#cause i WANT them to be seen and accessibility is a part of that ik

[supercantaloupe]

lack of engagement doesn't make me want to stop making and posting art or whatever but it definitely isn't encouraging either tbh

[dragonherder2030]

Smaugust Day 9: Galaxy

I’m leaving tomorrow morning, my sister is going to look over the farm while I’m away. Echo Bel and Kory are coming with me, they can help with transportation and have separation anxiety. Xandra is showing me her camp, she has many followers, I’m going to be the first lizard to join it. That fact will be kept secret from the rest of the “humans” as to not cause hysteria, she has done the same with herself, hiding herself as an amphibian. I’m bringing my journal, I need to be able to write my thoughts

See you soon, Niki~

*we find out who the narrator is 👀. Another first person written segment, hopefully this one won’t be as long XD. Also, if by the end of Smaugust I feel there are some odd unintended plot holes or threads that need to be resolved I’ll make sure to do so. Ik it’s confusing right now, but I will continue right where we left off on the last writing segment for easiness*

Half my tea was gone in under a minute, it was jasmine green from what I tasted and was made very well.

“Please do explain what you mean by non-lizard kind though… Are you talking Amphibious sentience?” I ask, leaning back on the couch I had been placed on.

“No not sentient Amphibians that walk like us, I mean a species on another planet called Humans. They are a scaleless race with no tails, and can grow fur at an alarming rate. They can be dangerous to us, but not all of them. If you join me you can meet them, but many of them do not have the best interests of the dragons in mind.” Her creature tightened itself onto her neck. Has it experienced these “humans” before?

“Does that planet have dragons too? Also how do you, uh, go to another planet? Do you have access to a rocket?”

“No, I have something much better and easier to fuel… but you have to commit before learning of that. Keep your questions to a minimum till I finish explaining please, it will be easier.” Saying with a small hand wave. I nob in agreement.

“The planet is called earth and is very similar to ours. But dragons do not live naturally there, and have been brought there by a lizard who wanted a new environment for sport hunting, and didn’t get them all… They ended up breeding and creating homes for themselves, few and far apart. I used to monitor and catch some of the dragons to bring them back when I could along with my brother. When he passed I couldn’t do it by myself anymore, so I seeked the assistance of other lizards to return the dragons to their natural habitat. Not many believed me, and those who did I knew didn’t have the intentions of the animals in mind. So, I decided to start recruiting humans using my magic-“

“Wait wait wait, you have magic abilities?” I ask, needing to know more about this.

“Yes I possess magic, I’m no lizard, but we don’t need to know about that for now. All you need to know is that I can give objects the ability to transform a human into a lizard or amphibian sentient if worn, that’s what I can do,” Xandra says with a sigh. I speculate what she could be, and remember a legend about the creation of our world, something similar to that happening, where a being gave sentience to all of the lizards, and later some of the amphibians. There was another part of it where they wiped out a different race beforehand but I couldn’t remember it too well.

Xandra continued her explanation, “I chose humans because they would do the best capturing dragons in the human planet, since they are not killed on sight when seen… The humans I choose were specifically selected by my familiar, Davey here,” She pointed to the amphibian around her neck, it seemed to smile in admiration of its role.

“They are small enough to avoid detection from the humans, and not popular enough to be sought out, and they are very fast. Easily able to escape a human. I’ve gotten quite the following from animal lovers around earth, and luckily most of them speak English or know sign language, Davey doesn’t go far from our camp.”

“What do you guys Uh, do? Do you go to the human world and just, catch the dragons? And why don’t you just tell the humans that the dragons are an invasive species and, I guess take them back?” I ask, confused what I would actually be doing and why the humans are a problem.

Xandra’s calm demeanor shifted, and her eyebrows furrowed, “Most humans want the dragons, but I know they aren’t safe there. They would be hunted for sport and put in cages. I’ve watched them for thousands of years, they will never accept the dragons as any more then a fantasy creature for decoration. And for some reason now there are more being found, species that weren’t brought to earth from that initial leak. There’s another source, someone from this planet that has access to Earth and is exploiting it to bring dragons there. You can help me find them, and allow me to have more allies on this side. Plus the place I’m keeping the dragons isn’t safe anymore, I need somewhere here I can put them with someone to take care of them.” Her voice had raised slightly, this is a subject she is angry about. She must have witness terrible things. I think it’s an amazing idea, I have the whole farm I could keep the dragons. Acres of land I’m not using right now could be put to this. I didn’t care if she was legit or not, I believed her.

“Ok, I’m convinced… I want to help. I have a farm that can serve as a holding place for the dragons until we can bring them to their rightful places,” I say, trying to hide the excitement in my voice. She smiles at me, looking satisfied.

“My camp, it is all humans, they do not know of our reptilian existence, to them they are the last of the reptile kind. So to them, your just another new human recruit. That means,” Xandra gets up, walking towards the closet I had noticed before, “that means that you have to pick out an accessory to simulate the effect of you being a fake lizard.”

I stand up and walk to the closet as well. Xandra escapes into the inside of it, I follow closely. The inside wasn’t meant to hold more then one person, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Along the walls is an array of shirts, jackets, pants, hats, bracelets, necklaces, etc. in every color imaginable.

“Take your pick, it doesn’t matter what it is, other then u will need to be able to wear it for long amounts of time,” she says, picking up a hat and dusting it off, then hanging it back up.

I look around the room, spinning in place, then think of something, “Do you have a piece? How do you hide that your not a lizard?”

She thinks for moment, “Davey helps me with that too, as you know they are my familiar, and they aren’t just any normal dragon either. They become a wonderful necklace whenever I need them to. And when I wear that, I become what they would be if they were a sentient Amphibian,” she explained to me. So far she has shown me no proof of the magic she claims to have, and this seems like a simple test. Even if I was all for the cause, no reason not to speculate.

“Could u show me?”

“Of course,” Xandra said, glancing at Davey. The creature climbed to the front of her neck, then sitting still right there for a few seconds. I await the transformation. Then, they stiffen and fall loose, a small chain connecting to their mouth and tail holding them onto Xandra’s neck. Her body poofs into one of an sentient Olm, her body much longer then previously. I stare up at her in awe, it all must be true.

“Wow…” I say, stunned by the display. She smiles down at me and quickly exits the closet, since she had taken up most the room.

“I need to show u our transportation tomorrow, since it is getting late. You will be seeing the camp, and meeting the members. You may stay for a couple of days to get familiar with them,” she says, looking out the window. I understand her reasoning, my sister can watch over the farm while I’m gone, I’ll be returning there soon with suitable dragons.

I return to looking at the room and behind a puffy jacket is a bronze glimmer. I walk towards it and grab it, it’s a tail ring. A dragon spiraling around a few times. And it’s adjustable, I try it on, tightening it to my liking. I decide it would be to heavy to stay on, and I don’t really like these kinds of jewelry. Placing it back in it’s spot, I try on a few other things, including a puffy jacket(after taking my shoulder armor off), a muzzle, and a necklace with an odd diamond like pendant on it. Then another thing caught my eye, a blue bandana with a cool looking pattern on it. I tie it around my neck, I think this one will work very well.

Exiting the room I look around for Xandra, spotting her on the couch reading a book. Davey was wrapped around her wrist and she was back in her original state.

“I have chosen this bandana!” I announce, walking towards her. She looks up from her reading and smiles brightly.

“Oh wonderful sweet pea, I only ask one more question of you before you go home to rest up for tomorrow,” she says, putting her book down.

“What’s that?” I ask, holding my shoulder armor tightly.

“What’s your name?”

“Oh- oh yeah you don’t know me very well yet. I’m Niki,” I say with a smile. She smiles back at me.

“Thank you hun. One more thing though, if you have any drakes I would recommend you bring them with you, they would help with the travel aspect. Tomorrow won’t be a walk in the park,” she says, picking her book back up. I nod, looking to my left and realizing the door is right next to the couch. I mentally scorn myself for not realizing this sooner, and exit the house. I know these woods, and have seen this cottage before. It looks worn down on the outside, abandoned… but making my way home is easy. It was evening by the time I made it back.

I call my sister, “Hi Bryn, I need you to watch the farm for a few days.”

—————————

This was fun, writing wasn’t the best, I was kinda zoned out while writing it lol. My main focus was to explain stuff and set up character motivations, sorry if it’s a bit messy, and like, long dang.

[junipersgarden]

metanoia 4. | Hijack

PAIRING: Peter Parker x Superhero!Reader

SUMMARY: After the intense and insane day of Venice flooding again from that gigantic water monster, Y/N and Peter want things to go back to normal but Nick Fury has other plans...

WORD COUNT: 3528 words

WARNINGS: A singular swear word from Nick Fury 

a/n: hello everyone!! here is the next part of my series ‘metanoia’ and i hope you enjoy!!

[NOT MY GIF]

...

Inside Room 11 of Hotel de Matteis

...

from: F/N ✌️

HYDRO WHAT NOW?!  

                                                                                                                          from: you

Hydro-Man. apparently he's a sailor who suddenly

got water powers from an experiment or smth.

from: F/N ✌️

science. always the cause.

just y/n/n, are you okay?

we saw it all on the news and that 'thing' and what it did...

from you:

i'm okay and safe. everyone is and thankfully,

not one got hurt.

are you alright?

from: F/N ✌️

it was just, a massive scare.

after the whole 'blip' and everything and now this?

we literally can't have a break! and there's no one to protect us!

from: you

yeah ik. everything's just been chaotic.

im certain things will change tho and will get better.

plus, we have each other and pretty sure Spidey and Saviour as well.

from: F/N ✌️

guess we do... thanks y/n/n

anyways, i suggest you call your mum back or text her.

she was in hysterics and was screaming at Harrington thru the phone.

was pretty funny ngl, well without the situation.

from: you

will do.

i gtg now sorry; Harrington wants us up and early.

ill get to mum in a bit and will tell you more i promise.

gn nub!

from: F/N ✌️

you better... > : )

gn geek! : P

Slumping against the door, you sink to the ground and drop your phone lazily into your lap. The moonlight shines into your face from your open window, the night's cool breeze drifts and ruffle the worn down curtains.

I just want a break.

Your mind wonders and races with flashbacks of today's events; the screaming and collapsing buildings, water rapidly running and wrecking the streets of Venice and Venetian's homes and everyone; it's only the first day of the Europe Trip and it's already a mess... typical luck.

A vibration from your lap surprises you as you jolt upward lightly. The screen illuminates with its bright light directly into your eyes with the message notification: 1 New Message.

from: UNKNOWN

We need your assistance Saviour.

Meet at these coordinates and go alone.

You have 10 minutes to arrive and no later.

Tell no one.

Examining the order of numbers, you pin point the exact location and clicked off your phone; the location was underneath a bridge for whatever reason and is only a 5 minute flight with the suit.

"Hey ARIS?"

"Good evening Ms. L/N, how may I assist you this evening?"  Your AI responds, blinking a tiny blue light from your bracelet.

"Nothing at the moment yet. How's your status?"

"My circuits have successfully mended and the suit and myself are in full operation. I apologise for the inconvenience earlier."

"Wasn't your fault ARIS. Anyways, apparently I have a few missed calls?"

"Indeed you do. I apologise for not alerting you; I was in Power Nap Protocol as requested. You have approximately 20 missed calls from Mum, 10 missed calls from Dad, 25 missed calls from Y/F/N and 5 from Pepper Potts."

"A-any voicemails?" Your voice quivers with a hint of fear.

"Every missed call contains a voicemail except the 5 calls from Pepper Potts. Shall I send anything to the following?"

"No thank you ARIS. I'll call Mum and Dad myself." You finish and switch ARIS off.

Grabbing your phone, you unlock it and stare again at the anonymous message and groan.

from: you

i'll be there in 20.

They can wait. First, I need to call Mum and Dad and then-

"That canal water today was filthy and full of dangerous bacteria." Mr. Dell's voice abruptly interrupted your thoughts.

Then a shower and THEN I go to the bridge or whatever it is.

Standing up onto your feet, you lean against the door and go into contacts and as your finger hovers over 'Mum ❤️', a slight sense of pain hits you as you stare intensely at the name 'Pepper Potts'.

Shrugging the feeling off, you press onto the contact name and place the ringing phone to your ear, bracing for her yells and screams of relief and anger.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The sound of water rippling against the boat's motor is the only thing Peter can seem to hear; after wishing Y/N a goodnight, Ned had started bombarding Peter with questions about the 'Water Monster' and what he as Spider-Man was going to do.

Sure Peter still had an anxious and itching feeling about the monster but all he wanted to do was rehearse his speech of his declaration of love to Y/N and score the entire day with her in Paris.

But of course that was all ruined when Ned was shot by Nick Fury with a tranquilizer and told him about more bad guys possibly lurking around. What a great way to start a 'Spider-Man free vacation'.

With his suit on, Peter stood next to Fury and gripped onto its side; in front of him and Fury was an array of monitors which appeared to be measuring amounts of frequencies within the area.

"Stark left these for you." Fury perks up and nudges a box at Peter's direction.

Carefully and with caution, Peter takes the small, rectangular box into his hands and observes it; the outside had speckles of its beige brown paint chipped away from age. Peter gently lifted the lid and in front of him was none other than Tony Stark's famed glasses with his Stark Industries card placed beneath.

Peter stared at the glasses and felt a tinge of ache of grief but in it, a feeling of content rushed over it; Peter had Tony's glasses. Peter Parker was given the possession to multibillionare, genius, literal saviour of the Universe, the Iron Man and Tony Stark's iconic and ever expensive and high end tech glasses.

Brushing over the box lightly, Peter smiled sadly at them, remembering to all the times he had seen Tony wearing them; from on the news, front pages of magazines, wearing them when he was around and now, they no longer had that owner anymore; they didn't have Tony and neither did Peter. And neither did the world or Y/N.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Fury quotes and turns to Peter and even though Peter's mask was shielding his face, the raised creases of his frowned face of confusion were evidently clear as he snapped from his trance. "Stark said you wouldn't get that because it's not a Star Wars reference." A dry laugh escapes Fury's lips as he turns back away from Peter and concentrates on the boat.

"Kid if you peep one more Star Wars reference today I'm going to take your suit."

"But it's May 4th Mr Stark!"

"I do not care; right now you're in my house and there will be no Star Wars references."

Peter huffed out in irritation as he continued to focus on readjusting his webshooters on his suit.

Tony let out a chuckle at Peter's demeanor and how this kid basically came dressed as Han Solo just for this one day of the year; the commitment was real and even though Tony would never tell anyone, he loved seeing Peter passionate about the things he loves.

Working in the lab was one of Peter's favourite past times; spending quality time with Tony, tinkering with his suit and just talking was something Peter loved about the Tower; it was his second home to him.

A knock from the door caused Tony and Peter to look up.

"Ms. L/N requests to enter." FRIDAY notifies.

"Grant access." Tony permits.

The doors of the lab open to Y/N holding steaming bowls of something that smelt amazing which wafted in.

"Brought you geeks some sustenance before I head home." Y/N waltzed in and placed the two bowls next to the both of them. Y/N saw something was different about Peter; not his hair or general appearance just his clothing but the closer Y/N looked at the details in his outfit, a name popped into her head.

"Peter are you Hans Solo?"

Tony bursted into laughter as Peter hid his face to hide his red cheeks. "F-For May 4th?"

