#i saw someone say there was a gwen drawing at one point

[princekirijo]

Dude the fucking prowler colors used whenever Miles got upset!! Holy shit!

I KNOW I KNOW!!! I will probably have to watch it like several times because there was probably loads of details I missed but damn the spiderverse team never misses

[luckybunny555]

⋆｡˚⋆ Little artists - Spidey Squad ⋆｡˚⋆

You had to take care of Mayday while at the Spider Society, so you decided to have an artistic play date, but you caught someone's attention

Characters: Miles 1610!, Hobie, Gwen, Pavitr. Not necessarily romantic, can be read as platonic too! GN! reader(lmk if the compliments I used aren't gender neutral, english isn't my first language!)

A/N: this is my first time writing for Miles and Pav, I have no idea how to write accurate dialogue for them(and maybe Gwen and Hobie too lol) but I tried

Peter B. had to participate in one of Miguel's meetings, and Mayday wouldn't be quiet, she's got the explorer instinct and curiosity in her

You were bored of Miguel's voice, always complaining or scolding or something, you didn't really know because you totally tuned him out a while ago

Since you got along well with kids, and you clearly weren't paying attention to the meeting, he asked you to take care of her for a little while – and how could you say no when she's almost begging you to hold her, adorably extending her arms to you?

You totally accepted

So you had an idea. You remembered you kept some colorful markers in the bottom of your bag, because who knows when you might get the urge to draw something, right?

You take your markers, but you don't know where to draw, can't find any paper

Then you had another idea

Why not leave your and Mayday's mark on the wall? A sweet, sweet gift for Miguel to find at some point

You sit down on the floor, legs crossed and Mayday on your lap, markers scattered all around you

You give her a hand when she needs it, but we've seen how agile and quick to learn she is, she'll get the hang of it in no time

You draw on the wall too. Maybe you have a petty distaste for Miguel, maybe you like to defy authority and break rules, maybe you just wanna give the place a bit of color... You have your reasons(or maybe you don't? you do you)

You make sure your drawings don't overlap with hers, giving her plenty of space to express herself and create her colorful little masterpiece

And you add your little details to your drawings, personal touches to mark it as yours

But you weren't the only person who got bored at the meeting

Miles

He was sick and tired of hearing about canon events and whatever else Miguel had to say

He was looking around, not thinking about anything, just trying to find something interesting to distract him with

Then his eyes landed on you

When he saw you and Mayday surrounded by a bunch of markers, drawing on Miguel's wall? He just had to join

Dude just walks over with that big smile of his, sits next to you and starts asking you about your "play date"

"What're you guys doing over here?"

You stop to take a look at him, unaware that you had a (one man) audience, and explain your idea to entertain Mayday

"Oh, that looks cool! Can I join?" He grabs a marker and waits for your answer, you could see how excited about it he was

You playfully slap his arm and nod

When he starts, you take a few moments just to look at his process, observing the way he looks when he's all concentrated in his drawings and wondering about how it'll turn out

After a while, you continue yours, you and Miles sharing a few jokes and tips as you both laugh

Occasionally, you guys would help Mayday, and you couldn't help but smile, seeing just how great with kids Miles was

He's just so careful and friendly with her, not to mention he also has that "childlike wonder" and youthful energy that makes him connect so well with kids

When you guys are done with it, he'll take a selfie/picture of it(with you and Mayday in it), so he can take a look at it in his gallery whenever he misses you – never fails to make him smile

Hobie

He's sitting on a table, legs extended over it, not caring about the meeting since the moment Miguel opened his mouth to speak, even though he's still listening

He's an observer, so he already had his eyes taking in everything that was going on in the room, his gaze occasionally turning to your bored expression, or to Peter when he handed Mayday to you

His attention would shift from time to time, but when you sat down in front of the wall with all those markers, he was too intrigued to take his eyes off of you

A little while after you started drawing with the kid, he got up from the table and made his way to you, leaning casually against the wall, clearly observing you and Mayday

"Adding a lil' punk flair to Miguel's boring old wall?" He says with that signature smirk of his

You look up, stopping your drawing for a moment, and let out a chuckle

You hold out one of your markers, asking if he wants to join

He obviously accepted. Leaving his mark on Miguel's wall? it's a surprise if he hasn't done that already

He'll make it as vibrant and punk as possible

And he's damn good at it, like c'mon, you've seen his guitar, his jacket... the guy's an amazing artist

Every once in a while you'll stop just to admire how the drawings are turning out, or how cute and caring Hobie looks when interacting with Mayday

The three of you make a colorful mess on that wall, and when you're done, oh, does it look awesome

He'll friendly fist bump you, praising you for your artwork – and your "defiant artistic expression" idea or something like that ;)

Gwen

She was trying to pay attention to the meeting, she really was

But she couldn't help but be curious and intrigued by what you and Mayday were doing, sitting on the floor in front of a wall

So she quietly made her way towards you, careful not to draw anyone's attention and get you into trouble

She leaned against the wall, a slightly amused(admiring) grin on her face as she observed the scene

The both of you looked up at her, and she just admired how cute you two looked for a moment

She noticed how good you were with kids, and it kinda gave her butterflies, you were so adorable

You asked if she wanted to leave her mark on the wall too, but she didn't wanna get into trouble with Miguel, so she kindly refused

"I'm not much of an artist anyways"

But she did sit next to you to help Mayday with her little drawings

So the three of you just sat there for a while, Gwen lovingly admiring you while you were so focused on your artwork there, and you guys would talk about a bunch of stuff

Very supportive of Mayday's artistic expression as well, compliments even the ones with uneven, crooked lines and messy coloring

She completely forgot about the meeting btw, she'll ask someone later what it was about, but right now she just wants to talk to you and watch you do your thing

She kinda can't take her eyes off of you, you look so fascinating and beautiful when you're focused on your "creative project"

She'll totally compliment you when it's done, she genuinely adored it and she appreciates your talent, it's really impressive to her

Pavitr

My logic is that if dogs love him, kids must love him too(who wouldn't love this sunshine of a boy tbh?)

You caught his attention when he saw Mayday in your arms, how adorable she looked as you played with her

A few moments after you sat down to start drawing with her, he had to approach you out of curiosity

Mayday immediately smiles at him, doing that "hand grab" reach thing that kids do when they wanna be picked up

He just wins kids' heart so easily, ok? It's adorable, really

He'd start off just helping Mayday, but then he wouldn't resist to add his own touch to the wall, and he's so excited about it, smiling and laughing while you guys talk and draw

"Aaah this looks amazing! You're such a great artist" this boy gives the most excited compliments, he genuinely appreciates your art style

Every few moments he'll take a look at what you're doing and comment on it, so much praise and excitement from him

And he'll be Mayday's biggest cheerleader too, anything she draws he'll be like "Yeess, it looks great, little one!" and give her a high five

And his drawing looks hella cool too, I totally see him as an "arts and crafts" guy, so he totally has some experience

You'll see the pure joy and pride in his face once you guys finish your artwork, he totally loves it and he enjoyed every second of it with you and Mayday

[tmagpposting]

Alice’s Attitude

and why I don’t think it’s going to save her.

I haven’t seen a lot of people talking about the implication of Alice's attitude towards the incidents and horror elements so far, so I’m going to. Someone else may have already made a post about this, but I haven’t found anything yet, and I couldn’t find a way to get this out of my mind without writing it down. Naturally, I’m also going to inflict this long-winded and potentially needless analysis on all of you, since I spent 2 hours typing it out (sorry in advance). TW for blatant overuse of parentheticals and politics towards the end. This draws on content from TMAGP episodes 1-3 and TMA overall, particularly the series finale.

