#i like to think that ben has a problem with shifting around which is.

[phone-guy]

what do you think they're gossiping about.............

[otakubimbo]

Fake Love, Fake Rage

Pairing: Miguel O'Hara x f!Reader

Contents: Yelling. Anger. Cussing. Mentions of fake dating. Angst. Mean Miguel. Miguel who can't talk about his feelings. Harassment. Unresolved argument.

You didn't think your life would turn out like this. What's the problem with a little white lie anyways? Miguel had a huge problem with that little lie.

Sticky Note: This is part 1 of 2, there will be a happy ending but let's get some angst in the meantime <3. Not proof read, if I missed any content warnings let me know. K. Thanks. Mwah.

Masterlist

Nothing could have prepared Miguel for the words that were going to come out of Jessica’s mouth that afternoon.

“So, you finally confessed to her, huh? About time.” Jessica says as she drops a stack of reports on his desk. He immediately looks up with an irritated confused grunt.

“What are you talking about?” He questions picking up the papers she just put down, turning his attention to that instead of her.

“You and Y/N are finally dating. It’s the word around the society.” She huffs, a smile painted on her face as Miguel's head snaps up and he stares at her wide-eyed.

“Que carajo? We are not dating. Who the hell is saying that?” He questions, eyes glowing red as his face heats up at the thought. Well yes, the two of you were close, as close as someone could be to Miguel, but dating? No, absolutely not. Of course, he’s thought about it. You had a genius that rivaled his own, you were beautiful, talented, competent, serious but funny. Miguel shook his head at the thoughts.

“Everyone’s saying that she said it. That’s why I thought you finally confessed your feelings for her.” Jessica shrugged casually, mildly amused at this.

“I do not have feelings for her.” He grumbles standing up from his desk to find you and ‘fix this’. Both Jessica and Lyla exchange looks at each other as he storms out of his own lab to yours, the one he personally built for you because he doesn’t have feelings for you. He absolutely has feelings for you.

As he makes his way to your lab, he can hear all the whispers of people about the two of you dating. Mostly people are shocked but can see it with the amount of time the two of you spend together and the things he does for you. There are some whispers about how you’re obviously too good for him and how he could ever convince you to date him with his personality. But he already knew that he already knew that you were too good for him. All of this just made him angrier as he neared your lab. You could feel him before you saw him, without the need for your spidey senses.

“Yes O’Hara?” You question, not even looking up from your task of working on a watch as Miles holds a light for you and Hobie is handing you tools. You, of course, could do these tasks by yourself but you enjoyed their company.

“Why the hell are you going around telling people we are dating?!” He barks at you; you still don’t lift your head from your work.

“Tone, O’Hara.” Is your response that makes his nostrils flair. He takes a deep breath; he knows your stubbornness will not allow you to communicate with him if he’s yelling at you. You made that very clear in the early stages of your ‘friendship’.  Miles looks back and forth between you and Miguel while Hobie looks amused as usual. You had already told Hobie the incident that brought upon Miguel being in your office right now and he told you Miguel would be pissed.

“Why are you lying to people saying we are dating?” He asked in a calmer tone which surprised Miles, he’s never heard him speak so calmly but of course, this was usually reserved for spaces when it was just the two of you.

“Ben Riley wouldn’t take no for an answer, so instead of making him lose his teeth I told him we were dating.” You say nonchalantly still not looking at him.

“So, are yall dating?” Miles quietly asks more to you than to Miguel.

“We are not. Now hold still so I can finish these modifications.” You respond shifting his hand back in place.

“You would be lucky mate to even fake date her. She is one of the most fit spider women around.” Hobie jokes which just makes you roll your eyes.

“Everyone out!” Miguel growls at Hobie and Miles, now you finally lift your head to scowl at him.

“This is MY lab, O’Hara. You can’t just command them out during the middle of my work.” You huff, eyes narrowed at him. You and Miguel glare at each other.

“Ooof” Hobie huffs as he stands up from the desk behind you, putting your tools back. “Let’s leave the lovers to quarrel alone, mate.”

Miles nervously puts your light down while Miguel glares at them as they leave the two of you alone. The two of them didn’t even get out of earshot before you started yelling at Miguel.

“You think we should of just left?” Miles asks, worried about you.

“Oi, yeah absolutely nothing worse than getting in-between a couple's fight.” Hobie says as he casually puts his hands in his pockets.

“But she said they weren’t dating.” Miles looks confused.

“Yet”

At this point, you were truly heated at what his problem was. He could simply just deny that you two were a couple, there was no need to storm into your lab when you were in the middle of working.

“Miguel, I’m seriously too busy to do this right now. If you want me to be able to go on any missions, I need to work on this.” You gesture at your exposed watch on your desk.

“You’re the one who’s going around telling everyone we are dating because you can’t just reject someone.” He snaps back, towering over you. You roll your eyes deciding to just ignore him and get back to your watch.

“I told you; he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and you’ve been clear about spider-on-spider violence.” You respond with a roll of your eyes, whispering how he’s a hypocrite for the whole Miles situation. Miguel aggressively rakes his fingers through his hair, eyes going a light red annoyed with your instance that you weren’t in the wrong.

“And now, I’ll be getting back to work.” You say now having to adjust your stuff since your help was told to get out.

“You do realize what people are saying right?!” He grunts as his hand slams on your workstation.

“If it’s really that bad for people to think we are dating then just simply tell everyone we aren’t. I really don’t care that much truthfully; I just said the first thing that came to mind.” You don’t even acknowledge his tantrum anymore, tools in hand going back to your watch.

“Seriously?” He asked, his tone is different than before, it sounded saddened? That makes you look up at him, and really look at him. His brows were furrowed, and his teeth were clenched but there was something in his eyes that you couldn’t understand.

“What’s actually wrong, Mig?” Your voice was soft, gentle, the voice you only used when he was in one of his moods which seems like right now.  Your eyes gazed upon him in worry and concern for him. He hated that. He hated seeing everything fade from around you, that all he could see was you. Your lips pressed together, plump and soft, your eyes shining at him as if he was the only important thing right then, the nickname you gave him falling off your lips making his pulse pick up. He almost let himself get caught in that until the voices of the other spiders played in his head, what Hobbie said played in his head, he was no where close good enough for you, he would never be. You deserve something better than the monster that he is. He breathes out curses in Spanish as he grows more frustrated with everything, mainly himself.

“Mig, you know I haven’t taken those Spanish classes yet. What is going on?” You ask even more gently than the last time, you could tell it was more than you pretending to date him. There was something else, something he wasn’t telling you.  “Talk to me, you know you always can.” You say when you don’t get a response from him.

You reach out to touch him, like you always do when he gets too into his own head.  He pulls back quickly, scowling at you.

“Have you ever thought about keeping me out of your shocking business? This stupid fake dating shit. And of course, people believe it because you’re always forcing yourself around me. I don’t want to be in any of your stupid drama, for shocks sake. Leave me out of your shit. Have you ever thought that shit was annoying? Because it is, it’s annoying and pointless. You’re here to do your job and that’s shocking it. ”  He spits at you and your eyes go wide.

 He’s never spoken to you like this before. Yeah, he had a temper and could even get frustrated with you but you thought maybe it was different between the two of you. The conversations you’ve had, all the time you’ve spent with just the two of you. You thought you were at the very least friends.  You could feel your eyes starting to burn, but you refused to cry, especially in front of him.  You grab your deconstructed watch and all your things in grabbing distance.

“Fuck you, Miguel” you say as you shove your way past him. He fucked up, he knew he did so he let you walk off. Hoping you could calm down enough to let him speak to you again, but he didn’t know when that would be. He saw the tears starting to form in your eyes when you pushed past him, he heard the crack in your voice, but he said nothing to stop you. No apology, no explanation, nothing.

When you left your lab, you went directly to Spider Byte, your watch wasn’t working currently since you took it apart and you just wanted to go home. You hadn’t started crying yet but she could see something was wrong when you walked up to her.

“Hey Margo, my watch is kind of out of commission right now. Can you get me home?” You ask breathy, your chest tight in an effort to keep your composure.

“Of course, girl but are you good?” she asks, concern written all over her face. You wave her off dismissively.

“Yeah, I just got some stuff to take care of at home. I’m good. I’m good.” You say through your gritted teeth, hoping she would drop it and she does, going into start to bring up your home universe.

“So, you and Miguel?” She questions, an eye looking up at you hoping this wasn’t your problem.

You take in a deep breath, “There’s definitely no me and Miguel, absolutely not. That was just a lie I came up with to get Riley off my case ya know.” You respond trying to keep your voice steady and reassuring.

“Yeah, yeah I get ya.” She replies, dropping that topic also as she pulls up a portal to your universe. “Thanks, Margo, I’ll catch you later.” You say stepping into the portable before she could even reply. And that was the last time anyone had seen you.

[msnihilist]

My controversial Ben 10 opinion is that the people who idealize AF S1–2 as the perfect characterization of Ben don't want to accept that he's fucking boring.

Not Ben himself, of course. He's still silly and impulsive and a huge dork. But, narratively speaking, what is there to do with him?

Really. Stop and think about it for a second. AF Ben is pretty much perfect. He's mature, he's a good leader, he's an accomplished fighter who thinks outside of the box and has solved a number of conflicts without fighting. He doesn't really have room to grow — he's already damn near reached his full potential.

It's fine when there's a big, overarching plot for him to focus on/overcome, but the series wanted to be a little bit more episodic, and AF Ben just doesn't carry those episodes — not in a fun way, at least. "The Gauntlet" and "Alone Together" are great character-driven episodes, but I wouldn't call them fun.

AF S3, whether you agree with the characterization shift or not, not only makes sense for Ben's character but provides a new avenue down which to explore it.

I mean, what would have happened in S3 E1 if Ben's characterization hadn't changed? He wouldn't have agreed with Kevin on hacking the Omnitrix, for one. Kevin never would have been mutated and we wouldn't have had that trigger to explore Kevin's character and his budding relationship with Gwen — episodes like "In Charm's Way" and "Trade-Off!" (both of which are great for this) wouldn't have happened.

Ben wouldn't have had a problem to overcome, and he would have kicked Vilgax's ass as soundly and easily as he always has before.

Which is good, in-universe, but makes for a pretty uneventful episode when this is a TV show that's supposed to be entertaining.

I literally just don't understand why people have a problem with Ben's character having more layers.

Ben's cocky attitude has always been shown to be a façade. When things get serious, so does he — in "The Final Battle," the Ultimate Kevin arc, the Malware arc... Even when no one is around to impress, like during "The Ultimate Sacrifice" and "Malefactor."

AF 1–2 Ben isn't gone — not even close. He's just hidden under a layer of self-flagellation and false arrogance because, beneath all of it, Ben is and always has been a scared kid who's just doing the best he can to keep everyone safe.

[moseslikellamas]

♱𖣂 Redfork Menace ♱𖣂 pt.3

Benjicot Blackwood x Bracken!OC

Summary - Shanda has made her preparations as good as can be, now she ventures back out into the ceaseless storm to find and bait the Blackwood heir into a trap.

Warnings - fem!reader, suspense, mentions of violence, adult language, liberties taken with weapon mechanics.

Word count - 2.5k

I’ve returned briefly!! Unfortunately even on this day of independence, I have work agony. So enjoy this wild cliffhanger. Ive altered a map of the riverlands taken from https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Red_Fork just to give an idea of where the conflict is taking place. I took the book descriptions into account when placing the castles. The green area outlined is the borderlands. I also didn’t have time to edit sry.

Martyn stood in front of Shanda, frowning. “I don’t think it’s a good plan.” He said finally.

“Duh, Martyn. We don’t have time for a good plan.” She rolled her eyes.

But her brother held firm. “Sorry, I meant it’s not even a passable plan.”

She pitched herself back on her bed groaning. They’d been at it for hours and every plan seemed flawed.

“You can’t let him get his hands on you again.” Martyns' gaze was hard. “I mean it, Shan. They don’t call him bloody ben for nothing.” The latest reports on the heir of Raventree insisted he could crush a man's head with his hands like a melon.

Shanda got up and began to pace, feeling like the frantic wind beating against her window. It was desperate to get in, and her to get out.

“I told you, I didn’t know it was him. And how could I? Once I realized who he was, I exclusively used evasive maneuvers. He caught me by surprise, that won’t happen again. Trust me.”

No one was more bitter about being caught than she was. Even if he had been a random guard, it was an insult that he’d ever gotten close enough to touch her. Shanda prided herself on her ability to slip through life mostly unseen. She put on the show well enough when required but she lived in the moments between walls. With the rush of her heart heavy in her head while she garnered the most precious resource, secrets. It was the only thing she had a real and true patience for. She could lie in wait for days unaffected, ready at a moment's notice. That is, given its worth her time. Plenty of people knew a profusion of particulars, the problem came in deciding which particulars mattered. Currently, and for so many years it's hard to keep count honestly, it’s been Blackwood information. Nasty business is secret dealing though unfortunately and she would always prefer hearing it firsthand.

“Take the bow, set up a snare in the copse, and for the love of the seven don’t let him sneak up on you.”

Martyn had taken up residence on her bed, lounging without a care as he prepared her to sneak into “neutral” territory.

According to the latest edict passed down from Riverrun, a league was to separate the two lands. The borderlands was more or less two and a half leagues. Because of this there was still continued, heated debate over the real border of the two lands. The copse was smack in the middle of the two opposing sides. It was as truly neutral as it could between the two houses. And considering she’d just rolled around in a mud fight last night, it wasn’t exactly being recognized as such.

“You’re quick enough to evade him but you suck at hunting.” Now laying upside down, Martyn was fiddling with the tassel attached to the bed hanging. “I don’t know the borderlands like you, so I can’t think up a misdirection for you but that’s your best shot at snaring him.”