"Guess that makes me Leia?"  Y/N poked her space buns in her hair. "I wanted to wear space buns to get my hair out my face and didn't even check the date, coincidences man." Y/N giggled at the convenience.

"But Tony in all honesty, don't you think Fury looks a bit like that guy from Star Wars... what's his name-"

"Mace Windu?"

"YEAH HIM PETER!"

"...I don't remember what he looks like... FRIDAY, can you get a photo of Mace Windu?"

Observing the photo displayed in front of him, Tony wiped the hologram away and looked as if he was in deep thought.

"...Well yeah he does-"

"Incoming call: Nick Fury." FRIDAY chimed and that was when the 3 of them lost it.

God I miss him and Y/N...

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Lose the mask, everyone here has seen you without it. You don't wanna be fanning around and breathing through a spandex mask for no good reason."

Trailing behind Nick Fury, stops for a brief second and takes his mask off and as he alters his senses to his surroundings, Peter is met with sight of SHIELD agents, alongside with their small set up with crates all around the joint with weapons and technology lying around as it were nothing.

By hearing Fury's footsteps echoing through the underground base, the SHIELD agents turn to face him and Peter with stoic and intimidating faces.

"Over there we have Maria Hill." Fury points to a woman with light brown hair tied into a ponytail who was busy on a computer, looked up for a split second at Peter to acknowledge his existence before getting back to work.

"That, is Dmitri." Fury gestures to a man wearing a leather jacket, seated on top of a crate as he quietly loaded his rifle.

"And this, is Mr. Beck."

As Nick Fury stepped to the side, Peter abruptly slowed to a complete stop as he gazed at the familiar figure and outfit in front of him.

"Mysterio?"

"What?" The man questioned at what Peter said.

"Doesn't matter- it's just what my friends are calling you." Peter stuttered.

"Well," As 'Mysterio' began to approach Peter, 'Mysterio' extended his hand to Peter, indicating to shake his hand.

Peter got the message as he started walking and the two met and shook the other's hand.

"You can call me Quentin." Quentin revealed his name as the two greeted one another.

"You handled yourself well out there today," Quentin implied to the earlier events of the day, "I saw what you did with the tower. We could use someone like you on my world." Quentin shrugged away from Peter.

"T-thanks... wait I'm sorry- your world?"

"He's from Earth, just not from ours." A voice answers from behind him.

Following the voice, Peter jumps by being startled and whips his head around quickly; walking from the entrance and to everyone else is none other than-

"You're late Saviour." Fury visibly annoyed and unimpressed exhales out.

"As my good friend Albert said, time is relative my friend." Saviour sasses back and skips straight past Fury's daggering eyes.

"S-Saviour?! W-what are you doing h-here? Oh god, now you know what I look like-"

"I've known for a while Parker and besides, you're not the only superhero SHIELD wants their hands on; Fury contacted me a while back after... Tony. And don't worry, New York is under control without me there." Saviour teases and strolls next to Beck, leans against the desk with arms crossed.

"There a multiple realities Peter; this is Earth Dimension- 616 and I'm from Earth Dimension- 833." Quentin further evaluates.

"I'm sorry, you're saying there's a multiverse?" Peter jogs up to Beck and Saviour, full of awe and amazement from his discovery. "Because I just thought that was theoretical and that changes everything and how we understand the initial singularity, we're talking about an eternal inflation system and how does that even work with all the quantum because it's insane-" Peter's rambling falters as he sees Nick, Maria and Dmitri looking at him funny.

"S-sorry, it's just really cool-"

"Don't ever apologise for being the smartest person in the room." Quentin encourages and sends a soft smile to Peter.

"Anyway Beck, wanna fill in Spidey and myself about whatever the hell that was today?"  Saviour perks up.

A diagram of a black hole suddenly emerged as everyone gathered around.

"They were born in stable orbits within black holes, these creatures formed from the primary elements: air, water, fire, earth."

As Quentin talked, the hologram changed alongside with what he was explaining, showing images of the creatures and their general appearance.

"The Science division had a- technical name, we just called them, Elementals."

"Versions of them exist throughout our mythologies." Maria Hill speaks up as the Elemental hologram changes into their mythology forms.

"Turns out the myths are real-"

"Like Thor," Peter interrupts Quentin as he pays close attention to the presentation, "Thor was a myth and now I study him in my physics class."

"These myths, are threats." Fury clarifies as he walks away from the scene as once more it changes into an image of Earth.

"They first materialized on my Earth many years ago. We mobilized and fought them but with each battle they grew and got stronger. I was apart of the last battalion that tried to stop them. All we did was prevent the inevitable."

"And now they're here and attacking the same coordinates; our satellites confirm it." Maria adds.

"You both can thank Beck for destroying the other 3; there's only 1 left: Fire."

"The strongest one of all... the one that destroyed my Earth. It's the one that took my family." Quentin mutters as the apparition of Earth is now scorned and tarnished in red. The red light reflects Quentin's face full of guilt and remorse, twiddling around his wedding ring on his finger.

"I'm sorry..." Peter murmurs.

"So where's this fire Elemental? Do we even know where it likely is?" Saviour bluntly asks.

"It'll be in Prague in approximately 48 hours." Maria responds.

"We have one mission: kill it and the both of you are coming with us." Fury demands.

Peter's face falls as he faces Maria in disbelief and asks a second time if she said Prague.

Saviour's posture lifts as the struggle and anxiety surfaces Peter as the colour from his face vanishes.

"Listen Fury this all seems like big time, like huge superhero kinda stuff and... and I mean, I'm just a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man sir."

"Bitch please, you've been to space!"

"I know but that was by accident, sir come on, I've seen Saviour in action many times and I'll admit is probably better than me for this but there's gotta be someone else you can use." Peter protests and moves closer to Fury, "What about Thor?"

"Off world."

"Okay um, Doctor Strange."

"Unavailable." Maria pipes in.

"Captain Marvel!"

"Don't invoke her name." Fury shakes his head slightly.

"I really wanna help I do but if my Aunt finds out I left my class trip, she's gonna kill me and if I'm seen like this in Europe after the Washington Monument, my whole class will figure out who I am and then the whole world will figure out who I am... and then I'm done."

"Fury if it helps," Saviour steps up and walks next to Peter, "I'm pretty sure I can manage without Parker swinging by my side."

"Okay." Fury blankly answers, scaring Peter and Saviour a tiny bit from the lack of expression, "I understand."

Taken back by his approval, Peter and Saviour share a look with one another before going back to Fury.

"I'm sorry, what?" Peter with doubt inquires.

"Why don't you get back before your teacher's miss you and it becomes suspicious. Dmitri, why don't you take him back to the hotel."

"Thank you Mr. Fury and thank you Saviour." Peter sends a soft smile to Saviour and places a hand on the suits left hand shoulder. "I believe in you and good luck." Peter whispers only to Saviour before wishing everyone else out loud good luck.

"See ya kid." Quentin farewells Peter and watches him and Dmitri exit out.

"You really let him go Fury? No strings attached?" Saviour scoffs in astonishment by Peter's success to get himself out of SHIELD business.

Fury stands up and moves to Saviour with a stern look on his face.

"Of course not."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Bzzzz...

Bzzzz...

Bzzzz...

Groaning from your exhaustion, you roll over and press on your phone's screen multiple times in attempt to hit the snooze button.

Last night had been a rollercoaster: Peter and Mysterio are working with SHIELD with you, Fury made you stay back extra late to run through diagnostics which gave you around 4 hours sleep tops and the jetlag wasn't helping your situation at all.

Sitting up in bed, you try to stretch out your tiredness and peer to see MJ reading a book in one hand and a mug within the other, sitting on her bed with her black converses draped to the side.

Greeting MJ a 'good morning', you lift yourself up from the safety and warmth of the bed covers and slipped into the bathroom and changed for the day: rocking a pair of navy blue jeans and grey t-shirt for a casual but yet stylish look and throwing a little something over the top.

MJ mentioned there was breakfast downstairs (breakfast being cereal), you quickly did your hair and retreated down to grab a bite and sat next to Yasmin and Zoha and afterwards, heading upstairs to brush teeth and pack.

You and MJ both gave each other a hand carrying luggage down and delivering it outside.

"Oh I forgot my backpack I'll be back." You call behind as you jog back up to your room.

Rushing quickly into the room, you sweep up your backpack and stuff your phone charger inside and as you whirl around, you collide into something and hear a bang.

"I- Peter?"

"H-Hey Y/N! Sorry I was hanging up a call with Aunt May and I-"

"Pete it's fine you dork." You can't help but giggle at how flustered he is.

Peter's cheeks glow faintly pink as he shyly smiles.

"I got yelled at by my Mum and Dad for not answering the phone and I'm 98% sure I'm grounded when I get back home."

"Oh that's not good..."

"Guess not but eh, stuff happens. How are you though Peter? Feels like I haven't talked to you in a while."

"Y-Yeah... I'm good. You?"

"Yeah guess I'm alright. I'm really excited for Paris today though."

"Favourite destination?"

"Hell yeah! It's gonna be great but we gotta haul our stuff or Harrington will lose his mind." You joke.

"Oh yeah! That's why I was heading down." Peter swings his suitcase in front of him with a sly beam.

Too cute.

You and Peter talked for a far while before actually going back down the stairs and outside to everyone else.

"I'm going to get you a Vitamin C pill, you cannot get sick okay babe?" You hear Betty's distant voice as you and Peter round the door.

As you're about to walk out the door, Peter tugs your sleeve before you hit the outside and perplexed as you are, you pivot to look at him, giving him your attention.

"Before we go, I was just wondering if you wanted to um, sit next to me on whatever we're transporting on?" Peter fumbles and averts his eyes to the ground.

"Of course! I'll save you a seat Pete." You playfully punch his arm.

Peter rubs the back of his neck and lets out a laugh of relief.

You both walk out and see Betty frantically trying to receive a Vitamin C pill.

"I better go help her before she explodes." You suggest and inform Peter.

"Y-Yeah. See you later?"

"See you later!" You wave and leave Peter and Ned alone.

Peter watches Y/N tap Betty on the shoulder as Betty freaks out over the situation and remembers of why Ned is feeling 'sick'.

"Hey man, are you sure you're good?"

"Dude! I'm fine! Okay don't worry! Seriously, getting tranqed in the neck by Nick Fury, probably the coolest thing to happen to me anyway."

"It is pretty cool." Peter admits as the both perform their handshake. "I'm just glad we don't have to go to Prague-"

"Good news: we're going to Prague!" Mr. Harrington announces with a wide grin plastered on his face.

Everyone buzzes around 'whats' and 'huhs' as everyone glances around.

"Tour company called and upgraded us. Should've heard I gave them hell now come on!" Harrington begins to march as everyone scrambles for their belongings.

"Check out our upgraded ride!" Harrington chirps as the class sees a black bus with a man holding a sign saying 'Midtown High'.

Peter immediately recognizes the guy to be Dmitri from last night and gulps down his irateness.

"I think Nick Fury just hijacked our summer vacation."

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[recordmcqueen]

I hate complaining all the time because it just ends up making me insufferable to the people around me and i wish i could be that constantly energetic shamelessly chaotic ball of enthusiasm but no i just keep circling back into misery and its so draining cause ik if they really cared abt me theyd stick around anyway but it just feels like im always walking on eggshells and one wrong move will make them hate me forever and its soooo draining but i cant help being a people pleaser at the same time as being "unapologetic" and ironically that brings me even more misery im just so. So. Lonely.

On one hand i really desperately need someone to talk to but no one wants to listen to ranting so i end up seeking company as a distraction but i still cant help the negativity seeping into the conversation and i just end up feeling like no matter where i go im always gonna end up burdening someone else with my issues ehem just like all yall who followed me for...idk what?

Worst part is ive seen counsellors and stuff but the times i saw them was never when it was this bad and honestly at this point i dont even need someone who can help i just need someone to talk to. Idc if they can change my situation or not i just need someone to talk to because the more i shove it down and distract myself with fandoms the worse it comes back up to drown me when i dont have access to a distraction (thanks mom :"D)

Ig i cant depend on anything when im constantly walking on eggshells at home like a ticking time bomb where any moment might be the breaking point sending me into another depressive episode and tbh if it werent for insomnia i might even be normal. Sane.

But ive seen doctors and my mindscape is stubbornly sadistic so ig ill just keep suffering in silence 🤧

[mikeshanlon]

iwwv anon and PHEW OK. I def did not expect that essay and now I feel bad cause I KNOW my thots r not gonna be articulate or right. nonetheless! i think Oliver does qualify as an unreliable narrator cause hes. very oblivious but not like... Richard papen (who is a whole ass clown don't get me started on tsh) but not like addy from dare me(I will support till the day I die that dare me is da like I WILL die on this hill) who sees what she wants to see. 1/?

i think he just... thinks that his friends r diff ppl than they actually r? that doesnt rly make sense but yea. what I mean is that everything the characters do is coated in that empathetic view Oliver has which is usually wrong? so we don't get an objective look into the characters. meredith is my girl like I love the hot popular girl trope deconstruction but at the end of the book she's not at a great place like she's w someone that doesn't love her like she needs to be loved... 2/

I guess the most probable ending is that James never meets Oliver again and that everyone is kinda stuck on what happened but that's soo sad and I really don't want to think abt it. ngl iwwv wasn't like my fave book ever and I really don't understand why people are so obsessed with dark academia sometimes but what i rly liked abt the book is that despite how fucked up everyone is and how toxic they r to each other they do at heart care abt one another...3/

like I rly liked that esp cause at that point the only other da book (other than dare me!) that I had read was tsh and godd every character is so fuckinh annoying and they all hate each other. i was super confused by it till I saw someone saying that it's satire and I felt my mind explode. I feel like this is so long but I didnt rly properly answer all you wrote sorry! I think its a pretty good book tho it has some crazy quotes like hold awn Im gonna look at the highlighted stuff on my copy.. 4/

Were you in love with him?” “Yes,” [...]Yes, I was.” It’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is, I’m in love with him still. LIKEEE PHEWW OK OK OK. WE OUT HERE. that line literally made me go crazy. I'm so sorry for any spelling mistakes or like general mistakes I made here English isn't my first language, it's 1am and I wrote this in the notes app w/o looking it over. so like.. NOT a professional review lemme tell you. 5/5

 Ahh im so sorry I did not see this before I yeeted for a month!!!

Oooh okay first of all dare me as a DA… I’ve only watched the show but like yeah I see the Elements for sure.

