thinking about how quill used music as his only reminder of his mother, to the point that he would risk his own life to save it and keep part of her alive, and how we're introduced to him as the one who dances while everyone around him rolls their eyes, and how he raises baby groot to be the first of the team to dance as openly and joyfully as him, and how this groot is the first one to dance during the last scene, and how rocket – who hums tunelessly while he works until he's building stereos to play tunes while fighting until his favorite song is "come and get your love" – joins him without any self-consciousness, and how quill left rocket his zune and team leadership but the first gift he ever gave him was a name for what he was: raccoon, and how drax overcomes his stubborn adherence to never dancing because what matters more to him than being a stoic destroyer is being a father, who makes the hundreds of children that look up to him laugh with delight, and who gets to watch mantis (whose innocence reminded him of his daughter) set off into the world with her own purpose the way his own child never got to, and how nebula dances along with them, no longer holding herself to the second-best status that thanos forced on her, instead at home as a leader who can fight with her family without having to compete with them, and how she stills talks to gamora, who is able to accept that she once meant the world to the guardians, once spoke their language and joined in their hugs and was part of their fun, but that she doesn't owe it to them to join in the dance and be that same person, and returns to the adoptive family that she feels at home with, and the lyric "leave all your love and your longing behind / you can't carry it with you if you want to survive," and how in order to go forward the guardians can't all stay together, but how that doesn't mean they aren't still a team and a family because how do you truly leave the people who have dragged you, doubting and kicking and screaming, toward comfort and security and happiness? for the hottest, slowest, laziest days to end, the ones where you lost best friends and spouses and children and siblings and years of your life and memories with someone, the ones where you run from your past and pretend you were never in pain, never loved anyone, you have to let that hope catch up with you (“happiness hit her / like a bullet in the back”). anyway i think this was a pretty good series like this post if you also had a laugh or two over cosmo the space dog's telekinetic hijinks!!
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Levi with an (Episodically) Depressed S/O
Tags: levi x reader, angst, hurt-comfort, gn!reader
Word count: 900
Levi invites you to shower with him, making the obstacle less daunting and much more attractive. In his black robe, leaning on your bedroom door, two towels slung over his arm indicate the knowledge that you will say yes and accompany him. The way that he looks, the low plea in his voice, how could you say no?
It would be more accurate to say that he was bathing you, but he does not phrase it that way. Instead, he is humble, letting his actions speak louder than words. He does not tell you that he will shampoo your matted hair, does not flaunt how deliberately he exfoliates your limbs, he just does them for you. Some days, even just tipping the bottle or pumping some soap into your hand can seem mountainous. On those days, he sees those activities not as tasks, but as privileges. It is his honor to be the one looking after you in your most dire time. He would always prefer someone to take care of rather than someone to miss.
Showering together not only ensures that you stay clean, but his company prevents you from those timeless sessions sat on the tile floor. At the moment you look refreshed but before you become sleepy, he jerks the handle to the left and halts the devastatingly relaxing rain.
Always, your clean clothes are already folded atop the bathroom counter, waiting for you. Some times, you fail to remember that you did not put them there. Other times, you notice the sign of his relentless consideration, but are artificially silenced from expressing your gratitude. No matter in his mind. You are clean, clothed, and out of bed, and that’s already better than you were before.
Without one complaint, Levi scoops your dampened towel and old clothes from the wet bathroom floor and drops them in the hamper for you. He has seen the piles that can amass, and if it were anyone else in any other circumstance, the clean freak would be quick to chastise, but any sight or thought of you disintegrates any instinct to discipline. You are sat in the living room, admiring the ivy that swirls around the balcony’s posts, thumbing the petals of the bouquet vased on the coffee table. White-gold rays move just a tad west to cast your figure in therapeutic light. You’re too tired to move away from the sun, and for once, Levi finds your fatigue favorable. As the morning temperature rises, he can see that your resting smile does as well.
While you are entranced with the scenes of summer, Levi swiftly searches for and alleviates the areas you have left neglected. He dumps your sock drawer upside down and mends the pairs that you have discarded as singles. In your closet, he finds the clean pile and dirty pile and either folds it or washes it accordingly. Under your bed, on your nightstand, in your bedside drawer, he discovers the dirty dishes that have been missing the sink and returns them to their proper place.
Between those tasks, he rolls his shoulders back or rubs the side of his neck and allows himself to sigh. It is difficult - not to bandage these tiny wounds - but to see the harsh bruises left by the illness. Sure, you were forgetful, and not quite as tidy as he was, but still - the mounds of laundry, hidden dirty dishes - this wasn’t like you. Levi lives for your joy - not the superficial smile, your peace - not the misleading silence. He lives for you - in sickness and in health. The times you forget your worth, that is when he whispers it in your ear. When the world is overwhelming you, he lets his touch communicate it.
