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9worldstales · 3 years

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MCU Loki: Why I fear they failed to deliver what they promised

At this point I’m kind of confused by who the “Loki” series is trying to reach or which is the goal/message they’re trying to pass along.

They had tried to intrigue assorted audience but, if you ask me, the series has often failed to deliver what it seemed to promise.

Of course I might be wrong. Or maybe I'm not seeing another type of audience the series aimed and managed to reach.

When the series started I wanted to keep a positive mentality and hope whatever seemed not to work would be fixed along the way or have a reason for existing that I just wasn't seeing because I hadn't seen the full story yet.

However, after 5 episodes I'm starting to lose hope the series will make a genuine effort to reach the fans at whom it seemed to aim.

PART 1 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD FANS WHO PRODUCED META SHOWING HOW HIS TRAUMA DAMAGED HIM

"I think it's the struggle with identity, who you are, who you want to be. I'm really drawn to characters who are fighting for control. Certainly you see that with Loki over the first 10 years of movies, he's out of control at pivotal parts of his life, he was adopted and everything and that manifest itself through anger and spite towards his family." [Loki's Struggle With His Identity Confirmed To Be A Focus Of His Disney+ Series]

What was it about Loki as a character that attracted you? He’s just fun, for one. He has a very playful sense of humor about him. I like how he never quite lets you know what he’s thinking. Beyond that, what I connect to about him is the same thing the legions of fans do, which is his humanity and his vulnerability. This is a guy who—yes, on the one hand, he was the prince of Asgard, seems like a nice life—but his father, in fact, killed his actual birth father, adopted him, lied to him about his heritage and parentage his entire life, he was forced to live in the shadow of his oafish older brother who was born to be king. He’s experienced a lot of trauma, and I think that what he’s looking for is just a little bit of control over his life. Which he feels like maybe he’s never quite had. That’s something I think we can all relate with. [From Loki to Doctor Strange and Star Wars, Michael Waldron Is the New Franchise Whisperer]

Let’s be honest, the audience for the “Loki” series is not really meant to be Marvel movies old time fans who enjoyed “Thor” and “The Avengers”, made countless Meta analyzing Loki’s behaviour and who wanted answers about what happened to Loki prior to “The Avengers” or wanted to see Loki’s family terrible dynamics be discussed, or at least to see explored the wrong dynamics of Loki’s interracial adoption (he’s taken away from his planet, the truth is hidden from him, his look is changed to disguise him as an Asgardian, nothing is done against the racial hate for the Jotuns at which Loki is exposed, even witnessing it from his brother) or talk how much in control of himself Loki was during “The Avengers” (okay, the web said the sceptre manipulated Loki, but what about acknowledging that in his own series? It doesn’t have to come from Loki who had no idea he was manipulated but someone could mention ‘think yourself lucky here the stones don’t work, they’ve the nasty tendency to manipulate people’).

The series has avoided digging into all that as much as they could.

Even when Loki talks with Sylvie, the most we get is a small big about how Frigga was awesome in his eyes and taught him magic, but this isn’t meant to explain any of the issues Loki had with his family, it just make Sylvie feel bad because she can’t remember her adoptive mother, as for the D.B. Cooper born out of a bet with Thor, yeah, fun but completely random. What’s meant to be the message about family dynamics here, that it was the bets between Thor and Loki that caused Loki to decide to conquer Earth? Or what about the Sif loop? Is it there to push on Loki the blame of his poor relation with Sif?

No, clearly not.

In regard to Loki the Frigga flashback is there to remark he had a loving and supportive family while the other two are there to have Loki admit he is ‘a mischievous scamp’, ‘a horrible person’ and ‘a narcissist’.

To put it in Classic Loki’s words: ‘Damn it! Animals, animals! We lie and we cheat, we cut the throat of every person who trusts us, and for what? Power. Glorious power. Glorious purpose! We cannot change. We're broken, every version of us. Forever. And whenever one of us dares try to fix themselves, they're sent here to die.’

In short it’s all Loki’s fault if he does bad, nothing happened to him that could have messed him up, he’s just a horrible person… however…

PART 2 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD AND NEW FANS WHO BELIEVED LOKI TO BE A DANGEROUS, EVIL, PSYCHOPATH VILLAIN EITHER

"Loki is an a**, and that makes my life as a writer, easy." ... "Due to the trauma in Loki’s life, I would even [accept a story] in which he is committed to being all bad." [Michael Waldron on Loki: He’s an a**. That makes things easy]

Considering the series is trying to pin SOLELY on Loki his wrongdoing, completely skipping the toxic way in which he was raised you might think they want to paint him as an evil, psychopath who was just born bad.

But no, that’s not the intention, we see it from the start.

Loki is given a quick briefing on how his beloved family loved him despite him hurting them, a briefing that contains false information which would work if we accept the briefing as manipulative but, at this point I’m not so sure that was the author’s intent. The Doylist purpose of the briefing is clearly to show the audience how Loki cares for his family, how he still has feelings, feels pain at the idea Frigga and Odin died and wish to make up with his brother.

It’s not just they loved him and did nothing wrong toward him, it’s also he who loved them and didn’t mean to harm them. That’s why we’re fed that damn discourse about Loki sending the Dark Elves to kill Frigga, because the series wants to remark that no, Loki didn’t want to kill his family, he loved them.

Tom Hiddleston used to say what Loki is came from a place of pain but the series didn’t explore that place of pain… it just gave him more pain and not just in episode 1. Episode 2 has him discovering Asgard is destroyed, episode 3 has him remembering Frigga, episode 4 shows him believing Sylvie die and watching Mobius being pruned. He doesn’t cry in Ep 5, episode 5 wants us to truly feel bad for Sylvie, not for him, but there’s a lot of bitterness from Classic Loki who commits a heroic suicide so you might say we get a sad Loki anyway.

And this also works as a shock to make him change his mind about his ‘glorious purposes’. Sorta, with Thor reminding us he’s not so bad and Loki explaining his behaviour as “I don't enjoy hurting people. I... I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to. Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.”

Plot-wise, this is completely useless.

The show will prove Sylvie is not Loki and has completely different motivations and Mobius, being an expert in Variants, should know.

What’s more why would Mobius care if Loki enjoys hurting people or not?

His goal is to capture Sylvie with Loki’s help. The most he should care about is how to keep Loki loyal to him, not if Loki has fun hurting people or not which, in fact, is a knowledge that won’t be used in his investigation.

No, this is here for the viewers, to tell them Loki isn’t a sadistic, evil villain, he’s someone weak who tries to scare others so as not to look weak. As Mobius will put in ‘a scared little boy, shivering in the cold’ who has an ‘insecure need for validation’.

What’s more?

The show will try his hardest to establish he’s not even competent.

Let’s talk of him as a fighter.

In the movies Loki is a competent fighter and side material establish he’s pretty strong, definitely much more than a human.

In “The Avengers” we see Captain America needs Iron Man’s help to beat him and, anyway, Loki’s plan was to be captured. Loki manages to walk away on his feet when Coulson hits him with that superspecial weapon and it’ll take him to be Hulk smashed after a fight with Thor and a meeting with an explosive arrow of Hawkeye before he can’t fight any longer.

This doesn’t happen in the “Loki” series.

Loki gets beaten up by various people in 4 episodes, preferably women (B-15, the people possessed by Sylvie, the guards on the train, Sif). You might say in episode 5 he’s not but actually Classic Loki is the one who gets swallowed by Alioth and our Loki instead survives because he has Sylvie supporting him as, on his own he couldn’t even distract Alioth.

Let’s talk of him as a wizard.

He can use magic, impressive magic but… it serves him mostly nothing. In the TVA his magic doesn’t work. Outside of it is mostly useless. It doesn’t help win fights. The Tempad he caused to disappear gets broken. To beat Alioth they needs enchantment, not his own magic. What’s more, when they’ve to go on the train his disguise wouldn’t have worked without Sylvie’s enchantment and, if this wasn’t enough, he got drunk, removed the disguise and wasn’t even able to make tickets appear.

Classic Loki too, with his impressive illusions is ultimately a distraction. Alioth tears easily through his illusions which aren’t even solid.

Let’s talk of him as a planner.

All Loki will accomplish is to escape from the Time theatre for a brief period in episode 1 and figure out Sylvie hides in apocalypses in episode 2. The rest of his plans fails or are not plan or are mocked over and not even put into practice.

Let’s talk about him as a manipulator with a silver tongue.

He can’t even persuade Mobius when he’s telling him the truth, Mobius dismisses it as a lie due to ‘cockroach's survival mechanism’.

And psychologically?

He’s just someone who crave attention because he’s a narcissist scared of being alone. Not a psychopath.

Loki is not meant to be a dangerous, evil, psychopath villain in this series, he’s a not serious man, a clown, a scared little boy in need of attention, a narcissist who needs to be loved.

Welcome to cartoon villain Loki, this Loki isn’t the Variant of “The Avengers” Loki, he’s the Variant of “Avengers Assemble”Loki… only he’s even less competent than him.

PART 3 – “LOKI” IS NOT EVEN HERE FOR GENERAL MARVEL MOVIE FANS

"That's a lot of Infinity Stones. That's true but they are useless there in the TVA, so I don't know. Is that gun loaded or not? We'll see..." [Loki Writer Comments On Whether TVA’s Infinity Stones Will Return In MCU]

“We had to create an insane institutional knowledge of how time travel would work within the TVA so the audience never has to think about it again. It was a lot of drawings of squiggly timelines.” Marvel already made its case for how time travel works in Avengers: Endgame, but that, Waldron points out, “is the way the Avengers understand it.” With a TV show it’s a little different. “I was always very acutely aware of the fact that there’s a week between each of our episodes and these fans are going to do exactly what I would do, which is pick this apart. We wanted to create a time-travel logic that was so airtight it could sustain over six hours. There’s some time-travel sci-fi concepts here that I’m eager for my Rick and Morty colleagues to see.” [How the Man Behind LokiIs Shaping Marvel’s Phase 4 and Beyond]

BC: The TVA is there to clean everybody up? MW: Yeah, Avengers: Endgame… that's how The Avengers understand time travel. 'Loki,' episode one, is how the TVA explains time travel to Loki and we're certainly building on what's come before us. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

It’s true “Loki” is focusing on a new corner of the MCU but it interconnects very poorly with the movies before it.

Although Loki escaped with the Tesseract... it just dismisses completely the Infinity Stones.

Despite talking a lot about timelines and creating branching realities it waved away the whole plot of "Avengers: Endgame" as apparently supposed to happen even though it should have created branching realities.

We see Renslayer wave away how the Avengers went in the past causing the Tesseract to end up in Loki’s hands... and all the other things the Avengers did that affected the past goes unmentioned.

Bruce meeting the Ancient, Thor meeting his mother and taking away Thor’s hammer, Rocket being seen as he steals the reality stone from Jane, Tony stealing a suitcase and damaging the place in which the Tesseract was kept then meeting Howard Stark, 4 flacons of Pyn particles missing, an alarm given to the military bases, how Steve managed to bring back the sceptre if that timeline was pruned, how a timeline handled being without Thanos and Co as they went in the future or how they clearly didn’t bring the orb back the second they took it as Nebula remained unconscious there and nobody came and when she woke up Thanos could get her. It didn’t even explain why Steve remaining with Peggy didn’t change anything.

It's not that the audience has all explained... it's that they were told to dismiss it as 'meant to happen' and that was it.

What's more, the TVA apparently didn't list a finger to stop 2014 Thanos from going in the future and causing Tony Stark's death.

As if this wasn't enough, “Loki” just skips any possible connection with the movies, even hands Loki false information about them (he lead the Dark Elves to his mother when Loki had no idea the Kurse was a Dark Elf and they would have found her anyway as they were searching for the Aether which Malekith could sense, he’s born solely to cause pain and suffering and death, overlooks how he saved Jane twice or helped the Asgardian escape Hela) and never discusses them again.

Even with Classic Loki, who’s a Variant of “Avengers: Infinity War” Loki, they don’t talk about what happened after Loki’s supposed dead, apparently hinting it was better if he died, nor explain how Loki knew Thor survived.

PART 4 – “LOKI” IS NOT REALLY OFFERING A GOOD REPRESENTATION FOR FEMALES EVEN THOUGH IT CLEARLY AIMS AT FEMALE AUDIENCE

Let’s make a quick experiment.

Everyone, let’s name all the characters we remember which appeared in more than 1 episode of “Loki” for more than one minute.

We’ve, of course, Loki, Mobius, B-15, Renslayer, Sylvie, C-20 and Miss Minute.

5 females versus 2 males.

What’s more, females are not sexualized, they remains completely dressed, they’re clearly not there to attract male gazes, they’re represented as strong, dangerous, in control, something archived often by showing them beating males either physically or intellectually or in rank.

It seems promising. At first.

Is there someone who’s sexualized?

The “Loki” series takes care to offer us Tom Hiddleston naked.

So since there’s an abundance of females in the cast and Tom Hiddleston is shown naked is it aiming at a female audience?

Very, very likely but… but how’s then handled all this?

When Loki is seen undressed he’s not in a situation of power, like Thor who’s twice shows half naked in his movies but because he’s changing/washing and perfectly comfortable in showing his body and once in a situation which could be a male forbidden fantasy, to have many women massage your naked body, no, he’s shown as he’s powerless while being stripped by a machine. Clearly not a male power fantasy, more like a male nightmare.

And, in a totally not surprising way, pictures of this scene were spread by many female fans because it was aimed at them… though a part of them, was also honestly appalled at seeing this scene in contest, finding the forced stripping humiliating and degrading.

Sure, a naked Tom Hiddleston makes a nice eye-candy but this wasn’t how Loki’s many fans wanted to see Loki naked.

But let’s talk of female representation here, since the show seems to be interested in female audience… only who even though this was the representation women wanted doesn’t understand much of women representation in the first place.

Why?

For start because women here are all the same type of woman.

Strong fighters who’re in control and confident, with no real characterization beyond this to speak of despite the large amount of screen time.

Renslayer is an ex-hunter who can fight one on one against Sylvie and who clearly has the position of power she has because she was good as a hunter and shows her abilities in fighting after that Sylvie had beaten 2 guards at the same time. B-15 is introduced by beating Loki and is the commander of a squad. C-20 is another commander and, albeit possessed, can dispose of a part of her squad members.

Do I need to spend words on how Sylvie is depicted as this awesome fighter who has learnt to fight by herself, can keep at bay more than 1 Minuteman, can use a sword, has learnt enchantment on her own and is feared by all the TVA? Do I?

And it’s awesome to have women who are strong fighters in positions of command/power/control… but why women has to be represented as just that?

Even when they add a female as an one episode cameo, it's Sif, beating the hell out of Loki. And what about the Lady in Lamentis 1 who was too old to be strong but managed to blast away both Loki and Sylvie seeing through their deceptions?

Even the harmless Miss Minute can avoid being hit by Loki and gets she has to pretend to do researches to stall Sylvie and save Renslayer.

Women kick asses here… but that’s all they’re good for.

And so we get to Sylvie, who is the superior Loki Variant… because she’s female.

Kid Loki: You're different. Why? Loki: No, I'm not, you see? I'm the same, really. I'm the same as all of you. Have any of you met a woman Variant of us? Classic Loki: Sounds terrifying. Loki: Oh, she is. But that's kind of what's great about her. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down. And she needs me. Now, you said Alioth is what keeps us here. You said it's a living thing. You said it's a shark. Well, if it lives, it dies. So I'm gonna kill the shark. I'm gonna kill Alioth, and I could use all the help I can get.

That’s what Loki preaches to his fellow Lokis who think a woman Loki would be terrific.

I mean, they’ve an alligator Loki, a POC Loki, but the one who has to be different is the female Loki. Because being female is a character trait.

Mobius: Okay. I feel like I'm always looking up to you. I like it. It's appropriate. [Ep 1]

Basically females in the “Loki” series are all representation of the Action girl trope and aren’t even different representation of said trope. I mean, “The Avengers” have 5 actions boy who’re clearly as different as they could be. Girls can be represented as different too, if they really aim at young audience they can take good old “Sailor Moon” as an example. 5 action girls who are strong and determinate AND DIFFERENT, more than just someone who kicks the adversary away.

And it’s not like they don’t know how to characterize people in a different way.

Mobius is an analyst who shows sympathetic traits toward the Variants and a certain level or intelligence. U-92 and D-90 are hunters who are shown to held Variants in little regard (U-92 wanted to attack the boy they found in the church, D-90 mistreated the scared people in the shelter). Casey is an harmless and naïve guy who had never seen a fish. The guy who made Loki sign the papers about what he said seemed emotionless but he clearly loved cats as not only he had one but on his cup there was also the image of a cat. Martin is clearly a bossy daddy’s son, who think too high of himself to the point he can’t respect rules. The boy in the church, despite thinking Sylvie was a demon, accepted and ate food she gave him and remained in the place despite the crime. He’s clearly more brave than he looked like but he’s also naïve as he easily trusted ‘the demon’ and Mobius.

What’s C-20 character trait when she gets described by Sylvie?

Sylvie: Yeah. She was just a regular person on Earth. Loki: A regular person? Sylvie: Loved margaritas.

She’s a regular person who loves margaritas. Liking a drink is not a character trait!

There’s a more diverse female representation in “Thor” than in “Loki”.

In “Thor” we’ve Frigga, queen of Asgard, loving mother and wife who’s powerless to erase Thor’s banishment. We’ve Sif, a dangerous and loyal warrior. We’ve Jane, the amazing scientist with a lot of enthusiasm. We’ve Darcy, who’s funny and who seems focused mostly on herself but who, when the city is attacked, worried to save all the animals at the pet store.

But maybe the one who gets the worst treatment is the supposed heroine, Sylvie, because the poor girl is turned into a Mary Sue.

In case someone isn’t familiar with the term:

“The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series.” [tvtropes.org]

So let’s see how she fits this checklist:

1) She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour: Sylvie painted her hair blonde even though the Lokis are supposed to be black haired

2) has a similarly cool and exotic name: She is the only Loki Variant who has changed her name from Loki to Sylvie.

3) She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting: Awesome at fighting she can enchant people, an ability the Lokis don’t posses, that she magically learnt on her own and that is necessary in the story. Also she figured out how a Tempad worked BEFOREseeing it in action.

4) She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing: No flaws, all her plans involve fighting and brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile, which could be a flaw… if it wasn’t for the fact that the series will prove Sylvie can plan just fine without using fighting and brute strength and also be successful at it.

5) She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story: She was taken by the TVA when she was younger than Kid Loki but managed to escape them and had to live alone and on the run till then.

6) The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting: Loki, who has never loved anyone, falls for her, Mobius saves her and apologizes to her, B-15, who used to look down at Variants, basically asks her what should they do and is shown admiring her, the Lokis don’t criticize her plan, Classic Loki dies to save her, everyone views her as the superior Loki Variant.

7) if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal: Renslayer, the hunter who has arrested her, is currently playing the part of the antagonist who’s fascist and believes in a murderous, lying cult.

8) She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc.: She’s the Variant and love interest of the titular character.

9) Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series: Loki, the title character, has conveniently been turned into someone who’s a weak fighter and incapable of planning which Sylvie has to save by enchanting guards or giving him her sword or pruning herself or teaching him how to enchant and coming up with all the plans.

Now all she needs in order to be a perfect Mary Sue is to know how to sing well as Mary Sue usually do this as well, though I’m sure she can do it because Loki could so she surely can.

Sylvie is amazing, Loki himself said so:

Loki: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don't die. We survive. I mean, you did. You were just a child when the TVA took you, but you nearly took down the organization that claims to govern the order of time. You did it on your own. You ran rings around them. You're amazing!

There’s nothing inherently wrong in having a new female character who’s competent, for whom the hero falls and who changes him… if all this is built around a solid plot.

Think at “Iron Man”.

Tony Stark is, to quote Tony Stark himself a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist”.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? But the movie shows us why he’s that.

It spends time setting up his pedigree, how he inherited the money and intelligence from his father, how he was supported as he grew and studied becoming always a greater genius. Tony shows himself to be charming before seducing his first woman onscreen so that when he does it makes sense. His philanthropic activities are, at first, just mentioned but seems rooted in how his father was a hero who helped fighting Nazi and then they became his mission. He felt guilty he was a merchant of death and tried to make up for it.

Sylvie too could have a solid plot behind herself.

Instead than magically knowing what a TemPad does and how it works and managing to escape with it, she could have escaped with, let’s say, a hunter that discovered the truth and decided to rebel to the TVA or just had pity of her. Maybe another Mobius Variant who used to work at the TVA prior to Mobius and that, instead than an analyst was a hunter. She might have learnt fighting from him and then he too died and she was left alone.

Enchantment might have been an ability she might have learnt coming in contact with a mind stone. It could have been an occasion also to talk how mind stones can influence people negatively. Or it could have been taught to her by Frigga who, with a female daughter, decided to teach her a different type of magic than Loki.

Her past could have been explored more instead than being tragic for the sake of tragic. We might have seen her fall in love and either be betrayed or have to say goodbye to her loved one because that reality got pruned. We might have seen her being interested in males and females alike as she’s supposed to be interested in both.

She could have had discussions with Loki that weren’t just about Frigga or about how the TVA kidnapped her from Asgard, she escaped and from that point on she was always on the run, or about how love didn’t feel real, but more about how they were, how they felt, what hurt them and what made them happy, what they liked and what they disliked, their ideals and their fears, things that can built up a relation.

Loki basically fall for her because she’s on a mission for revenge instead than power and seems confident. That’s his reasoning.

She falls for Loki… because apparently he’s the person who spend time with her who praised her. That’s not a solid love story, that’s desperation.

SYlvie could have flaws, she could have learnt diplomacy or persuasion from Loki or could have something she lacks and Loki has so that they would complete each other.

And since the purpose was to have Sylvie and Loki fall for each other… they could have let Loki have characteristics that can motivate the exceptional heroine to fall in love for him PRIOR to him falling in love for her. He might be shown good at something, instead than just a clown.

Even if we say the real purpose of this series was to turn Sylvie into the protagonist, the heroine, a good Loki character was still needed to explain why this awesome girl would fall for him.

So okay, there will surely still be women who can see themselves in Sylvie and imagine they got Loki… and it’s not bad really… but I think we deserved more.

Long story short, yes, “Loki” has many females in its cast and this is meant to draw the female audience… but the representation is poor as almost all of the females have no character traits and Sylvie is just a Mary Sue with no realistic characterization.

A good female representation is diverse and solid. Women don't need to be born irrealistically perfect out of nothing to be good, they can inherith and grow and learn to be as such like any human being.

Last but not least…

PART 5 – DOES “LOKI” REALLY OFFERS REPRESENTATION TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY?

BC: There is a lot of talk on social media about Loki being gender fluid. Wouldn't that actually be a natural fit for the character? MW: Yeah, I guess as, with all questions pertaining to that stuff, I think those answers, truly, are best experienced in the watching of the show, as opposed to me trying to answer them. Because it's just watching it and the way that's addressed and everything will just be more fulfilling. BC: Why do you think it's important that Loki is gender fluid? MW: I think that Loki is a character that a lot of fans see representation in. People that haven't felt represented before, and they see themselves in Loki and everything. So we want to do justice to the character, to who the character is in the comics and in Norse mythology as well. And you also … you know you want folks to feel represented, and everything. That's why it's important. It always has been. It comes from everybody on the creative team. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

The series hugely spread the info that this Loki would be fluid and Bisexual. The news were welcomed with delight and it’s awesome how the series didn’t hesitate to put it on paper.