Also yeah I can understand what you mean abt Oliver being an unreliable narrator now… Ig my view of unreliable was more like they are purposefully twisting the truth or omitting facts or just literally don’t know shit but I get how personal bias can make the narrator unreliable. I do think the assertion that Oliver thinks his friends are different than they actually are makes sense. He sees James in a very positive light and though I like James a lot and think he is better than, like, Richard, he definitely has darker moments and manipulates Oliver at times (again I’d like to think it’s not the most nefarious thing in the world but like him just being shitty bc he’s in a dark place and he one, wants to do anything he can so Oliver doesn’t figure out he fought Richard so Oliver still thinks of him the same way/bc he knows Oliver would do something stupid like get himself arrested for James; and two, is very jealous that Oliver is with Meredith after Richard dies and has sort of a somewhat positive outcome from Richard’s death versus James being riddled with guilt and anger). And yeah, the probable ending is they never meet but I refuse to acknowledge that so LGNRG. Also that line makes me go CRAZZZZZZZZZZY!!! There are so many great lines, both using Shakespeare and on their own and its like okay give me a moment im going bonkers…

Personally, I haven’t read that many dark academia novels yet (bc for some reason i can barely finish a book rn sigh) but the concept interests me. I think what’s compelling is the setting/atmosphere of like ~mysterious college vibes~, and the idea of a sort of niche, obsessive bond and pursuit of knowledge with a tight knit group of friends (and the like inherent homoeroticism in every single DA elrngenrg). Like Dead Poet’s Society (the film I haven’t read the book) isn’t Dark in the same way most other dark academia is by like, obsession and death and manipulation (though of course there are dark elements with Neil’s storyline), but I think the other building blocks of academia are present there in a more wholesome way and you can see why people are drawn to that idea. As for the more Dark aspects I think it’s interesting to analyze things like group psyche, obsession, manipulation, etc, like what went wrong for everything to take such a dark turn???

 But, like everything else, it really has to be done well or else its just like okay….… I’ve tried to read TSH twice and I may try again but from the 100+ ish pages I read I totally get what you mean. IWWV is so interesting to me bc the characters are all very compelling and multifaceted and I like that they are a close friendship, we come in after 4 years of them spending all the time together and to me that is apparent. Like you said, we can see fissures and problems especially as the novel continues but there is care there between them. That also makes the decision to let Richard die much more interesting and sinister imo, as well as how all of them interact with each other after he dies, and how the roles of the group change without their “leader” so to speak. Also, maybe it’s just bc I like Shakespeare, but I think the academia part of IWWV is so much more accessible compared to TSH. Like I don’t know every Shakespeare play or anything so I didn’t understand every nuance or was like immediately like oh this is from Cymbeline or whatever the fuck, but you could understand the gist of things and it made sense that they spoke in Shakespeare lines bc that’s all they’ve been doing for four years and also theatre kids are Like That. Their pretention also provided any Layers to the story, like the parallels between the characters they play and their own arcs, how some of the lines echoed their own thots, foreshadowed, or they were able to say things through Shakespeare (I’m thinking of like, Oliver realized he loved James during Romeo and Juliet, the foreshadowing that James was going to ruin Richard’s life and that he dislikes Meredith/Richard when he quotes Mercutio at the start “A plague o’ both your houses”, the exchange Oliver and James had onstage and had that kiss during King Lear before Oliver was arrested,etc.) (Also I think the structure of some of the dialogue being formatted like a play really helped make it feel more realistic and immersive). Versus TSH which is just so pedantic and dense and hard to follow at times im like I get they are smart but what??? And maybe that’s part of the satire aspect (or maybe im dumb) but like donna I read TGF I know you are pretentious and info dump abt random obscure shit anyways so erglknerg. Like to me there was a Point to all of the academic Shakespeare stuff in IWWV and it was the soul of the book, and M.L. Rio made it very interesting—like the way that the directors reimagined the plays and had Julius Caesar be like a modern political play, the cool mirror shit in King Lear, the Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet performances where they did them at events and interacted with their environments (which were one of my favorite parts of the books bc I just think that concept is so interesting), etc. For TSH the shit they did literally just felt like “okay look at them they’re smart see you can’t even keep up!” like okay… I felt lost a lot and only like snapped into reality whenever Henry (?) was like oh… murder….. and even then I was like idk what this dude is saying but like he’s being darksided LMAO. And I also agree that it’s just like… Richard being thrown in the middle of this group could lend itself to some cool ideas but its hard to believe that he fits into the friendship group and hes just like hell yeah I love Greek so much and lets go kill this guy other than like okay ur gay and stupid and just want to impress Henry or whatever his name was (which he was but I digress). It’s just not as impactful to me as this close friend group falling apart. Ik TSH fans might be angry if they see this (and of course I haven’t finished the book so my perception may be warped but I also kno many ppl felt that way u did) bc I’ve seen ppl say IWWV is just like TSH but “lackluster” or whatever and while I can see some parallels (mostly b/w Richard and Henry and Alexander and Francis), I really think M.L. Rio expanded upon common DA tropes and the interesting parts of TSH but made it her own and interesting and oh yeah there are actually multiple compelling female characters and LGBT characters (and no incest)!!!

[mcwriting]

starstruck (2)

Heyyyyyy so I stuck to my word lol.

I’m basically unable to function after seeing far from home this evening but also it was so good. I teared up when tom did and my mom made fun of me but its okay because his acting was awesome! Highly recommend y’all see it (even tho ik you probably will if you haven’t already lol)

Ps this is my first time linking one post to another so please lmk if it doesn’t work, but if it’s not, you’ll always be able to access this through my starstruck tag!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Fandom: Tommo Holland

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader eventually

Setting: LA

Word Count: 1386 (lol it’s shorter this time srry)

Warnings: i actually don’t think there’s any here, but lmk if there should be

Rating: K+ still

Background: part 2 of my DCOM inspired fic

B/f/n: your best friend’s name

                             __________________________________

Previously on starstruck...

The faint remains of his cologne wafted to your nose and you couldn’t help but breathe it in. You relaxed further into his grip and stayed comfortable until you heard a buzz on the table next to you.

You decided to ignore it until it happened two more times. Finally, you decided to wiggle out of Tom’s grip and succeeded without waking him. You picked up the cell and noticed it was 10 a.m. and all three texts were from b/f/n

Hey I’m coming over

I’ll bring ice cream since you said you weren’t doing too hot yesterday 

I’m on my way

“No. No, no, nonoNO,” you exclaimed, getting louder and louder, causing Tom to sleepily ask,

“Could you keep it down, darling?” 

“No, I can’t ‘keep it down,’ Thomas, because b/f/n is ON HER WAY HERE!”

“What!?” 

He sat up fully awake.

“We have to get you out of here without her seeing, and she’s probably gonna be here in like 5 minutes.”

Tom rushed to get up and find his keys that were in the pocket of his discarded jacket while you hurried to brush your hair and take a makeup wipe to your face.

You clambered down the stairs and hurried Tom through the kitchen and into the laundry room when you heard the doorbell ring, and when you didn’t answer in apt time, it began ringing like crazy.

Panic stuck your chest and you looked at Tom.

“Open the garage and leave in 5 minutes, then text me so I can close it.” You commanded, beginning to walk towards the entryway.

“Wait, wait,” he grabbed your arm, “I don’t have your number!”

You scrawled it down on a sticky note and ran, hoping he would get out safely and quickly. You opened the door to find b/f/n holding two pints of ice cream, raspberry sorbet for you and coffee ice cream for herself.

“My gosh what took you so long? I about started searching for the spare key with all these goods melting.”

You were about to reply when the door between the garage and utility room shut loudly. 

“Uh, who was that?” she asked, knowing your parents were at work.

“Oh, uh, a friend from dance. We’re working on a piece together and we decided to talk about it last night since I hurt my head,” you lied.

B/f/n furrowed her brows for a second before letting it go and coming inside to set up your typical movie day in the living room. Meanwhile, you headed back to the kitchen to grab spoons and check your phone, where a new number had sent a message. 

I’m out so you’re good to close the door. Thanks again for the great night ;)

You smiled and sent back 

That makes it sound soooo much worse than what really happened haha. You made it out without suspicion too :)

You decided to put his number in as a contact, disguising him as “Clara Twinkletoes” after a joke made late into the previous night, then headed to the living room.

                             __________________________________

After finishing one movie and your separate ice creams, you both decided to take a break and were looking at your phones.

“Hey, I know you hate talking about Tom Holland,” you gave a side-eyed glance to the bringing up of his name, “but guess what? He liked my picture last night! I just remembered to tell you!” 

B/f/n held up her phone to show you the notification, then went back to staring at it excitedly. 

“That’s actually really cool. I’m happy for you,” you expressed, leaving out the fact that you had asked Tom to like it when you were talking about the post at 1 a.m.

A few minutes later, b/f/n breathed out a soft “woah.”

You looked at her in confusion.

“Y/n, look at this girl Tom was photographed with yesterday, she looks like your twin!”

Dread filled your stomach as you stared at the picture of you and Tom in his black Audi A8, that stupid ballet skirt wrapping your head.

“Yeah, maybe if I took ride alongs with celebrities and wore nineteen fifties headscarves,” you quipped, “you only think that girl looks like me because you want it to be me, b/f/n.”

“Hmm, I guess…” she trailed, taking back her phone to continue scrolling through Instagram.

Not long after, you got a text from Clara twinkletoes.

Have you seen the picture??? I’m getting tagged and you are too

Like… everyone thinks that girl is you

Psh as if. We can talk about it later, I’m busy with my gal pal

Fine. Also, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the beach tomorrow? I wanna talk about all this in person

Hmm. Maybe. Probably not ;) 

“Hey, b/f/n?” You asked tentatively.

“Yeah?”

“Is it cool if you don’t spend the night tonight? I need to go to dance early tomorrow since I took the day off and I’ve also got this head injury so…” 

it wasn’t a complete lie. You did have a head injury and your plan was to go to dance at some point, but you decided to leave out the part where you might actually go hang out with hot shot Holland.

“Oh, uh yeah, sure. My sister is coming into town this week so it’s probably for the best, you know how my mom is about cleaning the house and stuff,” she said, obviously trying to hide her disappointment.

Around 4 pm, she got up to leave. You had watched two more movies and eaten plenty more snacks throughout the afternoon. 

“I guess I’ll see you later, y/n. Hope you’re feeling better tomorrow,” she smiled. 

You returned the gesture and gave her a hug, then watched from the doorstep as she mounted her bike and rode off to her house only a few neighborhoods away, you feeling queasy about lying so much.

                            __________________________________

You headed upstairs after a light dinner and some TV. It was only about 8 o’clock, but the combination of a head injury, late night, and slight emotional distress (from lying to b/f/n) made you feel exhausted, not to mention you would be waking early the next day. 

You changed into sweats and flopped into bed, checking your social media for a little bit to wind down. 

Your snapchat was just pictures from friends, only a couple of them joking to you about the whole Tom Holland situation (but of course none of them knew the truth)

Twitter and Instagram, however, were a different story. After the premiere, you had chosen to turn off notifications and were especially happy to know it was the right choice. 

On Twitter, fan accounts and other people were replying to a joking tweet you had made days before the premiere in reply to b/f/n where you said “Why be friends with that tom holland guy when you could hang out with your superior best friend hmmmm?? He’s lame compared to me lolol” 

People were going nuts about it, divided over whether you were just messing around or if you really didn’t like him. Most of them chose the former, though you knew you had meant the latter. Other people were tweeting about you separately and debating about that picture from the day before.

You almost deleted your Twitter in a rash decision but realized how suspicious that could look and instead closed it and moved to instagram.

It too was overflowing with tags and comments and follows and likes. Your stomach churned as you realized how big this was becoming. Finally you made the choice to meet Tom tomorrow, even if it risked being caught again. You sent him a single text to let it be known:

Alright twinkletoes. Let’s go to the beach.

You figured you could reply to whatever he sent in the morning and put your phone on do not disturb before plugging it in and checking the alarm.

You snuggled into the sheets and buried your head into a pillow. A sweet and musky scent drifted into your nose and you took a deep breath. 

Tom’s cologne

You sat up, sniffing around the sheets, pillows, and covers, realizing he had left his scent everywhere. 

“I need to wash these sheets tomorrow” you breathed to yourself in an annoyed tone. 

With that you laid back down, glad that b/f/n wasn’t there to ask whose scent was all over your bed. Though you tried to convince yourself that you wanted the smell gone, had anyone been watching, they couldn’t deny the way you sunk into the bed and the faint smile that made its way to your lips as you drifted into slumber.

                            __________________________________

A/N: there’s chapter 2!! Hope you guys enjoy. I don’t think I’ll post 3 until this weekend but who even knows haha. Love y’all and am so happy to have your support!

Tag List: @marvel-lously

[benhardyisdaddy]

the breakup - part 6

WARNING: sexual assault 

MASTERLIST

Ben!RogerxReader

Word Count: 1,913

(OKAY SO i had to cut this chapter in half bc it was gonna be way too long omg but I HOPE U GUYS LIKE IT ILY also ik the gif isn’t roger or even has ANYTHING 2 do with this chap but i had to use it cuz he’s so fckn cute oK & all i can say is get ready for the next chap OOF)

You were hardly able to sleep last night. You weren’t sure what you were most nervous about: the art show or Roger showing up. You had finally managed to only focus on the art show and not Roger. You couldn’t get distracted right now. This was important to you. You woke up earlier than usual. You rolled over and stretched your aching muscles. You didn’t want to get up, but you might as well. You weren’t going back to sleep. The butterflies in your stomach made it impossible. You slip from bed and slowly open your door. You take a few steps and peer over to the couch. Roger wasn’t there. You check around and he wasn't home at all. You feel your shoulders fall, but this is a good thing. You wouldn’t be even more distracted by him.

You walk to your painting and smile at it. It was really good. Realistic and different. Something inside you told yourself that Philip would like this. You turn and head to shower. You still needed to pick out your outfit for tonight. You wanted to call Mary, but she’s out of town with Fred. She was your fashion go-to person. You finish showering and walk to your closet. You need something cute yet elegant. This was an extremely fancy plaza you were going to. You did not want to be under-dressed,

You saw a certain dress buried deep in your closet and smile. It was a long, flowy gray dress that had a slit by your leg on the left side. It was tight on top as the straps fall down your shoulders. The top was angled a bit down, revealing a tiny portion of your chest. You held it up to yourself and cocked your head. This will do. You silently thank Roger for buying you all of these beautiful dresses for the parties he takes you to. Took you to. You walk to your bed and lay it down. You had hours to go until you needed to leave. You hoped maybe Roger would come home soon. You hoped he would go to the show, but you weren’t going to get your hopes up again. One heartbreak was enough.

You were making yourself a cup of tea when there was a sudden knock at your door. You place the kettle down as you rush to answer it, hoping it was maybe Roger. You fling it open and your smile half drops.

“Who’s excited?” asks Flynn, a smile plastered on his face.

He takes a step inside and looks around. He spots your painting and walks over to it.

“Is this it?” he asks, whispering. He looks to you and you nod.

“It’s… It’s beautiful. And sad. It’s perfect.” Sad. That had been what Roger said when he saw it. Flynn gently picks up the painting and looks to you.

“I’m going to go get this set up at the plaza for tonight. Remember 6 O’clock sharp. Is Roger going to be there?” he asks.

Oh that’s right. You hadn’t told him that the two of you were taking a break. You weren’t about to tell him that.

“Oh, um, I’m not sure if he is. You know, really busy.” you quickly say.

“Like last time.” he says, looking at your painting still. You cross your arms and look away. “Well,” he starts. “Big day today!” he says as he walks to your front door and closes it behind him. You take in a deep breath and rub your face.

_______________________________

You walk around the apartment half the day, not knowing what to do. You cleaned almost every inch of it out of pure anxiety. You couldn’t sit still. It was nearing 4 O’clock now when your phone goes off. You rush to it and answer.

“Hello?”

“Hi, sweetheart!” says Mary. You smile at her friendly voice.

