-shaped couch.

Meera : Those things are so bougie I had to have one because now I can finally afford one. But yeah the living room is so relaxing with a beautiful view of the outside.

Home office :

Meera : Honestly speaking, I do not understand the utility of a home office, I didn't understand back at his apartment neither do I understand now. If I am supposed to work from home I can do that on the couch or on my bed or even better on the daybeds by the pool.

Ethan (shaking his head) : You'll get it darling. When you start your maternity leave I'll see how you make zoom calls with the pool as your background.

Meera shrugs.

Kitchen and dining room?

Meera : This part was all Ethan so I'll let him do the talking.

Ethan (proudly) : A Poggenpohl kitchen with a granite-topped island adds an ultramodern touch. Glass shelves display colorful glassware convenient to the wet bar. A translucent sliding glass door below the shelves hides the more utilitarian gadgets. And finally playful mod pendant lights seem to levitate over the dining table, which is meant to resemble a river running through the woods.

Meera : You sure you didn't miss your true calling as an interior designer babe?

Ethan (smirks) : Nope, just the fact that I tend to excel at everything I do, Rookie.

Meera : And that makes you 10 times hotter!

Bedrooms? (Master, guest, others)

Master bedroom :

Meera : The bedroom has a different color scheme and tone from the rest of the house because I wanted it to stand out and break the monotone.

Ethan : Again the chandelier was Meera's opinion.

Meera : Finding common ground between his minimalistic taste and mine was difficult but we made it through.

Master Bathroom :

Ethan : Meera I don't think it was necessary to bring Bree in here.

Meera : It was absolutely necessary! Just look at this tub Bree! The bubbles and champagne dates we have here are a total hit.

Guest rooms :

Ethan : We have two guest rooms and both are styled the same way, but unfortunately we haven't had any guests yet. 

Meera : Is it unfortunate Dr. Ramsey? Bryce is just a call away from crashing here. 

Ethan (pinching the bridge of his nose) : Anyone but Lahela.

Meera : We haven't thought about the baby's room yet. But we have the nursery now. 

Ethan : Yes, maybe we'll turn the nursery into a bedroom or one of the guest rooms in a few years. Let's see.

Nursery : 

Meera : This was completed just yesterday hence the delay in the interview, Bree. 

Ethan : We decided to keep the gender of the baby a surprise so we went with a gender neutral nursery that matches the colour scheme of the house. 

Meera : Also because Ethan Ramsey would rather die than paint the walls of his house pink and blue. 

Ethan (rolls eyes) 

Other rooms?

Home library :

Meera (takes in the smell of books) : Better known as my safe haven. 

Ethan : This was absolutely non-negotiable for Meera. 

Meera : We both own a lot of books and the collection keeps on increasing now with the baby incoming. And look at this reading space. It's from my dreams. 

Ethan : This is tucked away in a far corner of the house and is the most serene place around here. Once, I returned home from the hospital and called out to Meera a hundred times, she didn't answer, I started panicking and then found her silently sitting here in her own world. 

Meera : If I ever go missing please check here before running to the police, because once I am in here I forget the existence of the world.

Bree picks up "Peppa pig's super noisy Sound Book" which was kept on a thick medical journal with a smile. 

Ethan feels embarrassed but Meera laughs. 

Meera : Yes these are the new ones in our collection. Ethan was reading it to the baby before you arrived. 

Home Bar : 

Ethan : The wine cellar grew into a home mini bar because we had this unused space left. 

Meera : He loves showing this and his collection off. 

Ethan : Excuse me! If I remember correctly your friends were very impressed as well. 

Meera : True that. Bryce went bat shit crazy during the housewarming party. He said he felt he got back his bartending days.

Ethan (proudly) : And Jackie's exact words for that evening's toast was "to hell with Donahue's" 

Meera : Yeah yeah, you did a great job honey. Also the more surfaces the better for us. 

Ethan : Keep it PG for the love of God. 

Meera (shrugs) : Pregnancy hormones. 

Bree (points) : And that? 

Ethan (facepalms) : The only thing that doesn't match with the vibe here.

Meera : Nonsense! It was a housewarming gift from my friends and I absolutely love it. Ethan just feels it is a cheaper and juvenile version of his favourite game, soccer. But don't worry Bree, I'll get him to play someday. 

Ethan (smirk) : I would very much like to see you try Dr. Ramsey-Bose.

Meera : And I'll see how you say no when your son asks. 

Ethan : It's gonna be a daughter. 

Meera : We'll see. 

Do you own your dream home? If not, what does that dream home look like?

Ethan : For the majority of my life home for me was a structure of bricks and cement with a ceiling but Meera was the one who brought all the love and light and showed me what a real home felt like. So for me, my home is where my heart is and for this lifetime it's kept safe with this gorgeous woman whom I fortunately call my wife. 

Silence lasts for a couple of minutes then Meera snorts. 

Meera (drying her eye) : Damn you pregnancy hormones, I am not even wearing waterproof mascara. It was super cheesy Ethan, a non pregnant me would have definitely called you out on your cheese but this pregnant Meera has to agree with you. Even a stable is my dream home if I have my dream husband with me. (she kisses Ethan) but I wouldn't mind a Jacuzzi, a home theatre, a game room (laughing)

Ethan (an easy smile on his face) : Always knew you were in it because of the money Bose. 

What is your favorite room to spend time in with each other?

Meera : The library. Just him reading to our unborn child like he isn't already the most perfect man in the world. 

Ethan (a very satisfied smile on his face) : First I am very surprised that you kept it PG. So the obvious answer is the bedroom but other than that, the patio, which is not a room though.

Ethan : Meera has a slight deficiency in vitamin D so to avoid complications, we spend a lot of time here in the sun. We play board games, read and even discuss work here sometimes.  

Meera : Ooh yes! This was another great investment and a great way to utilise the humongous outdoor space we have.  

Ethan : I hope you had fun Bree. Thank you so much for doing this. 

A quick shoutout to @a-crepusculo and @jamespotterthefirst who came to my rescue when  I couldn't add more than 10 pics. Also thank you Bree for doing this you are a star and an angel. 💜

Tagging my usual : @starrystarrytrouble @mm2305 @charisworld @choicesfanaf @potionsprefect @genevievemd  @shanzay44 @little-flowers-on-heaven @schnitzelbutterfingers  @coffeeheartaddict  @gryffindordaughterofathena @chemist-ana @adiehardfan @custaroonie @ireneadlerisseggsy @takemyopenheart @natureblooms24 @mainstreetreader @izzyourresidentlawyer @a-crepusculo @quixoticdreamer16 @starryeyedrookie @barbean

+ @openheartfanfics

Please let me know if you want to be added or removed. And if you want to sit out only the answers to the ask games hit me up too. There won't be any hard feelings. I promise. 💜

[plainlo-inthemorning]

A Loki TVA / Lokane fic that snatched a tempad. Rating T.

Previously: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 (of 6)

Shine a Light, part 4

This time around, he feels but the faintest glimmer of surprise as he steps out of the doorway and onto a busy sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan.

A few people stop dead in their tracks when the door materializes out of thin air, but the throng of commuters headed to and from Central Station is so dense, Loki’s appearance goes mainly unnoticed.

Dull resignation washes over him.

The tempad is officially broken. Its coordinates locked onto this little planet where, in his own timeline, he has known nothing but defeat.

Without bothering to look for a newsstand, he reasons there’s a strong probability it’s the year 2014. It would seem the damn gadget is slowly counting backwards, while refusing to take him anywhere else in the universe.

Above his head, a billboard flashing on the side of a high-rise building confirms his suspicions.

Incredibly though, the tempad still not out of “juice”. The battery life seems to be making a mockery of his failed attempts to direct the itinerary.

Taking a step out of the moving sea of people, Loki sees little in way of construction sites along the street.

On his timeline, this would have been two years after his attack on the city with Thanos’ army, but if that ‘highlight’ of Loki’s less than acclaimed villainous career took place in this reality as well, the mortals have effectively tidied up after him.

He tries not think of the countless faces frozen in terror that had looked up at him.

Of the lives lost because of his crazed ambition to prove himself - and to destroy something of Thor’s.

Almost if Loki had been transformed back into the chronically jealous five-year-old child who once stole his golden, annoyingly joyful, perfect brother’s favorite model toy - a grey wolf made of clay - and deliberately let it roll down the steps of the throne when their father (his NON-father) had been away.

The toy had broken into pieces and Thor had been inconsolable. Gripped by immediate remorse despite his initial intent, Loki had tried to fix it with his budging magic powers. Only for the wolf to melt to a sticky puddle on the stone floor.

