#because i would have resorted to murder if anyone tried to argue against me. i was smart enough to know it would have pissed me off

[korattata]

sometimes i randomly think about.

okay so, my history teacher in my final? year of school was mostly cool. except. he was one of those guys that used real life current politics as a teaching tool.

like our final project was "pick something that's debated on being legal and argue for/against it" and. well. i hope he started to re-think that idea a bit after i made someone cry in class.

[ragingpancake]

How To Woo Your Scientist In 100 Cookies or Less

Rodney has a secret admirer. Prompt fic. See end of fic for prompt. ~1800 words.

The first time it appears is the morning after the ridiculous mission to M5-X847 (more accurately described as ‘Planet of the Bat-Shit Crazy Natives and Their Ridiculous Trading Ceremonies’ in the privacy of Rodney’s own mind and in the not-so-nearly private mess hall whenever anyone else brings it up). It’s left sitting on his desk by his absolute favorite computer on a folded up napkin from the mess hall, taunting him.

He’s still staring at it as if it holds the secrets to recharging a ZPM, the cure for male pattern baldness and the name of the man Carly Simon wrote a song about when John ambles in for his obligatory weekly hour of light switch duty.

“Ooh, cookie,” he says. Rodney smacks his hand away with a squawk of indignation.

“Mine!”

“Well, are you gonna eat it or just stare at it?”

Rodney settles for the latter while John unfairly makes Atlantis and all of her Ancient Tech roll over for him like the complete slut she is. Besides, he argues silently, it wouldn’t be the first time someone’s tried to kill him with baked goods. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Fifty nine minutes and fifty eight seconds later, John plucks the cookie off of the napkin and pops it into his mouth, crunching loudly and spewing crumbs everywhere.

“What did you do that for?” Rodney bellows.

“Just makin’ sure it was safe and citrus free,” John says with a toothy grin. “Next time, you’ll know. Cya later buddy,” he says and ambles back out of the room without a care in the world.

“Next time? How do you know there will be a next time?” Rodney yells after him. “How do you know?”

—-

There is, oddly enough, a ‘next time’. The next morning when Rodney stumbles into his lab, bleary eyed after a late night watching terrible movies and eating horrifyingly greasy food (thank you, Daedalus) with John, there’s another cookie sitting innocently on his desk, silently begging to be eaten. He’s still worried about the possibility of an assassination attempt but he rationalizes that no one is really going to use precious chocolate chips just to murder him so he lifts it up, sniffs it and then shoves it greedily into his mouth.

Less than hour later, he’s still alive and wishing he had another.

—-

By the fifth cookie, Rodney stops checking for the possibility of citrus-laced baked goods. Clearly, someone finally appreciates his genius and has decided the best way to thank him is to ply him with delicious sweet treats.

For once, Rodney doesn’t complain.

——

“Another one?” John asks, eying the 30th cookie longingly. “How many is that now?”

“I don’t know. I’ve lost count,” Rodney lies.

John just snorts in response.

——

“This is getting out of hand,” Kavanagh gripes. “How come we’re not allowed to eat around the computers, but he never says anything about that damn cookie appearing every morning? Why doesn’t Sh—”

Radek steps on Kavanagh’s foot and Miko’s elbow catches him in the side. Kavanagh squeaks and then miraculously falls silent.

Rodney eyes his scientists suspiciously “Why doesn’t who do what?”

“Nothing,” Radek says. “Is nothing but idiotic mumblings of a jealous man.”

“Jealous. Yeah, right,” Kavanagh snorts under his breath.

Rodney is still not convinced and he spends the rest of the day trying to bully Kavanagh into telling him exactly what’s going on.

Kavanagh is gleeful at the idea of knowing something that Rodney doesn’t.

—

“Hey Rodney?”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t you ever wonder who’s sending you cookies?”

Rodney eats the last bite of his cookie and glances over at John. “Not really, no. Don’t really care either, as long as they keep coming.”

“Oh.”

John goes back to touching uncatalogued Ancient tech while Rodney practically has oral sex with the left-over chocolate on his fingers. Rodney’s so caught up in his little delicious world that he doesn’t even notice when the device starts glowing in an ominous way.

“Uh… Rodney.”

Three seconds later, John’s unconscious on the floor and Rodney’s yelling into his headset for a medical team.

——

The next day, there is no cookie.

——

By the third cookieless day, Rodney decides that maybe Atlantis was the secret Cookie Fairy, because whoever it was is clearly pissed off that he almost killed John.

——

“I brought you something,” Rodney announces as soon as he palms the door to John’s room open. It’s the only room, other than his own that he’s ever been able to get into without resorting to screwing around with the crystals. He’s never questioned it, but now he’s grateful that John never had the urge to lock him out.

“Been stockpiling the goods from your Cookie Fairy?” John asks grumpily. Rodney cuts him slack because he knows he still has a killer headache from that damn piece of Ancient Tech.

“No,” Rodney says. “I uh, actually made these for you, and by ‘made these for you’, I really mean I bribed the kitchen staff with an extra ten minutes of hot water in the mornings but um, yeah. I got them. For you.”

John gives him an odd look and Rodney wonders if maybe there’s brain damage that Keller missed on the scans. Wouldn’t be the first time, he thinks bitterly.

“It’s just… you seemed to always be hanging around when I had my cookie and I uh… know that I wasn’t exactly willing to share with you even though I know chocolate chip is your favorite. But that’s not the point. The point… the point is… I screwed up that day. I should have been paying more attention to what you were doing and I wasn’t and I’m sorry and, and, and will you just say something and stop looking at me like that?”

John gives him a slight smile. “Thanks Rodney. You wanna watch a movie?”

For the first time since the cookies stopped coming, Rodney feels like he can breathe again.

——

The next morning, there’s still no cookie, though Rodney really didn’t expect there to be. He doesn’t even really care, because while he acquired the cookies for John the previous evening, he’s the one who ate almost the whole damn plate and if he never sees another chocolate chip cookie again, it’ll be too damn soon.

He has a lot of catching up to do because ever since John got hurt on his watch, he hasn’t exactly been able to concentrate on his work and damn if it hasn’t piled up already.

He powers up his computer and scowls at the stack of papers littering his workspace. Grabbing a handful, he flips through them and then discards them like the complete and utter trash they are. Kavanagh never could finish up the simplest of equations.

He’s just about to log in to the network with the corner of a piece of paper sticking from under his keyboard catches his eye. He frowns and pulls it out. The handwriting is vaguely familiar.

Meet me at the East Pier. 1800 hours. -Cookie Fairy

Rodney doesn’t know whether to be flattered or frightened. He just hopes that whoever the Cookie Fairy is, they’ve forgiven him as easily as John has.

——

The doors to the East Pier slide open with ease and Rodney can’t stop the nervous flutter in the pit of his stomach. The sun is already beginning to set in the Lantean sky, casting a gentle glow over the calm water. Leaning against the railing, there’s a familiar set of slouched shoulders and a crop of dark, messy hair.

“John?”

He turns and gives Rodney a nervous grin. “Hey buddy.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand. What are you… what are you doing here?”

He holds out the plate of chocolate chip cookies. “Uh… surprise?”

For once, the great Rodney McKay is completely speechless.

John clears his throat and shifts nervously from one foot to the next. He sets the plate of cookies down on the railing and rubs at the back of his reddening neck. “So I guess you… Uh, I guess this really isn’t what you were expecting.”

“No,” Rodney says dumbly, because he really wasn’t. Miko? Sure. Simpson? Maybe. But John Sheppard? John fucking Sheppard? Not in a million years. “Why?”

”M5-X847."

“The marriage ceremony? The one where they made you put stupid flowers in your hair and, and, and…”

“That’s the one.”

“But why?” Rodney asks, because he needs to know.

“Because I wanted it to be real,” John blurts out. His ears are absolutely flaming at this point and Rodney’s sure they’re going to spontaneously combust if they get any brighter. “I needed… I needed you to know and I didn’t know how to tell you so I…”

“You baked. For me.”

“Every day.”

“Until you got hurt.”

“Well, yeah. It was kind of difficult when standing long enough to get to the bathroom was a chore. I was… I wanted to tell you that day, but you didn’t… you said you didn’t want to know.”

“I was afraid it was Kavanagh or some other equally terrible person!”

“Why would Kavanagh bake you cookies?”

“I don’t know! If could have been part of some nefarious plan to clog my arteries and send me to an early grave via horrendous heart blockage!”

John just stares at him. “Seriously?”

“Hey, it could happen.”

“Rodney, shut up,” John says and then he’s suddenly there, his lips pressed to Rodney’s.

It’s wonderful and terrifying and so right.

Rodney makes a little noise of surprise against John before he relaxes into his the kiss, reaching up tentatively to card his fingers through his silly hair.

When they break apart, they’re both panting.

“Was that… was that okay?”

“I don’t know,” Rodney says. “I think… purely for research purposes, you understand, I’m going to need you to kiss me again.”

“No problem,” John says and he leans in to kiss Rodney again.

——

By the time they’ve finished kissing, they’re both shivering in the chilly night air. John’s hair is messier than usual and Rodney’s lips are red and swollen.

“Seriously though,” Rodney says, burrowing closer to John’s side as John drops an arm around his shoulders. “Cookies? Really?”

“I figured that at least when it came to you, the old saying was true. The way to your heart is definitely through your stomach.”

“So you thought you could woo me with cookies?”

“It worked though,” John says triumphantly.

Rodney grins. It worked.

“Hey, next time, you think you could do peanut butter?”

“Shut up, Rodney,” John says fondly

“Why don’t you make me?”

“My pleasure.”

Prompt

:One day you come into work and find a cookie mysteriously placed on your desk. Grateful to whoever left this anonymous cookie, you eat it. The next morning you come in and find another cookie. This continues for months until one day a different object is left--and this time there's a note.

[hatterstan-shameblog]

Okay so Aguni is sound asleep, just enjoying the few hours of peace he has, when there's a knock on the door. He ignores it, but the person just keeps knocking and knocking.

"Morizono, open the goddamn door!" he hears Takeru call, "This is an emergency!"

He groans to himself before standing up and opening the door.

"What?"

"So, remember that weird chonky cat Niragi found?"

"Yeah... what about it?"

"It's not fat... and is not a cat."

Where Hatter and apparently every other idiot at the Beach mistake a domesticated pregnant genet for a fat exotic cat. And it just gave birth on Hatter's bed.

I have no idea in what direction this is supposed to go lol but hopefully something chaotic.

alright I had to look up what a genet is and DAMN they are CUTE AS HELL and I’m love them v much

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Terminator

Rating: PG-13 for dialogue and like one drug reference

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Aguni Morizono is a simple man who enjoys simple pleasures.

He enjoys a healthy slathering of grape jelly on his toast. He enjoys watching the sunset reflect over the ocean. He enjoys watering his garden and reading the newspaper and taking naps on the sofa on Sunday afternoons after he’s finished his grocery shopping for the week.

What he does not particularly enjoy is being shaken awake by a borderline-frantic Takeru in the middle of the night.

Takeru insists that he has a good reason; that this is an emergency. Aguni reminds him that running out of marijuana does not qualify as an emergency, and pulls the blanket over his head in an attempt to shut the very exuberant man out.

But the aforementioned exuberant man refuses to be shut out, and he references the aforementioned emergency again—this time insisting that it is an actual real emergency and requires immediate attention. Aguni sincerely doubts this and tries his damnedest to fall back to sleep—a truly Herculean task, given Takeru’s incessant talking and the way he’s bouncing on the other side of the mattress like some kind of weird large puppy. Aguni is just about to enter the first misty moments of dozing off as Takeru says words like ‘Niragi’ and ‘cat’ and ‘bed’ and it’s all somewhat possible to ignore until he utters one word that makes Aguni sit straight up.

‘Babies.’

Now, ‘babies’ as a concept does not bother Aguni. He’s actually somewhat fond of them, the way they unabashedly stare at him on the train or in the park, eyes wide and fat little hands waving a clumsy ‘hello’ in his general direction. And if he waves back sometimes, well...that’s his business. (It’s only polite, after all.)

No, the issue here is that ‘babies’ and ‘the Borderlands’ sounds like a terrible, terrible mix. What’s worse is that said babies have, for some reason, been left in Takeru’s care. And, judging from Takeru’s presence in his room, the babies have been left alone.

It takes no time at all for Aguni to throw on a pair of pants and slip into his boots. It takes even less time for him to grab Takeru by the collar of his robe and physically drag him down the hall, the other man switching between heartfelt thank-you’s and desperate pleas for Aguni to be gentle when handling the raw silk of his ensemble.

Now, to those of us on the outside of Aguni’s brain, it may seem like he hasn’t thought this through; that he has tunnel-vision’d his way through the last two paragraphs without a logical thought as to how and why ‘babies’ may be present. That is simply not true. Aguni has considered that ‘babies’ could actually mean a number of things aside from ‘human infants’ and has thus compiled a short list of the three most likely candidates:

The spider plant he had placed on Takeru’s windowsill has propagated—or, as some would call it, ‘had babies.’ This is Aguni’s favorite option of the bunch. It is also the least likely.

Something about the cards. Although Aguni has never Takeru refer to them as ‘his babies,’ it is no secret that he is very protective of his prized collection. Seeing as this may or may not affect the entire Beach, it’s important for him to be aware of the situation.

Takeru is high as a goddamn kite and hallucinating. This is, unfortunately, the most likely scenario.

It is also important to mention that Aguni has taken a good look at his life and his choices throughout this ordeal, particularly when Takeru commented on the state of his biceps and made an off-color insinuation about the right one looking slightly more defined than the left—and then asked if he would like to discuss his love life, with an exaggerated raise of his eyebrows. Aguni chose not to comment. He also chose to push Takeru into the doorframe on the way into his suite, and took a smidge of pleasure when his head collided with the wood with a satisfying clunk-ing sound.

“Look,” Takeru says proudly, pointing a finger at the bed, “babies!”

Nestled in what a bulging nest of fluffy white blankets are...things. Fuzzy things. One big fuzzy thing, with sleepy eyes and what looks to be a long spotted tail wrapped around one, two, three tiny fuzzy things. When Aguni leans in to get a closer look, the big one quirks a corn-chip-shaped ear and gives him a wary glare.

“What,” Aguni asks, “in the goddamn—“

But before Aguni is able to finish his sentence, Takeru is giving him a stinging slap on the arm.

“Aguni Morizono,” he hisses, hands balled into fists and perched on his hips like a mother hen, “I will not have my children exposed to that kind of language.”

There are plenty of things wrong with what Takeru just said, but Aguni is having trouble getting past the idea that these...creatures have somehow been claimed by his very silly friend.

“Think about it,” Takeru continues, swanning his way past a very confused (and tired) Aguni to sit on the edge of the bed just behind the brood of fluffy individuals, “This lovely lady could have given birth on anyone’s bed...but she chose mine.  Why do you think that is?”

“Because you leave the sheets all balled up in the middle and it’s the perfect place for an animal to make a nest?”

“Wrong, but I like how confident you sounded when you said it!”

With his hands pressed together and held in front of his lips, Takeru looks almost prayerful as he very seriously explains his theory.

“A woman alone-- heavily pregnant, scared, and lost in these cold and cruel Borderlands.  Her thoughts shift to her young.  Who will keep them safe?  Who will help take care of them?  That’s when her instincts took over,” Takeru opens his arms, the silken cuffs of his robe pooling around his elbows, “and, using her superior sense of smell, followed her nose to the den of the nearest alpha male for protection.”

Aguni wishes he could say that this is the dumbest thing he’s ever heard. He also wishes he had a cup of coffee (with a healthy glug of Bailey’s in there for good measure) before this whole event took place.

Takeru has since busied himself with the tiny new mother and her young, watching with gentle fascination as the newborns snuffle and snooze against her with unopened eyes and clumsy paws. When he reaches out a ring-bedecked hand to stroke along the bigger one’s head, she gives him a small growl and a pointed glare—to which he laughs and withdraws his touch, saying something cheeky about “the last time she let a man get too close” and quickly following it up with a promise to talk about it “after the kids are asleep.”

Takeru has just held up his hand for a high-five (which Aguni has decided to not reciprocate) when they hear a crash and then a bang and then the thundering thumpthumpthump of angry booted footsteps rapidly approaching their position in the bedroom. For some reason—a reason he’s not very keen to dwell upon at the current moment—Aguni instantly snaps into defense mode, hands curling into fists and shoulders squaring themselves in anticipation of a coming attack.

“WHERE. IS. TERMINATOR!?”

Niragi bursts into the room like a firework, all noise and flash and fire in his eyes. His knuckles strain around the dark of his rifle, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Of course, Aguni knows (hopes) he won’t actually resort to filling Takeru full of bullets, but he keeps a close eye on his trigger finger, anyways.

“Ah! There’s my co-parent,” Hatter says with a measure of glee, gesturing with a flourish of his hand towards the cute, hairy pile on his bed, “As you can see, our lovely Terminator is doing very well and—“

“Our? She’s not fucking ours, she’s fucking mine,” Niragi snaps, “and I’m gonna fucking kill you for stealing my cat.”

“Not a cat,” a calm voice says, and Aguni turns to see Last Boss lurking in the doorway, katana sheathed and arms crossed, “She’s a common genet, native to the savanna’s of Africa.”

“Ooh, does that mean the babies have dual citizenship? No, wait,” Hatter claps his hands together with glee, “triple citizenship? Africa, Japan, and the Borderlands?!”

“Africa’s not a country, it’s a continent, dumbass,” Niragi retorts, “and I think we have bigger problems than what’s going to be on their fucking passports.”

It’s probably not the best thing in the world for Aguni to let Takeru and Niragi descend into heated bickering—a back-and-forth of ‘you stole her’ versus ‘no, she chose me’—but Aguni is simply not interested in breaking up their squabbling. Instead he goes to stand by Last Boss, who’s watching the two long-haired men argue like it’s a mildly interesting tennis match.

“So,” Aguni says, “you, uh, seem to know a lot about those things.”

“I did my research when Niragi first brought her back,” Last Boss says calmly, “He’s good with her, but I wanted to make sure we were taking care of her correctly.”

“Did you know she was pregnant?”

“I had my suspicions. Niragi wouldn’t listen, though. Kept telling me she was just fat.”

“Yeah, I thought she was ‘just fat,’” Niragi interjects, his gun no longer pointed at Takeru but a murderous gleam still in his eye, “because this fucking asshole kept feeding her potato chips!”

“Because she loves them,” Takeru shouts back, throwing his arms up in the air, “So shoot me for being a nice guy and sharing my snacks with your weird cat!”

“Don’t,” both Last Boss and Aguni say in unison—which is very uncomfortable for the both of them, but at least it has the desired effect of keeping Niragi from blasting a few dozen holes through Takeru’s person.

With the two of them quickly getting back into their heated back-and-forth, Aguni turns his attention to the creatures on the bed. Somehow, despite all of the noise and excitement, the mother and her babies have curled up and fallen asleep, the rhythmic rise and fall of their bellies a stark contrast to the chaos unfolding around them. Aguni feels jealous, but also, feels bad about feeling jealous because this...Terminator thing has undoubtedly had a rough night, too.

“Luckily,” Last Boss says, “genets are pretty independent creatures. She’ll be fine to take care of the kits on her own, provided that she has access to food and water.”

“So we should just...leave her alone?”

Last Boss shrugs.

“More or less.”

Aguni sighs internally. He sighs externally, too, but the internal sigh is the one that really sums up his thoughts on the whole situation. Just getting one of those hot-headed men to leave those poor animals alone is challenging enough, but both of them? That’s bordering on ‘damn near impossible.’

But, for the sake of those weird fuzzy babies, he has to try.

Takeru jumps when he feels Aguni’s hand on his elbow. He also manages to shut up for a moment, which is a nice bonus. Last Boss has also sprung into action and seems to be talking to Niragi in hushed tones, a hesitant but friendly hand on his shoulder.

“C’mon,” Aguni says, gentle-firm as he guides Takeru into a standing position—much to the other man’s confusion.

“Mori, what—?”

“You’ve had a big night. I’ve had a big night. But do you know whose had the biggest night of us all?” Aguni gestures to the snoozing creatures in front of them, “Terminator. She’s exhausted, and the last thing she needs is the four of us keeping her up. You can stay with me tonight, and we’ll figure the rest out tomorrow.”

“But,” Takeru protests—an iota quieter, now that he’s realized that the pipe on the bed is now a sleeping pile, “we can’t just leave them alone, can we?”