The current plan included some iteration of her being seen, a subsequent chase and ideally, a Blackwood trussed up. They didn’t have a good backup plan though so in the event that failed she’d book it home or find a good hiding spot to wait it out. And there were so many ways it could go wrong. Martyn had bribed another guard to switch shifts with him, in case she got stuck out longer than expected. The mainest objective of tonight was to find and bring the dagger she’d borrowed home or else the armory was going to start asking question they couldn’t answer. Not truthfully or without a raging argument anyway.

“Use your anonymity to your advantage, sow dissent around the other houses. They’ll be fine combing everyone in the riverlands.”

Shanda wasn’t listening to her brothers well meant advice anymore though. She’d reached the stage of anticipation where her brain was moving too quickly for conversation. She was too busy mapping out the planned course of action. She didn’t want to get anywhere near the guards, but with the bow she wouldn’t have to.

“I’ve got to go. I’ll be late as it is. Remember if you get stuck out there, the story is -“

“I went to the Redfork before dawn, I passed you and said something about the mourning ceremony. Everyone will be uncomfortable enough to leave it at that. I remember.”

The river cut through the borderlands but it was finicky. Sometimes high enough to require a bridge passing but that meant locating a bridge. That was too time consuming, Shanda planned to take a pole to vault over it instead. She couldn’t even remember passing the river on her flight home last night, she must’ve taken the bridge though as it was pouring rain. The sky had yet to let up in its continued assault. Though it wasn’t as suffocating as it had been, it was constant. For hours it had been consistently falling, a relentless pattering that seemed to morph into a dull droning inside her head. It was a quiet roar eroding what was left of her sanity.

Shanda strapped the bow to her back and pulled her hood up. This time she’d taken pains to cover herself more effectively. Her hair was bound up and hidden, covered by a piece of black fabric pinned in place. She wanted to cover her face as well but with the rain that was an impossibility. She had settled instead on smearing her face with a handful of mud. It would help hide her features if nothing else. She elected to wear the ruined cloak. Having hastily sewn the slash back up, it sat a bit awkwardly with the missing fabric but she knew it would be soaked and clinging to her soon anyway. Tied around her waist was the rope she needed to set the snare, it was thin and she had heaps of it. She wouldn’t run out of materials tonight.

Gazing around her room she only just now realized Martyn had departed. She crossed to the window and gazed out at the sky, black clouds continued to roll in obscuring any moonlight. She turned her attention to the guard tower, where a glint of steel signaled she was clear to leave. Crossing her room quickly, she slipped out the door and down the hall. The only sound was the distant rush of rain and the crackle of torch flames as she snuck down the stairs, past the main hall guards and into the kitchens. A sack of fat trimmings sat on the floor waiting for her and she scooped it up before storing it in her bag. The riverlands were always full of wolves. Day or night, rain or shine, the riverlands had a wolf problem. And Shanda hoped to use that to her advantage if everything went to shit. What better way to throw off the all mighty warrior than have a wolf attack him?

Once outside she didn’t breathe until she was safely outside of the keep walls and in the tall grass again. She stopped and ripped up several wild onions, and stuffed them inside her bag to hopefully hide the smell of meat until she wanted it to be smelled. She was already soaked when the first strike of lightning hit. It was close enough she could smell it and feel the heat of it on her skin. Unphased she began smearing her face in mud, covering both hands as well. Then she got to work.

The walk this time was spent carefully surveying the land around her. Hiding up a tree or in a fox den was out of the question. She couldn’t risk anywhere that might trap her, instead she considered the way the land moved. Which areas had slopes or holes. Where the mud was softest and which weeds were tangled together. This portion of the borderlands would be her last stand and before she continued on, she set what would be the last trap of the night. If they chased her this far it meant things had gone astronomically wrong. She pulled the heavy claw trap out and carefully pulled the metal sides apart before setting it in the shallow hollow. Then she spent a while weaving strands of grass together to conceal the trap. It would snap an ankle pretty cleanly with the spikes sawed down.

Crouched in the grass she made a mental note of where she placed the trap and sent a prayer to the warrior that she didn’t fall into it herself. Then she set off towards the small collection of trees on her side of the Redfork. The first snare she set was at the opening of the trees. This was the weakest point in her mind. The odds that she remembered exactly where to exit were slim to none. But it didn’t hurt to have something near the boundary between grass and trees. From there she spent more than an hour setting various snares around her side of the river before crossing and placing just a few on the other side. If this dispute became known she didn’t want to give the Blackwoods much ammo to accuse them of starting it. She could justify a few snares. Since technically this was neutral land, there was no reason she couldn’t place as many as she liked.

At last came the part she’d been waiting for. She walked slowly through the last of the trees. Crouched low and silent, she pulled the bow off of her back and notched an arrow. She crept forward for a while, keeping only to the right. She wanted to confront the heir something terrible but it was most important she not return to the same post twice. If she visited more than four posts without seeing him, she’d hang it up and try again later. But she didn’t think that would be an issue. If he’d been telling the truth last night, they were already looking for her right now. It shouldn’t have but it made her feel light and giddy to imagine a score of idiot Blackwood guards confused and aggravated, searching for her. She shook the jitters out of her hands and took a deep breath, pulling the bow taunt as she approached the first post of the night.

Still concealed within the trees she couldn’t hear the guards' conversation over the pounding rain. The wind was low and not doing anything for her now. She could see three of them, posted under a hastily erected canopy that was doing little to keep them dry. She scanned their faces briefly, making sure to keep an eye on her surroundings while she did. She wasn’t likely to be the only one making plans to obtain information. She pushed down her rising excitement once she confirmed Benjicot was not among these guards. Releasing the tension on her bow she walked on.

It wasn’t until the very last post she checked that she found him. Of course, she thought ruefully. They would want her as far out as they could conceivably believe to lure her. It didn’t matter to her, she could play along. And she knew they were playing once she spotted him. The fourth post was a crumbling ruin which immediately made her wary. A physical structure provided cover and ample opportunity to hide resources. It made the post more unpredictable and easy to defend. She didn’t want him to defend, she wanted him to run.

As she worked her eyes up the crumbling ruin her sense of forbidding rose, bow pulled taunt she aimed up and up scouting for guards. There were none until she reached the top of a half broken stone wall and found the Blackwood heir staring right at her.

“Shit.”

It all happened very quickly then, she loosened the first arrow, striking just beside him and he jumped off of the stone wall. It shocked her so much she nearly slipped in the mud as she began to run backwards, sending several more arrows at him. The wall had been several feet high and he hadn’t even paused when he touched the ground.

“Holy Mother. Agh.” She muttered under her breath watching him rapidly approach her position.

He was fast. Much faster than she was anticipating and he’d been waiting for her the asshole. She slung the bow back over her shoulder and took off in a dead sprint. There were no taunts thrown this time, just the sound of her sure breath as she vaulted over turned logs and gnarled roots. She was mid way over a recently down tree when he tackled her from behind. He was moving so quickly when he hit her that they both soared over the tree, tumbling to the ground together.

The struggle on the ground was aggressive, as they wrestled sliding in the forest undergrowth. She was lucky he hadn’t landed on top of her and she was able to slide her legs out from under him before he could make a grab for her. She quickly stood using her hands and knees but a hand wrapped around her ankle jerking her down. Clawing forward she kicked her free foot back at him striking his shoulder before he locked that leg down as well. Grunting she twisted around and socked him in the eye as hard as she could. His hold was tenuous in the rain but loosened further when a laugh burst out of him at the punch.

She was up and running in an instant. She felt like a blur as she led him up to the river. She vaulted over it without even trying to trigger a trap on his side. He was fucking quick and she didn’t want to give me an opportunity to down her again. Having the pole gave her the head start advantage she needed to get in position. When she saw him come barreling through the trees it didn’t take her long to lead him into the first snare. The rope pulled taut around his foot, sending him sprawling as it snapped.

She would’ve groaned at the sight if she weren’t panting hard, sliding through the mud working to find the next trap. The problem with running in the dark in a torrential downpour is it's incredibly difficult to see, and in that it becomes impossible to identify where you’ve been. So when the next snare triggered and she tripped it was a hard fall. She knew how to undo the snares and had just gotten it off as Benjicot slammed into her.

“Son of a - ah!”

This time he’d yanked the bow off of her back immediately slamming her head onto the ground, water and mud rushing up to choke her. Before yanking her arms back behind her, shoulders drawn back from the force, while his knees pinned the back of her legs down. The cold metal of her own knife pressed against her neck, with rain running in rivulets down it into her cloak.

“Caught you.”

[traincat]

got the sudden urge to re-read 'work song' this weekend after years of not really being into spideytorch anymore. the fic is still incredible, it's reminding me why i used to love them, but it got me wondering -- was there ever any canon fallout from sue, reed, and the kids being gone like that? i had already stopped reading the comics at that point.

It's funny, I've been thinking of Work Song recently too. I obviously like to get into the guts of canon in a lot of my fic, but Work Song was really an exercise in getting into the emotional fallout that comics tend not to deal with -- for both good and bad reasons. (I think the modern lack of dealing with pretty much any emotional fallout is bad, but also if you have a serial story you have to keep a certain amount of action going. Idk, complicated thoughts about pacing and sacrifices made for genre standards and the shifting of those standards from decade to decade, etc., etc.)

And the answer to whether the fallout is ever addressed in 616 canon is... kind of no? I think there were attempts made -- both Zdarsky in his Two-in-One series and Bendis, somewhat, in Infamous Iron Man were sort of digging into things, albeit notably before Reed and Sue were actually back. (Both of those series deal HEAVILY with their absence, though.) But both of those series were also cut short, and they have finales I'm not quite satisfied with, which in this case is the fault of neither author. I think Zdarsky tried with his final two issues of Two-in-One especially, especially the one that focuses on Johnny and Sue, but just didn't have the space to address the issue of Reed and Sue essentially leaving Johnny and Ben with the gravitas and nuance that it deserved. And given that Johnny is, you know, flat out suicidal over this issue in the first ten issues of Two-in-One, that's a problem. (IIM also has a disappointing final two issues, but it focuses much more on Ben and Doom than on Johnny. Hell of a setup, wish it didn't feature the biggest copout resolution of all time.) And again I don't think this is either writer's fault -- they were both clearly trying to do something interesting and emotional, and 2n1 had a really good set up and character work. It just wasn't given the space to stick any kind of landing before everything had to be wrapped up in a tidy little bow so Slott could write some mystifyingly bad stories. (I don't believe Slott ever seriously addresses the fallout, but I could be wrong. I skimmed the back half of that run hard.)

And also I think this was something of a foundational problem that sprung from Reed and Sue and the kids going missing not as an actual story point but as a hissy fit over film rights. There was never any solid plan in action for where they were or what they were doing or what Ben and Johnny fought over that caused Ben to leave for space and Johnny to spiral out of control -- it was all just "this is happening now because we canceled the Fantastic Four comic because we want the film rights." It's very hard to build a story on shaky ground like that when you've got multiple writers, all who seemed to have slightly different takes, and apparently no one on an editorial level actually managing all of that to make sure there was a cohesive story in place. Even if the reader doesn't have that information, there should be some kind of established story for the writers to follow, and it kind of seemed like there just wasn't. (I say "kind of seemed" because obviously I wasn't there and I don't know for sure, but also like, we know for sure that there wasn't. By reading the comics it was very clear that there wasn't.) It's frustrating to think about it now because it could have been some really great storytelling, and instead it was addressed just barely and then kind of rushed along. And I feel similarly about Superior Spider-Man's fallout, except they keep resurrecting that concept every two years and kicking it around like it has anything interesting left in it.

[imonlyhereforthexreaders]

Gold Rush (part 6)

Benny watts x reader

Warnings: cliche tropes, the water class glass exchange was inspired by another author but I can’t find the exact quote so just know I’m not that creative

A/n: howdy darlings, I’m not too happy with this piece but I think I’m starting to find my footing again in this story so if this is well received I will make more parts so please lmk if that’s something you all are interested in. As usual be gentle with yourselves my lovelies ❤��‍🔥

-

The rest of the cocktail hour went by without any hiccups, with Benny’s arm around the back of your chair you noticed substantially less backhanded remarks, which, while sexist, was still appreciated. Dinner is brought out in carts with silver dishes overflowing and ready to be distributed.

“You got drinks, I’ll grab us both food” you offered, already on your feet. Benny made some effort to deter you, arguing he had no problem getting the food but you only brushed him off.

“I know the drill, you don’t like raw tomatoes,capers or olives” you assured, already heading towards the growing line, he followed you anyways.

“How’d you know that?” He inquired, and you almost laughed at the question.

“We’ve been to countless of these events together, I’ve just noticed overtime” he smirked teasingly,

“You’ve been watching me, huh?” You give him a gentle jab to the ribs,

“Yeah, with judgment at your childlike pickiness” he rolls his eyes but resigns himself to your shared table

Benny POV

I sat and watched her as the line creeped along, nursing a new bottle. Usually I’d drink at these events but seeing as I’m driving (y/n)s car, which was very close to her heart, I decided to stick with non alcoholic radlers.

“Are you Benny Watts?” The voice to my right catches me by surprise, the owner of the voice even more so. A woman, tall and thin, about (y/n)s age but maybe a little older, stands before me. She has short red hair and large eyes, and is wearing a black and white shift dress. I cleared my throat awkwardly, I was used to being around (y/n) but the idea of another chess girl did make me a little uneasy.

“That’s me, who’s asking?” I lean back into my chair, opening my legs and making eye contact, looking her up and down for any sign of familiarity.