Thor had wailed so loudly, a passing servant had thought him seriously injured and called for their mother, and Loki had been made to apologize, his usually pale cheeks burning scarlet. Then he had been grounded for the remains of the day.

The humiliation had stung, and so had the regret that his magic had failed him.

Not for the first time, the anger had turned, unwarranted (Loki knew then too), towards his brother.

From then on, it had just gotten slowly worse and worse and more malicious right up until that horrible moment of rage no more than a few days ago (a week?), when Loki had driven one of his daggers into Thor’s side on top of the Stark tower.

And twisted it.

The mix of bottomless sadness and shock in his brother’s blue eyes had cut through Loki’s heart with such force he might as well have sunk the blade of his other weapon into his own chest.

But instead of abandoning his pathetic scramble for power and hold Thor, instead of attempting to heal the wound with his magic that has become so formidable in adulthood, Loki had let the poison drown the remains of his sanity.

Of course, shortly afterward, the green monstrosity had effortlessly and repeatedly smashed him into the concrete floor of Stark’s living-quarters until Loki had thought he heard every bone in his supposedly immortal (right!) body break and his skull crack open.

To the outside, it had surely been a suitably entertaining show of retribution, but as he had lain there in the crater of rubble, unable to utter a moan, it was as if all the anger had been knocked out of him.

The link to Thanos’ ungodly servant had been severed and Loki had felt more like himself than he had in a long, long time.

When Thor, looking grimmer than ever, had dragged him to his feet in front of the ragtag band of ‘heroes’ and cuffed him, Loki had found himself strangely elated, on the verge of giddy.

His legs had been so shaky from the beating that Thor had had to hold him by the arm so he wouldn’t fall, and Loki had felt the heat of his brother’s huge hand penetrate the many layers of his own armour.

For a few delirious seconds, Loki had wanted nothing more than to lean against his brother’s strong frame and just close his eyes.

Instead, he had started cracking jokes until Thor had slapped the muzzle on him, as if he were some dog (that gesture had embarrassed him more than anything that had gone before). Unable to keep up his sarcastic commentary as they rode the elevator down, Loki had fleetingly wondered if he was suffering from a psychosis or actual brain damage.

Now, standing on the street so close to where it happened, the memory oozes fresh guilt.

But he redeemed himself.

In his mind, Loki goes through the TVA reel once more to remind himself of the images of his brother later in life, smiling at him.

Right before the end came.

If he is to spend the rest of eternity on Midgard - or at least until the multiverse crumbles - he will try to find solace in the good his future self managed to accomplish.

For Thor and, in another, brighter reality, for her.

The riddle of her part in his life now remains unsolved, but as hard as Loki tries to release the ghost wrapped in his arms, it merely squeezes itself closer to his chest.

He could try to find her here, on this timeline.

She will be with Thor, that much is certain, but since the reel of Loki’s fate had shown him only his own path, he knows not whether Thor and Jane shared a life on Midgard, or somewhere else, up until the brothers reunited (for lack of a better word) on Asgard.

What would Loki even say to her?

That, while at the bureau that controls all space and time, he saw her face on a roll of film of his supposed life, and now he aches for her more than anything? That on an alternate timeline a few hours ago, she kissed him?

Thor would not approve of that exchange.

Also, with Loki’s luck, Thor might be a frog in this reality.

He could still try to use the tempad to transport him to Svartalfheim and his own life’s story, seeing as he is now only year from where he feels so strongly he must go.

But finding the proper timeline is like shooting an arrow into the endless vastness of space and hoping it’ll hit the right comet.

He realizes that now.

An arrow.

Somehow, somewhere, on two timelines no less, variants of him had …

Loki’s head jerks up.

The tower.

It’s a desperate idea at best, but from the (very) little Loki knows of his character, Stark’s superior technical skills go hand in hand with an endlessly hungry, inquisitive mind. And pride.

Much like Loki, Stark is a man who needs to be the smartest man in the room. And like Loki, he probably is, most of time (in fact… no. Don’t go there).

Maybe Stark will listen.

Perhaps he can even help make sense of the tempad if Loki can somehow win his trust and appeal to his curiosity and (he winces a little) heroism.

Was it not Loki’s actions who had helped Stark “realize his best potential”, as his TVA file put it?

He spots the imposing structure further up the street, noticing the huge “A” at the top (is that new?), and sets off towards it at a brisk pace, darting in and out of the crowds on the packed sidewalk.

Here goes nothing.

As he reaches the large glass doors he briefly experiences a dizzying deja-vu, when suddenly a man’s voice calls out to him.

A frighteningly familiar, agitated voice.

… With a particular brand of anger bubbling underneath, that Loki had hoped he’d never have to witness up close ever again.

//

“What the hell are you doing here??”

His dark, curly hair has a few more streaks of silver. The checkered shirt is slightly crumbled, the glasses a bit askew. He clutches an armful of papers to his chest.

And he’s wearing a furious expression although, thank the Norns, a mortal complexion.

For now.

“Didn’t Tony explicitly tell you not to come here?! Are you that intent on causing everyone to lose their shit again?!”

Worry is all over Doctor Banner’s screwed up face.

“Seriously, Loki, is this funny to you? Clint is actually in the building right now and, in case Tony didn’t already inform you, he’s made it very clear that he’s quitting the team if you were to stroll through the front door!”

The Avenger has started shaking, his eyes wild (too wild).

This is heading in the wrong direction fast.

Mustering all the calm in the world despite his racing pulse and the nauseating sounds of bones breaking echoing in his head, Loki puts on his most courteous and, he dearly hopes, un-cocky charming smile.

“Bruce, please relax. I assure you, I’m not here to cause trouble. Not for you or anyone else.”

“Right, you just happened to be in town and wanted to stop by for coffee? Loki, this …”

Loki gently interrupts him.

“I merely came here to have a conversation with S- … Tony. Perhaps you could let him know I’m here? I promise you, I will not set foot inside. In fact - “

Loki adopts the form of one of the security guards he can see pacing inside the foyer.

“… I’m not even here.”

Bruce jumps a little and clutches his papers even tighter.

“Oh god, I hate when you do that, man. If you think showing off that trick makes anyone any less nervous around you…”

“Doctor Banner - Bruce. I have something …”

Loki searches for the words, quickly trying to decide on how much to reveal to the man-beast who’s now looking at him with urgent expectancy.

He sighs and bets it all.

“Okay. Bruce, what I’m going to say will sound mad.”

The man scoffs.

“Coming from you, I’d expect nothing less.”

Bruce shakes his head and looks to the sky in exasperation.

“Please - please - don’t tell me you’ve gone and changed your mind about the whole not conquering Earth business. Really, Loki, none of us understand how transforming you into ‘an asset’ became Tony’s pet project over this past year, or why Fury went along with it. But I’m sure both are going to be pretty damn disappointed if their new alien BFF decides to embrace his inner psycho again.”

Loki almost chuckles. It’s all too ridiculous.

“I won’t … embrace my inner ‘psycho’, I swear.”

“Then what?”

The God of Mischief draws in a deep breath, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Or rather, the security guard’s nose.

Then he surrenders to the absurdity of the situation.

“Bruce, I kindly beg of you, is Tony here? Or … (is there hope?) Thor?”

Bruce still looks at him with deep disdain, but his immediate anger seems to have subsided.

“No, Tony’s out of town. Took Pepper somewhere on holiday. They’re not to be disturbed for at least a week. Her words. And Thor … I should think you of all people know perfectly well why he’s not likely to hang around at the time being. Jeez, you guys and your endless family soap opera … I can’t even.”

Naturally, the universe again blankly refuses to extend any hands to Loki and his doomed quest. Sadly, once again, he is not surprised.

Wait - what?

“What do you mean, ‘soap opera’?”

Bruce looks like he’s about to throw his hands over his head and all the papers with them.

“Oh, come on! What is this?! You want approval? Confirmation of your little victory? Doesn’t the very lovely embodiment of that currently walk around in your apartment or wherever it is you live now? Loki, I’m done here. You have to leave. Bye.”

To hell with Stark – Loki wants to grab Bruce by his shirt collar and shake the little man till he explains what in all of Yggdrasil he’s talking about.

But he cannot afford to tempt the beast. Quite literally.

“Then … can you and I go somewhere to talk? Bruce, you’re a man of science. This is science … related.”

Loki feigns a smile.

Bruce sizes him up. No doubt considering whether to let the other guy continue the conversation.

Then his shoulders drop.