“You’re right. Which is why,” Aguni says, “Last Boss is going to stay with her and keep an eye on things. If he’s okay with that, of course?”

Last Boss offers a solemn nod. Aguni makes a mental note to thank him for this later—maybe he’ll let him pick the music on their next supply run (provided it’s from Aguni’s list of pre-approved artists, of course...)

“You know what? Fucking fine,” Niragi spits, flicking his hair back with a quick jerk of his hand, “it’s too goddamn late to deal with you fucking losers, anyways. I’ll come back to collect my cat and her kittens in the morning.”

Aguni does not risk correcting Niragi on his incorrect terminology regarding his pets—frankly, he’s a little too busy being amazed at how suspiciously easy it was to get him to leave. With a sharp pivot, Niragi is exiting the room in what could be called a ‘brisk saunter,’ no doubt wanting to put as much distance between himself and whatever-the-hell just happened in this room as possible.

Aguni, for once, can relate to Niragi quite well.

With Last Boss keeping vigil over the new little family, Aguni is able to wrangle Takeru away from his room with minimal fuss. It’s probably because the man is very tired—despite multiple claims that he ‘isn’t sleepy yet’ and ‘can stay up for hours.’ This theory is proven when, within a grand total of seven seconds of Takeru flopping face-first onto the middle of Aguni’s bed, he’s managed to slip into what only can be described as a ‘light coma.’

Aguni manages to wrestle a stray pillow away from his sleeping friend’s grasp (he’s a notoriously cuddly sleeper, which has led to some...interesting situations over the course of their friendship) and settles his weary self onto the couch. It’s not quite long enough to accommodate his height, but it’s good enough for what will most likely end up being an extended nap before the sun comes up and he needs to solve whatever other issues have popped up at the Beach overnight.

...But, at least those problems won’t involve babies.

Probably.

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Also here is a common genet and DAMN SIS U CUTE AS HELL

[wynniewright]

In Harm’s Way (M)

→ This story is a part of the @bangtanshadowfamily “The Creatures of Moonlight Manor” Halloween collab!

→ Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

→ Word Count: 4.8k

→ Genre: grim reaper au, halloween au, smut, lots of fluff, bit angsty

→ Summary: After fighting with her grim reaper boyfriend, Y/N decides to throw herself into a dangerous situations to get him to stop ignoring her.

→ Trigger Warnings: Mentions of attempted suicide (it’s not dark, think of when bella tried to get edward to save her so she kept doing stupid shit - it’s that), one time mention of a past near-death experience (not detailed, it’s just vaguely mentioned in the fluffy part), reader attempts suicide via toaster bath (with the intention of being saved by her supernatural, soul-reaping boyfriend). Please don’t read if these make you uncomfortable! 

→ Warnings: dirty talk, unprotected sex, oral (female), bit of impregnation kink, tae just wants to be a dad, reader makes stupid decisions, cum play, possible impregnation?, sex with pants on, fingering, lots of fluff and all that good stuff

→ A/N: Hello hello! Finally found the time to squeeze in this story in the middle of my full-time school and part-time work schedule. Sorry it took so long for another fic to post but here I am! I want to thank my amazing bangtan hq sprinting crew who helped motivate me to finish this @purpletigertaetae @nightowls388 @shadowsremedy @wwilloww. This story was supposed to be a lot darker and a whole lot more filthy than it turned out. Wasn’t supposed to be fluffy at all and somehow it turned real quick so I hope you enjoy. I’d also like to state that I’m not promoting suicide or slightly toxic relationships, this is a fictional story and the reader hasn’t died, isn’t dead, and won’t die, so the suicidal scene in this is not meant to be disturbing. If you’re not comfortable reading, please don’t. Alright, I love you all.~ Hope you enjoy.

The biggest struggle of dating Taehyung was that no guide, tutorial, or advice blog post could’ve prepared you for what it was going to be like to be in a relationship with him. I almost wished there were some sort of ‘how to’ on dating a grim reaper because no matter how much dating experience I had, being with him was like being in my first relationship again.

It was a little unconventional, sure. Date nights were always iffy since, apparently, reapers don’t need sleep and therefore are technically scheduled around the clock. Boy, there was nothing like us setting up a nice, stay-at-home dinner date when he’d suddenly kiss my cheek and disappear into thin air, only to come back a few minutes later and announce he’d taken another soul. I’ll be honest, it was a slight mood killer. 

But aside from his job description, Tae was a kind person. He didn’t seem to know exactly how to deal with human emotions, as his kind were strictly prohibited from having human-reaper relations and never had the opportunity to learn from us. But just because he didn’t know what emotions were, doesn’t mean he didn’t feel them. He was a sensitive guy, too.

I remembered the first time he cried. We were watching Marley & Me and I cried at the end like any other sane human being. Tae didn’t cry at all, in fact, knowing I was sad made him sad enough to tear up, even more so when he couldn’t get me to stop. That memory was one of my favorites purely because it was too wholesome to forget: a grim reaper crying because a girl was sad that a dog died in a movie. 

But like every other person in the world, not ever emotion was positive. 

Being much older than I, Taehyung didn’t really have moments where he got angry to the point of exploding in a fit. There wasn’t a situation where he ever passed that threshold, at least, not in front of me. The feelings Tae couldn’t quite grasp were hurt and jealousy. 

From his own words, he never loved anyone before me, and something I knew better than anyone was that jealousy and love were very closely intertwined. 

The first year we dated, I tried explaining to him what jealousy was, that even I felt it too in an attempt to teach him that he didn’t need to act on it. It was safe to say that it didn’t really work.

Over four and a half into our relationship together and Taehyung still chose to disappear whenever we got into a small petty argument that involved him taking something out of context and then not wanting to talk about it like the century old being that he was. 

In our most recent example, my best friend, Sam, called and told me that she was expecting her first baby. We cried a little and then spent the rest of the conversation talking about whose eyes they would have or which parent they would most resemble. Tae and I never talked about kids nor a future together, we just lived in every moment the two of us were given, so indulging on a new topic with Sam gave me the image of tiny Tae-Taes waddling across the wooden floor, matching their father’s bright, boxy grin as they giggled. 

I made one comment - one! I told her how I’d love to have mini-Taehyungs running about the place and that I was so excited to meet her little Sam. Somehow, he took that and ran with it.

He didn’t bother letting me speak, pulling the usual disappearing act he always resorted to when he was upset and didn’t want to properly face his feelings in the moment. I thought it would pass like all the rest, but something changed. 

Hours passed and he never came to check in on me. Days flew by and I hadn’t heard from him. I wanted for him to come by, swallowing my pride and shouting at the empty air in hopes he was listening, to no avail. Nothing worked. 

After two weeks of being ignored and left without so much as a trace, I decided to do what any normal girl would do to seek out her boyfriend’s attention.

I needed to kill myself. 

I didn’t want to die, by any means. Tae knew how close I’d come to death a few too many times, but if I was going to get his attention back on me, I needed to attempt something stupid. Not only did it have to be stupid, it also had to be believable. I needed to convince him that I was going to die and hope he’d rescue me just in time.

I knew it wasn’t a good plan to start off with but it was the only thing I could come up with to get him to focus on me. The only reason I even thought of such a stupid idea was because I knew he’d never let me actually die. He saved me once and I was willing to bet he’d save me again and this time my life was actually on the line.

All that being said, I’ll regurgitate that it wasn’t the brightest idea I’d ever had. 

What if he’d decided to have someone else cover me? What if the one time he decided he didn’t want to see me again, he passed the job on to someone else and they just let it go?

I shivered with that thought fresh in my mind. To say I was scared was a gross understatement, the thought of all the ways this could go bad were enough to paralyze me with fear. There was only one reason I stood there in our master bathroom with a bath full of water and a toaster in my hands, already plugged in and ready for me to drop it in.

If I wanted him to talk to me, I had to force him to keep me out of harm’s way.

Nervousness nagged at the back of my mind, heart beating a million miles a minute against my ribcage, forcing me to take a deep inhale of fresh air, even if it was only to calm my nerves for a few seconds. A few seconds was enough to release my grip and pray that Tae would be there to rescue me.

With a last shake of my head, I thought up a quick “I love you” to the universe as if the universe would deliver my message to my friends and family if things didn’t go as planned. And with that, I dropped the small appliance.

The moment it slipped from my fingers, I clenched my eyes tight and waited for the shock to ripple through my body in powerful waves, but nothing came. In fact, time itself seemed to slow down as a large clanging against the wall forced my eyes open, right as a tall, dark figure wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me out of the tub to press me against the wall adjacent. 

Taehyung stood there, fuming in anger as his gaze bored into mine, hands gripping tightly to me and keeping me pressed against the wall, though I’m not sure if he was holding onto me to keep me steady or if he was preparing to murder me where I stood. To be fair, if it wasn’t for his hold on me, I would’ve slipped against the tile floor that puddled with the water leaking from the bottom half of my jeans. I added a mental note to myself that next time I do something like that again, I should prepare for it to actually work and actually wear a pair of shorts or something. But another problem for another time.

The sheer force in which Taehyung’s eyes glared into mine would normally have made me cower. But knowing I had to do something that stupid just to get him to talk to me again filled me with a burning anger that I didn’t know I had within me. With that newfound anger, I pushed back against his chest, my hands rebounding off his chest without moving him in the slightest. He dropped his hold on me and I stepped forward, my foot catching a slippery tile and making me bang my back against the wall roughly. A sharp pain shot through my back and Tae softened for a  moment, reaching out again to steady me before I finally exploded.

“No. Don’t touch me! I don’t even know where to begin right now!” I defiantly shoved his hands away from my body and crossed my arms over my chest once I balanced out a bit. 

“You? You?! The fuck did I do?” He argued, waving his hands in the air as if his gestures were defence enough for his stupid inhuman reactions.

“Oh, so you’re going to play stupid now, is that it? Really?” I barked, taking a step forward and poking a finger right against his tight chest. “I don’t know. How about the fact that you just walked out on me and never came back? What happened to having a normal fucking conversation like an adult?” He received a poke to his clothed peck with every word to emphasize what he’d done wrong.

Annoyed with me prodding at him in frustration, he grabbed my wrist at my last poke, holding my arm away from him and resumed the glaring. “You’re making this about me now? Are you going to completely ignore the fact that you almost just fried yourself? What the fuck were you thinking?!” He raised his voice, something he didn’t do often, and I naturally shied away from the loudness of his voice to keep my ears from ringing.

“Well I wouldn't have needed to do that had you come back to talk! Of course I tried to get your attention. I love you, you fucking moron,” I grunted, voice cracking at the end as tears instantly sprang to my eyes. Willing them away, I stood my ground and met Tae’s heated gaze with an unwavering one of my own. I wasn’t the one in the wrong. 

“We did talk. Yeah I left, but I did that after I said things weren’t going to work out between us.”

He wasn’t wrong. He did technically say that but it was spoken like a passive statement made in anger, a second before he disappeared to wherever the fuck he went to whenever he was upset with me. So I was just supposed to accept that was it after four and a half years and no idea what broke the two of us. Fuck that, he meant too much to me.

“I don’t understand why you keep saying that. I made one comment - one! - about kids to Sam and now you’re dead-set on not being with me? Why are you so angry about that?” My words came out in a pained whisper as I pleaded with him. I just wanted a response back, to know what was hurting him so I could try and fix it. 

His eyes shifted from mine repetitively, searching my face for something before he mumbled out, “Because I can’t give that to you.”

I froze, all but my heart coming to a halt as I processed his words. He couldn’t give that to me… Kids?

I couldn’t help the frown that framed my lips as his face morphed into one of discomfort, grimacing at himself. A pang of guilt smacked me right in the chest as his face fell. All of it began to make sense and I wasn’t sure if I made things better or worse by doing what I did.

“Tae…” I started, mouth agape as I tried to form some sort of response but I couldn’t think of one at that moment.

He straightened himself out and all visible evidence of his emotional expression was wiped clean off his features. “I can’t give you kids,” he repeated clearly, seemingly more for himself than for me.

Pride swelled up in me and I reached out to wrap my arms around his midsection to hug him close.

“Baby,” I cooed, a fresh wave of tears threatening to soak into his soft cotton shirt as I smothered my face against him, taking in his scent and his warmth. He returned the embrace, tightly hugging me back with his nose buried atop my head.

“You’re not mad at me,” he mumbled thoughtfully.

I shook my head against him, squeezing him that much tighter to reassure him. “I figured it wasn’t biologically possible, but there are plenty of ways for couples to have kids when they otherwise can’t themselves.”

I imagined his brows furrowing as he turned his head, resting the side of his plump cheek on top of my hair. “I don’t understand.”

Pulling back, I tilted my head to look him in the eyes and smiled supportively. Our kids don’t have to look like either of us to be ‘little Taehyungs’ or little ‘Y/Ns’.” I leaned back further and pressed my chin against the center of his chest, humming as he readjusted his embrace around me. “I’ll see you in the way they smile or laugh, all those little idiosyncrasies they pick up from you that make them you kids.”

Tae blinked with a blank expression on his face, staring me down without so much as a response to follow up. The longer he went without responding, the stronger my heart pounded in my chest. 

We never had any serious talks like that before because everything about our relationship was too complicated. Marriage and families weren’t even on our mind, at least not on mine until Sam was getting her own, and suddenly I realized how I’d love to have a family with Taehyung, no matter how unconventional. But there’s a chance that could’ve just been me. Maybe it was too early to be talking about that so Tae didn’t really have an opinion since he couldn’t have kids. Maybe he was trying not to hurt my feelings? God, I broke him.

I cleared my throat and opening my mouth to talk when he cut me off. “So you’re not mad that I…. you’re okay with it?”

“Of course I’m okay with it. Sure, I’m a teenie but sad they probably won’t have your boxy grin or your cute little nose freckle, but our kids would be cute regardless.” The anxiety I had towards his response was no longer a thought in my mind as I suddenly grinned, punctuating my statement with a kiss on his chin, which he playfully returned. But he didn’t stop there. Strong hands gripped the back of my thighs and urged me to jump, forcing my legs to wrap around his waist as he pushed us up against the wall once more, chaste kisses littered across the length of my face. Each peck tickled, giggles pouring past my lips as I scrunched my nose up and took all the comfort he gave. Lips trailed down my neck before he buried his face in the crook of my collarbone, happily sighing against ym skin with a happy hum.

The smile on my lips pinched at my cheeks, making my face ache with the strength of my happiness alone. I never knew he’d have such a human response to something like kids. It made my heart flutter to know that’s where his heart and mind were, that he wasn’t actually mad at me.

With determination, he pushed us off of the bathroom wall and opened the door to our shared bedroom, carrying me to the bed where he motioned to put me down.

“Babe, my pants are still wet,” I reminded him, to which he nodded and set me down a foot or so away to stand in front of him.

“Well, we’re going to solve that,” he quipped, reaching down between us to fumble with the button and zipper on my jeans while I grinned up at him. It wasn’t what I had in mind when planning this out but I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain.

He had a few issues with the clasping mechanics of my pants, a regular issue he was faced with, and grunted in irritation. I giggled, brushing back the long strands of hair behind his ear before a loud ripping sound pulled my attention.

“Baby! These are my favorite jeans!” I screeched at Taehyung, lips pouting as I admired the fresh rip down the center of the jeans that paralleled the zipper. You know, the zipper he could’ve just undone.

Lips pressed to my forehead as a chuckle rippled through his chest. “Not anymore, they’re not.” He meant it to tease but I still glared at him, not finding it in me to laugh at the expense of my favorite pair of jeans. “Sorry, I’ll buy you new ones,” he offered in a light-hearted tone, making me roll my eyes and return the kiss to his chin.

Lean fingers dipped into the waistband of my jeans, tugging them down my hips until they passed the curve of my ass. But the material from the thigh down was still sopping wet and made it even more entertaining to watch him struggle to slide the denim down my legs, coaxing another giggle from me.

“Fuck, why is this so difficult?” Tae let out a soft groan, giving up on his quest of removing the wet article and instead closing the distance between us, lips meeting mine in a gentle kiss.

“What about my pants? Not going to rip them all the way?” I wriggled my eyebrows and laughed when he rolled his eyes back.

“Pants or no pants, I’m still fucking you into the mattress.” His voice dripped with heat, his tone comparing to sex itself, sensual and deep, which made the words shoot straight down to my core.

As promised, he stalked towards me until the back of my knees pressed up against the edge of the bed. He didn’t miss a beat, cupping my face with his large palms and pulling me into a deep kiss that took away what little breath I had after his sexy statement. His tongue skimmed over the seam of my mouth, canines digging into the flesh of my bottom lip as he gave me that final push back onto the bed, lowering me down with a steady hold on my back until I was flush against the mattress with him hovering above me. Mouths lavished over one another, pulling the other into each other as far as our bodies would let us until the lack of oxygen forced me to pull away for a moment.

I wasted no time in pulling the white shirt from his black dress slacks, untucking his usual orderly work clothes so I could dip my hand under the smooth material to feel his bare warmth against my fingers. Each little divot and bulge across his stomach only added to the arousal gathering between my legs, allowing my fingers to explore the clothed spaced with the image of him naked on my mind.

The thought of that alone drove me mad, thighs instinctively rubbing together to relieve some of the pent up pressure. But doing so only reminded me of the pants I still had clinging to the lower part of my legs, the tight and uncomfortable sticky feeling causing a slight bubble of irritation to well up within me.

“Bab-” I started, cut off by Tae’s lips roughly soothing over mine with a kiss deeper than the one before it. It was his mission to explore my mouth, delving deep inside to slide his tongue along mine in a dance for passion, not power. There was no struggle in the kiss, which was different - a good different that made my heart beat just a little bit harder for him.

“Sh, ignore the pants,” Taehyung whispered against my lips and I had to force down the eyeroll that almost surfaced at such a dismissive response.

As I was about to protest further, Tae parted from the kiss and pushed himself from the bed, kneeling down on the floor and pushing my legs up until they tucked up to my chest to expose my clothed core for his eyes to feast on. The tip of his tongue swiped across his lips before he dove down, pushing my panties out of the way to dip a finger shallowly into my sopping heat. I moaned softly, holding onto my ruined jeans with one hand and sneaking the other around to his head, intertwining my fingers in his soft, chestnut locks.

Without warning, Tae pushed his finger in to the knuckle and lowered his head to hungrily lap at my clip over my already soaked underwear, ripping a moan forcefully from my throat. He moaned in return, any noise that left my mouth only adding to his determination to work me up and get me as wet as inhumanly possible. He sped up his pace, curling the tip of his finger to stroke the pad of his fingertip along the rough patch at the top, the spot that made my mind go blank and left me a mumbling mess for him to please. He always knew how to hit the right place, each and every time together was spent as a new learning experience for him to map out and worship my body as I did his.

A few pumps later, Tae placed a sloppy, wet kiss along the inside of my thigh before adding a finger to the one already thrusting into my cunt at a moderate pace. The stretch burned despite how slender his fingers were, always filling me up nicely. Brushing against a particular spot deep within me, I was left gasping for air, tugging the strands at the top of his head as I attempted to buck my hips against his hand to meet each of his thrusts, my sopping pussy tembling around his fingers.

“Fuck, baby. You always take me so fucking well,” he praised, leaving a few stray kisses along my thigh to accompany the faster pace he’d set, working his fingers into me as if he could do it all fucking night long.

“Mmh, Tae,” I groaned, abandoning the grip on my legs to ground myself against the duvet underneath.

“What, baby? What do you want?” Rougher kisses were pressed into the length of my thigh and along my wet mound, tongue practically dancing everywhere but my clit to tease me.

“Tae-Tae, I want you in me. Please.”

Despite the urgency in my request, Tae peeked around my legs with a softened look, eyes kind as his body smile outshines the gloss of arousal painting his lips and chin.

“Yeah? Where do you want me, baby? Here?” He asked with a slide of his fingers across my g-spot, causing my thighs to quake as I fought off the softest hint of an orgasm. I nodded and begged him for his cock while he rubbed the remainder of my slick from his face and onto his sleeve, towering over me once again as he climbed up the bed once again, having stripped himself of his clothes. The heat returned to his gaze as he devoured my body with his eyes, not needed for me to be naked in order to let his imagination run wild. 

Leaving a soft kiss against my lips, he pushed back to sit on his knees and lifted my legs up until my feet rested against the top of his shoulder. The position we were in gave him the perfect view of my ruined panties, his eyes lit up with a heat unlike anything I’d ever seen from him before as he traced the material with his fingertip. 