I feel like a lot of us going into TMAGP and having listened to TMA already were probably pleasantly surprised by Alice’s attitude of “The Horrors? Just say no!” since a lot of TMA revolved around the idea that curiosity and investigation of the fears usually doomed people to be consumed by one of them, as we saw with a lot of the Archive staff, particularly Jon. I certainly was. Though her ideas about how to deal with the incident reports are definitely somewhat callous, in the context of TMA, they feel very pragmatic, and I found myself thinking, “finally, a character who knows what genre she’s in and refuses to surrender to it.” I’ve been seeing a couple people agree with this, and say that her approach might even help her stay afloat when things start to escalate as the conflicts of TMAGP develop in the coming episodes. I thought that too, at least for a while. 

After thinking about it for several days, I don’t think this is the case. Given TMA’s themes and propensity for tragedy, and Jonny’s approach to tackling social issues, I don’t think Alice’s apathy is going to save her. In fact, I think it’s potentially going to be the character flaw that will doom her in the first place.

1. Alice already cares (not about the horrors, but about people)

To start with, I’d like to point out that Alice will only be able to maintain her apathy to a limited extent, and when people she cares about start being harmed, she is going to get involved. In fact, we can already see this happening. Ep 3 notably starts and ends with Alice making a plan to get Central IT involved in looking into their computers, when she tries to mention them to Colin in the first scene, and when she asks Sam to call them on her behalf in the final scene. I’d argue that the issue comes up because she’s concerned about Colin more than fixing the OIAR’s computers. She tells Sam it’s because Colin may not be able to handle FR3-D1 as well as he thinks he can since he’s been working on it forever with very little positive progress, but given the additional context of the starting scene, I think it’s reasonable to assume she also wants to meddle for Colin’s sake. In the first scene of ep 3, she seemingly talks more softly/slowly than usual (to me, it sounds like she’s trying to be soothing when compared to how she normally talks, even outside of the times she’s actually soothing FR3-D1), she doesn’t make too many digs at Colin as he sounds increasingly stressed, and she asks gently and subtly about calling Central IT for help when she is generally pretty direct when she seriously wants something (like all the times she repeatedly shuts down Sam’s questions because she wants him to stay out of danger). It sounds like she’s trying to slip it in as a half-joke, but Colin treats it as a genuine suggestion when he usually either brushes off her jokes or plays into them instead, so I think it was her actual intent to involve Central IT even at that point. Furthermore, Gwen tells Sam something along the lines of “Alice is the only one [Colin] tolerates” in a previous episode, they have good banter throughout so far, and Colin’s explosive reaction to Sam mentioning the app completely deflates when he learns it was Alice’s idea. All of this seemingly demonstrates a bond that goes pretty far beyond what I’d think of as a basic work relationship with no actual friendship involved. Colin is already pretty deep into investigating FR3-D1 to the point that it’s probably going to be detrimental for him based on him threatening/ranting at the computers in the first episode, and Alice is already trying to intervene on his behalf. Simply put, she is doing a pretty bad job of pretending not to care and staying out of it so far, and we’re only 3 episodes in.

With that in mind, I don’t even think Colin will be the primary reason she’ll get involved as the series goes on, and I actually think Sam is being set up to be the one to draw her into much of the conflict. She cares enough about Sam to find him a job when he’s having a rough time, based on their conversation in the bar, and she tells him not to care about the incidents precisely because she cares about him, and doesn’t want him to get sucked in and hurt by them. With Sam’s propensity for curiosity established and likely being set up to be one of his fatal flaws, Alice will probably get drawn into the conflict whether she likes it or not if/when Sam goes digging and actually stumbles on something dangerous later on. As a side note, I really do think Sam’s curiosity is being set up to be something big here, since he repeatedly wants to look into the Magnus Institute and says it’s a “blast from the past,” he wonders about how the code system works and how it could be improved, and he’s generally shown to ask a lot of questions about the OIAR, Gwen’s backstory, etc. He asks about things more often than I think he would if his questions were purely an expositional device for the audience and not actual characterization (I could make a post just about this, but I think other people have definitely already done that). Finally, our very first introduction to Alice as a character in TMAGP shows her trying and failing to be glib and uncaring about Teddy leaving, where she jokes with him casually before admitting, sincerely and somewhat hesitantly, “I’m gonna miss you.” If her failing to not care about something in the opening scene of the entire series isn’t going to turn out to be important, if not Jonny Sims style foreshadowing of some kind, I’ll eat my hat.

2. Apathy kind of sucks, actually (thematically and otherwise)

Alice being saved by her refusal to care, assuming she manages to maintain it, feels too much like an easy out for the kinds of stories TMA was trying to tell, and clashes with its sensibilities in my opinion. A lot of people fall into the trap of nihilistic apathy when thinking about the state of the world right now, and TMA even acknowledged this in the series with the Extinction beginning to emerge as a new entity/fear. Between worsening climate change, the gradual rise of bigotry and the increasing trend toward fascism in the western world (especially america, it sucks here), escalating international conflict, poverty and the worsening cost/standard of living, like the fact that a majority of people my age will probably never own a house and our college debt is going to eat us alive, etc., it feels like we’re all circling the drain and no one with the power to help is interested in doing anything other than making it worse to make themselves money. A lot of people think the only way to cope with that is to decide to not give a shit, which is a pretty natural response to being constantly confronted with worse and worse news every year that shows no sign of stopping. This has also naturally inspired a lot of doomerism and a rise in insincerity/irony poisoning and cynicism in popular culture that’s really hard to escape even if you avoid the news entirely.

However, the idea that not giving a shit about the problems in the world can somehow spare you from them is a) ludicrous, since they won’t go away if you decide to ignore them (a majority of the TMA statement givers didn’t previously know or care about the fears, and they got screwed over regardless), and b) definitely not supported by TMA’s cannon or themes. Surrendering to the idea of your own helplessness is precisely what TMA ends by specifically not doing. Jon sunk into a hopeless state of mind throughout S5, with the culmination of this process being his proposal to let the world end and allow the End to consume everything, including the rest of the fears. It wasn’t necessarily that Jon didn’t care or was apathetic, especially since one of his primary motivation was to avoid inflicting the fears on another universe, rather, he didn’t think anything could be done to stop the fears from destroying his world or whatever world they ended up in, which is the same deterministic mindset that Alice’s style of apathy stems from (“I can’t change or fix it, so I don’t care”). The other characters refusing this course of action and banishing the fears is what ultimately spares TMA’s universe from the sort of extinction it would’ve had if they’d accepted that it was hopeless and Jon had gone through with what he wanted. TMA ends with the central takeaway that you can’t give in to the idea you won’t be able to fix things because then you won’t try, and shows the characters subverting their helplessness and actually solving the problem of the fears by getting rid of it at the source (the ethics of sending the fears somewhere else are definitely debatable, but that’s a totally different post). The idea that Alice could be saved from the consequences of the problems in TMAGP’s world by choosing not to care flies in the face of the conclusion to the previous series. Alice’s refusal to care won’t save her from whatever TMAGP has in store, and judging by the events of TMA, fatalism and apathy might even seal her fate. 

Some of these points of evidence might be a little bit basic “water is wet” types of statements and I probably could’ve explained this in half the time, but I really do think that Alice’s apathy isn’t going to turn out to be very useful to her and I wanted to include everything I could think of that led me to believe that.

TLDR, Alice is just as screwed as the rest of the cast, if not more so, and her attitude is not going to get her out of it.

[nichecomicstournament]

propaganda under the readmore

Gwen Lou Sabuki: Sabuki was a member of the original (junior) Invaders (the Kid Commandos) crew, along with Bucky Barnes and Toro. She has 6 total appearances, the most recent of which was in a flashback, back during the Original Sins event, in which she prevented the U.S. Military and the original Invaders from wiping out Japan with an artificial tsunami.