“Mary! How are you and Fred doing?” you ask, plopping down on the couch.

“We’re doing fantastic! He’s just currently arguing with someone about about the difference between maroon and burgundy.” You can’t help but laugh.

“That sounds like Fred.” you say still giggling. “Hey, Mary?” you ask.

“Yes, love?”

You pause for a second before talking. “Um, have you talked to Rog today? He wasn’t here when I got up.” You can hear Fred saying something in the background.

“Oh, no babe. I haven’t. Maybe he’s at practice with the others?”

You look down and and nod your head. Maybe he was just at practice. Maybe he will show up. “You alright?” she asks, sounding worried.

“Oh, yeah. No, I’m fine. Just curious.” you say, clearing your throat. The two of you talk for forever about little things when you realize it’s almost 5 O’clock. You quickly say goodbye to Mary and rush to your room. You opt to leave your hair down so you saved time. You start on your makeup and make sure to get every little detail right. Not too heavy, but enough to bring out your eyes.

You feel accomplished with your looks as you slip on your dress. It clings to your body perfectly and is beautiful. You run your hands over it to smooth it out and look at yourself in the mirror. You look stunning. You half smile to yourself and walk to put on your heels. You grab your clutch and phone and lock up the apartment behind you. Your nerves were insane right now. Your heart was racing and you were almost shaking. You were taking deep, slow breaths as your cab pulls up. You climb in and give the man the address. You watch the city lights pass by as you think about Roger. What was he doing? And why are you so worried about him showing up? He owes you nothing. You were the one who wanted the break. He didn’t owe you anything. You rub the back of your neck as the plaza comes into view.

There were giant spotlights on either side of the building as people surrounded it, inside and out. The cab comes to a stop and you thank and pay the man. You get out and look up to the building. You were intimidated by the amount of people here. It was nearly doubled by the amount of people that were at the masquerade. You looked around and begin walking inside. As you enter inside, everyone’s eyes fall on you. You look like something straight from a fairy tale, with your long beautiful dress. You hold your head high and continue walking. You walk up to a few pieces of the art and admire them. There’s so many on the walls. Your piece suddenly feels very tiny and pathetic compared to theirs.

You walk around for a while longer when a waiter walks up and offers your champagne. You quickly think him and start sipping it. You catch yourself glancing around the room as you search for Roger. You force yourself to focus on the paintings instead. You turn a corner and suddenly spot Flynn. His eyes catch yours as you walk towards him.

“There she is!” he says loudly, causing a few other people to look at you. Your cheeks turn red as he hugs you.

“Y/n, I would like to introduce you to someone,” he says, taking your hand and leading you forward. “I think you know who this gentleman is.”

Standing before you is the one and only Philip Chartier. He’s taller than you expected and even more handsome as well. He has lushes blonde hair and the most charming smile. He reaches out his hand towards you and you take it. He pulls your hand up to his mouth and kisses the back of it. Was this really happening?

“It’s very nice to meet you.” he says, still holding your hand.

You smile as your heart races.

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” you whisper.

“You are the reason why y/n wanted to be an artist, Philip.” says Flynn.

You look to him then back to Philip.

“Is that so? Well I’ve seen your work and it was breathtaking.”

He thought your work was breathtaking!? This was most definitely a dream. You were so starstruck right now. You didn’t even know what to say.

“You know,” he starts again. “I would love to go over some advice with you. If you would like?” he asks.

You perk up at his offer and smile.

“I- I would love!” you say.

He smiles and reaches out his hand for you to take. You slowly take it and look to Flynn. He watches you and raises his brows. Philip slowly leads you in between the ocean of people. You look around once more very quickly to look for Roger. You didn’t see him. You continue walking as Philip leads you to a blocked off section of the building. There was a red rope that he had moved to allow you access. You were far away from everyone as you glance around the odd area. Pieces of art filled the walls.

“Wow,” you whisper looking around.

“They’re all mine.” he says, watching you. “You see,” he starts. “This one reminded me of the piece you did. Do you see how sad her eyes are? How lost she looks. Yours resembled the same thing to me. Painting’s like these can only be created by those who feel it.”

You look up to him, your brows slightly furrowing.

“I knew when I saw your painting tonight,” he says, taking a step forward. “That the girl who made this was very sad.” You stare at him, slightly shivering. You were sad when you created it. You had put your heart and soul into it.

“And now that I’ve met you, y/n,” he pushes a piece of hair behind your ear and looks you up and down. “I can see it in your eyes just how truly sad you are.”

You shiver at his touch and slightly take a step back. The way he’s looking at you makes you uncomfortable. You peak over to the exit and then back to him. He takes a step forward as you take another step back, your back meeting the wall.

“Tell me, madame,” he starts. “Why is a girl like you so sad?”

Just then you can feel his hand on your knee and slightly raises up. You freeze in fear and finally try to shove him away.

“Please stop,” you whisper.

He doesn’t move, his hand only goes further up. You can feel tears pool into your eyes as you feel helpless. There’s nobody around. Nobody to witness what’s happening. You just wanted to leave. His hand moves behind your thigh as he raises it up even further. You turn your head and without hesitation you bring your knee up harsh in between his legs. He lets out a guttural groan and grabs himself. He backs up and leans over. You turn and make your way around the corner. You’re sobbing at what had just happened. You can’t catch your breath. The person you had looked up to for years had turned out to be the most horrible person you had ever met.

You whip around the corner fast and run into someone. Their arms wrap around you tight as you continue to sob.

“Y/n?” asks the person.

You look up to them and blink away a few tears.

Roger?

Tag List: @sweetlygwilym @rogerinascigarette @basics-andthesimplelife @through-faith @myprincesoftheuniverse @scoobydoosbooty @beanut-putter @pg-taylor-fltchr @shadycupcakefox @loudxxstar @zcars777 @amostpeculiarmademoisellerp @borhapqueen92 @lovethis-lovethat @queen-darlin @dashlilymark @schniiipsel @perriwiinkle @rogertayolr @llcalumllhoodll

[erhiem]

For their SS22 collection, GmbH’s Benjamin Alexander Husby and Serhat Ik ask: What does ‘white’ dress mean? Written, which can be read as an unnecessarily incendiary question – ‘But I don’t see the color!!’ – An opposing jib of the post-identity era. Since ancient times, however, white fashion designers have seen the color. They have alienated and belittled other deemed wholes, filtering rich cultural heritage through myopic Western-centric approaches to create outfits suitable for anything other than racist cosplay. At all times, in fashion, at least, whiteness and its associated cultural capital have remained relatively immune to appropriation—until now, that is.

This season, the Berlin-based duo present White Noise, a body of work that evokes the archetypes of whiteness with elegance, humour, sensuality and wit. This creates a subtle undercurrent that runs through their AW21 collection – an investigation into how items such as jodhpurs and riding boots, Fair Isle knits and luxurious furs become coded as assets of a social environment – rich white posho, basically – and the subversive power of putting gray and black bodies in those clothes.

If the pair with subtlety backs their point and then slips under your radar, then, darling, you sure as hell won’t miss it anymore. The white typologies he studied are hardly esoteric—cropped, ruched knits styled with white double-zip-fly denim jodhpurs and calf-swaddling riding boots deliver the full polo-player fantasy, While the sweaters are unintentionally slung over tight shoulders, the poplin shirt tied across Daisy Duke’s front shows Tilly and Rosie watching the match from the sidelines. The clean denim look gives off a nostalgic, blue-jeans Americana air, blended neatly by baseball stripes, and sandy shirts worn with brown vegan leather trousers that call to mind a Midwestern sheriff. keep.

As you will probably have noticed from the description above, for all the seriousness of their chosen subject matter, Benjamin and Serhat’s work has a lightness—that is to say, it is steeped in satire and camp. The fundamentalists he invokes are, for all intents and purposes, very hysterical. Through them, however, they manage to parody the ethnographic strategies of white social institutions in a way that “almost drag, isn’t it,” Benjamin says. “It reminds me of this scene” Paris is burning where the category is ‘Town and Country’.”

Of course, GmbH does not in any way use fashion as a means of questioning, appropriating and destroying the cultural right of whiteness. Among the most notable people to do so in recent memory are the heroes of 90s hip-hop and R&B culture, who took on brands, looks and even clothing that once ‘aspirated’ white ideals. and made them his own—think Aaliyah and Destiny’s Child in Tommy Hilfiger, or Mary J. Blige’s iconic cut denim look. The collection’s closing chapter pays homage to this chapter in fashion history, a suit of denim and pastel faux-fur outerwear in the viral décolleté-bearing ‘Revenge Dress’ silhouette, which they launched last season, which Inspired the creation of GmbH’s Demi. clothing line.

That it’s given a collection with cerebral heft, but for all its cleverness, it doesn’t get lost in the concepts. The clothes we see emerging from the white haze in the presentation film directed by Matt Lambert are accessible and, above all, really fucking hot. Here, Benjamin and Serhat fill us in with the thoughts behind one of the standout menswear collections of the season so far.

So, white noise. Tell me about the title.

Benjamin Alexander Husby: It was partly inspired by this Don DeLillo book that I recently re-read. It touches on a lot of the volatile suburban themes surrounding death and the mediocrity of everyday life, which now feel very connected to our lives. On a more thematic note, however, our collections have always been very responsive, reacting to how we felt and what was happening in the world over and over again. This time it was more about an interest in studying what whiteness and white culture really is. As BIPOCs, we constantly have to deal with our own brownness, our blackness – we have to constantly defend and investigate it – and white people don’t have that. They don’t need to think about whiteness cause it’s right are you there, it’s just supposed to be the default.

Serhat Isik: It’s an exploration that we actually started last season, but not many people picked up on the codes we were alluding to – horse riding, skiing and all these activities that, in general, are not well reserved. but are known to be part of upper-class white culture.

Bah: Yes, That Very WASPy, Country Club Fantasy

and: Somehow, it wasn’t really clear enough for people, so this season is basically making it clear to us! GmbH as a project has always been about freeing our minds from colonization through fashion and in collaboration with our community. We’ve always been expected to describe our own cultures – and that’s a big part of what we do and what we’ve done so far. But the culture we are looking for here is what we were born in, and yet it has always been said that we are not a part of it. We wanted to find out what it looked like for a brand like GmbH to flip things over and suit white culture.

Bah: However, it’s important to say that it’s done with a bit of twisted humour. And also it’s not just about whiteness – trying to understand the tropes and archetypes of this American Dream ideal of white culture was our starting point, but then we went back to something we were always interested in – Exploring how brown and black people have historically appropriated or distorted white culture. It was pretty obvious to grow up in the 90s, it became a very influential thing in music culture, for example

Yep, there’s a switch around Look 20 where it started to remind me a little bit of Janet Jackson and Mary J Blige. But what got you interested in knowing how those kinds of figures are associated with whiteness in the ’90s next to the wealthy white fanatics we see before?

and: For me, it was really about shifting the narrative. Working in the post-identity era, I feel like there’s so much noise out there that I almost wanted to step back for a moment and focus on doing something there that was before we started GmbH. Get out of the conversation. We always say that fashion is a tool we use to raise awareness or talk about things we want to talk about, so we need a moment to regroup and rethink. How can we do it without doing the same thing. This is what drew me personally to continue researching the topic and really turn it around. Even if someone came along and said, “Oh, now they’re enforcing white culture?!”, that’s already a different conversation, and it’s the one I’m interested in hearing because It plays. I instead say, ‘They’re celebrating their culture! I love Middle Eastern patterns!’, because that’s what’s always expected of us. And it’s beautiful, sure, but now, let’s fuck things up!

Bah: I think we are all tired of constantly battling with our identities.

and: There is also a point that I get bored with it. It’s almost like we’re hoping to play into this narrative of introducing one Middle Eastern, quirky-inspired collection after another. But now we’re saying: No — let’s talk about you. Let’s talk about whiteness. Let’s talk about how we’re adapting to your culture, and see how you respond.

Bah: And if we talk about race and colour, one thing has to be acknowledged that we did not name ourselves ‘Brown’ or ‘Black’. This nomenclature is the product of a white colonial culture – so maybe whiteness is the problem. Maybe that’s what we need to understand and explore.

Here you do this by looking at the white typology, but you do it with a fairly light touch. Some of it is really camp – there’s the reality of varsity polo matches, baseball players, cowboys, Daisy Dukes… What drew you to the specific ideals you sought?

and: In some ways, it was because they were so obvious. And because codes are so important in what we do, especially codes that are used to oppress people of color, it’s also about investigating where the power lies. On another level, though, we just wanted to show everyone how we can make these archetypes really sexy in a way that might not be expected.

Another key feature of this season is your collaboration with queer Palestinian label Trashy Clothing. Tell us a little more about it and how you started working together.

BAH: It is run by Shukri Lawrence and Omar Brika, two Palestinian people based in Jordan. They reached out to us a while back, and we started a conversation about doing something together. They’ve done a lot of research into Palestinian graphic design, both political and non-political, and we’ve decided it makes sense to do something on our show – for a very visible T-shirt called Free. is Palestine. The T-shirt is for charity, but I think it’s important to point out that this is not what Palestinians are primarily asking for; They are demanding solidarity and visibility, and their voices be heard. We realized that making a very simple statement at a fashion show was one of the ways we could help keep that conversation going. This is a very serious situation, and for the first time in my life, I feel that the mainstream narrative is changing. We want to continue that conversation and momentum, no matter what.

and: That’s what’s great about fashion, and that’s one of the things we love about it — there’s a banter to it, but it’s very immediate.

.

The post GmbH SS22 collection review – i-D appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

[lighteyed]

smile ✦ peter parker

summary : as the adopted daughter of none other than tony stark, you have a myriad of responsibilities. babysitting peter parker probably wasn’t supposed to be one of them. not that you’re complaining.

word count : 4.7k (also known as the longest thing I’ve ever written)

author’s note : ur adopted b/c not everyone is white and i don’t want anyone to feel excluded from reading this due to the fact tony is white (and yes ik there are interracial couples i just want everyone to feel included i want to make sure whoever wants to read this can without feeling weird about it b/c i know it is something that bothers people in the fanfic community okay bye enjoy my loves.)

   Tony Stark was a lot of things to a lot of people. He was the billionaire, he was the genius, the philanthropist, and the notorious playboy in his younger years. Most notably, however, was that he was Iron Man. He was marveled at by the entire world, him and the group of heroes that stood beside him; the Avengers, as they called themselves. To you, however, he was your father. 

   A terribly overprotective one, at that. 

  Of course, this was only to be expected of a father, even a foster one, but the lengths the man went to in order to keep his only daughter out of whatever he deemed trouble were rather extensive. You rarely ever left the Avengers tower, and if you did you were accompanied by a team of people you could only describe as rip off Secret Service men. Sometimes, Natasha would replace them, or Steve, but that was a rare occurrence. You were homeschooled by the best tutors his money could pay for- this particular move was less about refining your education and more about keeping you away from any boy in the five boroughs. 

   You chose to spend majority of your time reading in your room and training, always wary of anyone who approached you about being a friend. Your surname meant everything to people, especially the girls that wandered around Manhattan desperate to become the bestie of the daughter of the richest man in New York. You loved your dad with all your heart, but the stigma that ran with the Stark name would never stop irritating you. 

   That, and the impromptu plans he threw at you on a regular basis. 