“Beth Harmon” her arms are crossed over her chest, not moving to extend a hand, so I chose not to either. “You hold the US title, correct?” I nodded my head and for a while neither of us spoke, we just sized each other up. Deciding to test my luck I lean across the table, propping my chin up with one arm.

“Come to ask anything or just look at me? I’ve been told I’m quite easy on the eyes” She doesn’t smile or blush or send back a witty remark like (y/n) would, she just narrows her eyes,

“I’m just trying to meet my competition” I raise my eyebrow and am about to ask her what makes her, unheard of by me, my competition. Before a much more familiar voice behind me speaks up.

“I got us food Ben, it was wild in there, nearly had to shank someone in the eye in order to get the last of the garlic rolls- Oh hi! I saw you earlier and meant to introduce myself. I’m (y/n) (l/n), you’re Beth, correct?” Her voice is chipper as she sets out plates down on the table, extending her arm enthusiastically to the woman next to me, who just gives her a look before nodding her head and reluctantly meeting her handshake.

“That’s correct” (y/n) smiles widely,

“You should join us for dinner, we’ve got this table to ourselves and I’d love to know more about you-“

“I’m just leaving” Beth explains quickly “I think I’m going to take my dinner up to my room, thank you though” I watch (y/n)s grin falter before quickly producing another, more artificial smile.

“Of course, maybe I’ll see you tomorrow in competition” Beth nods and responds with a noncommittal “maybe” before removing herself from the situation. (Y/n) takes the seat across from me. She had grabbed two plates full of penne with vodka sauce, complete with the garlic rolls as she had described. I give a quick thank you before diving wholeheartedly into the food, not having eaten anything since breakfast. (Y/n) follows suit but in a much less enthusiastic way and I can see the cogs turning in her head.

“She’s supposed to be really good, new to the competitive world but very serious in the sport” her eyes raise to mine “Beth” she clarifies, as if there were an abundance of women competing in the event. I nodded in thought,

“Seems like a piece of work, feisty for sure” she nods in a distracted manner and continues pushing her food around. After about 20 minutes of deliberation I finally clear my throat,

“I’m going to take my plate back” I state, standing and gathering my used silverware “Do you want anything?” I ask. She had only eaten about half of her plate but quickly pushed it towards me.

“You can take mine back as well, if you don't mind.” she answered.

“You sure?” I question, glancing between her and the half full plate “You didn’t eat much”

“Yeah, I’m sure” she confirms “I just have a bit of a headache so I don’t really feel like eating much more” I nod in response,

“Alright, how about I drop these plates and we pull an Irish exit?” I offer, immediately feeling better when her face brightens into a smile.

“Sounds like a plan to me” she agrees, finishing off her glass. I made quick work of dropping the dishes off on a cart by the door before heading back to the table where (y/n) was standing, gathering her belongings. I pull her coat off the back of her chair, helping her into it. She offers me a shy smile over her shoulder and I mindlessly rub her biceps before gathering my own coat.

The night was still young and the room was even more crowded than before, I protectively wrapped my arm around (y/n)’s back, guiding her towards the staircase, feeling a swell of pride as she subconsciously leaned into my embrace. Her hand finds the bend of my arm as we make our way down the stairs and she doesn’t make any move to release it until we’ve let out into the cold evening air. She buries her face into my sleeve, muttering something I couldn’t quite make out.

“What was that, love?” I inquire, she pulls her face off of my arm scowling into the wind.

"Said it’s cold as shit” she repeats, before curling back into my side. I chuckle, reaching a hand up to stroke her hair reassuringly.

“We’ll turn the heat all the way up in the car,” I promise “you’ll be cooked medium rare by the time we get back to base” I hear her muffled giggle and smile to myself. Give me all the national titles and championship rings in the world, none of it stroked my ego like making her laugh. I’d spent the last 8 years of my life, at least, pushing myself to be competitive in chess in large part just to have a reason to be around her. We both lived for the chase, we both reveled in the intellectual challenge that the other presented, and at the end of the day we were both hard to satisfy. I couldn’t recall either of us maintaining a relationship beyond a few months in the past couple years at least. Arriving at the car I pull open her door for her which she rolls her eyes at but offers a ‘thank you’ regardless. I slid into the driver's side and turned the key in the ignition, allowing it to idle as I cranked the heat up and leaned over the bench seat to rummage through a box left on the back seat.

“What are you doing?” she asked, having kicked off her boots and pulled her feet up on the bench, hugging her knees for warmth. I unceremoniously dumped a wool blanket over her, just as I had done a few weeks ago that rainy night of the qualifier.

“Oh, Benny…” she said, probably meaning for it to be scolding even though it came out more like a coo.

“I know you well, doll” I smirked, finally shifting the car into first gear and pulling out of the parking lot and onto the road. She scooted next to me, eliminating any space between us and I felt my breath catch in my throat. The proximity wasn’t new to us but her intentionally closing the distance made me want to hold my breath. She was much more shy in her advances and I knew any poorly placed joke could send her running, so I bit my tongue and kept my eyes on the road as if nothing had changed. She draped the blanket across both of our laps and I released my held breath. Of course there was a reason, there always is. (y/n) is a chess player, nothing if not calculated and I couldn’t allow myself to so easily forget that. But she leaned her head against my shoulder and shut her eyes.

“Thank you, Benny,” she hummed and I could feel her breath fan across my neck with each word. My skin burned where we connected, my entire right side from shoulder to thigh feeling so hot it may as well have been emitting light. I cleared my throat, keenly aware of the hot blood rising to my face.

“Don’t mention it,” I choke out. The closeness was one thing when we were both half awake and my body simply functioned to warm hers, but there was no reason to write this off as, no simple justification for her mouth to be so close to my jugular, for her legs to be pressed against mine. The car was warm, and getting warmer by the second, there were no misogynists to scare away from our table. It was just us in this vacuum and I drive forever if that’s what kept us here. The drive didn’t last forever, unfortunately and soon enough I was pulling into that long gravel driveway. The rattling of the car pulled (y/n) from her nap which she groaned in annoyance at, sitting up and stretching her arms behind her head. The movement relieved me of her contact, and although between her touch and the thick wool blanket covering us both I had been practically cooking alive, I felt cold without her almost instantly, as if she had taken all of our shared warmth with her. I shifted the car into neutral, pulling up the hand brake and turning off the ignition before turning to her. She looked warm, her cheeks slightly flushed, soft hair tangled around her face like sunbeams. She was like the sun and I was lucky enough to be basking in her light. She catches my gaze, quirking an eyebrow in question but I just look away and clear my throat. During the course of the drive back from town the sun had completely set, so after we both exited the car I linked our hands together as we squinted through the darkness towards the shadow-hidden cabin doing our best not to trip on rocks and fallen branches. After making it successfully up the porch steps I shoulder open the door and feel along the walls until I find the light switch which, when flipped, illuminates the dull yellow overhead lamp. I pull off my jacket and hang it along with the keys to the car by the door. (y/n) strides past me with a determined gait towards the bedroom and I hear a muffled “umph” accompanied by the whine of the old box spring letting me know she had found her destination. I lock the door behind me before heading towards the bedroom as well.

The room was still dark, only the faint yellow glow of the living room casting any light into the cold room. I begin searching through the drawers where I had unpacked my clothes the previous day in search of something warm but comfortable to sleep in.

“Benny?” comes a muffled voice from behind me. I see (y/n) cocooned in blankets with only her eyes and above visible peering through the darkness at me.

“Yes?” I answer, pulling two sets of fleece lined flannels and baggy sweats from the dresser.

“Could you grab me a glass of water?” She squeaks out.

“Yeah, here’s a set of warmer clothes if you want” I offer, dropping them beside her on the bed before heading to the kitchen. The water sputtered in the tap before finally evening out. I made quick work of washing two of the glasses in the cabinet just to be safe before filling them both and heading back towards our shared room. Upon pushing the door open I found (y/n) in a similar position as before, curled up on her side of the bed, but she was now wearing the sweater I had left her. She offered me a tired smile as I sat down on the edge of the bed beside her, handing her the glass. She took only a small sip before placing it nearly untouched on her nightstand, turning her attention back to me. Her eyelids were heavy as she looked up at me through her lashes. Reaching out she ran her hand over one of mine, grasping it in my lap.

“Do you remember asking your mum or dad for a water before bed?” She asked, shutting her eyes now.

“I do,” I confirmed, reaching my spare hand up to mindlessly brush the loose hair from her face.

“Do you remember how you hardly even wanted the water,” she nearly whispered, my hand stilled across her forehead “You just wanted the hand attached to the water, and the arm and the body”. Her eyes were squinted tightly shut as if she could convince herself she was saying it to no one if she didn’t have to look at me. As if her grip around my hand hadn’t tightened as if afraid I would pull away. I wouldn’t.

“I do,” I said simply, resuming the brushing of my hand across her hair. This time cupping her cheek and brushing my thumb over her eyelashes. She takes the invitation to open her eyes, and she smiles.

“Thank you, Benny” it's so quiet I almost miss it when she says it. I smile in return, pulling my hand from her slightly liquor flushed cheek.

“Anything for you, dollface” I return. Grabbing my own set of clothes and heading to the bathroom to change. When I return she’s already asleep beneath the mound of blankets and quilts. I slip into bed on her opposite side, managing to dislodge one blanket that would just have to be enough to get me through the night. The house had warmed noticeably from running the heater throughout the day but it still didn’t do much to keep the night cold from creeping in. I lay on my back, closing my eyes and feeling sleep start to take over only for it to be chased away by a weight covering me. I opened my eyes to find (y/n) had slung her body over mine, hand finding a fistful of my shirt as she curled her face into the crook of my neck. Her breathing hadn’t changed, her body had sought mine out in her sleep. I smiled and pulled the mound of blankets over us, creating an envelope of warmth. The wind whistled violently outside but we may as well have been camping on the sun.

[phoenixyfriend]

hi, What do you Think a twilight starWars crossover would Look like¿

send me an au and i’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it

This ask meme is from over a year ago. Please don't send new prompts.

I think we ought to go full on intrusive crossover here. Couple of SW characters get dumped in Twilight via Weird Sith Temple. Somewhere midway through New Moon, after Edward leaves but before Bella starts clawing her way out of depression, some new people show up in town. "Ben," Anakin, and Ahsoka. (Obi-Wan quickly realized that his full name got weirder looks than the others, and Ben didn't, so he shifted.)

Ahsoka doesn't go out much, but fully disguises herself when she does. It involves a whole lot of tattoo-coverup foundation to disguise her marks, keeping her mouth mostly closed when she talks to hide her peculiar teeth, and wraps her lekku and montrals up in a weird way that ends up looking like a cross between horned hennin (the medieval veil horns, think "Disney's Descendants" Maleficent) and a hijab (deeply uncomfortable, because this is not her religion and, even if there are other religions that engage in similar coverage, she doesn't belong to any of them). It nets her a decent amount of attention, which she hates, so she usually stays in the small house they've gotten, or runs off to spend time alone or with Anakin in the forest. With the Force, she can stay warned of random hikers well enough to avoid running into strangers when she isn't in disguise.

Since Anakin and Obi-Wan are both too old for high school and do not have any interest in it anyway, and Ahsoka's definitely not going to do anything in that regard because she's not going out into public unless she absolutely has to, we do not have the usual Twilight crossover situation of running into people at high school. Instead, there are three separate incidents that lead to these lives intersecting: - Obi-Wan gets investigated by Charlie, because quite frankly people are concerned about His Daughter being such a shut-in and Charlie figured he'd check in personally before trying to get CPS involved. - Bella's old truck has a problem, and before she can take it to a mechanic or call Jacob (as suggested by Charlie), that Weird New Guy who's a few years older than her sees her staring under the hood of her truck with a look of pure confusion. - Ahsoka, who can usually avoid people in the forest, runs into one of the early pack members, who are much much faster than the humans she's been doing just fine circling around. Paul or Sam, probably.

Results: - Obi-Wan manages to talk his way out of trouble by being himself, but also by successfully explaining that Ahsoka, due to some bodily traits she was born with, finds herself very uncomfortable in public due to people staring at her, which does get corroborated by Ahsoka herself a few days later. - Bella, who gets 'this is a weird ass person who is very dangerous' vibes from Anakin, feels alive for the first time in months. She decides to seek him out for more of Danger Adrenaline Wakefulness to combat her debilitating depression. He handles this by deciding she should learn how to fight. It's not a great solution but it's... a solution? (Anakin would much prefer if she'd gone her canon route and started hanging out with Jacob instead. The only teen girl he wants to spend time with is his little sister. Why is this girl here? Anakin hopes she doesn't have a crush, he's definitely told her he's married in hopes of heading that off, which led to a very uncomfortable conversation with Obi-Wan.) At some point, Bella does start hanging out with Jacob, because their friendship means a lot to me, but also because Charlie's not exactly comfortable with Bella hanging out around that twitchy veteran who gets a far-off look in his eyes sometimes and is a few years older than Bella, just dashing enough that if she falls in love with a guy who moved in from out of town again, he's not sure she'll recover when he leaves. (Charlie's much less worried after Bella mentions, once, that Anakin's hoping to leave soon to get back to His Wife, whom he clearly loves a lot according to Bella, but Charlie's still much more comfortable with her hanging out at La Push.) - Ahsoka has some new friends, who are weird enough that she doesn't have to hide being weird too. Sure, she's a space alien with horns and fleshy tentacles and stripes, but they can shapeshift and are theoretically immortal, so who's counting?