Blaine "Kid" Colt:

I WILL DEFEND COLT WITH MY LIFE

Ok, I know that nobody reads the Marvel Westerns except me (the vast majority of comments I see on comics sites about them are some variant of “I’m just reading this for completion’s sake”) but Kid Colt is the reason I actually sat up and paid attention to the 1940s-50s Westerns. He’s been through several new origins, and all of them are superficially similar to the first origin we saw laid out in his debut (Kid Colt, Hero of the West #1) but they ALL miss the POINT of the character.

In the first year and a half or so since his debut in 1948, Colt was written by a specific author, Ernie Hart, and he establishes over and over again that Kid Colt is, a violent, traumatized young man who has chosen the life of an outlaw and has no regrets about any of his decisions.

In the first Colt story, we learn that he’s very skilled with a gun, but chooses not to wear guns because he knows his temper means that he would probably draw and kill someone if he had them on him. He endures the ridicule of the other townspeople and even his own father, who doesn’t know his reasons for refusing to wear a gun. But his father is murdered by law enforcement to steal his land and cattle, and Colt is framed for it. He takes matters into his own hands, kills the lawmen (beating one of them to death with his own whip in the process), and leaves town.

For the next eight issues, and the other Western titles he appears in at the time, Kid Colt rides alone for the most part, but consistently goes out of his way to help other outlaws who need it, and affirms over and over again that being a criminal does not make you any less human or deserving of dignity- but he is merciless with lawmen and judges and sheriffs who abuse their power. Sure, he is sometimes lonely, and once or twice considers settling down, but ultimately embraces his new life as an outlaw, and enjoys the freedom it affords him.

The only times in the Hart run, iirc, he considers settling down is with an entire community of people who show him love and concern (particularly, and notably, there's a young man who tends him back to health, though this ends in tragedy). Colt also has no problem getting help from people because he is a charismatic, kind man- he very rarely finds himself in a position where he can’t get help from a local (unlike, say, Rawhide, who is perpetually a target but that’s a post for another day) But regardless, Colt is popular with ladies, but settling down with a woman for love is something that he can never do, and he says as much more than once. There are several ways to interpret this, but this aspect is another one that vanishes when Hart stops writing Kid Colt.

1950, the year Hart stops writing Colt for whatever reason, is around when the Comics Code Authority really started to get some teeth. You can even read letters in the actual comic itself in the lead up to 1950 put in by the publishers talking about the ongoing debate about the moral content of comics, and one of the first things the new writer does (Leon Lazarus) is revamp Colt’s backstory. On the surface, it’s mostly faithful - but it changes the fact that Colt kills both the Sheriff and his deputy to one shooting the other and Colt accidentally knocking the Sheriff off the cliff. The textbox epilogue says he was “accused” of murdering lawmen, implying innocence. But it also completely removes the rage element from his backstory- in this version, Colt doesn’t carry a gun because he doesn’t want his skill to draw in a bunch of gunhawks, claiming he had a brother (who had never been mentioned before, of course) who got shot in the back because of his skill with a gun.

Needless to say, these two changes remove the most compelling things about the character. Crucially, unlike a lot of other Western heroes who find themselves in this predicament, Colt as written by Ernie Hart has no interest in proving his innocence. Colt becomes an outlaw because he sees no other way forward- but he never looks back. He honestly does not believe he did anything wrong and has no interest in justifying himself to the world. But under Lazarus, and pretty much all the later writers, suddenly he hates being an outlaw, and wishes he could prove his innocence, except it’s impossible. He pines after women he meets once. He is suddenly respectful to lawmen and judges and won’t raise a gun against them even to save his life or the life of another. He says shit like “I might be an outlaw but I don’t act like one.” They might as well have just made a completely different person.

Don't get me wrong, there’s some good stories that show flashes of who Colt was in the beginning, but most of the life is leeched out of him, and this is definitely true in all the modern versions of Colt that we have. In The Sensational Seven, Colt is for some reason turned into a boorish douchebag who only thinks about sex. DeFalco’s Kid Colt oneshot, in addition to having a lot of Confederate apologism, goes with the blandest, most toothless version of Kid Colt possible, and that asinine “Moving On” oneshot by Tony Isabella in Marvel 1001 is just. It’s not any sort of a satisfying completion for his character arc, and there's untapped ground withi

Anyway, I know this is more than you ever wanted to know about cowboys, especially Kid Colt, but I lov him so much please....

[silent-raven13]

Pacify Her

*dark AU: Hobie is psychotic and obsessed with Miles. Not fluff-and not for the faint of heart. So yeah, trigger warning!

Tired, blue boy walks my way

Hobie leans against the wall in the hallway in HQ, his dark eyes stares far watching Miles along side with his girlfriend, Gwen. The two were spending time together, it irks the punker so much.

Holding a girl's hand

His eyes glares at the two holding hands, he inhale his cigarette before exhale a long grey smoke. The feeling in his chest is pure jealous, green with envy glint in his narrow eyes.

Each step he made, his heavy boots clicks by the amount of accessories he carries. Following the two from afar without their Spidey Senses warning them. He's their friends, they would never think Hobie would hurt them- well, Hobie's eyes on Gwen.

Boy does he want to bash her brains with his guitar. The little weak insect touching his little prey, his little Miles. The Latino laughs along with Gwen talking about something. He didn't care, he only wants to see Miles' smile. That beautiful wide smile like beaming sunshine all warm, all too perfect. He wants his Sunflower.

The blond Spider-woman giggles as she lay her head onto her seventeen boyfriend. Hobie scowls with disgust at the little cunt touching his Sunflower. Someone so tainted and broken shouldn't touched his Miles, not even Gwen.

The little traitor with her stupid emotional pathetic life. He only took her under his wing so he can use her. Good thing, he did. She was able to paint this perfect picture of Hobie Brown, Spider Punk. The cool Spider-man who does whatever he wants.

To say the least when he heard Miles, he thought he was weak too. A lad coming from a perfect home, middle class family with a dad that's Chief of Police. Massive eye roll the way Gwen talked about him. He assumes he was a white boy like Peter Parker- Oh boy was he so wrong.

Hobie's happy he's wrong to say the least. Seeing Miles being powerful, strong never forgetting who he is- it's enough to get his crotch aching in his skinny jeans. He lick his lips thinking about how he saw Miles in a wave panic was able to fend off all of Spider Society by himself.

Such a golden boy, so much so Hobie wants to break him. Make him his. To keep his Sunflower looking at him and only him.

That basic bitch leaves finally

Black eyes watches Gwen leaving Miles alone in the cafeteria. A wide smirk appeared on his face.

He watches her leaving into the left exit having to put on her Spider-woman mask being in a hurry. Perfect.

Now I can take her man

Leaving Miles all alone. He appeared in front of his Sunflower being laid back. "Peter Pan, what's up, mate?" He asked.

Miles lift his head up from drawing Gwen while eating his lunch, "Hobie, my man. What's up?" A wide bright smile on his face looking so joyful to see him.

Hobie likes Miles- no like is what little sprogs say when they play stupid games like Cooties. Hobie is infatuated with Miles, obsessive to the point he knows Miles' breathing pattern.

Only Miles know how to claw their way through survival. To proven themselves to shitty people that wank themselves the moment they see a poor bum staring down. The amount of power to show and never give up. Hobie wants him.

"Nuthin' much. Where's Gwendy?" Hobie asked taking a french fry from Miles' basket of fries. "Saw you two snogging."

"Oh, she went to the restroom. I'm sure she's fine." Miles happily said. "Hahaha, we weren't snogging, man. We were holding hands."

"You're a virgin, mate. You need to be forward." He knowns Miles is the type to take his time, romantic at heart. The poor lad doesn't know Gwen isn't one to wait.