   “Miss Stark, your father is requesting access to your room. He knows you hate it when he barges in.” Vision drifted into your room without warning, making you jump. You yanked your earbuds out of your ears, giving him a look. 

   “I hate when anyone barges in, Vision. That includes you, too.” You pushed your chair away from your desk, placing your pen on the desk and shutting your notebook. “Tell him he can come in if he lets me become an Avenger.” You raised your voice at this, knowing he would hear you. 

   “He says that he’ll consider it if you let him in.” 

   You raised your eyebrows. “Touché.” You motioned for the door to open, and your father walked into the room, immediately taking his pristinely polished shoes off and lying down on your bed. You stared at him.“Dad, it’s not cool to wear sunglasses inside. You look lame.” 

   Tony Stark rolled his eyes at you. “It’s called a look, sweetheart.” You laughed, pretending to nod in agreement. He placed his hands behind his head as you spun your chair back around to your desk. “What are you working on?” 

   “Something for Bruce,” you muttered, pen cap between your teeth as you continued to jot down important points from his numerous lab reports. You were going to have to hand in a full analysis of his findings for your end of term science paper, and he was more than willing to aid you. “Science report.” 

   “My daughter, beautiful and intelligent, my flesh and blood,” Tony declared proudly. 

   “Dad, I love you to the death, but I’m still not your biological kid,” you smiled all the same, though, and he knew behind the tough exterior you were happy to hear his expressions of admiration. 

    “Who needs a biological kid when I’ve got this great, wonderful adopted one right in front of me.” 

   Not looking up from your notebook, you said, “You’re really laying it on thick today. I’m all of those things, obviously, but I know you want something. So, what is it?” You paused, then said, “Thank you, by the way.” 

   “You sure we’re not related?” He sat back up, clasping his hands together. “What do you say about Germany?” 

   “Nice enough place I guess, interesting history, why?” 

   “I kind of need you to go there for two weeks with me.” 

   With a groan, you dropped your pen and held your face in your hands. “Another surprise trip? Dad, I have school. I have homework! Do you see this?” You held up the thick stack of reports from Banner’s lab, waving them around. “This is gonna be, like, my life’s work.” 

   Tony shook his head. “Kids these days and their homework. Seriously. When I was at school I would have taken any opportunity to shirk my responsibilities.” 

  “You did do that.”

    He waved his hand. “Technicalities. Anyway, as you know the Avengers have been disassembled. Sokovia Accords and all that bullshit. I assume you’ve been keeping up?” 

   “Hard not to.” It was true. Anything in the news was about the great split of the infamous team, Captain America vs Iron Man. It was impossible to turn on the television without hearing about it. And, considering you lived underneath the same roof as half of them, it was quite literally not an option to be ignorant to what was going on. 

   “Good,” he grinned proudly again. If there was one emotion that the man felt whenever he was around, it was proud. Nearly everything you did made him beam with pride, and if you had been placed into an actual high school, there was no doubt in his mind that the person at the top of every single class would be you. You excelled no matter the circumstances. “So, to sum up, there’s gonna be a big showdown in Germany. Western style, naturally. Guns blazing and everything.” 

   Your eyes lit up and you nearly flew out of your chair, rushing over to him. “Oh my god, are you finally gonna let me fight? You’ve seen my training, right? I’m getting so good. I’m like, practically Natasha level good. She’s been showing me that move where I can snap people’s necks with my thighs and-” 

   “First of all, your thighs are not going around anyone’s neck, so jot that down,” he interrupted. Your enthusiasm visibly deflated. “I need you to kind of watch over this kid who’s coming with us. He’s from Queens. You love Queens.” 

   “You’re making me babysit?” You flopped down on your bed, staring up at the ceiling. “C’mon, dad, I’m sixteen. That’s practically an adult. I think I should be allowed to fight this time. I’m Avenger worthy.” 

   “Practically an adult is not the same as literally an adult, as in over eighteen.” You groaned again. “Don’t call it babysitting, anyway. He’s your age. Well, he’s a few months younger, but that doesn’t matter. Just call it… hanging out with a good kid that’s fighting for your dear old dad and making sure he doesn’t get into trouble in Germany or annoy Happy too much.” He patted your knee, standing up. “We leave in the morning, kiddo, so pack up.” 

   “How come he gets to fight if he’s younger than I am?” 

   “’Cause he’s not my daughter. Goodnight, light of my life.” He kissed your forehead before leaving, giving you another encouraging smile.

   “Goodnight, pain my ass,” you grumbled as he left. He popped back in, a stern expression on his face. “If I watch your new protégée can I become an Avenger?” Tony rubbed a hand over his eyes. Teenage girls were exhausting. 

   “We’ll talk about it.”

   You’re sitting at your breakfast table with suitcases piled next to you when Peter Parker strolls into your life with happiness in his every footstep because he is just so, so glad to be there. You’re spooning cereal into your mouth when he sits down directly across from you, a video camera cupped in his soft looking hands and the little red button clicked on, meaning that he is recording you. You place your spoon back into the bowl of milk that is dusted with cinnamon sugar from the Cinnamon Toast Crunch you’ve been eating for the past ten minutes. 

   “Do you mind?” 

   “Mind what?” He asked, peeking up from behind his camera. You gestured toward it, wiping your mouth with your sleeve. 

   “The camera. I’m kind of still in the middle of eating breakfast in my pajamas,” you leaned forward, switching it off. “You must be the Spider-Boy.” The chestnut haired boy feels a blush creeping up his neck and settling along his cheekbones when you say that. 

   “Oh, did Mr. Stark tell you that?” He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing awkwardly. “Um, it’s Spider-Man, actually.” He mumbled the man part, knowing fully well that he didn’t look like much of a man in the eyes of anyone, his eyes casting down as he fidgeted with the strap on his camera. 

   “Oh good,” you nodded. You took another spoonful of cereal. “I like that better. Nicer ring to it.” You grabbed your box of sugary breakfast and pushed it toward him, an offering. 

   “Huh?” He was a bit dazed. He stared at the box in front of him and then realized he had been doing that for far too long of a time to be considered normal. “Oh, right, um, sure, thanks!” He opened the box and took a handful, shoving it in his mouth. You kept eating your cereal, silently staring at the bowl and willing yourself not to laugh at the boy in front of you. With all his nerves, he was still a bundle of energy and cheerfulness, and, well, let’s face it, he was sort of adorable. “So, you think my name’s cool?” He tried to sound suave, charming, as he said it, tried to smirk at you, but he stopped when he realized that he looked stupid.

   You gave him a half smile. “It’s pretty good.” His face positively lit up with happiness to be taken seriously, and you knew the feeling too well. You stuck out your hand. “Oh, forgot to introduce myself-” 

  “Y/N Stark, adopted daughter of Mr. Stark, probably the smartest girl in all of New York and, uh, correct if I’m wrong but… Black Widow’s best student as well as Bruce Banner’s apprentice.” 

   You gaped at him. The blush he had been sporting crept up to his ears and made his nose turn the shade of a strawberry. “Well, uh, yeah,” you said, flustered. “Should I creeped out or flattered?” 

   “Flattered, please.” The genuine worry in his eyes as he leaned forward made you laugh. He had an endearing personality. 

   “Flattered it is.” You watched the slow sigh of relief leave his mouth, his hands flying up the mess of hair atop his head and fixing it distractedly. Your dad walked into the room, and Peter practically fell out of his chair trying to stand up and seem presentable. Your slouch was indicative that you didn’t care much. He was just your dad. “Morning, pops,” you slid the box over his way.  

   He frowned at it.” Y/N, that stuff is crap. I don’t know why you eat it.” 

   “Wanda and I like it,” you said defensively, a slip of the tongue. You knew your dad was going to get annoyed at the mention of the Scarlet Witch, who had evaded and ignored his attempts at keeping her powers under control. “It’s good. High quality. Right, Peter?” You whipped your head toward him. 

   He felt his heart give a little tug. He grabbed the box out of your hand and shoved more cereal in his mouth, the cinnamon sugar sticking to his lips. “Yeah, Mr. Stark. Best stuff ever,” he said through a mouthful of it. Tony gave them an amused glance, picking up your two heaviest suitcases and beckoning you both to the landing strip. Peter swallowed his food. 

   He didn’t even like Cinnamon Toast Crunch that much. He was just thrilled that you knew his real name.

   Everything about this kid was infuriatingly dorky in the cutest way possible. You came to this conclusion as you boarded the jet with ease, sitting in your usual spot by the window and greeting Happy with your typical friendly smile and idle chitchat. Peter stumbled onto it with awe written across his features as he stared around the place, touching nearly everything much to Happy’s dismay. 

   “Haven’t you been on a plane before?” The man asked, growing irritated with the way the kid was filming everything. You saw Peter zoom in on Happy’s face and grinned out your window. 

   “Nope, never!” Peter exclaimed, his video camera still in front of him as he captured every detail of his trip. 

   “Well, sit down so we can take off,” Happy said gruffly, grabbing Peter’s shoulders and forcefully placing him into a seat. 

  Peter sat still for a moment, then hopped over to the seat next to you. He placed his camera in front of him on the tray table. “Y/N, smile for the camera. I’m recording.” You looked at him, then turned to the camera and gave it a deadpan stare. You even threw in a slow blink. “Good enough,” he shrugged. He kept it recording as he shifted in his seat so that his entire body was facing you, his chin resting in his hand and his elbow on your armrest. His gaze was sort of nice. “So, Miss Stark, I have a few questions.” 

   “Um, okay, shoot,” you closed your book that you had open on your lap. “I’m not that interesting, just so you know.” 

  “I think you’re interesting,” he assured you. You heard Happy let out a choked laugh at Peter’s flirting attempt, but it was just another thing you found sort of lovely. It was a genuine compliment. “What’s your favorite subject in school?”

   You’d been expecting the typical what’s it like being Tony’s daughter spiel, and you were pleased to get an actual question about yourself for once. “I like everything, I guess. I kind of love school, but I don’t go to a conventional school, so. Training is cool, I like that a lot.” 

   “You train with Black Widow, I have to ask- can you show me some moves? I need to refine my technique before the fight,” he explained.  

    “Do you wanna learn how to crush people with your thighs?”

   “Wow! Do you think I could? Could you teach me? That’s so cool,” he beamed, turning to the camera for a split second with an overexcited look. 

   You pursed your lips, staring out your window for a minute. You were up in the air by now, and there was long flight ahead of you. “Maybe. If my dad is okay with it. I have to check.” Peter looked confused, 

   “Why wouldn’t he be?” 

   “He’s, you know, really overprotective.” You put your first against the cheek, leaning the same way that Peter was. You sighed. “I don’t have a lot of friends. Which is fine, but I can’t even attempt to go make any because I have a whole freaking SWAT team on my ass the minute I step out of the tower because he’s so worried about my safety.” You let your head hit the window, your eyes rolling skyward. “And that makes no sense because-” 

   “You’re really strong and stuff. You can protect yourself,” Peter finished. 

    “I think you know me a little too well, Peter,” you said, poking him lightly in the arm. “But… yeah, exactly. I don’t really get to do anything fun. I don’t have adventures. Sure, reading is fun and studying is fun for me and training is great and I love hanging out with everyone in the tower but I’m still a teenager. No fun for me, though. My life is pretty boring, sorry if that makes your little video diary suck.” You stuck your tongue out at his camera.  

   “No worries,” he said, taking it off the tray table and turning it toward you. “Tell me every boring detail, Miss Stark.” 

   “As long as you stop calling me Miss Stark.” 

   “You’ve got a deal.” 

   It was a seven hour trip, and you both passed out by the three hour mark after Peter had pried every excruciating detail from your life out of you. You hated sleeping on airplanes, but your head was slumped against his shoulder and his arm was knocking against your own and his sweatshirt was as soft as pillow. You remembered the shy glance he had given you just before you knocked out on his shoulder for the remainder of the flight. He had a sweet smile. 

    Peter filmed absolutely everything. He filmed himself getting off the plane and then filmed you getting off the plane and nearly shoved the camera in Happy’s face until he threatened to break it and Peter backed off. He radiated enthusiasm. “Look at this, and this, and this, oh shit wow that’s so cool look at this! Oh man this is good stuff!”

   “Peter this is literally just the airport how am I supposed to take you around the actual city?!”

   “OH WOW Y/N have you seen this!” 

    “Yes, Peter!” 

     He zoomed in on your face, your devoid of emotion look appearing again. “Are you ever gonna smile for the camera?” He gave you a pout, doe eyes and all. You turned away. 

   “No. I’m supposed to be babysitting you, please be behave.” You touched your fingers to the bridge of your nose, dragging Peter to a couch. “Please sit. We’re getting the hotel reservations checked.” 

   “Do they juice boxes? I’m really thirsty.” He was just trying to make you laugh at this point, and annoying you was kind of funny for him. You let out an involuntary chuckle when he pretended to claw at his throat, throwing himself on the ground. 

   “I’ll make sure they have juice boxes for you, Petey. You’re such a seven year old, geez.” You pretended to gag. 

   Looking offended, Peter replied, “I’m actually twelve.” 

   Jokingly, you said, “You’re a twelve year old that’s going to get a punch in the face if you don’t settle down right now.” He stood up, directly in front of you with his light eyes and little grin, another feverish looking heat burning at his face. Nevertheless, he still said, “It’d be an honor to get beaten up by you.” 

  His voice, the sincerity he carried within it despite the ludicrous statement, made you feel those famed butterflies fluttering inside you. Maybe it was the way he looked into your eyes as he said it. Maybe it wasn’t. But something within you was starting to like Peter Parker, and you’d barely known him for twenty four hours. 

   Then again, it was hard to not like Peter. The kid was just so damn likable. 

   He had known it from the moment he first set his eyes upon you that day in the tower that he was a goner. If he had known it then, just from sitting down across from you with nothing to him but his lanky figure and a suit that resembled a onesie more than it did a costume fit for a hero such as he, he was sure of it now, a week and a half later. 

   Every day had been the same routine. He’d be up bright and early in the morning so you could help with him his training, teaching him how to utilize the suit your father had given him with ease rather than his usual tactic of jumping into everything blind. You’d been the one to help come up with nearly all of the web shooter combinations. He didn’t know all of them yet, or close to half of them, but he was progressing wonderfully. 

   After training, you’d give him the tour of your favorite places around Germany, close enough to where you’d both be able to get back to the hotel before dark. He filmed the both of you constantly, but you shied away from the cameras every time without fail. He couldn’t understand why, but he didn’t push. He just liked filming in general, and would accept you not smiling in any of his clips as long as you were still in there. 

   There was a beautiful sense of normalcy that came with hanging around Peter. You reveled in it. No one had ever made you laugh so hard with his ridiculous attempts at jokes or made you smile so much at his shy flirting skills that clearly needed to be revisited. 

   It was okay. You didn’t mind. And the fact that you didn’t tease him for it made him so, so happy. 

   Then, came the day of the fight. Peter had his camera out, he was dressed in his spidey suit, and you were standing there next to him dictating who he should and shouldn’t go after. 

   “Don’t go after Wanda ‘cause she could obliterate you in two seconds and Cap could crush you, too, but he won’t ‘cause he’s really nice like that. Bucky won’t care as much, though, so don’t do that- Ant-Man seems pretty cool and harmless but I don’t have as much intel on him and Peter if you get hurt you have to go hide somewhere-” 

   “I’m not gonna get hurt,” he said confidently. 