Alice and Jasper show up a few weeks later, because 'being around Anakin' is actually not great for Bella's future being visible (because he's not actually 100% human, for Force baby reasons, so everything about him makes Bella's future fuzzy), and now they run into Ahsoka, and. That's not really great for anyone? Ahsoka isn't fast enough to run away from them without using the Force but she is tricky enough to trip them up and run off and trained enough to shrug of Jasper's emotional manipulations. She runs to the house and hides in her room after letting Obi-Wan know what happened. She's pretty sure these are the 'vampires' those shapeshifter guys told her about.

[themultifandomgal]

Matt Casey x reader

What if Casey is dating Andy Dardens little sister who comes back to Chicago to replace gabby Dawson when she left Chicago.

Y/n had to leave Chicago to take care of her two nephews Griffin and Ben. She and Casey decided to have a long distance relationship but he visit his girlfriend as much as he can do.

It is the Stellaride wedding and y/n are coming back to Chicago to be there for her best friend and for Severide who is like a brother to her. Y/n has some news for everyone that she tells them about before the wedding.

Y/n is moving back to Chicago with her two nephews and she can finally take care of them in there home city.

Casey is gonna propose to his girlfriend in the evening of the wedding when they are alone. But there is one problem.

Gabby shows up at the firehouse the day before the wedding. Casey doesn’t care that his ex wife is in town and that she will be at the wedding.

But y/n feels uncomfortable when gabby is in Chicago seven if they used to be best friends and partners on Ambo 61 before Leslie Shay started at firehouse 51.

Y/n are best friend with Sylvie Brett and they where partners on Ambo 61 before she moved to Portland.

Based on last episode of season 10 and the first episode of season 11

Matt Casey- Home Pt1

Things were obviously tuff after my brother Andy's death. Heather my sister in law got a DUI and ended up in prison for 15 months. During that time I looked after hers and my brothers kids, when she was released Heather took Griffin and Ben to live away in Florida. She suddenly stoped phoning me and anytime I would phone her I was cut off. Eventually I was blocked. This was heard on me because all I wanted was to speak to my nephews. Matt and Gabby got divorced then I started dating Matt.

Then one day Griffin appeared on mine and Matts doorstep telling us how his mom keeps moving him around and now is in prison again. Of course after a lengthy conversation Matt and I made the decision that I'd moved in with Griffin, Ben and Heather until I know that she can cope again.

I was gone for a long time, but Matt and I made it work doing long distance. He would also come and visit me any time he could, but it's tough. And unfortunately Heather kept getting into trouble, so Matt suggests that the kids just move in with him and I, that way Heather can sort herself out and the kids would have a stable environment. Plus with Gabby leaving I was offered to become PIC of ambo 61. I'm not just coming home because of that, it's also my best friend Kelly's wedding.

I walk into the fire house holding on to my nephews hands hoping to surprise everyone. Of course Matt and Kelly know I'm coming home, but they think my flight gets in later

"Geeze, thought I'd at least get some banners for my return"

"Babe?" Matt looks over a little shocked "thought I was picking you and the kids up later"

"Eh flight changed"

"No it didn't you said you wanted to surprise everyone"

"Thanks Ben"

"YN. It's good to have you back" Herrmann pulls me into a hug which is followed by everyone else

"YN thank you for coming back for the wedding"

"Well that's not the only reason I'm back" I say replying to Kelly

"Well don't leave us all waiting" Brett encourages

"Well I'm coming back permanently, Ben, Griffin and I. I'm gonna be the PIC of ambo 61 again"

"Yes!" Gallo fist bumps the air

"Bless our saviour"

"Oh thank god" Brett hugs me again

"What did I miss?" I chuckle

"The person who replaced you temporarily, well she's not the nicest"

"Emma just creates a lot of drama" Gallo replies for Capp

"She's been after the PIC job since you left"

"Oh well don't worry about her anymore. I'm back next shift"

"Perfect" Brett once again hugs me tight

"Right we best get you guys fed. You hungry?" Kelly asks me and the kids

"I'm starving" I reply chuckling. The kids follow Kelly to the kitchen while I get stopped by my very handsome boyfriend

"Hey"

"Hi" I smile up at him "don't be to mad at me for trying to surprise you"

"Just glad your here and staying" he places his hands on either side of my face and presses a kiss against my lips

"Oh Errm sorry to interrupt" we break apart and see Emma "was just coming to collect my things"

"No hard feelings right?"

"No course not" she smiles but I can see how fake it is

"Come on let's grab something to eat" Matt wraps his arm around my shoulders and we head to the kitchen

"If we had known you were coming back we would have made a nice spread"

"It's ok. Don't worry about it"

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3 , ambo 61. Structure fire 336 Arlington"

"I'll see you guys later. Matt I'll see you at home"

"Home. I like the sound of that" I give him a peck before he shoots off

"Ok let's get you guys home hey?"

On the way home the taxi driver starts to drive passed where the fire. I notice Emma outside getting shouted at, but no Matt, Stella or Sylvie

"Hey can you stop a minute?" I ask and get out

"Hey. Boden things ok? Where's Brett?"

"Inside. Woman's giving birth and Jacobs left her"

"Chief send me in?"

"What. You don't start till...."

"I know but if someone's giving birth up there Brett's gonna need help, please?"

"Ok go"

"Ok boys I want you to stand over there with Chief Boden. Ok don't leave his side"

"Ok" the boys leave the car while I run into the burning building

"Brett? Kidd? Casey?" I shout running up some stairs

"YN?" I hear Brett yell and follow her voice

"Holy shit" I notice the room on fire

"She's crowning" Brett tells me "YN give me the bulb suction" I hand her what she needs while I tend to her wound on her shoulder "ok big push" Brett says. Thankfully we hear crying from the baby

"Ok Kidd Casey carry her out. Brett you got the baby?"

"Yeah"

"Ok when we have them in the ambo I want to put oxygen on the baby just in case as well as the mother. Let's go" I grab the bag and follow the others out. When we get outside to safety I hear Emma getting told to clean out her locker

"Welcome home YN" Brett smiles giving me a side hug once the baby was in the ambo having oxygen thanks to other paramedics that just arrived.

We arrive back at the firehouse, everyone excited for my return when I see Gabby. My old best friend

"Hey" she smiles and Matt and I

"Hi Gabby"

"Well this is awkward" Mouch mumbles earning a nudge from Gallo

"I'm not here to cause drama. Just here for the wedding"

"Errm it's good to see you Gabby. Matt I'm gonna take the kids home. I'll see you later" I give him a kiss and leave the firehouse feeling a little uncomfortable about Matts ex being here. Yes we were once friends and yes ok I'm the bitch that dated her best friends ex husband, but doesn't mean that I'm not a little worried.

[squantumcreap]

2jamie promt idea:

Jamie is sick and dosent know how to deal with it properly so the doctor helps take care of him

Ten entire minutes after Polly and Ben abandoned the Doctor to deal with Jamie on his own, the Doctor grips the TARDIS console with one hand, and the last of his patience with the other.

Jamie backs away to mirror him directly on the other side of the hexagonal control panel, flushed with what could be exertion on anyone else, running around the console room in this entirely unamusing little game – but the Doctor has seen Jamie do more and redden less. Which wouldn’t be a problem, in theory, except Jamie has taken it upon himself to make it one.

“I’ll be fine!” Jamie insists for the umpteenth time, vocals strained over the cough he’s clearly trying to hold in.

“Certainly,” the Doctor agrees, eyes itching for a good roll. “But you’re clearly not fine right now, so hush and let me help you.”

“I don’ need yer help,” Jamie retorts, glaring at him over the transparent column. “Nothing’s wrong!”

“Now this is just ridiculous,” the Doctor mutters. It’s no mystery why Ben and Polly have long since given up talking any sense into their fellow traveller, though the Doctor would have appreciated their backup. It’s like debating a particularly contrary brick wall. “And do you have a brother who only speaks the truth, by any chance?”

Now that knocks Jamie off his course of denial. He rears back with a frown. “Do I wot now?”

“You know, the riddle with the two guards, where one always lies and the other…” the Doctor breaks off as Jamie doubles over in a coughing fit. “Oh dear.”

Jamie stays bent over when the coughing subsides, letting out a groan of despair. The Doctor cautiously circles the console once more, gaining confidence when Jamie doesn’t start away from him again. He reaches out towards Jamie slow enough not to spook him, and when there’s no reaction, he wraps an arm around his shoulders and guides him bodily back to his bedroom. 

Jamie puts up not an ounce of resistance along the way, which worries the Doctor far more than his previous false bravado, and in this position the Doctor can no longer check on Jamie’s expression. By the time they reach the threshold of Jamie’s room, he isn’t walking with the Doctor so much as falling forward, held up only by the tight grip of the Doctor’s hands.

“Used up all your energy being difficult, have we?” the Doctor teases, hoping for a laugh or frankly for any sign of life at all. Jamie groans in response. “Yes, I thought so.”

He picks up the boneless Jamie in a princess carry to ferry him the rest of the way, taking on Jamie’s familiar weight in his arms, which does seem to trigger a last reserve of energy from him in the form of indignation.

“Och – Doctor, really –”

“If you wanted to stop me, perhaps you should have saved your energy rather than using it all on being stubborn,” the Doctor chides, striding across the bedroom and tightening his hold against Jamie’s squirming. It would hardly help the situation to drop him, after all.

“Aye, well, I didnae think you’d be picking me up like a damsel in distress!” Jamie’s pitch climbs high in protest, cracking on the last few words.

“Are you not distressed?” he asks innocently, bending down and shifting his hold on Jamie so he can flick back the tartan blanket on Jamie’s bed.

“Am no’ a wee girl,” Jamie mutters sullenly. That draws a laugh from the Doctor, and as he lowers Jamie onto the pillows, he expects his first glimpse of Jamie’s face will be a glare.

He is surprised, then, to find on Jamie’s face a look of such anxiety to kill all the laughter in the Doctor’s throat. Jamie refuses to catch his eye, and the Doctor sighs.

He trails a hand down Jamie’s chest, smoothes down his kilt, and goes to work unlacing his shoes, gentle as he can. In his periphery, Jamie watches, silent. He sets the pair of shoes on the floor by the bed and then draws the blanket back over. He covers Jamie up to his chin but resists actually tucking him in lest it come across as patronising.

“There now,” the Doctor says, hushed. “Is this really all that bad?”

Still Jamie won’t meet his eye, and the Doctor sighs, running a hand lightly through Jamie’s hair. Suddenly Jamie’s hand shoots out from under the blanket to catch the Doctor’s wrist. The Doctor’s hearts plummet – what has he done to make Jamie recoil from him so? – but before he can apologise for overstepping, his grip shifts to bring the back of the Doctor’s hand to his lips.

“I don’t mean t’ be difficult,” Jamie murmurs, his breath hot against the Doctor’s fingers.

“Yes, well… catching ill can be scary,” the Doctor offers haltingly. “Particularly when you’re travelling with me. I understand. I do remember the incident on the moon.”

On the moon it wasn’t simply a common cold plaguing Jamie, of course. Still, the Doctor remembers well Jamie’s palpable fear that the phantom piper would take him, as well as his unconscious pained cries that the Doctor could only futilely try to ignore. At least this time he can make Jamie comfortable through it – if Jamie would only let him.

“Now I hope I don’t have to lock you in to keep you in bed,” he says, playing stern. “What you need is rest, and –”

“It isn’t that,” Jamie says quietly.

“– with lots of fluids and maybe – eh?”

“It’s no’… am no’ scared. No’ wi’ you. I always feel safe in the TARDIS, you know tha’.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” the Doctor says, though the words aren’t adequate to describe how the reassurance makes him feel. He squeezes Jamie’s fingers to emphasise the point. “But then why…?”

“You’ll think I’m bein’ stupid,” Jamie groans.

“I might,” the Doctor agrees, nodding. Jamie blinks at him in surprise, and perhaps offense. “But it won’t make me think any worse of you, nor love you any less. So you might as well tell me.”

Jamie grumbles a bit before properly digesting that. He’s always been an open book, wearing his heart on his sleeve and his thoughts right on his face. The Doctor watches Jamie wrestle with himself. Watches him win.

“I just wanted t’ get past it. Ignore it until it goes away.” He winces and presses the Doctor’s hand to his cheek, and the Doctor obliges him, half sitting on the bed so he can reach more comfortably. “I remember takin’ ill on the moon too, spendin’ it all useless in a hospital bed.”

“Why that’s not fair on you at all. You’re right, I do think this is stupid.”

That finally coaxes a sheepish grin from Jamie. “I havnae even got to the stupid bit yet,” he admits.

The Doctor does roll his eyes this time, large and exaggerated to hear the laugh Jamie lets out after, one that dissolves into painful coughs that has Jamie leaning away from the Doctor and further into the bed.

Blast. He’d been trying to help Jamie, not make him worse. The Doctor steps away, rubbing his hands nervously as Jamie half hacks out a lung, searching for anything to do to help him. But there’s nothing for it apart from the obvious: stop dithering, fetch Jamie some water and cold medicine, and wait the whole thing out.

“I’ll just be right back, Jamie, with some water,” he calls, slipping out of the room and not stopping even when Jamie coughs out something that sounds like a plea for him to stay.

This human business… the Doctor wrings his hands and speeds on.

The TARDIS reveals herself to be feeling cooperative today; the kitchen is only at the end of the hall, when just that morning, it had been a brisk five-minute walk from the console room in the opposite direction. He pats the doorframe in thanks but then halts abruptly.

“Oh! Ben. Polly. Hello.”

A quick once-over assures him that he hasn’t walked in on something private – one never knows with those two – but they still start guiltily upon sighting him, offering muted hellos in reply.

He raises a suspicious eyebrow at them as he washes his hands and then moves to the cupboard where they keep the cups and mugs and so forth.