He should know, Gwen had a crush on him when he took her under his wing. She would casually flirt with her disgusting awkward flaunts or being touchy.

Of course, Gwen had to agree to be with Miles when he asked her out. She's the kind that never wants to hurt her friend's heart. So the poor lad living in this lie.

"Me? Nah, I like to take my time." Miles being bashful.

Hobie grins at him, "Oh yeah?" Hobie turns pinks whenever he sees Miles, that's what people say. At first, he noticed his universe style and learns to use his emotions to his benefit. When he sees Gwen, he thinks of something nice so his true colors aren't show. At first it was hard but he got the hang of it.

"Yeah?"

Miles shyly nodded.

Just then Gwen appears to kiss Miles on his cheek. "Hey bae, I'm back." Happily sitting next to her boyfriend.

Hobie's eyes carefully side eyes her, his jealousy almost peek through. Then he calms down when he saw Miles' smile. "Hey bae! How was the restroom? Wasn't pack?"

"Nah, it was fine." She noticed Hobie happily said, "Hey Hobs, what's up!"

Someone told me stay away from things that aren't yours

"I'm good, Gwendy. Just talkin' to Peter Pan, here about sex." Hobie casually said.

"Ohhh, wow. Miles, look at you." She said out loud.

"Hobie!" Miles looks a bit flustered, then gave a weak smile when his doe eyes glanced at the punker.

Hobie only winks at him.

But was he yours, if he wanted me so bad?

"Ho-oo-oo-bie!" Miles came crying to his punker.

Pavtri was chilling with the punker on his houseboat. The two were hanging out until Miles came through the portal in full tears.

Hobie stop what he was doing to calm the Spider-man down. Pavtri made chai for Miles to calm his nerves. "Dude, what happened?" Pavtri asked

Miles sniff, "Gwe-Gwe-Gwen broke up with me!" He cries into Hobie's arms, "Sh-Sh-She said she was sorry and couldn't do it anymore!"

"Awe, man. That's terrible." Pavtri said out loud.

"Yeah, bruv. Why would she do that?" Hobie fake gasp, he knew Gwen wouldn't last with Miles. She's too problematic.

"I-I dunno 'no!" He looks up with his puffy eyes and pouty lips, "I think it's because she wanted sex, but..."

Pavtri rubs Miles' back, "But?"

"I'm Asexual!" Miles came out being in full tears. "I-I-I don't want to have sex..."

This caught Hobie off guard. What a beautiful secret! His perfect Sunflower became even more pure to him. Knowing that virgin hole will never be touched, those puffy pouty lips never sucking dick or pussy. To see such lovely supple skin in sweat- Oh no, his Sunflower is so pure.

Hobie's body for the first time turned vibrant pink with hints of red. Pavtri noticed being surprised. Miles didn't noticed being too much in tears about his break up.

The punker is know to be a lad that loves sex. In the beginning, he did it for survival, but he does it for fun. Sex would mean nothing to him from time to time. Flaunting it never impresses him, but this!

Miles being a beautiful virgin, it gets him going. A huge bulge from his skinny jeans formed. "Shh, it's okay, luv." Hobie made Miles sit on his lap almost straddle position.

Miles sniffs so cutely with a pout, "Bu-bu-but Gwen?"

"Sh-sh-sh, you just lay here and calm down. I'll never leave your side." Hobie hums.

Pavtri watches the two feeling very weirded out by Hobie's flirts. He thought it was a low blow to be after Miles after a break up. But the Indian Spider-man stood quiet.

Miles nodded with his arms around the punker's neck, "Okay. Like this." He lays his head on Hobie's chest.

"Yes, luv. Don't worry... just be here with me. I'll protect you." His voice lingers on. His eyes on Pavtri gave an indication for him to leave. The Spider-man rushed out without another sign.

"Okay..." His Miles rest with him, "But Hobie... what's this?" Feeling something poking his bottom.

"Nothing, luv."

Pacify her

Hobie saw Gwen in her Spider-woman swinging from building to building. It's a cold night in her world, she was doing her parol to make sure her city safe. When she got on top of one building she checks on her watch, "Hmm... no drugs here?" She looked confused by the news through a mysterious email she received.

Unaware of the stealthy punker coming behind her, he took hold of his guitar the closer he got to Gwen. His eyes saw red, no one hurt his Miles.

When Gwen's Spider Sense kicked up, she quickly turns around only to say, "Hobie?"

She's getting on my nerves 

"Hey Gwendy!" A sinister smile appear on his face with a sadistic eyes gleaming in bright red. Gwen stood with wide eyes before able to process that her friend slams his guitar against her head.

The Spider-woman fell on the floor feeling her nose bleed, "Wha-Why?" She cries with her blue eyes pleading for help, her jaw broken. Too freaked out from what happens.

Hobie licks his lips, "This for Miles, Gwendy. Don't worry, I'll take good care of him." He lift his guitar one more time with one harsh swing.

*WHACK!* *CRUNCH* *THUD*

The sound of his guitar bashing into Gwen's limp lifeless body over and over again only leaving a mush of meat and organs. Hobie darkly chuckles having some of her blood on him. Finally the pest is gone!

Now it's time to hide the body... where to, where to? He stood smoking his cigarette. Hmmm...

You don't love her

Been weeks since friends of Gwen saw her. Miles been trying to contact her but nothing. No one knows where she went too. Hobie watches as everyone were so confused about her disappearances until Miguel made a comment about Spider-heroes always coming and going.

"But-but she isn't the time to just leave!" Pavtri said to Miguel.

Miles nodded, "Yeah! She was-" Miguel cut him off, "Miles, aren't you two broken up?"

"Yeah?"

"Then, she's off to be on her own. Many Spider-heroes do that." Miguel looks down at Miles.

"But-" Miguel cut Miles, again which pissed Hobie off. "Morales, don't you think it's better to get away from it all?"

Miles frowns, "Yes, sir."

"Anyway, I'm sure she's fine. Now, can you all leave me alone." Miguel said out loud.

Miles looks down with worried with Pavtri hugging him, "Come on, Miles. We'll go drink a cup of tea."

Hobie was about to follow them until Miguel commented, "Not, you Brown...."

"Hmph?" Hobie saw Miles and Pavtri leaving the room. Then his heavy boots thud every step toward Miguel.

"I did my part in saving you hind. Now, you keep your part." Miguel's red eyes glaring at the punker in front of him.

"Yes, boss-man!" He tosses Miguel the flash drive, "We don't want anyone knowing there's two killers around- two serial killers."

Miguel catch the flash drive, he crushes it with his hand. "Good. Next time, I won't be so kind."

"Heh, next time don't fuck up, mate." Hobie grins darkly, "I saw your eyeing on Earth 9916, looks like your planning to having another sprog?"

"None of your business. Now leave or else," Miguel licks his lips, "I'll take your Sunflower. He looks pretty easy to fuck with." His red eyes gleams with lust.

Oh how he hate that fucker. But a lass, he needs his fellow killer acquaintance, they need each other to maintain this foolish propaganda of being great heroes to get what they want.

Hobie chuckles, "Watch it or I'll bash your lil kid's head- not the first time, I've done it." The two were having a stare down.

Miguel finally said, "Leave, Brown."

"Already doing that." Hobie was already out the door.

Stop lying with those words

Miles took a small bite of his burger as him and Pav went to hang out with Hobie on his houseboat. "So, what did Mr. Grumpy pants say?" Pavtri asked.

Hobie shrugs, "I dunno. I don't listen to shit." He wore his black ripped tank top having a bucket of red chum getting ready to dump it out of his boat.

"Mmm, I'm sorry, Hobie." Miles finally said, "Miguel must've been mad at me and took it out on you. I went to him for help but he seems so annoyed."