Loki being fluid was written for everyone to see, and Loki having male and female interests was spelled out for everyone to hear.

IT’S A GREAT THING!

However…

It’s all we got.

It had no relevance into the plot whatsoever, it’s just a random info we’re given.

Him being fluid was on a paper along with his other data like eye colour and birth planet.

Him being interested in males and females seems to be put there just to imply he tried a large amount of people before deciding love didn’t feel real.

Assuming the other Lokis too were fluid, they actually found terrific the idea of a woman Loki in a not positive way. They weren’t interested or asking for clarifications about what Loki meant.

Loki’s bisexuality doesn’t even get a side story, them sending Fandral to beat Loki instead than Sif because Loki cheated on him or something. I’m not upset Loki ended up with a female, this is one of the possibilities of a Bisexual person. I’m upset that this was used merely to attract the audience but then wasn’t explored. They could have said Asgard was open minded with it, or disapproved it so Loki had to keep it hidden, or it could have been Sylvie who discussed some experience in that regard.

We were told over and over it was a show about identity. We expected it to be explored instead we were just told ‘ah, by the way, Loki is bisexual, let’s move on.’ And that was all.

Having representation from an important Marvel character is always important, especially considering the shortage of representation. But honestly I expected more.

PART 7 – TO SUM IT UP

Many of the people who worked in “Loki” are fantastic actors. They worked hard for this series, I can see they tried their best.

The premises for the “Loki” series are interesting.

We get a Loki who hadn’t experienced most of what happened in the movies yet, we make him confront with someone who knows his life, the one he lived and the one he was meant to live and we also make him confront with Variations of himself.

Loki has the Tesseract and the TVA has plenty of infinity stones, we could explore them.

The TVA itself have a fascist organization that dictates people’s lives and murders whoever tries to do differently, that goes so far as to brainwash the people working in it, which mistreats and belittle the Variants and establish a manipulative cult around the Time-Keeper with elements of police brutality which could be very actual.

Time travelling was the plot of "Avengers: Endgame" they could have tied the movie to the series, esplore the why some time travels were allowed and some weren't or their effects.

There were references to plenty of awesome comics they could take inspiration from.

But unless it redeems itself with the last episode… well, so far it’s failing to deliver what it promised due to a really poor plot which doesn’t give the characters a chance to be themselves or to be characterized as they’ve no real story nor real differences to speak of.

They’re given more time than a movie as they’re a series… but that’s no good excuse for wasting said time.

I’m still hoping the last episode will be spectacular, that it’ll manage to erase the messes of the other 5… but, as of now I’m disappointed.

I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they’ll surprise me.

#mcu loki #loki #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #9 worlds study

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fortune-fool02 · 4 years

Text

Symbiotic Friends

Joseph Joestar x Symbiote reader

Requested by: anonymous

Could we get more symbiote au pls? I love that Au idea very much! And for a character, could you do Joseph pls? 😳

Symbiote AU

I’m really glad people enjoyed that AU so much! Thank you for the kind words.

This is a little long. Please enjoy.

Humans were often intrigued yet fearful of something that they didn’t understand. Something foreign to their knowledge that their minds couldn’t determine was harmless or a threat. For some, it would spark fear to stay away from whatever it was or attempt to remove it entirely. For others, it could be seen as a remarkable discovery, something new for humans to control and dominate.

That was what Rudol Von Strohiem saw when his soldiers discovered the strange organism that had emerged from the meteor that had crashed from the sky. They contained it in a thick glass unit and had it shipped off to their nearest facility for examination, along with the living statue they had found in a concealed tomb and the unconscious but wounded Speedwagon.

Whatever this thing was, it was something that latched onto Strohiem’s curiosity as much as the Pillarman did. A new species of life and he was having the honour of possibly discovering such a thing. Though, every living creature they sent into its container in hopes it would bond with it was denied and killed, resulting in failure after failure. They needed the right one, the right host. Each human sent in was rejected. Still, he continued such experiments, determined to find the right host.

As the experiments continued, the Germans were oblivious to the impostor who had stolen a uniform and had slipped his way into their facility, searching for his uncle. Joseph had no intentions to cause any situations, he wanted to get his uncle and leave, that was all. Though, Fate seemed to have other plans as an array of events led up to a moment that was yet to play out. Such as a scientist stumbling about the halls almost tiredly, his head hanging low as he left the symbiote containment unit. The container empty.

Everyone had gathered around the glass, observing the development of the Pillarman and hoping that they would make some form of progress in finding where the damn thing had gone. Somehow, after it had awoken, he had escaped his chamber. Speedwagon, restrained to a wheelchair in a full body straight-jacket of sorts, was forced to witness all this. Cold fear nipped and brushed him at all of this. Another soldier slipped into the room, as did the sickly looking scientist. There. That one soldier. Something about him appealed to the creature, he was the right one. The perfect host.

As the soldier went over to the prisoner, the scientist seemed to lunge at him, catching everyone’s attention as well as shock of how such a feeble looking man could lift someone twice his size and weight up into the air. The soldier’s hat was knocked down, revealing his face to them. Unrecognisable to the soldiers but immediately to Speedwagon as his heart sunk at the sight of his nephew here.

“Geez, how the Hell are you so bloody strong?!” Joseph shouted, attempting to wriggle his way out of the scientist’s grip. Along the man’s hands, an oily black substance materialised and slithered along from his hands to Joseph’s face.

“Joseph!” Panic laced Speedwagon’s words as he saw this, the shock painting the soldiers’ faces as they stared at this. How did the symbiote get out without an alarm being raised?! The black substance, rather than fading into his skin, seemed to mould around Joseph’s body, much to the shock laced amazement to Strohiem.

“It....it’s accepted him....He’s the right one...”

The scientist dropped to the floor, a lifeless corpse, as the symbiote consumed Joseph’s form despite his frantic attempts to get the substance off him. Its build grew more thanks to the chosen host’s physical body, covering him like a suit until there was no visible sight of Joseph left. His fearful expression consumed by the large, white slates for eyes that held a hunger in them despite the lack of pupils or irises. Its jaws opened almost impossibly wide for anything human, lined with needle teeth fit for a monstrous predator as the tongue swayed lightly, similar to a snake would but not exact.

“JOSEPH! NO!” Speedwagon’s fearful, pained cries bounced off the walls around them, horrified by what had happened to his nephew. The soldiers raised their guns, fear coursing through them at the sight of this monster and waited for their Major to give the command. One, though, shot before the command was given, earning the creature’s attention as it roared and grabbed hold of him, swinging his body into the wall and floor with incredible strength and speed, shattering bones before tossing the body away.

“Now, which one of you were stupid enough to leave me in that container?” The deep, rumbling voice made everyone stand on edge more, Strohiem -trying to conceal his unease- stared at the creature.

“That was me, Major Rudel Von Strohiem.” The symbiote towered over him, a low rumbling erupting from it as it grinned at him.

“You’re certainly a stupid human, toying with things beyond your comprehension.” The thing spoke, showing incredible intelligence and understanding of human speech despite being in their presence for such a limited time.

“And I wish to change that. We wish to learn from you, of you. What you are and what you’re capable of.” Another series of rumbles were made, this time, as if it was chuckling at Strohiem’s answer.

“Like Hell.” It growled before turning away and going towards the doors leading outside. Another soldier shot at the creature before before the bullet even touched its hulking form, the symbiote turned sharply, jaws open wide and latched onto the man’s head; teeth piercing through the flesh, bone and all else, ripping his head from his body and in one or two bites, swallowing it. A handful of horrified cries came from the soldiers before the thing grabbed hold of Speedwagon and broke through the doors of the facility, escaping the place with surprising ease.

After getting away from the facility and someplace more secluded and safer, the symbiote recoiled, reverting back into Joseph and allowing the young Joestar to be seen again, unharmed and himself.

“Oh my God!” Joseph cried out, shock carved into his face at what had just occurred. “I bit that guy’s head off!” Everything that had happened, he had seen and heard. He was thankful that the thing-

“I am not ‘Thing’. I am [Name]!” Joseph jumped at the sudden voice, eyes darting around to find the source of it, his Hamon sparking.

“Wait, you’re that stuff? That black mouldy stuff that guy passed to me?” He questioned aloud, unsure of how to actually speak to it, as well as trying to handle the fact he is infected by something that had just bitten a man’s head off.

“Yes, I am. A symbiote, as what your kind call me. That scientist wasn’t suitable but he served me well enough to find another, better host. And you had happened to have been there, Joseph.” It spoke, the voice sounding around him yet only he heard it as Speedwagon seemed oblivious to the voice.

“Alright....so why’d you pick me? And what do you want?”

“Simple. I chose you because you’re strong and young, a good host for me. And compatible. I am very picky with mine.” [Name] answered, “And I want to survive. Your planet’s atmosphere is absolutely disgusting. All this oxygen and all, bleh!” There was something almost relaxed about how it was talking to him, almost like how one would speak to a friend. Joseph took some steps away from his uncle, rubbing his head as he tried to focus and think things through.

“How about this: I help you and you help me, Joseph?” [Name] suggested, that relaxed tone remaining as it spoke. “You’re a good match for me and if you help me then I’ll have your back.”

“And by ‘helping you’, you mean....?”

“Food. Keep me fed and I’ll help you.” At first, that didn’t sound too bad but it was the concept of food that concerned Joseph.

“Does that mean I have to become a cannibal?” A flash of concern painted Speedwagon’s face at the one side conversation he was hearing.

“No. Not really.” That answer did offer some relief to this situation. Joseph sighed softly and ran a hand through his hair.

“Alright, [Name]. But I have a question.” He said, “....My bike I used to get here is back at the base, how the Hell are we going to get anywhere on foot in this heat?” He asked as he looked around to see a road and desert with literally nothing else.

“Oh, that’s easy.” He could hear the grin in [Name]’s voice as it spoke. This is going to be....different.

#joseph #joseph joestar #jojo bizarre adventure #joseph joestar x reader #jojo bizzare adventure x reader #jojo #jojo x reader #jjba #jojo part 2 #jojo battle tendency #battle tendency #battle tendency x reader #symbiote reader #symbiote au

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anime-alyssa · 5 years

Text

secret desires. (mando x reader)

You and the Mandalorian were temporary partners, nothing more, nothing less. The two of you are trying to find work at a cantia when you get hit on by another bounty hunter and your Mandalorian reacts differently than you expected afterwards.

Takes place after the events of Chapter 5.

IT FUCKIN TOOK ME LONG ENOUGH TO WRITE THIS, EY? SMUT BELOW THE CUT. for des bc its her birthday. happy birthday hoe here’s some mando porn.

also on ao3.

You collapsed against the co-pilot’s chair, The Child in your lap cooing and looking up at you curiously. He was wide awake despite it being the middle of the night, making you grunt softly. You had grown to love the little green creature, protecting it with your life and taking care of it like your own. The Child’s eyes darted over to your partner, putting himself into the pilot’s seat and preparing the Razorcrest for take off.

The Mandalorian was a man of few words, you learned. He didn’t speak very often. You had wandered into him while searching for the very bounty you held in your lap and had offered to split the profit after bringing him in, then to help rescue the Child and find it a safe place to grow up. Unfortunately it was still being tracked and the two of you had been on the run ever since, making your temporary partnership a lot longer than either of you anticipated.

You didn’t mind his company, really. He was quiet and you sure could get used to a Mandalorian always being around you. You were intrigued by him - you wanted to see what was under all that armor. Of course, you know it’s not the way for them to take it off, especially the helmet, so you could really only dream right now. You liked to imagine him built, since the armor was hulking. Built but fit. You didn’t have these feelings until recently for him - sexual feelings and attraction. You didn’t know you could be attracted to someone in which you had no idea what they looked like, but here you were.

You were dying to get back to your bunk and just tuck in and touch yourself after what happened earlier today. You two were at a cantina on Tattooine trying to find work and a rookie bounty hunter, who later the Mandalorian killed himself, started hitting on you. At first it was mindless flirting, but then it escalated very quickly.

“What’s a pretty girl like you doing as a bounty hunter?” the rookie asked you. You rolled your eyes at him, looking him dead in the face. You would sleep with him if you had more shots of tequila or something, but at the moment you wanted to kick his teeth in. Unbeknownst to you, the Mandalorian tensed up besides you listening to the way he spoke to you.

“Same as you. Trying to make a living, earn money. You know, surviving.” you replied back to him.

“I can think of a few other things a pretty girl like you could do instead of this…”

“That’s enough. Do you want our help or not?” Mando asked him, shoving him back and you behind him.

You hadn’t been able to get the scene out of your mind since. The way he pushed him back, pushed you behind him…. dare you say he was jealous? You couldn’t know, there was no way for you to know. For all you know he was just being a decent person and taking you out of a situation you were clearly uncomfortable with.

But you secretly hoped he was jealous. And the thought of that made your cunt clench in between your legs, along with the thought of how hot it was that he intervened. The second you were in lightspeed you were out to your bunk, leaving the Child with him.

The Child was now asleep in your arms, so you put it into its cradle and shut the lid, encasing it in darkness so that it would stay asleep. You swiveled in your seat a little, feeling your frustration grow in between your legs. This wasn’t the first time you had touched yourself fantasizing about the Mandalorian. It’s been happening more often than it used to and in all honesty, you didn’t mind it. You had constant fantasy of taking his cock in your mouth and him inside of you… it was nothing but a fantasy unfortunately.

You didn’t have the guts to make any moves on him and you fairly assumed that he didn’t give a shit about you, given that originally he didn’t even want you on his ship anyway. The only reason why you were on the ship with him was because the Child liked you and the bonus was that you could fight pretty well. So he kept you around, but always made comments that the second he found a way to get the bounty off the kid and himself you had to move on.

The silencing was nearly deafening in the cockpit of the Razorcrest. Neither of you were much for words, but you always asked if it was alright for you to retire. Just incase he did need anything before you went. Sometimes he would straight tell you to sleep. But right now you were curious to see if he would say anything about the days events. It had been a wild day, attempting to work with that rookie, him betraying the two of them and then of course, the cantina. You didn’t think he would say anything, so you readied yourself to make your departure.

“Earlier… I apologize if I was out of line.” the Mandalorian spoke up in the silence. It nearly made you jump, heart beating fast in your chest.

“It’s fine. Appreciate it, but I can handle creeps on my own, though. It happens all too often.” you said back to him. You got up to make your way over to the ladder to head back down to your bunk. But he shot his arm out and grabbed hold of your wrist before you could get any further past his seat. You looked at him quizzically, heart pounding in your chest. What was he up too? “Don’t make me go on thinking you care about me, Mando.” you said light-heartedly with a small laugh on the end. You know that you’d love it if he did. It was just too good to be true.

“I think I just might.” he said to you, turning you to face him. He was looking at you through his helmet and you were staring back at him with wide eyes. “I… hear you sometimes. At night. You’re not as quiet as you think.” he said you, approaching you slowly. You felt your stomach drop down your body. Oh god. You were completely embarrassed that he actually heard you, despite how quiet you tried to keep yourself. If this was a normal situation this would be the part where you said ‘fuck it’ and kissed him - but this wasn’t normal. You stood there frozen as he was now chest to chest with you, metal pressing up against your clothed chest. A million thoughts raced through your mind and for some reason you stood there, not knowing what to do. If this was going to happen, it was obvious at this point that he was in control of the situation.

Slowly he started to move his hand that wasn’t on your wrist up your stomach. You wondered what he was doing until your breath hitched in your throat when his gloved hand gently sat on one of your breasts and started to squeeze. You suppressed a small moan in your throat, the surprise catching you off guard more than anything. Was this really happening? Was he really doing this? The hand on your wrist moved to the back of you, reaching down to take a handful of your ass in his hand. This time you let out a soft moan, so soft that you hoped he didn’t hear how much you wanted him. He kept working both of his hands on your body and you bit the inside of your mouth to keep yourself from getting any louder. He stopped what he was doing and you looked back at him, his helmet staring into you.

“If you stop yourself from making those pretty noises again, I’m discarding you with the Hutts.” he threatened lowly. Somehow the way that sentence came out of his mouth distorted by the modulator only turned you on more. You nodded slowly as he looked away from you for a brief second and left your side. You whined a little bit at the loss of contact but excitement grew in you as you saw what he was doing. On the floor was a spare piece of some sort of fabric, been there for god knows how long. You watched with narrow eyes as you saw him folding it the long way, analyzing it. “This should be good.” he said, walking over to you.

“Are you—”

“Close your eyes.” he said to you. You inhaled deeply as you did so, feeling the rough fabric cover your eyes and tie in the back tightly. You anxiety started to swirl upon realizing that you were not able to see. You lost balance for a brief second in your panic but a pair of strong arms caught you in time. “Relax.” you heard a low, deep unfiltered voice in your ears as he wrapped your arms around him.

Oh lord he took his helmet off. You had a feeling thats what was going to happen when he put the blindfold on you but for some reason you lost all logic that he was actually going to do it after you stopped being able to see. He trailed soft kisses up you, starting at your shoulder blade, biting and sucking gently as he went. When he reached your neck he took a little more time to leave his mark on you, causing you to moan out and fall back in his arms, head hanging loosely. You heard him let out a hum of pleasure in knowing that he was able to do this to you as he kept moving slowly up your neck until finally, he reached your lips. And oh maker - you’d wear the damn blindfold all day if it meant that you were able to kiss him like this more often. His soft lips meshed against yours perfectly, filled with lust. He wanted you.

He lowered the both of you to the ground slowly, you under him and him on top of you. Your lips were still together and you didn’t think you ever wanted to stop kissing him. The warmth in your stomach was unlike anything you had felt before. No one’s made you feel the way he does.

To your dismay, he took his lips off of yours to start working your shirt off of you. He let out an audible grunt when you heard your shirt thump to the floor next to you.

“Perfect… fucking perfect.” he said from above you. You felt heat flush to your cheeks as you heard two more items of clothing discarded next to you, but it wasn’t your own. Suddenly you felt his hands on both your breasts, pulling and tugging at your nipples slowly. “Never seen anything more perfect than you.” he said, placing his lips on one of your nipples. You moaned loudly, loud enough to probably wake up the Child but you didn’t care. Everything you had been fantasizing about the past few weeks was coming true. His free hand went down to your pants, sliding off them and your underwear with ease. You mentally begged him to move down your body more. You needed his lips on your pussy.

“Please…” you breathed out quietly. He chuckled against you, taking his mouth off your nipple to bring himself even with you. Of course you couldn’t see this, but you were beginning to almost feel his presence and where he was around you.

“Please, what?” he said, kissing your neck softly before making his way back down your body. He knew what you were begging for and he was going to give it to you. He spread your legs and put your knees over each of his shoulders smoothly and slowly, so slowly that you didn’t even know if thats what he actually did.

“Put yo - your lips on me - oh!” You didn’t even have to finish speaking before he enveloped your cunt with the heat of his mouth. He dove his tongue right into your folds and got to work undoing you immediately. You moaned deliciously for him, managing to find his mop of hair in your blindness and tangled your hands in it. This seemed to motivate him to go faster as he sucked gently at your bud, making the heat inside of you start to boil slowly. It was only when he sunk two of his fingers inside of you that you cried out his name. “Mando!” you shouted as you felt your legs tighten around his shoulders.

You couldn’t see anything behind the blindfold he put on you but you could have sworn that you could see stars right about now. You let out moan after moan as he went down on you gracefully, eating you like it was the last thing he would ever have in his life and pounding his fingers into you like there was no tomorrow. He licked delicious stripes up your cunt, slurping up all your juices into his mouth. His stubble scratched at your thighs as with one last pump of his fingers, he curled them into you going all the way to the knuckle and sucked on your bud, making you scream his name out and clench around him. You were in ecstasy around him, coming on his lips, his fingers, and probably some of his face too. He slid his fingers out of you but continued to lap up every ounce of liquid that spilled out of you. You panted as he took his face off of your cunt slowly, almost not wanting to leave it. He lifted your legs off of his shoulders quickly and put them spread for him.

He groaned as he used one of his hands to work at his belt. You could hear him messily fumbling with the buckle as his other hand worked to get rid of his armor, hitting the floor with a clang as it was discarded from his body. You heard him grunt as skin slapped against skin for a moment before he hovered himself over you. He spread your legs gently further as he took his cock in his hand, and lined himself up with your entrance. You felt the head of his cock press into you ever so slightly, and then in one thrust - he was filling you completely. You both let out loud moans as he adjusted his positioning around you.

“Go- god. So- so tight. Fucking perfect-t.” He moaned to you as he ever so slowly started thrusting into you. He started out slow, to give you time to adjust and him time to get himself situated around you. But then he started to pick up the pace more, thrusting evenly and hard inside of you. His head hung next to you, his pants and moans echoing in your ears beautifully. You took a shot in the dark and turned your head to his, nudging your nose into his neck and bringing your lips to the skin there, gently biting the area to give him a mark that matched the one he made for you earlier. “F-f-f-fuck.” he moaned loudly.

The Mandalorian snapped his hips into you like it was the only thing he knew. His hands grabbed your hips, pulling them up towards his to give him the better angle of being able to fill you balls deep. It was bliss. The two of you were molded together in lust and sweat on the floor of his ship, nothing else but the two of you and your moans. He was hitting all the right spots inside of you, filling you entirely and tightly. The moans he was making into your ear helped aid you in coming close to your second orgasm. Your bites on his neck slowed as it was now your turn to moan, to cry out his name as he brought you closer to that edge.

“Please, keep going. Don’t stop - oh my god, Mando please.” you begged him. Sweat was pouring down your forehead as you felt yourself growing hot, once more feeling yourself getting taken over my ecstasy - almost. You were so close, so, so close when he railed himself into you and plowed home, him spilling moans out into your ear and you moaning out. The room echoed with your moans and the sound of skin slapping on skin.

“C-c-come for me, o-oh god I need you to - ugh.” he groaned into your ear deeply. And that was all it took for you to come undone around him.

“Shit - Mando!” you cried out. Your cunt clenched around his cock inside of you and your back arched against the floor as he pounded into you through your orgasm. Your muscles were tight and all you saw was white and stars behind your eyelids as you screamed the name you knew for him, your nails dragging down his back as you scratched into his back and bit down on his neck and moaned.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck…” your Mandalorian moaned out as you felt his cock pulse inside of you, spilling his seed deep within you and stilling his thrusts as he moaned in a language that you didn’t know. His arms around you tightened as he brought you close to his chest, heaving and panting next to you. You finally went near limp in his arms, relaxing after you overcame your own high. He stayed in you for a minute before sliding out and collapsing on top of you. You felt the sweat from his own forehead against your shoulder as he rested his head there, regaining his composure.

It was silent except for your breathing. His arms were locked around you and yours still around him. You thought that once this was over he was going to just get dressed and you were going to scramble to your bunk half naked and be done with it. But he wanted to keep you two laying there, to enjoy the moment. He didn’t want to pass this up. You felt his lips on your shoulder softly.