“Okay. Okay. For a creepy megalomaniac, you somehow tend to end up with some very cool people defending your case. Just know that those people are absolutely the only reason, you and I are still talking. Ugh, I’m too nice … “

Bruce casts a glance over his shoulder into the foyer, appearing to consider their options, when a man exits the glass doors – and shuffles up to them.

“Bruce! How nice to see you. You look well.”

The old man (those eyes …) grins warmly and pats Bruce on the back, then looks from him to Loki and back again.

“Everything alright out here? Is there a security issue?”

Bruce composes himself and smiles back.

“Hi, Lee, good to see you too. All fine. Earl here was just updating me on, eh, the new security procedures.”

He shoots Loki a stern look.

“Ah, yes”, Loki nods seriously. “Doctor Banner had some trouble operating the intricate open and close mechanism of the doors. The elevator doors, especially.”

He can’t help himself. It’s somehow both immensely tragic and life-affirming.

“Oh?” The old man raises an eyebrow (he looks … but he’s not quite …something is off).

“Will I have to get a new security card? I rarely come in these days, but in case …”

“No, no, that won’t be necessary, Lee. Because, because … like you say, you’re hardly ever here, so …”

Still smiling awkwardly, Bruce waves a dismissive hand, almost dropping the stack of papers (the man’s a terrible liar, Loki thinks).

“Speaking of”, Banner continues, “you must be enjoying retirement up there, huh, Lee? Must be nice to live by the sea. Good … air quality?”

Loki sighs inwardly.

The dog sniffing at his ankles looks up at him.

He stares down at the round, fluffy thing as if seeing it for the first time.

Which he is and he isn’t.

The old man is saying something to Bruce about the countryside, when he notices the dog wagging its tail at Loki’s feet.

“Oh, he likes you. You’re lucky, he normally doesn’t care for strangers. No, you don’t, do you Fenris”, the man coos.

Under coats of thick white fur, the animal looks eagerly from owner to Loki.

“Okay, well, I’ll be off,” the old man says, finally. “Come see me sometime, Bruce. My neighbor actually just put his house on the market, in case you’re looking for a weekend retreat…”

He nods at Bruce, then at Loki who barely notices. The dog whines unhappily at being dragged away.

It’s the same timeline.

Of course, it is. The tempad has locked itself on a sequence.

But why the different locations …?

“Yes, thank you, Lee. Take care now. Earl, shall we?” Bruce signals to Loki to follow him round the side of the building.

“We can continue our discussion about the security issue in the garage”.

//

“So, let’s hear it. Tell me what you came to say, so I can tell you why it’s a catastrophically bad idea.”

Bruce sits himself across the small table from Loki and dumps the stack of papers in front of him. The top sheet is covered in coffee mug rings.

They are in an anonymous, windowless office somewhere below the vast tower parking lot and numerous in-house repair shops.

The place is a gigantic maze and Loki has just shut himself in a tiny room with the very monster that turned him into ragdoll. The deep slash on his forehead has only just healed.

He does not fear many beings in the universe, but the mild-mannered doctor’s alter ego makes the hit list with the worst of them.

Ignoring the way the hairs on the back of his neck stand up (why did this seem like a good idea?), Loki drops his disguise and takes a seat on the cheap plastic chair. Not much of that flashy Stark glamour down here.

“Okay.” Loki takes out the tempad and puts it in the middle of the table.

He is not quite sure where to start, so he decides to begin with the purely technical aspect.

Bruce might appreciate being given a few ‘scientific’ details before any mentions of giant smoke monsters and alligators.

In fact, the fewer magical creatures and castles in the sky, the better.

“This is called a tempad. It’s a device that makes it possible to travel anywhere in time. You type in your destination, and a doorway opens. I did not make it myself. It was, er, given to me by a large and very powerful organization … in space.”

Bruce is leaning forward to get a better look at the tempad but makes no attempt to reach for it.

As he’s says nothing, Loki continues.

“This is where it gets, uh, weird, but try to believe me when I tell you, I’m not the Loki you know. I’m from another, similar timeline and -“

“Stop.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just stop, Loki.”

Bruce is leaning back on his chair again. He looks tired.

“I don’t know if you’re supremely bored of domestic bliss already, or just being your supremely annoying self, but I won’t engage. You’re not Loki but a time-traveler from space? Yeah, it’s -“

“No, Bruce, I am Loki. Trust me, I know this seems -“

“Trust? You wanna talk about trust again?” Bruce takes out his phone.

“Okay, we can do that.”

He taps a few buttons, then holds the phone to his ear.

“What are you doing?” Loki’s voice has a sharper edge to it than he intended.

The Avenger stares him down.

“Oh, I’m just calling someone. This guy I have in my contacts under God of Lies”.

Please, no …

Briefly, Loki considers whether another variant of him – the one he encountered at the house by the ocean, most likely – would actually be of more help.

Or if he, the variant, would try to kill him.

It was one thing reasoning with and trying not to get killed by Loki variants who at least understood the concept of variants, but how would he have reacted upon being confronted with a twin before the TVA?

No, not a twin … Because this variant has her.

None of the variants in the Void – the grown-up, human ones – had mentioned versions of her.

Either this variant has successfully taken out every Minute Man ever sent by the TVA to arrest him (in which case, Loki concedes, he may be the superior Loki), or this whole timeline has only just blossomed at the opening of the multiverse.

Why else would he, who apparently also gave his phone number to Bruce Banner, get to live a life so vastly different from the typical arc of a misguided Jotun prince?

Loki feels light-headed.

On one hand, he wants to know everything there is to know about his double, on the other, he fears what and who he might find.

You don’t belong here. Find your own timeline. No more Lokis.

Focus. Explain.

He raises his one hand in a placating gesture.

“Give me a little time to try and explain this, Bruce, and then, then … You can call whoever. Call everyone! But please just -“

“Oh, what do you know,” Bruce puts his phone down, “there’s no answer. What a surprise.”

He crosses his arms.

Loki inhales and tries again, speaking as evenly and as calmly as he can while his frustration mounts:

“There is no way of telling you all or any of this without it sounding utterly ludicrous, so you’ll have to hear me out. Five minutes uninterrupted from now, okay? Yes, we’re talking time travel, but compared to what’s really at stake, even time travel is a pretty basic technicality. Also, I promise you, in a few years’ time from now, the concept of time travel won’t seem all that laughable to you and Stark in particular. Provided this reality exists in a few years’ time seeing as -“

Bruce sighs dramatically.

“Yes, okay, so”, Loki continues, “Two years ago, I attacked New York, right?”

“If you’re about to roll out some outlandish excuse – another one! – I don’t care to hear it.”

The other man is narrowing his eyes as a fresh look of undistilled loathing creeps into his features.

So it did happen on this timeline as well.

“No, it’s not that. Or, I mean, let’s save that. When you captured me, in my timeline, I escaped from the lobby with the Infinity stone. I know it seems impossible from your end of events but - “

“Impossible?”

Bruce gives him a strange look Loki can’t quite interpret.

“Yes, S… Tony dropped the briefcase with the Infinity stone, and I picked it up and -“

Bruce pushes his chair back. The plastic scrapes loudly against the stone tiles of the floor.

“Loki, I can’t. I thought I had the patience to at least indulge you but turns out I don’t. I can’t tell if you’re losing your mind, but either way, you’ll have to take it – this, whatever it is – up with Tony instead when he gets back. Maybe bring that sweet lab partner of yours along if you’re going to talk time travel. With her field of expertise, I’m sure - “

“WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!”

Without thinking, Loki slams both his hands into the table. Papers go flying and Bruce staggers backwards.

Horror dawns as Loki realizes his error, but it’s already too late.

Bruce doubles over in spasms and a deep, much too deep, growling sound escapes his lips. He grips his head with his shaking hands as if trying to contain the explosion within, and Loki feels his own brain go numb with panic as one of those hands triples in size and a sickly green hue rapidly spreads.

There is no way out.

Bruce is blocking the door and soon his bulk will be taking up the entire room. He falls to his knees, arms thrashing wildly and his shirt ripping across his back. The table sails over Loki’s head, one of the chairs lodges itself in the soundproofed ceiling, causing the panels of fluorescent light to flicker madly.

Are there no security cameras?!

There are screams, but they no longer sound human.

Loki has nowhere to hide.

He has to gather his magic around him, but terror is completely scattering his focus, cold sweat breaking out all over his body.

It is a matter of seconds before the transformation will be complete and the monster attempts to tear him limb from limb. With no heroes to stop it.

Cold.

He has only consciously reached for it once before, but now the thought barely registers before ice rushes through him as if by instinct. Bruce is not the only one with an abomination lurking under the surface.

He doesn’t have the casket of his birth father, but he has strength.