"More like too touchy. You saw how he keeps touching our shoulders so much." Pavtri shudders with disgust.

Miles took another bite. "Mmhhmm, I felt his eyes were on me for too long."

"Is that right?" Hobie asked putting on a fake smile as he stir the chum, "Looks like I have to give him a piece of my mind."

"No, Hobie. It's fine. I can handle myself." Miles being proud. "I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Nah, luv. I promise to protect you." Hobie turns to him.

Pavtri eyes on the red chum, "Um... Hobie why is that chum so red? Like it's not from your world?"

"I like to grab other world's crap to feed the fishes here or feed it to my dog." Hobie toss the bucket of red chum in the ocean as the fishes come by to eat. "See!"

Pavtri saw the way the chum looks too meaty red, then again he always thought chum always looks red. He shrugs it off. "Miles, your not hungry?"

"I'm sad Gwen left us. I hope she's okay." Miles pouted, "I hope her dad is fine. I never knew she would runaway, again."

"She's always running. Let her be. It's no use if she doesn't want help." Hobie coldly said then turn to his friends, "Oh, I almost forgot gifts for you two!"

"Gifts! Really? Wow!" Pavtri said out loud.

Miles said, "Wow, Hobie. What's the occasion."

"Nothing big." Hobie gave the two handmade necklaces with a small bottle filled with white dust?

"What's this?" Pavtri asked holding the necklace seeing the tiny bottle.

Miles puts the necklace on, "It's cool. I like it."

"Ohh, it's dirt from when we first met. Thought I made it... Gwen always had that idea." His eyes gleam seeing her bones dust being useful. Then he gave Pavtri a band shirt using Gwen's old Spider-woman's suit, "Try this on. I used old Spider-man patches from all of us..."

"Ohh, so cool!" Pavtri put on the shirt seeing the patches of their Spider-man suits even Gwen's on it. "Sweet! You can see the wear and tear!"

Hobie turns to Miles to hand him a shirt, "Here you go, luv."

"Oh thanks, Hobie. I'll keep this forever and ever." Miles happily puts on the shirt.

"Hey what's that jar?" Pavtri asked.

"Oh this is red paint... I'm going to write Poly's name."

"Oh you finally gonna write your Houseboat's name! Can I help?" Miles asked.

Hobie's lips twisted to an eerie smile, "Sure, luv. I made the paint myself. So I used a dry pigments that smell like iron... so its bit funky."

Pavtri said, "Miles should make some cool designs!"

"Ohh, can I?" Miles doe eyes on the punker.

"Yeah, whatever you want. Make sure you have fun with it." Hobie playfully dip his finger in the jar of red paint, then pull it out to tap on Miles' nose. "Okay, Sunflower?"

Miles giggles, "Okay, Hobie." The punker smirks widely having his Sunflower completely his.

Pacify her

[gamerbearmira]

More spiderwoman au ideas!

First and foremost, Mirabel already has her own room. She got it when she was 7, but seeing as the room was still in the location of the nursery. Antonio still slept in there, but Mira didn’t mind, tonito was a cute and calm baby. 

After Antonio didn’t get a gift, he got an additional room in her room. Both have their own side for privacy & such. 

Casita hides both their spider suits once they come back from fighting crime. They know it would be rare for anybody except Dolores and Camilo to go into their room but just to be safe, Casita hides them. 

Speaking of Casita’s walls, Bruno doesn’t live in them. Yes, he disappeared, but he disappeared a few neighborhoods away from Casita. He has a good paying job and a nice living space, and yes, he still has rat babies. But not as many, he has about 3 of them. 

I feel Bruno had seen both spider bites before they even happened. So now Bruno just worries for them but still cheers them on from the sidelines. 

Because Gwen doesn’t really have a place to stay, she often stays with Mirabel. Though VERY discreetly. Casita also made a small living area for her, similar to Bruno’s in the movie but with more feminine touches. 

Isabela and Alma still be runnin their mouths about La Aranaposa and Arana nino. And as always, Camilo and Dolores be defendin the two heroes.

“Why is someone so young out there, that “Aranaposa” should be ashamed of herself for letting that child be so close to harm” - Isabela

“Si, he could get hurt at any moment” - Alma

*insert Mirabel and Antonio who just got back from fighting*

“Abuela, haven’t you ever stopped and considered that maybe they were both born with those powers and maybe thought they should put them to good use? haven’t you ever stopped and considered that maybe this whole city would be in shambles without them?” Dolores said politely but sternly

“And Isa, it’s been 6 years since Aranaposa came about and a year since Arana nino came around, don’t you have ANYTHING else to talk about? Anything, idk, NEW in your life?” Camilo added with an irritated tone as he also looked at Alma in the corner of his eye. 

“NO politics at the table please” Julieta kindly chimed in as she harshly softly slammed her fist against the table. Julieta has grown tired of these conversations every other breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

I decided to change the family dynamics, everybody is fine with each other. Julieta and Pepa take time off when they need to and so do the gifted grandchildren. Alma is trying her best to be a good abuela. Before Bruno left he wrote a note addressing the families issues, how alma is the cause of most of them, and how they need to be fixed. So, for the past decade the family has been relaxing and only put their powers to use for emergencies or for fun. 

So Isabela and Alma talking about the spider heroes stems from a place of concern and worry, the family knows that, but it’s still annoying. 

I have a feeling Antonio is a very independent kid because of his duties. I mean yes, he still loves his parents and goes to them for advice, but he does a lot of things on his own. For example, he used to let Mira or his parents read him bedtime stories. But he’s so tired from helping with battles that he can barely stay awake for them. So he either grabs a book and reads it himself or just goes to sleep. 

 Hobie had said at some point that the one of the things that is known about spiderman is their independence. So Antonio held onto that with a tight grip. 

All the family hears from the boy now is “no thanks, I got it” “Nope, I got it” “It’s alright, I can do it”

If he wants something as simple as pb & j or just a sandwich he’ll make it himself, and seeing as he has an easy bake oven, he mostly makes lunch or food by himself. He’s actually a pretty good cook. I saw in your drawing that Antonio gave Miguel some Arepas, so let’s just say Antonio made those for him. 

When Miguel says to lego spiderman “your one of our best” I like to think that the other best he’s talking about is Jess, Mirabel, and Antonio. Like seriously, Jess can beat an enemy on a motorcycle WHILE PREGNANT. Mirabel can take out mysterio with one punch and Antonio can take out the hobgoblin with one kick. Which he has.

Oh yeah, they call Jess, Tia. Why wouldn’t they? She's Tia material. 

Mirabel and Antonio had caught about 3 anomalies together, and 3 anomalies on their own. 

“And there’s mysterio-” Lyla

“Caught that weirdo” - Mirabel

“Mz-stereo” Lyla

“I helped catch that one!” - Antonio

“Even though I told you not to” - Mirabel

“Was I supposed to let her wreck our town? I don’t think so” Antonio

Oh yeah, even though not everybody likes the two spider kids, people do like to do some stuff where they know they are appreciated. Such as painting the two on some walls, leaving gifts, etc. 

Gwen taught Mira how to play the drums and Hobie taught her how to play the electric guitar. And Antonio likes to help Pavitr feed the street dogs in his universe

Because the internet is a bit much Gwen started out small and gifted Dolores, Camilo, Mirabel, and Antonio Ipods. The spider teens love giving them song recommendations. 

Mirabel’s favorite song is self love by Coi leroy, recommended by Gwen

Antonio’s favorite song is hummingbird by Metro Boomin and James Blake, recommended by Miles

Camilo’s favorite song is silk & cologne by ei8ght and offset, also recommended by Miles. 

Dolore’s favorite song is link up by Don Toliver, it reminds her of hanging out with Mariano, recommended by Margo. When listening she just has to keep the music really low. 