“You want me to fuck a baby into you?” He asked, fighting the blush that creeped up his neck and into his ears as he stayed locked onto my clothed pussy. 

His words made me giddy, the thought of him fucking me and getting me pregnant with his child adding fuel to our very passionate fire. “Please, I want your baby, Tae,” I whined. He dragged his cockhead against my clothed core, earning a grunt from us both. With a push of my panties to the side and a gentle rock of his hips against my own, the entirety of his cock slid into me, walls protested the stretch his thick girth gave despite the prep, drawing a synchronized moan from us. 

“Oh fuck, babe,” I groaned, fisting the sheets beneath me as his grip aropund my legs tightened. He stilled when the last inch of his cock sank into me, the tremble in his breath telling me he felt the tightness in this position too. Without warning, he dragged his hips back, exposing everything but the tip of his cock before he quickly thrusted back in. 

He continued his languid pace while pressing open kisses to my foot just beneath the hem of the jeans, nails raking against the flesh of my thigh before his eyes flickered down to me. 

I gasped when he adjusted the angle of his hips and targeted my g-spot without miss, setting a punishing pace with his hips as he suddenly drove his cock into me roughly. I moaned out, teeth capturing my bottom lip to contain the sounds his actions were tearing from my throat. 

With a grunt, Tae switched our positions, lowering himself down until his shoulders nestled in the hollow of my knees, face ducking down to pull my lips into a kiss as he resumed his powerful thrusts into my aching pussy.

The new position had every part of my body humming in happiness, the surface of my flesh tingling with each thrust he gave until my eyes shut. Our lips danced together, tongues stealing tastes of one another as the little sounds we made were muted by the other. I fisted a hand in his sweaty hair, using the brunette strands to ground me against his assault against my hips. I tried to meet his thrusts, but the awkward position left me lying there, unable to move, as I took his cock as he gave it. 

I tightened around him, loving the way I felt every ridge of his thick length as it disappeared from my cunt and pushed back inside to hit me in all the right places. After so many thrusts against that spot deep within me, a pressure built up in my lower stomach that burned, growing in size with each pump of his cock until I whined, needing pressure on my clit to push me over that final edge.

Knowing exactly what I wanted, he snuck a hand between us and used the slick on my thighs to wet his thumb before swiping rigorously against my sensitive clit. I mewled in pleasure at the contact, throwing my head back and parting our lips as loud whines and moans leaked from my mouth. It was almost too much, the combination of his hand and his cock throwing me over the edge faster than I could ever get myself off, pushing me over that ledge and into my orgasm. 

I mumbled incoherently as my spasming cunt only drove Taehyung to ride out into his own orgasm, continuing his brutal pace until his cock twitched and stilled inside me, filling me to the brim with his seed.

We stayed that way for a few minutes, taking the time to catch our breaths and return to reality. My body protested him pulling his limp cock from my oversensitive hole, making me grimace. When he pulled back and released my legs from his grip, I groaned at the stiffness in my legs from being in that position for a while, but completely forgot about that as goosebumps fluttered over my skin and brought my attention back down to the soaked jeans I still had on my body. 

Taehyung noticed my shivering and gave a small laugh, deciding to help me out and finally rip each of the legs until the material wasn’t too tight to remove. Sticking to the stripping, I took off my top and unclasped my bra, flinging both across the room to deal with later as Tae stood at the edge of our bed, between my legs. His eyes locked onto the cum dripping from my pussy and he couldn’t contain a grin as he reached forward and swiped a drop up onto his finger to push it back inside of me. 

“Well, at least we’ll know for sure,” Tae murmured to himself. 

“Hm?” I hummed, reaching out with grabby hands for him to come join me on the bed, which he did with a soft smile and a peck to the nose.

“I’ve always assumed we can’t have kids. I guess now we’ll figure out whether I was right or wrong.”

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Satisfied, Part 53

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~~~

Marinette took in the weird strap on Joker’s hand and raised her eyebrows. Whatever it was, it had to be bad, because Damian wasn’t even trying to struggle out of his grip. It looked like one of those hand buzzers that people sometimes use to shock their friends, but it had to be deadly. Did it electrocute? Was it poisoned? She hoped she wouldn’t find out.

Whatever it was, none of them could do anything before Joker showed them what it did.

“Nice of you to drop in,” said Joker, motioning to the window they’d crashed through. “Now, if I could just glass-k you to drop your weapons and step back.”

She glanced at Jason.

He reluctantly began digging into his pockets and dropping weapon after weapon on the ground. When he got to his guns his hands hovered over his waist for a good few seconds. A confused expression passed over his face, only to quickly be replaced by vague annoyance. He must have dropped one while fighting Dick. He sighed and dropped the one he still had.

Marinette looked at her utility belt and bit the inside of her cheek. She reminded herself that Joker didn’t actually know that the miraculi were in there, so as long as he didn’t go through her pockets it would be fine. She carefully set it on the ground (she didn’t want a smoke bomb to go off and startle Joker when she didn’t know what his weapon did) and then set down her yoyo as well.

They took a few steps back.

Joker smiled, though that wasn’t new.

“So… wanna monologue?” Tried Marinette. Jason sent her a look and all she could do was shrug. They needed time to think out a plan.

Joker paused to think, then nodded. “I’ll have to do something while we wait for Bats to fly on over, I suppose.”

“Batman is coming?” Asked Marinette, raising an eyebrow.

“Yep! Because you’re going to make a distress call! Right now!”

Jason winced and brought a hand to his ear. “Hey, uh, Bats… good news and bad news. Good news is: we found Joker! Bad news is: we found Joker!” He said their location and then let his hand fall to his side.

Marinette tried not to let it show on her face that anything was amiss. Jason hadn’t actually transmitted anything; she hadn’t heard double like she usually did, which meant that he hadn’t actually pressed on his comm. Hopefully Joker wouldn’t kill anyone until Batman showed up, because it would likely be a few hours before he checked up on all their locations and realized something was amiss. That was good, maybe they’d have a plan or something by then.

Joker gave a cold laugh and then launched into his monologue: “I’ll be honest, I would’ve never dreamed that you would have managed to betray me like that.”

What? He’d never met Ladybug before, and why had he said dreamed like that --?

Marinette’s shoulders tensed. “You knew?”

“Oh, yeah. Figured you were bugged the day you came in. You never had that ‘one bad day’ that usually turns criminals, I can always tell, and your appearance in Gotham was too soon after Ladybug’s to be coincidence.”

Her eyebrows furrowed together and she glanced at Jason, who looked just as shocked and confused. “Why didn’t you kill me?”

“I considered it, but where’s the pun in that?”

He pressed his hand closer to Damian’s neck. Damian went completely rigid (save for the rise and fall of his chest, which was getting faster and faster with each breath).

“Besides,” continued Joker, as if he hadn’t just threatened him, “I figured that I could mess with you a bit, break you a little, see how that affected Bats. I really didn’t expect you to kill that clerk, but it was very convenience that you did.”

Everyone in the room frowned confusedly.

“You know, convenience? Like a convenience store? Instead of convenient?”

“Ooooooh,” mumbled Jason.

“Anyways, all I was trying to do was get you to go against your morals. You were already on your last little piece of sanity, I figured that robbing a store would be enough. But then you killed someone! Cut them in half, even!”

“Can we stop talking about it?” Marinette hissed, her voice high. She could feel tears forming in her eyes at the memory and she was not about to cry in front of Joker.

Joker gave a humorless laugh. “Sure, sure, of horse. I was hoping that I could break you down enough to kill Bats like I tried with Red Robin, but this time it was supposed to work.” He gave what he must have thought was a pitiful sigh, but it sounded more like an asthmatic’s wheeze. “Tragic, though. You hardly ever came and it was only four months, not nearly enough to work with. I had to change my plans.”

“To…?” Prompted Jason, who was shifting around anxiously.

She met Jason’s eyes. Where was Cass? The only two allies they could possibly have were her and Dick but, apparently, neither of them were in any position to fight. Dick was barely stirring now, groaning from his place on the floor, and Cass was apparently still incapacitated somewhere.

Joker thrummed his foot on the floor impatiently. “The plan is murdering all of you in front of your father, but where is he?”

“Getting here takes time,” assured Marinette, sweat beading on the back of her neck.

They weren’t going to be getting any help. She couldn’t do anything without Damian getting hurt and letting him die was the last resort… but did she have any other options...?

“Yes, yes, I suppose that’s true…” Joker sighed. “Where’s the rest of you? I heard more people fighting earlier, are they still around? Thanks for wearing each other out, by the way, really makes my job easier.”

Marinette winced. “Why would we tell you anything? You’re going to try and kill us anyways.”

“Because you’re deciding whether everyone dies quickly or slowly,” said Joker, pulling a gun from his pocket and pressing it to the side of Damian’s head. “So, Joker venom or gun? Which one?”

So that’s what that hand thing was. It was even worse than she thought.

Tears finally spilled over her mask and she hugged her jacket around herself. She had no clue what to do. What was right in this type of situation?

She looked at Jason anxiously. He looked just as lost as she was.

Joker’s smile dropped and she felt her skin crawl. He hadn’t made any bad puns or jokes for a while now, and now he had even stopped smiling? They were screwed.

“I’ll give you five seconds before I get to decide! 5…”

Marinette bit her cheek so hard she tasted blood. If he was going after everyone then should they take the longer route so Duke, Cass, and Tim could get away --?

“4…”

Jason was looking at his gun. Would he be fast enough? Not enough to make sure Damian didn’t get hurt but maybe he could get a shot off before Joker could hurt anyone else --.

“3…”

She met Damian’s eyes and he gave her a weak smile and looked at her yoyo. ‘Fix this’. She really wished he wouldn’t rely on her ability so much, she didn’t know if she could win --.

“2…”

No! She needed more time! All she wanted was more --!

“1!”

She opened her mouth to speak and Jason made a mad grab for his gun --.

A gunshot rang out.

Blood splattered over Damian and Joker slumped on top of him. He gave a strangled yelp and pushed the body off of him, quickly scrambling away.

She looked at Jason and frowned. His hands were a good few inches away from his gun, so who…?

Then she realized Jason was looking at something, his face slack with shock.

She followed his gaze to Dick, who was still pointing one of Jason’s guns at where Joker’s head had been.

“You are not taking another brother away from me.”

Dick let the gun clatter to the floor and took a few shaky breaths, burying his head in his hands.

Marinette’s eyes flickered between Dick and Damian. They both were obviously not doing well. Dick had done something against his morals. Damian had almost died again. Really, it was no surprise that they were both freaking out.

Jason ran to Dick’s side. Good, then he would be taken care of.

She pulled off her leather jacket and handed it to Damian. He frowned as he took it.

“Um…?”

“It’ll… cover the blood,” she mumbled, motioning to the red coating his back. “Bats can’t find out.”

He nodded and pulled it on. She pulled the hood over his head and pressed a tiny kiss to his cheek.

“Jason was right, it really is always you two. I’m starting to think that maybe it’s more that you’re both idiots that jump into dumb situations than luck, though.”

He gave her something between a smile and a wince.

“Yeah, you’re the one with all the bad luck,” he said, giving her shoulder a small shove.

“And I throw myself into dumb situations. It’s the worst of both worlds.”

That earned a laugh. Yay!

Their eyes fell onto Joker’s body. Ah. Not yay. She swallowed thickly and looked away.

“Cataclysm,” whispered Damian, leaning down to press his hand to the corpse.

It disintegrated until all that was left of Joker was a red puddle and the memories of his horrors.

She glanced at where Jason was slowly pulling Dick to his feet, an arm over his shoulders. It seemed that Dick had gone into shock. She sighed softly.

“Dami, go help? I’m going to grab everything.”

Damian looked like he wanted to argue, but then he nodded and ducked under Dick’s other arm.

Marinette went to work grabbing her things. She reattached her utility belt and tucked away her yoyo, then she worked at attaching everything she could to her waist. Whatever she couldn’t get to stick she ended up scooping into her arms.

She walked over to the door and held it open for the others.

The four left the warehouse in silence.

A few buildings away she stopped. She took off her miraculi and heard a curse from a nearby rooftop as Duke and Tim’s cage disappeared. After a few seconds she saw two heads hesitantly peek over the edge. Relief washed over their faces when they saw they were okay, only to quickly be replaced by anxiety when Joker was nowhere to be found. The two hopped down and joined their walk.

She pulled her earrings back on and transformed. She didn’t need to get spotted and have Marinette Dupain Cheng to go trending on twitter again.

She felt Tim’s arm wrap around her waist and blinked. She hadn’t even realized she was shaking until he was pulling her close to his side to hold her steady.

About a block later, Damian pointed his finger down an alley. After a few seconds, Cass emerged. She seemed mostly fine, with only a few scratches on her face and clothes and messy hair. She reached behind herself and pulled until a cat let go of her outfit and she dropped the stray. She sent Damian a glare so harsh that Marinette felt a bit intimidated even though it wasn’t aimed at her.

For a while all that could be heard was their footsteps.

“So... is he…?” Began Duke.

Marinette gave him a nod.

“Who did it?” Asked Tim, his grip tightening somewhat on her waist.

The four who had been there tensed up and looked at each other. What were they supposed to say? The truth? Dick was already looking dead inside, she doubted he could deal with everyone looking at him like he was a murderer --.

Jason grinned. “Me. Who else? I’m not letting any of you guys have something like that on your consciences.”

Dick gave his brother a grateful smile, tiny as it was.

Marinette glanced at Cass, who looked somewhat stunned. But she didn’t call anyone out on the lie, just continued walking.

“Can you fix it?” Asked Tim.

“Nope, I used my lucky charm for my fight with you and Duke. Even if it hadn’t disappeared when I took off my earrings it wouldn’t have revived Joker.” She actually didn’t know if she was lying. There was a reason why she hadn’t said miraculous ladybug despite them all being hurt: she hadn’t wanted to test it. Now, though, all the lucky charms she had used that night were all gone. It was definitely irreversible “He can’t come back.”

Silence stretched over them again as it sunk in.

Marinette was the one to break it: “So it’s really over...”

“Not really, there’s still a lot of organized crime for us to go after. It’s Gotham, there’s always something going on,” said Duke.

“Bane’s still out there,” said Tim.

“And Mr. Freeze,” muttered Damian.

Jason sighed. “Don’t forget Two-Face.”

Damian grimaced. “Or Ra’s Al Ghul.”

“Clayface,” said Duke.

“Magpie,” offered Cass.

Even Dick joined in with a whispered: “Man-bat.”

Marinette held up her hands to quiet them. “Okay, okay, now you’re making people up.”

“Nope!” Said Jason, giving a small smile.

“Oh! Forgot one: Red Hood counts as a Rogue, depending on who you ask,” Damian piped up.

Jason’s smile dropped into a scowl. “Shut up,” he complained, leaning around Dick to swat his younger brother in the back of the head.

Damian clicked his tongue and gave him a hit back.

Big mistake.

Everyone came to a stop as Damian and Jason began running around a very annoyed and very tired Dick. The oldest tried, and failed, to bring order by grabbing them and pushing them apart, but he was easily the most drained by the night and just ended up getting a few stray punches thrown at him.

Duke and Cass started placing bets on who would kill who first.

She felt a smile rise to her face despite everything that had just happened.

“It’s okay now. It’s over,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.

Tim pulled her closer and rested his chin on top of her head.