   You ignored him. “I’m gonna be in your earpiece, figuratively speaking, so I’ll hear everything you do and if you talk I’ll be able to hear you and you can hear me. So, just… keep me updated.” Peter took off his mask for a second, hair sticking up everywhere from the static. You leaned up, smoothing it back into place. Everything about him was soft. You wanted to curl up in it and stay there for as long as you could. 

   “I’ll be fine, Y/N, don’t worry,” Peter placed his hand on your shoulder. You felt your face heat up. 

   “I- I’m not worried.” You totally were. “I know you’ll be fine.” You didn’t want him getting hurt. “I just want you to be careful.” You didn’t want him to fight. 

   You could’ve sworn his face fell a  bit when you said you weren’t worried, but he squeezed your shoulder anyway. Without a moment’s hesitation, you threw your arms around him, your nose pressing against his neck as you took a deep breath. He stood there for a second without doing anything until he realized that if he didn’t hug you back, he’d be the dumbest person on the face of the Earth. You felt his surprisingly defined arms hug you back. 

   You didn’t look at him when you pulled away. You stared at the spider emblazoned on his chest, gave him a quick good luck, then departed from the room. You sat on your own hotel bed with a rapidly beating heart.

    The nerves were killing you. Ten more minutes. You opened your laptop and pulled up the system that would allow you to communicate across Team Stark. You were more focused on your dad and Peter. You tapped into your dad’s earpiece after placing the headset on. “Dad?” You spoke into the microphone. 

   “Hey, kiddo, everything okay?” 

   “Y-Yeah I just-” you took another breath. “Be safe. I love you.” 

   “I love you too, Y/N. Are you sure everything is okay over there?” 

   “Can you just make sure Peter gets out okay? If he gets hurt, bring him right back, please. That’s it.” Maybe it was a stupid request in someone else’s eyes, but you needed Peter to make it back in one piece. Tony Stark looked over at Peter Parker, crouching in his hiding spot and fumbling around with the gloves of his suit and gave the kid a knowing smile. Of course that was the one his  daughter fell for in the end. Perfectly fitting. 

   “I’ll make sure.” You knew your father couldn’t see the grateful smile on your face, the sigh of relief that fell past your lips when he spoke these words.

   Peter Parker, I swear if you make it out of this, I will smile like an idiot in every single one of your stupidly adorable video diary things. I swear. Just be safe.

 “Your black eye is awful,” you told him, dabbing at it with more cream. “Totally ruins your face.”

   “I think I look manly.” 

   “You think incorrectly.” You stepped back, your fingertips tilting his chin up so you could examine it further. “I think I got the worst of it. You did really well, Peter. Exceptionally well.” His face was glowing from your compliment. 

   “Can I get on that tape?” He asked excitedly, ducking under his hotel bed for his camera. You nodded, and he switched the camera on. He held out his arm so that you were both in frame. And you smiled. He forgot all about what you were supposed to say the moment that beautiful smile appeared there. “I- wow, Y/N.” 

   “What?’ 

    His stare was kind as it usually was. “You just-” he paused. “Your smile is really, really beautiful.” There was no way for you to turn away from the camera this time and you were left grinning like a lovestruck idiot at the boy in front of you, leaning up on your toes to press a kiss to his cheek. 

  “Thank you.” 

  You slept the entire plane ride the way you had the last time, curled up against Peter. This time, it was intentional. One of your arms was flung across his waist and his was wrapped around your shoulders, the sweatshirt he had came in now swaddling you cozily. There were two separate cars waiting for you. You stood in between them when the flight got off, the sleeves of his sweater hanging off your hands as you reached out to grab his. He felt you push a piece of paper into his hand. “You better call me, Peter Parker. I’ll be really upset if you don’t.” 

   He wrapped you suddenly in an embrace that lifted you off your feet just a little bit, his lips pressing against your temple. “I’ll call you every day.” 

   He kept true to his word. Every day without fail, your phone rang with a call from Peter, and you fell asleep on the phone with him more often than not. If you weren’t on the phone with him, you were texting him, and if you weren’t doing that, you wished that you were. The consistent communication was better than nothing, but regardless, you missed his presence. You missed the way you felt walking next to him as he explained why chocolate ice cream was so clearly better than vanilla. You just missed him. 

   “Peter?” You held the phone to your ear, nestled in your blankets already even though it was barely nine o'clock. His sleepy voice mumbled out a yes? “Would it be stupid if I said that I missed you?” 

  She could practically hear his wide smile through the phone. “Of course not. I miss you, too. So much. Probably more than you miss me.” 

   “That’s so not true!” She scoffed. 

    “Wanna bet?” His tone was mischievous, no longer the hoarse, pretty voice of a boy just waking up from his nap. “Open your bedroom door.” 

    “Are you joking?” 

    You hung up the phone, throwing back your covers and not caring one bit that your hair was a dripping mess from your shower or that you were wearing  a terrible set of hello kitty pajamas that weren’t meant for anyone over the age of ten based on the size of the top. You nearly tackled him to the ground when you saw him standing in your doorway, a happy squeal escaping your lips. You were surprised he even got in, considering your dad wasn’t home, but you figured Vision had let him in. Vision always had a way of knowing. 

   “Have I ever told you that you have a really pretty smile?” Peter’s lips hovered over yours, almost hesitant. You took the initiative to kiss first, your hands delving into his silk-like hair. There was no point in waiting anymore. Your noses bumped together clumsily when he tilted his head back, admiring. You could feel your whole being light up when he gazed at you the way that he did, in that admiring, careful, Peter way of his. 

   “Careful, Spidey,” You warned, hands on his chest as you stared right back up at him. 

   “Careful of what?” He quirked an eyebrow. 

   “You’re going to make me fall in love with you one of these days if you keep looking at me like that.” It was only the truth, and you were a honest person.

   “That’s sort of the plan,” he shrugged in a seemingly careless way, but he couldn’t hide it. He was an open book. An open book who loved you, and the way that you smiled at him when he pulled back his sleeve to reveal a web shooter, a strange glint in those brown eyes of his as he said, “You up for an adventure?” 

[cckaisoo]

May i ask how long you´ve been following kpop? kpop start to me as such fun thing like 2 years ago and now i feel like its such awful place. I mean, i was never part of any fandom iml and dont see myself as, but reading blogs and such. I tried to stay more for KD, cause i really love them together and apart, but the amount of hate i see and with JongHyun (i was no fan, but it hurt me in such personal place) that i feel like kpop is over to me. Sorry, to just talk nonsense on your blog. Its just

…just the whole thing hit home and seeing Ji face broke me a bit more. I think im done with kpop. I cannot think that ji or ks is suffering or not free to live their lifes. always faking. what is even real on kpop? of course, its not just that. Its the hate… i never seen such hate as i´ve seen around kpop fandom. Maybe im naive. IDk. i bought the xmas album, but after that i dont think i´ll be able to follow them, without doubting that things are good. Im so sorry to burst out. :(

again im so sorry. it just feel like i need to let it out. I hope ji and ks are always okay. all of them.

i don’t actually follow kpop. I only follow ex0 since pre-debut era. i don’t know jong.hyun. i don’t even follow him. i’ll be lying to myself if i said i care for him so much because honestly i don’t know him that well. but the fact he committed suicide really hit me too. ik they have access to professional help. i kept asking myself what went wrong? which is inappropriate to ask actually. i read and seen ppl sharing the same feelings as you. i find it quite sad that it takes so much for fans to realize that such thing actually happens in real life. that the entertainment industry is not what we thought it is.

it’s fine for you if you are not able to be in kpop fandom after this. but honestly, right now, is not the time to give up. this unfortunate event should teach us something and encourage us to make a difference. something should be done differently for the better future. even if you turn away from kpop, remember that depression (or mental illness) and hates don’t only happen in the entertainment industry. it happens anywhere, to anyone. the person next to us might be having and experiencing it, but we don’t see it because we are not looking close enough.

what happened to him actually pushes me to strive better in what i am currently doing. i want to make a difference. he might be gone, but i want to believe, jong.hyun has saved hundreds of life starting today. i hope he is happy wherever he is. we will always love you. thank you for everything that you did for us and until we meet again :)

however, i know that not every1 is like me, think the way i think, share the same thoughts as i do. seek your own happiness. your own purpose. it can never be alright all the time. we all know when things fcked up, it is fcked up. we can’t turn back time. but i know that we can make through this, whatever that we are facing with, together. take care of yourself, anon!

[askluxnovalibra]

Part 1 Hey can you please help me, I'm a libra sun sag moon scorpio venus and mercury (and dominant) and nobody has really seen me cry or sensitive and I feel like nobody rly knows me except for my brother, cousin, and two closest friends... but they kinda suck at opening up too, and my brother has enough psychological problems. I always get perfectly along with scorpios and capricorns and yin moons bc i understand how underrated and misinterpreted their suffer and pain are

Part 2 And there are these two friends: sag suns with scorpio/pisces moon… and they are so omg im sorry but its so freaking painful. They both have their problems but they both are so fckin shallow seriously. The pisces moon just doesnt understand what life is and is brutally ingenuous. And scorpio moon is such a b**** rly. She has a tough backstory her brother has always been a jerk (he’s mentally ill) And i though she would be great bc she always says she understands pain and etc.Part 3 And here comes the deal: I have been exposed to mentally ill ppl, ocd hysterical and completely evil people who happened to be my beloved family. At 14 I stopped having them and found out they were everything I didn’t expect them to be. I lost my whole childhood (wich happened to be my basic reason to live). At 15 I went to a sports school. They were our friends, we trusted them. One year goes by and once again I am betrayed by my friends and fall on the ground.Part 4 Then, comes the BEST part. As ive said im a scorpio venus. I fell in love at first sight with a boy that totally corresponded. Small detail: he had a gf. He now broke up with her so thats kinda nice (not to sound mean, rly) for me but whatever; I was 15 and I had been betrayed by everyone. At 16 I was dead inside. I didn’t get attached i didnt live i didnt like to be even awake i cries everyday before school and after school and before going to bed.Part 5 I even got to a point of cutting my arms bc i enjoyed knowing the pain i was going through was actually real and not “sumthin you have to go through, its life.” I met the scorpio moon. At first she seemed awesome. Until getting upset at the smallest thing. Im a scorpio dominant and i know i dont need to be like that. I know she just does this because shes immature and has no clue of life. Im sorry im doing this long ask but rly i need help. No one literally no one knows this.Part 6 No one knows i cry no one knows i ever even cut my arms. And no one even notices. Thank god tbh. No one knows and imagines what it is to cry and scream and DIE for a dude you don’t even know. I know it sounds exaggerated but its the truths. I cant fall in love with anybody else since im 15 and im 17 (turning 18 this year) I live in a house ik im moving out of but i dont know when. I live with my mom in my grandmothers and she is also mentally ill. My mom too is always mentally unstablePart 7 She’s been through everything no one should go through. My dad is f****d up with this house and always hides very well we actually don’t have lots of money. My brother is an amazing soul an exceptional person who fell in love almost 5 years ago and still has anxiety bc of what happened (he didn’t know her too) and has too many psychological problems. I’m stuck with myself and no one seems to understand. I’m so sorry for this post. I’m so, so sorry. It’s just I’m done. I’m tired of pplPart 8 Im tired of ppl making me cry Of ppl being shallow Ppl hurting me and seeing me as A B*TCH I just need someone that actually knows. That actually can tell me they understand me and they too hate it all like me. Im so sorry and thank you for having the patience to read this. ❤️💖———————————————————–

It sounds like you’re going through a really challenging time in your life. I know it can seem endless, and it can seem like everyone is out to get you. Once you feel betrayed, it can be hard to trust people again. It is all too easy to be stuck in our own extreme emotions. After losing faith in someone, it’s tempting to write off everyone in your life as fake, shallow, and naive. Constantly replaying the betrayal in your mind will only do you harm. It’ll only make you more angry and more likely to adopt the “me against the world” type of attitude. You’re 17. You’re still young. You still have a long life ahead of you, and it would be remiss of you to go through life with that sort of attitude. You’ve been wronged, and it is alright to acknowledge that, but you must now think about the situation with your heart, perhaps not so much with your heart. The heart can be easily mislead, easily angered, easily fooled, easily spiteful, easily misguided. Consider moving into a stage of forgiveness. Forgiveness in this sense is not saying that those people’s actions were ok, forgiveness is more for your own sake. Start to detach yourself from the pain those actions caused you. Continuing to obsess over the transgressions of others will hinders your own progress. If the wound is to ever heal, you must stop picking at the scab. Let yourself move on. One way you can do that is to write everything down (as you have bravely shared with me, a stranger) on a piece of paper. Write out every hurt, every frustration, everything that keeps you up at night. Then tear it up, burn it, or throw it away. It clears the energy. It’s no longer a problem, it’s out of your head, and you are free to move on. Detach yourself from people you can’t trust. If they’re actively causing drama or unpleasantness, leave the situation. If you can, slowly stop reaching out to them, or say you don’t feel like hanging out. If you want closure, you could meet up with the, to talk. It’s harder when they’re your family members because you can’t really escape them, but you can still with them and talk out your problems. You can say “I’m having a hard time understanding why you did this …” or “I’m confused about this situation…” or “I felt hurt when this happened…”. You must also realize that most people aren’t complete bad. In a lot of what you described, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps some of those people aren’t actively out to get you. I think you may be too close to the situation. I would advise you to get an outside perspective. You reached out to me, and that is a great start, but I only have a limited understanding of the situation, and only from your perspective. I think the best course of action is to seek real, professional help. As someone who harms themself and who is surrounded by the effects of mental illness, I would seriously consider seeking out a therapist or counselor. I am not a professional. I do not know you personally, and so the advice I can offer is very limited. Seeking someone who has gone to school for psychology will be able to help you much more than I can. It is brave of you to share this, and it’s a good sign that you’re willing to reach out to others. Consider asking for professional’s help in your area. Likely your school has access to counselors and can refer you to a full-time therapist.

I really do wish you the best 🌸

[beowulfs-booty-call]

Slow burn/fake date/enemies to lovers - Shiro, Odin Arrow, Ike

I can’t believe people sent me this, PARTICULARLY PERFECT ONES TOO HONESTLYYYYYYY

So, because I’m a huge ass fan of you Jordi, and because I love writing, I’m gonna do something wicked with the 41% of battery I have left: I’m gonna write a wee bit of what I choose, for each character and me! That way I can practice writing and also be able to answer your ask a bit more exciting!

SUPER LONG POST AHEAD, BE WARNED!

Shiro: (Slow burn)

Shiro definitely strikes me as a dude who I’d slow burn it with, tbh. There’s a lot of tension there that I think both of us would be caught up in before long lmfao.

It was meant to be a simple mission, enter the planet, find any response of life on the frequencies that would fight against the Galra and escape before Lotor and his crew could access.

Shiro breathed, he was not useful for this mission. Without the black lion, and effectively, his own bond with it, he was by no means a threat to anything besides hand to hand combat with his arm. Which was exactly why he was there in the first place.