I feel like Dolores, Mirabel, Camilo, and Antonio’s favorite music genres are R & B, modern pop, y2k pop, and 90’s rap with some occasional rock songs recommended by hobie. When it comes to listening to rock Dolores has to keep her noise canceling headphones on, then listen to it. 

Like every spiderman in school, the two are bound to miss some classes but thankfully they have good excuses. Just to let you know Mira missed about 6 classes and Antonio has missed about 4. 

Miles should have never given Mirabel, and by extension Camilo spray paint. He introduced them to the idea of graffiti; they were amazed by it. The two only use it for good things such as giving an old or new shop a touch up. The designs are always spectacular and match the theme of the shop so no one can really get mad. 

Antonio loves playing with mayday, he finds her adorable. He also likes to play with spider cat and spider rex. 

STOP THE SPIDER DUO HATE IN ENCANTO 2k23⁉️⁉️⁉️

No but seriously. Can’t keep letting this slide. Not that they others are letting it slide 😭 mfs went OFF, really came for them huh. And they just let it happen because they both know that the other two are right 💀

Also let Camilo have access to spray paint <333 don't withhold his supply, let him do graffiti❗ Also iPods. Omg i think my cousin had one and she gave it to me when i was like 8 or 9 😭 but their taste in music is peak, especially wit that R&B and Y2K 🦅🦅🦅

W to Antonio for being an independent kid, L for Alma and Isabela for obvious reasons

[zxmickeyzx]

Mumbattan Ch.5

Barista! Pavitr x Artist! Miles

Miles came into the cafe for some chai tea, to see his friend Gwen on her shift and make some art while relaxing in the cafe. Instead he got some Barista who looked very annoyed when he tried to order and then became very passionate about ranting to him about how people say chai tea instead of just saying chai. Miles didn't mind him lecturing him on it though.

At least it was from someone so cute.

First ~ Prev ~ Masterlist ~ Next

The customer who he learned was named Miles from Gwen, did not show up the very next day again much to Pavitrs disappointment. After the talk with his Maya Auntie, he wanted to make sure he apologized properly, but it had been about two weeks since he last saw him. He thought back to their last interaction and didn't remember anything he did or say to warrant him not come back again. Hopefully he did not cause another misunderstanding and he was just overthinking it as usual. 

The cafe was less busy at the moment, as it was the middle of the day most people were either working or in school at the moment. So he took advantage of this moment to just stare into space. Honestly it was not his fault, he was cleaning but he was just so bored. He hated slow days. Maybe he could call one of his friends to keep him company, while he did enjoy Ben's company at a certain point he needed a break from the man and his dramatic flair and Gwen wouldn't come until much later. Gayatri was here earlier but she left as soon as her shift was done. ‘Hmph Traitor’ 

While lost in his train of thought he didn’t hear his name being called.

“PAVITR!” 

He jumped and froze a bit outta shock, he turned to see who called his name with such urgency. Turns out that person was Gwen. She looked frustrated with him at the moment.

“Oh! Hi Gwen!” He beams a smile at her, but she gives him a frustrated sigh in response. 

“Pav, are you okay? I have been trying to get your attention for a bit.” She gave him a bit of a concerned look. He just shook his head in disagreement. 

“No, I'm okay. I am just so bored. Are you clocking in now? I thought you worked later.” Maybe he got the times wrong. 

“Hm no. I am not working yet, Ben is covering my shift for a bit longer, said he needed the cash. I will work later though.I start when the rush starts later at around 3. You’ll be working with Ben til then?”

He groans. More Ben. 

“Don't worry I heard that Lyla is taking over more shifts when she comes back.”

“Lyla is coming back?! I thought she quit because of school?” He said in disbelief.

Gwen chuckles. “Yeah, but remember she was going to come back when her mister as TA was over. Mr. O’hara is a hard ass.” 

Lyla used to work at the cafe when she was 16 until her 2nd year in college when she became a TA for her class. Apparently Mr. O'hara, who he has heard so much about, is very strict and hard to please. It takes an extreme amount of effort to pass his classes. Before her no one wanted to deal with him, many of his former TA’s would quit within a week so it was surprising that she was his TA for a whole year. She actually recommended that they hire Gwen.

“I am excited to see her again. I missed her so much!” Pavitr really meant it, they barely saw her when she was TA but when they did it was always a joy. 

“Yeah, it’s gonna be great to work with her.” Gwen then looks around the cafe. “Hey Pav, since it's slow, why don't you take a break and hang out with us.”

“Us?”

“Yeah, me and Miles.” She points in the direction of where Miles was sitting. It seemed that he was lost in whatever he was writing, or was it drawing. He couldn't really tell. 

“Oh, um, I wouldn’t want to intrude! Besides, I am still working, never know when it needs to be all hands on deck.”

“Fine. But can you make me my usual and Miles some Chai. I swear he is addicted to it. What did you put in it to make him crave it all the time? Drugs?” She jokes.

“Of course not! I am just that good.” He smiles. “Anything you want to eat with it?” 

“You know what, can I get some strawberry cheesecake and for miles, get him two croissants buttered and toasted. I’ll pay for it now.” He nods. 

“I’ll bring it over to you guys when the order is done then.” Gwen hands him cash, and tells him thanks before walking back to where her friend was. As she seats down he goes to the coffee bar and gets started on the order. At least now he had something to do that wasn't just recleaning everything to look busy. As he started to focus on making the order, a certain someone was using him as a reference for his art studies. 

Miles was mesmerized by the way Pavitr moved while making their orders. The sun seemed to always hit him with the right lighting. His hair was so majestic, so dark and lucious, and his eyes were so bright and beautiful it pulled you in. He wanted to capture it in his art. Even though they were quick sketches, he was pretty satisfied with where the art direction was going. He was so focused he didn't notice Gwen calling him. 

“MILES!”

He jumped a bit and looked up to see Gwen just staring at him. 

“Oh! Hi Gwen, "he smiles. She gives him a sigh.

“What is up with you and Pav today?” She sits down next to him. “So what's got you all hyper focused?” She leans to look at what he is drawing in his sketchbook. A bad habit that he just accepted over the years that she will forever be nosy and can never control her curiosity.  She looks at his sketches and then at him with a raised eyebrow. “Pav?”

He looks away from her for a bit and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah. He’s just so mesmerizing, I had to draw him. You don't think he would mind right?”

Gwen chuckles. “I don't think he will mind once he sees the work when you’re finished with it. Are you sure it's only cause he is mesmerizing?” Miles, knowing what she was implying, shakes his head. 

“It ain't like that. I just thought he would be nice to draw ya know.” He turns back to continue drawing Pavitr. 

“Yeah right. Just like how you drew me before in high school cause I was nice to draw.” She teases. 

“That was different. I just met him, plus I didnt even introduce myself. He doesn't even know my name.”

“He does. I’ve talked about you to him before.” She mentions nonchalantly.

“That doesn't count, I have not introduced myself as anything other than the customer you corrected the other day.” He looks at Pavitr making the drinks to see what new position he was in to quickly sketch. “Anyway. When does your shift start?”

“In about an hour and a half. So I get to bug you more!” She lightly punches his shoulders. He just rolls his eyes and smiles. Gwen is one of his best friends, every just flows so naturally when they are together. They just vibe. He sometimes sees her as an annoying sibling that likes to bother him from time to time. His father could attest to that, calling her an emo leech who liked to come over and eat. Even though he wouldn't say it out loud he was very fond of her, like a reluctant uncle who has an honorary niece he had no say in. 

About 15 minutes later, he started to try and add more details to the quick sketches he made of the barista while Gwen was talking to him about how her band were prepping to do more shows and the difficulty to get everyone's times synced up.