“Stay. With me.” he said to you. It wasn’t really a question - it was a hope. He wanted you to stay with him.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” you said to him. You heard him chuckle and then he pressed his lips back to yours.

And you meant that.

#mandalorian x reader #myshit #the mandalorian x reader

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thebibliomancer · 4 years

Text

Essential Avengers: Avengers #232: And Now... Starfox!

June, 1983

“From Titan with love... Starfox!”

oh god no

Err. Anyway.

Last time on Avengers Z, the Avengers were bad enough dudes and lady dudes to rescue the president from wooden dopplegangers. The sinister and badly dressed Plantman (not to be confused with a Mega Man boss) summoned a giant-sized man-shaped swamp thing to battle the Avengers. They were doing a decent job fighting it when Starfox crashed his spaceship into it in his rush to join the Avengers.

And now, what happens after that.

Hawkeye is a terrible patient.

So also last time, a ceiling fell on Hawkeye’s leg and it be broke. He’s apparently the kind of dude who thinks its more manly to refuse anesthetic so She-Hulk has to literally pin him down long enough for Ordinary Doctor Donald Blake to cast it up.

And wow, that cast goes all the way up!

Where did you break your leg, Clint? At the sternum?

Actually this reminds me of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes because Hawkeye got his arm snaked and in-this-version-a-paramedic Jane Foster was asked to look at it but Hawkeye was similarly uncooperative there.

I wonder if that was an intentional reference or whether an accurate portrayal of Clint’s sparking personality just gets you there naturally.

But with the casting call done, Dr. Donald Blake makes to leave, making a point to mention how lucky that he was in town instead of in Chicago where he supposedly lives.

THUS Thor’s secret identity is secure forever.

Wasp and Captain America take Ordinary Doctor Donald Blake to the elevator to show him out but really, he just transforms back to Thor in the elevator.

Because Cap and Wasp already know his secret identity. As does Dra- oh wait, he’s dead. As does Iron Man.

In fact, after Cap mentions he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to seeing Dr. Donald Blake transform, Thor mentions very few mortals have ever seen the change.

Thor: “E’en Iron Man -- with whom I did share the secret of my dual life -- seldom watched me assume my godlike form. I believe it disturbed him.’

Wasp: “Uh-huh.”

Uh-huh is right. That’s a weird, random character beat! I wonder why it bothered Tony. Is it the god part? Transformation in general? Would it bother him to watch Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk? Or Captain Marvel/old broke version and Rick Jones chaaaaange places?

I’m intrigued. And yet there’s no further information. Hmm.

Anyway, the three founding or retroactively made a founding Avengers pass through two sets of ultra-security doors because obviously the thing in your base you most want to protect is your conference table.

Its got the cool, personalized chairs. Don’t judge.

As always, I wonder what symbols the other Avengers get.

Wasp delayed the resumption of the Avengers meeting (because it got interrupted by presidential ransom situation last issue) by a half hour because she wanted to run some things past Thor and Cap.

Wasp: “After all, we are the only core members on active duty and... well... I wanted to ask you both first... should I step down as Avengers chairwoman?”

Thor asks if she feels unduly burdened by the job but she says no, in fact it makes her feel so aliiiiiiiiiiive.

Cap: “Then stick with it, Jan! You’ve been doing a fine job! What on Earth made you even think of stepping down? Surely you don’t blame yourself for Iron Man leaving -- ?”

Surely in fact, she does do.

That weird call they got from an Iron Man quitting the team has shaken her. She probably thinks its because of Wasp dumping him. And in fairness, Tony ghosting the team happened not very long after that. But its not actually related.

Also apparently, Captain Marvel (the new cool one) was made a full active member and not an in-training to fill the vacancy Iron Man left. But now Hawkeye has gotten injured and there are no reserve members available.

Hercules is off doing him knows what. Beast is with the Defenders. Wonder Man is on the West Coast, presumably trying to make it in Hollywood. Vision and Scarlet Witch are trying to be civilians.

Wasp: “We used to have too many members around. Now we may not have enough!”

Yeah, ever since the roster shake-up that was soon followed by Hank’s No Good Very Bad Day, the Avengers have had a bit of a difficulty in keeping the team at good numbers.

Dammit, Hank!

Thor suggests, hey, we have Eros of Titan hanging around asking to be made a member. Why not... let him?

Thor: “Perhaps we should induct the brash Eros! He is swift -- and nearly as strong as an Asgardian!”

Cap: “Yes, but is he Avengers material? Does he have the proper training?”

Wasp: “Training! That’s it! We could try him out as an Avenger-in-training! It worked for Captain Marvel! She was almost totally unused to super-powers when she came to us, but she developed into a peach of an Avenger! With a little on-the-job training, I’ll bet Eros would fit in, too!”

So she calls the White House and asks if the president is back from his kidnapping yet. She has networking strings to pull.

And this honestly brightens her right up. Being group leader really does make her feel so aliiiiiiiiiiive. That and being able to call in favors from the government.

Twenty-six minutes of calling in favors later, Wasp reconvenes the meeting, this time with special guest Eros.

She asks why he wants to be an Avenger.

Eros: “Why not?”

This gives Hawkeye an anger and he bangs the table and also accidentally bangs his broken leg.

Eros decides to expand on his answer and says that he’s a lover of adventure and what better way to seek it than as an Avenger? He’s already aided them in the past so they already know of him.

Thor: “Aye! Against the threat of your mad brother, Thanos!”

Eros: “Too true. But I believe your brother Loki has also given the Avengers trouble hasn’t he?”

Wasp has to interrupt and tell the two to keep family matters out of the conversation. She makes a better moderator than some.

Eros: “You are quite right, Wasp! I hold no one -- god or man -- responsible for the actions of relatives! I seek but your fellowship! Indeed, I can think of no assemblage so appealing... so charming... anywhere in the cosmos!”

Wasp, Captain Marvel, and She-Hulk seem to approve of this answer.

... WAIT ARE YOU USING YOUR CHARM POWERS ON THEM? EROOOOOOOOOOOOOS!!!

Anyway, since Hawkeye is out of action-

Hawkeye: “What do you mean, ‘out of action’? Who says I am?”

Cap(tain America) says he is and tells him he can’t be expected to charge into action with his leg in a cast. Which Hawkeye sadly agrees.

Anyway, since Hawkeye is out of action, Wasp decides that the Avengers can accomodate Eros as an Avenger-in-training. But the government did have one condition for letting his alien man become an Avenger.

He needs a codename.

Wasp: “Frankly, the president was hesitant to approve of anyone named Eros. He would rather you were called something less provocative in public.”

Hey, fuck you, Reagan.

But Wasp has an idea.

Wasp: “You’re a pretty foxy guy... and you’ve been out among the stars... how about ‘Starfox!’”

Good god, Wasp. Did you really just name this man Spacehunk? You’ve gone mad with power.

Also, I jumped the gun last post. I didn’t realize that Wasp comes up with his codename here so I was using Starfox to refer to him already.

Also also, he has a fox emblem on his shirt. Why does he do that if he wasn’t Starfox yet? What does the fox represent in Titanian culture??

Eros: “Starfox? I don’t know... Is this necessary?”

Captain America: “Well, it could make things easier, and you’d still be Eros to your friends. After all, my real name isn’t Captain America!”

Eros: “It isn’t?”

Hah.

I adore that last exchange.

Imagine the incredulity in the tone. ‘I thought that Earth names were Just Like That.’

Anyway, Eros accepts the name Spacehunk Starfox and the position of in-training so Wasp decides to get him started right away.

Remember that thing with the president and the wood men? Happened like an hour ago?

Well, there’s a Navy task force tracking the submarine which was spotted escaping from the scene and they’ve requested Avengers help. But, eh, why send the whole team?

So Wasp sends Thor, Captain Marvel, and Starfox-in-training.

And in fairness! That’s a trio that can handle a whole heck of a lot with their respective powers!

So off they go.

Starfox: “Duty and glory, Thor! Songs shall be written about this day -- even if I must write them myself!”

You know. That’s actually a very good attitude to have. Eros will be the fanfiction he wants to see in the world.

With that issue handled, Cap(tain America) and Wasp head off to take care of some other business.

Leaving She-Hulk and Hawkeye with only each other as company.

Hah.

On their way to the mission, Captain Marvel zooms all around, practicing her cornering in flight. As a new superhero... like its been under a month, I think? Captain Marvel still thinks flying is the neatest thing.

And she’s right!

But she’s also discovered a new ability. Since her energy form is made of energy and she has control over energy. Instead of flying around as a vaguely her shaped glowing blur, she can concentrate to create a light image of herself, why not!

She has made herself harder to draw but easier to portray!

Thor: “Your radiance rivals that of the golden apples of immortality!”

Captain Marvel: “I’ll have to take your word for that!”

Hah.

She zooms over to where Starfox is flying. Captain Marvel has been eyeing him throughout the book, which Wasp has been assuming was because he’s a space hunk.

But maybe she just wanted to learn more about Captain Mar-Vell because that’s what she asks Starfox about.

Starfox: “He was a gentle warrior... a noble soul. He was a true hero... Worthy of rank and name!”

I guess the description or the sadness Starfox still has at Mar-Vell’s death makes Monica feel like shit, like maybe she isn’t worthy, so she zooms ahead to let the navy know the Avengers are on their way.

Starfox: “Have I offended her?”

Thor: “Eros, I begin to wonder if your reputation with the ladies is truly deserved.”

Hah.

But also: If you have magical fuck-me powers you don’t need to actually be charming, I guess? Dammit, Starfox!

Captain Marvel arrives on the deck of the navy task force flagship as a bolt of lighting (SHAZAM!), alarming the navy in two ways.

First, lightning. Its just so loud! But second, wait the Avengers only sent one person?

Captain Marvel goes nah I got Thor and Spacehunk but they’re slowpokes. Not moving the speed of light. Imagine.

Admiring Admiral: I don’t know who the redhead is, but I’d sail into Hades itself with Thor in my crew!

Its fun the insight we get into how respected and beloved Thor is. I don’t think that’s the case anymore with modern Thor. The marvel citenzry has just become jaded to the cool hammer man.

The admiral explains the situation. That they’re chasing the submarine seen in the area of the presidential ransom attempt. But its hiding in an undersea canyon that navy frogmen kero kero can’t reach and that its somehow been deflecting depth charges.

The admiral was going to wait for navy subs to arrive but hey, if the Avengers want to try, this is their book.

Meanwhile, in aforementioned sinister submarine, the horticultural horror... Plantman! Nah, just kidding. He’s a goofus and I will point and laugh.

His cool sub lets him pre-explode the depth charges before they reach his sub but even he doesn’t want to tangle with trident-class submarines so he wants to skedaddle. And if the navy is blocking his way, the navy gotta pay.

He activates his PLANT RAY which is a real thing, look it up, and energizes the kelp in the undersea canyon.

The kelp reaches up like a kraken, a kelpken, and starts trying to pull the navy ships under.

Thor: “‘Tis an attack by yet another form of plant! Our unknown foe has struck again! Stand you back... the son of Odin shall end this threat!”

And then Thor jumps into the ocean, leading a confused Starfox to ask whether Thor needs to breath.

Captain Marvel helpfully informs him and the audience that Thor can hold his breath for hours.

Thanks, Monica!

And then some kelp yanks Starfox and then Captain Marvel off the ship.

Meanwhile, a very expensive Manhattan apartment occupied by a grumpy Tony Stark.

Tony Stark: “Why waste good money getting a T.V. remote control fixed, when I can do it myself faster an’ better? Hah! When I’m done with it, it’ll do more’n change channels... it’ll walk the blasted dog!”

... Tony, how though?

And do you have a dog?

What is going on in your mind?

His remote repair reverie is interrupted by a binging and a bonging on his chamber door. Only this and nothing more.

He grouses about the interruption but HEY ITS HIS FAVORITE PEOPLE! Its Wasp and Captain America!

They’ve been stalking him, a little.

The pressing matters they had to attend to was running down a list of homes owned by Tony and searching them one by one to find him.

He’s happy to see them though and offers them some morning whiskey. Or bourbon. Or perhaps chocolate soda.

Look, I googled eyeopener and its booze you drink in the morning to wake up although I’m pretty sure its afternoon now and if you need to drink booze to wake up, you might want to consider limiting your intake actually. Especially for Tony Stark who had an entire story arc about alcoholism. Dammit Tony!

Wasp: “Eye-opener?! Tony Stark, where’s your mind? We’ve been worried sick about you! No one’s been able to find you for days on end -- you haven’t answered Avengers emergency calls -- and when you did call this morning it was to resign!”

Tony Stark: “Now jus’ hold yer horses! Maybe I have been outta touch... but I’ve had my own ‘mergencies to handle! An’ I didn’t call you this morning! I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

Iron Man: “He’s right! I’m the one who made that call!”

Imagine being someone who reads Avengers and not Iron Man. How blown would your mind be seeing Iron Man fly into a room Tony Stark is already in?

Somewhat, right? Somewhat.

Imagine being Captain America and Wasp and seeing Iron Man fly into a room where Tony Stark is when you know for sure that Iron Man and Tony Stark are the same guy.

Cap demands to know whats going on and who is in Tony’s armor.

Tony Stark: “Jus’ who he appears to be... Iron Man, my faithful armored companion and bodyguard... jus’ like it says in the Stark International press releases! Ya see, boys an’ girls, ol’ Uncle Tony has decided to quit the hero biz while he’s still ahead of the game! No more playin’ Iron Man for me! Nosirrebob! Time to let a younger man wear the boilerplate!”

Oh.... Tony.... if this only weren’t the perpetual superhero narrative, you might be able to bow out gracefully.

And its not like this is gracefully anyway. As indicated by the charmingly tousled look, the slurred speech and the morning drinking in the afternoon, Tony is quite drunk.

Wasp asks New Iron Man to confirm and he does. He clarifies that the reason he quit the Avengers is because he doesn’t feel experienced enough yet to hold his own on the team.

And apologizes for the confusion. The Iron Man helmet has voice modifying circuits so New Iron Man (secretly James Rhodes) sounded just like Old Iron Man (aka Tony Stark). He didn’t realize that the Avengers knew Tony’s secret so didn’t realize he’d just be creating an intriguing mystery prompting readers to check out the Iron Man book slash confuse the Avengers.

Tony Stark: “Yeah... I forgot to tell ya that Cap an’ the Wasp were in on the ol’ secret. Thor, too! Oh, well... no harm done!”

Then he drinks some more booze alcohol. Cap asks him doesn’t he think he’s had enough? And Tony is like hey no I don’t and don’t butt into my life kthx.

Wasp: “We don’t want to pry, Tony! We just don’t want to see you throw your life away... like Hank did.”

Tony Stark: “I am not Hank Pym, lady! I’m nothin’ like your ex-hubby! I don’t need your help -- an’ you don’t need mine! The Stark Foundation will pay the Avengers’ bills with or without me! So, if you’ll kindly get out of my life -- !”

Oof. Why does everyone Wasp dates turn out to be a jerk?

I assume she was just leaning into it the time she dated Havok. But otherwise, oof.

They really have no choice but to leave Tony to make his own bad decisions. At least he was responsible enough to get someone else in the Iron Man armor?

Geez though. Geez.

Hate seeing you like this, Tones.

Meanwhile, back in the Atlantic Ocean... Captain Marvel fairly casually assesses the situation of being dragged into the water.

Captain Marvel: “Never saw any kelp like this before! It grips tighter than an octopus, and it feels as tough as steel! I could just turn to some form of energy and slip out of it, but then it could grab some poor sailor!”

So instead she explodes, which she can do, shredding the kelp holding her.

Then off she goes to find how Starfox is faring.

He’s faring okay. Just casually punching some kelp like it ain’t no thing.

But since teamwork does make the dream work, she blasts the kelp for him. Starfox thanks her though also says that he could’ve kelped himself.

They discuss how they can hear each other perfectly well underwater thanks to SCIENCE! The science of water conducting sound. I find it a bit dubious but whatever. Not as dubious as the next bit.

Captain Marvel asks how Starfox is breathing underwater.

Starfox: “A thin shell of air clung to me as I was pulled under... due to the gravitic potential of my body, I suppose! It all relates to my flying abilities. I was surprised myself! This is the first time I’ve ever taken an ocean plunge!”

Fun way to discover that, huh!

Also, heck, how long does a thin shell of air last underwater? How shallowly do you breathe, man!?

-google- Huh, Wikipedia has this description of his powers using almost the exact words (although not the word order) from this scene. I feel that it does not come up much so this is the primary source.

It also says that he doesn’t need to breathe as much as a normal hooman. So that’s answered.

The two newest Avengers find Thor already has things well in hand freeing the propeller without need for any further kelp.

So all three Avengers surface (and Thor retrieves his helmet, which in a nice bit fell off when he dove into the water and just floated on the surface).

Thanks to ex-boat cop Monica Rambeau knowing navy semaphore, she recognizes the signal from the navy vessel that the enemy sub is making a run for it.

And since none of these three Avengers have trouble fighting underwater, Starfox suggests they give chase.

Plantman: “NO! Not the Avengers! Not again!”

Yes, again. Yes, always.

He shoots some anti-personnel torpedoes, hoping they’re enough to stop the Avengers.

“They’re not.”

Hah. I love when captions get sassy.

The Avengers soon are busting into the sub, breaking through bulkheads and coming for Plantman.

Plantman realizes that they’ll have him trapped in the control cabin in seconds. So he pulls the last resort lever that his silent partner told him to pull as a last resort.

Some manner of escape sphere forms around Plantman, launching him high into the stratosphere and capsizing the sub right on top of the Avengers.

I mean, they’re beefy. I’m sure they’ll be fine.

But no time to verify that, SCENE CHANGE.

Over on Central Park West, She-Hulk has carried Hawkeye all the way from Avengers’ Mansion to his apartment. On foot.

Dang! Mighty nice of her! Even Hawkeye points out that he could have gotten a cab.

(But do we believe that Hawkeye has money for a cab?)

After gently dumping Hawkeye on his couch, She-Hulk asks if he wants to have her stick around. She literally has nothing better to do today.

Hawkeye: “Will you get out of here and leave me alone!!”

She-Hulk huffs off in anger because this is a rude way to thank someone who helps you home.

Hawkeye even realizes that he shouldn’t have yelled “but I can’t stand to have anyone mother-hen me! Besides, I have things to do... important things!”

Yeah, Hawkeye does seem like the kind of guy who hates getting any help at all because men are self-reliant and junk. Toxic masculinityyyyyyy!

And the important things? I dunno! He calls his head of security workplace Cross Technological Enterprises and tells them to send a car for him.

That’s probably going to be a thing in another issue. God forbid it be a thing in another book. I’m not made of time. I’m still dreading West Coast Avengers where Hawkeye goes off and makes his own team. The jerk.

Okay, back to the plot.

Thor, Captain Marvel, and Starfox of course shake off a submarine imploding on their heads without much effort. Starfox is the most shaken by it. Guess the new guy isn’t used to submarine implosions lol.

Meanwhile, Plantman’s escape pod keeps escaping up, up, and away but mostly just up.

Then a prerecorded message from Plantman’s ‘silent partner’ and/or ‘mysterious benefactor’ plays.

Wizard: “Plant-Man! This is a recording. If you have been so stupid as to get yourself in a predicament where you needed to use the emergency handle, you are now hearing this message.”

“While I appreciated your aid in escaping prison, the equipment I gave you should be considered payment in full. I owe you nothing more than an explanation.”

“Thanks to my anti-gravity generators -- which you activated along with this module -- you will soon find yourself safely in orbit!”

Plantman: “In orbit!”

Wizard: “There, you will be of no further embarrassment to me or our ‘partnership’ as you so distastefully called it. You will be beyond harm... for as long as your oxygen holds out. Farewell!”

Oof. Ice cold.

Ice cold, the Wizard.

Captain Marvel phases through the pod floor to basically say the same thing.

Plantman begs her to save him from his own dumb decision making. She’s like huh look, I don’t really know about anti-gravity but I do have an idea.

Then she blows a hole in the side of the pod.

And the pressure difference blasts Plantman out of the pod, right through Captain Marvel who has turned into intangible energy.

Captain Marvel: “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

HAH!

That was mean, Monica. I love it.

But as Plantman hurtles screaming toward the ground, Thor catches him and tells him to stop screaming beside.

Thor: “Cease your cowardly whining! The Avengers do not wantonly kill their foes... not even such as you!”

These days though... well... probably still not wantonly? Depending on how you define it? Maybe during War of Realms though. The kid gloves came off then.

Starfox is loving this by the way. The whole thing that just happened.

Starfox: “What grand sport! Yes, I think I’m going to enjoy being an Avenger!”

‘Ha ha we made that guy think he was going to die!’

Also, Plantman’s outfit looked green and purple in the sub. I guess it was the lighting because its just jolly green now. But its still a terrible outfit.

Meanwhile, back at Avengers’ mansion, Wasp is back from Tony Stark locating duty! She-Hulk is back from being angry at Hawkeye duty!

She-Hulk mentions that she took Hawkeye to his apartment and for a loudmouth, he has a really nice apartment.

She-Hulk: “I wish I could find a nice apartment, but I’m still getting lost in this town. I don’t know where to begin looking.”

Wasp: “Well, if you’re so set on getting a place of your own, why don’t I give you a hand?”

Wasp is going to fulfill her delayed promise to take She-Hulk apartment hunting! And hey, why not focus her efforts on a friend that will let her help?

So Wasp changes into street clothes (or since we see her shrink later, its more that she changed her Wasp outfit and put clothes over it, which is almost like getting dressed in street clothes) and takes Jen out on the town.

Apparently, the Daily Bugle has the largest section on rentals and real estate of any New York paper. I guess they need something aside from diatribes about Spider-Man to attract subscribers.

Ben Urich’s award winning investigative journalism can’t pay all the bills.

Because this is the same New York which frustrated Tigra, some idiot immediately starts hitting on She-Hulk at the newsstand.

Some idiot: “‘Ey, beeg mama! I love that green body paint! You need any help removing it? Huh?”

She-Hulk: “Stuff it, creep! Or better yet -- stuff you!”

And she puts the garbage man in the garbage can. Where he belongs. While Wasp literally looks the other way.

She-Hulk: “Sorry, Jan, I just don’t care for men with fresh mouths. This sort of thing would never happen in California.”

Wasp: “Oh, fer shure...”

That sounds like the polite way of saying ‘Doubt.’ Surely there are sexist jerks everywhere?

Sadly for the She-Hulk Apartment Hunt, her expectations are also a little LA centric. You’re just not going to find an affordable condo with a hot-tub in New York.

Wasp asks what She-Hulk has against the free rent at Avengers Mansion with its built-in sauna that they’ve apparently always had but never mentioned.

Avengers Mansion is real nice!

She-Hulk says she can’t get behind the idea of living where she works but as someone who works from home its actually highly recommended! Although, She-Hulk’s situation is more ‘firemen live in the firehouse’ so it lacks the ‘don’t have to wear pants to work’ aspect.

Then the apartment hunt is interrupted by an incoming crossover slash a stampede.