“No need!” Polly interrupts him quickly. She turns around and grabs something from the counter behind them: a tall glass of water and several packets of tablets from the bathroom pharmaceutical cabinet.

“Haven’t poisoned it, have you?” the Doctor asks, mostly in jest, as he takes them from her. But Polly only cringes.

Ben gallantly steps in. “Look, we just wanted to apologise for running out when you got there. Probably should have stayed and helped. So we fetched this. We’re, uh, pretty sure it’s all the right stuff. It’s not that we don’t – it’s just that Polly and me, we have rather short amounts of patience, and neither of us are exactly used to…”

“Polly and I,” the Doctor corrects with an indulgent smile.

“Yes?” Polly asks, taking a confused step towards him.

Oh, they’re fine. The Doctor leaves them to it.

“Not Polly and me. Polly and I!” he calls behind him.

“Well, tell Jamie that Polly and I are sorry we gave him a hard time and that we hope he gets better soon!”

Ben’s voice echoes down the corridor and the Doctor smiles to himself. How strange humans are to him, even now when he’s known so many! And with that volume, the Doctor won’t even have to pass on the message. Jamie surely would have heard it.

Indeed, as the Doctor nudges open Jamie’s door, Jamie is already upright in bed, expectant.

“Doctor,” he exhales in greeting, sounding strangely relieved to the Doctor’s ears.

“Here,” the Doctor says, brandishing the items in his hands. He offers Jamie the cup, mostly confident that he can handle that part himself, and goes about sorting through the medication Polly and Ben had scrounged up.

He hears more than sees Jamie gulp greedily, which is good at least; the Doctor had done the right thing by fetching him water.

“Don’t drink all of it now,” he warns, popping a few tablets out of their respective foil wrappings.

Jamie frowns over at him, holding the much emptier glass protectively to his chest.

“You’ll need some water to take these. Medicine, yes? No bloodletting needed,” he assures with a laugh. He walks Jamie through how to take them, eventually pulling up a chair to sit with him.

When the glass is set aside, Jamie gives him a cautious look. “What are ye doin’ with Polly, then, Doctor?”

“What’s that?”

“You were sayin’, you and Polly.”

“Oh, never mind that, I was simply correcting grammar. Now do enlighten me. What were you saying before your sore throat rudely interrupted us?”

Jamie nods with an air of resignation about him. Always so dramatic.

“I was just sayin’ I know how this goes, when I take ill. An’ I don’ hold it against ye or nothing. I just…” Jamie fidgets with the blanket and then shrugs. “I didnae want t’ be bedridden while you and Ben and Polly are out getting int’ trouble. Or havin’ fun. Or bein’ in grave danger. I don’ want t’ miss anything. And I thought I might be able t’ pretend I was well so ye wouldnae go off without me.”

The Doctor regards Jamie with a look of open fondness that Jamie doesn’t even see, so busy is he trying to avoid the Doctor’s eye. Probably for the best; means Jamie can’t make fun of him for it later.

“Oh, you silly, silly boy.” Jamie shifts to turn bodily away, with embarrassment or shame, and the Doctor can’t be having that. He stops Jamie with a hand on his chest, holding him firmly down. “My dear Jamie. Would you do me a favour and remind me where we are.”

“We’re… in my room?”

“And where might that be?”

“In the TARDIS. But what has that got t’ do wi’ –”

“And would you remind me what the TARDIS is exactly.”

“It’s a ship. It’s our home. It’s for travelling, goin’ on adventures through the different planets and through time.”

“Through time indeed. So you can understand,” says the Doctor, patting Jamie gently on the chest, “why exactly it is that we are in no rush to leave without you. Time is the one thing I have in excess. The universe outside will wait until we are ready to meet it, with you by our side, recovered and healthy as ever.”

“But ye can barely stay in the same place for five wee minutes! What are ye gonnae do while I get better?”

“Well, I rather thought I’d stay and bother you, if that’s quite alright.”

“Bother me.”

“Well, I haven’t gotten the chance to play my recorder in some time, and I thought you might enjoy hearing a story from a book you’re not practising your literacy from, perhaps. And I’m sure I could come up with other things to occupy myself while you sleep it off, or when you bore of my company.”

“Never.”

The Doctor’s eyebrows shoot up. “I’m sorry?”

Jamie flushes bright red but this time doesn’t look away. “You’re many things, Doctor, but yer never boring.”

The Doctor preens at that. Of course, it’s at that moment that Jamie yawns jaw-poppingly wide, quite ruining the sentiment.

“Alright,” Jamie blusters, looking himself very surprised by his own yawn, “that looked bad but I promise that was no’ because of you –”

“Relax, my boy. Sleep will do you wonders.”

Jamie looks ready to do just that until the Doctor makes to stand, and then he’s righting himself all over again as if to stop him.

“I told you, I’d find something to do while you slept. I’m not about to go running off.”

Jamie still seems conflicted, so the Doctor settles back into his chair.

“How about this: I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep, then I’ll fetch a few books from the library and come back. I’ll be right here when you wake up again, I promise.”

It’s as though that’s all the permission Jamie’s body needed to go to sleep right then and there. Jamie’s out like a light before the Doctor’s even managed to get comfortable again. How stubborn to have held it off even that long.

There’s no reason for the Doctor to dawdle now, having fulfilled that first part of his promise. But Jamie is so peaceful in sleep, and he’s in no rush to leave. Might as well bask in his accomplishment of corralling Jamie out of his stubborn denial.

And funnily enough, sleeping Jamie is so fascinating on his own, the Doctor might not even need to go looking for something to entertain himself after all.

Not for the first few minutes, anyway.

[nataliesnews]

Fwd: Protests and we are threated with arrest and the only good thing was the meeting Ivan and Tarna last night   13,1,2023

Fwd: Protests and we are threated with arrest and the only good thing was the meeting Ivan and Tarna last night

Inbox

Natalie Ginsburg <natanyag@gmail.com>

8:54 AM (3 hours ago)

to bcc: Helen, bcc: Debby, bcc: Cindi, bcc: nathan, bcc: Talia, bcc: Linda, bcc: Ingrid, bcc: Uta, bcc: me, bcc: Ivan, bcc: Galia, bcc: corinne, bcc: Shelley, bcc: renee, bcc: Elisabeth, bcc: Raymond, bcc: Martine, bcc: Mika, bcc: Carey, bcc: Behnam, bcc: Susan, bcc: Mervyn, bcc: Ronnie, bcc: Rene, bcc: Debby, bcc: Joy

---------- Forwarded message ---------

The only good thing about the past week had been supper with Ivan and Tarna and family last night. Sometimes I feel as if my life is cut into two areas. I cannot divorce myself from what is happening around me. I think everyone is very tense about the coming weekend. Those who care about what is happening in the country at least. I feel as if I am in waiting.

The days brings more and more reasons to fear the future. There is a big protest  again on Saturday night but so far there is no transport from Jerusalem, though there is from all over the country. I don't understand why and can get no answer. There is also a problem with the demonstrators. I myself demonstrate both against this government of criminals and also the occupation. But it seems that some Israelis have no problem with the latter. If they are demonstrating  What they are worried about is being able to go on living comfortably in their cocoons.  It makes me think again of Nazi Germany. How many Germans who may not have liked what Hitler was doing then found themselves drawn into a war which rebounded on them and regretted not having done something when there was time.

I am not sure that we have already missed the bus. That is is too late. The we will find ourselves in what amounts to a religious and nationalist grasp. I think the next two days will show were we are going. I am really worried that there is going to be violence today in Sheikh Jarrar. The news has just announced in the face of Ben Gvir's announcement that the police are to use the water machines against the demonstrators and that the organisers are going to put a dividing wall of pilots and members of parliament between the police and the demonstrators. at the demonstration tomorrow night.

I was interviewed yesterday by Eliezer Yaari who is making a film on Machsomwatch and later (Nothing to do one with another)  by a young woman from Bezalel. I had to laugh as she asked me a question and I said you should rather refer the question to two of my colleagues who are more savvy than I am and she said, "But you are more spicy." But Eliezer showed me a scene from the past where a Palestinian was ploughing his field and he wants me to refer to that. I have no memory at all of the incident. So much has happened in the last 20 years. But all I could say was that watching it nothing has changed but had got much worse. Even then the army was being run by the settlers.

On Sunday and I am quoting from a report which my friend, Anat, wrote:One of the goals of this morning's shift was to check if there is any change or any effect on the conduct of checkpoints in Jerusalem due to the exchange of responsibilities after the elections on the bodies that operate jointly - the border police and the police  at the crossings (Ben Gavir), the Civil Administration (Smotrich), the IDF ( Total responsibility for territory and security). We found the answer at the last checkpoint we visited - the Wadi Nar checkpoint (the container).

We soon found out. I have been going to the Container on and off for the last 20 years. I saw it developing from a small post to a much more impressive checkpoint which must have brought much joy to the contractor who built it and those who got various other financial benefits from doing so. As with all the checkpoints. The Wadi Nar checkpoint is manned by the border police ,  Ben Gavir's private army in the territories. Only cars pass there.

We  stood by the open iron gate far from the inspection area. But in  a second two soldiers  came running up and told us to go back. We went back about 10 paces which seemed to satisfy them. But NOOOOOOOOOO two soldiers came us and told us that we were  not allowed to be in the area at all and that it was only for Palestinians and that we were not allowed in that area at all. We told them that this was not so and that we were in area C where Israelis are allowed to be. I don't think they even knew where they were. They told us that if we did not leave they would call up...whom I am not sure...and that we would be evacuated and we understood from between the lines and their body language that they would use force if necessary. Also that we could be arrested.

Personally we would have prefered to wait and see if this would be so

but they had also stopped all the Palestinian vehicles from coming through. The one soldier actually wanted to allow them through and dafke the woman soldier.....often they are the worst....would not. This, by the way, is what they often do

to pressure us to get out of the way. We do not want to make things worse for the Palestinians but we will go back probably the week after next and see what the situation is then. If the same thing happens, we will move back a way and wait to see.But it just shows again how little soldiers know  of where they are and what they are doing. We as Israelis can resist without fear.....for the moment anyway....but a Palestinian would immediately be arrested and in the spirit of the last days .....hardly a day passed without a Palestinian being shot and killed...be killed

Is this a lack of knowledge on the part of the young soldiers, or has something changed in the instructions in the last few days, and is the IDF's permission for humanitarian organizations to observe checkpoints without interfering with traffic or soldiers and even take pictures at them still valid, as it has been for all the years of our activities. We have  to find what is happening.

.

ReplyForward

[drsorrell]

Mon. 10.24.22 (SVC)

Announcements & Reminders

Review Friday’s online activity

Activity/Discussion

Close Reading Activity, Part Two (on Schoology, in groups) With the other members of your group, read through these quotes carefully, paying attention to how the sentences are constructed and the specific use of language. Talk about the quote in question before you write a response together. When you're done talking, please write up your response (one per group), post it, and we will talk about all of them.\

How does the author use language to get his or her point across? What is that point? Do you think that the author does a good job of it? Group 1: Madeline, Abby, Josiah, Justin (8:30) Tanner, Kayleigh, Jose, Brad, Colt, Steve (9:30) Damon Linker, “Liberals’ Astonishingly Radical Shift on Gender” (666) "That's because all societies — as collectivities of individuals sharing a common culture as well as common laws, rules, and norms (including linguistic rules and norms) — invariably constrain individuals more than they would be if they lived in absolute isolation from others. Any one of those limits on the individual will can feel as if it's an intolerable constraint, and the principle of individual freedom can always be invoked in order to combat it" (670). Group 2: Anton, Emma, Chrys, Dylan (8:30) Ben G, Ben H, Grace, Hailie, Jude, Carolina (9:30) Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” (673) "I am well aware that the majority of American women face problems far greater than any discussed in this article. I am writing for my demographic—highly educated, well-off women who are privileged enough to have choices in the first place. We may not have choices about whether to do paid work, as dual incomes have become indispensable. But we have choices about the type and tempo of the work we do. We are the women who could be leading, and who should be equally represented in the leadership ranks" (682). Group 3: Robbie, Francis, Tonio, Steven (8:30) Jacob, Camdon, Jaden, Shannon, Brady, Jessica (9:30) Richard Dorment, “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” (694) "My wife makes more money than I do. We majored in the same thing at the same college at the same time, and when I chose to go into journalism, she chose to go to law school. She works longer hours, shoulders weightier responsibilities, and faces greater (or at least more reliable) prospects for long-term success, all of which are direct results of choices that we made in our early twenties. She does more of the heavy lifting with our young son than I do, but I do as much as I can. (Someone else watches him while we are at work.) I do a lot of cooking and cleaning around our house. So does she. I don't keep score (and she says she doesn't), and it's hard to imagine how our life would work if we weren't both giving every day our all" (699).

EXAMPLE "To them, payday lenders were predatory sharks, charging high interest rates on loans and exorbitant fees for cashed checks. The sooner they were snuffed out, the better...To me, payday lenders could solve important financial problems" (Vance 439) Vance uses "to them" and "to me" here to highlight a completely different way of viewing the world, which is super clever because he's not just saying, those morons are wrong but more, they don't have my life experience, so they just don't get where I'm coming from. This goes with his whole point, that elites don't understand where people like him are coming from, and he has a truly unique and enlightening perspective for the rest of us (rest of us morons, maybe??).

Homework

Read the following Chapter 23 “What’s Gender Got to Do With It?” texts before class:

Helen Lewis, “The Coronavirus Is a Disaster for Feminism” (715)

Sanjana Ramanathan, “An End to Sexism in Gaming Communities” (723)

Monica Wright, “Why We Need Title IX Now More Than Ever” (731)

Do InQuizitive (15): Pronouns That Don’t Agree with Their Antecedents before class.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Death to All Might, Rebirth to Yagi Toshinori

So about All Might. I’ve been extremely wary of talking about what could happen to him because straight up saying “I don’t think he’s gonna die” is asking the universe to spite me. Plus it also feels like a room full of people turning to stare at me as if I said the Sun isn’t a star. Man has death flags everywhere, I know. 