Slipping into the vacuum of the space between him and the ship, Shiro pulled himself to the darkness. His breathing was the only thing that sounded human to his ears, attempting to flit through the ship’s interior. “Breathe. Breathe.” Mantra said, and patience at ease. Then the speed came and instantly for what seemed like a millennia, the ship and its pilot came to a green clad planet of prosperity.

The lions had already been planned to find other ways to intercept Lotor onto the course of the war. And Shiro? Shiro was headed to a “Earth like planet” where the people would welcome him and offer him democratic counsel so he may convince them to fight against the Galran prince.

But that was almost 6 quintant’s ago, Shiro was already welcomed by the democratic alliance that was held on the planet and was beheld to feasts amongst feasts (which, perhaps he did admit he cheated on his training for the first day before refusing outright later in.) before he could even muster the words to speak.

In front of him lay the counsel of the planet, Nihilan, its inhabitants almost Altean, though far from the more archetypes Coran and Allura had. In front of him was men and women who wore golden antiquated jewelry that shone in his eyes, a mirthy gaze that was almost as gaudy as their dress. Their own clothing, as regal as they may have seemed, shown the body to the elements, with cut fabrics that draped capes or tails, yet cut and curved along the body to show one’s physical prowess, if anything. Shirogane made note not to watch the much more happier elder, who’s entire body was cast to the rest of the public eye with gusto.

“Ah, yes...” He had uttered, the elder began to touch his digits to his cheeks. The flesh decorated with a sort of powder akin to what Shiro had seen from Coran’s visual training video.

“Voltron has led the force against the enemy for eons, mayhaps, even longer than we anticipate in our understanding...” The elder continued, Shiro nodded, happy to not have to “try” and eat another creature that laid on the planet’s “desert” coastline as the other quintant.”But there enlies the problem, Paladin. There exists a point in which we must ask, will Voltron be able to fight for our people? Lest we dissolve our own planet’s wealth to the Galra?”

Shiro stood up, eager to debate his position and possibly leave as soon as possible: “Your honor,”

“Father, my child...” The elder tutted, his words softened though the counsel’s gaze did not falter.

“Ah, “father”, then... Voltron has led the force against the Galra for as long as you’ve lived, that may be true, but we can’t fight the Galra alone. Not without your help. We may be an ancient weapon, we may be the hope of the future... We may be-”

“Cowards!’

Shiro’s voice hushed, the counsel gasping at the accusation pointed at the Paladin of the Black Lion.

At the edge of the lush palace, in his own “glory”, beheld a man nearly Shiro’s age, as tall as he, hair curled and midnight black... But with a gaze so sharp his eyes cut like the Blade of Marmora. 

“You speak to these men and women as though they have bravery and honor, Paladin!” The Nihilan continued, growling and pointing his finger towards the counsel, an open book in his hand and an emerald cape flowing behind him. His chest heaved, captured by an open suit that showed his torso with his arms covered by see through fabric. On his forehead, lied a piece of leather that coiled a gemstone that shone a beautiful purple despite the greens, and his face pouted with hair flicked about under his chin.

“These councilmen have no honor! Why, even they would give you to the hands of the Galra without listening to you!” He barked, one hand flipping through the tome while another beckoning to any would be opponents.

“Silence him!” “Dethroned brat!” “Can he truly be so bold?!”

Before he could react, Shiro watched as electricity shot out, and the next he knew, he blacked out as he felt a well placed blow to his neck from the shadows.

Shiro groaned, his eyes flittering to adjust to the dull light of a ship’s glow, the stars in front of him as he slowly gained sight of his surroundings. Green, beaten, and tugging his own ship. He was kidnapped, he was sure--

“Ah, you’ve awakened, Paladin.” 

Shiro turned, still trying to grasp his environment. The man who had interrupted his counsel with the Nihilans...

“I apologize for knocking you out in such a brute way. I admit, I myself was not expecting a Paladin of Voltron to be used as bait to be given to the Galra...” He paused, picking at the horns that pushed above his ears. Shiro’s eyes focused, and he finally could see who truly was near him, in the next seat to him. The man held horns that grew like a goat’s, though it curled upward the circular, and his beard was reminiscent to what seemed like a child’s story about a demon.

And yet, there was a passionate red glow on his face, as he shifted view from the passenger to the space that lay in front of them.

“...The Galra murdered my father and made the councilmen as their puppets in politics. They were planning on sending you to those thieves so that we would be safe from them.” The man looked down.

“I’m... Sorry. I could not sit aside and watch what practically happened to me, happen to another being.”

Shiro breathed, letting the info seep into him. In his stupor, he moved his hand to steady his head, as he sat slumped in the chair. However, he missed, and it lightly dragged against the colorful pants of the pilot before shifting back on course.

“Thanks...” He groaned, feeling the key part of a headache coming on.

“Nothing to fret, Paladin.” The Nihiladin chuckled, “I’m not pilot like you, but, getting you out was my first priority. A few of us Nihiladins do not agree with the Galra, much less the councilmen. ...We shall help you, after all, it is the least we can do for your troubles here on this day.”

Shiro rubbed his forehead.

“I’ve already patched a signal to the supposed “Castle” your ship had coordinates to. I must say... It’s rather interesting how you have acted, Paladin.”

“Oh?”

“Your hair is white... I’ve read in my tomes, that this is caused by quintessence... You wouldn't happen to have fought with the unholy witch of legends, have you?”

Witch...

Witch...

“...Haggar?” Shiro rasped, voice thickened due to the sleep he had endured.

“Shisa!” The nihiladin hissed, control now lost for a moment on the steering wheel. “She lives indeed then!”

Shiro nodded weakly, tired from the blow that still lingered on him.

“I see... If this is the case, my people will help you with even more reason now... I ask, however, that you come back, when you are rested to help me shut down the Galra as it stands. We have stations that the resistance and I have fought to take down... But for every one piece of this toxin we cure, 3 pieces more take its place...”

Shiro nodded, words not finding him, but his eyes betraying him and glancing at the similar figure’s curves and musculature. It was toned, yet strong, but... A key impact that Shirogane could swear he knew from a mile away:

The look of a man who was starved for a very long time.

“You... Don’t eat.”

The Nihiladin blinked.

“You don’t either. I know myself the body of a man who does not eat for himself. He requires others to remind him because he gives all for them. It was but something my father once taught me.”

Shiro hummed, humbled slightly.

“We, the castle, have food you can eat, you can--”

“Rest? By all means. But you yourself deserves it as well. Even heroes need rest...?”“Shiro. Shiro is fine.”

“Shiro, then, even heroes need rest. You may call me... “Wolf”, it’s but one of the names I go by now, after... Anyway, I will follow you to the castle, however, you will need to feast, after all. You seem like the creature who could eat an army’s worth of food.”

Shiro laughed, it was probably true, but he hadn’t eaten despite the feasts, that Hunk’s cooking was still on the mind.

“If I can rest, you can eat. I think we both need our strength for the upcoming battle.” He replied, not sure what exactly he wanted to tell the Nihiladin. It was as though they were brothers at arms, the amount of illogical events that had happened to him during his stay.

“Paladin of the black lion... I eagerly take up your proposal, then.”

“Ha, then it’s a date.” Shiro huffed, before slumping once more to his chair, eyes finally closing slowly.

“A date then. There’s still much to do, so, let’s try this one step at a time, Shiro.”

Shiro nodded, sleep finally coming to his aid as the Nihiladin continued steering towards the answering frequencies of the Castle of the Lions.

However, what lied ahead, was still the matter of explaining his absence to the rest of the Paladins...

Odin Arrow (Enemies to Lovers)

I wanna say Odin is that sort of... “Me but in a whole other situation “me”, so to speak. It’d be interesting being pinned to the opposite side only to find there’s more than just being someone else’s puppet.

Beowulf gasped, here he was, Seidre leaving him at a crucial moment in the fight against the supposed Pedri Nanesgani’s host: Odin Arrow of the infamous Arrow family. Seidre explained, “An old friend of me needs to repay for... His many debts,” He said, voice low and drawling as he whispered in Beowulf’s ear.

“He needs to be taught a lesson.” 

“A lesson?”

“I think that boy ought to be taught one, and from what I heard... He is truly a pathetic weakling...”

“I... see... Father, why fight him?” “Isn’t it obvious, my boy? Destroy the hosts, and we will get the wish we wanted from Titan himself.” “T-Titan?”

Odin slugged another punch towards the assailant in flannel. His fist was grabbed and pushed away as the other boy silently edged closer.

“W-What do you want?!” Odin shouted, Pedri too was silent from his recent stand in with Ava on the crash landed planet they had found themselves.

Beowulf looked down. He didn’t want to do this. He didn't want to fight, not again.

“A-Answer m-me.” Odin called, before kicking the other with a low sweep. Beowulf groaned, but picked himself up, before Odin pushed him down, grabbing his collar as he was stuck on the ground.

“...”

Odin punched the ground near his assailant.

“I w-won’t a-ask again.”

Beowulf looked up at him, before Seidre’s silken words lilted to his minds.

He spat in his face.

Odin angrily growled and pulled the boy’s collar and him up, before slamming him down.

“If y-you won't t-talk...” Odin huffed, picking himself up and shaking his head. “I w-won’t bother. I-I’m better than that.” He said, pulling his shirt up to rub his face clean. 

“G-Go jump off a--”

“A family.” Beowulf said, quietly.

“What?”

Beowulf sighed, still on the floor. He curled up, body aching slightly, but he was too tired to try fighting again.

“I want to be loved...” 

Odin hmph’ed as he pulled his pipe from his pocket.

“You’ve got a w-weird way of sh-showing it, kid.”

Beowulf sat up, hugging his knees as the other man watched.

“You don’t get it. Your host to something evil, aren't you? And you’re fighting for someone too, right?”

Odin looked on, eyes softening in his gaze.

“My... Father isn’t... Here, anymore. I just... I just want him back. Look, I didn’t want to do this, I swear it... But please understand me here, we’re both fighting for the people we care about.”

Odin puffed.

“And w-what will trying t-to p-punch me have a-any thing t-to getting y-your f-father back?”

Beowulf sighed, pushing his hair back and felt his earrings jingle as he slowly pulled himself up. “He said, if I taught you a lesson... Maybe, maybe we’d get a wish from Titan.”

Odin was fuming at the name, but kept his glare renewed. “Titan? You m-must mean that c-cult. How pathetic.”

“W-What?” Beowulf questioned, eyes grimacing.

“You really think, your father will be brought back by that sham? You must really be shooting for someone else here.” Odin drawled, his pipe smoking purple and his eyes a dark fuchsia. “W-why don’t you t-tell us why you’re really here.” Beowulf looked to the lush ground, lips beginning to dry faster.

“Answer me.”

“I... I don’t know.”

“W-what do you mean you don’t k-know. Aren’t y-you here to save your f-father?”

“I... Seidre... Look, I don’t need to answer to you! I just need your dumb demon to be gone so I can have my father again!”

Odin humphed once more, he pointed to his chest. “Then I suppose you know you have to kill me. I know you can do it.”

“What?” 

Odin’s eyes flicked dark as the words dripped in sarcasm.

“What are you, a d-dog? Don’t you realize that you have to kill me to get rid of me?”

“Y-You’re lying!”

“Of w-what? I’m not scared to die.” Odin beckoned, arms held out to accept the sentence. “Go o-on. D-do it. I’m waiting.”

Beowulf didn't answer, nor did he moved. He carried no gun, hid a small dagger in his pocket, what even was he trying to accomplish?

“Tch, w-wonderful.”

“No, wait...”

“I d-don’t think I’d wait for someone who just tried to punch me to save his daddy from god knows what. I’m f-fighting for s-someone I love. You just fight to be called a “good dog” like the little lost puppy you are.”

Odin spat on the ground.

“Ridiculous, I lost my ring to be assaulted by another insane cultist. Olai will love this.” He noted, before turning around to walk.

Beowulf snapped his fingers, almost desperately. “Seidre, Seidre, Seidre...”

Odin looked back, curious.

“You’re wrong. You’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong! You don’t know what it’s like to lose someone! You don’t know what it’s like to be hated! You don’t even know me! And I don’t want you to! I don’t want to fight! I just want my dad back! I want Seidre back!”

Odin didn’t speak, he observed the snapping fingers. 

Immediately, when his eyes looked to who was snapping, it was instead a young girl, far too familiar.

“I hate you!” she said, in her voice, frail as ever and crying.

“I hate everything about you! You’re just like me and I hate you! I never want to see you again!”

Odin’s heart was breaking, “Magpie...” He reached his hand out to her, but suddenly she sped off the other way, crying as she ran away. 

“Leave me alone!”

Jingling earrings snapped Odin back to where he was, the only thing remaining of where the young girl stood, was one simply black earring, with the cross still attached. Odin fell to the ground, a tree stump behind him as he analyzed the piece of jewelry, and he stretched his legs out onto the floor. Pipe puffing, purple smoke wrapped around him as he sat, meanwhile, the crying young girl sat on a tree branch away from him, drying her tears on the red flannel he wore. He scraped his scalp furiously as he mentally snapped his fingers, clutching his lonely right ear.

He didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t even want to see him. Yet, here he was, snapping his fingers and chucking what looked like a silver ring with a jewel over to the other boy after using his illusions. It was terrible, to do so, he’d say if it were anyone else...

“I see you hesitate...” A pair of coarse claw like hands pawed delicately on Beowulf’s shoulders, one softly stroking his cheek as the other massaged his back.

“What do you want, Seidre?”

The hands stopped.

“Is that anyway for a son to address his father?”

...

“Sorry Papa...”

“That’s better, now...” Seidre’s head appeared, decked out in his opponent’s fangs and bones and snickered as he watched his host toss the ring out towards Odin.

“The first to retrieving our wish... Oh, I can just feel the excitement!”

“...”

Beowulf kept silent, he kept watch on Odin. Every breath, every facial movement, even the soft smile the other proudly displayed when Odin put the ring back where it belonged, on a silver chain to wear.

It was hard to admit, perhaps...

“Come along now... We couldn’t destroy Pedri, but who’s not to say the other hosts aren’t around the corner?” Seidre spoke, shifting out of view.

“...Yes, papa.” Beowulf turned, ready to leave, before looking back at the infamous Odin Arrow, in his own pathetic state.

“...” 

Maybe, they were like each other. Maybe they were just on the wrong side... Maybe Seidre...

Maybe he really wasn't fighting for anyone... Just himself...

Even if there were questions bubbling everywhere, there was but one tiny truth to be told...

He had to admit, despite hating Odin for what he was, and for only speaking the truth,

Odin was cute when he was happy.

Ike (Fake Date)

We all know canonically Ike has no gf / bf, so, why not be the unrequited crush?

The merchants would have been furious with him. No, in fact, Aimee would have had his head on a platter if she had ever found out that the young man was traveling and ended up becoming the temporary merchant of the famous Greil Mercenaries.

He had everything they needed:

Vulneraries, Concoctions, Iron blades and weaponry forged by his own hard labor...

But there was something no forge or gold could get him.

It was true love.

And it was sappy, sure. Words of a bard would scoff at how simply those 4 words would sound, but here he was... Contemplating yet fantasizing.

He, a lowly merchant who’s only worth in battle was a flimsy sword and a text of fire that would singe if he wasn’t careful: He was by no means anything useful to the person his heart soar to.