“It is.”

~~~

For the person who asked,  Damian cheated while fighting Cass and set some stray cats on her. She couldn’t bring herself to hurt them

~

Epilogue timeeeeee

~

Taglist

@comet-kun @thatonecroc @trippingovermyfeet @swiftie-miraculer13 @nickristus-dreamer @moongoddesskiana @i-am-ironic @indecisive-mess-named-me @thebooki3h @insane-fangirl-of-everything @deepestobservationwombat @theymakeupfairies @fatimaabbasrizvi @clumsy-owl-4178 @fanofalittletoomuch @iamablinkmarvelarmy @nathleigh @lilkymilky @silvergold-swirl @dino-lovingreen-angel @thestressmademedoit @kissa-chan @ladybug-182 @alysrose-starchild @t1dwarrior-of-earth @spyofthenightcourt @rowanrouge @nik-nak-3 @momothefemur @aestheticnpoetic @labschaos @our-preciousss @mochinek0 @eliza-bich @mythogaychic @severelyenchantedwonderland @sashakoi @smolplantmum @bluesimani @tropestropestropes @kitsunebell @keepingupwiththemalfoys @sassakitty @2confused-2doanything @too0bsessedformyowngood @all-mights-asscheeks @demonicbusiness @meg-an-ace @fantasiame @qualitypeacepainter @multplelifes @kokotaru @spicybelladonna @ultimatetornshipper @cute-angi

<3

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

We’ll be free

Pairing: Billy Batson x Reader

Warnings: Mention of drug abuse and possession

Word Count: 1.4K

Summary: Billy Batson tries to get into contact with his girlfriend who he left behind after moving with Victor and Rosa.

Author’s Note: This is not my first oneshot but it is my first time writing for DC. Also I might do a part 2? But idk.

PART 2 

“Please pick up. Please pick up.” Billy whispered underneath his breath, pulling his phone away from his ear to triple-check if he was calling the right person before going back to his silent prayer.

“The person you are calling is currently unavailable—” He didn’t bother to hear the rest before hanging up. He had heard so much of it that he could recite the message in his sleep. He’s left countless voicemails, texts, calls but no answer and he began feeling helpless and desperate.

‘She’s probably just busy.’ He thought, ‘She’d never ignore my calls on purpose. She always loves to talk to me.’

You giggled, sitting on the floor of a cheap phone booth at the corner of the street. You didn’t have a phone so you resorted to long midnight calls from phone booths to the phone that he stole from some rich kid who could buy 10 more.

He called himself Robin Hood, because he would steal from the rich and give to the poor, who just happened to consist of the two of you. While he offered the phone to you, you settled for the rolls of quarters he managed to steal from the arcade so you could have late night calls like this.

You were uncomfortable on the cold and cramped floor of the phone booth but it didn’t bother you as you leaned against dirty glass and listened to Billy’s tired voice.

“It wasn’t her. Just some other Batson.” He said, trying to push down the tears but you heard the disappointment in his voice.

“You’ll find her. I know you will. Just not today and that’s okay too.” You spoke soothingly, wishing he was beside you so you could run your fingers through his hair.

He sighed, “Maybe I should just give up. Accept that I’m never going to find her.”

“Maybe you should. But you’re not going to.”

“I’m not going to,” He said again and you smiled at the determination in his voice, “It’s why you love me.”

“It’s why I love you.” You agreed, nodding your head even though he couldn’t see you, “It’s getting late, we should go to bed.”

“Are you gonna be okay?”

You nodded, “They’re probably asleep by now and I’m running out of quarters anyway.”

He nodded, “Good night, I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He wanted nothing more than to hear your voice again, to just know that you were okay. No matter how many times he called you, you wouldn’t pick up, texts remained unread and any other form of contact lead to the same result.

He once flew to your house, only to find it empty and abandoned. The living room still reeked with the pungent odour of alcohol and the floor still crunched with the hidden pieces of wine bottles underneath the carpet. But the smell of ash caught him off guard and it sent him bolting through your room only to find it a mess.

Everything was charred and ruined. Your curtains were burnt to a crisp and your bed reeked of petrol. He felt his heart seize in his chest as tears bubbled in the corners of his eyes. He immediately bolted through the front door, banging on the doors of the neighbours.

It brought back a string of memories....

Billy banged on every door in the middle of the apartment complex, trying to find your house as old and young people opened up with either irritation or sleep painted across their face.

Finally, he knocked on the last door, to have you open up, your face wet with tears and your hands shaking.

“Billy...” You choked out before falling in his arms, holding fistfuls of his jacket in a vice-like grip. He caught you effortlessly, cradling you as you cried in the doorway.

“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” He asked, looking your body over for injuries and sighed in relief when you shook your head no.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” He whispered in your ear, “Just three more years of this and we’ll be free.”

You nodded, hiccupping as he continued to press kisses to your hairline, “Just three more years.” You echoed, feeling your tears dry as you sunk into his embrace, leaning up to press a kiss to his lips.

“And we’ll be free.”

When he got back home, his body was shaking with the information he found out. Attempted murder, arson, parents arrested for possession and substance abuse.

But when he asked about their daughter, they all said they had no idea what happened to her.

The world felt like it was closing around him and his shaking hands picked up the phone, this time calling a different number.

“Hello?” The warden from the orphanage answered.

“Where is she?” His attempt at sounding firm was a total fail as his voice cracked in the end.

“I’m afraid I can’t disclose that information.” Came the reply and he felt a sob threatening to break from his throat.

“Please tell me she’s safe.” His voice was wavering dangerously and he could hear the sympathetic sigh from the other side.

“She finally called the police. I guess not having you by her side to protect her scared her into calling them up.” She told him and he immediately felt guilty, he never should have left you to live with Victor and Rosa, no matter how many times you told him to go.

“I think you should go.” You told him, missing the way his neck whipped towards you as you stared at the grey clouds cover up the moon.

The two of you always argued about this. He always said that the moon was being covered by the clouds, looking at the down side of things but you always said that the clouds were hiding the moon from humanity, who wouldn’t appreciate it unless they had to live without it for once.

He had to agree with you but then he’d forget that you said it and you’d have this argument all over again.

“What? You think I should leave?”

You nodded, “Probably not for the reasons you think.”

“The plan was we stick this out together and when we’re eighteen we move in together, far away from here. Just three more years, (Y/N), we’re so close.”

“It’s still the plan.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is, life was always lending us a bad hand, but you have such a great opportunity now, and I want you to take it.”

“And leave you behind?”

“And leave me here, until I can catch up with you. Three years and we move in together. All according to plan.”

He sighed, pulling you close and kissing you soundly, “I want you to have this then.” He muttered, placing something in your hands.

In your hands was his phone, with a dirty and cracked screen but your heart soared at the gift. Pressing the unlock button to see a picture of the 2 of you. Both your faces were hidden, of course, in case the original owner ever managed to track it down, but it still warmed your heart.

“You have to call and text every day. I’m pretty sure, the foster home will have a landline or something.”

“I can’t believe you’re giving me your phone. How sweet are you?”

“Oh, I’m not giving it to you. You have to pay for it.”

You chuckled, “Oh really?”

He flashed you a smirk, “Yep, if you want it, you’re gonna have to cough up 200 kisses.”

You mocked surprise, “That’s so many!”

“Well the economy is bad.”

”Her parents, unfortunately weren’t the only ones who were part of this gang and now she’s gone into witness protection. She’s being fostered for now, and I’m sorry but I can’t tell you where she is, she isn’t allowed to contact anyone either. I’m sorry, Billy.”

‘Beep. Beep. Beep.’

He felt as though his heart was ripped out and stomped on, and he suddenly felt dizzy as his world collapsed around him. So much had happened over the past year, with him becoming a superhero and finding his mom and he had to do it without you.

It was now that he was realizing that he wasn’t the only one who was going through a tough time and the thought of never seeing you again, had his breath hitching.

He tried your number one last time.

“The person you are calling is currently unavailable. Please leave a message after the beep.”

“Hey, (Y/N), call me when you can. I miss you. I love you.”

[bikermiafey]

Simon Keyes and Dahlia Hawthorne: an Analysis

Spoilers for aai2 and aa3 under the cut. Also it’s... really long (Special thanks to my editor for keeping me coherent ish!).

Dahlia Hawthorne and Simon Keyes have a lot more in common than just red hair and a penchant for pink. From their family situations, to their motives and fears, and even to the very few people they ever trusted, their story lines run very similar. In the end, while they are both murderers, they are also victims of a broken justice system and poor family lives. Miles Edgeworth even acknowledges that Keyes is also a victim at the end of Keyes' case.

I am putting one more warning here, just in case. This analysis contains heavy spoilers, and I don’t intend to beat around the bush or hint. I will be saying the spoilers straight out. Any trigger warnings related to aai2 or aa3 should be applied as well.

Dahlia Hawthorne’s relationship with her mother is one made purely of use, with no affection on either side. When Dahlia is reunited with her mother before her execution, her mother convinces her to participate in one more murder plot. This is her first time talking to her mother since she was young. It’s clear that her mother doesn’t care about her, as she shows no sympathy for her estranged daughter, only using her to help Pearl Fey. Even Morgan’s love of Pearl is conditional and fake: she only loves Pearl for her spiritual powers. It only stands to reason that she didn’t care for Dahlia or Iris at all. While this is extrapolation, it didn’t seem like she cared much when her husband took her children away from her. She even could have brought Iris back home after she was left at Hazakura temple, yet as far as we know, she never even tried. While Dahlia agrees to the murder plot in prison in order to get revenge on Mia Fey, it can also be argued that it’s a last ditch effort to gain her mother’s approval: if she succeeds in the murder plot, though she will already be dead, she can let her spirit move on knowing that her mother has slightly more respect for her.

Keyes' relationship to his father is similar: though he believes his father left him because he died, in reality, his father simply didn’t care enough about him to find him. His mother, who is never mentioned, is presumably out of the picture. His whole life, he believes not that it was his father who was a murderer, but that Knightley’s father had killed his, and therefore, the way to get revenge was through Knightley. However, whether his father had been the victim or the murderer, does not change the fact that he was left alone in the care of Patricia Roland, who proceeded to mistreat or even abuse him. His father, albeit unknowingly, even managed to poison the one successful relationship he did have: his friendship with Knightley.

Keyes whole backstory revolves around revenge on Knightley, who betrayed him when they were children, and revenge on Roland, Debeste, and the body double, who all wanted him dead (and in Roland’s case, was so horrible to him that he ran away from the orphanage, though we’re not told exactly what happened.) Even if he’d managed to forgive Knightley for what had happened as children, Knightley still worked for one of the people trying to kill him: the body double. Of course, it also has to do with his father, but I’ll get to that later.

Dahlia’s story begins when her father takes her and her sister and leaves their mother. Here, she convinces her father to drop Iris off at a temple, though it’s shown they still keep in touch. The best guess I can make as to why she did this is that she did, in fact, care for Iris, however thought caring was a weakness and so sought to get rid of her. The same can be argued (and I have seen it argued) for Knightley and Keyes: Keyes had Knightley removed (though much later in their lives and to a more extreme degree than Iris and Dahlia) because despite his resentment of his best friend, he still had affection for him.

Dahlia and Keyes did trust Iris and Knightley up until a certain point. Dahlia had originally involved Iris in her kidnapping plot, however, Iris backed out at the last minute. Dahlia seems to have forgiven her for that, enough to let Iris convince her to let her be the one to try and get the evidence back from Phoenix. Iris proceeds to betray Dahlia even more: she falls in love with Phoenix for real, vowing to protect him, as well as failing to regain the evidence. This is when Dahlia throws Iris away for real: while before, she’d always let her affection for her sister get in the way of leaving her behind completely, she now has no such excuse. If even Iris turns against her, Dahlia truly has no one on her side, causing her to become even more afraid and angry, as she sets in motion her plot to kill Phoenix. Not only is she getting desperate for the evidence back, but this way she also gets revenge on her sister and her betrayal, as her sister was the one person she thought to always be in her corner.

Keyes sense of betrayal comes much earlier in his life. Right from some of his earliest memories, his friend had kidnapped him and nearly gotten him killed for the sake of his father. Keyes never had a chance to work through this grudge, instead internalizing it. Yet, Knightley was still his only friend, and therefore by default, his most trusted one. After spending all those years by each other's sides, it’s unlikely Keyes didn’t feel some sort of camaraderie with him. By killing Knightley, Keyes was not only removing the person who betrayed him, but also his weakness: the one person he truly cared about. Like Dahlia, he saw emotion and love as a weakness, something to use and get rid of once it had served its purpose. Yet in the end, he cared more about Knightley’s betrayal than any friendship.

At 14, Dahlia enters a relationship with a 20 year old, Terry Fawles. Dahlia is a child, entering a relationship with a fully grown adult. While she didn’t know better, there’s no way he didn’t. No matter how you look at it here, there is an element of grooming and coercion that was not touched on, as she was drawn into a relationship with a 20 year old. Not to mention, he was her tutor, adding even more of a power imbalance than there already was. This also makes her motivations for the staged kidnapping that much more interesting. Her sister, Valerie, was a police woman, also an adult, and, as we know she was involved in the fake kidnapping, she must have been aware of the relationship between her sister and Fawles. If anyone had been in a position to stop this relationship, it would have been her. She was an adult, the sister of Dahlia Hawthorne, AND a police officer, whose jobs are supposed to be stopping things like this. However, she didn’t. This probably instilled a distrust of the justice system in Dahlia, just as Simon Keyes had a distrust of the justice system based on how one of the people looking to kill him was a high ranking official.

Here, we get to Dahlia’s motivations for the kidnapping: not only does she get to have half a million dollars if this goes well, but once she and Valerie betray Fawles, he will be sentenced to life in prison, and unable to harm her anymore.

This is similar to a lot of Keyes’ plots, though he doesn’t tend to use framing. Instead, Keyes simply manipulates people into killing each other for him, getting them out of his way. He manipulates Roland into killing Knightley, getting Roland away from him so that she cannot chase and hurt him any longer.

Dahlia fakes her death and for five years, she is safe. Then, she finds out that Valerie intends to give away the secret to the kidnapping. This is dangerous for Dahlia: if people found out that Fawles had not killed or even kidnapped anyone, his sentence could be greatly reduced or he could even be set free. Then, not only could Fawles be free, but he would know that she’s alive.

This most likely caused her a great deal of worry. Now, we never find out whether her first murder was premeditated or not. In either case, Dahlia likely panicked at the thought of her secret getting out. The only difference is whether this panic caused her to prepare in advance, or if she intended to plead or bargain with her sister, only to stab her in the end when that didn’t work.

This is Dahlia’s first direct murder. However, Fawles later dies at his trial, drinking a bottle of poison that she had given him at age 14. This had likely been her backup plan to the kidnapping, if somehow she had been found out, he would have drank the poison. He only intended to drink it if he thought he couldn’t trust her anymore, which he wouldn’t have if he discovered the betrayal.

You may now by wondering why she panicked and killed Valerie, then. Two reasons: first, this backup plan had a high likelihood of indicting her as a possible suspect. It was a very last resort. The second reason is that if she hadn’t killed Valerie, Valerie would have exposed that they had stolen the diamond. This would mean that Dahlia herself would have gone to prison, a place she understandably didn’t want to go, and it would have opened questions regarding the current whereabouts of the diamond.

I don’t believe Dahlia was lying, on the stand, when she stated that the reason she hadn’t revealed her true identity as Dahlia Hawthorne was because she was afraid of Fawles. It wasn’t the whole truth, not was it a whole lie.

Even after getting away with this trial, Dahlia cannot escape. She is interrogated by Diego Armando, and likely feeling threatened, poisons him. She then gives the evidence to Phoenix Wright, to hide her involvement. This is when Iris enters the scene.

Iris is very much to Dahlia what Knightley is to Keyes. Iris and Knightley were maybe the only people who cared about Dahlia and Simon. They were willing to do almost anything to keep them safe and help them. In a way, Dahlia and Simon were the only people they had to rely on. (Iris also had Sister Bikini, but Dahlia didn’t have anyone else, and Iris felt a sense of obligation about that.) While Dahlia and Keyes also cared for them on some level, in the end, they were more useful to manipulate and use than truly care for.

I have seen some head canons and theories that as Knightley was being interrogated by Roland, he must have realized that Simon had set him up. These theories continue that he could have then ratted Simon out to Roland, but he didn’t, instead letting himself die out of loyalty to the person who set him up. After all, that person was his childhood friend, and Knightley at least cared for Keyes. In that case, he’s even more similar to Iris, who tried to protect Dahlia even to the end despite her knowledge of Dahlia’s crimes and the fact that Dahlia was the one who convinced their father to leave her behind.

In the end, Dahlia Hawthorne and Simon Keyes lived in much the same way: for themselves, and by themselves. They simply couldn’t understand that even if they had been wronged before, there were still people waiting to take their sides. All they could focus on was the things said people had done to hurt them, and not the multitude of other ways these people had tried to help them. That was their final downfall.

If you made it this far, wow! I appreciate your dedication, and thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.

[suf-lives-rent-free]

Fragments

Everything below is just my opinion; I am in no way trying to say that how I feel about this is the one correct take or whatever.

I know a lot of people like this episode and what happens in it, but I don’t.  I totally understand that some people just don’t want to see any negativity, period, but negativity is not inherently bad or wrong.

Negative opinions, even about something you enjoy, can be valid too - regardless of whether you happen to agree with them or not.

Also I get very salty near the end of this, and that might be entertaining to people who stan this episode?

I am aware that a lot of people – the majority, I’m pretty sure – think that the episode is a masterpiece. And on some level, I see where they’re coming from with that assessment.

The episode is boarded beautifully, the backgrounds – especially during the training montage – are stunning as always.  The music is fantastic, and the performances are great too.  In these respects, Fragments is a stand-out episode; I agree.

(Like look at this.  Gorgeous.)

However, something that’s bothered me since I saw the episode is the writers’ decision to write it into the story that Steven shatters Jasper.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: I just don’t get it.  I’m purposefully misinterpreting the story to say it’s bad.  Steven brings her back to life; and it’s not like he meant to do it in the first place.  I just don’t have the capacity to understand the sublime nature of the show’s storytelling.  I’m an SU crit and all I want to do is make the real fans feel about themselves for liking it.

Uhhhh... no.  Nah.  That ain’t it chief.

It’s true; I am not a writer.  I’m just a passive consumer of media.  However, I do not agree with the viewpoint that in order to properly understand or critique a thing you need to have the expertise and/or experience in order to make something similar.

For example, if I were to put something I drew when I was 10 years old next to something I drew yesterday, it shouldn’t take a person who has had an education in fine art to tell you that the latter drawing is better-looking than the former.

That’s how I approach media consumption and criticism; when I criticise a writing decision, I am doing so as a consumer.  I’m not saying I could write it better, or even that my opinion is objectively correct and the writer is wrong or bad.  I’m just saying that I didn’t like a thing.  Which, I would hope, is allowed?

Okay, defensive hedging over, back to the point; I don’t like that they had Steven shatter Jasper.

[I get markedly saltier from this point on, fyi]

Full admission of bias here: one of the things I really cherish about the original show is how they wrote Steven’s character; he’s a boy with interests that don’t rigidly conform to gender stereotypes.  He likes ‘boyish’ things and ‘girly’ things, and that’s okay; thats just him.  In cartoons when I was growing up, characters like Steven would be the butt of jokes about being ‘girly’ or thinly-veiled homophobia.  I find him very relatable, and I want to acknowledge that yes, that is probably a significant part of why I have such an issue with this episode’s twist.

I am not trying to say that he’s a perfect baby angel or whatever; Steven regularly gets frustrated and angry. He does some pretty manipulative and dickish things to people around him (stop trying to make Larsadie happen, Steven. It’s not going to happen).  He is a flawed character who fucks up sometimes. And he’s not 100% peaceful either; he acts violently when he defends himself against corrupted Gems and Homeworld Gems (and Crystal Gems on occasion *cough*Bismuth*cough*).  

However, he has a pacifistic temperament; whenever it’s possible, he prefers that problems be solved without needless violence or hurt.  And I like that; in most media, it’s rare to have a male protagonist who wants to solve their problems without jumping straight to punching things.

When he accidentally frees Centipeedle, he convinces the Gems to step off and allow him to try and rehabilitate her peacefully; he even notices that the Gems’ weapons are a trigger for her, and make them put them away.  He frees Lapis against the Gems’ wishes because he recognizes that keeping her prisoner is wrong, and when she steals the ocean, he talks it out and heals her so she can leave Earth peacefully.

He tries to aid Jasper when she starts corrupting, fixes Eyeball’s gemstone when she’s cracked and tries talking Bismuth down when she attacks him with the breaking point.  In all of these situations, his words and help are ignored or rejected; he’s forced to resort to violence.  And it traumatises him.  

We get an entire episode dedicated to the fact that he’s been struggling with processing these awful things that happened.

Even in Future, Steven shows hesitation about engaging in unncecessary violence; he gives into Jasper’s goading for a fight after what’s implied to be dozens of failed tries at making her come to Little Homeschool, and he spends an entire episode trying to keep Lapis from squashing the two rogue Lapis Lazulis. 

The only time he hops into a fight willingly is after Eyeball and Aquamarine hold Greg hostage, and even then they pose a clear threat to his and Greg’s safety and have made it clear that they want to hurt him emotionally and physically.  Even at that, he stops and switches tactics to talking them down as soon as they lose their focus and start bickering with each other.