There is no time to consider if it’s enough or nothing at all. No time for crippling self-loathing or shame.

In front of him, the Hulk lifts its crazed, bloodshot eyes to meet his.

The green creature cannot stand upright in the office, and the first fist goes through the ceiling with the force of a wrecking ball. The next lashes out at Loki, who dodges it just as his own skin turns a deep, brilliant blue.

Little black ridges and markings rise on his arms and face and though his sight doesn’t falter, he feels the instant his eyes go from green to bright red. The fabric of his clothes chafes his new skin and waves of adrenaline surge through his body. Multiple foreign senses come alive and drown his fear.

But he has not a breath to spare to get used to his true form before the Hulk shoves him against the wall so hard, the bricks shift against his side as if they were made of a child’s building blocks.

The impact makes him gasp for air, yet the pain … the pain he can manage.

He just has to last long enough get out of here. And the cold is crystalizing his focus to let the magic flow easily, powerfully through his hands.

His blue hands.

If he had used this when …

Loki pushes himself off the wall (out of it) and almost collides with the Hulk (there’s no space left to maneuver in) who, instead of smashing its way out, seems hell-bent on squashing the only living thing in its line of sight first.

Loki swiftly crouches down on one knee, puts his palms together and, faster than the blink of a brilliant crimson eye, conjures a rotating orb of ice and chaos energy that explodes in a blinding flash of white light as he hurls it square into the monster’s chest.

The Hulk falls back, breaking through the wall to the parking lot on the other side and crashing into a row of cars, while a sheath of ice spreads from its chest and up its neck. The being that is not Bruce howls and claws at its skin, but the smooth ice thickens and as it reaches the head of the beast, it slides right into its eye sockets – and momentarily blinds it.

It will probably only last seconds but it’s all Loki needs while the Hulk shakes its head furiously.

He makes to flee when he spots the tempad on the cracked floor.

He can’t leave it.

As Loki dives for the gadget, the Hulk simultaneously knocks itself in the face with both fists, splintering the ice into a rain of tiny spikes. With a roar to match the sound of a spaceship engine taking off, the creature lunges.

Loki’s fingers close around the tempad.

He feels a buzz.

The door appears in front of him.

He doesn’t stop to think before throwing himself through it.

The Hulk punches into empty air.

Part 5

[irelise]

Who is your favorite character - Alex or Yassen? And how do you feel this informs your characterization of one or both of them?

Thanks for this ask Valaks, just the type of meta I like!

I will say Yassen is my favourite hands down because I have a Type and Yassen’s character archetype hits all my guilty pleasures. Even before RR and all the delicious whump, Yassen already felt like a character with layers from what little we saw of him - a stone-cold professional but also one with a sense of humour; someone at the top of his field who also doesn’t particularly like his job or his employers and is just thinking of retirement; a hired killer who is purely, unabashedly in it for the money, no complex motives, no dithering over morals - yet he still had enough humanity to speak of love for a man fourteen years dead who had betrayed him, and have compassion and love for Alex who was thrown into the world of espionage far too young. That “I love you” at the end of Eagle Strike gets me every time ;_;

Then came RR: I really enjoy stories about agency (or lack thereof) and Yassen is a fascinating study of that, so a lot of my fic tends to place him in situations where he’s not entirely in control. Canon-wise, It’s easy to say that RR is the story of how he got whumped into being an assassin against his will and on some level that’s true - but he chose to join Malagosto; maybe at first he wanted to simply learn enough skills to survive, but by the time of his graduation assignment he was ready to kill, and it was only down to chance that he got cold feet at the last second. At the end of RR he consciously chose to become an assassin out of spite - (I have my own thoughts about how much sense that makes), but regardless, by that point I don’t think it’s fair to say that Yassen is purely a victim of circumstances with no agency of his own. By the time the main Alex Rider canon rolls around he’s done many unforgivable, irredeemable things under his own will.

...Having said that, I do still think that even as a fully-fledged Scorpia operative Yassen is still bound in a lot of ways, which is such a delightful contrast for me because of the way his lethality is emphasised. Here we’ve got Yassen, the most dangerous person in the room, capable of killing someone a hundred different ways without even needing a conventional weapon, but when we get a glimpse of his introspection in present-day Stormbreaker when faced with Alex, this is what we see:

“The two of them looked at each other, both of them trapped in different ways, on opposite sides of the glass.”

It’s tragic in a way that hits all my buttons - Yassen sacrifices all his morals, betrays his parents’ memory, turns his back on his own happiness (let’s not forget one of the last times when he felt pure happiness was when he decided not to complete his graduation assignment in New York and he felt like he won a battle against his own darker impulses) - and what does he get in return? A never-ending fight to prove himself the best at a profession he doesn’t even like, a lonely life destined for an premature ending, and all with Scorpia’s watchful, controlling eye in the background.

Oh dear god this reply is getting away from me. Um. I’ll leave the Eagle Strike meta for another day and just say that Yassen’s a character of very sharp contrasts - just look at the sheer range of his characterisations in fic and general fanon - and it’s interesting to poke at that. The aspect of his characterisation that rises to the forefront of each story can be completely different depending on his age, who he’s interacting with, the setting of the story, or even just what I’m in the mood to write. Canon-based AUs are particularly interesting for me just because there’s so much potential for the course of Yassen’s life - and the core of his personality - to shift completely if certain key events had changed; someday I still really want to write that MI6!Yassen fic...

Characterisation-wise I think I tend to focus on the contrast between how Yassen presents himself (controlled and graceful, deadly competence, dubious morals), with some sort of vulnerability below the surface, whether it’s something in the plot/setting (eg his precarious situation in Scorpia - I do adore your headcanon that he’s a tool Scorpia is slowly but surely trying to dispose of while wringing as much use out of him as they can), or an emotional weak spot (Alex).

Speaking of Alex, since this is already way too long, putting discussion of Alex below cut!

Alex, by contrast, I used to not be terribly interested in. Maybe it was because I was very young when I read the books, or maybe because of AH’s own writing which tends to focus more on the action and gadgets and plot than take time exploring the nuances in Alex’s characterisation. Compared to Yassen, Alex has several very strong key traits that tend to stay relatively constant when I write him: leans more to the serious side most of the time rather than pure unbridled chaos; smart mouth that he cannot and will not keep shut especially when some idiot is monologuing at him; independent and resourceful but somewhat impulsive; understimulated by “normal” life ever since Stormbreaker - which leads him into trouble, especially when combined with the fact that I do headcanon Alex as someone with a strong drive to do good and who refuses to turn a blind eye when there’s someone he can help or something he can make right.

Of course, since he’s fourteen, sometimes Alex’s intervention just makes things worse...

It’s only more recently thanks to the lovely writers and meta from the fandom that I started taking more of an interest in Alex - specifically, what happens as Alex gets older? I enjoy coming of age fic with Alex: those times where he suddenly realises he’s no longer a child spy, or the times he realises the moral views he held when he was fourteen are insufficient for navigating the murky world of intelligence - those situations where there’s no clear “bad guy”, or those times when strategic sacrifices need to be made...

I also very much enjoy adult Alex fics - just how does MI6 deal with an agent like Alex? Alex, who has a distrust of authority (MI6 in particular), who’s perfectly willing to disregard all mission parameters if he decides the circumstances call for it, who nevertheless is so effective that Jones makes the decision to keep using him - but will all of that backfire one day?

And what about Alex himself, working in intelligence without a patriotic bone in his body, with the black mark of Scorpia on his record? Alex who’s now an adult with adult coworkers and had hopes for finally fitting into a proper social circle again, only it turns out he still can’t connect with them and is as lonely as he was at fourteen? Alex, who keeps finding himself being compared to John and Ian Rider, the family that he had never really known yet condemned him to this life with no input from Alex himself?

Basically I think there’s bits and pieces of Alex’s characterisation I’m more interested in over others - and the main thing I find interesting about him is the circumstances he’s in: the government-sanctioned abuse and blackmail, the way he grows up a child in an adult’s world. So correspondingly my fic tends to focus on that rather than, say, light-hearted slice of life shenanigans around London or anything to do with Brooklands or family fic, although I’ll gladly read those from other writers! And since Yassen is my favourite over Alex, I think it would be rare indeed that I write an Alex-centric fic where Yassen doesn’t play a role at all.

[smolbeandrabbles]

Penguin, James Penguin - Killian x Reader (Spies in Disguise)

Alternate Title: ‘I Wish I Was James Bond’

Holiday Fic 5! 🐧🐧

@wltz-bby​ @happyskywhale​

@xxstar-bluesxx​ - From one Killian Stan, to another 😉

Author’s Note: It is EXACTLY a year since I saw this movie for the first time. 