But, okay, *Bill Nye voice* consider the following:

Mr. Yagi here, if he overheard everything, just received the final nail in the coffin on his career. His time as the symbol of peace is not only over, it was in fact partially responsible for the current state of things, since he once did so much on his own that his absence now makes heroes and civilians alike ill-prepared to cope. I think it was very apt for that one guy to be wearing an All Might shirt--he was acting as a mouthpiece for the latent societal problems embedded in All Might’s legacy. 

We know already that he’s been feeling useless. I love this scene and although I’m not gonna talk about it right this second, remember what Aizawa says about just “being here” being enough:

And we know from conversations with Inko that Toshinori is also reframed his purpose around looking after Izuku. But in the end, Izuku rejected his help, and it was his classmates instead who were able to save him. Now the very progress of humanity is rejecting him too. You may me wondering how on Earth I don’t see the logical conclusion of all this being his death. Hold on. It actually has a lot to do with the fact that we’re all expecting it. Nighteye himself saw it, and despite any contrary convictions anyone might have, the plot doesn’t seem to be veering away from that end. All Might Is Gonna Die, says absolutely everything. 

It’s occurring to me that I have previous experience with this kind of plotline that probably little to no one else in this fandom shares, being that I’ve read a certain book series in which the main character is told in no uncertain terms that he will die (no, I’m not talking about hp). The series in question is T*e Und*rland Chronicl*s (censoring so it doesn’t get put in their side of tumblr) and I’m sorry but I’m about to go on a shameless tangent about it and spoil the ending for you.

So in this series there is a prophecy in every book, each one having something to do with war and conflict, and so far all of them have been right. In the last book [mc] finds out that it’s prophesied that he will be killed. Lots of the things in the prophecies are convoluted and metaphorical, but no, this one literally says “when the [mc’s title] has been killed.” He spends the whole book coming to terms with this, and he gives into it, only to find himself waking up in the hospital instead. “Wow, plot twist. /s” you may be thinking, and yeah sure, the mc in a kids book survived, big shocker. But it doesn't end there. After the war, there are peace talks, but they escalate until the two sides are on the verge of declaring war again. And [mc], bless him, has just been caught in the middle of all of this the entire time. He’s sick as shit of fighting, of watching the suffering and death of people he cares about. He draws his sword against both of them angrily, gives a speech saying he won’t take a side, and then promptly breaks his sword across his knee: “There. [mc’s title in the prophecies] is dead. I killed him.” He’s giving a huge middle finger to everyone there, to the man who wrote the prophecies, to the entire fucked up culture of it all. And so something that was taken literally turns out to be metaphorical. That is, if you still believe in the prophecies at all.

Hopefully you’re catching my drift here. What I’m saying is, even though this other series has nothing to do with bnha, it goes to show sometimes it’s the most absolute certainties that are red herrings, and a “death” can consequently be a symbolic one. In All Might’s case, it could be the death of hero society and a rejection of his own past. In other words, character development for Toshinori himself that reflects on the way the world is changing, too. Also there’s the fact that the mc from that other series I’m trying not to name has an honorary title, and I’m imagining that role he occupied “dying” could correspond to something that amounts to, “All Might is dead. I (Yagi Toshinori) killed him.” 

And here’s another thing: we also have to ask ourselves what good a dead Toshinori is to Izuku, narratively speaking. Yes, Izuku has spent his whole life idolizing even the more toxic parts of All Might, and his idealized vision of his hero does need to “die.” But how about Toshinori as a father figure?  Izuku regretting that his last interaction with Toshinori was to reject his help may drive home the fact that he shouldn’t go off on his own, but at this point it’s kinda redundant. If anything it would negate some of the progress that was just made because it’d make him extra paranoid about losing other people too. To be honest, the whole “Uncle Ben” trope, the mentor/father figure who dies and gives the mc a reason to do better, is so tired. Experiencing the death of a loved one really doesn’t deserve to be romanticized like that. I might as well admit that I’m speaking from experience, and let me tell you, losing someone you love suddenly, when you weren’t around, and with unfinished business--it makes you paranoid as hell that it will happen again. It literally gives me nightmares. Y’all, I cannot stress enough that trauma does not equal character development. Granted, just because I know this doesn’t mean Horikoshi does, but in general he does seem to lead his characters toward healing.

Okay, back to the present. Toshinori is turning away from UA. He likely feels useless and rejected. We can infer that what happens next will involve Stain, and we have a couple of extra clues to go with it: Stain considers All Might a true hero, and has stated that he would let All Might kill him. And since Horikoshi loves his parallels, we also have this fight between Endeavor and this random villain who admires him so much that he wants to die by Endeavor’s hand:

This suggests a confrontation in which Stain challenges All Might to live up to himself as he once was, so that as a hero he can vanquish Stain and symbolically overcome society's perversion of that role. But based on what All Might has learned about the system he upheld, Stain is wrong. All Might is not a “true hero” in the sense that the societal issues Stain witnessed exist not in spite of All Might, but (in part) because of him, because he took too much of the responsibility for himself.

Stain probably had no idea about the personal cost of All Might’s lonely burden until after the fact. Maybe he’s seeing it now. So then perhaps the confrontation would be more about Stain claiming he’s just as fake as the rest. Either way, Toshinori has the opportunity to denounce himself and be rid of “All Might,”  to stop living in his own shadow. Nighteye’s vision has been defied before, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the combination of society shifting + Toshinori’s own conviction is enough to do it again and work fate in his favor.

He is not All Might. He is Yagi Toshinori: quirkless, worn down, and directionless except for his dedication to Izuku. If he survives his interaction with Stain, he can resolve his imperfect mentorship by confessing about his shortcomings and simply supporting Izuku as a part of his family, not as his teacher (as Aizawa said, just “being there”). And that’s how you really get character development, for both of them. I mean, shit, imagine Toshinori straight up telling Izuku to stop calling him All Might.

[bigassheart]

I’ve seen a couple posts about how everyone was wildly out of character and totally inconsistent this season and I’m just like... were you guys paying attention? 

1. Luther

Arguably the biggest shift in character between the two seasons, but it makes sense. Luther spent a year fending for himself and thinking his entire family was dead. 

This is the first time in his life that he had to hold down a job and actually live on his own. It was literally his first time living out in the world among anyone other than his family, and you can see in his reactions with the other characters from that life (the boss, his landlord, those kids that idolize him, and the waitress) that it has really mellowed him out. It has allowed him to be more normal, despite being very much not normal. You can see the way he’s so much more comfortable in his skin. Literally the only times he looks uncomfortable is when he’s fighting people, shirt off and body on full display. He’s still not comfortable with that, but he’s not trying to hide under huge overcoats anymore. He has people in his life who accept him for being a little weird, but really do treat him normal. 

So is he a little less uptight and mission focused? Yeah. Because he can finally see another life, and it’s the life that he honestly did want in season 1 but felt like he couldn’t have because he was number 1 and he had a responsibility to his dad, his family, and the academy to be the leader. Having a year on his own frees him of all that. 

But he also spent all that time thinking his family was dead and feeling so guilty about it. You can see in his very first interaction with Vanya, where he suddenly feels that responsibility again. He brings a gun, not knowing what’s going to happen and, despite what he told Five, he absolutely does still have that lingering feeling of responsibility. But then he sees Vanya and she’s not a threat and everything he has been holding in for the last year comes out. Because he does feel guilty as hell for what he did to Vanya, but also for the fact that his actions pushed her into causing the apocalypse. He spent a year with the knowledge that he did that and thinking that his family was dead because of his actions. 

He’s willing to listen now because he spent a year living in a world where his actions killed his whole family. And now he finds out that that didn’t happen and he has a second chance. Of course he’s going to take it! 

2. Diego

In the first season, Diego finally admitted that he wanted to be close to his family and that he cared about them and wouldn’t leave them again. He confronted the guilt about leaving, which he had previously denied. He realized the difference between revenge and honoring someone’s memory. But despite all that, he never confronted the reason why he, a grown-ass-man, wandered around the city as a leather clad, mask wearing vigilante. 

So when we see Diego show up in 1963, that’s still who he is. He wants to be that hero and he finds an answer for how to be that hero in the first several minutes that he’s there. So he takes it. I mean, what else is he going to do? His family is gone. Maybe they’ll show up again. Maybe this is it. Either way, he’s on his own like he was before, so he’s got a duty to be the hero he has chosen to be. 

And then he meets his dad again. Everyone keeps telling him he has daddy issues, and they’re right. He absolutely has daddy issues. He’s still trying to simultaneously prove that he’s good enough for his dad, but also doesn’t need Daddy’s approval. Except he does need it. He still desperately craves it and he feels gutted when his dad denies him that approval, even falling back into the stutter he had as a kid. 

Now, despite the way we joke, Diego is not dumb. He is so observant and he makes some of the most poignant statements about his siblings and the way they see the world. He sees the people around them and he understands them, but he has never been able to completely turn that gift inwards and see those same things in himself. In this season, Lila breaks through all that and he finally sees himself in her at the end. 

“Do you know how hard it is to trust people when your whole childhood was bullshit manipulation? Then why would you do that to me?”  

Diego sees himself in Lila, in her failure to break away from her mother despite the fact that he knows she wants to. In the final episode, he sees that she is just like the rest of the siblings, but she doesn’t have to be. None of them have to be stuck with their daddy issues, because they have each other. They can support and care for each other. It’s the last step of the growth he started in season 1, moving beyond his tendency to define his life and his family through their father. 

3. Allison

Throughout season 1, Allison struggled with whether or not to use her powers, but it was all centered around getting back to her daughter. When she appears in 1961, that motivation is effectively removed. She thinks everyone else is dead. She thinks that she is stranded in the past and that she will never get back. She finds a group of people to support her and before long... she finds her voice again. 

It’s no coincidence that Allison’s first spoken words in the series come right after she gives Ray that pamphlet with a bunch of added notes. She finds her voice in the civil rights movement. She finds her power there. She finds a way to help change the world, to change reality, and she does it without her powers. 

This is something she struggled with through the entirety of season 1, feeling inadequate for using her powers to get what she wanted, not knowing if anything was real or earned. Now she has the chance to earn everything without those powers and she is thriving. 

And then she is forced to use her powers again. It all turns out fine, but now she’s showing off and experiencing all over again how good it feels to have power. She spent two years in a world where she was denied equal treatment, where she could be arrested and assaulted for any reason those with more power came up with. And now she feels that power... She doesn’t have to wait for people to give her respect. She can demand it. But the pain is still there, and it’s not enough to just be respected, because these people have hurt her. They almost killed her husband. They have used their power to cause pain to her and all those who look like her time and time again and now it’s time to understand what it’s like to be powerless, to be hurt and to be unable to stop it and... 

And it’s scary. It’s scary to have that much power, to see how you could become the kind of person who uses your power to hurt others. And she knows that her power has hurt people she loves and suddenly she’s right back where she started. 

Only not entirely. 

She doesn’t shy away from her powers in the final fight. She is obviously still finding that balance and I would expect this struggle to continue for her in future seasons. Power can be addicting and Allison’s power is so strong. She knows the danger there, but she also knows that sometimes it’s needed despite the danger. 

4. Klaus

Klaus is an addict. He finds obsessions to bury himself in to avoid dealing with reality. In season 1, he buried himself in drugs and booze. When he shows up in the 60′s, he finds a new drug to bury himself in: adoration. 

Klaus is so impulsive and it’s not difficult to connect the dots of how one thing leads to another until suddenly everything is out of his control. Honestly, that’s the story of Klaus’s life, no matter where he goes. And then something changes. He gets tired of his cult and leaves. Except... that’s not really the reason. 

After all this time, Dave is still the love of his life, and he knows he has an opportunity. He knows where Dave will be at this one time and he knows exactly what he has to change to keep Dave alive. 

He also knows that Ben is going to have thoughts about this. 

I know some people were disappointed that there wasn’t more Klaus and Ben bonding this season, but it makes sense that there is tension there. I think a lot of that tension comes from Ben’s circumstances, which I’ll discuss later, but Klaus is also not responding to that tension well. 

They are fighting more than ever (not that they ever didn’t fight in season 1, where they spent much of their time being snarky to each other and Ben literally punching Klaus in the face for being an asshole), but the fighting is about something new this season. Ben wants his own life and Klaus is not in a position to give Ben what he really wants. We also learn that he has been carrying around this guilt for the last 17 years about forcing Ben to stick around as a ghost. He forced this half-life on his brother and now that it’s not enough for Ben, Klaus doesn’t want to deal with it. So he avoids and deflects and snarks and we see the toll on their relationship. We see it in the way he tries to deal with his plans around Dave entirely on his own. He focuses so much into that last ditch effort. He’s already in such a low place before this, so when that fails, we see him snap. We see him give up and crumble. And Ben falls back to his old role, trying to save Klaus from himself. 

But the tension isn’t gone and Klaus’s guilt isn’t gone. We see it again when Klaus finally agrees to let Ben possess him. Klaus has always been afraid of his powers and being possessed is just as terrifying a thought as being surrounded by the dead. And yet he gives Ben that chance. It’s the last good thing he can do at that point. 

I do wish we had gotten more closure for Klaus and Ben’s story. I think Vanya’s reveal could have been given a little more time, but that’s not really a problem with inconsistent characterization, so we’ll save that for another post. 