(I mean, he fails.  But it’s the thought that counts.)

I personally find it really jarring that the writers found it appropriate to write it into the series that this same character – over the course of three (3) days – goes from disliking mindless violence for mindless violence’s sake to happily engaging in the destruction of plants and animals* and has done a total 180 on his willingness to spar with Jasper, to the point that he instigates their rematch.

*(You best believe plenty of small mammals and birds – y’know, like the nest Steven saved in the first episode – died as he and Jasper felled tree after tree, not to mention all of those displaced by the destruction of their habitats, and the potential loss of food sources from some of those trees.)

You’re telling me that it’s a reasonable character beat for this boy to gleefully laugh like an anime supervillain at his sudden new-found joy in fighting, then pin Jasper in place, taunt her for helping him get so strong, and hit her so hard that she breaks into pieces and dies?

You’re telling me that that’s an in-character thing for Steven Quartz Diamond Cutie-Pie DeMayo Universe do to another character?

(And yes I am purposefully dancing around talking about the mental health stuff because if I did that I’d have to go on a whole other tangent about Growing Pains and fuck I just don’t feel like it right now lmao)

Going back to Mindful Education, another big thing we see Steven struggle with is the idea that his mother shattered Pink Diamond.  This knowledge sits heavily with him; it makes him sympathetic to the Diamonds, even under the circumstances in which he sees them (escaping from the Human Zoo, and being on trial for said murder). 

He sees their grief, and he feels awful.  He questions who Rose Quartz even was.  He knows, based on what Garnet said, that Rose had to do it; there was no other way to free Earth.  But he still feels awful seeing the pain that Pink’s loss has caused Blue and Yellow Diamond.

In Steven Universe, shattering is clearly equated with execution/death multiple times.  When Pearl and Garnet fret over the crack in Amethyst’s gemstone worsening.  When Blue Diamond threatens to break Ruby.  When Bismuth introduces the breaking point, and Steven recoils at the sight of what it does.  If you want to take the fact that Gem shards are sentient and desperate to become whole again into account, you could even argue that it’s a fate worse than death. This particular act of violence is treated very, very seriously.

When we find out that Rose shattered Pink Diamond, there is a season and a half long arc unpacking the implications and consequences of this one action, and how this knowledge forever alters Steven’s mental image of his mother.  And she didn’t even kill anyone.  It was a lie!

In Steven Universe Future, Steven shatters Jasper 4 episodes before the end of the series.  And it’s only brought up twice; once for a big *gasp* moment during his breakdown in Everything’s Fine, and in I Am My Monster by Pearl, when she has to fill-in Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot.  Notably, it is never discussed around or by Jasper.  Y’know.  The person who actually died.

No indication of how (or even if) what Steven did is affecting his own self-image after his initial breakdown, how Jasper feels about what she went through beyond falling back into the Era 1 and 2 mindset.  No inkling of how the knowledge that Steven killed somebody has affected how anyone in his life thinks or feels about him; when Pearl brings it up in I Am My Monster, she seems to not even really believe it’s true.

If there are any consequences or talks about this incident, they’re skipped over between I Am My Monster and The Future, and we’re expected to assume that Steven and his therapist are dealing with it, I guess?

And yes.  It was an accident.  He did bring her back to life.  But it still happened.  If you hit someone over the head and they stop breathing, just because the paramedics are able to resusitate and stabilize them afterwards doesn’t mean you never hit them.

But here, it’s shoved aside because dwelling on it would take far too much time, and risks framing Steven in an unsympathetic way when he’s meant to be on the cusp of a breakdown.

It just feels like careless writing to me.  They really, really wanted their big action scene with Steven and Jasper, but didn’t think (or maybe weren’t interested in thinking) about the seriousness or consequences of what Steven shattering someone would entail.

In my opinion, Steven shattering Jasper is one of the cheapest, laziest things they could have ever done with his character (and hers, for that matter).  To me, the entire thing feels entirely out of character.  It’s pure shock value; nothing more.

So yeah.  That particular writing decision just does not work for me.  And if you disagree... well that’s fine?  It’s fine.  We can agree to disagree?  I’ve read a lot of defense/praise for this episode, and honestly even after processing all of those opinions and all the time my thoughts about this plotline have been stewing in my brain, I still feel the same way.

[crossdressingdeath]

(1/3) It always amuses me how stans try to justify JC actions by his abusive upbringing while there were 3 children in that family and both others turned very kind and/or very moral and not at all like JC (and frankly, he didn't even have the hardest position in the dysfunctional dynamic). Or LXC and LWJ whose upbringing was even more screwed up with a LQ who was certainly playing favorites and wanting perfection, and yet this never draw a wedge between them or created any jealousy.

(2/3)LXC loves for LWJ to excel! Same with "but JC had it so hard rebuilding Lotus Pier, WWX was goofing off with the Wens"...JC was paying people to do that for him, yes, while WWX was trying to start from scratch a settlement over a mountain of corpses with a bunch of weak or old people and not to die of hunger comes winter. While separated from all his friends and hated as a monster by the cultivation world. "But JC was so lonely during the 13/16y, so that justifies him lashing out" And WWX

(3/3) was dead, killed by his brother and thinking that there was not a person left on his side in the end, and yet, that didn't make him act like a dick? Or athg else really, because everything that JC went through in the past, WWX did also, but in a worse way because he lost his parents young, lived in the streets, didn't have JC societal privilege or money and has to harness an unstable necromancy practice on top of that. And yet no one uses it as arguments to explain his actions, only for JC 

Honestly? While none of the Jiang kids were in a good position, out of the three of them... JC did have it the easiest. It was still awful for him, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting his childhood didn’t suck, but given it was made very clear to JYL that her only purpose was to be married off to JZX so her mother could tie her bloodline to her best friend’s and WWX was treated like a servant at best... Yeah. If I had to pick, I’d choose having a distant father and dealing with a mother who’s constantly emotionally abusive over having a distant father and dealing with a mother who’s constantly emotionally abusive and being treated like a bargaining chip/treated like a servant and/or bastard and being whipped for actions that would get the rest of the clan a lecture at worst. Again, I’m not saying JC didn’t have it bad, but his siblings having it worse is... interesting, given neither of them decided to be dicks to Literally Everyone over it.

I do have to say, even though this is about JC, there’s nothing suggesting LQR was playing favourites with LXC and LWJ. He was strict, yes, probably stricter than he should’ve been, and LXC probably did get more one-on-one interaction with him, but given LXC was going to be sect leader/became sect leader at a young age that makes sense. This is not super important to the point of this post, but I do find it odd how often people make LQR out to be this horrible person who’s always awful to his nephews because he’s Strict when we... don’t actually know anything about how he raised them. I don’t like him all that much, and he probably didn’t do a fantastic job of raising them, but the man did try, and he clearly wants his nephews to be safe and happy (even though he has inaccurate views of what that entails...), and given how the parents/parental figures of the cast generally act he deserves some credit for that. Also the Twin Jades ended up considerably better-adjusted than most of their age group, which... isn’t saying much all things considered but it does say something. If nothing else neither of them seem to feel actively unsafe around him, so he’s definitely not the worst parental figure in this novel.

...I had a surprising number of thoughts on LQR there. Whoops, sorry about the tangent. Maybe I’ll make a post about him at some point. Anyway, yeah, LXC and LWJ clearly adore each other! LXC would be delighted if LWJ surpassed him at something! Same with Nie bros; they argue a lot, but there’s no denying that they love each other. That’s what insults and threats out of love look like; NMJ threatens NHS all the time, but NHS clearly isn’t all that bothered by it until JGY starts fucking with NMJ’s mind and the threats become more serious, which really isn’t NMJ’s fault. It’s because in the other sibling relationships both parties are invested in staying close. They love each other and want to be close for the rest of their lives! Meanwhile JC is obsessed with WWX outperforming him at Literally Everything, and WWX genuinely believes that JC is allowed to treat him the way he does and it’s fine and healthy.

And yeah, JC wasn’t exactly rebuilding Lotus Pier all by his lonesome with his own two hands. In fact, going by what we see all the rebuilding was done well before WWX left! And I don’t doubt for a second that WWX was involved in that process; I have very mixed feelings about the scene in CQL where he blows off his duties to go and get drunk, because on the one hand it does do a good job of showing just how bad his mental state is getting (and how JC refuses to acknowledge it despite WWX obviously being Not Okay), but on the other hand... I just can’t see WWX not throwing himself into helping JC with everything he’s got even while his mental state is coming crashing down around him. I mean, this is the guy who created an incredibly powerful weapon that even he couldn’t fully control, not knowing what using it would do to him, to help his brother win a war. I’m pretty much certain that WWX ran himself into the ground helping JC rebuild and run the sect... then when he found himself in charge of a small group of desperate people, scrambling to keep them fed and clothed and healthy, JC just abandoned him to deal with it on his own.

And the whole “Oh, but JC was so lonely, don’t you feel bad for him?” shtick. I hate it so much. If he didn’t want to be lonely, he should’ve considered that before alienating everyone in his age group and leading an army to murder his brother, the only person left who was willing to put up with him! It’s... really hard to feel bad for someone who’s brought most of their suffering on themselves through a series of generally shitty and frequently downright cruel actions with easily foreseeable consequences. If he got sick of being alone, he should’ve apologized to his peers for being a dick to... literally all of them and tried to make amends and strike up some sort of relationship. Or, if that didn’t work, go out! Meet new people! Try not to be as awful to them! Also, he’s a sect leader. If he couldn’t even maintain a positive relationship with other sect leaders, people who, let me remind you, he has to work with on a regular basis and several of whom are actually nice and friendly people, that is on him. If you are awful to people you will end up alone. And then JC decided to respond to learning that the people he was a dick to every time he saw them (and, in LWJ and NHS’s cases, caused the death of someone they cared about) wanted nothing to do with him... by whining about how lonely he was as if that wasn’t largely his fault. Like, he lost his family and that’s awful, but he could have had friends to help him through his grief, and it’s his own damn fault that he doesn’t.

WWX’s life was miserable. He had plenty of friends, yeah, but he spent years on the streets after his parents died brutal deaths; was raised in a family where he was treated like a servant and a scapegoat; lost everything in an event he was blamed for despite having nothing to do with the attack; had to sacrifice his incredibly powerful golden core (thereby losing his primary means of defending himself while on the run and drastically shortening his lifespan) to keep his brother from letting himself die; was thrown into a corpse pit for three months where he had to create an entirely new and experimental (and as such incredibly dangerous) form of cultivation and probably resort to cannibalism just to survive; had to fight a war almost immediately after escaping; spent a... good portion of time (not sure how long exactly because the MDZS timeline is more a suggestion than an actual coherent timeline) being treated alternately as a tame pet or a rabid animal and having to pretend everything was just fine while everyone tried to either control him or remove him and his brother very obviously got increasingly resentful of his skill and power; had to abandon his home, his family, and everything he had left of his old life to save a bunch of innocent people while everyone, including his brother, acted like he’d gone mad for not wanting to let them die horribly; had to go back to the corpse pit he spent three months in because it was the only place where they might be safe; accidentally killed his brother-in-law due to losing control after being ambushed on the way to a celebration for his nephew that he was invited to by people he trusted, almost certainly making him wonder on at least some level if that was why he was invited; lost two members of his new family who he clearly loved because of said accidental murdering; learned their deaths were for nothing and, when he retaliated against the planned attack that shouldn’t have happened because that’s what WQ and WN gave their lives to prevent, saw his beloved sister die to save him; and, after all that, lost the rest of his new family to a siege on a civilian population led by his brother. And after all that, his response was... to destroy the incredibly dangerous weapon he’d made because he didn’t trust the sects to not destroy each other and themselves with it and kill himself rather than risk losing control again and hurting anyone else. In the novel too; I don’t doubt for a second that WWX planned on dying in that siege, even if he didn’t expect destroying the seal to do it.

Take a look at that paragraph. All those things that happened to WWX. And in the end, he was kind. He was so, so kind, and remains kind even after thirteen years of being dead. He would have been well within his rights to go all “Then let me be evil” on the sects, but every time he attacked them they struck first, and most of the serious damage he did happened as a direct result of losing control of his experimental and mostly unknown new cultivation, which is a real risk even with spiritual cultivation; NMJ probably would have happily killed everyone in Qinghe if the qi deviation hadn’t gotten to him first, given how easy it was for him to attack even his beloved little brother. Everything bad that happened to JC is on that list, pretty much. Everything that JC suffered WWX did too, with some variations in the details (and of course dead versus alone for the same period of time). JC had the advantage of a sect at his back and a high rank by virtue of his birth, while WWX’s position was entirely reliant on JFM and, later, JC. And yet some people insist that WWX’s trauma doesn’t excuse his actions but JC’s somehow does. Now, some people argue it’s different because WWX was a mass murderer. Yeah, well, JC’s a fucking serial killer, and he doesn’t have the excuse of losing control due to using resentful energy to cultivate and being attacked by everyone he’d ever known and trusted.

...I’ve kind of lost track of where I’m going with this. Short version: I very strongly disagree with anyone who insists WWX’s trauma doesn’t excuse his actions while bending over backwards to argue that JC’s trauma excuses his.

[princeescaluswords]

Murder Can Hurt You

One of the accusations in fandom that gives me the most confusing moments is the accusation that Scott is somehow responsible for the deaths caused by villains that he doesn’t execute when he defeats them.  

Here’s a quote from a reply to one of my posts.

You sort of bend this into a semantics argument of “second” vs “third” chances, when really another chance suffices. And they get the idea from canon where it happened.

Keeping Gerard alive resulted in the deaths of others, The same is true of Monroe. He also showed mercy to the Darach, it was Peter who finished her. You also forgot the twins which were met with mixed feelings. Many didn’t like their inclusion because they killed Boyd, the other bipoc character in case you’d forgotten. I would also say it’s arguable that Deucalion turned his life around when really his actions still led to deaths. He was already at odds with himself and we never see him completely rehabilitated.

I think the author and writing is insincere, but I’ll take it at face value for purposes of this discussion.

My first problem is the implication that somehow Scott’s reluctance to deal out death in judgement is not only immoral but also weird.  I don’t know what culture they thought Scott grew up in, but murder is considered a pretty heinous act with serious repercussions in the United States culture in which Teen Wolf is set.    Premeditated murder is not seen as justified, even revenge murder, in our modern times.  

Scott had even more reason to resist the use of killing as a tool than most others.  The entire first season he was scared, warned by Stiles and Derek that he now had a blood lust on which he must be constantly on guard against.  The alpha attempted -- through mind control and extortion -- to turn Scott into a lethal weapon against the alpha’s enemies.  To make him a killer.

And then, when seeking a way out of this nightmare -- and it was a nightmare even after an asthma cure and making first line, as if that somehow makes up for being hunted, tortured, and violated -- he was told that the only way for him to reclaim his life was to kill the one who bit him.  (It was a lie, but you can’t expect a 16-year-old who didn’t even think that werewolves were real a month before to know that.)  So, Scott was forced into a position where he thought that the only way for him to be free of blood lust, of mind control, of being hunted, of the loss of autonomy, of horror was to kill the person responsible for his condition.   

To me, the foundation of Scott’s heroism is that he decided, with every reason to pursue violence, to reject “murder is the only answer” solutions.  In fact, Scott’s growth in rejecting murder as a solution became a controlling theme of Season 2 and Season 3 -- “I’m not like you,” Scott says to Deucalion, “I don’t have to kill people.”

It seems that the present contention is this -- did Scott have a responsibility to execute others for their past crimes?  Did Scott have a responsibility to preemptively murder people to protect others?   

The production’s answer is, I believe, obvious to the casual observer.  Revenge solves nothing.  Peter and Deucalion and Gerard were locked in a spiral of violence which begot more violence -- all their revenge killings led to was more danger and death.  Peter, Jennifer, Monroe, and Meredith didn’t protect anyone with their purges and sacrifices -- all their preemptive killing led to was more danger and death.  The psychic costs of murder -- for Jackson, for Stiles, for Malia, for Scott, for Liam -- were portrayed as simply too high a price to pay for an emotional catharsis and an illusion of justice and safety.   

Let’s take Gerard Argent.  Scott was willing to resort to potentially lethal means to stop Gerard from killing Derek, his mother, his friends, and Scott’s own self.  That was Scott’s motivation in Season 2.  He wasn’t seeking revenge for others, and he wasn’t in a position to demand justice.   When it was over, an enfeebled Gerard needed a wheelchair to get around and was virtually imprisoned in a rest home.  Scott’s goals had been fulfilled; the people he wanted to protect were protected.  There was no need for execution or preemptive killing.  

How could he possibly be responsible for Gerard’s future crimes?  How could he imagine that a crippled Gerard would somehow be miraculously healed and then become a threat once more.  If someone is sent to jail, serves his sentence, and then breaks free and kills again, is the legal system responsible for his new crimes?   Yet people seem to be arguing that Omega Scott needed to kill a human being in Master Plan for the good of -- we’re not entirely sure.  (I do notice, however, that Derek and Peter are absolved from this crime completely -- even though Peter was doing absolutely nothing while Gerard crawled away from the warehouse and Derek was the alpha.)   Why was it specifically Scott’s responsibility to execute Gerard?  In Apotheosis, Chris literally told Scott that he would take care of his father. 

When it comes to Monroe, I think the author means that Scott gave Monroe a chance when he tried to talk to her in the tunnels.  Scott was seeking a non-violent solution, true, because he didn’t want anyone else to die.  That’s a bad thing?   By this point, he knew that Monroe was Gerard’s protege and that she was very well armed.  Did the fandom want Scott to lead his six-person pack against her and her hunter army like the Charge of the Light Brigade?   What’s telling (and hilarious) is that Scott attempted just that in Pressure Test (6x14). Scott was willing to lead a charge of his own pack against Monroe and her men, but they were stopped by the sheriff.

What his other choice?   Tear her apart in her office during a school day?   If that’s true leadership, why don’t they complain about the Sheriff not gunning her down in his office when she challenged him?

Let’s talk about the twins.  Fandom obviously had a problem with Scott not putting them down like rabid dogs, but the whole point was that such an act wouldn’t bring Boyd back.  (And they don’t complain about Derek not hunting them down, either).  On the other hand, Scott didn’t let Aiden and Ethan into his pack.  He did employ them when they could useful, but in the end they remained omegas.  Remember, Derek said in The Divine Move  “ You've been trying to find a way into his pack. Trying to earn his trust, trying to fight for him.”  They were never actually pack.

Did fandom really want Scott to walk up to Ethan and straight-up execute him after Ethan had helped saved Derek from Kali?  Did they want Scott to drive them away immediately so they couldn’t help save Stiles?   Yes, they helped kill Boyd, and they were rewarded with distrust and for Aiden, death.  But not at Scott’s hand.

As for Deucalion, the production literally had him actively trying to make up for his actions, first by sending Braeden to rescue Derek from the Calaveras.  Then they had Deucalion work with Scott to deceive Theo.   Josh and Tracy didn’t die because Scott and Derek didn’t execute Deucalion in Lunar Ellipse.  That was Theo’s doing -- and only Theo’s doing.  Deucalion did not take extra steps to protect Josh and Tracy, his kidnappers, but neither did he encourage Theo’s murder of them.  Eventually, Deucalion refused to participate in a fight against Monroe, who would be coming for him, more worried about his soul than his life.  Then again, he did train Scott to fight the Anuk-Ite.  In what way was he not rehabilitated?  

Teen Wolf was consistent in showing the costs of vengeance and murder as a tool in securing safety and stating, clearly, that this cost was too high. As they should have.   And the embodiment of that principle is Scott McCall.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

Superior is INDEFENCIBLE Part 2: Odds and Ends

Part 1

As a little follow up to this post I want to wrap up some defences I have encountered for both Superior #2 and the Superior storyline in general.

To start with we have more hypocrisy from the man I once admired as he tried to defend his position on Superior.

He was challenged on his primary argument that Peter and MJ’s separation justified her obliviousness now that they are back together; for further details see the above linked post.

In response to this challenge he said:

“I think there is more to my argument then "They've lived apart for a year" and her relationship with him during that time doesn't have to hold relevance to their relationship after being apart.”

Like…this guy was for fucking real.

OF COURSE their relationship back then is going to hold relevance to their relationship after being apart.

Obviously with the benefit of hindsight Nick Spencer’s run proves this to be the case. And you can refer back to my prior post where I dive deeper into the topic.

However, in that post I was talking about the specific nuances of Peter and MJ’s relationship.

What’s mind boggling is that in the above quote he’s making an even bigger reach. Jesus Christ OF COURSE their past relationship is going to hold relevance for their then-current one.

That’s how relationships work!

FFS, romantic or otherwise everyone’s relationship with everyon else is shaped by the past. This is like arguing Peter hating Norman for killing Gwen Stacy doesn’t have to be relevant to their relationship after his return to the Clone Saga.