I had way too much fun writing these two again, safe to say I missed them a lot 🥰🥰

Not joking, this plot has been in my notes since January - and I was like “Well I missed my chance completely with the song and everything!” It’s too good not to pass up!!

Reader character from my SiD series/prequel? You betcha! 😉 But this time we’re writing for them post-movie!

Also playing into the rehabilitation program / Agent!McFord storyline here. So I hope, Killian Stans, that he’s been worth the wait to come back to you. And that I’m ticking a bunch of boxes. 

Note: Whilst the song itself certainly has a Christmas theme, the fic does not. At all.

Penguin, James Penguin - Brad Paisley

I Wish I Was James Bond - Scouting For Girls

Disclaimer: SiD & all associated characters not mine / basically taking the same idea as everyone else and slightly subverting expectations, because it wouldn’t be my fic if I didn’t / you don’t necessarily have to read ‘Mine’ to ‘Fresh Start Fever’ to understand this but it might help / lyrics & gifs not mine. 

Premise: In an attempt to figure out how Walters Bio-molecular tech works, Killian ends up getting it wrong with disastrous (hilarious) results...

Words: 6793

Warnings: Christmas themed lyrics/No Christmas themed fic / if you squint there’s some slight sexual banter at the end there / 

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I've got another story That I bet you haven't heard Did you know that Santa Has a secret agent bird From an undisclosed location He's watching me and you He's got satellite uplinks in his cufflinks Yeah he sees everything you do He's Penguin, James Penguin That dapper little guy Like a well dressed duck in a three piece tux He's Santa's secret spy Not so very long ago Santa didn't need much help But with more and more kids every year He soon got overwhelmed He told the elves one Christmas We can't do this anymore Then a knight in shining polyester Waddled through his door And it was Penguin, James Penguin He was there to save the day He had wireless And GPS outfitted on the sleigh And Santa said Penguin Won't you be my ears and eyes How'd you like to help me run My SCFBI He's Penguin, James Penguin And now I guess you've heard How Santa got his little Christmas Secret Agent Bird

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I've seen you walk the screen, it's you that I adore Since I was a boy I wanted to be like Roger Moore A girl in every port, and gadgets up my sleeve The world is not enough for the both of us it seems Hello Mr Bond, I've been expecting you Martini in your hand, and that eyebrow that you move Don't take this the wrong way, I know it might sound odd I'm the next double-0, I'm the right man for the job I wanted to be you, I wanted to be you I wanted to be someone else And I wish I was James Bond Just for the day Kissing all the girls, blow the bad guys away And I wish I was James Bond Just for the day Kissing all the girls, blow the bad guys away And I wish I was James Bond Just for the day Kissing all the girls, blow the bad guys away Roger and Sean and Timmy and George And Daniel and Pierce and maybe one day me

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The light grey clouds rolled over the mountains on the horizon line. By the colour alone you suspected that you were due heavy snowfall. Up in a mountaintop hideaway you were growing used to such things... no bright blue sky today.

You folded your arms with a sigh; still, a little bit of sunshine would be nice.  

KiTT - your assistance drone - beeped every so often as he moved about the room, doing the odd task. Other than that, the house was silent, for now. Your eyes hovered on the helicopter outside and then back to the clouds; would there be a chance of getting out of here for the next few days? You knew cars would be out of the question, it was treacherous even in snow fairing vehicles... Note to self: Next time choose a boyfriend whose idea of a home is not a typical villain’s hide out. Although you supposed it fit his role in all this. At least to the Agency. Things had changed a lot since Killian had tried to take everyone out with his own drones, but they were still very wary of him. You found yourself tasked with keeping him straight - you weren’t sure they understood your relationship. But agreed anyway.

  Having finished his tasks and now bored, KiTT whirred his way back over to you, beeping his greeting. Blue lights flashing.  You shook your head at him, “What would you have me do? I’ve given you everything I had on my list, why don’t you ask him if he needs any help?” KiTT’s next series of bleeps had you laughing; “I’m sure he didn’t mean to kick you out like that. K just needs to concentrate. You can get pretty loud!”  Your drone protested, which only made you giggle. Especially as he tried to make the argument that he couldn’t possibly be any worse than the rest of them. 

KiTT had a point: the drones that the Agency had let you take back now helped both you and Killian with lab work - amongst other things – and, with your own expertise in AI, each now had their own distinctive personality just as KiTT did. Sometimes you regretted that decision. Although they couldn’t have been further from his blue and silver finish; in sleek black and red lights. Fitting for your significant other maybe, but it made little sense to you for the Agency to have given them such colours. (And if you were honest, KiTT looks a damn sight better, but you supposed there was a bit of favouritism in that comment.) “Oh, yeah. Cuz nothing says evil robot quite like red lights.” Killian couldn’t clap back at that, KiTT was exclusively blue. “I didn’t design it.” “I know. Which begs the question, why the Agency was building an assassination drone.” He folded his arms, “Well they don’t care, do they?” Protection by any means necessary. Stop the bad guys by any means necessary. “Well...” You raised your eyebrows and tipped your head in agreement. He’d know a lot about that alright... 

You found yourself looking back to the clouds and sighed, “You could always go check the weather for me if you’re really that desperate. Or if you could figure out a really quick weather changing machine?” If you could count KiTT’s next sound as a scoff you would, before blue lights ran across his body to let you know he was contacting weather satellites for you.

 The sudden crash behind you snapped you both from caring about the weather. It was followed by a slightly smaller - but still loud – one, and then silence again. You immediately started towards the labs, “On second thought, sounds like I should have just asked you to go straight to him!” 

**

When you both got down there it was a little hard to tell what had happened. At first it looked like nothing too serious; work surfaces scattered with tools, screens full of science mechanics... until you spotted the broken glass beakers and liquid running across the surface of a worktop, dripping onto the floor. “K?!” He didn’t appear to be in here, and yet none of his drones were either, which made you think it also hadn’t been them to make this mess. Or they’d made themselves scarce. You turned the lights up a little further and kept walking, cautiously. Well - for one thing, the floor was now covered in broken glass and curious liquids… they should probably be tidied up at the very least. Good thing your drone was in a working mood. There was another sound from further in the lab that made you jump, and you turned towards it. KiTT made a sound of worry. “Hush, clear this away, I got it.” He beeped again, “I’ll be FINE. Cybernetic, remember!?” KiTT’s next beep caused you to glare at him, “Don’t use that tone with me-!” 

You made your way carefully over to the noise, stepping around the glass that had been spat all over the floor. You were sure it’d made its way to unknown reaches of the lab, and you should be careful where you were stepping. Sure, you wouldn’t bleed, but thanks to the upgrades it’d still hurt.  When you turned the corner, you came face to face with a huddled form. Your head tilted curiously; eyebrow raised. You recognised it alright: but it was more the mystery of how it got in here. It might well have been the source of the crash - after all, you wouldn’t think a penguin to be very careful in a lab. You were just thinking about how you were supposed to catch it and then tell your partner: “Well, a penguin got into the house, and then your lab somehow, and destroyed all your research. Sorry about that-!”, when it turned towards you and-