5. Five

OK, who would argue that Five was out of character or inconsistent? He’s obsessed with stopping the apocalypse, is willing to cross a lot of lines to save his family, and constantly frustrated by his family’s failure to go along with his plans. This is textbook Five. 

What I loved about this season was that we got to see Five finally meeting his father again. They interact as two adults, not as a child trying to find away to become his own person, frustrated by a lack of trust from his father. It allows Reggie to see Five in a different light and to actually provide advice in a constructive way, something he has almost never been able to do when viewing them as his children. But despite outward appearances and despite the fact that Five is a grown man, he still sees his father the same way he always has. He doesn’t register Reggie’s advice as advice. He hears that he’s striving beyond his abilities and that maybe he can only travel in seconds. He hears his father telling him he can’t handle time travel. That’s why he doesn’t try to actually take the very good advice until the very end.  

An old dog can still occasionally learn a new trick and Five proves that true. 

6. Ben

As I mentioned earlier, Ben is chaffing at his ghosthood. Maybe it’s because Klaus has been sober enough to keep Ben around solidly for 3 years. Maybe it’s because Ben is no longer spending all his time trying to keep Klaus alive and sober. Or maybe it’s the fact that he has finally found someone that he actually wants to spend time with. Whatever the reason, Ben wants to be alive this season. 

Again, as I mentioned, that’s causing some tension. Ben doesn’t want to be tied to Klaus, but Klaus is ignoring that because he feels so guilty about it. Ben doesn’t want to admit that he was too scared to go into the light on his own, so they’re at a bit of a standstill. 

And then Ben gets the opportunity to be alive again, if only for a while. And in a lot of ways, it’s wonderful! But it’s not the same as being truly alive. 

So when the time comes, when he’s faced with that light again... he’s not afraid. He knows that it’s time to move on. He knows this isn’t where he should be, but he also got the chance to be there for his family. He misses them, but he got to talk to Diego and Vanya. He got to save Vanya. He got to save Allison and Diego and Klaus and Luther and Five and the whole world! So while he would have stayed, he’s not sad about leaving anymore, and he’s not afraid. 

7. Vanya

OK, she was a little out of character because... you know. She had amnesia. 

But aside from erasing her past, the amnesia allowed us to see Vanya without the anger and resentment that plagued her for all of season one. Vanya was always someone who was kind and loving, someone who cares enough to leave peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches out for a missing brother for years. Someone who knows the pain of not being seen and who will always take the time to truly see other people. She’s someone who wants to love and to be loved and to protect those she loves. 

That was all here, with or without the memories. And as soon as the memories came back, so did the guilt and fear about what she had done, what she had become, terrified of what was inside her in a way that she was not when her powers first surfaced. But Ben is used to being afraid of what’s inside of him. He knows she’s not a monster and is the perfect person to explain that to her. And this time around, she has experienced the love and care and attention of her siblings (and Sissy) to back up those words. That’s how she finally accepts them as truth, how she finally accepts her power as a part of her. 

Overall, there are things that I wish this season spent more time with, but there was nothing that I felt was out of character or wildly inconsistent. The characters still struggled with all the baggage from their shitty childhood, their fear of their powers, and the guilt in their past. Some struggled in new ways this season and some continued old struggles that had never fully been resolved. The season felt very different than the first, but it still felt like the Umbrella Academy. It was a good mix of new and old and a good mix of feel-good moments we have all been waiting for and frustrating and sad moments that just come with having a complicated family. I loved this season. And now, I’m going to go re-watch every episode. 

[reachexceedinggrasp]

There's something that's always made me wonder back when I was still in the SW fandom.How did the majority of the fanboys and fangirls have such a profound misunderstanding of the thematic theme it represents?Like I remember finding MANY of this people on my insta feed talking about different types of spaceships,where do the J*dis get their lightsaber crystals from,characteristics of several planets,etc YET when confronted about the actual theme of the movie,they "What do you think my entire blog is about?"🤦‍♀️These are the type of people who just hate Ben in general, think TLJ did L*ke dirty,and genuinely believe V*der and An*kin to be two different people.How did this happen?Was it partly Lucas' own fault?Was it because of the Legends books?I'm just so confused...like how did these people become a fan for 20+years yet managed to misread something most integral to its storyline?

Yeah, I used to talk about this a lot. I think it's mostly two things. It's that a lot of people don't care about themes no matter how obvious they are and will just mentally paper over a message they don't agree with. Any incurious audience will also often assume the things they like must agree with them and will read their own worldview into media regardless of intent. See the bizarre mental contortions from fans, such as claiming Vader wasn't actually redeemed or that 'everyone' ignores that aberrant moment because the movie is otherwise good (as if RotJ isn't exclusively built around Luke's moral victory in choosing love and refusing to submit to the idea of a necessary evil). See also TPM alt-right crypto fascists identifying with the Rebellion and reading the story as an allegory for their fight for 'freedom'. Assholes don't see themselves as the villains, they see themselves as the heroes.

And the second thing is that sw attracted a large audience of people who just have wildly different priorities than the original narrative. People who love space ship blueprints and detailed lore, people who want sci-fi rather than fantasy/fable storytelling conventions, who want to break down the vague, emotional mysticism of the Force into a D&D magic system with two flavours of power and specific rules. People who aren't that interested in the deeply character-driven and self-contained plot of the saga, but want to play with a kind of worldbuilding that focuses on minutiae. This is of course fine for them to enjoy, but it's totally incompatible with the films and how the entire canon universe runs so it shouldn't be canonised- yet those are usually the kind of people who want to write tie-in novels. Inevitably, this shifts the tone and conventions of the universe away from the message around which they were originally built.

The fandom was also full of insecure dudebros who wanted a fairy tale built on a completely uncompromising idealism to be instead gritty and ~realistic~ and cynical so they could keep liking it as adults without their masculinity being threatened. Without their worldview being challenged. So we end up with the EU theme-rot and aggressive Wrong About Star Wars takes from the people who are now in charge of the canon. The rare vision of idealism gets pulled down and replaced with the same bloodthirsty American monomyth bullshit you get everywhere else in Hollywood.

There's nothing you can really do as the author to prevent this kind of thing. SW's message is so uncontrovertible and without subtlety that five year-olds get it no problem, but that has never stopped anyone from wildly misreading it. You can't control the audience. Having a fun action-adventure movie with super appealing characters and a vibrant world is going to reach far more people than are willing to accept a truly challenging message about unconditional compassion. I mean, kids will and do, and that's who Lucas says he wanted the films to be for, so he did all right on that.

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

Hello!! sorry to bother you could write a ben 10 x reader? (the reader is kidnapped by vilgax and ben has to save her, after that ben and the reader has an argument) please, i love your fics!!

Storm Before The Calm

Pairing: Pre-Established; Ben Tennyson x Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3.4k words

A/N: I changed up the request a bit (I figured it shouldn't matter which villain was used here) also I was planning to have this as sort of a damsel in distress situation but after having a chat with some boys pigs I decided a self indulgant badass reader was right up my alley

Additional A/N: I have a math exam on Thursday and I cannot focus for the life of me. So, I decided to finish up one of my drafts. Now hopefully I'll be able to work like a robot for the next week, after satisfying my creative side. Also, this fic was super self indulgant.

"I trust Ben.” You did. With your entire being.

Kevin chuckled from beside you, “Yeah, try saying that without cracking the fillings in your teeth and maybe we’ll believe you.”

His words caused you to relax, only then realizing how hard your jaw was clenched in fury. Gwen sighed in disappointment and for a second you wanted to defend her cousin and your boyfriend. Until you realized that he deserved every bit of unbridled anger coming to him.

“I trust him. Doesn’t mean I’m not mad at him.”

Your hands were balled into tight fists and even though you wanted to take your eyes off the television screen and take a warm bath, you also for some reason couldn’t stop yourself from watching it.

Like you were afraid something would happen when your eyes were off the screen for even a second. Maybe you didn’t trust him.

But honestly how could you, you were currently watching your boyfriend relax in a hot tub with Jennifer Nocturne and the sight was enough to send bile up your throat.

Ben wasn’t returning any of her advances, but he wasn’t stopping her either. And the thought made you sick to your stomach. You knew Ben was faithful and you knew he would never cheat on you but watching how the Hollywood starlet continued to hang off him sent waves of jealousy through you.

Not to mention anger at the fact that he wasn’t doing anything to stop her. When he got back, you were going to wring his neck.

Trusting him was getting harder with Gwen constantly insisting that you dump him.

Honestly, you wondered how that girl even kept a relationship.

When Ben eventually came home, all the entertainment channels were still talking about the two of them and the well-known picture of Jennifer Nocturne kissing him was circulating about. Each time you looked at that image, you wanted to shoot an arrow at the TV.

As time went by, your anger slowly fizzled out. You were unable to maintain your rage at Ben, quickly getting a headache and feeling tired of trying to maintain negative emotions. Even then, you couldn't push down the uneasy feeling in your heart that seized your stomach.

You kept expecting a text message from Ben, an apology call but as the night proceeded you understood that he was having way too much fun with another woman to even think about how you must be feeling.

The thought of that made you want to go back home and crawl underneath the covers, hiding away from the rest of the world.

But Gwen was persistent and any time you tried to wiggle away from the pair of them and go home, she insisted that you stay and make sure Ben knew how upset he made you tonight.

You were more than happy to give your boyfriend the cold shoulder until he apologized rather than have to confront him. That was just how your relationship with Ben worked. Neither of you were the type to lose your tempers and yell and scream at each other.

Although you were worried what would come out of this. Would you be able to peacefully discuss your feelings and then come to some sort of conclusion civilly? Seems too good to be true honestly.

Even then you waited until Ben came home, listening to Gwen and Kevin about how you should rip the band aid off and get everything off your chest rather than ignore him for a couple of days until the two of you got bored.

Usually, the latter would work but you had an inkling that it wouldn't be the solution for this particular argument because if you didn't communicate your emotions then he would never know how you felt about it.

So, even though your stomach filled with anxiety and sadness as the hours passed, you still didn't leave, determined to talk to him about it.

Your jaw was clenched tight when he finally did come back home, utterly relaxed and even happy like he wasn't just curled up against some Hollywood starlet while his girlfriend was watching it on E!

"I'm really upset with you." You ground out when Kevin and Gwen left, not knowing how else to start the conversation.

"What for?"

You didn't reply, picking up the remote and flicking to a gossip channel, then a news channel, then an interview show and all of them had the picture of Ben Tennyson and Jennifer Nocturne locking lips.

Ben winced, "She kissed me! I didn't even return it."

You still refused to look at you, crossing your arms aggressively, "Uh huh and what was today all about?"

"It's just publicity. Jennifer thinks that it'll help with my career."

You scoffed, "What career?"

Ben's back tensed up and he turned to give you a stiff expression, "I'm a superhero. I've saved the universe a thousand times and now that I'm finally getting recognition for it, you want to be petty?"

"Petty? You think I'm being petty? Well forgive me for getting upset after watching my boyfriend curl up to some other woman in a hot tub for the last five hours!" You bit, standing up from the couch.

"It wasn't like that! Stop blowing everything out of proportion!"

"No, you stop pretending like this isn't a big deal! Ever since your secret got out you've been acting like an ass and since meeting that blonde rat it's only gone through your head more!" You shouted, clenching your hands at your sides. How could he not see your side of this?

"Well shouldn't I get to enjoy my life once in a while?! I'm the one saving the planet constantly! I'm the one with constant death threats and near death experiences every other week! Shouldn't I get some attention for it?! God knows I don't get any from you!" He yelled back and you grit your teeth.

"Don't forget that while you were out there risking your life, we were right beside you!"

"Oh, so that's what it is, you're jealous that everyone thinks of you as the sidekick!"

"That is so NOT what this is about!"

"Oh really? Because it sounds like you're jealous because you're not getting attention by mooching off of me!"

Your eyes widened in shock. Mooching? Did he seriously think that you risked your life alongside him every day to help other people and more importantly, keep him safe, for attention?

Your body trembled, outraged and you didn't say another word, leaving his house in a rush and slamming the door behind you.

You needed something to hit.

***

Your body pumped with adrenaline and anger, muscles itching to be used as you sauntered through the old and run-down factory with reckless abandon. You briefly wondered whether you should've told Gwen or Kevin you were going there but then decided against it, pride and anger too great.

Any doubts or hesitation you had disappeared when you saw Vulkanus, standing tall and broad in his metal suit. And as per usual, he had his herd of minions doing his physical labour.

"If it isn't the Plumber's sweetheart." He drawled once he noticed you. You didn't bother with the stealth, leaving the door wide open behind you and letting the sunlight seep in. If he knew what was good for him, then this would be over quick.

"Hello Vulkanus." You greeted politely and he rolled his eyes. Of all people, he knew just how misleading your innocence was.

"Where's the cavalry?"

"Just me today." You answered and for a second you were confused by your own confidence. Maybe you were taking this just a little too easy. Oh well, that was another thing you could blame your pig-headed boyfriend for.

"Well then, this is going to be easier than I thought. Hope you said goodbye to your boyfriend, sweetheart." He rasped out and the corner of your mouth twitched into a smirk. Without another word, you raised your arms, feeling the familiar heat of fire in the palm of your hand before chucking it at him.

Just as you knew he would, he sent his minions towards you first. They were embarrassingly unskilled but the problem came in numbers. They swarmed around you like ants and you felt yourself getting irritated at the clicking sound they were making.

Unfortunately for Vulkanus his make-shift factory was right beside a dam which gave you an endless supply of the elements to work with.

Summoning all the water you could manoeuvre, you pulled it into the factory, shattering the windows along with it and flooding the room. It only took a few flicks of your wrist to create a whirlpool in the centre, knocking all the workers off their feet.