I mean shit dude, Peter’s high school romance with Betty Brant was relevant to their romance after he graduated college!

This is how all types of relationships work. You don’t just jump in after awhile, start fresh and then nothing from the past has any bearing on the present. Even in the most positive of scenarios the fact that you are getting together again  would still be shaped by the fact that you liked each other in the first place.

And for the life experiences those two shared that’d go a thousand fold.

Now let’s move on to some over miscellaneous comments sent to me a  looooooooooooong time ago.

I’ve had this stuff in my drafts for years! 

For the sake of catharsis I’ve decided to clear it out. It revolves around Superior Spider-Man and the comments I’m responding to were made before the original volume ended in 2014.

“Rob Wrecks wrote:Why would Aunt May even react to it? She doesn't even know the identity of Spidey now.”

In Civil War she was able to tell that the Chameleon, a MASTER of disguise who was being more subtle than Otto was, was not her nephew.

Whilst she might not know he is Spider-Man she knows her nephew so she should react and become questionable regarding his change in demeanor and behavior. What’s the old saying ‘A mother always knows’.

“As for MJ, they aren't even married anymore either. Sure she remembers who is under the mask. But I doubt she's gonna bring trouble on herself for prying.”

I address a lot of this in this  post.

Basically, not being married anymore has nothing to do with it. This woman lived with this man for years (five to be precise) and had a very close relationship with him which involved countless tragedies and traumas. That doesn’t just go away. This is to say nothing of the fact that she has known this man for about 10 years and has been his friend and girlfriend during that time. In fact in Stern’s run when she knew who he was but didn’t let him know, she was depicted as knowing him better than anyone and was able to read him as a book. This was back when they weren’t as close as they are now, hadn’t known each other for as long and she didn’t know him as intimately as she would later come to down the road. In ASM #290 Peter himself says MJ knows him as well as he knows himself and this was before the marriage.

Even in Slott’s run this depiction of Mary Jane knowing Peter better than anyone else was highlighted in various stories like Spider Island, a time travel arc, Alpha, and a Lizard arc at HORIZON labs. 

In JMS’ run Peter and Mary Jane were shown to be somewhat in synch even though they were separated at the time and had been for a long while going back. This was showcased in ASM V2 #50 and they had been effectively separated with minimal interaction as far back as ASM V2 #13; arguably even issue #1.

And yet she understood him and knew him very well, falling back into synch with him when they reconciled. Yes there was some awkwardness and them getting to know each other again but it was not on the same level of Otto guzzling champagne, creating spider bots, talking in a manner which was unlike the way he’s ever spoken before and MJ just wondering passingly then dismissing it. This woman has lived through the Chamelon, robot parents and clones and lives in a world where friggin Skrulls have invaded.

This out of character behaviour should send off alarm bells. She DOES clock something is off in Superior #10 but only when he says a phrase she’s never heard him say before. He was doing shit MUCH more out of character before then and she was dismissing it.

Later she was STILL dismissing the notion that Peter wasn’t himself as merely crazy on her part.

Again this woman knows Peter can be/has been cloned  repeatedly. This woman even for awhile believed Peter himself was a clone so she knows even memories can be replicated. But Peter is acting so obviously NOT himself that it’s practically SCREAMING at her that she should get this. In fact Peter’s ghost point this out which is Slott lampshading the situation. That doens’t make it good writing that’s just pointing out how bad your story is.

“Hasn't she (I'm guessing he's referring to Aunt May?) been focused lately on her new marriage though? I don't read enough of Spidey these days so I'm only going with bits and pieces I've read about here and there.”

What does being married recently or focusing upon it have to do with anything?

In Civil War she was focused upon not dying because Peter’s ID reveal had upended her life.

If you are someone’s MOTHER and have raised them all their life you will absolutely  be able to tell when something is wrong, when they are in fact not the real deal.

“As for MJ, who would she go too? Not like anyone would likely believe her unless she had a telepath scan her mind.”

Who would she go to? I dunno maybe the fucking Avengers or Fantastic Four who are Peter’s friends and team mates. Or maybe not go that far why not go to Black Cat, Human Torch or Daredevil . These are all people whom she knows (at least vaguely in regards to Daredevil) personally and have access to technology that can prove things one way or another.

Even if you argue that it’s not fair bringing in the wider Marvel Universe, Black Cat, Carlie, HORIZON labs, the Bugle staff and Scarlet Spider are all Spider-Man franchise characters.

“Now there could be a possibility she's making a list of his behavior and the like and is just waiting for the right time to say something when she knows she's less likely to die from it.

Maybe Slott's just got something going that'll eventually be revealed? Who knows.”

Oh boy, that didn’t stand the test of time did it?

This is just shitty analysis on principle. It hinges upon blind faith and writing stuff in your head about what characters are doing behind the scenes.

There was NEVER an indication MJ was doing anything like that and her actions actually contradicted event he idea of her doing any of that stuff.

The net responses are to the statement that Doc Ock was a gentleman who would treat women with respect.

“Keyword there, 'was' a gentlemen. I can imagine after years of defeats at the hands of Spidey, certain habits would change and he wouldn't care anymore.

It could have just been a subtle change that no one really noticed. He did try and end the world before #700 if I recall right.”

You need to SHOW those habits changing. The last major Doctor Octopus story before BND was in JMS’s run when he was very much a gentleman. You can’t just say his illness and defeats suddenly transformed him into a would be rapist. It’s utterly out of character for him. It’d be like bringing back Ben Reilly and making him a mass murderer. WHY is he a mass murderer.

(Fun fact. The stuff I bolded about Ben Reilly was something I wrote at the time. I kept it in because of how sadly ironic it wound up being…fuck Clone Conspiracy seriously)

Ending the world before #700 is one thing IN Doc Ock’s character. He is egotistical and wants acknowledgement of his genius.

Superior depicted him going against a character trait he’s always had. In his origin story, when he was ‘courting’ Aunt May, when he was involved with Stunner and Lady Octopus and the like he has always been show to have a respect for women and not had to resort to cheap ploys to woo them.

In Superior he was trading off of MJ’s relationship with Peter and Peter’s memories to basically abuse this woman. That is beneath Doctor Octopus. He is an intellectual a man for whom such actions are debase, the realm of the common thug whilst he is much more he is DOCTOR OCTOPUS.

BTW in Web of Death it was established that Doc Ock probably would not target MJ or Peter’s family even though he knew Peter’s identity.

So for him to suddenly switch to ‘I’m gonna fuck his girlfriend to get one over on him” is again utterly out of character.

‘Web of Death’ was co-written by Tom DeFalco btw, who established Otto’s origin. Thus the argument is flying in the face of someone who helped define the character with no explanation at all.

Slott had done this with other characters like Ashley Kafka.Suddenly the most naively compassionate woman in the world who believed she could redeem CARNAGE is saying this lesser serial killer is a complete monster. That is piss poor writing.

Even if Slott WERE to establish and show how Ock went from one extreme to the other it doesn’t make it a good idea. Doc Ock would be rapist is a lot less interesting than Doc Ock the lone super villain who is part gentleman and part humanitarian with a respect for women. If this was Norman Osborn in Peter’s body, or Electro, or Shocker I’d believe these actions.

The topic then changed to Carlie Cooper’s depiction in Superior as a goddam idiot who isn’t even telling MJ Peter might  be evil. “Red Hood wrote: Carlie and Wraith followed Ock’s paper trail because she knows for fact that peter parker doesnt have the money to fund his own private army, the reason she hasnt said anything is because it's not such a good idea to go pointing fingers without absolute truth, remember eddie brock and how he was so sure about the sin eater?”

Carlie’s investigation was going incredibly sloooooooooooooooooowly. Not only was it dull reading, but it made her completely unsympathetic. Why not warn Mary Jane by saying “Look before he died Doc Ock told me he and Spider-Man had swapped bodies. I’m not saying Peter IS Doc Ock but just....be careful MJ”.

Or why not inform the Avengers or Fantastic Four about this. Sure the Avengers gave him a physical but they wouldn’t know what to look for. And why is Carlie Cooper all of a sudden saying “Wait I KNOW Peter doesn’t have this kind of cash so this is a big clue that he isn’t himself.” When her first big clue should have been that time Spider-Man SHOT SOMEONE IN THE FACE!

“also peter and mj arent married anymore.”

See above.

You don’t just suddenly fall out of knowing someone if you’ve been THAT close to them and known them for that long just because suddenly you are not married anymore. She has deduced subtle differences in the Chameleon and clones before this but Ock is NOT being subtle whatsoever. He isn’t even talking the same way he normally does. And Mister Red Hood even says so himself, Carlie can tell right way. His co-workers whom he’s known for LESS THAN A YEAR can tell something is up. But the woman who’s been closer to him than ANYONE in his life, she can’t tell. That is bullshit of the highest order.

“1. mj and peter arent married anymore, idk if they were married in identity crisis but remember how after the deal with mephisto they were separated for x amount of years before she even came back to new york, i can see her not being able to tell peter is acting different at that point. aunt may and the avengers though don't get a pass especially when carlie who knew him the least could tell right away.”

See above.

You don’t just suddenly fall out of knowing someone if you’ve been THAT close to them and known them for that long just because suddenly you are not married anymore. She has deduced subtle differences in the Chameleon and clones before this but Ock is NOT being subtle whatsoever. He isn’t even talking the same way he normally does. And Mister Red Hood even says so himself, Carlie can tell right way. His co-workers whom he’s known for LESS THAN A YEAR can tell something is up. But the woman who’s been closer to him than ANYONE in his life, she can’t tell. That is bullshit of the highest order.

When you separate from someone you’ve been that close to those feelings don’t just disappear. This is especially true of people who’ve been through immensely traumatic events together. Soldiers often find that only fellow soldiers, specifically ones who were with them in combat, can truly understand what they went through and how they felt. It creates an emotional/mental bond. Same thing here. Peter and Mary Jane went through Venom, Kraven’s Last Hunt, the death of Harry, Gwen, aunt May, Ben Reilly, the clone saga as a whole, Civil War, Peter’s OWN death, Maximum Carnage and so on. They’d have that kind of connection I was speaking about, you don’t just forget it to the point where you let MASSIVE differences in behaviour slide, especially massive differences in behaviour which are different to the way he was acting LAST WEEK!

“3. Also i don't think his  [Doc Ock’s] actions are entirely out of character, i mean he was dead, then revived, beat down for several years into a dying body. given time to think about all the things you would do if given another chance i dont think its out of the question for doc to say "great, second chance at life with a movie starhottie gf". also if you'll threaten the city, then the world, then mind swap with someone i dont think having sex is that big a stretch.”

See my comments above why this IS out of character for Doc Ock. Again this isn’t just him wanting to get laid this is him potentially date raping an innocent woman. You need to SHOW the progression of that change

And rape in comic book fiction is understood to be worse  from the reader’s POV than the various Saturday Morning Cartoon style crimes he’s pulled.

The next comment was in response to the public’s indifference towards Spider-Man shooting Massacre in the face! “7. As far as no one caring about massacre, didn't he break out a few times and inflict his namesake? no one is going to care that a killer like that gets shot, humans aren't dignified at all. i can see aunt may saying something but no one else is going to be like "oh great that killer is back in jail, too bad all criminals break out" no they're going to be like "finally someone put down this thug, maybe my life or someone i care about will be spared from him at least in the future" and maybe it was caught on security cameras or phones but maybe they deleted it, i mean spider-man just shot a dude in the face and if he wanted there would be nothing anyone could do to stop him from putting the hurt on someone else”

This is just rubbish.

No one is going to care? For God’s sake the police in real life get reprimanded for using unnecessary force.

The law is the law you CANNOT publically execute an unarmed man. And my point was no one, not even Mary Jane or Jonah, were reacting to this mind-blowingly out of character action on the part of Spider-Man. Maybe they do not care that Massacre was killed but they should be wondering “Jesus that’s not like Spider-Man at all”. This was Spider-Man becoming absolutely EVERYTHING Jameson ever falsely accused him of and no one reacted. And I am sorry but the attitude of ‘human’s aren’t dignified so they’d react like THIS” is extremely broad and generalised. This would be a major talking point and a major issue. This is EXACTLY what the entire ‘Civil War’ debacle was about. Super heroes running unchecked doing as they pleased. It’s been what, a year tops Marvel time since Civil War? If that stuff was deleted YOU NEED TO SHOW IT. The cover story is that EVERYONE in that massive crowd covered for him. That is in no way shape or form how humans actually act. And who would there be to stop like a teenager or a kid or a lone person in the crowd from tweeting “OMG Spider-Man just shot this dude” or uploading a video or picture. They were CHEERING him on they wouldn’t be afraid of him being reprimanded. Once something like that hit the internet it’d spread like wildfire, it wouldn’t be something that if immediately taken down would die away, especially when THE NEWS was stating Spider-Man had ‘neutralised Massacre’ and then Massacre shows up dead, WTF would the public THINK happened?

“Aaron Alexander Luthor wrote: Superior is an excellent title, but I feel you approached it having already made up your mind. Doc Ock NEVER attempted date rape, and I don't know where you get that from”

Boy, I wonder where I got the idea of Otto trying to rape MJ from? What an obviously ‘excellent’ title.

Trying to sleep with Mary Jane whilst tricking her into thinking he is Peter Parker then that is categorically trying to date rape her. He didn’t go through with it because he discovered he could just wank off to her memories (I can’t believe I wrote that) but that is exactly what he was trying to do. Maybe to HIM he didn’t think of it as rape but yeah that’s exactly what it was.

“He ripped off his own shirt, not hers.”

I honestly have no idea what he’s talking about here btw.

“Mary Jane had/has mentioned several times that there is something wrong with him and that she thinks there is something strange going on, he also hasn't spoken to her in weeks in the time frame of the comic.”

Yes MJ has noticed passingly things are wrong but then he feeds her a line and she buys it or otherwise she dismisses it herself. This in monumentally out of character for her given her history and makes her incredibly stupid, which is the ONLY way this title could have worked out. Again, she lives in a world of Skrulls, clones, LMDs and shape shifters one of which is literally an enemy of Peter’s and has tried impersonating him multiple times (targeting her specifically twice). But she either doesn’t clock anything is wrong or doesn’t really react when she does. And he HAD spoken to her within weeks by the time or Superior #2.

“Same goes for Aunt May, he visited her the first few weeks as Parker, and hasnt spoken to her since. He is basically ignoring the people in Peter's life, and they have taken notice.”

See my response about Aunt May not knowing. Again, this woman RAISED him and she could tell when the master of disguise who was being a lot more subtle about impersonating Peter was not her son/nephew.

Also he wasn’t exactly ignoring  the HORIZON labs staff was he?

“When he killed Massacre, some of the civilians were shocked and appalled, but when the police investigated all the officers on the scene lied for Spidey, because they think he did the right thing. That is why the only officers still interested are Carlie Cooper who does know, and is ACTIVELY trying to prove it isnt Peter, and Captain Watanabe aka The Wraith”

My point about NO ONE taking photos, tweeting, facebooking or whatever still stands as does the security cameras thing and the fact that Massacre was TRYING TO GET PUBLICITY. Again with Carlie why is she not warning SOMEBODY at this point. It isn’t like they wouldn’t believe her after Massacre. It isn’t like Spider-Man isn’t acting weird. It isn’t like body swapping is a legit THING in the Marvel universe. For God’s sake this happened to Captain America!

Kaine, the CLONE of Peter Parker with identical memories and everything. In the Sibling Rivaly crossover between Scarlet Spider and Superior Team-Up even HE couldn’t tell that Peter. Was an imposter This guy doesn’t just know Peter well, he IS Peter. And Otto was ranting none too subtley about how Kaine has bad blood with HIM. He doesn’t say he’s Doc Ock but he’s conveying unsubtly to Kaine that he is not Peter Parker and he is not TALKING like Peter Parker either. When his CLONE is still operating under the delusion that he is Peter Parker that’s put it beyond doubt this was ridiculously contrived.

“BTW, Carlie and MJ have talked about the suspicious way Pete has been acting, Carlie just hasnt told MJ directly.”

WHY didn’t Carlie tell MJ! And WHY were she and Peter noticing Peter’s different actions yet being totally blasé about them.

FFS in ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’ MJ and Peter had been married for just 2 weeks and in that time she was able to deduce from his actions that the guy in the Spider-Man suit was NOT Peter. In the Mark of Kaine an identical clone of Peter approaches her and she is ultimately able to tell (twice) that he is not her husband. And she did this whilst pregnant and stressed out from a life or death situation to say nothing of the fact that Aunt May had recently died which would be weighing on her mind. Yet in Superior her mind was clearer and she was still buying this was Peter. This is enormously bad out of character writing for her

“As for the Avengers scans, it wasnt that no one could read them, its that they all came back NORMAL.”

No, the scans DID NOT come back normal at all. Doc Ock looked at the scans and could TELL something was not normal because he saw ghost Peter was in his mind. Yeah there was a tiny inconsistency in the brain waves but why the heck weren’t there people on the Avengers team that day to take note of stuff like that. Cap, Wolverine, Black Widow and Thor are obviously NOT going to be able to properly read this scientific equipment like Iron Man or Hank Pym or the Beast. ANY of those guys would’ve been able to tell but no only the Avengers who categorically would not be able to properly read the brainwaves were there. Why? Why get the unscientific Avengers? Because of plot contrivances is why.

And where were the telepaths? One telepathic scan from SOMEBODY should have told all. And again these tests come back normal....no one thought he could be a clone? Spider-Man has joked to these people about his clones, they know about them. Correct me if I am wrong but at the time of the Avenger’s physical of Peter wasn’t there a character involved with the Avengers who was supposed to be the living universe? SHE couldn’t tell Doc Ock is Spider-Man? The universe literally didn’t know this?

“Even Dr. Strange and Wolverines tests all came back regular.”

If Dr. Strange with all his power wasn’t able to deduce the truth that’s even MORE contrived!

And what the heck were Wolverine’s test? That he smelt the same? Of course he would.

“There was a tiny inconsistency in the brainwaves, it wasnt that no one could read it, its that it was so small that no one would even take notice of it, except for Peter or Ock if they were to look for it.”

See above for why this is bullshit.

“And the Avengers are STILL very suspicious, if you read the current titles.”

At the time a ‘current title’ was  Superior Team Up #1.

In it the Avengers told him they were wrong to put him in probation and are still just ‘suspicious’ when he INVADED SHADOWLAND WITH AN ARMY!. Because THAT’S so usual for Spider-Man right?

“You're entitled to your opinion, but you cant just make up facts and call it a discussion. I get the impression that you a)Havent read the whole series; b) Had already made up your mind before reading the issues you have read; and c) Havent read the companion stories (i.e. Avenging Spider-Man, Superior Team-up, Hickman's Avengers titles). If you look at the story as a whole, its actually quite good.”

Said the guy who got all the above information I outlined WRONG.

From a technical point of view it doesn’t make sense, it uses contrivances and out of character writing to keep it going. You want to write Doc Ock as Spider-Man. Okay then don’t surround him with people who should be able to figure this out. Or say there is some kind of device redirecting their attention.

Don’t have Doc Ock not act like Doc Ock because that defeats the point of the exercise. Don’t go for deliberate sensationalism or crass storytelling which was essentially everything revolving around him hooking up with Mary Jane and then the oh so lovely page of the Superior Spider-Wanker.

That issue in particular even resolved itself in a contrived manner. Doc Ock begins uttering gibberish which recalled One Moment in Time about “we cannot be together because it’s an unsolvable equation blah blah blah”.

Basically he is saying “I can never be with you because of the danger I put you in”; which is Slott using the character as a mouthpiece.

In the next issue Otto began courting a student at his college because consistency rocks. Even Ghost Peter is out of character at this moment “WOW Ock you did the one thing I could never do and walked away from Mary Jane”. Peter is right he probably can’t walk away from Mary Jane but...does he WANT to? Where the heck is this coming from? What is worse is that it’s so unnecessary. There was a MUCH better explanation for Ock breaking up with MJ. If Ock were in character he could just come to the conclusion that sleeping with MJ under these circumstances would be wrong and beneath him hence he wouldn’t go through with it. If Ock was out of character as he was in their issue but still vaguely in character he could just come to the conclusions that since accessing Peter’s memories he’s begun to have genuine feelings for MJ and doesn’t just want to fuck her, it would involve him having a relationship with here which at this point in time he is incapable of, he doesn’t know how to handle it. I will wholeheartedly admit I was not jazzed about the concept of Superior from the outset. If nothing else I want to read about Peter Parker not Doc Ock and if I did want to read about Doc Ock AS Doc Ock, not as Spider-Man and not as an rotting body.

An arc in a comic is one thing doing this long term all the problems I foresaw have come up as well as some I didn’t even predict. This could have worked if Doc Ock was separated from Peter’s supporting cast who should be able to tell something is amiss but then that defeats a lot of the point of the story. It was a lose-lose situation.

People can enjoy garbage if you want but don’t call it gold.

Part 1

[thewhumperinwhite]

FBI AU: Painkillers

Reasonable Question: hey Beau, where tf are your other wips right now why are you only posting this one? Answer: I have homework, and this is the only one I have pre-written :-)

@whumpitywhumpwhump bc ur comments are the only thing keeping me going at this stage lmao

TW for: explicitly referenced noncon, drugs, referenced domestic abuse, Various Medical Things, Cops

They want to take Simon off the case, which is actually kind of--fine with him at this point. The downside is that it takes some wrangling to get him in to see the kid when he wakes up, but Simon’s been working for the Bureau for long enough that when the people in charge see the look on his face, they let him through, even if they’re not sure they should.

He isn’t sure what he’s expecting. Rona said the kid was lucid, but to be honest it seems like too much to hope for. He certainly isn’t expecting him to turn away from the Agent taking his statement to look at him with surprised recognition and rasp, “Hey, you’re not dead.”