“Yeah, our lead guitarist is also very inconsistent even though he usually has the most time out of all of us. Though I will say, I do enjoy being a part of this band more than the last one.” 

“That's great you finally found one that suits you. I know you’ve been looking for one ever since I met you.” 

“Yeah, now if only we can sync up so I can play more. Margo said she could help us with our scheduling problem. I believe in her, if anyone can help us organize our messy style it's her.”

Margo was a computer science major, and was practically a tech wiz. She was also extremely detail oriented and particular with her things. It was really funny because Ganke was the opposite of her while also being a tech wiz. They would always group up together even though they clash with how they do things. If you ask them why they always partner up they’ll tell you that it's convenient because they have so many classes in common.  

“Thank Pav!” He hears Gwen say, taking him out of his train of thoughts. He looks up from his sketchbook to see Pavitr places their order in front of them giving them a smile that rivals the sun.

“No problem! I hope you guys enjoy!” 

“We will!” Gwen grabs her drink and takes a sip. “Pav, I don't think I have properly introduced you to my friend. Pav this is Miles, he’s been my best friend since sophomore year in high school. Miles this Pav the chai activist.” She teases. 

Pavitr hesitates to respond but Miles does not. 

“Hey man, it's nice to finally properly be introduced to you. I realized I never gave you my name before, sorry ‘bout that.”  He gives him a small smile. 

“That's no problem! I know our first meeting wasn’t the best, sorry about that.” Pavitr rubs his neck a bit nervously. 

Miles gives him a small chuckle. “Its no problem man. Like I said before I didn't mind being corrected. At least I won't be sayin ‘Tea Tea’ anymore. Feel free to tell me any other things I may be sayin wrong.”

“Well people like to say ‘naan bread’ which is the same as saying ‘bread bread’.” Miles groans in response.

“Youre kiddin! I've been saying ‘bread bread’ this entire time?!” 

Pavitr laughs and relaxes, he finally apologizes and it seems he really was worried for no reason. Miles was very respectful and liked to lighten the mood. He can see why Gwen liked to hang out with him a lot. 

“Well now you know.” He teases. He sees Miles take a sip of the chai he had just made.

“Man, this really hits the spot. You know your stuff.”

Pavitr’s skin turns a bit redder at the compliment. “Thanks.” 

Just then a group of teenagers walked into the cafe which caused Pavitr to sigh. He was just getting to know Miles but he guesses the conversation would be cut short for another time. 

“Looks like duty calls for me. I guess we have to cut this conversation short.” He pouted a bit.

“Don’t worry Pav, we can always talk later when I work on shift. Plus Miles will be coming here more often. He said he likes the cafe vibes. I think he is really here cause I’m so awesome he can't handle not havin our vibe sessions as much.” She jokes.

“Yeah right. I’m glad I don't have to see your face as often. Plus who said I am coming for you, if anything it's Pavitr’s Chai that’s bringing me in here.” Miles jokes back to switch Gwen just rolls her eyes. 

“Sure buddy, whatever you say. I know you love me.”

Pavitr chuckles as he walks away. “Well I’ll talk to you guys later! Enjoy your stay Miles!”

“Hey! What about me?” Gwen shouts a bit to him.

“You're gonna be working later!” He responds before arriving at the coffee bar.

Gwen groans. “He’s right. I do love working here even if not all the customers are great.”

“At least you have me here to keep you company. You can’t get rid of me easily.” Miles gives her a pat on the shoulder. 

“Yeah you're right. Are you gonna stay the whole time? You know I can go home by myself.” Miles just shakes his head.

“My parents would kill me if I don't walk you back late. I know you can handle yourself but you're like my sister I gotta make sure you get home safe.”

“Yeah, thanks Miles. I appreciate it.”

“It's no problem!” He goes back to continue his art trying to capture Pavitrs essence on paper. Gwen peeks again to see his process. 

“You sure you're drawing Pavitr just for reference?” She teases.

“Oh shut up!”

Prev ~ Next

Tagged List:

@ar1-thecat, @marrz-sucks, @amaterasusanowo, @l3m0n4d3-st4nd @aesthetichoney2111

[storytimewriting]

Watching Paint Dry (HRN3)

Hi everyone!

I know it's been some time, with busy holidays, vacationing, and getting sick on top of that.

But still, I am so excited to update the HR Nightmare Series!

Here are the first two chapters if you have not read them yet, or if you just need a little refresher: Chapter 1: Perpetually Late Chapter 2: First Night at Freddy's  

Again, this is a series that I hold close to my heart. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

I plan on updating more frequently than I have been! Working on the next chapter as you read.

(word count: about 5.7k)

xx gwen <3

________

HR Nightmare (3)

Watching Paint Dry

You were getting more comfortable in your new job. If you were this comfortable in three weeks, you’re certain you’ll feel at home once you hit a month.

You’ve had a few projects since the last one you worked on with Elle. None of them were anything major, just small designs for advertising and websites mostly, but you loved it. Getting paid to do something you love was a dream come true.

You went to Freddy’s with the same group of people last Friday as well. It seemed as though it was going to become a routine for you and your new group of friends to go out together on Fridays to unwind from the work week.

The more time you spent with these people, the more you learned about them. You were actually starting to feel close to them. You finally felt like you had friends at work.

Nothing has really changed with Elle. You felt more comfortable around her, but that just means you’ve started to get used to her teasing and attitude. For anything you say, she has some smart remark ready to throw back at you. It still gets under your skin more than you’d like to admit, but you’re starting to learn how to deal with her.

It’s Tuesday when Mr. Cooper calls you into his office.

“Yes, Mr. Cooper?”

He holds a finger up to you as you stand in front of the door you closed behind you, telling you this will only be a second. The finger points at the couch against the wall, so you take a seat while you wait for him to finish the phone call.

“Yes,” he speaks into the phone. “Yes, we can do that, too. Of course, we keep all our departments in house.” You can’t hear the person responding on the other side of the line. “Great, just send me the written instructions. We should have it done by the end of the week.”

You fiddle with your fingers as you wait for him to finish. You’re not sure why he didn’t just wait until he was off the phone to call you in, but he looks at you and smiles throughout the conversation, almost as if you were both in on some joke together. You didn’t know why he was smiling.

He throws out a quick goodbye into the phone before hanging up. He laces his fingers together and places his hands on the desk in front of him, smiling wide at you.

“Are you ready for another collaboration?” he asks.

You laugh at his demeanor. Some people think of this man as a hard ass, but from what you’ve seen, he’s quite the softy.

“Of course, sir. Who with this time?”

“Anthony,” he watches your lips twitch upward at his name, then continues, “and Elle.” His smile widens.

Yours drops, but you try to cover the displeasure. He notices anyway and laughs.

“It should be an easy project,” he assures you. “Anthony designed a new website for one of our clients, and they’re looking for someone to add graphic designs.”

“Oh that sounds like fun,” you gush, but quickly your face fades into confusion. “Wait, what does that have to do with Elle?”

“They need a good first blog post to draw attention, and they asked specifically for her to write it. They saw the work you and Elle did with the coffee project, and wanted a similar look to their website and blog,” he explains.

“Okay, that sounds great. When do they want this by?”

“The end of the week. It should be simple enough, but there are quite a few graph designs they want. Both Anthony and Elle will have the details, so they can each direct you through what they need.” He shuffles some papers around on his desk, opens his drawer, and places them in a file. “You can start with Anthony in the conference room since he’s already had a start on the project.”

“Yes, sir,” you smile, then turn to leave.

“Elle will join the two of you shortly. I’m sure she’ll want to assess everything herself before she works in a group,” he tells you before you open the door.

“Okay, thank you Mr. Cooper.”

You leave his office, grab your tablet and laptop from your desk, then walk to the conference room. Anthony has his head buried in his computer and his finger between his teeth as he studies whatever is on his screen. He only looks up when you shut the door. When his eyes meet yours, he smiles.