  “AGH-!!” This time you didn’t jump, although both of you were startled. Your eyes widened even further as you stared at him, on the verge of collapsing into laughter. “K?!” The laugh wavered in your voice and you tried to swallow it back, “What did you do?” Killian was very blunt about it; “Turned myself into a penguin, alright. Are you happy now?” “How?” - Trying not to laugh was having the opposite effect and he sighed. “Go on, laugh-!” You did, but still tried to make it muted, before taking a deep breath, “What the hell...? Did you try to copy Walter’s formula-!?” “Well, it didn’t work did it-!” “They are all pigeons; although this is appropriate for our living conditions.” You crouched beside him, “...I gotta say, it’s very cute.” “Shut up!” You knew, were he still human, he’d be red with both anger and embarrassment by now.  You reached out to delicately touch his feathers; it seemed, just like Sterling managed to retain the bow tie, Killian would retain the outlines of his suit. He swatted your hand away and hissed; “Stop it!” “Just take the antidote. I mean, it’s all over the desk, but I’m sure we can salvage some of it. I assume you are trying for a pigeon, right? Or maybe you aren’t; gotta say I prefer penguins.”  “Thanks.” He responded dryly.  You only grinned your ‘you’re welcome’ and then stood to walk back to his desk; even if KiTT had managed to clear everything by now, if Killian had all the data, creating another batch of antidote shouldn’t take too long, and you could enjoy him as a penguin for a few minutes... or hours... more. “No! Wait! Y/N!” He hissed again, flippers grabbing your leg. “What?” Killian gave you a look of significance. Your eyes narrowed; “You took it without making an antidote!?!” “I took it accidentally!! And I had an antidote, it just wasn’t perfected-! Now I’m stuck as a flightless bird-!” “Deadly in water though.” You mused, tilting your head – that was not well received. Killian grumbled, huffing something under his breath. “So, this isn’t Walter’s formula?” “No!” Although it didn’t look like he was prepared to admit it. And you weren’t sure exactly how he managed to take it ‘accidentally’. “I did it myself!” “Well, this part worked.” You continued walking though, which made him waddle after you as fast as he could, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?!” “Uhm, to get Walter. He’ll be able to fix this-!” “No!!” He got ahead of you and tried to push you backwards, you halted; you supposed you understood why he wouldn’t want to admit what he’d done. You thought Walter would actually love that Killian’s formula was at least correct, even if he couldn’t reverse it yet. “What are you going to do Killian? Perfect the antidote as a Penguin? Think about this-!” “I AM!” “Rationally.” You stooped again and gathered him in your arms, to which he squirmed until you set him on a clear desk. “He’s the only one who can help you.” “I can do this myself..!” “As a flightless bird?” He’d been the one to say it-! He sighed, but was still unwilling to concede. Folding his flippers across his chest and turning slightly away from you. You stroked a hand over his feathers again, and grumpy as he was, you felt Killian lean into your touch and smirked as you teased him. “We could be halfway to D.C. by now...” He turned to you, eyes narrowed, and pushed your fingers away again, gentler this time. “Fine. But not a word to anyone.” “I promise.” You placed your hand over your heart. “And don’t pick me up again. It’s embarrassing.” You raised an eyebrow, folding your own arms, “So... what are you going to do, waddle around after me?” “Yup.” Killian jumped down from the counter, sliding across the floor to the exit, passing KiTT who beeped curiously and looked to you. You gave a shrug and rolled your eyes. “You coming?” 

It didn’t take very long to gather all that you needed and throw yourselves into the helicopter. You thanked your lucky stars that he’d taught you how to fly this thing. Your eyes flicked back to those clouds, “KiTT what did the weather say?” He beeped the response; cold, very cold, chance of snow later but the clouds may have been long gone by then. What concerned you most was if the chopper would fly, he seemed to suggest you’d be fine. 

You took a deep breath and flicked all the switches to their correct positions before starting the ignition, blades whirring into life. Your penguin turned to you from his seat, where you’d firmly belted him in. “You sure you know what you’re doing!?! You have to get us all the way to Washington D.C.!” You glared at him, “You wanna try it in your current situation!? You taught me!!” Killian knew he had no choice but to concede. “Just be careful! Nothing reckless!” “Says the man that just turned himself into a Penguin-!” “It was accidental-!” His voice pitched. You placed your hands assuredly on the joystick and moved the helicopter steadily into the air and into higher altitudes. “Accidental my ass, how do you take something like that accidentally-!?” There was overwhelming silence and you knew you’d won again. But sighed, saying softer, “Look, it doesn’t matter...” You pulled out across the mountains and smiled at the blue sky out across your horizon line, the end of this grey was in sight-! “Walter will have you fixed into a sarcastic, Australian, pain-in-the-ass by the end of the day.” Even Killian couldn’t help but laugh at that.

How exactly did you end up in this mess? It’s probably best to go back to the beginning...

**

Shortly after the whole drone revenge plan had failed, you received an anonymous text telling you to bring a car to a building close to the Capitol Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument. It said nothing more than that, but it made you curious. Upon running it through KiTT and discovering it was from the Agency, your curiosity was only further piqued. And on the dot of the specified time, you were standing outside the building leaning against your car, shades on. To be honest you probably couldn’t have looked less inconspicuous, and you wondered if the Agency, in reality, were about to laugh at you for being so gullible and arrest you too. Well, you’d escaped from them before, and that was more than just a few upgrades ago.

 The doors of the building opposite slid open and your mouth was suddenly agape, you slid your shades slowly from your eyes, unable to hide your shock. Stepping into daylight - in a brand-new suit - was none other than Killian himself. 

His smile was gentle as he made his way down the steps to you, and your heart was hammering against your ribs. As Killian stopped in front of you, you couldn’t help yourself but throw your arms around him. “Am- am- am I here to pick you up!?” God I missed you, I missed you, I missed you… He chucked, returning your embrace, “I believe that’s the idea, yeah.” “They just let you go!?” Killian placed his right hand in his pocket and huffed, “Well. That’s not exactly it, I had to bargain my way out...” You surveyed him for a minute, all his cybernetics seemed intact; he didn’t look messed with. Running a full diagnostic would give you the whole picture, but you were puzzled. “What’s the price?” “Joining the good guys.” You pulled slightly back, “You’re working for the Agency!?” He gave a nod, “That’s the deal.” “Double cross all your acquaintances?” You smiled, leaning back against the car, “Does kinda sound like you... Oh. Wow. You’re an informant?”  “Not exactly.”  Your eyes widened further than you felt possible; “You’re an agent!?” “You got it.” But Killian’s smile slightly faded, “Y/N, I- I was only part of the bargain, though.” You understood him immediately, “Me? They want me.” “You’re an inspired scientist; your expertise in the fusion of human biology and robotics… not to mention AI- they can use that. It’s not really even me they want working with them, it’s you.” “You offered me up as a chip!?” You couldn’t help but be a little upset at him for that. “You’re the only chip I had to play!” Even by the desperate look on his face you shook your head, “No.” “I need you with me on this, you think I was gonna do it without you?” His hand reached for yours, and you didn’t pull away. “So, are we... a team?” “Well, about that—-” His eyes flicked over his shoulder and you both turned.

Standing in the doorway now - each with a wildly different expression on their face - were Walter, Lance and... you believed her name was Marcy. Your eyes flicked to his face and back to them. Walter was the only one that seemed to show any kind of joy; and he was ecstatic. You pushed back just about every swear word you could think of.  “You’re kidding me?”

**

He was not, in fact, kidding and after being hauled into a two-hour meeting - which you felt really explained nothing - you were essentially handed a file and an ultimatum.  Either you worked with them, or you were thrown in a maximum-security prison. You had to laugh, because you didn’t think this was exactly fair on you. And they had you between a rock and a hard place... Killian and you had always had the same vendetta against the Agency since Kyrgyzstan (maybe his a little more aggressive than yours), and you had a life outside all of this. You couldn’t afford not to take their offer. The Agency knew it.

That made you a lot less mad at him for signing you up, and you turned down the opportunity to vent to him on the drive back; “What do I call you now? Agent McFord!?” “Shut up!” The faint blush across his face made you smile and tease him again: “You do know all that James Bond stuff was a joke, right-!?”

It was one of your favourites. The two of you loved spy movies, unironically. And Killian really liked the classic Bond films, how any time he’d make himself a certain drink you’d come for him with the same joke: “Is that a martini!?” “Yes-??” He was always curious as to why that mattered, only for you to give a pointed smirk,  “Alright... James Bond!” And he laughed, hard. And you loved that sound, because it was such a rarity these days, “Surely in this situation Sterling is James Bond...?” Then you smirked again, and gave Killian your best flirty wink, “Not to me!” That seemed to always get you where you wanted. And wasn’t 007 known for his way with the ladies, after all?

Today in your car Killian did not raise to the bait, but you saw him shake his head as he stared out the window.  “So, are you going by Tristan or Killian…?” There was a little smile on his face as he continued to stare at the scenery, “I’ll leave that up to you…” Your sudden gasp had him looking back to you as something else gelled in your brain; “Wait does that mean I get to say I’m dating a secret agent!?” “Oh god.” His groan was quiet and you were already grinning, enjoying yourself even more. “You should never have agreed to this!” “Clearly.” “Wait—!” You turned to him in absolute joy, “Can you just put on a British accent for like five minutes-!?” “NO!” And you noticed how he managed to accent his Australian to new levels.  Clearly his childhood wish to be James Bond was getting fulfilled, but he wasn’t about to play into it for your whims...

You’d figure out how to break that will before long-!

**

It took Killian a little more time than he would have liked to convince you that his deal was a good one. You were basically flat out refusing to work for them, doing the bare minimum you possibly could get away with; it felt too much like coercion to you, and they must have known how much you stood to lose.