Simon stares at him, aware that the duty officer--it’s Gus Chase, he realizes with the very small part of his brain not occupied with complete astonishment--is staring between him and the kid, startled.

“You--remember me?” Simon says, alarmed; the best case scenario would be that the kid remembers as little as possible, though maybe not for the case.

Heinrich Arthur Lange nods, a slight movement but still kind of mind-blowing; he’s limp against the pillow but the bed is angled upward and apparently his statement is making enough sense that Gus is taking it down, though he looks kind of green, poor guy.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he says, mostly to Gus, who shakes his head.

“A break might be good for both of us,” Gus says in his soft voice, and makes kind of a hasty exit.

“He seems nice,” Heinrich Arthur Lange says to Simon. His voice is a little mushy, because of how fucked up his lips are, but he doesn’t sound like he’s had a stroke.

Simon sits down. He isn’t sure he can talk yet.

“Tenor had a gun,” Heinrich Arthur Lange says, still sounding like the only obstacle to his speaking clearly is his torn-up mouth. “I figured he’d shot you.”

Simon shakes his head. Then he remembers that Tenor Bradshaw did, actually, shoot him, and he tries to clear the weird lump in his throat, though he doesn’t quite succeed. “He missed,” he rasps.

Heinrich Lange huffs faintly, and after a second Simon realizes to his complete bewilderment that he’s laughing. “Lucky,” he says.

“Lange,” Simon says, and the kid’s exposed eye flashes.

“Art,” he corrects immediately. Simon blinks. That name hadn’t occurred to him, though he realizes he doesn’t know where a person could go with “Heinrich.”

“Art,” Simon says, then has to stop to figure out what comes next. “You seem--you feel okay?”

Art makes that little airless huffing sound again; laughter when your throat and lips are swollen, Simon guesses. “I’m fucking blazed, pretty sure,” he says, almost conspiratorially.

It startles Simon into a smile, though it feels strange on his face. “I guess you must be. You should be hurting like hell, kid.”

Art glances down at himself; his arm is still in its sling and his leg is elevated so it doesn’t shift. “Yeah,” he says, like none of that is distressing at all. “I hear you got ‘im, though, so. Not that big a deal. And--is Tenor dead?”

Simon nods eagerly, since the kid sounds like it’s good news; it is good news.

Art smiles crookedly; it looks small and out of place under the cannula in his nose and Simon’s heart does a weird squeezing thing in his chest. “Nice,” Art says, and his hand twitches unbelievably into probably the best thumbs-up he can manage, though it seems to be a mistake. “Ouch,” he says, wincing and spreading his hand back out slowly. “He was a fucking creep. He got harder every time I screamed. Hope it hurt.” He says this without any change of expression. “Did he break my hip?”

Simon, who is beginning to feel like he’s having an out-of-body experience, nods helplessly.

“Bastard,” Art says calmly. “Hey, what’s your name, again?”

“Simon,” Simon says with numb lips. “Blake.”

“Cool. Did you kill him?” Art looks at him guilelessly, though the question makes all the air rush out of Simon’s lungs. He knows he must make some kind of face, though Art doesn’t seem to notice. Finally he forces himself to shake his head.

“My partner,” he croaks.

“Cool,” Art says again, almost grinning. “I don’t remember him.”

“Her,” Simon corrects without thinking. Then, still not thinking, he asks, “What do you remember, Art?”

Art looks up at the ceiling, thoughtfully. “I remember most of it, I’m pretty sure. You can ask your buddy, I think I got to the part where they kidnapped us already. He said I could see Karim once I gave my statement.” Art looks over at him, and Simon wrestles his face back under control. “He’s okay, right?” Art asks easily, he clearly already knows the answer, so he isn’t put off by the jerkiness of Simon’s nod. He relaxes back against the pillows, smiling dreamily up at the ceiling. 

“That’s so great,” Art said. “I’m so glad it worked.”

“What worked, Art?” Simon says, his voice sounding weirdly quiet over the sick pounding of his heart in his ears.

“He was in a cult, y’know,” Art says. “He didn’t know he was in a cult. He didn’t believe me when I told him, but he was starting to when they killed me--when they tried to kill me, I guess.” He frowns thoughtfully. “I wonder if Micah meant to do that. If he didn’t kill me on purpose. I guess he might have wanted to keep fucking me,” Art says, like it doesn’t mean anything. Simon puts his hand over his mouth, trying to breathe through his nose; he feels a sudden deep sympathy for Karim Mun, puking all over his hospital sheets; Micah Trent nearly tore this boy in half.

Art must see the movement of Simon’s hand out of the corner of his eye; he turns to look at him curiously. Simon drops his hand and tries to force his face back to something neutral but he can see Art’s expression morph very slowly from mild confusion to something else, like he’s thinking very hard.

“You all know who I am,” Art says slowly, like he’s putting puzzle pieces together through all the painkillers he’s on. Simon nods, since they do, and Art looks at him, his one visible eye clearing, like he’s actually seeing Simon for the first time.

“Don’t let my father in,” he says, his voice very serious. “I don’t want to see him. Don’t let him in here.”

“What?” Simon says helplessly. He can hear voices outside; Art hasn’t been awake very long, in addition to the various agencies that need his statement there have to be nurses and doctors he needs to talk to, and several of them are coming through the door, but Art is looking at him, and Simon leans in close to hear what he has to say before a dozen more important people shuffle him out of the room.

“Simon,” Art says quietly, while the doctor taps Simon on the shoulder. “He killed my brother.”

----

Rona Cowl rarely looks impressed, but after Simon waves the file around in front of her and rants for fifteen minutes, she looks even more unimpressed than usual.

“I know how it sounds,” he tells her, deflating slightly.

“Uh huh,” Rona says. She’s slouching back in a waiting room chair with her arms crossed, the picture of unconcern. “Blake, when was the last time you left this hospital?”

“I’m not cleared to leave yet.”

“Right,” Rona says, drawing the word out in a way that makes Simon’s cheeks heat immediately. “Can I ask how you got that file, then?”

He got it from the police captain, who’s never worked with the FBI before and looked at his arm sling with something pretty near hero worship, and gave him the file on Michael Lange’s accidental death almost before he was done asking. “Doesn’t matter where I got it,” Simon says, and winces inwardly, since that’s worse than making up a lie.

Rona sighs and rubs at her temple, the closest she ever comes to admitting she’s tired. Simon remembers with a touch of guilt that she’s essentially running the case by herself since he’s out of commission.

“Simon,” Rona says, which is a bad start; using his first name is a cheap trick and Rona Cowl rarely resorts to cheap tricks. “Heinrich Lange is a republican senator.” Simon glowers, getting ready to argue any assertion that that makes him immune to scrutiny, but Rona goes on, “I’m totally ready to believe he’s an abusive prick. I’m pretty near ready to believe he’s a murderer. You know what I know for a fact he’s not, though?”

Simon glares at her, since he doesn’t have an answer.

“He’s not a cult leader. He’s not on the Most Wanted list. And he’s not my case right now.”

Simon knows she’s right, which immediately makes him angrier. “Rona, Art was--”

“Simon,” Rona says, sitting up, and really looks at him, in a way she rarely looks at anyone, no mocking in her eyes. “Heinrich Lange didn’t put his son in that hospital bed. Micah Trent did. And he’s got the money to hire lawyers bloodthirsty enough to take any distraction they can and open his cell door with it. You fucking know that.”

Simon does know it. He doesn’t drop Rona’s gaze, though. “Rona,” he says, almost desperate for her to understand. “Art knows that. But he didn’t ask me to keep Micah Trent out of his hospital room. He asked about his father.”

Rona shakes her head, though she looks a bit uncomfortable. “He knows we’ve got Trent in custody. He doesn’t need to tell us to keep him out.”

Simon sighs, runs his hand through his hair. He knows it’s more than that, but he doesn’t have any way to explain it to Rona other than to say he can feel it, and there’s no phrase Rona hates more than that one. “Fine,” he says, defeated, and tosses the file onto Rona’s lap. “I get it. One case at a time. You’re on door duty, though, if I’m not there.” He looks at her, makes her meet his eyes so she’ll know he’s deadly serious. “I don’t want Senator Lange within a mile of that hospital room. You didn’t hear him say it.”

Rona looks at him for a second, and then sighs and waves her hand. “Alright, alright, I hear you. I’ll keep an eye out.”

[elisaphoenix13]

To Lose Everything...(Ch.7 End)

**Chapter contains a few Far From Home spoilers**

Peter was barely gone on his trip for two days when Stephen suddenly started to feel uneasy. When he had told Wong about it, his friend just said that it was probably just some separation anxiety and that it would pass. It was a plausible reason so Stephen didn't think much else of it. This was the first time Peter would be away from them for more than just a night.

So he ignored his feelings of wrong and continued his duties with his phone close by. Peter would call him if something happened and he could be there in an instant. As the days passed though, the feeling got worse and worse. It was toward the end of his adopted son's trip that had Stephen on edge. This couldn't be separation anxiety. Could it? Peter would tell him if he needed help...right?

No, Stephen's mind told him, he couldn't even ask you if he could go on this trip in the first place.

"...are you listening?" Wong's voice filters through his frantic thoughts and he blinks up at him before rubbing his eyes.

"No. I'm sorry. I've been on edge lately." Stephen admits with a heavy sigh.

"Peter will be home tomorrow night."

That thought was what kept Stephen sane. Peter would be home soon, and he could go back to sleeping soundly once he was sure that the teen was safely in his room. Nightmares had been plaguing him so often lately that he had resorted to letting only his body rest at night. He astral projected when he should have been sleeping to avoid the bad dreams.

Of course then he got the text from Happy later that day.

The kid is in a bad place. He called me, I'm helping him out, but I figured I would let you know.

Stephen's self reassurance that Peter would ask him for help was proven wrong by that one text. He didn't go to his adoptive parent, but rather Happy. Peter was probably trying not to burden him again. The teen would undeniably come up with the excuse that Stephen was the Sorcerer Supreme and had more pressing responsibilities than to worry about a teenager. It was wrong though. Peter was his kid now, and he would drop everything to help him. That was probably the exact reason the teenager didn't call him.

So he trusted Happy to help Peter, and if things got too hairy, to call him. He didn't get anything of the sort though. There was no news of any trouble anywhere in Europe (only in Venice when Peter was supposed to be there, which probably set off his discomfort), and Stephen was getting ready for bed when he got one more text from Happy, telling him that Peter was okay and on the plane home. Stephen didn't sleep well that night either. He had tried of course, but he needed to see with his own eyes that his son was okay.

Wong had to wake him up so Stephen could portal to the airport and pick Peter up. He slept so poorly last night that his ten minutes of resting his eyes turned into an hour of sleep and he had to scramble out of bed and change into his street clothes before portaling to the airport. He stepped out into an empty corner and made his way out into the open and leaned against a wall with his arms folded as he waited for Peter to appear. Ten...fifteen minutes passed when the teen finally stepped into view and the first thing Stephen noticed was the boy's limp. It wasn't obvious to anyone but him since he had been looking for injuries, and the exhaustion in Peter's eyes only made Stephen's heart clench.

As soon as Peter saw him, the sorcerer moved from his spot on the wall to meet him halfway, and very quickly found himself with an armful of Peter. "It's alright. I've got you."

"...so tired Mum..." The teen mumbles into the doctor's chest.

"Okay. We'll get you home. Where are your things?"

"Blown up."

Stephen sighs and makes a mental note to ask the boy exactly what happened during his trip. "Alright. Just lean on me. Can you make it to that corner over there?"

Peter pulls away so Stephen can stand at his side and point to the people free corner and he nods, letting the sorcerer lead the way. As soon as they're out of prying eyes, Stephen opens a portal directly to Peter's room and they step through it and it closes behind them with a fizzle. The younger didn't waste any time in collapsing onto his bed, and barely managed to strip down to his boxers so Stephen could assess the damage. The bruises and cuts that littered Peter's body had Stephen's throat closing up because he had not been expecting it. There was no doubt that Peter's healing factor had already done quite a bit, and if Stephen had to base what his injuries must have looked like then on whay he saw now, he might have actually thrown up.

Dark purple bruises, burns, gashes...they were everywhere. He didn't fail to notice that Peter's breath hitched in pain every few seconds either. He had to have bruised or even broken ribs.

"What caused these?"

"Some psycho who got butt hurt about something Mister Stark did...drones...a train--"

Stephen inhales sharply. "A train?!"

"Don't get hit by a train. It hurts."

"Vishanti...Peter..." The doctor sighs. "Alright. I'll do what I can. We'll talk about this later."

"Can I sleep?" Peter asks tiredly and Stephen smiles softly as he pushes back brown hair.

"Yes. You can sleep. I apologize ahead of time if I hurt you."

Peter mumbled something along the lines of 'you couldn't hurt me' before he promptly fell asleep, but Stephen couldn't be sure. He spent the next couple of hours tending to the teens wounds, checking his leg to make sure it hadn't been broken and healed incorrectly,  and the last thing he checked were Peter's ribs. A few presses indicated cracked ribs but there wasn't much he could do for that. His healing factor would take care of it soon anyway. Stephen was able to use his magic to help alleviate some of the pain though, and the moment he did, Peter visibly relaxed into his mattress.

As soon as they was all said and done, Stephen felt his anxiety leave him in one giant woosh. Like he had exhaled and all of the anxiety he felt over the past couple of weeks went with it. Peter was home and he was safe. Definitely not unharmed but he was already on the mend.

"I see more purple than tan." Wong says as he comes in with a glass of water and an extra blanket. "I brought the blanket that helps when he has sensory overloads."

"That's actually perfect. I don't want to try and get him under the covers and risk hurting him more." Stephen takes the blanket and lays it over Peter as Wong sets the glass down on the nightstand beside Peter's bed. "He's going to wake up hungry soon."

Wong raises an eyebrow. "He looks dead to the world if you ask me."

Stephen snorts. "He has the right idea. I might just take a nap myself."

"You're getting old Strange." Wong says with a snicker and then hisses when Stephen smacks the back of his head.

Peter actually slept until dinner, and Stephen had made sure to make something that was easy to swallow so that he didn't irritate his ribs more than necessary. Stephen didn't ask him what happened, the three of them just ate in silence and Peter went back up to bed. He didn't stay there though. The teen had gotten up in the middle of the night and went into Stephen's room to get in bed next to him, and curled into the sorcerer's side before going back to sleep. Neither he nor Wong said anything. Peter was hurting and needed comfort.

They just didn't realize the extent of it until Stephen finally asked Peter what had happened in Europe. When the teen told him everything, he and Wong had actually scooted away in their chairs towards the end of the story because Stephen was furious. Not at Peter, but at Quentin Beck, and if he wasn't dead he would have actually killed him himself. Screw the pledge he took as a doctor.

They also had scooted away because his magic made his eyes glow again, and Peter had stared in awe and trepidation. Stephen was able to calm himself down though and told Peter he would feel better if he continued his therapy for a little while longer. The young Avenger didn't argue, in fact, he agreed. Peter only went into Stephen's room a couple more times when he had nightmares, and the sorcerer would only wake long enough to make sure he didn't need anything before going back to sleep. Those times, he usually woke up to Peter watching cartoons and eating cereal again. Most times Stephen would just roll over and go back to sleep for another hour, and others he would just stuff his face in a pillow and listen as he gave himself time to wake up.

His son's peace didn't last very long though. Not even two weeks after Peter returned from Europe, and he was out patrolling when Wong called him into the living room where he had the tv on.

"Stephen! You need to see this!"

The Sorcerer Supreme sighs and closes his book as he stand sand makes his way to the living room and he freezes at what he sees on the news. A video of Quentin Beck framing Spiderman for his murder, and it got worse. Beck had revealed his identity, so a picture had followed Peter's name.

"No...no...no. Shit." Stephen curses. "Where's Peter?"

"On patrol. Stephen...this is all over the city." Wong says.

The doctor digs his phone out of his pocket and calls Peter, sighing with relief when the teen answers almost immediately. "Peter-"

"It's all over the place Mom. There was a crowd by me when it came on and they started yelling so I had to hide--"

"Can you get home?"

"N-Not without being seen." Peter stammers out.

"Where are you?"

"At Mr. Delmar's. He's helping me and keeping the press away."

That was all Stephen needed to make a portal to Peter's location. He and the teen had gone there to eat once since Peter wouldn't shut up about the sandwiches, and Stephen ended up being a fan as well. Mr. Delmar was a good man, so it was no surprise he was helping Peter.

The teen steps through almost immediately, only pausing to thank the bodega owner (and bless that man for sending Peter off with some sandwiches for them and wishing him good luck), and Stephen quickly closes the portal before leading Peter to the couch and sitting down. The teen throws his mask onto the coffee table and rests his head in his hands until Stephen pulls him into a hug.

"Do I have to skip town?"

Stephen scoffs gently. "No. You're safe here."

"Peter...are you hurt?" Wong asks and the teen shakes his head.

"No. I don't think so."

Peter slowly pulls away and watches the news replay the video footage and his identity reveal over and over until Wong turns the tv off.

"What do we do?" He whispers.

"Look at me." Stephen demands softly and gently grabs his face when he does.

Peter was looking to him and Wong for help now. At the moment, they were his only allies besides Mr. Delmar, Ned, and MJ, but those three probably wouldn't be much help right now. There were also the remaining Avengers, Pepper, and Happy, but even if they said anything, people might only take it with a grain of salt right now. Peter fought beside them after all. That didn't matter right now though. Stephen and Wong were with him now.

"Whatever it takes."

[sleepyfan-blog]

Banding Together

Fandom: undertale au

discord request fill

Continue from this fic

characters and pariring: Nightmare, Dream, Venus (oc by @izzy-the-bizzy, Cross, Saturn (oc by @capisnotonfire), Horrortale!Sans, Killer!Sans, Dust!Sans. Dreammare, Angel’s Flower

warnings: severe injury, panic

word count: 2,117

tagslist: @anxiety-is-married-to-depression @angelofthehalfmoon @trainwreck-of-skeletons @hisame-amadashi​ @therandomskelekey @capisnotonfire

Nightmare snarled as Ink disappeared, lunging for the bastard who had badly injured his oldest child. He shook himself after a moment and teleported over to Cross "Heal Venus as much as you can. I'm going to find a trustworthy healer who can fully heal them. Ink just kidnapped Heliotrope and tried to kill Venus."

Killer, Dust, and Hatchet were all in the room as well - good. He wasn't going to say that again until he found Dream. Nightmare opened a portal to one of the AUs he knew that the other used as a base that he could get to and ran through.

~

Four timelines later, Nightmare found Dream in a very cute little cafe, holding drinks and bags of food, clearly about to head out. He barrelled through the small and crowded place, utterly ignoring the mortals around him - he needed to get to his mate, to explain what had happened. "I need you to come home. V-Venus is... They've been hurt badly. Ink nearly... He... He just tried to kill them and he kidnapped Heliotrope."

The slightly wary and unsure expression that had first appeared on Dream's face when he'd appeared abruptly vanished, replaced by shock and horror, the other's purchases tumbling from his slackened grip. Dream teleported over to Nightmare's side "I... He... W-What? Is someone trying to stabilize them right now, which is why you didn't bring them with you for me to heal, wherever you found... Found him?"  His eye lights were frightened pinpricks.

"Cross is healing them as we speak - but Cross is young and hasn't been trained how to heal properly, as no one in the castle has the capabilities for it... Will you come home with me, Starlight?"

"I... Of-Of course! I didn't know that I-Ink was thinking about d-doing something so drastic or I... I would have warned you..." Dream stuttered, hugging Nightmare close, tears threatening to fall from his eye sockets "Oh... Oh, stars. He knows that Saturn exists - I don't think that he knows that Sat is yours as well as mine but I... I want Sat home, too. He's going to want to support his big sibling, and they will recover better if our family is all together."

"I'll go get him while you heal Ven, which timeline is he in?" Nightmare responded, having already teleported the two of them out of the incredibly busy cafe and out to the sidewalk, walking with Dream so that the two of them were at the portal that he'd just created, in no mood to delay getting his oldest child treatment any more than was necessary.

"PP Outerswap 9076. He was staying at the Inn, working with Usagi and her sister to have something to do. He should be finishing up his shift soon if he hasn't already." Dream responded, half-way through the portal. "I... I'll help lock our home timeline so that this won't happen again. I... I'm sorry. I hadn't thought that Ink would do something like this."

"I know, love. I'm rather taken aback that he would do something so extreme - especially as Heliotrope is happy with Venus, and they are happy with him. Then again, from what you've told me, Ink has been very suspicious of Venus from the outset and hasn't taken the fact that his son has chosen his datemate over his family, because both of his fathers have been incredibly against the two of them dating after they realized that Venus was connected to me." Nightmare responded, grateful that Dream had agreed to ensure that none of the outcodes could enter Dreamtale. The two of them had figured out that they could do something like that, but only if both of them agreed on locking a timeline, and created the protective shielding together. The timeline itself would sustain the protection once it was up.

Dream nods, pressing a quick kiss to Nightmare's teeth "I... I'll do what I can to heal Ven. I love you, Moonstone." With that, the guardian of positivity runs through his long-time mate's portal, determined to help heal his oldest child.

~

He sprinted through the large room, kneeling next to where Venus had been carefully laid out - some of Ink's acidic paint had eaten away at the other's wings, and his hands lit up green, as he utterly ignored the startled and suspicious bad Sanses who were hovering worriedly around Ven. Cross was sputtering a little, though the much-younger skeletal monster was exhausted and his hands were glowing green faintly. "Hush all of you, I'm here to help," he instructs them as his magic weaves around Venus's form. "You've done very well stabilizing their injury, although if one of you could get some water, salt water preferably, to wash out Ink's paint from their wings, it will wash them clean and prevent the spread of the damage."

"Why the fuck are you here, and why should we do anything that you say?" Killer hissed, taking an aggressive step forward, starting to reach for him.

Dream sighed and rolled his eyes as he summoned his bubble shield, just in time too, as Dust had thrown several bone attacks at him, likely in an attempt to get him away from Venus "Who do you think Nightmare wanted to heal our child, especially as he knew that Cross doesn't have the magical inclination or strength in the area required to heal Venus up further... Although I don't know if I can heal them completely. Ink's attacks have a way of lingering, unfortunately."

"Wait... What? We know that Venus is Boss's kid... But they're yours, too?" Hatchet spluttered, all five of their auras rippling in surprise at the revelation.