She-Hulk grabs a random panicking passerby out of the crowd and asks whats going on but he can’t give a good answer.

She-Hulk: “Hot dog! I was hoping something would happen to break up the monotony. So far, this afternoon has been a big, dull...” -THUD-

First, I love She-Hulk’s enthusiasm for punching.

Also, hey, who put thin air in She-Hulk’s way!

There’s some kind of invisible barrier right across the sidewalk.

She-Hulk instantly decides that the thing to do is to TEAR INTO THE PAVEMENT TO SEE HOW DEEP IT GOES.

Instead of, y’know, feeling to see how wide it stretches.

Wasp tries blasting thin air too but to no avail.

Despite She-Hulk reminding everyone that “at close range, your sting can knock down a wall!”

And when she really tries, a whole house.

She-Hulk: “Wasp... This is impossible! We’re Avengers! Nothing can stop us!”

Wasp: “She-Hulk... I’ve the strangest feeling it just did.”

And apparently: this is to be continued in THE ANNIHILATION GAMBIT! Which is a crossover with Fantastic Four!

Which means I actually need to pop over to an Avengers Annual first because despite running into the invisible wall (Sue, is that you?) the Avengers are doing stuff on the Moon before getting involved.

I dunno. I’ll see when I get to it.

And you will too! Provided you follow @essential-avengers! Also maybe like and reblog? Who can say.

#avengers #Plantman #the Wasp #Captain America #Thor #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #she hulk #Starfox #Iron Man #Tony Stark #James Rhodes #we learn whats going on with iron man #starfox has a good day #hawkeye is a rude #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging

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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 4 years

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I’ll reveal this. While my good friend @kaijuguy19 came up with the idea of a brute like character similar to Nemesis(Or Chris Walker or Mr. X. But it’s mainly Nemesis I keep thinking about too) if we ever got one in Bendy And The Ink Machine. We talked about this and he honestly deserves full credit. Including after I introduced an idea....

While I admit I kept the fate of Derek Brooker a mystery of what happens to him in the world of the ink machine. It’s also because I don’t know what to make his fate.....

But I’ll be honest....I have thought about that direction...of him being that brute....what were the ideas that I was thinking about?

Basically after Derek asks Joey to kill him and well sacrifice him. Not only because Derek wants this because he deserves it. But he feels like the possibility he may be with Alice Angel.

Turns out......in a way his fate became that. He was able to be with Alice Angel....but in a more twisted way.

Basically his creature form and personality is a parallel to his role as Joey Drew’s bodyguard. But his form is that of a tall and hulking figure. Probably deformed but looking like a demonic cartoon character. It’s unclear of what to make of him. Sadly compared to his real life counterpart. Derek is now a bit more simpleminded. Yet still showing a level of intelligence.

The guy was basically just roaming around the studio until Twisted Alice was out doing her errands on her own(This is outside the loop and it’s complicated). She tries to flee and hide from this new creature. Seeing it take on the Butcher Gang and Searchers easily. Derek is basically like I don’t wanna say Bigfoot. He’s something similar to Ink Bendy. But he’s more like a brute than a supernatural entity. Something akin to King Kong. Including I though a similarity between the King Kong thing.

But Twisted Alice is surprised when she is found by this new beast. Despite the creature appearing to be simpleminded. Yet he seemed to display a interest and he’s attracted to her. Such as hearing the creature saying her, “Alice” a few times. As if he was searching for her. *Yeah the idea of him saying Alice is a bit too much Nemesis. But that I try to recall. He can try to say other things. Such as, “For Alice” or, “An angel”*

It’s almost like a weird, twisted version of Kong’s relationship with Ann Darrow. But nothing extreme. Including the creature showing concern for the woman. Despite her face being messed up. Which surprised Alice but....intrigued her....it confused her.

Basically after that and I decided to put the keep reading thing. Seeing this brute display an attraction to her and wanting to stay with her. Twisted Alice seized this opportunity. She wouldn’t be alone anymore. But also....she had a secret weapon. That she possibly can only tame.*Honestly.....Susie isn’t the only angel in this case*

She has Derek do her errands and he does them very well. But also he’s her giant bodyguard basically. Yet also her lapdog. Because he does whatever she says.

What’s amazing what finally got me to write about this. It’s the funny humor behind this.

Twisted Alice/Susie basically has follower that views her as a goddess. Someone that views her as perfect. Something similar to how Sammy views Bendy. But this time it’s a hulking Sammy that is a giant monster. He’s strong, he’s fast, he can learn and track down anyone.

He is literally Twisted Alice’s secret weapon and she never asked for it. But she’s eternally grateful.

Basically jokes were like this.

Gunnar: That Alice is a bitch. >:( *Because I don’t know if Henry would call her that and this is after Henry*

Derek as a monster hearing Gunnar say that:

youtube

It would also be this because I’ve been wondering about making a meme of it.....maybe later just I don’t want to until Kaijuguy responds to this. I’ll make it after I post this.

youtube

He’s basically the big guy carrying Patrick. Basically....don’t talk shit about Alice. Or any Alice Angel in general.

But yeah I wanted to share that. I’m not tagging by the way too. Including when making this and before making it. I was listening to the Mr. X rap by JT Music.

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zsweber-studios · 4 years

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The Journal of Zan’taba Moonlightshadow: Part 2/?

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Tirdas, 19th of Last Seed, 4E 201

I write this as I am crossing the bridge north of Riverwood, on my way to Whiterun, as it has taken me much longer than I was expecting to accomplish the request Ralof’s sister, Gerdur, asked of me in my last entry. A lot happened in the past two days, a lot that I hope to tell you all now.

After writing the last passage, I, Ralof, and Hod stayed up late into the evening, drinking sweet Nord Mead--of which I am becoming a fond friend--and regaling me in the stories of Skyrim’s past. I awoke the next morning, a bit lightheaded but otherwise right and ready to begin the next leg of my adventure. Ralof wished me well, and suggested that should I make my way to Windhelm, I should see about joining the Stormcloaks in freeing Skyrim from the empire.

I...still have much to think about, regarding that.

Before I left, however, I decided I’d stop by the local blacksmith to sell off some of the weapons and armors that I had acquired from the fallen Imperial soldiers the day before, as well as stop by the local merchant’s store to stock up on any provisions I might need. Upon entering, however, I came across an awkward sight--that of the store’s owner in a rather heated disagreement with his sister.

As soon as they saw me enter, the two ended their discord, and the man--an Imperial by the name of Lucan--went about his business as trader. I was interested in trading with him, yes...but I was also intrigued by what I had heard, and asked him to elaborate. The man did so, almost reluctantly, telling of how a small band of bandits had stolen an ornament of his from the store. I offered to go and get the ornament back for him, and the man seemed quite relieved.

After purchasing some spell tomes to study on my way, I followed his sister--Camilla--out of the store and out of town, listening as she directed me where I need go. My destination was Bleak Falls Barrow--a sight that Ralof had pointed out to me the day before, but of which I had not paid much mind to. Now, I was finding I wish I had. Something about Draugr, I think...whatever those are...

I started my way up the mountain towards the ancient ruin, following Camilla’s directions. Eventually, I came across an old, ruined tower, the way that Camilla suggested I’d know I was getting close. Outside, though, I noticed a few bandits loitering about, from a range of a good hundred or so feet away. I suppose they were part of the bandits that stole Lucan’s ornament, and so I set about ending them.

I first cast Fury on one of the bandits leaning up against a nearby tree, causing him to attack his companion. When it seemed the fight was getting close, I hurried in to finish them off with my Flames spell and the Imperial sword I still had from the other day. I then turned my attention up to the tower, in case more were still coming, only to have a Nord dressed in thick iron armor come rushing down at me.

Thankfully, I was able to make quick work of him, however it gave me a cold feeling in my soul that there would be only more danger to come.

I was right, of course--heading further up the mountain, I came across a wide clearing, leading up to the barrow itself. The bandits from before had left me alert, though, so I went about the far side, looking for danger. Once I’d spotted the bandits, I attempted to do the same as I had before...but, unfortunately, my Fury spell missed, and alerted all three to where I was. With no other choice, I was forced to tend to them myself, claiming a few new maces along the way.

Upon entering the barrow, I found myself facing a fair number of bandits still--this time, two in a far off corner, though it seemed that at first there had been four, as two dead bodies were sprawled out within this first chamber, with the bodies of large rat-like creatures surrounding them. I could barely make out what the surviving two were saying to each other, but it mattered little to me--another quick Fury spell, and they joined their companions in death.

I made my way further down, dispatching another bandit just before a large puzzle--though, it wasn’t exactly difficult, as the answer was right overhead--and then down the stairwell beyond the trap, where I found a few more of those rat-like creatures--Skeevers, I believe they’re called.

As I reached the bottom of those stairs, though, I heard someone calling out to me, calling for help. I hurried in, picking up a spell scroll and phial of paralysis on the table as I did, only to find a Dunmer suspended in web, with a Giant Frostbite Spider about to swallow him whole. Of course, I leaped to his aid, first casting the Fireball spell from the scroll, then dual-wielding two of the maces I’d picked up from the bandits to finish the great beast off.

The Dunmer, a man named Arvel the Swift, called out to me as I finished the spider off--he knew of the claw, and had it himself, but he needed to get free before he could tell me more. I was...suspicious, I will say, but I cut him free from the webbing anyway. Now, though, I wish I hadn’t--as soon as he had been cut down, the Dunmer turned and took off down the hall, shouting back that I had been a fool, and the riches of this crypt were all his, and no one else’s.

I made to follow him, but I was slowed by the webs he had been tangled with. By the time I got to him, though, fate had already caught up to him--in the form of a pressure-plate activated door swinging in his face and sending to hapless bandit sailing across the crypt room, as well as awakening a few of the undead residing there.

It was then I learned exactly what ‘Draugr’ were.

The rest of my journey through the crypt was long and slow, as I had to keep myself low to avoid being noticed by the restless dead that seemed to occupy every other sarcophagus and deathbed in each room. I handled them well enough with a hunter’s bow I’d acquired from one of the bandits earlier, but those that got too close got a taste of my Flames, once more, and my steel maces.

A few of the Draugr weren’t even slumbering--I arrived in a few different rooms within the crypt where the undead were shambling about, their rotting corpses creaking and slapping about the stone floors, eyes glowing with otherworldly malice, searching for conflict. One such Draugr was wandering about a snowy overpass between two parts of the crypt--another was a hulking brute with a battleaxe, standing between me and the door further onward.

And none of this is even to mention of the traps I saw--beyond the first trap I saw when I first entered the crypt, and the door that swung and killed the Dunmer who was far less swift than his title proclaimed, there were also several halls of swinging axes, rooms of flammable liquid spread out over the floor, and of course the door into the final chamber.

Never in all the thirty years of my life have I ever seen such a thing as this--at the end of a long hall was a wall with three rings surrounding a keyhole in the exact shape of the ornament, the Golden Claw, that Lucan had sent me to find. I took some time figuring out the secret to the door--Arvel’s notes mentioned something about the claw, but I wasn’t able to quite make out the Dunmer’s poor handwriting--and eventually the door opened onward.

If I thought the hall was impressive, the chamber beyond it was even more so. It was a strange cavern, more cave than crypt, with only the barest signs of construction--small arches, towers, and steps--throughout. However, what stood out the most was on the far side of the room, beside a few waterfalls pouring in--a platform with a chest, a sarcophagus, and a wall with ancient nordic runes writ upon it.

As soon as I stepped closer to the platform and the wall, I began hearing...voices? I believe. I’m not sure. It...all happened so quickly, and though I could hear them, my ears did not flatten back--I did not hear them with my ears, but with my mind, in my soul. It was...bizarre, but not as bizarre as what came next.

As I approached the voices, letting them grow stronger, I stepped closer to the wall, and noticed a section of the runes on the wall were starting to glow with an ancient magic. This magic began to pulse towards me, and before I could realize it, the world grew dark--just for a second. I thought I could hear the roaring of dragons, and for a fleeting second I feared the great black beast had returned...but then it was over.

Well...not quite.

As I reeled from effects of the spell that had been forced upon me, the enchantment that I had no idea of, I heard the cracking of stone behind. I turned to see the sarcophagus opening, and another Draugr stepping out. I could tell, an instinct in my bones, that this one was far stronger than the others that I’d faced before--I readied a spell scroll that I’d found in one of the chests before, hurled a Fireball in the undead’s face, and then rushed into the fight.

This was unlike anything I’d faced before--the Draugr was strong, wielded an axe that glowed with icy force, and seemed to shout in such a way that it caused me to stumble back, to fall in defeat. Still, I pressed on, and was able to overwhelm my foe with a flurry of steel mace swings, until at last he was returned to his eternal rest at my feet.

Upon beating him, I claimed his axe for myself, as well as an odd tablet he had upon himself that looks almost like a map of Skyrim. I do not know the importance of such a relic, but I could not turn away from keeping it for myself. Perhaps I will find someone in one of the larger cities of Skyrim who can better tell me its purpose. But that is a concern for another day. For now, I took the claw in hand and made my way up out of the barrow.

I ended up coming out in a cave just south of Riverwood, on the western bank. The cave was small, with a single chest, but appeared to have some sort of shrine left out. It...unnerved me, so I left quickly.

My unnervedness did not end there, however, as no sooner had I stepped out of the cave than did I come across a splattering of blood on the ground. It assaulted my senses, and I hurried onward. Something was amiss in this area--I could feel it in my bones. As I hurried along, and as the sun was starting to set, I finally came across a small hut out in the middle of the woods--and my senses hit me all at once.

The hut was owned by a woman named Anise, but there was something about the old woman that seemed off. She...unnerved me, as well, and the amount of potion ingredients I found in her home seemed a bit disturbing as well. I decided to do some looking about, and found a trap door near her bed. A quickly picked lock later, and I descended into her basement. It was there that I found the source of my unnervedness.

An alchemist’s stand, an enchanter’s table...an a letter detailing Anise’s desire to have her witch sisters come live with her and start a coven.

With this information in mind, I turned around and cut down the old crone, my Flames spell easily outclassing her Frost. I looted her, and her home, and tossed her body over a nearby cliff into the river below. Dark magic can be a foul thing, and I would quicker end a foul wench than let her darkness fester. And, as an added bonus, her hut is now empty, allowing me to use it as a base of sorts, to leave belongings I do not need.

I slept that night in her bed, and the next morning--this morning, as I write this--I set back off to Riverwood to tell Lucan and Camilla the good news. Lucan was quite glad to have his claw back, setting it out on the front of the store’s counter, and paying me a decent 400 septims for a job well done. As for Camilla, well...the Imperial woman seems to be drawn to those who can get a job done. Perhaps I shall see her again soon...

For now, however, I have a quest to continue, and a word to send to the Jarl of Whiterun.

#the elder scrolls #the elder scrolls V #Skyrim #the elder scrolls skyrim #playthrough #writing #the journal of zan'taba moonlightshadow

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canyousevmyheavydirtysoul · 5 years

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Bodyguard III: Avengers Assemble (Chapter 4) (B. Urie x Reader)

Break room. S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier.

Clutching a ceramic coffee mug as if it were the only thing keeping his sanity from slipping away, Brendon sat at the table in the centre of the room, staring into space as he immersed himself into the slew of problems he was currently facing.

First, there was the threat of worldwide destruction looming over everyone's heads.

Second, there was the fact that he had no idea whatsoever about how to deal with the newfound information that he was a mutant, or how it affected him – if at all.

Third, there was the issue of trying to protect you from a literal god, even though you refused to acknowledge that you were at risk, or that he was (and would always be) your bodyguard.

And fourth – the worst problem of all – you were still undisputedly pissed off at him.

Wallowing in self-pity was something that the agent never did, but for the first time in his life, he saw no way to iradicate any of the issues on his own – he had no control, no options, no way out. Wallowing was the only thing he could do.

And he wasn't the only one who felt powerless amidst the anarchy.

The way you shoved open the door to the break room was strong enough to nearly shatter the glass, and Brendon looked up at you with a furrowed brow. You paid no mind to him, striding over to the kitchenette.

Yanking open the cupboards, you peered into them, searching for coffee beans. There weren't any – in fact, the cupboards were essentially bare – and you cursed as you slammed their doors shut.

With a sigh, you rested your palms flat against the counter and let your head hang down. You were frustrated, that much was pretty clear, and Brendon watched you intently, interested to see what your next move was going to be.

Creating a snowstorm, perhaps? He'd seen you flip a table over over not having coffee before, so the possibility wasn't too far-fetched.

But no, you simply turned around and strode toward the table. Pulling out a chair, you let yourself fall into it harshly, your body splayed on the piece of furniture rather inelegantly.

You didn't speak, and instead joined the agent in wallowing. Brendon looked at you with a blank face, then slid his coffee across the table. You picked up the mug and took a long sip, exhaling heavily as you set it back down.

There was silence for a little while as the wallowing continued, then Brendon took the initiative and broke it.

"You okay?"

Sniffling, you wiped your hand across your nose and shook your head. "I, uh..." you frowned, looking straight ahead of you, at the kitchenette, "Dallon thought he'd found them, but the lead was a bust."

Brendon frowned too as he realised what you were referring to, and it was only then that his gaze flickered to your hands and he noticed the grazes across your knuckles.

He shot up in his seat, reaching out to grab your hand and pull it towards him so that he could inspect it closer. His jaw clenched as he gently rubbed his thumb over your bruising skin.

"You followed up on the lead alone?" he snapped, voice calm but still characteristically icy, "Are you crazy?"

"I wasn't alone," you growled through clenched teeth, yanking yourself out of his grip, "Natasha was with me."

"Still," he refuted, "You had no idea what you were walking into. It could've been a trap."

You sat up and turned your body so that you were fully facing Brendon and tightened your jaw. "Yes, but I took that risk, because there was a chance. A chance of finding Aaron."

Brendon's eyes darkened, and he leaned back in the chair. "Aaron," he repeated with a soft scoff, "Of course."

You squinted for a moment, observing his reaction. "I know you don't give a shit about what happens to him, but I do, alright? He means a lot to me."

"Yeah, so I've heard."

Recoiling a bit, you stared at him in confusion, taken aback by his comment. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Clearly Brendon had been waiting to have this conversation, since you'd barely even finished your question when he'd hurtled a response at you.

"You let him sing to you?" he asked, voice soft but full of disdain. He shook his head as if attempting to wrap his mind around the concept.

You made a mental note to never tell Dallon anything ever again. Traitor.

Annoyed by Brendon's disapproval – especially since he had no right to disapprove – you shrugged and delivered a snappy reply.

"Yeah. What? It's not like anyone else was jumping at the chance to serenade me."

Brendon said nothing, just stared at you. As usual, you couldn't tell what he was thinking, but you could tell that he was thinking a hell of a lot.

After a couple moments, his lips twitched upwards as he gave a dry chuckle, and he nodded.

"So that's why you're taking stupid risks in trying to find him? You're gonna miss date night?" he snapped, gesturing with his hands, "What, are you sleeping with him now?"

Your body heat up with anger, and you balled your hands up into fists to keep from lunging across the table to strangle the douchebag in front of you.

"You know, every time..." you closed your eyes and took a deep breath to calm yourself, "every time I think that you've changed, that you've finally let go of your fucking ego, you prove me wrong. Every single time."

He didn't say anything in response, but it wasn't necesssary, because you weren't done.

"I care so much about finding Aaron because he cares about me," you spoke slowly and clearly, wanting each and every syllable to penetrate Brendon's thick skull, "He was there for me when I needed him – he always has been – which is more than I can say for most of the people in my life."

You hit a nerve, and Brendon leaned in closer to you. You expected him to match your anger and say something harsh, but when he spoke, it was barely a whisper.

"I... care about you."

You shook your head profusely and leaned forward, too, hitting your fist on the table. "Except you don't. You don't care about anyone but yourself, Brendon. Especially not me. You've proved that countless times. And yeah," you threw your hands up and ran your tongue over your teeth, "maybe I am sleeping with him. But you know what, that's none of your concern."

Brendon's icy demeanour faltered for a couple seconds.

For some godforsaken reason, tears were beginning to well up in your eyes, and you blinked them away as you spoke softly. "You had your chance, Bren. And you lost it. You lost me."

You stood up and walked away.

✧ ✧ ✧

Banner's lab. S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier.

Bruce stood over the sceptre, continuously hovering a gamma ray detection scanner over it in search of some form of radiation. Tony was across the lab, looking at monitors as he shifted and solved various algorithms and equations.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the tesseract," Bruce voiced, "But it's gonna take weeks to process."

Tony responded immediately without looking up. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

Having not even thought of that solution, Bruce scoffed and gave a tiny smile. "All I packed was a toothbrush."

Letting out a short laugh, Tony made his way over to the doctor, pointing a finger at him.

"You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors," he made a sweeping motion with his hands, "all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem," Bruce declinend the offer, looking down shamefully as he back to the events of four years ago.

Never one to accept defeat so easily, Tony persisted. "Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises."

Suddenly, Tony poked Bruce with a miniature electrical prod, narrowing his eyes and leaning in closely in search of any kind of Hulk-ish indications. Nothing.

"Ow!" Bruce winced, pulling back.

Steve walked in on them, then, clearly pissed at Tony. "Hey!" he called to the genius, coming to a halt in front of the two other men, "Are you nuts?"

Ignoring the Captain, Tony spoke to Bruce, looking at him in slight awe. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" he asked in intrigue, referring to the Hulk, "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve shook his head, glaring at Tony.

"Funny things are," Tony acknowledged the Captain's prescence for the first time since he walked in.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve reprimanded, then turned to glance at Bruce, "No offense, doctor."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come onboard if I couldn't handle... pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, big man," Tony pursed his lips and pointed to the doctor, "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr Stark," the Captain said agitatedly.

Tony gave a bored look. "You think I'm not?" The genius' face grew serious and he lowered his voice the smallest bit, taking a slight step forward. "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?" He stepped back again and threw his hands up. "I can't do the equation if I don't have all the variables."

Steve straightened up. "You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy," Tony gawked, as if it couldn't be more obvious that The Director had other intentions, "Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony once again pointed at Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

Bruce looked up apprehensively and when he spoke, he bobbled the words. "Uh... I just wanna finish my work here and..."

"Doctor?" Steve pressed, wanting to know Bruce's stance on the situation.

A beat, then Bruce spoke.

"'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

Steve nodded. "I heard it."

Bruce gestured to Tony, raising his brows. "Well, I think that was meant for you."

The Captain had to restrain himself from scoffing in amusement. "The Stark Tower?" he asked, "That big ugly-"

Tony gave him a look.

"-building... in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy sources," Bruce explained, "That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototype," Tony said proudly, cockily gesturing to himself, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

Agreeing with the statement, Bruce gave a small nod, toying with his glasses as he finished his thought.

"So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D bring him in on the Tesseract project?" he voiced, in referrence to Tony, "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

There was a brief silence that fell over the lab for a moment, as all three men considered the facts. Tony broke it.

"I should probabaly look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D's secure files."