 His first track was to use Walter; with both similar approaches to science & technology and similar levels of enthusiasm for it, the work it would be possible for you to do together would be nothing short of incredible, and both of you knew it. You acknowledged Killian was right, but it wasn’t something you fell for. The files Killian gave you, the access to read about the technology... that interested you. The potential to further yourself in your own field, even if it had to be done with the Agency, was a good draw. But still not enough.

So Killian did the one thing he could, and played the last card he had left. Himself. Baiting you with his own fate. “If they say I’m not doing my job and throw me back where I came from, what then?” You hated him for it, hated even more that he had a point. Hated yourself for having to admit you couldn’t be without him. You’d almost gone stir crazy between his arrest and picking him up. You couldn’t stand to think of it being any longer than that.  Too much of a pain point, your one line. You’d both lost enough; you refused to let yourselves lose each other.

You did not become an agent though. Your role was strictly technology and it confined you to the labs. Which you had to be honest, you enjoyed. And because you had your own job – and were a name the industry knew well – you weren’t a full time Agency employee. Your research saved lives – was the reason you still had yours – the Agency couldn’t exactly stop you working on good conscience. Even better! The tension in the team didn’t really let up, but the combination of the four of you (and Marcy and co when necessary) worked well. You all got more done than any other team in the Agency. 

Still, the enjoyment of working alone, or with Walter, didn’t stop you from itching to get out there or complaining about it to Killian. “Oh. I see I’m not an agent.” “Less expendable than I.” “Out of me and you, how am I-” “You have a reputation beyond the Agency and they know it. You’re the poster child of cybernetics. They did it to save your brain; didn’t you tell me that yourself?” “You made this...” You indicated to the parts of your body that were, indeed, cybernetic. “Yes, I did.” He touched his forehead to yours, “but the top half of you is flesh and blood and I do not possess the brain you do. For now, you’re best staying in the lab.” Walter didn’t stay in the lab and it made you antsy; running around with Killian or getting to do stuff for him was half the fun.

And eventually you whined enough to get to accompany him on missions, even though you still didn’t get to be an agent.

You had a few style tips for your 007 too. In the same vein as Lance Sterling, Killian’s crisp new Agency suit was complete with bow tie and dazzlingly white shirt. You couldn’t help yourself, looking him over. Oh, sure, Killian looked great, but he didn’t look like him. As you strolled over, Killian stood still and as tall as possible: his obvious thought was that you we’re going to straighten his bow tie. Not a chance! Instead, you unfurled it and threw the fabric to one side, proceeding to undo one... two... you hovered over the third button. Killian placed his hand over yours, “Isn’t that enough?” He should have known that was a fatal mistake to say; “For me? No!” You took a step back with a smile, at the creased eyebrow and small frown look on his face, surveying your handy work: “Mmm. That’s more you. Agent McFord.” And so this was how he started to wear his suits, and before long that signature blue shirt found its way back into the mix, much to your delight.

It was on these missions together that you both became curious in Walter’s biomolecular tech. You from a purely scientific fascination. He had Sterling turning from man to pigeon left, right and centre. And the two of you had drones (now equipped with AI), but even you didn’t have anything like that. Clearly Killian’s interest had become a little more than just the spectacle and scientific theory though.

No, clearly he’d tried to replicate it for himself. And the result hasn’t exactly gone as planned. You supposed he wasn’t about to allow Lance to one up him for the rest of his Agency career - however long that lasted. And Killian wanted to get back on level footing without Walters help; he wanted to do it himself.

And it had worked, a very valiant attempt, but he hadn’t finished his antidote or had miscalculated somewhere... And that was how you had all ended up in a helicopter flying yourself to the Agency labs, with a penguin in the passenger seat.

Yet with what you’d seen working here, this just seemed like a typical day!

***

You landed to the best of your ability, ignoring his slight glare of annoyance at the small bump as you set the helicopter down. You would call that trip a success. You stared at the heavy doors in front of you and gathered your pass; you heard KiTT behind you and his metallic fussing as he switched himself into all the correct safety modes and access clearances for the Agency. That you had done yourself; you didn’t trust Killian with KiTT, did they really think they would get the go ahead to touch him? Turning to Killian you cleared your throat; “You gotta act like a penguin remember-! So don’t talk to me! Or do anything a penguin wouldn’t do!” “What wouldn’t a penguin do!?” You unclipped his seatbelt. Well, you supposed a researcher would know, or someone that worked with them closely in a zoo. But he couldn’t just guess the Agency’s experience. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise you if he knew everyone in it inside out by now. “Look, I don’t know. But don’t make me talk to you, I’m going to look like an insane person-!” Realising that you were both still talking to each other you shared the same ‘shut up!’ look before agreeing not to talk with a silent nod, and with both KiTT and penguin Killian trailing you, you headed across the helipad with your Agency pass. 

Here we go again...

God, you hated this building.  Most times you’d been out here it hadn’t been for any good reason - and you still didn’t feel particularly safe within it. And so many people… Even when you worked your legitimate job you usually worked alone - or with people you actually liked - you could talk to yourself or KiTT and run your mouth, or talk things through without anyone answering you.  Everyone at the Agency had an opinion. When it was just you and Walter it was okay, and Killian was right, you liked him. But sometimes other people got involved and it got messy. To the point where Walter would gingerly steer you from the room before you really went off at someone.

You keyed yourself in; immediately scanned by the Agency’s automatic sensors, the switch turned green and the door swung open for you. You hesitated for a moment and looked down to Killian. “I know you’re gonna hate this, but I’m going to have to carry you through security. I think that’s all there is for it.” You didn’t let him answer as you picked him up but, as before, Killian protested by squirming in your arms as you walked down the hall to the security area. “Geez, now I look like I’m smuggling in a penguin…”

You gained some funny looks for doing so, but you need only say the word research and they let you through with him. As you turned into the next corridor, through the next security door and it all looked empty, Killian nipped at your fingers; “OW! Okay… Geez-!” You put him back on the ground, only for him to shake out his ruffled feathers with a ‘humph!’ The corridors remained silent as you took the long way down to the research centre. And Killian switched from waddling to sliding around on his stomach. You watched with curiosity; you supposed that was faster for him than trying to keep up with you. You turned to KiTT with a raised eyebrow, only to see him also focused with puzzlement on the penguin. Knowing you weren’t about to get anything sensible out of your drone, you spoke once again to your boyfriend: “Is that easier to move, or is it just fun?” Killian barely glanced up at you, but you knew the look he was giving: ‘you’re the one that said don’t talk!’ He was right, but this corridor was empty, the last 10 corridors had been empty! “Geez you can just nod.” You were met with nearly exactly the same look, before he paused, nodded, and carried on his sliding.   “It’s fun? You are too cute.”

It took you until the next door for him to stand up and retaliate, but when Killian did, he smacked your leg as best he could with his flipper; you could only laugh.

***

You wandered cautiously through the laboratory and he stayed close; perhaps you should have checked that Walter was actually in today. You could already hear the stirring of whispers, and KiTT beeped in acknowledgement. You glanced to him, “Tell them to shut the hell up then!” His beep was a little louder in annoyance, and you rolled your eyes, but he began flying ominously over the heads of the other scientists and chatter stopped, work resumed. You smiled to yourself; everyone was scared of KiTT because of what they knew Killian’s drones had been capable of. KiTT was harmless, and had no weaponry, but they didn’t need to know that. You quite enjoyed how scared they got sometimes. Served them right for the majority of it. You were a little overcome with joy to see that Walter was indeed in his lab, and even more happy to see that Lance was nowhere to be found. You gave him a wave as you knocked on his door and received a big smile back. “Y/N! I didn’t know you were coming in today!” “Unplanned, I do confess. But it’s good to see you Walter!” “Well, it’s lovely to see you too! You working?” “Actually I came to ask a favour…” “Oh!” He straightened in his chair as he swung it towards you, large blue eyes curious, “What is it?” “Your bio-molecular technology?” “Yes.” It was at this point he noticed the penguin, and you could see the million questions racing in his mind, so you opted to continue quick before he got a chance to ask them. “Is that just for Lance? Would it work on anyone? You must have the formula, right? Is there any chance I can take a look? Both for the transformation process and the antidote to it. I mean you guys are using it all the time.” “Uuuhhhh…” Now you’d given Walter a million questions, and his eyes kept flicking downwards to your companion. “Well, I…Yes, I guess I could…. show you how to… Do you want to do this with a penguin?” “Ignore the penguin.” 