With blue hair and a sword of tarnished gold, it was hard not to fall head over heels with him. He was strong, he was blunt, and his sword was as sharp as his merit.

And yet, despite all his training, all his mental gymnastics to learn basic magic... He simply knew that Ike was never meant to be his, much less, perhaps, anyone. And he persisted anyway, training with a sword day in and day out in secret with the mercenaries, in particular a chatty woman by the name of Mia, who was by far more than happy to gossip about “her boss”, not that he needed to know.

He learned to cook meat for the mercenaries, at a decent price he might add... But no man of blue hair stepped into the shop to purchase the savory chicken that would lay on the fire roasting. Only the hungry trainees and the even more insatiable Laguz would waltz in, drink a vulnerary or two and lend a laugh as they went about their purchases.

But it was the Great Annabelle’s Ball that seared him off his debilitating gloom... Only the finest merchants were allowed to attend, where the weapons of the gods were on display, as well as royals who were looking to partake in rich and lavish hedonism were proudly adorned in the nearby city’s richer districts. Oh, it’d be a shame not to go, of course! However...

“Only 2 may attend, a guest is mandatory.” 

It suddenly did not seem as such a shame not to go.

But... Perhaps...

Was it worth it..?

“A-Ah, h-hello there, how can I...”

“...Help me?” The man asked, scratching the back of his head. The green cloth wrapped around his head stuck out like a sore thumb, and the azure hair that glistened in the noon sunlight: He had just finished training, he was sure of it.

“R-Right, what’ll it be?”

Ike paused, momentarily stringing the words along mentally.

“Actually, it seems I’ll have to ask you that. As you can see, a few of the mercenaries told me about you...”

His heart was beating.

He knew it.

He was found out.

Oh by Naga he was going to kill Mi--

“And I heard about your ball, the one about the royals showing up and all that?”

By all that is holy...

“I was hoping if I could attend with you.”

By all that is holy, blessed be Mia’s-

“I’d like to see if perhaps the mercenaries can achieve anymore connections via this ball, perhaps if we can extend our reach, more will join our cause, after all. I hope you can understand if that’s at all fine with you, friend.”

“Ah...”

It wasn’t meant to be, and for that, he sighed.

He knew it too well, but, alas... It was better to have loved than to have never loved at all.

“You bet, I’ll make the arrangements. Even if we can’t, ah, find something suitable for you, I’m sure I can work something up for you, fitting fee for fitting in, wouldn’t you say?”

Ike nodded, people weren’t his most passionate subject, but those he could be simply himself with... They were his go-to.

“Tell ya what, you come in here tomorrow night, I’ll polish up the finest merchandise I have, and we go amongst the nobles like Gods ourselves, what’d ya say to that, long tall and blue?”

He had to say it, oh by the gods he had to, even if he was going to be turned down.

“Understood. Tomorrow night it is then.”

The merchant smiled. To spend the night with a radiant hero...

Ike turned around, feet just about to step out of the caravan.

“Ah, actually, I’ve heard you sell meat so well, Oscar even complimented it... I’d like to try some.”

It was certainly something to die for.

Honestly, this was so much fun, yet, like, so HARD TO DO LIKE OH MY GOD DUDE hwsjpidk[fv

But I love you s o much for bringing these asks in!!! I’ve got to do the other one for you soon, kay???

[offgridthegame]

Off Grid Development blog 8.11.2017 - Changing Times!

The times-they-are-a-changin.’  New horizons, a shake up, big things happening - this has been a heck of a sprint!

Blocktober

Completely unaware of our social media surroundings, Rich managed to spend a good portion of this sprint during October whiteboxing and completely miss the whiteboxing trend on Twitter that was #Blocktober! Nothing nearly as fancy as the timelapsed art passes from the Naughtly Dog team on how they constructed key hero sequences in the latest Uncharted, but we do have a new building for the intro scene in the player’s apartment. If you haven’t seen this yet at a demo I won’t give away any spoilers, but this level is where your hacking journey begins!

Indies Unplayed

We were extremely fortunate to be asked along to Indies Unplayed at Secret Weapon Loading Bar in Stratford. It’s always great to show the game and get player feedback. Many thanks to Lauren Francis for having us along, it was a very cool little event and we had some really inspiring titles along side us. Below you can see a player learning the setup to our hero’s story in the intro cutscene we are currently making playable.

We got to play some fun new indie games and catch up with some old friends too, including old chum Tim Constant, who we last saw at Nottingham Gamecity in 2013!!!

Tim is working on a very cool dystopian job sim.  It’s a #PapersPlease-like game, where you play an immigrant bouncer in a post-Brexit apocalypse:

‘Settings’ it up

It’s been quite short and quick sprint, so there are no new amazing game features to talk about from Pontus. But as promised, our settings system has now evolved from a bunch of background systems and code into an actual menu. With some actual settings you can adjust!

The graphics will definitely need more work, but the plan is to fill in more options and then do a second pass on the artwork and layout to make sure everything works well with the content. For now, everything is functional at least.

Web work

Apart from that, things were polished up in the web side, with some imrpovements and additions to our wiki and to automate our newsletter. That’s going to make our life easier, and hopefully also help any players/modders to find the right Lua API and instructions for how to set things up in LevelKit in the future. I would say “go and check it out” but there’s not really much interesting things in the wiki yet, at least unless you are one of the lucky ones who have access to our builds and the LevelKit already. In which case, you of course should go and check it out to get you started testing how to create your own content for the game!

No funny bugs fixed by Pontus this sprint, and no interesting game design work either. But there definitely will be next time, he’s already spent the past few days with XMind open for plotting some pretty big changes for the game…

Mod testing

This sprint Josh, our modding and level design intern, challenged himself to build a level using the modding tools. The aim was to learn how to build a typical level with a focus on the Lua scripting side of things rather than art, and then take those learnings and see where he could fill in the gaps on the wiki that he found wanting.

We’ll let him tell you a bit more himself though:

“So I started out by blocking out the map that I wanted to create. Once I had the basic level that I was happy with I got stuck in with the Lua scripting with which I managed to learn a great deal upon completion of the level.

One of my favourite parts of creating the mod was the conversations, as it was super simple to create but also great fun generating branching dialogue between characters.            Following this, I began work on a guide to building a level mod which has been added to the wiki.This is something that I felt would be important for potential modders to have to help make the modding experience more accessible.

This also resulted in a few new pages being created to explain some sections not covered on the wiki yet, such as the ability to add characters to your level. This is a very exciting and interesting feature which will allow you to create many gameplay elements, from conversations to patrolling guards.

I also had the pleasure of testing the new ability to upload mods to the steam workshop using the Level-kit tools.

Shortly after that it was decided that we should create a mod level that people can download that would demonstrate some of the pre-made devices that any modder can essentially drag and drop into their own mod. It will also be playable which I will turn into an interactive tutorial of how these devices were made to help new modders create their own from scratch.”

Farewell Harry

Harry had his last sprint with us this month as he is moving to join the development team at Unity, but we made sure he had time to part with a gift for any of our followers who are devs interested in making their games moddable too.

In his time on the team, Harry's done great work pushing modding in Unity 3d, and so we’ve open sourced his work on the Lua framework that makes Off Grid moddable, enjoy!

https://github.com/Semaeopus/Unity-Lua

Out with the New in with the Old ;)

And with our youngest team member Harry heading to Unity we have gained the wonderful Steve Allen in his place. Steve comes with a bundle of  AAA and Indie experience, so much so that he qualifies for ‘industry veteran’ status, and we are pumped to have him aboard the good ship Semaeopus. I’ll stop rambling and let him introduce himself though:

Hello! I’m new here. I’ve joined the Off Grid team as a programmer, though will no doubt stick my nose in elsewhere. I’ve been programming games for, well, rather a long time, and am really excited to be part of the project. There’s lots of interesting stuff that still needs to be done and it’s already been a welcome change from the larger, corporate games I’ve been working on over the last few years. And who knows, next time I write one of these updates I might have done some work! - Steve

You’ll hear a lot more from Steve in the coming sprints, he’s already made good strides into impletmenting and extending new features in the Lua API for modders to play with, so watch this space!

Fixes and additions

Harry’s last couple of weeks were also a great opportunity for us to dig into some of the bugs in our backlog that haven’t been top priority, but would be welcome fixes with a little effort. We had a fantastic flurry of small fixes from the team, with Harry leading the charge.

Main game:

Messaging with CryptoChat

We setup a small notification to say that a character is typeing while you are waiting for them to respond to you in a conversation. It’s essentially a ‘Smedley is typing’ animation much like you’d see when using a messaging app like whatsapp or imessage.

We also and fixed the pause time between messages, which just needed a little finessing to feel more real.

And most importantly, we set up ‘B’ to skip single messages instead of all of the incoming messages from another character.

Include Mods in use, in save games

We now have save games recording what mods you have subsribed to so you can progress with your mods intact!

Saving NFC

NFC data is now being saved correctly.

Trailer video

We fixed a strange long wait at the end of our trailer that had been bugging us.

Player Phone

We fixed a bug to do with interactions when the player phone didn't appear when doing swipe interaction or scanning things.

Stuck Running

We had a somewhat funny but awkward bug in our animation state machine where the player can get stuck if you were crawling and spammed the run button while getting up - the player would get stuck runnning in circles!  That is now fixed ;)

Look around you

The player character’s look-at IK needed more restriction on target height so that you didnt look at interesting objects on the floors above or below you.

Invisible walls and soft bathroom sinks

Lots of missing colliders were fixed.

LevelKit:

UV Warning

We updated asset importer post processing script to warn about missing normals and UVs on new models. This means as you are modding and making new geometry, the LevelKit tool will tell you if it is missing anything that could cause a later error.

Mod Content structure

We re-structured level directories so that the content a modder makes is in a neater structure.

Non Steam works / DRM free mod exports

Added Export as Zip option to build tab so that you can upload your mod anywhere for anyone (with a copy of the game) to try it out.

That’s all folks

Lots of big things happening so we’ll look forward to catching you next time.

Pontus, Rich, Sarah, Steve & Josh

[randyrevenge-blog]

Did Aaron Greenspan invent facebook? NOOOOOO!!

Aaron Jacob Greenspan aka Aaron Greenspan is the founder of Think Computer Foundation, which manages Plain Site (plainsite.org). Aaron's website states that he has registered Plain Site, a purported public access function to court websites, as a 501(c)(3) charity in line with IRS regulations.

The basis for the website came from Aaron's own interest and experience with technology and the law. Aaaron claimed that the purpose of Think Computer Foundation was to help children through technology. Yet, later this became a personal piggy bank for him to fund his numerous lawsuits. In the past, he has claimed he was defamed because he was left out of book and movie deals due to defamation by omission. Each of his lawsuits were dismissed and he was hit with a motion for sanctions at each step.

The case is:

Greenspan v. Random House, et al., Case No. 1:11-CV-12000-RBC (District of Massachusetts) (Greenspan's lawsuit is dismissed and appeal is denied and supreme court review was denied)

Far from helping children, which is nothing more than a cover, Think Computer Foundation and Plain Site have morphed into a personal piggy bank for Aaron Greenspan to fund his own speech. In sum and substance, Think Computer Foundation, Plain Site, and Aaron Greenspan are alter egos of each other. They do not exist separately. They do not have an independent board. They do not have separate auditors, attorneys etc. Instead, Aaaron uses these companies and foundations to raise fraudulent donations from donors, of which I am one, and to efficiently evade taxes.

Aaron has also active sued the US Court System, on behalf of Think Computer Foundation, attempting to act pro se. However, his suit was struck out because under long standing precedent, a corporation cannot be represented by an unlicensed attorney. Aaron is not a licensed attorney. He is also a college drop out. In sum and substance, he over promises and under delivers and what you are left with is feeling cheated and feeling like you have funded a conspiracy theorist. It is truly unfortunate because here is a guy with so much promise if he could just be honest.

The case is:

Aaron Greenspan, Think Computer Foundation v. Administrative Office of the US Courts, Case No. 5:2014-CV-2396 JTM

(Case Dismissed, Appeal Denied)

The Fraud and IRS Problem with Plain Site and Think Computer Foundation:

Aaron has collectved donations from his friends and colleagues, myself included in the amount of $100,000, and to date we have not seen a single dime used in the manner described to us when he requested the donation. When I personally asked for my donation back, he pointed that he controls Think Computer Foundation and can personally use the money as he sees fit. I am in the process of filing suit for fraud and conversion in state court and was wondering if anyone else has had this problem with either Aaaron Greenspan or any of his alter egos.

But let me back up a bit. What was described to us as a part of Think Computer Foundation and later Plain Site? Think Computer Foundation was purportedly to help needy kids through technology. But needy kids don't really need access to court records do they? No, they dont. So Think Computer Foundation later became synonymous with Plain Site, which is an alternative to the publicly funded PACER court system access to documents. So, instead of helping needy children, Aaron now has a personal site masquerading as a court access website and Aaron, and only Aaron, gets to pick what or which documents are uploaded and available on Plainsite.

We were under the impression that this was a reputable guy, that he was also independently wealthy and, thus, our donations would go to a good cause: public access to a court system. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell, which one, if any, of Aaron's claims are true.  Each time his company has a problem, he attempts to act ike a lawyer or change the rules so that they don't apply to him. Worse, the Plain Site website has become nothing more than a trolling adventure for Aaron. Every time there is a new news story that details someone's misfortune, he uploads their docket on to the website and publicly shames them both online and through his tweets. While public dissemination of information is certainly a goal worthy of support -- and that is why I and others have contributed to his foundation in the past. However, using the foundation, plain site and related twitter accounts as a trolling feature to publicly shame and defame individuals is not what his donors signed up for. It is also completely against the rules of a purported IRS 501(c)(3) foundation. Tax free entities are not meant to be used as personal media outlets for trolling purposes.

Aaron has committed a fraud by taking money, services and equipment from his donors to perpetuate a continuing personal website masquerading as a charity.

The Fraud Problem with Aaron Greenspan and Coinbase, Inc.

Now, what comes next? Aaron applies for a license to issue digital currency in Florida. Website is here:

archive.org/details/coinbasefloridamtl

It gets even more interesting:

Aaron was charged in connection with a criminal complaint for False Claims Violations and Fraud in United States v. Yurygrenadyor, Case No. 09-CV-7891, although the charges were dismissed.

None of this information has ever been disclosed to his donors and perhaps his investors. He is a conman with a slick sales pitch. He wants to help people help others, especially the needy, through technology. But its all lies. He is an abrasive, ill-tempered man with poor business judgment and completely lacking in ethics.

When I met Aaron I thought he was out to change the world. He was idenpendently wealthy. He wanted others to help him through his foundation change the world through technology. But he will talk to you until your check clears. The moment it does, all promises are off. What are you are actually funding is Aaron Greenspan and no one else. And his foundation is nothing more than a sham and he is likely to lose his 501(c)(3) certification. I have sent in an email to the IRS through their reporting service. I have filed suit in state court to get return of my money and I am wondering if Aaron has hit other people up for donations to his foundation? Did he disclose how many times he has been sued or sued himself? Did he disclose to you his selection process of what gets included and what does in Plain Site and how he sets up pages to defame people? Is anyone else owed money? Did you guys know that you are funding Aaron Greenspan's endless series of frivolous lawsuits? His defamation campaigns? His advertisements? Please report it here.