Taken by Tony's words, Steve widened his eyes. "I'm sorry, did you say...?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide." Tony held out a bag of blueberries. "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve snarked, annoyed at Tony's complete disregard for boundaries.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony squinted and tilted his head slightly. "Historically, not possible."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve said, not wanting to consider the fact that there were hidden agendas behind it all, "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

Tony skewed his mouth. "Following is not really my style."

The Captain scoffed under his breath and smiled sardonically. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"

The remark hit a nerve in Tony, and he turned his body towards the Captain fully, furowing his brow. "I'm sorry, of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?"

"Steve," Bruce appealed to the Captain, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

Steve stood there, taking in the possibility. The other two had a good point, but as an obedient soldier, he shook it off.

"Just find the cube," he muttered.

The Capatin turned and walked out of the lab. Still torn apart by the possibility, he stopped in the middle of the walkway. Then, following his gut, he walked towards the hull of the ship.

Back in the lab, Tony was voicing his distaste towards the Captain.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" he snorted. "Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

"He's not wrong about Loki," Bruce pointed out, "He does have the jump on us."

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

"And I'll read all about it."

Tony looked at the doctor thoughtfully. "Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

The doctor scrunched up his face and shook his head. "Ah, see – I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed," his gaze lowered, as did his self-esteem, "like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This," Tony tapped the mini-arc reactor in his chest, "stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege."

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how."

"It's different."

Bruce tried to read the screen in front of him, but Tony slid the data aside with his finger so that the two of them could see face-to-face.

"Hey," Tony's tone became serious, "I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

Bruce nodded once. "So you're saying that the Hulk..." he closed his eyes after speaking that word; the word he all but hated, "...the other guy... saved my life?" He kept quiet for a couple seconds then continued. "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

"I guess we'll find out," Tony shrugged, making his way back to the other side of the lab.

The two got back to work at their respective computers.

"You might not like that," Bruce remarked after a minute.

"You just might."

✧ ✧ ✧

Briefing room. S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier.

In front of a monitor, you and Thor stood side-by-side. On the screen, Jane Foster's photo and record was displayed; Thor looked at her, remembering. With you two was Agent Coulson.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Brendon enter the space, but you blocked him out and refocused on your cousin.

"As soon as Loki took Aaron and Erik, S.H.I.E.L.D moved Jane," you told Thor.

"We've got an excellent observatory in Traunsee. She was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday," Coulson added, "Handsome fee, private plane, very remote."

You placed a hand on Thor's arm, reassuring him. "She'll be safe."

"Thank you," Thor looked at you and Coulson, then all three of you moved from the monitor, "It's no accident, Loki taking Erik and Aaron."

Inhaling sharply, you nodded. "I know."

"I dread what he plans for them once he's done. They are good men." Thor rubbed the nape of his neck. "We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we... we come here battling like bilchsteim."

You and Coulson shared a puzzled look. "Like what?"

"Bilchsteim? You know; huge, scaly, big antlers." Thor placed his hands on his head and used his fingers to represent antlers. "You don't have those?"

You stuck your bottom lip out. "Don't think so."

"They are repulsive, and they trample everything in their path." Thor walked over to the side of the ship and looked out the window, lamenting about what has happened and what may come. "When I first came to earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price. And now again. In my youth I courted war."

"War hasn't started yet," Fury said, walking in, "You think you can make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

"I do not know," Thor gave a small shrug, "Loki's mind is far afield, it's not just power he craves; it's vengeance upon me. There's no pain that would prize his need from him."

"A lot of guys think that," Brendon piped up, folding his arms, "until the pain starts."

"What are you asking me to do?" Thor queried.

"I'm asking," Fury cocked his brow, "What are you preparedto do?"

"Loki is a prisoner."

Fury's face grew stern. "Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?"

_______________________________

Thank you for reading x

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solcomfortssouls · 5 years

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Avengers Endgame review

This movie suffered a bit from the sheer amount of content that made it all a bit hrr and chaotic, but everything I was looking forward to was there and some more, so I'm actually pretty satisfied.

Firstly, this movie was very Iron man centric and as a big Tony Stark fan I loved every part of it. Tony's conflict in this movie was about choosing between the happiness of his family and his own time with them and the greater good of the whole universe and for me it overshadowed everyone else.

Tony having a family and a daughter for 5 happy years. Oh god, that was so sweet and deserved. A nice house by the lake, and a cute little girl that Tony treats so lovingly while staying in character. Also his relationship with Pepper is amazing here - he told her immediately what he was thinking about doing, and she knew and loved him enough to understand he wouldn't be able to give it a rest. He wouldn't be able to let go of the chance, possible only because of his brilliant mind. She knew she married a genius with obsessive compulsion to fix the world. Tony wouldn't be able to live with himself, if he didn't. But it was hilarious and heartbreaking seeing him so mad when he realized he figured it out.

Morgan. I wonder what role she will play. I would love it if she did have some in the future. Even more if she did come up in connection with Peter somehow though that's unlikely. But every scene with her and Tony was perfection personalized.

Tony and Cap reconciling. Really all their scenes were excellent. Cap helping Tony out of the jet, Tony saying he couldn't stop Thanos, Tony saying he lost the kid in that broken tone... Then Tony getting angry because he was right to be afraid so much ahead of time and then blaming Cap and passing out...That was powerful. Not that I think he was completly right to blame Cap, and it was cruel to say that to him. But it was so in character for Tony and I felt deeply for them and their suffering in that scene.

But then Tony and Cap making amends was very satisfying. Cap still came to Tony with the time travel idea and accepted when Tony rejected him out of the concern for his family. But I think Cap knew that Tony wouldn't give it a rest, that by giving him the thought he would definitely obsess over it until he figured it out. And despite Tony having the most to lose out of all of them, he hated he couldn't save Peter. That was a loss heavily hanging on him and tipping him over the edge in his decision.

Then all the scenes showing Tony and Cap trusting each other was just plain joy. It almost makes up for the fact that Cap wasn't there in Tony's last moments. But I guess there were only so many characters that could be by his side when he was dying and the people chosen - Rhody, Peter and Pepper - were definitely Tony's most treasured people that brought him peace.

Peter coming back and Tony immediatly hugging him. Oh Peter. Also Peter running with the gauntlet and being helped by all the other heroes. Really a parent team for him.

Peter crying by Tony's side. Like that heartbroken sobbing and how he tried talking to him, waking him. Oh kid. I'm interested to see how much this will impact Peter in future movies.

Tony's death scene. I loved how Pepper didn't have a freak out but instead calmly reassured him that they would make it, that they would be okay in the world he saved for them. She was aware what was Tony staking and she truly understood who he was, accepted and loved him for it. What a beautiful love. Tony fought and struggled and obsessed and cared and suffered enough. He has done enough. He can rest now. It doesn't seem fair to me he died when he finally achieved genuine happiness - with a family and Peter back. But that's the thing with tragic and untimely death, with sacrifaces for something bigger, with battles of this scale and the loss it accompanies. And it really brings home what's at risk when someone precious is actually lost.

From narrative standpoint it makes sense because Tony wouldn't be able just stay out of the way after giving up the mantle to other heroes. There is no way he would be able to live in peace when others were in trouble. To keep him true to himself and to keep him out, they had to kill him.

It's a bit different with Cap's ending. He already lived and fought in two wars, helped more then anyone could have hoped or expected him to. So Cap took Tony's advice and example by finally making a real life for himself. I think he deserved it after all he has done for earth. Plus I have seen people saying that it went against his development of moving on from his past, but if you look closer Cap's arc was never about moving on. It's something he encouraged in others but didn't know how to do for himself. Besides Avengers were special by not letting things go and attempting the impossible. Cap was stuck in the wrong century, forced to live a different life, far from his home. I don't blame him for using the chance to have it all back when he could. Besides the world doesn't need him anymore. There is enough of superheroes that the responsibility can fall off his shoulders. It was okay for him to let go and he was able to in contrast to Tony who wouldn't be able to do so, had he survived.

It's a bit confusing with the time travel, but technically if changing something in the past leads to the same future anyway, then they used time travel without erasing everything that happens in the previous movies. Cap still returned from the ice and fought with the Avengers and met old Peggy but also had a life with her. The rules are not that clear, but I understand what they were trying to do here.

The costs of victory in this film were real and painful. Gamora forgetting her bonding with the Guardians and what person it made her into. Vision not coming back. Natasha. Cap choosing to have a life instead of saving the world over and over. And God, Tony. His whole arc came to an incredible conclusion. He had a family and a lovely relationship with his daughter. And I felt his internal conflict the most. It was a lot different for him then for the others because he didn't lose everything. He had to actually decide between having a happy life with his family or dying to save the universe. Between his own self-interest and his family or the chance of bringing everyone else's family back. (Nice little callback to what his father was worried about too. And I'm happy he got closure from the prove his father did love him).

His funeral hurt. It was so emotional to see all the characters, even the Guardians honouring his death.

The way he saved everyone - not just earth but the whole universe by what he did was epic and I pretty much coudn't breathe. When Strange held up that one finger and realization fleshed in Tony's eyes that this was the only way. Oh Tony.

To me Clint's arc of going dark after the loss of his family came off as a bit cliche and his willingness to die for Nat when he had a family to live for as unrealistic - was it to show his guilt about his actions as Ronin or his closeness to Nat or his heroic character? But I'm not much of a fan of either Clint or Nat so no surprise this wasn't emotionally moving for me. Admittedly Clint's acting was believable in the heartbreaking scenes, and he really shined while protecting the gauntlet. I was kinda proud Earth had a pretty capable protector for the infinity stones themselves in the shape of one Clint Barton.

Scott turned out important but many of his dialogue and comments were just for fun and came off to me as a bit improper. I didn't really care about him at all. But I have never been much of a fan of his.

The whole combination of Hulk-Bruce, Scott's goofiness and chubby drunk Thor that couldn't focus felt a bit jarring. It was too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Rocket I could still take. Not all of them combined.

Hulk-Bruce just felt so...out of nowhere? I was intrigued by Bruce's conflict with Hulk in Infinity War and how they were going to solve it. But this? Bruce's arc was always about accepting Hulk as part of himself instead for as his enemy. This flash-forward resolving all this off screen felt cheap and I couldn't take Hulk-Bruce seriously as result.

Thor. Hmm. I didn't care much about him before Ragnarok, but he really charmed me there. So it was interesting seeing this broken side of him. It was realistic to his character since Thor is a fighter and a man of action and not killing Thanos when he had the chance really was kinda his fault. Where was he aiming? I understand he blamed himself for this the most and that even after killing Thanos nothing was solved and even worse for Thor there was no one to fight. Nothing to do but face the emptiness of his failure. Without a pressing goal or enemy Thor neglected himself and I found it believable. As much as I missed the handsome strong Thor. But he was mentally broken and him going with the Guardians means his story is not over. He didn't have all that much to offer in the last battle - the spotlight was on Cap and Tony since this was the ending to their arcs and journeys, the peak of all their development, them reaching their full potential (Steve wielding Mjolnir, Thor and Tony's tech combined, Pep in Iron suit).That's why Thor is allowed to make heavy mistakes here.

Let's not forget all the interactions of the original Avenegers plus Nebula and Rocket as a whole. Tony, Steve and Nat putting the puzzle pieces together for the time travel heist, Nebula and her revelations and the others feeling for her, (plus how Rhodey sympathised with her), Steve and Nat scenes and Nat and Clint scenes. They really tried to do their bond justice with these and in the mourning of Nat in the later half.

Nebula proved pretty interesting this movie. There was a lot of emotional results to what have been done to her and I actually quite enjoyed the focus on her and her reunion with Gamora.

The last battle was grand, with so many characters coming to defend the Earth. It felt so well deserved after Tony, Steve and Thor fought tooth and nail with Thanos to bring everyone back, that all the saved came to back them up. I loved Cap's "Reassemble" - that was incredibly well played.

I would critise the shifts between the individual plot lines were sometimes too jarring. It was chaotic, coming from one impactful scene only to get hit with another, with little to no breathing room or time to savour the atmosphere in-between. I guess that was hard to avoid with the amount and concentration of plot and characters. Infinity War succeeded in balancing emotion, action and humour, but Endgame felt like a mess of heavy scenes mixed with a lot of out of place humour.

All in all it was a bit messier but rewarding, deeply thought-out with some characters and a bit rushed with others. I have definitely found new favourite scenes and can't wait to see Endgame again.

#avengers endgame spoilers #avengers endgame #avengers endgame review #iron man #tony stark #steve rogers #capitan america #peter parker #thor #avengers movie #marvel #mcu #endgame spoilers #spiderman #thanos #pappertony #irondad and spiderson #iron dad

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hpfangirl13 · 6 years

Text

Shipping Questions Challenge

I saw some other people answering these questions so I figured I would. This is basically everything ever about my shipping history.

Talk about the first ship you ever had.

My first ship was Bellamort. I was 11 and was in the process of reading Harry Potter for the first time. Something about them both intrigued me and despite Voldemort supposedly not being able to love, I always felt like he had a soft spot for Bellatrix. After Cursed Child, turns out I was right. ;)

Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life.

Bellamort is definitely one of them because they were my first ship, not to mention the first fanfic I ever read was about them. Jamko is probably the biggest one because ever since I saw them for the first time, I have been obsessed with them. They made me feel like no other ship ever did. The night they became canon was the best night of my life, hands down. Joe and Mika from Morning Joe are probably my third because they gave me the same effect Jamko did. I was obsessed with them the moment I saw them. Something about the way they interacted on screen made me love them. Now they’re married so woohoo!

What’s your current OTP?

Thomas Magnum and Juliet Higgins from the new Magnum P.I. They are my latest obsession and I love their will they/won’t they relationship. “Day of the Viper”, the newest episode, was huge for their relationship development. They’re completely adorable.

What’s your current NOTP?

Erin and Anthony from Blue Bloods. I love them both individually and working together as a team but I can’t stand that people are shipping them romantically. He’s more like an uncle to her, he’s just WAYYY too old for her.

Do you have any poly ships?

No. I’m not into that stuff.

How do you feel about love triangles?

Not into these either. They’re pointless and we usually already know who’s going to end up with who anyway.

How do you feel about RPF?

I ship a lot of real people and celebrities. I think it’s fine as long as people don’t get creepy about it.

Have you ever shipped yourself with a character?

Nope.

Do you have many ships that never got together at all?

The only one I can think of off the top of my head would be Captain America and Black Widow. They vibed all through Winter Soldier, but Marvel had to kill their potential relationship so that she and Hulk could be a thing. I’m still holding on to hope for them in Endgame though. I also have a lot of ships that are currently in the will they/won’t they phase.

Do you ship any characters that have never met?

No. I can’t ship people who I haven’t seen together.

Talk about your favorite first kiss.

Jamko’s first kiss back in season 4 of Blue Bloods. It was a little awkward but my 13-year-old self was losing her shit. I also had to wait a week after that episode aired to watch the episode. The struggle of having a flip phone and being on vacation was real.

Have you ever been disappointed when your ship finally got together?

YES. Jamko has been a complete mess all season 9. I’m not sure what the writers are trying to do with them, but they’ve completely killed their chemistry. I thought this season was going to be iconic, but it’s honestly been such a letdown. I wanted them together, but not with this sappy writing.

Has a ship ever broken your heart?

Jamko is kinda breaking my heart because they’ve been so out of character.

How do you feel about will they/won’t they?

It’s the best kind of ship tbh. There’s nothing better than the week to week anticipation of wondering if that week will be the week they finally happen or make progress. I love a good slow burn. You can’t say you’ve truly shipped something unless you’ve shed tears and felt pain because of the frustration of waiting.

Have you ever “shipped at first sight”?

Definitely. When you know you know. I fell in love with Jamko the minute I saw them.

Talk about a ship you initially disliked.

Initially, I hated Reylo. When Force Awakens came out I was 100% a Finn/Rey shipper. I thought her and Kylo were gross. But that all changed in The Last Jedi. Their “force Skyping” converted me. I love a good AU Reylo fic.

Talk about a pairing you’ve stopped shipping romantically.

I guess I would have to say Finn/Rey. He’s with Rose now, and as dumb as that ship is, I honestly think Rey and Kylo have more of a connection now. I also used to be really into Weller/Jane from Blindspot, but that pairing and show are shitty now.

Talk about a moment which made you question an entire ship.

This season when Jamie and Eddie were playing mini golf and Jamie revealed that he had proposed there, I was baffled. I simply don’t want to believe that he proposed to her there right after she saved him from being shot. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?

Have you ever shipped something despite yourself?

There are a few ships that I kind of don’t advertise that I’m in to. Joe and Mika and Bellamort would be a few examples.

Talk about a ship you feel alone in shipping.

I feel like I’m the only person who ships Joe and Mika. I feel like everyone hates their politics and judges them because of what they talk about on their show. Also, they’re like 50-year-old news anchors and most of my friends think I’m pretty weird for liking them anyway. There’s probably someone out there who likes them as much as I do, I just haven’t found them yet.

Is there a ship you just don’t get, but have nothing against?

I guess Samar and Aram from Blacklist. They’re ok I guess, but I don’t really ship them. I don’t have anything against them though.

Which of your ships have the best chemistry?

Currently? Higgins and Magnum no question. But Ellick, Slibbs, and WonderBat are some of my other favorite matches in terms of overall chemistry.

Which of your ships deserve better writing?

JAMKO JAMKO JAMKO JAMKO JAMKO

Do you mostly ship canon pairings?

Many of the ships I have have become canon since I started shipping them. I find myself beginning to ship people, and then they get together down the road. There’s honestly nothing that I ship that I believe has no chance of getting together.

Have you ever shipped a pairing before you even started watching the show/movie simply because of gifs and graphics or similar?

Yes. This is what prompted me to start watching the new Magnum P.I.

Have you noticed a pattern in your shipping? Is there a romantic dynamic you’re more drawn to?

Yes. I love pairings where both people are very strong and independent, but unstoppable together. I pretty much exclusively watch crime dramas, so I especially love police and military couples. If they have obvious sexual tension, I’ll probably be drawn to them.

Is there a ship you’ve shipped for most of your life?

I guess my longest ship would be Bellamort, which I started shipping when I was 11. I’m 18 now, but 7 years is a pretty good amount of time. I’ve also shipped Jamko for 6 years now.

Does shipping come easily to you?

It’s like breathing.

Do you need to ship something to really enjoy a movie/book/tv show/comic?

This depends. In some cases, yes. But I love The Blacklist and I haven’t really shipped anyone on that show.

Name a couple of fandoms in which you have no ships.

I think Blacklist is kind of it… although I may be putting my Keenler hat back on soon.

Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love.

The “sharing a bed in a hotel” headcanon is an all-time favorite of mine.

Name your favorite fan artist(s).

To be honest, I don’t really know any fan artists by name.

Share your favorite fanmix for your OTP.

For Jamko, the entire “The Block” album by New Kids on the Block. It’s not exactly a fanmix, but it’s a perfect album for them. I have made my own playlist for Magnum/Higgins recently:

“Juliet”- LMNT, “We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going”- Pussycat Dolls, “Big Time”- Big Time Rush, “7 rings”- Ariana Grande, “CRZY”- Kehlani

Do you create fanmixes/gif sets/fanart/fic/fanvids and so on for your ships?

Sadly no. I don’t have the talent or time.

Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?

Not really. I have to be in a certain mood to read AU fics anyway.

Do you like and use ship names?

I love them and use them frequently, as illustrated by this post.

Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself?

I live vicariously through Eddie Janko. In middle school, I literally tried to act and dress like her. So that should tell you whose relationship I wish I could be in.

If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be?

How Jamko has been written this season. Go back to season 9 episode 1 and start over.

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weirdlanders · 6 years

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How did havok recruit luminous? Is there a story behind the two of them?

Okay sooooooooooo, I went waaay overboard on this 8,D When I started writing this, I meant for it to be a short little thing like the Athrenna vs. Feur short story went. But exploring Luminous’ first contact with Havok was way too fun because he had so much to get over to even agree to ally himself with him. None of it having to do with his now obvious crush on Havok, what the things that made Luminous want to fight the Darkness.

Soooooo again, apologies for the length. I hope it’s still intriguing enough to read, since it’s not drawn out, but to draw all this would take way too long. Havok and Luminous’ friendship is complex at first, so this was so much fun to write ;u; I hope yall enjoy!

Darkness had always been the root of Luminous’ fears. Countless years the fear had crippled him, leading many others to rally against him and bully him. Afterall, he was a being of Light itself. A blazing star with a conscious of his own, a mind, body and soul. Yet, Darkness was always lurking in the corners of light realms. Threatening to devour him whole one day, devour everyone! He had to be the one to defeat it once and for all. Nobody else had believed him, finding it to be such a childish ambition. But what was so childish about it? The Darkness was their true enemy above all others, and if nobody else would take it seriously; he would. And he would kill anyone that dared to stand in his way.

When it came to those that didn’t believe in him, they were easy to defeat. Luminous was a strong warrior, and when he finally escaped his prison, he was ready to continue his end goal. What better way to do that than to take on the most evil family in the lands. The very family that was the heart of all the Darkness; the Kaos family. He had seen the Queen sparsely, but he knew he could kill her. What he didn’t realize, however, that attacking her directly had put him in far more danger than he could have imaged. When the entire family and their army took notice of him; a small, dangerous lone star, he felt the heat.

Defeating their minions was fairly easy, they clearly had underestimated him. Attacking one of her generals was a smart idea, they all had crystals on them that could open a portal right into the heart of Kurosia; where he needed to go. The Veil, he gathered, would stop him immediately. That and uh… he was afraid to just throw himself into it. He had no idea why, but even stepping foot in Kurosia gave him such a wave of sickening fear. He had to teleport there, defeat the heart of all Darkness, and get out before he died too. Easy!

But the general he picked… was the wrong one.

Luminous thought it would be easy, he really did. This general had few minions, and every villain knew he hated working in teams. Just like Luminous, only HE was a magnificent being of Light. The most superior element of all. The minions he first encountered here creatures made of broken wood, smoldering furniture, and glowing eyes. Things made out of the destroyed buildings the general had brought down. They barely held a threat to Luminous as their bodies crumbled away from his light, peeling and hissing into piles of debris with a snap of his golden fingers. He couldn’t help to smirk with glee as even the mabu that ran toward him with hopeful faces ran screaming when they realized he wasn’t there to help them. ‘Yes, fear me.’ Luminous thought as he floated along the dismayed streets. ‘You all fear the evil of Darkness; but you should fear me instead. I, and greater.”

There was a loud stomping that made Luminous stop. And the giant, hulking form slid out from between two crumbling homes. It was massive, black, with bright glowing orange/red eyes. They shimmered, reflecting the burning chaos like mirrors back to Luminous. The thing stopped in the middle of the street, staring at him just as he stared back at it. He didn’t realize it at first; but Luminous was frozen with a sudden sense of fear.