"You do realize that it takes at least two beings to create new life, right? Unless one is trying to clone themself, and even then, without additional magic it can be... Tricky and dangerous to attempt to do so. I'm not surprised that he hasn't told you, though." Dream responded, rolling his eye lights as he continued to heal Venus, which was what he was mostly focused on.

Venus began to stir, their eye lights appearing and coming into focus. They reach up and lightly cup one of Dream's cheeks with a trembling hand, a hopeful smile on their face as they call out, voice trembling "P-Papa? Is that you?"

"Yes, I'm here, sweetheart. Stay still, you've been injured pretty badly. Dad came and got me, so I could fix you up. He's going to get Sat so that we're all in one place." Dream responded with a gentle smile. "You need to stay still, okay? I'll tell you when it's alright for you to move."

Venus pouts a little, but slowly lowers their arm back to the ground. "Oh.. Okay... I hurt lots, papa. Why did the mean paint blob have to hurt me?" There were tears in their eye lights as they asked: "I never did anything to him."

"... Ink can be very single-minded at times, and he's incredibly stubborn. I've been trying to get him to stop it, but he doesn't listen to me... Or anyone." Dream responded with a quiet sigh "I'll go make sure that Heelies is okay after you're healed up and feeling better." He hadn't thought that Ink would resort to murder... As the creative guardian was generally a pacifist, unless your name was Error, or you were trying to interfere with -

Ah. Venus had aided Nightmare in taking over numerous timelines... And perhaps worse yet, Ink had been increasingly convinced that Venus was somehow corrupting Heelies, turning him into a bloodthirsty minion of Nightmare's. This was far from the truth, but Dream couldn't counter-argue too much as he had no more proof than Ink did about whether or not Nightmare was trying to corrupt Heliotrope. Dream wasn't going to forgive Ink for nearly killing one of his children, however. Not when the other had so utterly miscalculated the entire situation and refused to see reason.

Nightmare and Saturn appeared just as Dream finished stabilizing and healing Venus as much as he could. The other's wounds had closed and Cross had ensured that the other would stop bleeding magic before Dream had gotten there in the first place. "Your feathers are going to need time to regrow, but apart from that, you should be fully healed." With the low positivity of this timeline, Dream was pretty much tapped out of magic.

"Ven! Papa!" Saturn cried out, sprinting over to his big sibling and his papa, desperately latching onto the both of them and trying very hard not to burst into tears. "D-Dad told me what happened... I think it's stupid that He would try to kill Ven because Heelies loves them. They love him so much, and... I-It's not right! Not for him to have hurt them like this because Heelies is rightfully mad at him for being so against the two of them dating."

Nightmare walks over to where his mate and children are, ever so carefully scooping them up, teleporting the four of them into his bedroom, and settling them down on his bed, with Venus laying down on all three of theirs' laps. "No, it's not right for Ink to have done this. But we can move forward together, and decide what to do, once Venus is fully healed, and we've all had time to calm down. For now... Staying together and resting is what all four of us need, I think."

Dream nods, his eye lights already fuzzing out as he relaxes into his beloved's touch. He jolts a little, startled when he hears a knock on the door.

"Come in, Cross." Nightmare calls out, a fond amusement in his voice.

"I... Err... Is there anything that I or the others can do to help?" Cross asks, fidgeting with his hands a little and doing his best to Be Professional. His pseudo younger sibling had very nearly been murdered today, and he wants to hug them close... But he's worried that would be intruding.

"Come here, you. You're their big brother, and they need you just as much as they need us." Dream calls out, a small smile appearing on his face as he gestures for Cross to come closer.

This causes the monochromatic skeleton to fluster a little and duck his head, glancing briefly at Nightmare before shuffling a little bit closer and then stopping. Unsure as to whether or not Dream's invitation was fully valid or not.

"Dream's right. Come here, Cross. You're part of this family." Nightmare responds as an affectionate smile spreads across his face, content to welcome the other in closer. Cross had done a great deal since coming to work for him - he'd helped bring Venus out of their shell, and he knew that Saturn interacted with Cross on occasion and adored the monochromatic skeleton as well.  Cross walked over to where the four of them were sitting, and took a spot next to Saturn, sitting down and looking at Venus, a worried frown on his face, his aura pulsing with worried emotions.

Saturn nodded, smiling a little bit at Cross as he does so "I wasn't expecting to get a big brother, but I'm glad to have one... Papa, are we going to be staying with Ven, Dad, and Cross now?"

Dream hesitates for a moment, exhausted and not wanting to make this decision when so very tired and in a vulnerable state emotionally - as seeing Venus that badly injured had been a terrible shock to the positive guardian... But a shiver of cold fear ran through him at the thought of what Ink might do if he found out that Saturn was Nightmare's child as well. "Yes... I want you to be safe, and... It's safe here... Even from people that papa thought were safe, but who he probably shouldn't have trusted as much as he did in the first place..."

Nightmare hummed softly, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of the other's head "You're a caring and loving person, Dream... And I admit that I did not... React well, when you were first freed from the stasis spell, so you grabbing Saturn and fleeing across the multiverse in search of safety made sense then. Besides... I suppose that Ink is trying to protect his child, though he's not doing a very good job of it, nor trying to truly understand what is going on between Ven and Heelies."

"Yeah... He's convinced that you're Evil... n' that Venus is by association." Dream responded with a sleepy yawn "I'm pretty sure he's most annoyed by your meddling, is all..." Despite himself, Dream drifted off to sleep, snuggled into his mate and children.

[sherlolo-land]

Okay, we’d like to go over some of our favorite parts of this post. Now, we’re not here to tell you that you absolutely have to hate Mary with every fiber of your being, because that’s an opinion for each person to decide on their own. We are just here to talk about why some of the reasoning in this particular post is laughable.

1. Right off the bat, it compares Johnlockers to the obnoxious boy in the scenario raising his voice at someone who disagrees. Lmao. We know what you guys think of Johnlockers. We don’t need to waste time proving that the hate against us is both hypocritical and blown out of proportion. For more info, simply search this blog. It’s just funny how ya’ll can never make any arguments against us without resorting to ad hominem attacks at least once. Or in this case, from the very beginning.

2. Mary’s “unforgivable sins.” The examples you give of us searching for any reasons to demonize her are…. not the best. You picked examples that made it easiest for you to say “See, look how reaching your arguments are!” You basically said we think she’s evil because she playfully teases Sherlock, tries to keep her family safe, and doesn’t reveal her identity right away. I think you know that there are much better examples to argue that Mary is not a good person, but you intentionally didn’t use them. You went for the smallest points in our argument instead and presented it like it was the core of it. To me, this shows that even you see the weakness in your own argument. And regarding Mary’s abandonment, John himself thought it was incredibly selfish of her to run off instead of working things out with him. His words, originally, not ours.

3. Mary’s smile. Now its my turn to call the argument reaching. I’d say, claiming Mary was smiling just so Magnussen wouldn’t have another pressure point on her is one interpretation you could use if you were desperately trying to make her actions in these scene less detestable. If you love Mary and want to think this to make yourself feel better about her, go right ahead. Make it your fanon. But claiming that it’s a cold, hard fact? Nope, nice try. There’s nothing in that scene to suggest that that smile was only for Magnussen. That’s your personal headcanon, and there is a difference between that and canon.

4. “A large number of people claim they hated Mary before His Last Vow…However, if she was disliked before she actually deserved that, what does it say about those fans?” It’s not a crime to dislike a character. Johnlockers are held to this ridiculous standard of not being allowed to speak a single negative word about any character (esp. a woman). Why aren’t other fans held to the same standard? Why is it okay for Sherl0llians (and sometimes Adl0ckers too) to vehemently and openly hate John with everything in their soul? They are never accused of hating someone for getting in the way of their ship or being biased in their opinions. On the flip side, how come no one is making this same argument about ppl who loved Mary? There are people who loved her right from the start, and throughout everything afterwards (the assassin reveal, the shooting, the lying, the abandonment, the belittling, the selfishness…), she remained a saint in their eyes. How is this different from someone disliking Mary from the start and holding onto that opinion no matter what?

5. “Nothing an antagonist can do to be redeemed, it seems. I don’t want to say a female antagonist, but I am thinking that (Irene Adler, for instance, is still described as a villain.)” *claps for you* Omg what an original argument to make against the big, bad misogynistic Johnlockers! I’ve never ever heard that one before! … Shucks, and here I was thinking I was reading a well-written, organized post that for once didn’t resort to calling Johnlockers sexist for no reason. And about Irene, she may not have necessarily been a villain, but she was an antagonist. She was a force working against Sherlock throughout ASiB. She worked for Moriarty. She was a adversary for him. Does that make her a horrible, evil person? No. But don’t act like it’s a crime to call her what she is. An antagonist. And chances are, if someone uses the word “villain” instead of antagonist or adversary, it’s probably just a word preference. It’s not that deep fam.

6. “It’s best, I believe, to look at the facts and try to be objective.” Okay, then let’s look at all her crimes and despicable acts that you left out of your earlier arguments. Wait… but that would tear apart the point you’re trying to make.

7. Before she shot him, she clearly warned him not to come closer and expressed her remorse. Aka: It’s okay to shoot your friend (who is offering to help you) in the chest just because they bet on you having a conscience and decided to take a step closer to you. And afterwards, it’s best to express your remorse by threatening to shoot them again when you think no one is looking.

8. “Sherlock clearly forgave her and they remained friends” See here’s the thing. We were never actually shown this. We were shown Sherlock escaping dying at her hands a second time, then John making up with her with that ominous, carefully worded, possibly double-edged “The problems of your future are my privilege.” Then Sherlock shot Cam to keep John and Mary safe (yes, John too). Then we got TAB, where Sherlock solved the mystery of a bride who shot people and envisioned John’s marriage going downhill. It was sublte, but throughout all that, there was always the very plausible possibility that there was something more going on. After all, it would’ve made a much better story than Mary trying to kill her supposed friend twice and John forgiving her, despite that decision going against all his previous character development. So yeah, it’s not a surprise (nor the viewer’s fault) for scratching their head when TST aired and Sherlock and Mary were suddenly besties. Something else to understand here re: s4: The question isn’t whether or not he forgave her. They made that pretty obvious. The question we simply have is why?? It’s not a crime to wonder about this instead of just accepting whatever the writers give us, especially when it has no consistency or sense behind it.

9. “She’s been criticised for her sass in HLV, after the shooting, when she dared not to grovel at John’s feet, begging for his forgiveness.” Ask yourself, does her little quip in HLV make you see her as a funny, quirky badass? Why? Genuinely ask yourself why. Why shouldn’t she ask his forgiveness for trying to murder his best friend in cold blood, and apologize like any semi-decent human being would have done? Why is it so “uwu cute and badass” that all she had to say about the situation were some snarky sarcastic comments? See, this is an example of Mary being able to do literally anything, and still be worshipped for it. She’s a woman and can therefore literally commit murder and its uwu so cute. I don't understand how saying “omg wow she tried to kill her friend and DARED to not apologize for it, you go girl!” is helping your argument that she’s really not so bad of a person. (It does, however, help the argument that she would have made an incredible, very interesting, and entertaining villain, so thanks for that).  

10. “Regardless of Mary’s actions and her motivations, she was bound to be hated, simply because she was in a relationship with John.” *claps again* Ohmygod wow you are so smart, I have never heard anyone say that before. Jesus, can ya’ll simply make your argument for once without resorting to calling us sexist? Or insulting our intelligence by implying that we can’t tell the difference between someone getting in the way of our ship and someone being a despicable person who should not be worshipped and praised? And it’s  funny cause i double some of ya’ll would love and stan her so much if she wasn't in a relationship with John. You guys just love being able to use that excuse. You love that she blocks Johnlock and you love her for existing to do just that. If she was just a random side character who shows up in S3, makes some snarky comments, becomes friends with them, and then tries to kill Sherlock, I doubt you guys would still feel the same about her.

11. “But when people demonise her and twist her every word to make her look like the evilest woman on earth, I have to disagree.” / “Mary is not as evil as some people think.” Listen, I agree. I don’t think every single thing she does is horrible. People can often be unfair when talking about her. Both in defending everything she does, and villainizing everything she does. I get it. But hating Mary or interpreting her as a villain is not a fucking crime. There are numerous reasons to support this reading, as you said yourself. I personally don’t see any redeeming qualities in her that make her a character worth forgiving or liking. If you want to argue that she’s not so bad of a person, go right ahead. But seriously, if you’re going to try to justify your reasoning for doing so, try to come up with some better reasons, because these are weak. As I said before, I don’t think every single thing she does is horrible. But I do think that, objectively, the bad about her far outbalances the good. Just try making a simple good/bad list of her traits and actions, weigh them fairly against each other, and tell me what conclusion you come up with. It’s really not a surprising thing (nor a crime) to dislike Mary or see her as a bad character. It’s common sense. At least that’s how I see it. But I’m just a stupid Johnlocker who is only interested in seeing dicks touch. What do I know

[rosebloodcat]

Revealed- Arthur p3

Arthur hated the cold. He hated the way it sapped his energy, hated how weak it left him, hated how sluggish it made his mind and body. He hated how easily it could drive him into hibernation against his will.

As a hatchling, as a child, he had been caught out in a snowstorm once. It had taught him just how easy it was for the cold to hurt him.

It had been a winter field trip at his grade school, something about winter safety that all kids should know. His parents hadn't liked the idea of sending him out into the cold (out where he was weakest), but the skills were important to know so they had allowed him to go with his classmates. With all the grown-ups watching them, it should have been okay. It should have been safe. They had been wrong.

The storm had caught them by surprise (the teachers, the coordinators, the officers keeping an eye on them), and had actually been caused by an ice elemental throwing a fit back in town. There had been no warning of it appearing at all.

One minute the skies were clear, the next; dark clouds, strong winds, and blankets of snow were pouring down on them.

He had remembered to do all the things the adult humans had told him to.

Either make or find shelter against the wind and the cold, keep your brightest garment out so people can see it and find you, blow your whistle to make sure someone will hear it over the wind, once you find a spot don't leave it, the whole nine yards. But he had needed one thing that wasn't handed out to children, a thermal blanket.

The storm had been a short one, but it had done enough.

Thankfully, the teacher who found him had known about the cryptid children in the school, and quickly realized that he had been sent into a temperature coma. The teacher was also an elemental, a fire one, and had wrapped him in heating and warmth recovering charms (they later taught him how to add more heat to the magic of his Talisman, to avoid such things in the future). They had known that the cold was dangerous for him, and they worked to help him recover from the damage. Worked to get Arthur to what would have been expected of a human child caught in such a brief storm and had done everything he was supposed to.

The other teachers had all praised him for following their instructions, as had his parents, but he knew it would have been very bad if the elemental teacher hadn't found him first. Knowing danger was an instinct, understanding only strengthened it.

He always did his best to avoid the cold because of that incident, because of how easily it could hurt him. Usually, he could talk Vivi out of cold weather cases, citing the temperature, the weather, or the distance to avoid going (most of those were pretty far away anyways, snow wasn't exactly common where they lived, so he usually had good arguments).

There were times when he lost those arguments, and that would result in him “over packing”.

He would pack electric blankets and space heaters in the van, he'd keep an extra thermal blanket with his own belongings, he would even keep a spare heating talisman hidden in the van (it was more  to raise the base temperature for his main heating spell, than a separate one), not to mention the tote bag full of hand and feet warmers he kept tucked under the back seat.

When his mind stirred, slowing pulling him from unconsciousness, and registered the weak, numb feeling that came from his entire body, he knew exactly what must have happened. He'd fallen into partial-hibernation, one that he was coming out of due to someone quickly raising his temperature again. (Just like that trip all those years ago.) He would feel sluggish and light headed for a while, but it was probably better than whatever state he could have been in.

He didn't open his eyes right away, simply letting the heat around him sink in and ease him into awareness. No need to make himself sick by forcing things.

Sound came first; the sound of hushed voices either arguing or talking to each other, of rustling paper like the pages of a book being turned, and the crackling of a fire. Smell came next; the smell of cooking food, the smell wood smoke, and his friends near by. Then came touch; he could feel the pressure under his tail that said part of it was on a raised surface with a small amount of give, then the feeling of soft, fluffy cloth wrapped around his skin and his scales. And the feel of a steady warmth coming from one side, helping raise his body heat once more.

He couldn't help the soft groan that escaped him when a dull, painful ache made itself known across his chest and back. He hadn't really expected it, had he been hurt before the cold got to him?

“Arty!”

It was all the warning he got before a warm body suddenly latched onto his slowly waking one, putting pressure on his aching chest and sending a small surge of pain through him. He let out a pained grunt, forcing his eyes open to see the offending person.

Blurry blue with a splash of pink filled his vision, and it took a moment for his eyes to clear enough to recognize who it was.

“Vivi?” He slurred, his words drawn and slow. “Wha' happened?”

She started talking, too quickly for him to keep up in his current state, but he'd managed to catch enough to get the gist of things. They's escaped from a monster, he'd gotten hurt by it, L had gone out and gotten him from the storm, he'd gone comatose and they'd brought his temperature back up. Also his talisman was gone.

Wait... What?

Arthur jolted, struggling to sit up despite his exhausted, one armed state. Gritting his teeth against spikes of pain that shot up across chest and back. He'd been laid out on the couch in the cabin's den, and wrapped in so many blankets he could barely move. Still, he could see it in the way the blankets lay across his lower body, he had a tail instead of legs.

Crap, he could only imagine what they had thought upon seeing it.

“Stop that.” A deep voice ordered. For a moment, Arthur's groggy mind thought the voice belonged to his missing friend Lewis, until a large, dark hand rested on his chest and pushed him back down. He looked up into the dark eye sockets of L, the glowing magenta of his irises staring back at the injured Naga laying on the couch. The look the ghost was giving him was firm and unwavering. “You're hurt right now, we don't need you making your injuries worse.”

He blinked slowly up at the ghost, still processing his words.

L actually sounded- worried? He thought the spirit hated him, he must've been in really bad shape to rattle him this badly. The ghost winced.

“I don't hate you, Arthur, I just- never mind. It's not important right now.” He said with a sigh.

Shoot, he'd said that out loud. He must've been more messed up than he thought. Vivi cleared her throat to get their attention.

She looked worried too, jeez, just what had happened to him?

“Arthur, what was that monster? I- I didn't recognize it, but it was pretty obvious that you did.” A monster he knew that she didn't? Well that was new. He scratched through his still-hazy memory, trying to grasp the image of the creature that injured him. It was-

He abruptly shuddered, a spike of fear running through him. Of all the monsters he knew about, why did it have to be that one? Why did it have to be a monster he could never stand against without his talisman? One with such a terrible reputation that he was honestly terrified of it.

He swallowed weakly, he had to tell them. He had to warn them.

“It- It's one of the monsters I remember my Mama warning be about. Tellin' me I should get away from them as fast as I could if I ever heard about one.” His voice was still slow and slightly slurred, but he knew he had their undivided attention. “The Wendigo. They- They're bad. Really bad. Everybody says to stay away from them. 'Cuz they come from really nasty stuff, really bad magics.” He shuddered again.

“They're demons that came from people goin' against their nature, made from people goin' crazy. Humans that got caught in snow storms an' got so desperate to live, to survive, that they started eating their own kind.”

Vivi looked horrified at the concept, of a cryptid that was made from people resorting to cannibalism to survive.

It was a horrible, outlandish idea for humans. Their lives were built on safety and community, on working to help each other overcome obstacles and difficulties. Cannibalism was considered a sick and twisted idea, a horrible concept that went against their very natures. Even L, the ghost of someone who had probably been murdered, looked like he was going to be sick (As much as a ghost could at least).

Arthur could understand why, Nagas weren't the most sympathetic creatures, but even they wouldn't resort to such a thing. The thought of someone willingly and intentionally going after their own kind? The idea horrified him.

He borrowed deeper into the blankets. He was still cold, still sluggish, but he couldn't let himself rest. He had to think back to what his mother had told him. Remember the things she'd said.

Vivi was the only (living) human in their group. She was the only one the Wendigo would target, she was the one at risk. He had to remember what they would need to do to protect her from it. A warm hand rested on his shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Don't force yourself Arthur, we're safe for now. It can't get inside.” L assured him. Arthur must have been thinking out loud again.

“No. There was something, something about the Wendigo bein' able to hurt people without getting close.” He muttered, brow furrowed in thought. His head ached a bit. Did he hit it at some point and not remember? “But I just can't remember how they did it...”

L tensed at that, but tried to give Arthur's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“We won't let that happen. It won't get anyone here.” He was honestly surprised by how sure the ghost sounded. It made him feel a little better, but only a bit.

He was still worried though.