Walter tried to keep his eyes on you, especially as the look you were giving him was serious, but eventually they trailed back to the bird at your feet. He studied it for a while and ignored you trying to protest him disregarding what you’d said. He leant forward on his chair, “Killian?” Instead of acting as he was supposed to, your partner became immediately angry. “Not a WORD to Sterling, or I SWEAR-!!” Instead, Walter lit up with a gasp, “You perfected your own formula!?! That’s so amazing—!! Colour me impressed-! Well, I could make what I made for him, so you can turn pretty much at will-!! Well-” He turned to you with a smile, “with some assistance of course-!” “A secret agent penguin!” The idea was funny to you, but at the same time you couldn’t help but love it. Killian immediately protested, “NO-! THATS STUPID, WE ARE NOT—!” You nudged him with your foot to shut him up, before continuing a sensible track of conversation, “First off, I suppose we should get the formula done. Then we can think about what we want to do with it afterward.” “All you need is the antidote right? I can get right on that… but, Killian, I’m going to need your help with what you did…” Walter spun back to the computer and began typing away, “Pull up a seat you two!” You dragged one across, and Killian scrambled up onto your lap; “I don’t have my formula, but KiTT could probably download it. He has a satellite uplink to the lab back home.” Walter nodded, “That’ll do, I’ll have to make sure the antidote coincides… I can’t promise this will be short though, you might be stuck like that for a few more hours.” “Hours!?” Killian sounded exasperated but turned to your assistance drone: “KiTT, see if you can link back to the lab and access file F-BMP5. Then send it across to Walter.” KiTT, glad of something to do, bleeped happily and set to work. “Sorry buddy.” Walter replied softly, “A penguin though, I’m impressed.” “Not entirely easy to find birds where we live.” This caused you to chime in, “Genuinely there are penguins up there?” “If you know where to look.” “Huh!” You smiled gently, “You’ll have to show me!”

Walter worked as quickly and carefully as possible, and as you suspected people were fascinated.  Everyone who passed couldn’t resist knocking on the door and asking what a penguin was doing here. Some even having the nerve to ask, ‘Is that penguin talking?’ By the time the last one had enquired you were up by the door: “NO!” and slamming it back in their face. Walter took precautions to lock you all in here and frost the glass for privacy after that. 

Killian remained in your lap, and you held him close, stroking your fingers through his feathers again, this time he didn’t seem to mind too much, and at times when you paused, he would nuzzle against your hands to get you to continue. Though you knew he would never admit it. As he continued working on the antidote, Walter again brought up the possibility of using this ultimate spy tech regularly. Killian didn’t seem keen, but you wondered if you could get him to warm to the idea… “I’m sure that we could find a little suit jacket for you in that form.” He glared back at you, “You’re enjoying this a little too much, aren’t you?” “A little, yeah!” You grinned in admittance, making him turn to Walter. “It’s a hard no from me.” “Aw, Killian, c’mon!” That only made Walter chuckle, “Let him get used to it Y/N, he’ll like it eventually, Lance did.” “You mean just leave him like this for a while?” Walter grinned, “Something like that!” Killian spluttered, stamping his foot against your leg; “YOU TWO PUT ME BACK RIGHT NOW!”

When Walter had the serum made up, he walked you both into another lab to perform the procedure. Killian let you carry him. “You can drink it if you want, but I’d like to run a few tests.” “Meaning what?” “I mean, if I put you under anaesthetic… I can check a few things.” “Is that usual?” “No but it’s your first time, and Lance’s wasn’t a pleasant experience I just want to make sure you’re okay, or Y/N will kill me.” Killian narrowed his eyes at both of you, standing there trying to look so innocent. “Fine. If I wake up and I’m not human again, I’m going to kill both of you.” Walter winced, however you only smirked; “Noted!”

***

When Killian awoke again, he was indeed human. But he was not in a lab in Washington D.C. instead he was in bed, back in the mountain top hideout. Had he really been out that long? Or was whatever drug used in the anaesthetic or antidote so strong he simply couldn’t remember anything else. He stretched, glad his head wasn’t spinning, and walked into the bathroom. Skimming his fingers up the side of his neck he pressed down on the projection switch. Killian checked this every morning as routine; that the system worked, that there were no problems with the metal, or his eye. This morning, nothing worked. He straightened up with a frown and tried again. Nothing. Killian rushed through the house; “Y/N! Y/N!” He sounded panicked, making you shake your head and call him through. “In the main room, babe.” He ran the rest of the way, “Y/N, my projection isn’t working!” You turned to him slowly, crooked, amused smile on your face; as if you were trying to hold back a laugh. “Are you sure? Why don’t you check again?” This time Killian was more careful, fingers sliding up his neck tentatively. He paused, realising that he couldn’t even feel the switch. It no longer existed. His eyes flew wide, voice quiet; “You- you- fixed it!” You grinned, smile slowly spreading across your face as you nodded, “Yes! So now you have a complete face!” He sprinted the rest of the way to you, grabbing you into a hug. You couldn’t help laughing, throwing your arms around him too as Killian buried his face in his shoulder, “You can cry now too! But please don’t! I would feel terrible!” “How-!?” “Turns out I can pick up a thing or two… Called in a few favours...” He pulled back and you framed his face with your hands, stroking your thumbs over his cheeks, “The Agency have better tech, but I never admitted that out loud. I’ve been wanting to do it for a little while but… Walter finally gave me the opportunity.” “...Thank you.” “Oh, don’t you start.” You indicated to yourself, “I have far more to thank you for.” You gestured to his robotic arm, “I thought… maybe I’d leave that. That was a feat of engineering y’know?” He laughed, “One thing at a time, huh?” “Yes!” You agreed with a nod.

Killian tugged away from you for a moment, and studied your clothes. He was in luck; they were the ones you had been wearing at the labs. Although, as he glanced to the colour of the sky perhaps it wasn’t the morning after all, perhaps it was later in the same day. It was snowing, though, so that weather prediction had been correct. Killian couldn’t be sure when it was exactly, but it was imperative you were wearing these clothes. “I just need to do something.” You were confused as he got closer to you. “What?” “Don’t get too excited.” He ran his hand down your body to the pocket of your jeans. “I mean, I can’t help get excited, you’re here and touching me.” “Stop it.” Although Killian smirked, slipping his hand into your pocket. You stilled, and your features pulled into a highly suggestive look as your eyes scanned his; “I mean, I have questions, Agent McFord.” He rolled his eyes at you as he fished a small disk drive out of your pocket. “…Wait!” You gasped, moment broken, “What the hell is that!? Where did you get that!?” You patted yourself down suddenly, “Killian-!” He closed his hand around it and beckoned you with him, turning to walk back to the labs, you hurried after him, “No one was paying much attention to the Penguin, were they!” “Wait! Seriously! What is that?” “Shush, you’ll see.” He plugged it into his computer and you waited patiently for it to boot up before you found yourself gasping again; “Is that… The Agency’s entire weapons tech!?” “Yup.” You whipped around to him, hands on his desk, “ARE YOU DOUBLE CROSSING THE AGENCY!” “Kinda.” His face was fairly nonchalant as his eyes held yours again. “Killian!” You couldn’t believe this was happening. After all that talk, and trying to persuade you into this. “After what they did...” He transposed the files, “are you really THAT surprised?” You folded your arms, hating that he had a point, “...Well no. But I... thought you might be a little more discreet.” “What they don’t know won’t hurt them - besides a few months ago you were telling me I was double crossing all the people I worked with, so is it double crossing a double cross or is it simply that I’m an effective double agent?” “... That’s a lot of doubles.” “Mm.” “I figure that’s not what the programme and agreement of your release was for. K, if they find out…” He tipped his head, eyes very nearly pleading with you. “I’m not covering for you!” “Accomplice?” “Not in your wildest dreams!” You were grinning - but maybe grimacing, because you thought perhaps you’d get caught up in this too, being part of his damn agreement - and Killian already knew he’d got away with it. You were going to be there for him no matter what he did and no matter what happened, you’d made that promise too long ago and you’d never break it. Not after what you’d been through together. You folded your arms again, “I won’t rat on one condition.” His eyes rolled, “What could that be?” “If you’ll agree to use Walter’s biomolecular tech, penguin yourself on missions in the same way Lance does his pigeon transformation.” Killian scoffed, “How?!” You were sure he wished he didn’t ask as you produced a collection of vials from a table across the lab. Killian’s face fell slightly. “You did not.” “Oh, we did!” “That’s most certainly punishment.” You indicated to the screen, “Someone brought this upon himself.”

There was silence, before he began chuckling, pulling you into his arms gently - and you were only too happy to accept his hug and a kiss to your forehead. “Geez. The things I do for you!” You moved to catch his lips delicately in ‘thanks’. Oh yeah, like you couldn’t say the same thing!

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Thank you for reading the penultimate fic of the year! 😁