The general he had been looking for stood tall. Tall enough to meet Luminous’ eyes, however the star always floated wherever he went. This thing was standing on it’s own long, dragon like legs. It spread it’s gigantic wings, both of which were easily twice the length of the general’s body. The wings tainted the light of the fires, covering Luminous in a reddish hue. The realization sunk in slowly for Luminous, the cold revelation of just who this general was creeping along his spine like an evil snake. This… wasn’t a general. This was a Warlord, and not just any Warlord. No wonder enemy villains weren’t anywhere to be seen, despite the few minions, why the Skylanders hadn’t quite made it here yet.Havok stood before him, nearly silhouetted against the fires behind him. His tail twitched and flicked behind him, shining bright like his horns. Luminous had never gotten this close to him before, and by the look of the hybrid’s face, neither had he. They both stood frozen for a few moments, but the son of the evil Emperor and his Queen moved first.“Skylander…” He snarled under his breath. Luminous’ chest tightened with fear and anxiety as the beast’s voice reverberated in his own body. His tone was deep, twisted with an even deeper rumble of a growl that dragons often had. Luminous felt himself start to quake with fear, but he tightened his fists. No, he would NOT weaken now. This was his chance to strike at the darkness he had been afraid of his whole life. This thing before him wasn’t a living, breathing being; it was Darkness. It was the embodiment of his fears. Luminous narrowed his almond shaped eyes, feeling the light broil beneath his skin. The hybrid clearly winced at this and backed away a few steps. “That’s right, cower before me you wretched blight.” Luminous floated higher; taller. He held out his hands, letting his light glow brighter. “I am not aligned with those fools, but you should fear me nonetheless. I am Luminous, your harbinger of death. I will not cease my war against your Darkness until you are all snuffed out by my light.”Havok took more steps back, his wings closing in closer to his body. He held up an arm, trying to shield himself from the burning light. Luminous felt his evil smirk deepen as he floated closer. ‘That’s right.’ He thought with growing, sinister glee. ‘Burn away, burn!’There was a sound Luminous heard before everything went numb and blurry. It was a trickling sound, weak at first, but exploded into a full hearty laugh. But it wasn’t him that had laughed; it was that dark abomination. Luminous coughed suddenly, realizing he was on his back and pushed deep into the stoned street. He wheezed, feeling his body slowly re-awaken. What had happened? Why was there a loud ringing in his ears?The trickling laughter had not ceased either. It slowly returned as Luminous regained his hearing, suddenly spotting Havok standing over him. The star quickly scrambled onto his side, dragging himself out of the rock and shot back into the air. The hybrid stayed where he was, watching Luminous with those mirrored glowing orange eyes. “Aren’t you polite.” Havok bellowed up at him, his voice carrying along the winds far too well. Luminous hated how his voice still made his chest rumble, as if his insides were a vast canyon. But that was nothing compared to the aching pain that was his very presence. Such pure Darkness made his skin burn cold, something no artic elemental could ever do. The elements in their very bodies resented each other so much it burned both of them.Havok threw out his arms, spreading his wings to their full staggering length. “Well hello, Luminous, not-an-annoying-Skylander-but-still-REALLY-annoying-light-bug. I am Havok Kaoson, your sovereign of destruction, Lover of the ladies, Ender of Skylanders, Handsomest Hybrid ever, and all them fancy words. I’m afraid I can’t let you do aaaaaaany of what you babbled on about.”Luminous scowled with disgust. For a being of so much sickening Darkness, he was so crass! He wasn’t taking this seriously at all! Luminous gritted his teeth, wanting to punch that smirk right off the hybrid’s all about wrong face. “You cannot stop me!” He barked back, holding out his arms to summon forth crystals of light beside him. He loved how that smirk slipped off the hybrid’s face. “I’ll kill you like the parasite you are, and I’ll come for the rest of you all. I will not stop until ALL of your putrid Darkness is GONE!” Havok pulled his lips up into a vicious snarl, baring his long, dragon like fangs. His hair bristled like the hackles of a wolf, and his wings twisted down in anger. “Not as polite. Fine. Guess I’ll just have to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget, you eyesore!”The hybrid suddenly launched off the ground with a loud explosion of rock. Luminous darted out of the way, shocked as the rocks roared and shot after him. Havok could control the elements?! He shot around the massive pillar, hearing loud, thundering wing beats behind him. ‘Of course!’ he realized. Havok was the son of Kaos, the Emperor, a small pathetic whelp of a human. The evil portal master that somehow murdered Eon. Portal masters could control all the elements, except the one that contrasted their light, or dark element. He hadn’t expected Havok to also have those abilities, but Luminous quickly recovered from the revelation.

Luminous darted away quickly, hearing the growls of frustration from Havok told him that he was obviously quicker than his enemy. Havok batted his wings harder to try and catch up as Luminous shot between crumbling buildings of the dying town. They seemed to try and lean toward Luminous, as if the buildings themselves were trying to fall on him. Rocks and burning beams of wood shot up at him on their own, forcing Luminous to dodge from impossible angles. Adrenaline drilled through Luminous as he realized how dangerous Havok truly was. While he was slower than him, he could control the very air around him. He couldn’t escape or gain too much distance; Luminous had to fight in close combat. The horror of it sunk deeper into his very being. He felt the fear grip his thundering heart. He didn’t want to be close to that beast, he was… scared. The shame brought a molten tear to his eye, igniting his core with fury. No, no he was NOT scared! Spinning in the air in a sharp, split second circle, Luminous shot a beam of light out before him. Havok didn’t have any time to avoid it, he crashed right through it. The beam splintered into glass like shards of light, and Luminous winced as he heard the hybrid’s squeal of pure, agonizing pain. Havok spun wildly in the air, his long metal tail whipping toward Luminous so quickly he was struck. Luminous felt the wind leave him as he was catapulted into a building; breaking through the wood like paper. The foundations and the rock caught his fall, and by some strange spin of luck, the building fell upon him through the hole in it he created. Leaving him unscathed when he couldn’t control his own body yet. The hit knocked him back down like that mysterious explosion Havok caused before. Burning bits of straw landed on him gently, lighting raining down from the crumbling ceiling before him. He had a blissful few moments to breathe, and regain himself.Slowly, Luminous pulled himself back up to his feet. He coughed, holding his side. He felt a tinder pain sting at his own touch; broken ribs. The star gritted his teeth. His bones were hard to break, his insides were not like most mortal beings. He had never broken anything before, but that hybrid’s tail had. Forcing himself to ignore the pain, Luminous flew gently through the hole in the ceiling. The town was covered in fire, screams, and death. The black clouds of smoke pillared into the air, covering the sun and bathing everything in Darkness. All but Luminous, who floated in the sky like a beacon of light. He glared his burning eyes for Havok, but didn’t see any evidence of the hybrid. Had Luminous won? Had he killed the darkness?No. Luminous felt him before he saw him. A rumble of bellowing darkness roared below his feet, and the star’s face fell with utter horror at the hybrid reaching below him. He was surrounded by smoke, flickers of red bolts of thunder and fire. His wings were outstretched, trailing the billows of smoke and fire. His eyes filled Luminous with so much fear he screamed, they were blazing like endless pits of fire. That very fire rolled out of Havok’s mouth, tailing down the sides of his face as if his insides were nothing but a blazing inferno. Havok’s talons closed around Luminous’ ankle before the star could shoot away, his hold was so agonizingly tight Luminous feared that his ankle would be yanked off. Instead Havok threw him with so much force he bounced off the street, sending his helmet spiraling off his head. Countless times he rolled, crashing into street lamps as if they were nothing but twigs in his wake. Finally, a tall stone wall caught his fall, shooting mindless pain all along his broken side. Luminous gagged on his agony, rolling onto his stomach to try and crawl back to his feet. A few mabu ran out of a burning building before him, completely ignoring the star as they tried desperately to escape. Just as Luminous pulled himself up to his knees using the very wall that caught him, he heard the wingbeats. Quickly, he spun around and shot a beam of light behind him, but Havok was already spinning out of the way. He tried again, and again, but the hybrid rolled around them with horrifying speeds. Yet, before he even got into grabbing distance again, Luminous felt the rock eat his arm. He sunk into the rock wall as if it were made of sand, forcing him to use his free arm to bat helplessly at it. “No! NO!” Luminous roared, hissing through his teeth at the pain in his side.Havok landed with a loud thump behind him. Luminous grunted and turned halfway, glaring at the towering hybrid calmly walking up to him. Before Luminous could fire another beam, the metal railing of the gate beside the wall shot out and entangled around his wrist like snakes. He felt more shot up from the ground, spiraling around his legs and torso. One grasped around his neck, forcing his head back painfully. Luminous couldn’t help but cry out in anger, frustration… and fear.

“Alright, lightbug. You’re pissing me off.” Havok panted, smoke curling around his jaws and face. His eyes seemed to slide back, making Luminous jump, until he realized they revealed his true eyes. They were blood red, slitted like a dragon’s, with clashing blue around the thin pupils. The whites of his eyes were a golden yellow, like kindling fires. He continued toward Luminous until he squatted beside him, his nostrils flaring with heat and hints of fire. Luminous fought his restraints, but not even he could break free of them. His fear brought his hands to shake, he fought against it desperately. No, he couldn’t let the fear control him! He had to remember the light, feel stronger than this parasite, so his light could ignite him like he could before. But Havok was so close now, staring at him right in the eyes like he was some bizzare creature. Luminous could see blood oozing out of his ears and from a deep gash in his forehead. From the beam of light he crashed into earlier. Around the wounds, the skin shimmered as if touched by golden glitter, the flesh turning even redder around the golden bits. The hybrid’s steaming blood coated one side of his face, giving him a gruesome, beastly appearance. Was this it? Luminous saw his eyes blur with tears as Havok’s face wobbled for a moment. Was this how he was going to die? By a mere Warlord of Darkness, the very, very first step to his journey. How could he fail this easily? How could he let his fears own him like this… he really was weak. All this time, everyone had been right about him. He would fail this apparent, impossible goal. Darkness would never be defeated, it would continue on, consuming the light until there was nothing left but the black abyss. No, he had to face his fate without fear. He refused to let any tears fall as he glared at Havok, starting to burn his light with fury. Havok made a face at him.“Cut that out.” Havok ordered. “Dude, stop. Dim the lights.” The request was so bizzare, Luminous obeyed with a look of angry confusion. The hybrid waved a taloned hand as if to shoo away the light and smoke. “Look. Who are you, really? Why don’t you work for the Skylanders?” Havok asked, the fires dimming in his throat. Luminous breathed through the restraints and the pain, though air seemed hard to come by.

“I-I… I already…” Luminous started, but Havok shook his head. “Yeah Luminous the ender of worlds whatever.” Havok waved his hand again, a bit more rushed. Frustrated.

“Ender of-no! I’m…Luminous, I work for nobody.” He huffed, finally easing his struggle. The pain in his side was too much to bare for it. He swallowed hard, but Havok seemed oddly patient to listen to him. “The Skylanders… imprisoned me, they are my enemies.”“Why’d they do that? Aren’t you a Light elemental? Aren’t you like… automatically their ally?” He asked, tilting his head and twisting his snout in confusion. Luminous felt his fear prickle. He hated how friendly he suddenly was… or was he friendly? Was he merely acting, just to get information out of him?“N-no.” Luminous continued. “They are… weak. They won’t do what’s necessary to defeat the enemy. But I do, and for that, they tried to lock me away in my own prison tailored to… me.” He finished, breathing heavily.Havok stared at him, and Luminous felt his skin crawl. His mere aura pressed against his own, making his body feel cold. He hated it, he wanted to wiggle away. Havok looked just as uncomfortable, yet he stayed where he was, resting his elbows on his thighs. Luminous stared up at the hybrid, getting a very close look at how strange he was. He had a blunt dragon like muzzle, yet it didn’t clash with his square like face all that much. He had large, slitted eyes and black markings running down his face; at least, from what Luminous could see through the blood. While he was big, he wasn’t as massive as the star originally thought. He was a few heads taller than Luminous, and he seemed slightly bigger built. He wore layers upon layers of leather and metal, dotted with metals and awards. He had spined shoulder pads… or where those spikes a part of him? The hybrid blinked, and Luminous got a glimpse of his third reflective eyelid slid back horizontally over his eye. The third eyelids, an organ dragons had that protected their eyes in flight. Havok seemed to control it, letting it cover his eyes to give them that haunting, glowing appearance.“Hm, so you’re a villain?” Havok asked, making Luminous jump.

“Uh… yes, I am a villain.” Luminous mumbled, confused at Havok’s rudimentary wording of things.“A light villain…” Havok thought out loud, tapping his metal goatee spikes. Luminous blinked at him. Was he toying with him? Playing this out like some cruel torture? “Never heard of that before.” Havok continued, refocusing his slitted eyes on him again. “Look, if you’re not with the Skylanders, we don’t have to be enemies.” He said. Luminous stared at him with stunned shock, his mouth falling open a little.

“W-Wha… yes, yes we do!” Luminous bellowed back. Havok blinked his eyes as if a sudden gust of air blew in his face. “You are Darkness crawling in your very bones! I will not stop until every last drop of Darkness is gone!”

“Alrighty then… why’s that?” Havok asked calmly. The star blinked back at him, confused.“Why???” Luminous repeated. Havok nodded eagerly. What… was his motive? Luminous looked around; no living thing stood around them. No Mabu, no reinforcements for either Havok or the Skylanders. Just them. “Uh.. Because, you’re… Darkness.” Luminous mumbled, unsure how to even answer that. They were made to fight, couldn’t Havok feel it? How their very elemental cores couldn’t bare to be around each other? Luminous had to destroy all of it, he just had to. Why question it?‘Because… I’m afraid of it.’ Luminous realized. Havok flinched with surprise, catching the star’s attention. Wait… had he accidentally said that out loud?! Luminous sucked in a sharp breath of air, staring up at Havok with embarrassing horror.“Wow, you’re finally real with me.” Havok said, surprised. Luminous felt his face grow hot with embarrassment. “Well, since you’re real with me, I’ll be real with you.” Havok continued. “I don’t want to fight you anymore. It’s not everyday an evil light elemental walks right up to me. We could work together instead.” “WHAT?” Luminous screeched, but he winced at how his voice cracked. Havok flinched but that damn smirk pulled back onto his face. “Think about it! You could work for me and my family’s kingdom, and I can help you get over that fear.” Havok offered, holding out his arms a bit. “What do you say?”Luminous stared at him with so much confusion, he couldn’t speak. He opened his mouth a few times, but kept closing it. That… made no sense. “I… I have to defeat the Darkness…” Luminous said faintly, as if his reality was being broken apart. Havok shook his head.

“No, that’s impossible. Just like Darkness can’t defeat the Light.” Havok explained as if it was known fact. “Our elements will always exist, there’s no defeating them. When they’re unbalanced, it’s the rest of the elements that feel it. The rest of the realms. And I hate to admit it; things aren’t balanced very well lately.”Luminous listened to him. Why? It sounded so crazy to him, like insane babbling of some fake truth. Yet he didn’t speak up. “If you work alongside us, you won’t ever have a reason to fear the Darkness. We can be allies, and all the realms can be our playground. Without you having to fear a single thing.”Havok’s words repeated in his mind, circling around and around. An ally… to the Darkness? The very thing he feared all his life, so much so it twisted him against his own people. He had killed so many innocents in order to reach his goal, but did those lives even matter to begin with?

The star hadn’t realized Havok had released him. He suddenly rolled onto his knees, catching the ground with both hands. Havok stayed squatting before him, wings folded behind him and tail twitching over his toes. ‘I don’t want to fight you anymore’ ‘Darkness can’t defeat the light’ ‘we can be allies’ ‘you won’t ever have a reason to fear the Darkness’

Luminous looked up to meet the hybrid’s eyes again. They had a warmth in them he hadn’t seen directed at him before; friendliness. Even other light elementals glowered at him, cursing him for his ambition. Even if he did defeat the darkness, when he was done… there would be nobody for him. Nobody would cheer him on, he’d only return to be hated for how he accomplished his goal. He felt a chill consume him as he looked at his hands. He was a kindling orange and red shade, flecks of gold barely visible in his skin.

“So?” Havok asked, bringing Luminous back from his thoughts. There was suddenly a taloned hand held before him, making the star flinch back. But it stayed there, and Luminous looked up to see Havok’s excited, expecting face. “Be my ally, and I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”“H-how can you possibly do that?” Luminous sighed, turning his head away. He felt so defeated, what was there to fight for? Was that why all the light beings laughed at him? They all knew for sure Darkness couldn’t be defeated, it was the silly streams of a child. “I’m the Emperor and Queen’s son.” Havok laughed. “They can’t do anything to you if you’re my ally. If anyone dares to try and get at you, it would mean their entire people could be cut off from their own alliance with my family.” The hybrid puffed up his chest, beaming with so much confidence Luminous frowned at him. Yet something about it was… uplifting. Assuring. “My family controls the rule of all Evil in Skylands. Those that don’t ally themselves with us endanger being our enemies. With our numbers, that could mean the end of entire villainous factions. So, ally yourself with me, and you’ll be apart of our evil regime. And I can help you get over your fears of the Dark too, easy peasy lemon squeezy.” Havok shrugged.

Luminous was silent for a handful of moments. He sat on his knees, staring down at the debris. Fire still burned loudly all around them, yet things were so quiet. No more screams of agony of the dying, the screeches of fear from the destruction. Just them. Luminous explored Havok’s welcoming face. He seemed… honest. True to his word. Could he actually help Luminous? Give him a new purpose? Could… he really conquer his fear?

Without him thinking, Luminous found his hand reaching up to clasp Havok’s. His hand felt blazingly warm, fighting the cold that Havok’s very aura made him feel. The hybrid stood up, pulling Luminous up with him with little effort. Their hands shook in agreement, and Havok’s smile only widened. But he was waiting; Luminous swallowed hard, his mind reeling and trying to understand what he was agreeing to.“A-Alright.” Luminous said when he found his voice, gripping Havok’s scaled hand harder. “I agree to be your ally, Havok Kaoson.” He said, puffing up his on chest and holding his circular head high. Havok beamed, chuckling deep in his throat. “Just call me Hov, or Hovvy. And loosen up, I’m not ‘bout that regal stuff okay?” The hybrid let go of Luminous’ hand, and the star rubbed his hands together. They felt cold again, but Havok paid no mind. “Ah, perfect timing too.” Havok sighed with annoyance. Luminous blinked curiously, following Havok’s gaze up to the sky. There were dots heading toward them; undoubtedly Skylanders. Luminous tensed up, feeling his body ignite with light once more. This was it, the first battle with his first ally!“Wait, dim the lights!” Havok shushed. Luminous blinked at him. “We don’t need to fight em now, let’s just get you back to Kurosia, introduce you to the kingdom first.”“What?” Luminous blurted, baffled. “You… want to run away? From a battle?” Luminous felt angry, he could NOT ally himself with a coward!“Pick your battles.” Havok chuckled. “This one isn’t worth the effort, it’s just a tiny little mabu village I decided to toy around with. Let the Skylanders come in to cry and clean up after us. C’mon, introductions.” Havok waved Luminous after him as he turned away calmly. Luminous frowned at the oncoming Skylanders, but sighed and followed the hybrid. Fine, introductions it was. Havok pulled a shimmering purple crystal out of his pocket; the teleportation gem, the very thing Luminous had originally attacked him for. Havok crushed it in his palm, then inhaled deeply to breathe the dust out before him. The dust twisted into celtic like knots, swirling wildly into a wide portal before them. The framed image of the burning building before them shattered into shards like a mirror, opening a portal to what looked like empty darkness. Havok looked at Luminous with a smile. “Alright, just follow me. Stick close to me, and let me do the talking. Trust me, once everyone knows you’re on our side, you’re going to be like royalty. A light elemental ally… you’re goin’ to love it.” Havok promised him, oddly warm. Luminous stared at him, still so very unsure of how to feel about this guy. He had hurt him, he was STILL bleeding from his head. Yet, Havok looked at him with the friendliest expression ever meant for him. Luminous didn’t understand why he felt so compelled to work for this dark hybrid, when he was so deathly afraid of him just moments before. Why… did he feel like he could trust him?

Slowly, Luminous nodded, and Havok lept into the portal. The darkness consumed him hungrily, then it waited for Luminous. He watched it, feeling the cold, bitter fear start to crawl back to him. He shook his head. No, he had the chance to win over this fear. To do it, he needed this alliance. And he needed to face that fear with Havok’s help. Luminous summoned his helmet to him, which flew to him like a magnet. He put it back on just as the Skylander’s yells started to cry out. He took a breath, then Luminous stepped into the Darkness.

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veliseraptor · 7 years

Text

okay, let’s try this. it’s 150 words meme time! send me a number for one of the fics below and I’ll write 150 words in it.

ten (I can count) possible fics for this meme, yes three of them are dubious frostmaster porn what of it

1. She looked in her father’s eyes and saw familiar grim determination, and knew that if she refused...the Battle-Crow had no mercy for dissenters. If she challenged him, she would be setting herself against him, and it would be war. One of them would be destroyed.

She might be able to win. She was young, and strong, and knew her father’s weaknesses and strengths like the back of her hand. Without her, his firstborn and sharpest blade, his strength would be cut in half - but without his link to Asgard’s power, so would hers.

It was the hardest thing she had ever done, but Hela bowed her head. “If that is your will, Father,” she said, “then, as always, I will stand at your right hand to execute it.” (swords into plowshares)

2. We can be pretty damn sure Hydra’s looking.” Steve could see Bucky’s knee bouncing up and down. “We should be ready when they show up.”

“If,” Sam said. “If they show up. Let’s all remember that’s the worst case scenario and not the inevitable outcome.”

“That’s not the worst case scenario,” Loki said. He’d stopped eating, poking at his chili and staring at it instead of anyone else. “The worst case scenario is that they come here and catch us off guard, armed with tools that experimenting on me gave them the means to create. And perhaps the scepter as well.” (Steve Rogers’ Halfway House for Notorious Supervillains)

3. “You’re going to hate yourself for spilling your guts to me tomorrow,” Valkyrie muttered. Loki laughed weakly and tossed back the rest of his glass.

“I hate myself for it now,” he said. “But who else am I going to - spill my guts to? I don’t have friends. On this ship - or, honestly, in general. Which is my fault, mostly. The only people I know are the Hulk, who would snap my spine in a half second if I so much as blink at him wrong, Heimdall, with whom I’ve never been friends and seldom been friendly, and you.”

“And Thor,” Valkyrie said. “You could definitely be doing this on Thor instead.”

“No,” Loki said. “No, I could not.” (when our time is up, we’ll be ashamed (or proud))

4. “This…” Loki had to focus to keep himself from trying to yank the thing off. He knew how that would go. “I don’t need encouragement to comply with your wishes,” Loki said finally, hoping his smile looked amused rather than - well, afraid.

“Oh! Oh, you thought-” The Grandmaster laughed. “No, no. This is a new design, sweet thing, all-new, all-different.”

“Ah,” Loki said after a moment. His nerves, if anything, only prickled more intensely. “Is that so?”

“Mmhm,” the Grandmaster said. He stepped back in toward Loki, pulling his hand down and leaning in to mouth wetly along his jawline. “It’s going to be fun. Honest. You’re lucky, you’re going to be the first one to test drive it - ah, in the field, as it were.”

Loki bit his tongue so he didn’t shiver too obviously when the Grandmaster’s tongue pressed firmly against his pulse. “Lucky me,” he said. (pull the focus, spotlight on)

5. He couldn’t say what about the mirror caught his eye - it was broken, after all, a few shards of silvered glass lying on the floor that crunched under Loki’s heel. He crouched down in front of it, studying the slender silver frame - remarkably simple.