Once your space is in order, he can start to work on getting you to leave it. Rather than annoying reminders or obligations, he mindfully manipulates the steps of treatment into desirable invitations. Rather than Do you want to… or Would you like to…, his proposals are statements, taking the responsibility out of your hands. Concerts in the park this afternoon. Let’s go to the farmers market. Apple orchard just opened.
Or even less far away.
Plants look thirsty, water them with me? Rain just cleared, read on the porch with me? Full moon tonight, stargaze with me?
To you, with me frames the activities, frames your presence as favors for him, and even in your lowest state, you are always keen to help him with anything. To Levi, it is no framing, your relationship is the greatest gift that fate has bestowed on him, and he treats you as such. It is in his selfless actions and his careful words, but it is more than that, traits you can’t quite categorize. The near flat, subtle smile you wake up to in the morning. The tight yet painless combs through your hair that leave you feeling divine. The low, calming timbre of his voice, decorated with a tender tone that he reserves for you.
Even before the haze you’re in now, you’ve never been able to label those qualities of his, and instead settled: it’s just who he is.
Like the sentiment that motivates his care: it’s what you deserve.
// masterlist //
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Morax draws back, golden spear glinting in his hands as he spins it in a defensive arc in front of himself. Glowing bolts of Anemo energy disperse into nothingness, but the howling force embedded behind them makes Morax frown.
There is another god present here. An ally of Osial?
The thought occurs swiftly, then is instantly discarded. No, if it were any ally of Osial, then they would not have launched an indiscriminate attack towards the both of them… not unless they were a cowardly opportunist who seized the chance to attack them while they were both distracted in combat.
Morax glances down, in the direction of where the Anemo energy had originated from.
Lo and behold, there is a young god standing there. White-haired and blue-eyed and fearlessly drawing the empty string of the massive bow that she holds in her hands once more, raising it directly towards Morax –and the enemy Hydro god beside him.
Anemo energy condenses into the shape of an arrow in her hands.
This time, Morax does not wait for the young god to launch her attack. He raises a clawed hand, curling his fingers into a fist as he focuses on the surrounding Geo element, glowing stone spires forming in the air at his wordless command.
Morax points towards the Anemo god, and instantly all the stone pillars hurtle downwards.
“A bit overkill, don’t you think?” Osial whispers into his ear.
Morax spins around, but Osial is a step faster. The canny serpent had taken advantage of his momentary distraction to lash out with his trident –but the weapon comes to a harsh stop against the Geo barrier that springs into existence above his skin.
Still, the force of the blow is enough to send Morax skidding back, and then he is forced to raise his spear to defend against the torrent of water that crashes over him in a towering tidal wave. Blue flecks fall down around him like a glowing snowstorm as Hydro rapidly collides and crystallizes against Geo. Morax forces it all aside with a single long swipe of his spear and–
The space across from him is empty.
Osial–!
Morax instantly looks down. The Hydro god is atop the Anemo god, forcing her to defend using the bow in her hands as a melee weapon. But even a divine bow is ill-suited for close-quarters combat when one swings it like a bludgeon, and the trident that Osial wields is a powerful divine weapon as well.
The Anemo god’s bow breaks.
Osial’s lips stretch into a sharp, wide grin. The water dragging at the younger god’s every footstep instantly snaps up in the form of distinct chains, lashing out and wrapping around her limbs.
Instinctively, the younger god responds by struggling against her bindings. Anemo energy swirls around the water-chains, destabilizing its form –but the moment that the winds dissipate, the chain links instantly reform and clasp down on the god once more.
Morax narrows his eyes.
The most irritating aspect about the Hydro energy that Osial manipulates is the fact that it does not keep to a defined form, much like the tempestuous waters that Osial commands, thus making it difficult to break free from in a manner completely different to that of the Geo constructs that Morax himself favors.
Morax has his own ways of dealing with Osial’s tricks, but the unknowing little Anemo god is clearly not as experienced. The young bird adeptus by her side is clearly unused to it as well, helplessly attempting to shatter the god’s chains, only for the water easily reform again and again–
“Surrender and serve, or be devoured by the Lord of the Vortex.”
“You will pay for breaking that bow with your head.”
Osial laughs.
Then, his human shape changes. The Lord of the Vortex discards his human guise, and a six-headed Hydro Serpent takes its place, rearing back with a watery hiss, a needle-sharp sound that echoes through the air the way sound reverberates underwater.
Above them, the clouds darken. Rain begins to fall.
With a small start, Morax realizes what is about to happen. He hefts his spear and throws–
Too late, Osial has already descended upon the young god with wide, gaping maws–
Blood fills the air.
… But it is a brilliant red-violet blood, heavy with Hydro energy. The majority of which is not from Morax’s spear finding its target through the Hydro serpent’s torso, but instead from the open wound on its neck, gushing out like a fountain as one of Osial’s six heads falls to the ground, cleanly decapitated.
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