You stiffened your hands, curling in your fingers and the temperature dropped, the water solidifying with each second until all of them were encased in ice. Another flick of the wrist had the path clearing between you and Vulkanus, who was still warm.

"You-You're sparing me?" He asked, confused and a dry laugh left you.

"Not at all," You sang, eyes turning dark, "I'm giving you special treatment."

Vulkanus bounded towards you, holding his mallet high and you swiftly dodged, using water on the floor to slide quickly. He crashed into the engine of one of his machines, the fuel tank exploding and spewing fowl smelling petrol onto the floor.

It floated above the level of water and began surrounding both of you.

He once again came at you, letting out a roar and you used the water to sink through the crevices of his suit, freezing it from within and you heard the satisfying sound of his suit cracking.

Just a little more strength and forcing a gust of air through the cracks had it falling apart and his frail body fell out of its metal encasing.

"You'll pay for this! You big bully!"

"Thanks for the fun time today, Vulkanus." You smiled, strutting to the door just as confidently as you came in. Even though your body was burning from the workout and you could barely breathe, you still couldn't get over the high.

Before leaving the building, you turned around to see him still glaring at you from his place on the floor.

"Oh, I should probably free your minions, right?" You commented, eyes flickering between the ones still encased in ice and the floor that was still flooded with water and petrol.

You let out a fake sigh, "I guess I'll be nice today," You winked at Vulkanus, "Thanks for the playdate, sweetheart."

His eyes widened when you blew a kiss to him, watching in fear as you ignited a flare in your palm and blew it towards him before turning around and using the wind to slam the doors behind you. When you were just a few feet away you heard the place blow apart.

Slowly, the adrenaline began melting and the blood rushing through your ears was much more audible. You were panting, tired from the exercise and the thought of calling Kevin to come and pick you up. Or maybe even Ben. You were calm enough now to have a conversation with him.

When you pulled your phone out of your pocket you felt a hand on your shoulder and spun around to meet eyes with Captain Nemesis. For a brief second you were wondering if he was here to invite you to some inane party or even to tell you that Ben was at one.

Although you hardly looked the part, you were sweating and your face was probably red and blotchy.

"Can I help you?" You asked, taking a step back, he was a little too close to you and the look in his eye freaked you out.

"As a matter of fact, you can." He said, "You see I'm arranging a little stunt for Ben Tennyson. An opportunity if you will, to showcase some of his heroism."

You rolled your eyes, turning away from him. The last thing you wanted to do was feed Ben's ego at the moment.

"With all due respect, I don't really think I'm up for a damsel in distress routine right now, Captain, I'd rather just get home. And If you take another step towards me, I'll kick you where the sun doesn't shine." You snapped and he backed off obediently, raising his hands in a form of surrender.

"That's too bad." He mused and you turned away from him, intent on walking back home or even calling a cab. Anything to get away from this creep faster.

"Too bad you don't really have a choice."

You felt his hand on your bare shoulder again but before you could even react you felt volts of electricity rush through you. You gasped painfully, feeling fire through your veins before everything started to hurt.

White burned in your vision and colours started to blur together as your eyes filled with tears. Your body crumbled, falling forward and Captain Nemesis caught you.

Right before your consciousness slipped away you heard him say something.

"For your sake, you better hope that Ben Tennyson is as great as those gossip channels make him out to be."

***

When you felt yourself regaining consciousness, you could feel your weight pulling down and also couldn't feel the ground. This had your eyes snapping open, regardless of how dizzy you were and how many dots were in your vision.

You hazily made out the venue, Nemesis Tower, before recognize the blonde woman tied up beside you. It didn't take long before you realized she was tied to the other end of the rope, suspended through mid-air just like you.

This was no doubt going to be some sort of deathly choice.

You noticed when Ben came in, turning into Ultimate Humangasaur. He looked furious, like you've never seen him before and you knew it was because Ben was certain he'd teach him a lesson today.

"Where's (Y/N)." He all but growled and your heart soared. You didn't realize how much you missed him until now, everything from before was forgotten.

"Right up there. And so is Jennifer." He replied, still smug despite the way Ben was pining him to the ground by his throat. Ben followed his gaze to meet your eyes and you took a deep breathe, bracing yourself.

A selfish part of you wanted to stay and see what Ben would do, would he save you even though Jennifer was a civilian and world famous?

Even then you figured that you shouldn't risk anyone's life for petty jealousy, so you took a deep breath, blowing it out through your mouth and watching as a gust of wind blew past, the pressure making you swing.

You swung a few feet back, letting your body fall a little before blowing again. Once you gained enough momentum, you looked up to the rope tying the two of you together and spitting fire at it, falling at an angle. You briefly heard Jennifer scream and revelled in her karma for a hot second.

On your way down, you quickly burnt off the rest of the ropes, bringing a pool of water to crystallize into a makeshift slide as you slide on your knees across the floor, just in time to catch Jennifer in your arms.

Your knees stung as they scraped across the concrete and the wind was knocked out of you when the woman fell into your form.

She gasped and her eyes that was screwed shut gently fluttered open. Up close you could understand why everyone was in love with her. Even then you couldn't spare her any concern.

You quickly pushed her out of your arms, noticing Gwen and Kevin staring at you in awe when you stood up. You cracked your knuckles, making your way over to the older man with a scowl.

"For your sake, you better hope that I'm just as weak as you think I am. Spoiler alert, I'm not."

Ben spared a small smile at you but you couldn't feel anything aside from hot fury. You felt water surge beneath your fingers and threw it at him, pulling up a wall of earth to block his blasts.

Your boyfriend immediately began fighting alongside you and your bodies fell into a familiar rhythm. Even though there was a crazed narcissist trying to kill you, you felt safe beside Ben.

It wasn't long before the four of you managed to overpower him, rendering his armour useless until he was defeated, lying pathetically on the ground.

You walked up to him and your lips twisted into an unimpressed frown when you noticed the way he had the audacity to glare at you. Without a second word, you raised your leg and kicked him right between the legs.

"I always keep my promises, Captain."

Kevin began laughing behind you and Ben cringed.

Finally, when you turned to meet Ben, now de-transformed, all the fight left your body and you relaxed. He looked apologetic and you let him approach you.

His arms wrapped around your waist and you leaned into him, breathing the familiar scent of his deodorant and snaking your arms under his jacket to fist his T-shirt.

He sighed into your hair, arms tightening around your body, "I'm sorry. For being an ass to you and saying all those horrible things, I was being an idiot and you deserve an apology."

You didn't move, not pulling away from the way your forehead was pressed against the length of his neck, "Thank you for coming to save me."

"Didn't look like you needed much help." He chuckled and you felt happy hearing the pride in his voice.

"I missed you." You murmured, holding him a little tighter and he turned his head to kiss your forehead gently. And just like that, everything was right in the world. Just as long as you were in each other's arms.

"I love you."

You heard the click of a camera and your head snapped up to see a herd of cameramen and reporters along with a couple of police cars. Ben laughed nervously beside you, "I guess we won't have to worry about another actress coming between us."

You gave him an unimpressed frown and he just smiled, leaning to peck your lips and you heard the crowd of reporters’ gasp and heard the shutters of cameras before they began shouting questions at you.

You pulled away from him when you saw Jennifer Nocturne make her way towards you. You figured she wanted to snuggle up to Ben now that the cameras were filming.

Instead, she walked right up to you, hugging you tightly and your arms flailed pathetically beside her, unsure of what to do, "You saved my life! I don't know how to thank you!"

She pulled away for just a second before pressing a kiss to your lips. Your eyes widened in alarm and the shutters began once again and flashes practically blinded you.

"Huh, so that's what that feels like." Ben murmured when she pulled away from you. Kevin was smirking beside him, satisfied that he got a taste of his own medicine and Gwen was just in shock.

Ben felt his stomach turn at the sight of Jennifer’s lipstick on your mouth and you were unsure whether you should feel repulsed or cocky.

But as you wiped the pigment off your lips and curled back into Ben's side you couldn't feel anything other than your burning muscles and your drooping eyelids.

You squinted because of the bright lights, feeling a headache grow as the exhaustion from before crept up on you again. After 2 fights and a kidnapping today, there was nothing more you wanted than a nap.

"Wanna go home?" Your ever observant boyfriend asked just as the nausea started to kick in. You nodded and he guided you away from the reporters to his car.

He gently placed you into the front seat, shielding your head as you got in to prevent you from hitting it against the hood before buckling your seatbelt, watching carefully as you drifted into a sound sleep.

Ben heard everyone behind him swoon as he lovingly placed a kiss to your knuckles and then climbed into the seat beside you, sparing you one last warm glance before starting the car and driving away.

He'd definitely notice the shy smile on your face when you saw that Ben kissing you was on the front page of a magazine.

And you'd notice the jealous scowl he'd have when he saw that Jennifer kissing you was on the front page of another.

[fuck-customers]

(tw ableism, racism)

i never complained about this guy on here but i finally talked to the store lead about this awful guy i work with! said guy, we'll call him don which of course isnt his actual name, is so annoying. for the record, i helped train him, so its not like he's been here for long time. less than a year. anyway, don thinks he's smarter and better than everyone else. he knows everything and everyone else is wrong if they disagree with what he's saying. he's always talking about people behind their backs, and complaining about how no one does their job right, but i guess he does. he's also always spewing some bs about "you should work for satisfaction not money" (girl why are you here then? you hate this job) and "if you really want something you'll get it because you'll do anything for it" and other classist bullshit.

he'll complain about two of our coworkers specifically, who we'll call gina and ben. gina is an older woman, and don is always talking about how she leaves the register to make coffee every hour (gas station, coffee is made every two hours or as needed) and is always away doing something even if there's a line. he also has made some weird comments about the old men who come in and talk to her. he talks about ben the most though, saying he doesnt do anything, he's always disappearing (which, yeah, he does sometimes, but usually i can track him down because i know what he's doing) and calling off (which he used to do, but now he calls off only occasionally, and is definitely not the worst offender in terms of calling off all the time). its also worth noting that ben and gina have been here for years, through multiple managers and store leads and rounds of employees. now, when don and i are at the register, don is usually occupied with stocking cigarettes and the other nicotine products up there, and its nice to have that stuff done, but that means i am the only one ringing people out. even if theres a line. so if someone else leaves him alone at the register, its a problem, but if he leaves me alone, its fine. another thing about ben he doesnt like is his tattoos. ben is a young guy with a ton of tattoos, including face tattoos, and some piercings. don doesn't like that. he was talking about this the other day to me, and he was saying how "businesss shouldn't hire people with tattoos, i wouldn't" (when I told the store lead he said "but there are professionals with tattoos?"), and first off, this is a gas station honey. what i said to don was, "I don't know, I still think those people deserve to eat." he replies, "I don't." i don't know what to say to that.

he also doesn't like me I don't think. we were talking about stuff we have to do, and got on the topic of outside trash, and I said, "Yeah, if I could do outside trash I would, but because of my hand I can't lift the pump trash lids." i have an ongoing issue with my left hand that we think is tendonitis but we aren't sure, and basically i can't put any pressure on any part of my thumb/that part of my palm. to lift the pump trash lids, you have to push inward on the sides with your palm and lift up. obviously i cant do that. but i can lift propane tanks because that's mostly on my fingers. he tells me, "man, i wish i had a brace i could just put in when i didn't want to do something."

my man the other day i sat down on the floor to look for something and i thought it was healed but as soon as i leaned on it i fell because of how much it hurt. I've tried to do pump trash with it, it made it worse.

going back in time, he said something to me that i didn't think much of at the time. he looked up and saod "that's who you remind me of!" and said my voice sounded like his ex girlfriend's. at first i was like okay. whatever. but he mentioned it again later in a way that infuriated me and im about to tell you why.

so, he was going off about "how you should only eat between these times of the day" (directed at me because i mentioned my breakfast that morning? my dude i get up at six for this shift.) and then going off about circadian rhythms and how theres a single set one (which is not true!) and i mentioned that one if the symptoms of adhd is having a circadian rhythm thats out of sync (he knows i have adhd). and then he starts going off about how "no its not, tell me that when its in a medical book" (girl? maybe look at one that isnt outdated) and then that adhd is overdiagnosed (untrue and also a googleable statistic) and pretty much implying that i was just saying i had it to be special and not have to do things, which infuriated me because thats what everyone says about it and what ive been told my whole life, to the point my mom literally had to threaten several schools with legal action because they would not follow my IEP, and then when i said "hey, I'm the one living with this, you aren't," he said "kelly! kelly! you sound so much like her! you're just kelly to me!"

obviously that's kind of a fucked up thing to say.

some other things i hate about this man is that he gets really aggressive when he's frustrated. one day he started slamming things down as he was stocking. he even does it in front of customers! also, as a cherry on top, he was talking to our coworker, and found out she had a lot of black friends, and called her a [n word] lover.

i also know that im not the only person who has problems with him. literally no one likes him. he's always complaining that someone else isnt doing their job right and "if *I* were the manager" and stuff like that. it might be worth mentioning that i only complained because someone suggested i do. i was just going to tough it out for a while since im going back to school soon and will only be dealing with him once a month

one of my coworkers gave me her number if i ever wanted to talk about it, and the store lead said he would try to talk to him (without mentioning me), and this definitely wasn't okay for him to be doing, so we'll see how this goes. also, i think the store lead kept me in the office talking with him (about school and the pandemic and other stuff) for an hour ish so that i wouldn't have to deal with him, since don leaves after an hour of me being there during the week (but we have six hours together on the weekend) so that was nice.

sorry for the long ask. tldr this guys just an all around asshole who doesnt shut up and thinks he's superior to everyone else but my other coworkers are nice people