Then he realized what was strange about it: the glass didn’t reflect his face. There was no answering gleam in the mirror of the witchlight hovering over his shoulder. The broken pieces stayed dark and gleaming. Loki pulled a piece of glass away and turned it over; the back was the same.

“Why make a mirror that reflects nothing?” Loki asked it, frowning. (Mirror, Mirror)

6. Loki clenched his fists at his side but didn’t pull away, keeping his expression in a faint, amused smile as the Grandmaster studied him. His fingers were startlingly soft, uncalloused, though each point of contact tingled with old, strange magic. Loki could feel it all around him, an aura of power that tugged at him. Loki wondered if it was conscious or just an artifact of whatever the Grandmaster was.

Either way, it was intriguing. And dangerous.

“Oh yes,” the Grandmaster said. “I think you’ll do quite nicely.”

“High praise, I assume,” Loki said, keeping his smile.

“Absolutely,” the Grandmaster said. “I only take the best,” and flashed a dazzling smile of his own. Loki wondered, very briefly, if he’d made a tactical error. (the rapture of that cruelty)

7. Asgard’s waters were cold, and clear, and quiet. Or at least quiet here, where they’d eddied into a small bay.

Loki stayed in the water until his fingers started to wrinkle, staring upwards and watching the stars make their slow, crawling way across the sky. He thought he might have stayed there forever, were it not for Thor calling his name.

“Loki!” He said, voice breaking into the relative quiet of his thoughts. “We should go back.” (Stitching)

8. “Is there anything else I can do? I’m just here to help however I can.”

Loki stopped dead and backtracked a few steps. He recognized that voice: he might not have heard it many times but those few were fairly memorable occasions. Captain America was in plainclothes, his back (fortunately) to Loki and talking to one of the volunteers.

Did Thor know he was here? He hadn’t said anything to Loki, if he did, but perhaps he wasn’t aware yet - he had been rather busy arguing with stubborn Midgardian officials on Asgard’s behalf.

Loki moved to where he could get a better look at the Captain. Out of his uniform and sporting a new beard, shoulders slightly hunched to hide their width, he was passably disguised. Plainly he didn’t want to be recognized. (the first steps stumbling forward)

9. They barely made it into the hall before the Grandmaster backed Loki against one of the walls and kissed him, though the word was mild for what felt more like he was trying to reach the back of Loki’s throat with his tongue, his body pressing up against Loki’s. Loki didn’t have to wonder what it was prodding against his stomach but he did startle a little to feel it there.

“Oh,” the Grandmaster said, releasing Loki’s mouth, “I’m sorry, it’s just, well. You see, public executions, they have this effect on me. It’s just awful.” (as yet untitled dubious porn)

10. “Really?” Loki said, more than a little breathless.

Valkyrie looked like she was going to snarl. “Do you really want to give me a chance to rethink this really stupid idea?”

“I’m hurt.” She narrowed her eyes.

“You really don’t know when to shut your mouth, do you?” She asked.

“It’s one of my charms.” Loki smiled brightly at her.

“It’s one of your somethings.” Valkyrie glared up at him, and then shrugged, her smile appealingly dangerous. “Well. What’s one more stupid idea? I’ve had worse ones.” (bad decisions)

#fic excerpt #meme #confessions of a frustrated writer

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littleplebe · 7 years

Note

Heyyyyy. I wish you would write a Wintershock with this: “Dude why did that siren take on my image to try and seduce you, is there something you wanna tell me?”

“Dr. Foster, the Avengers havereturned. Prince Thor requests your presence in the med bay.”

Darcy’s ears pricked up at theannouncement and she glanced at Jane to find her wide-eyed with worry.

“Is he hurt? Is anyone hurt?”Jane asked, already closing her laptop and swiping her phone off the desk.

“Only Sergeant Barnes and AgentBarton.”

“Shit,” Darcy whispered indismay.

She watched Jane from the cornerof her eye as the scientist hurried to the door but Darcy, herself, made nomove to leave. She desperately wanted to go, but decided she would simplyclutter up the area. Post-mission reunions were exclusive to the Avengers andtheir beloved/close friends only.

“You, too, Ms. Lewis,” JARVISsaid.

Darcy looked up, bewildered.“What now?”

“Your presence is required in themed bay as well.”

Jane stopped at the door andturned to her stumped assistant. “Well, don’t just sit there!”

Darcy jumped up and sped afterJane, her mind spinning with concern for Clint and Bucky, interspersed with herbafflement over JARVIS’ message. Sure, she was acquainted with the Avengers,some more than others, but she wasn’t that close to any of them, atleast not enough to warrant an invitation to post-mission group hugs.

Jane took the private elevatordown to the medical floor, Darcy fidgeting nervously beside her.

“How hurt do you think they are?”she asked, looking around at the slick metal lining of the elevator. It wasbigger than the employee elevator and housed a freaking couch in case one got tired of standing.

Darcy didn’t have clearance touse the private elevator.

“I don’t know.” Jane shrugged.“Hope they’re not too serious. Bucky can heal, but Clint…”

“Yeah.” Darcy coughed guiltily.She was more worried about Bucky. Clint was a great guy, no doubt, but Bucky?Bucky was special. He was strong, funny, criminally handsome, and heappreciated Darcy’s choice in movies.

She maybe nursed a small crush onhim. Maybe.

Small.

One-sided.

Jane poked her when they reachedthe med bay and Darcy looked up to find the Avengers, Nick Fury and Maria Hillstanding there in a circle. Thor broke off to envelope Jane in his arms, pressinga brief, relieved kiss to her lips.

“Darcy,” he said with a smile,turning to give her a hug as well.

Darcy happily hugged him back,squeezing his biceps and lingering deliberately until he barked out a laugh andpushed her away.

“Lewis,” Tony Stark greeted, beckoningher into the circle. “How many times have I told you, no inappropriate behaviorin my tower?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Likeyou’re one to talk. How’s Bucky?” she asked, adding belatedly, “And Clint?”

“They’ll be fine.”

“Cool.” She stifled a sigh ofrelief. “So why am I here?”

Tony eyed the people around them.“Anyone want to fill her in on what happened?”

The first person to catch Darcy’seye was Steve. He looked drained but offered her a polite smile. Beside him,Natasha Romanoff smirked, looking no less scary than she usually looked. Furyand Agent Hill were as impassive as ever. Dr. Banner sported tattered clothesand looked about ready to collapse.

No one stepped up to answerTony’s question.

“What is it?” Darcy finallyblurted, unable to take the suspense. “Is it my parents? Are they supervillainsnow? ‘Cause last I checked, my dad was working with unstable chemicals at KripkoChem.”

Darcy had warned him to becareful. Playing with science was what had caused Johann Schmidt to become theRed Skull in the first place. It wasn’t safe, dammit! Why did no one everlisten to her?

“This is all your fault,” shethrew carelessly at Jane, who gave her a flat look, totally unaffected by thebaseless accusation. She was used to Darcy blaming her for every wrong thing inher life. More often than not, it was funny.

“Your dad’s fine, Darcy,” Steve assuredher. He sighed and looked at Fury, who grimaced.

“I’m outta here. Debrief in anhour.”

“I dislike him a lot,” Darcywhispered to Tony as the former director of SHIELD stalked off, his leathercoat billowing impressively behind him.

“Everyone does,” Tony whisperedback. “He’s very unlikable.”

Once Fury had disappeared, Stevestepped forward and took Darcy’s arm, leading her some distance away from thegroup. Tony followed, a curious bounce to his step. For a man sporting an uglybruise on his forehead, he looked a little too gleeful for Darcy’s comfort.

“Uh,” she mumbled, glancing backat the others. They watched her for a moment before Jane said something andeveryone turned their attention to her. Darcy scrunched up her face at Tony.“Am I fired? Because I swear I haven’t posted unsolicited Avengers photos ontwitter in more than three weeks!”

Tony snorted, but was otherwiseunsurprised by her admission. “You’re not fired, but we’re gonna have a talkabout your extracurricular activities in the tower.”

“Never mind that,” Steveinterrupted impatiently. “Darcy. This is about the mission.”

Darcy blinked, a surprised smilebeginning to creep onto her face. “You’re allowed to tell me? Am I beingpromoted?”

“Uh, no. Normally, we wouldn’ttell you about where we go and what we do but…” Here, Steve paused and lookeduneasily at the closed door to his left. “But this concerns you, so…”

Darcy nodded slowly, wonderinghow in hell an Avengers mission could concern her. Stranger things have happened, Darcy, she reminded herself, smilingat Steve in encouragement. “Lay it on me, Captain.”

Her eyes flickered briefly to theclosed door. Was Bucky in there?

“Right,” Steve began. “Have you,by any chance, heard of Sirens?”

“Sirens, as in the myth? As in,mermaids who lure sailors into their traps with songs? As in–”

“Yeah, yeah, they’re real,” Tony declaredloudly, cutting her off.

Darcy’s smile didn’t falter. Ifanything, it widened in amusement, a laugh bubbling up inside her, ready toburst forth at the first sight of a mischievous smile on their faces. Shewaited for one of them to yell ‘Gotcha!’ and when no one did, her brow furrowedin confusion. She focused her questioning gaze on Steve, who looked as seriousas ever. If Captain America was serious, it definitely couldn’t be a joke.

“I guess,” she began carefully. “Iguess I can believe that.” After all, she had faced aliens, giant firedemons and more recently, before coming to live in the Tower, a handful ofHYDRA creeps trying to kidnap Jane.

“They’re not from here. But theydo exist in Asgard,” explained Steve. “Apparently, someone thought it’d be funto drop Sirens into the Pacific and let them cause havoc. Thor found out and weimmediately left to capture them.”

Wow, Sirens. Darcy couldn’t stopthe grin spreading on her face when the cool quotient of their mission finally settledin. Her overactive imagination instantly began conjuring images to supportSteve’s words. Stormy skies, dark choppy waters, a mysterious tune in the air,a ship manned by Midgard’s most capable warriors… it was a scene right out of amedieval fantasy novel.

“So, you were off on an excitingfishing trip this past week, eh?” Darcy couldn’t help but ask, “What are theylike, the Sirens? Beautiful or monstrous? Green or sparkly? Wait… how are youguys even here right now? Shouldn’t you be rotting in their underwater caves,lulled there by their enchanting voices?”

“Your confidence in our abilitiesis inspiring,” deadpanned Tony.

Darcy snickered. “So, whathappened? Did you capture them all?”

“We couldn’t. It got really uglyand none of them survived.” Steve paused and looked at the door again. “Exceptone.”

“Oookay.” Darcy’s eyes swept fromSteve to Tony and back. “I’m still waiting for the part where you tell me howany of this concerns me.”

“The remaining Siren… well, Buckywouldn’t let us kill her and,” Steve cleared his throat, “and so we brought herhere.”

“Also, she looks like you,” Tonyadded quickly, earning a glare from Cap. The billionaire merely shrugged.

Darcy stared at them, utterlynonplussed. “What?”

“Yes, well, Sirens assume theform of–”

“The person you desire the most,”she finished impatiently. “I know that, Steve! But what does that have to dowith… wait, are you in love with me?”

“No! God, no! I mean, you’regreat, but…”

“I get it, Cap, jeez!” Shecrossed her arms and regarded both men shrewdly. “So then, Tony saw Pepper andThor must have seen Jane… correct?”

“Not quite. Thor is a demigod.He’s immune to Sirens. And I was in my Iron suit. It protected me from theircharms.”

Darcy frowned. “Okay. What aboutthe others?”

“The Hulk doesn’t desire anyone,nor does Romanoff, which,” Tony turned to Steve with a pout, “was a missedopportunity. Now I’m wondering if she’s a cyborg.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Women areimmune to Siren magic, Tony. Don’t be an ass.” His tone changed then, as he spokesoftly, “I saw Peggy. She was beautiful. She swam out of the water and took myhand.” Steve gulped. “But I snapped out of the enchantment when Tony punched meand reminded me she’s dead.”

“You’re welcome, by the way,” sangTony. “Otherwise she’d have pulled you right into the ocean with Barnes.”

Darcy’s gaze flicked from one manto the other as they spoke, her brain working full time to process all this newand incredible information. Needing a moment to sort everything out, she tunedout the conversation and focused her energy on what Steve and Tony wereultimately trying to tell her.

She thought she knew. It scaredher a bit, but she was beginning to get an inkling of where this conversationwas headed and how she was involved. Butterflies erupted in her stomach at themere idea of it, giant butterflies, ones that only took flight when a certainsuper soldier was around.

“We don’t really know who theSiren turned into to hypnotize Clint,” Steve was saying when Darcy focused onhim again.

“I heard him call her Laura,”supplied Tony, sounding intrigued. “Who’s Laura?”

They stood in thought for a momentbefore Steve placed a gentle hand on Darcy’s shoulder, his blue eyes earnest. “Ithink you know now why you’re here.”

“Y-yeah.” She looked hesitantlyat the door. “Are they in there?”

Steve nodded. “The Siren is theretoo, but she’s beyond the glass pane. Imprisoned. Don’t… don’t look at her.”

Tony waved off his advice andremarked, “You can check her out if you want, but since she refuses to changeforms, it’ll be a bizarro parent trap kinda situation, so try not to freakout.” He opened the door and stepped aside to let her in.

Darcy found herself in a smallprivate ward with three beds lining the opposite wall. To her right lay anunconscious Clint, bruised and battered, with his leg in a cast. She watchedhim for a moment, her heart heavy. Suddenly, the latest mission didn’t seem socool anymore. It had evidently been dangerous and exhausting. And Clint seemedto have gotten the short end of the stick. The Sirens had done one hell of anumber on him.

“Darcy?”

She jumped slightly and turned tosee Bucky sitting on a bed, shirtless, his metal hand resting just above a longred gash on his abdomen. He looked alarmed to see her. “Who let you in?”

Darcy stepped closer, her eyestrained on his injury. An inch of it, at the top, had healed already and thescar it left behind was pink and swollen. She was about to ask him how he wasfeeling when a movement to her left caught her eye.

“Don’t…” Bucky began but it wastoo late. Darcy had already whipped around and was now gaping openly at thesight before her.

“Woah,” she murmured, momentarilyforgetting about Bucky and going to stand before the glass pane. If she didn’tknow any better, she would have thought she was looking into a mirror.

The woman on the other sidelooked just like her. Same blue-green eyes, pouty lips, flowing dark hair… eventhe expression on her face reflected Darcy on a typical day, bored and ready todish out a sarcastic comment at the drop of a hat.

Still, there was something about her. A certain glow, that Darcylacked. She wore rags which she plucked and pulled at, clearly wanting to getrid of them. But someone, one of the Avengers perhaps, had strapped twin beltsaround her frame to hold the rags in place and to keep her from strippingnaked. Darcy flushed, thinking about one of the guys covering her bare bodywith the fabric. It was embarrassing to think someone wearing her skin had pranced naked in front ofthe mighty Avengers.

Muffled sound of Bucky callingher name reached her ears but Darcy couldn’t take her eyes off of herself. Sheidly wondered if Sirens could bewitch, not just men but, women too. Withoutthinking, she raised a hand and placed it on the thick sheet of glassseparating them. The Siren’s lips moved but no sound came out. The glass was probablysound proof.

For a moment, it looked like shewould imitate the action and place her palm over Darcy’s, but the next second,she lunged at the glass, her lips pulled back over her sharp, animal-like teethin a seemingly silent growl.

Darcy shrieked and jumped back,colliding with something solid. Heart hammering in her chest, she tore her gazeaway from her scary clone and turned to find Bucky standing behind her.

“Are you all right?”

“Dude,” she breathed, clutchinghis arm tightly. “Why did the Siren take on my image to try and seduce you?”

Bucky looked pained, like he wasfighting with himself and didn’t know how to respond.

“Is there something you wannatell me?” Darcy pressed, willing him to speak.

She was nervous and excited to hear his confession. Inall the months she had known him, not once had he given any indication that hedesired her as more than a friend. He hung out with her whenever they ran intoeach other, but never went out of his way to seek her. He was also veryunapologetic about leaving abruptly when he wasn’t in the mood to be around heror anyone else.

Jane had once remarked that hiseyes followed Darcy whenever they were in the same room. Her off-hand remarkhad been waved aside, presumed false and possibly a product of her vividimagination. But maybe she had been right. Darcy was always so focused on not staring at Bucky for too long thatshe hadn’t realize he noticed her too.

Now, as she stared hopefully intohis slightly glassy eyes, she cursed herself for how blind she’d been.

“You should leave.” His gruffvoice, low with restraint, popped her growing bubble of happiness and Darcylooked at him, confused.

“What?”

“Go. Now,” Bucky practicallybegged and Darcy’s heart sank.

“Yeah, okay.” He was embarrassed,that was it. Maybe he was ashamed of wanting her. Or maybe he didn’t reallywant her and the Siren’s magic was flawed; it had shown him Darcy instead ofsomeone else.

She stumbled away from him,feeling utterly stupid. “Cool. It’s all cool, Barnes. I… I won’t ever bring itup, if that’s what you want.”

She turned around and fled theroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Everyone outside had left, exceptSteve and Natasha, who were standing in a corner with Steve slumped against thewall and Natasha whispering something fast in his ear. At one point, she pulledher hand back and slapped him hard.

“Snap out of it,” Darcy heard hersay before she stepped into the elevator and let it whisk her away from thecraziness.

–o–

That evening, Thor brought thelimp body of an unfamiliar woman into the lab.

“What the hell?” Darcy exclaimed,rolling her chair far away and making a face at Jane.

The astrophysicist lookedapologetic. “This is why Steve had to tell you about her,” she said. “So youwouldn’t freak out when Thor brought her here.”

Darcy had no idea what Jane was talkingabout. “Who is she?”

When she got no answer, only twinexpressions of ‘take a guess, why don’t you?’ realization dawned and Darcy’sgaze snapped back to the unconscious woman who looked nothing like her. She had ginger hair, dry thin lips, and skin thecolor of lichen.

“Why does she look like that?”she asked Thor.

“It’s her original form,” heexplained. “I assumed seeing her awake would upset you, like it did earlier.”Darcy wondered how he knew. “Therefore I requested the Midgardian healer todrug her. Following that, she naturally changed back into her original form.”

“Whatever.” Darcy sniffed. “Whydid you bring her here?”

Jane cleared a table far awayfrom the important equipment. “Bruce wanted me to run some tests on her beforeThor takes her back to Asgard. Are you going to stay and help?”

“Not if you’re planning tomutilate her for science.” At the horrified look on Jane’s face, Darcy quicklybacktracked. “Joke. ‘Twas a joke, Janey.”

She watched Thor lay her down onthe table, then asked quietly, “Is Bucky okay now?”

Thor nodded and regarded herseriously. “Are you?”

Darcy broke into a reluctantgrin. “Pfft. I’m alive and kickin’, big guy. Never been better. Tell me, whatdo I have to do? Remove an eyeball, pluck out all her hair, superglue her fingerstogether…?”

Jane huffed. “Let’s start withtaking a sample of her blood, shall we?”

Two minutes in, Darcy exclaimedtriumphantly, “Look at that, her blood is green. Told you there’s somethingwrong with her.”

“Darcy, focus.”

“Her magic is clearly flawed. TheAvengers were duped.”

–o–

The Siren incident turned herentire life upside down. She couldn’t meet Steve’s eyes or Bruce’s orNatasha’s, knowing that they had seen her naked, watched her attack them and mercilesslypull one of their friends underwater. She couldn’t talk to them freely withoutwondering if they’d be triggered by the sight of her.

She knew it hadn’t been her. They knew it, too. But Darcy stillcouldn’t reconcile with the fact that a monster had taken her form to seduce anAvenger.

“I don’t understand what’s soupsetting about this,” Tony wondered when he visited Jane’s lab a few dayslater and saw Darcy moping around. “Shouldn’t you be happy Barnes is warm foryour form? Granted, he’s a first class jerk most of the time but he’s an okayguy overall.”

Out of all the Avengers, Tonyseemed to have moved past the incident really fast. Darcy didn’t know if itdisturbed her or endeared him to her. These days, he was more open to herinterference in his life and had started calling her Darcy instead of Lewis. Itfelt nice. He didn’t judge her, didn’t look at her like she had betrayed himsomehow. Well, neither did the others, but Darcy couldn’t help but feel herpresence made them uncomfortable.

“Tony,” she sighed, shooting hima halfhearted glare. “First of all, he’s not a jerk. Second of all, you don’tunderstand what I’m going through.”

“You’re thinking too much, Darcy.Stop assuming things and get out of this stuffy lab once in a while. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good.” He winked as he left.“Now forget about the Siren and see the bright side.”

Darcy moaned and thunked her headon her desk. There was nothing bright or positive about what had happened. Sheblamed Steve for telling her about the Siren. Making her think, for a few shorteuphoric moments, that Bucky Barnesdesired her. Clearly he didn’t, and was just as disturbed as she was about itall.

In a bid to clear the air withher, he had taken to showing up at the most unexpected moments. When she washaving breakfast in the kitchen with Thor and Jane. When she was returning fromher afternoon coffee run. When she snuck up to the communal floor to relax whenno one was around.

Darcy knew he was deliberatelyseeking her out. She knew because, while previously she had a hard time findinghim whenever she wanted to hang out, now he was everywhere! He even went so faras to send her a box of her favorite cookies with a small note attached thatread I’m sorry. We need to talk.

But Darcy wasn’t stupid. If allhe wanted to say was sorry, that the Siren incident had been a terrible mistakeand Darcy shouldn’t have been there in the first place, then she had nointerest in talking to him whatsoever. In fact, he had nothing to apologize for. None of what had happened was his fault.Seeing the Siren take Darcy’s form had caused everyone to jump to false conclusionswithout a single consideration of thefact that the darned sea witch could have made a mistake.

It was the reason why Darcywasn’t ready to face Bucky, wasn’t ready to hear him say sorry. She didn’t wanthis pity. Nor was she keen to see the rejection in his eyes. Again.

No. Staying away was the bestoption.

With that thought in mind, shebegan to avoid him. She left the kitchen when he showed up, changed directions whenshe glimpsed him in the distance, avoided the communal floor, ignored his calls,and tossed the box of cookies to Jane, not before snagging a cookie for herselfand stomping up to her room to sulk. Howwas this her life?

She’d have to tell Steve to tellBucky to get off her back. She knew what he wanted to say. He didn’t have to freakingspell it out to her!

–o–

“Jane, can I have the eveningoff?”

“Why?”

“I’m sick.” Darcy faked a cough.

Jane looked skeptical. “Nice try.Why do you really want the eveningoff?”

Darcy sighed and spouted anotherlie. “I have a date.”

Instead of smiling and giving herthumbs up like she always did, Jane frowned. “With whom?”

“You don’t know him.”

“Does Bucky know?”

Her heart skipped a beat at themention of his name but Darcy had successfully learned to control her reactionsover the past few days. “Why would I tell him about my love life?” she saidcasually, taking her phone and getting to her feet. “I’ll see you tomorrow,‘kay?”

“Darcy!” Jane called after her.“What about dinner tonight with the Avengers? You can’t miss that.”

Watch me, she wanted to retort, but she merely grinned and said,“Sorry, Jane. Next time.”

A week ago, Darcy would havejumped at the chance to hang out with the Avengers. Now, it was exactly thekind of thing she was looking to avoid. It wasn’t the only reason why shewanted the evening off, though. The day before, Bucky had wandered onto the labfloor–without warning!–and, forget facing him like a grown-ass woman would,Darcy didn’t even have the courage to smile and make some excuse to leave. No. Shehad chickened out and had hid behind the generator until he went away.

She had a feeling he would comeagain. He had never invaded her work space before, so she felt particularlyannoyed about it. Especially since every time she saw him, a thrill shotthrough her system and her heart rate quickened. She hated herself for it.

“Darcy, Darcy, Darcy,” she scoldedherself tiredly, kicking shut the door to her apartment and throwing herself onthe couch. “You can’t run forever… can’t take every evening off… can’t go here…can’t go there… all because of a stupid Siren.”

She lay there for goodness knewhow long, her blank stare tracing indistinct patterns on the ceiling, until theabrupt sound of the doorbell broke her out of her reverie.

“Un momento,” she called,dragging her feet to the door and pulling it open. Only to gasp and slam itshut again.

But before she could shut itcompletely, five metal fingers curled around the edge and pushed the door openwith ease. Shocked and more than a little angry at the intrusion, Darcy scowledat Bucky when he stepped in and carefully closed the door behind him. His eyeswere trained on hers and his gait was determined as he slowly advanced on her.

His voice, when he spoke, wascool, restrained. “How long did you think you could avoid me?”

Darcy bristled at his tone, herprevious reservations about talking to him forgotten. “You were the one whotold me to leave,” she bit out. “I was simply following orders.”

Bucky’s eyes flashed. “Don’t sassme, Darcy.”

“What do you want me to do?” she demanded,crossing her arms defensively. “Sit through your baseless apology and then goour separate ways?”

He gave her an incredulous look. “Isthat what you think I want?”

“Why else would you follow me allaround the tower if not to apologize for something that isn’t even your fault?I get that you’re embarrassed but you have nothing to be sorry for.”

“What–no, that’s not at all whyI wanted to talk to you!”

Darcy scoffed. “Why, then? ‘CauseI’m pretty sure it wasn’t just to tell me my hair smells good.”

“It does smell good,” Bucky said quietly, blue eyes momentarilydropping to the locks of hair resting over the swell of her breast.

Darcy faltered, sidetracked bythe sudden shift in conversation. “Um,” she fumbled, blinking rapidly. Hewasn’t supposed to look at her like that. It was making her forget what she wantedto say.

“Darce,” Bucky said, takingadvantage of her temporary speechlessness. “You have no idea what happened that day. Please don’t presume–”

“No,” Darcy said immediately. Shelooked at him, eager to make him understand. “I know what happened. Jane and I figured it out. It’s not your faultthe Siren’s enchantment was crappy. She clearly made a mistake with you.”

“What are you on about?” Buckygrumbled. “She didn’t make any goddamn mistakes! In fact, she did her jobexceptionally well if the fading scar on my torso is any indication.”

Darcy shook her head vehemently.“But her magic was flawed…”

At her words, he shot her a lookof utter disbelief. “Is that what you tell yourself to ease your misplacedhurt? Jesus, Darcy, what’s wrong with you?” He started to pace, his movementsquick and jerky. “That day, when I told you to leave, I wasn’t rejecting you.”

“Bucky, it’s okay. I don’t–”

“No, you need to hear this!” heinsisted.

Darcy clamped her mouth shut andnodded for him to continue.

“That day, when you came in, theSiren… she recognized you.”

“Well, of course she did!”

“Shut up for a minute, will you?”

“Fine.”

Bucky huffed and went on, “Themoment she saw you, she started… humming.”

“Humming?” But she hadn’t heard asingle peep out of the Siren.

“Yeah. It was faint, not likewhen we were at sea, where the music was loud, clear and near impossible toresist.” Bucky’s eyes glazed over as he spoke and Darcy listened to him,stunned into silence. “It was chaos. The Sirens were powerful and unrelenting.They each picked one of us as their target and didn’t back down until eitherthey were dead or we were in the sea with them. Stark may have gotten over itquickly but I know he was scared shitless when Steve succumbed to theenchantment.”

Hearing Bucky recite the fullstory made Darcy suddenly realize how much the mission had affected him. Shehad been so engrossed in her own concerns, she hadn’t stopped to think aboutwhat the Avengers had been through. She remembered the state of Dr. Banner’sclothes that day, the bandage wrapped around Natasha’s forearm, Clint’s brokenleg in a cast, the quiet look on Steve’s face when he had mentioned Peggy.

She also recalled Natasha hittingSteve, telling him to ‘snap out of it’. At the time, Darcy hadn’t paidattention to them. But now she knew. Like Bucky, Steve was hearing the musictoo.

“It was a sound proof ward Starklocked her in,” Bucky continued. “But a hint of that godforsaken tune slipped throughsomehow. It was distracting. I was hurt and you were there… and I couldn’tconcentrate… and–”

Before he could say another word,Darcy stepped closer and placed a hand on his cheek to stop him. She’d heardenough. She didn’t want any more explanations.

“It’s okay,” she whispered,grazing her fingers down his face. The bristles on his cheek felt deliciousagainst the soft skin of her palm. “I get it.”

He covered her hand with his andbrought it to rest over his heart. “I wasn’t rejecting you, Darcy. I justdidn’t want you to see me at my weakest.”

“Okay,” Darcy said simply,ignoring the sudden burst of hope that filled her chest at his words. “Ithought you didn’t want me,” she added in a small voice.

Bucky raised a hand to tuck alock behind her ear, his fingers combing through her hair before coming to cupher neck. “You thought wrong.”

Darcy swayed closer to him,reveling in the tiny sparks of electricity his touch elicited. She caughtherself wishing she had approached him sooner, cleared everything upinstead of avoiding him like a coward. They had wasted so much time playinghide and seek.

Her eyes dropped to his mouth. Shereally wanted him to kiss her, she knew he wantedto, but he made no such move. He just stood there and looked at her like shewas the most amazing thing in the world.

“I tried so hard to stay awayfrom you,” he murmured, leaning down to brush his lips over her forehead. “Ireally did.”

“Why?” Darcy breathed, closingher eyes when he pressed light kisses over her eyelids.

“I didn’t think I was ready for arelationship.” His lips moved down her cheek, as slow as ever. “I didn’t thinkyou’d want one with me anyway.”

“Because you’re the WinterSoldier?”

“Mm-hmm.” He smiled against herjaw when he felt her wrap her arms around his waist and pull him flush againsther.

“I think the Winter Soldier ispretty cool,” Darcy teased. “It’s Bucky Barnes who’s an idiot.”

Bucky huffed out a laugh. “Notgonna argue with that, doll.”

“Good. Now, are you planning to kissme soon…” Darcy stretched up on her tiptoes until her lips were a hair’sbreadth away from his. “Or do I have to place an enchantment on you?”

“No, ma’am, once is enough,”Bucky replied with a grin, leaning down and capturing her lips in a sound kiss.

So, maybe Tony was right. Maybe there was abright side to the Siren incident after all.

Tell me what you wish me to write. I just might write it.

#darcy lewis #bucky barnes #darcy x bucky #wintershock #hollyspacey #if you gotta blame someone blame Loki #wish prompt

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maxthommusic · 4 years

Text

Royally Meta

Persona 5: Royal is an expanded, improved version of Persona 5. Coming nearly two years after the original, of course I decided to revisit Tokyo as a Phantom Thief and check-in on the new additions. However, what I didn’t expect to find was an utter distaste for the quirky, juvenile dialogue. Especially with a game rated “Mature” (in the States) that explores themes of sexual assault, exploitation and more, how come the game doesn’t feel as evolved as its subject matter? But why do I still absolutely love it in spite of those glaring details?

The first problem I noticed about Royal’s script is that everything is over-explained. While I definitely recognized this flaw on my first play-through, sometimes it’s easier to overlook problems when the experience is so novel. In that regard, Persona is as fresh as they come. Hearing all the music for the time, meeting the characters, visiting locations, etc.; it’s extremely easy to forgive its failings. However, on round two, I just can’t ignore the fact this this hefty script drones on about the explanations of people, concepts and objectives. The hand-holding while trying to explain The Metaverse and cognition and personas gets exhausting quickly. A lot of the script feels like fluff preventing you from getting straight into the action. Plus, there’s a lot of fun in interpreting things for yourself. This is something Final Fantasy VII did so expertly back in 1997. Remaining cryptic and interpretive let fans create their own worlds giving way to a fanclub mystified by its subject matter. Nowadays fans demand answers to everything and are miffed when something doesn’t make sense. This absolutely hinders Persona 5, making it slog when it should chug. And what’s worse is that the script is plenty juvenile, relying on a “kids versus adults” motif that wears out its welcome pretty quickly.

As a 30 year old male, I love the idea that a high school teacher is physically and sexually assaulting students. That’s a heinous crime which demands justice. Great narrative fodder. But juxtaposed to Ryuji kicking cans going, “Stupid adults, getting away with whatever they want” just doesn’t add up. And I get that the game is about high school students, so isn’t that the demographic? Perhaps. Maybe I’m too old for Persona, which is a grave disappointment to admit. Yet some of the themes are incredibly mature and explore really deep waters. The introspective nature of the Persona series (and 5 in particular) tells me there’s a wider appeal here and it’s just a bummer that the script can’t transcend it’s younger audiences. Films like Star Wars were made openly for kids, yet it elevates among that ground. Games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time are, no pun intended, timeless due to their execution. Persona 5, unfortunately, has a totally bloated script that ages itself poorly and makes for some rather annoying cutscenes.

Nevertheless, I can’t put the game down. It oozes style and god-tier design; the various mechanics and systems are completely irresistible. Overlooking the juvenile dialogue is easy when every new day practically implements a new Confidant or location to explore. Confidants are links you unlock, characters that have entire side-plots that keep unraveling as the game progresses. And there are so many places to visit that offer different activities, investigating them all is about as much fun as catching every Pokemon. The game even employs a great “Metroid-Vania” component, forcing you to unlock other features before you can visit certain places or talk to specific people. For example, there’s a jazz bar in Kichioji I want to scope out, but I haven’t unlocked the resource to get me through the door. And as much as I’d like to call my teacher, Kawakami, to come over for a date, I don’t quite have the guts to make it happen.

The constant implementation of novel experiences makes Persona 5 a complete win, cramming the game with so much content that you’re not entirely sure if you’ll see everything. Even the dialogue options can feel like potential missed opportunities. But that’s the carrot on the stick, isn’t it?

If Persona just gave me the ability to easily replay moments in order to get different outcomes, where would the incentive be to choose thoughtfully? Every time I give the wrong gift to a Confidant, I need to feel that pang of regret. Because it’s that kind of misstep that actually leads to obsession. Or maybe I didn’t spend my time after school so wisely... Do I reload my last save and re-do the past thirty minutes? Or move-along and live with my decisions?

Persona 5 has a killer meta-game that’s all about maximizing your interactions with the characters and its world. And while that pesky mainline script can sometimes feel awkward and over explanatory, the side details are almost always beautiful. Since we don’t get bogged down in sci-fi concepts like parallel worlds and personal cognition, the writers are free to explore themes like desire, trust, ambition, guilt, loss, regret and so much more. These elements they handle much better since the moments are more bite-sized. Often times the side-hangs are much more concise, allowing the player to chime in frequently to steer the conversations too. Again: how these relationships build and grow are completely up to you. How do you respond? Who do you see and when?

While the game is mostly linear, Persona presents the player with the illusion of agency. We’re all gonna reach the same end. And we’re all gonna have access to the same cutscenes. Yet there’s so much content that how we get there will be completely unique. And depending how we spend our time, some of us will see the end of roads, some of us may never even depart on a path. It’s this free reign that makes Persona 5 endlessly intriguing. It’s also why I’m able to ignore it’s most massive short-coming.

For everything Persona 5 gets wrong, it gets 10 things right. While I firmly believe my first play-through was a little less than a beautiful fever dream (who didn’t voraciously race through that hulking story when they first obtained a copy?), my second visit has been a bit more tempered. But as I unlock more features and obtain a better grasp on the gameplay and its mechanics, I find myself slinking back into that dream-state. In-game days go by mysteriously as I sink deeper and deeper into Tokyo, unlocking more and more features, increasingly trying to make sure I see and utilize every function available. The meta-game is incredibly strong with Persona 5. And while heavy storylines are the premier feature of most JRPGs, we are reminded once again that gameplay is king. Don’t be fooled by the herald that Persona 5 is too long. I dare to impose: is it just long enough? There is much to see and explore. Only focus on the main task at hand and you’ll miss much of the wonder and merriment available. The game consistently reminds you to take your time. So be sure and do just that. Because the flowers you stop to smell may be the sweetest parts of all.

#gaming #persona

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krusca · 7 years

Text

A Concept:

mcu tony & comics clark kent (aka, the smol squishy human with one of the most powerful superheros of all time)

(as transcribed and revised from my twitter thread. because i need more people to fall into this rairpair hell with me. handwaves the different universe and for the sake of this concept they’re single)

Clark Kent is deeply amused but also very impressed by this small human with a bad heart who sticks himself into a tin can and flies around at mach 5 speeds and keeps challenging him in unspoken races when flying despite knowing he’ll lose every time.

Lets be real, mcu Tony is not a strong young healthy supersoldier or even someone who had the rigorous training lifstyle. He’s got tonys of health problems such as the injured heart, reduced lung capacity, liver problems from drinking, constant stress on his body from flying around in aforementioned tin can. And Tony’s mental state isnt that great either

But that doesn’t stop Tony one bit, and Clark sees everything he loves about humanity in Tony- brave, resilient, generous, stubborn, a bit annoying, and so so heroic.

Clark can literally see tony’s weak heart, the lung capacity, the fake sternum (or arc reactor depends on what you prefer) the negative effects of constant G force on a body, and despite the armor’s protections the metal can’t absorb all the shock and sometimes does more damage than most people would think. His first instinct is to wrap him in blankets and keep him safe.....but he knows a man like Tony Stark would hate the coddling.

Still that doesn't stop Clark from feeling protective, he winces every time Tony takes a hit because he can hear the joints and bones creaking and fracturing.

Meanwhile Tony has mixed feelings towards Superman. From a scientific standpoint, he’s fascinating, even moreso than Thor, stronger than Hulk, but he’s also scared of him, because Clark is someone who can see all of Tony’s weakness and imperfections (the physical ones at least), and when Clark starts taking a more vested interest in him the self conscious fear increases. He catches Clark’s worried glances, a look he interprets as judgement of being not good enough. He builds lead plating into most of his armors, he tries to avoid Clark as much as he can (especially one on one interactions. It doesn’t matter Clark says he doesn’t use his powers unless it’s necessary, Tony feels like Clark’s listening to his heart racing, the tightness in his shoulders, the fear of being seen as a fake a fraud)

Clark thinks Tony’s afraid of him and his powers, it stings a little but its much like Batman, the scientific and genius would have reason to fear him so he’s super gentle around Tony. Tony hates that even more, being treated with kiddie gloves, so he avoids Clark even more. Clark’s confused, wonders if its jealousy, in certain ways he reminds him of Bruce Wayne but this is a whole new level if it is jealousy (and that doesn't quite add up, Tony may talk about his ego but end of day Tony’s not jealous, he’s curious- he marvels in new delights and bigger better shinier things. Clark has no idea its Tony’s crippling self esteem thats the issue)

One day Clark sees Tony doing some extreme remodeling of the workshop & he offers his help. Tony tries waving him away but a section of the wall nearly falls on Tony much to Clarks distress and Tony concedes Clark could be useful with the super speed strength flight and how to handle a hammer being a farmboy and all.

Clark’s never been in Tony’s workshop before, only seem glimpses. Seeing the holograms the half build machines, its all very impressive, different from kryptonian and other alien tech but still brilliant and intriguing like the scifi movies he used to enjoy as a kid. Tony’s cautious and guarded at first, but his workshop is his safe space and his domain so he lets loose bit by bit. Plus Clark is very helpful and replastering the walls in a fraction of a time it wouldve normally taken him.

After tony’s done with all the security upgrades, he’s absorbed in his many projects again and barely notices Clark’s presence at this point. He’s flicking thru 3D holomodels making notes, and Clark doesn’t use his powers on his friends but hey he’s curious and takes a peek at the genius’s brain and he’s instantly blinded and captivated, its like looking at a thousand suns, every neuron firing at top speeds in multiple directions, processing several threads of thoughts at once (and I’m borrowing this aspect from 616 tony) yes Tony’s a genius but he’s also invaluable precisely because no one can multitask at such a high capacity level of genius at once. Clark’ has to look away because Tony’s mind is so bright and burns so hard he’s literally seeing stars in his eyes.

Tony sees him rubbing his eyes and Clark tells him its just dust and Tony’s skeptical can Superman even be affected by little things like dust. Tony hesitantly offers him dinner since Clark was so helpful and Tony’s not a bad host. Clark says yes quickly and really hopes he didn’t sound too overeager, he really wants to get to know Tony better. He always knew Tony was a genius but was always so overtaken by how small Tony was especially compared to the younger healthier heroes. Even Batman’s a genius but in a different way, he’s analytical whereas Tony’s genius is something else entirely, the kind of genius that can create elements, destroy and rebuild worlds, create life but a whole new kind.

Clark realizes how wrong he was, Tony isn’t weak at all, Tony’s mind is his true power and it’s something powerful, fearful, wonderful, breathtaking (clark wonders what it’d be like to have that kind of focus directed at him and gets a bit hot under the collar)

They talk about various things over dinner, and Clark keeps peeking at Tony’s brain, its rude and kind of(?) a violation of privacy but it’s so pretty and Tony’s expressing everything that he’s seeing so yea he keeps looking. They get into topics of parents and he doesn’t need any superpowers to see how tony shutters up, his bright galaxy of a mind dimming at the bad topic. Clark apologizes, Tony brushes it off and moves to another topic, but Clark can see how his mind isn't as vibrant as it was before and it kills him a little, he wants Tony to be joyful and happy not..this. He cleans up dinner, thanks Tony, goes home happy to see Tony’s warmed up to him a lot.

Only after does Clark get home does he realize he may have a bit of a crush on Tony and stares at the ceiling all night. Tony thinks about Clark that night too, while working on Avengers upgrades. Clark’s polite, kind, sassy under that goody two shoes exterior, and a very attentive listener (a little bit too attentive? Clark looked a bit like a man in a desert staring at an oasis) Tony likes attention but that kind of naked adoration directed for hours from several hundred pounds of pure muscle and goodness is a bit overwhelming. He’s cut from the same cloth of Mr. Perfect like Steve but minus the sanctimonious aspect or the weird family ties with his dad so Clarks taken off Tony’s shit list.

Clark hovers again when Tony’s Iron Man, but holds himself back and lets Tony handle things. He sees how tony reacts badly when he tries to step in and help, Tony goes on building sprees and overworks himself, all an effort to show he’s valuable and not a liability while giving Clark the cold shoulder. Clark wonders if it really is just ego but despite appearances Tony’s not that shallow.

One December night Tony gets wasted in his lab and Clark can’t stay away, Tony’s BAC is dangerously high. Tony doesn’t take his presence well, shouts at him to leave, hurls insults and bottles, but Clark just walks forward slowly, approaching Tony like you would a spooked animal, until he’s close enough and asks Tony if he’d like a hug.

Tony’s stunned into silence at this offer, and he slowly leans forward into Clark’s chest. Clark can hear his heartbeat light and fast like a bird, as tony slowly falls apart in Clark’s arms. He’s drunk off his ass and telling Clark everything, his parents death anniversary, his dad who never loved him his mom who he loved so much, and Obie. Clark only happens to hear all of this because of his super hearing. Tony mostly mumbles and slurs his way through and he talks about his pathological fear of failure, not being good enough, and only being good for his usefulness otherwise he may as well be dead.

Clark can’t believe the kind of self loathing tony was hiding, the fact his dad instilled that kind of though into his brilliant son, the loss and betrayal Tony’s faced, he’s Superman and he can’t do a damn thing, cept hold Tony, doesn’t want to say much in fear of saying the wrong thing. He carries Tony to his bed and tucks him in on his side, fetches painkillers and water for when tony wakes. He should leave but he can’t he sits at the edge of the bed and stares at the face of a man drowning in something dark and unseeable, but getting up anyways and changing the world every single day. He’s gone before Tony’s awake, calls his Ma because he doesn’t know how to handle this, tells her about his “friend” (she exposes his big fat crush for him within a minute into the conversation), she gives him advice, and Clark flies back to the tower with groceries.

Tonys awake by the time he crawls out of bed, Clarks in the kitchen cooking breakfast (closer to lunch really) and Tony autopilot drinks the coffee and eats the food laid out in front of him until he semi-realizes what happened last night. things get awkward and Tony’s humiliated and embarrassed and Clark’s a big flustered baby who doesn’t know how to handle this situation either, so Tony pulls a retreat, gets out of his chair, thanks Clark for breakfast and walks out.

Clark is lost, he doesn’t want to lose the closeness he gained but it’s not like they can pretend it never happened. End of the day though he wants Tony to be happy and it doesn’t matter if Clarks part of the equation or not so he wants to let Tony choose.

Meanwhile Tony’s in full panic mode, he broke down in front of SUPERMAN the guy who treats him like he’s fragile, there’s no fixing this and Tony goes into burn all bridges mode, throwing himself into work and avoiding Clark at all costs.

Clark didn’t expect the sever all ties outcome (in retrospect its very tony) and it hurts a lot more than expected. He leaves a video message for Tony and flies off to the moon to pine.

Tony doesn’t touch the video for 3 days until curiosity wins over the part of his brain thats screaming to abort and tells JARVIS to pull it up. It’s Clark talking to Tony, telling him (almost) everything, how much he respect his strength, bravery, generosity, how he never met anyone quite like him in all the galaxies and dimensions he’s been to, and he’d like the privilege of being Tony’s friend again, but if Tony doesn’t want him around he’ll respect that too.

Tony laughs because he’s... astonished (”JARVIS was that for real?” “Yes sir, I believe he was quite sincere” “The most powerful man in the world and he sends me a friendship letter via video”) Of course Clark can hear this and he’s a bit miffed but Tony’s laughing and not maliciously either so it’s ok. Tony says out loud “Hey big guy, I know you can hear me wanna come talk?” Clarks off the moon and in Tony’s lab in minutes, and Tony’s chuckling as he pats moondust off him. Tony tells Clark he’s a narcissistic fuckup and most people don’t stick around for long, but feel free to stay as long as he’d like and Clark’s ready to prove him wrong because Tony is just an amazing individual- Clark may protect humanity but Tony leads it to new heights & he’s humbled that he can be by Tony’s side to see that happen.

so yea, tony stark and clark kent.

#superiron #uhh #clarktony #is this the tag #im on this tiny raft and i am dying #also starting to get ideas of tony learning KRYPTONIAN and i am SWEATING #my posts #krublogs

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