“Cora,” he cheers. “I’ve been dying to work with the best graphic designer in this company- don’t tell Mark I said that,” he adds quickly.

You laugh. “Of course not. So what are we working on?”

“Mr. Cooper didn’t tell you?” His head tilts with his question.

“He gave me a run down, but he told me you and Elle would fill me in on specifics. I know you designed a new webpage for the company, but I don’t know exactly what graphic designs you’re looking for.”

His eyes stay trained on yours as you speak and he nods his head in understanding. “Ahh,” he waves his hand at you, calling you over. “Let me show you.”

You take a seat next to him, placing your tablet and computer in front of you. He tilts his screen towards you, where you can see a mostly completed webpage. There are a few empty boxes that you assume to be placeholders for where your designs are meant to go.

“It’s for a skating company,” he begins. “They used to be specifically branded for skateboarding, but they want to expand to reach a wider audience. That’s why they’re basically rebranding themselves,” he explains.

“That makes sense. So what kind of designs are they looking for?” You look up at him when you ask.

He holds eye contact with you, a friendly smile painted on his face. Anthony is handsome. Soft brown hair and pretty eyes to match, it makes sense that he would be with someone like Elle. It’s on the tip of your tongue to ask, and you nearly let it slip, but you manage to keep your composure.

“Well, they’ll be adding roller-skates, bicycles, and scooters to the products they sell, so they want the designs to reflect products that all people can buy,” he points to the different sections of the webpage on his screen as he speaks, where you assume the corresponding design would go.

“Did they give you specifics on how they want me to do that?”

“Honestly, not really. They left a lot of room for creative freedom.” His head snaps to yours and his eyes widen slightly. “But they want the overall style to match- they were very clear about that.”

“Okay, so they want a skateboard,” you point to the first blank square on his screen, “roller-skates,” you point to the second, “a bike,” the third, “and a scooter,” then the fourth. You look up at him for confirmation.

He rubs the top of your head endearingly. Generally, an action like this would annoy you, but coming from Anthony it is actually quite sweet. He acts on his emotions, always coming from a good place.

“You catch on quick, kid,” he smiles.

“We’re the same age.”

“Actually, I’m a year and three months older than you,” he corrects.

You shake your head at him. “Okay grandpa,” you tease, “I’ll come up with a few mockups for you to approve of before I start the final designs.”

“Works for me, but you may want to wait for Elle. She’s much more picky with her work than I am, so you probably want to match the designs to her demands,” he warns you.

You sigh. You know he’s right.

“So it’s not just me she’s like that with?” you ask. You nearly cringe when the words come from your mouth. You didn’t even realize you were saying them.

His eyebrows crease slightly, but not in anger. The rest of his face remains soft. “What do you mean?”

“I- well it’s just,” you stumble over your words a bit, not wanting to insult Elle to one of her best friend’s faces. “She’s just not very patient with me. I was scared it was just a ‘me’ thing.”

“Ahh,” his mouth opens in understanding as he nods his head. “No, that’s not just a ‘you’ thing. She can be a little…” he pauses, searching for the right word.

“Harsh?” you offer.

“She’s just a perfectionist,” he corrects. “She doesn’t mean to be harsh, but she’s just always that way with her work. I don’t think she realizes the pressure she puts on other people- or herself, for that matter.”

“What about outside of work?”

“Huh?”

“Is she like that with people outside of work too?” You know you’re pushing boundaries now, but you can’t help it when you’re finally getting the answers you’ve been yearning for.

A knowing smile crosses his face. At the same time his mouth opens to speak, so does the conference room door. Both your heads snap to look at the person walking in.

“Elle, baby,” Anthony calls out. “You miss me so much you gotta come see me on company time?”

“You wish,” she rolls her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitch upward.

She closes the door behind her and walks further into the conference room, taking a seat on the other side of Anthony. She places her laptop in front of her and opens it.

“Did you finish the blog already?” His entire body leans over her, looking at her screen and effectively blocking her view of it as well.

She pushes his head out of the way softly, but he allows himself to be moved. “I got the assignment twenty minutes ago. I’m good but I’m not God,” she shakes her head.

“You’re basically God,” he admits.

He looks at her as though he genuinely believes the words coming from his mouth. Your fingers toy with each other as you watch them interact. You don’t feel you have a place to speak. Honestly, you feel like you’re interrupting something just by being in the room.

That is, until Elle makes eye contact with you. “Have any mock-ups for me yet?” she asks.

“No, I- well Anthony just explained the project to me, but I thought I’d wait for your demands for the designs before starting. I know they’re all supposed to be the same sort of theme, so I want to make sure they’ll match,” you ramble on, offering more information than needed.

Her eyebrows lift as you speak and she attempts to muffle a smile- she’s amused. You’ve gotten much better at reading her.

“Probably smart.”

Her compliments are subtle, and few and far between, but you soak each one in like water.

“So-“

“I have an idea for the blog,” she cuts you off. “But let me see the webpage first,” she pulls Anthony’s computer in front of her to scan over the work he did.

“You like it?” Anthony asks. He leans back in his chair and throws an elbow over the top of it. “I know, I do good work,” he pats himself on the back before she even has the chance to agree.

She side eyes him and shakes her head lightly. “Yeah, yeah. So obviously they’re expanding. I want the blog to speak directly to the potential new customers, without shutting out their initial clientele. I think the designs need to match that- like softer, brighter colors, but I think it would be cool to keep the graffiti look in all the words.” Her eyes drift from the screen, to Anthony’s, to yours, and back.

The two of you stare at her in awe. You’re not sure how her mind comes up with the entire basis of a project so quickly. You almost tell her she should be a graphic designer, but you hold your tongue, scared the words may insult her somehow.

“We know they need to follow a general theme, but it might be smart to add some variation. I mean, they want to bring in varying customers, so we’ll have the designs reflect that.” She looks at you expectantly, and you realize she’s waiting for your confirmation.

“Oh, yes- right- that sounds good. That makes a lot of sense actually,” you clumsily respond.

“Well, yeah. I thought of it,” she says smugly.

“You have to be careful when you compliment this one,” Anthony speaks up. “If her ego grows any more we won’t all fit in here,” he nudges her arm with his.

“Oh shut up,” she laughs.

Was it that easy to soften her up after acting like a smartass? Why couldn’t you change her mood as easily as Anthony does?

“Okay, so should I start with the basic designs for the mockups? Then you both can tell me if there’s anything you want changed,” you offer.

“I’m sure it’ll be Elle who offers critiques,” Anthony says.

She rolls her eyes and pushes her chair back, standing up. “I’m leaving,” she announces. She grabs her laptop, and turns to walk away.

“Oh, come on, Elle,” he whines. “I was only kidding.”

She continues walking towards the door, and doesn’t turn around as she speaks. “I have to work on the blog. If you finish the mockups, send them to me.” She opens the door, steps out, and closes it behind her.

Anthony runs his hand over his face. “Man, I gotta stop doing that,” he grumbles.

“Doing what?”

“I just push her a little too far when I tease her sometimes.” His hands drop from his face and back to his computer. “It’s fine,” he reassures himself.

“Was she upset?” you ask. From what you could tell, nothing seemed to upset Elle. If anything, she always seemed like she couldn’t care less.

“She’ll be fine,” he says instead of answering your question. “Anyway, I have to work on the other pages of the website.”

The two of you work in silence together. You had never spent so much alone time with Anthony, but you can see why people would like him. He’s sweet and comforting and conversational.

You start your designs by drawing the skateboard, and quickly get sucked into your work. This happens often, as soon as you start drawing, it’s like you’re transported into another world.

You finish a few different skateboard and roller-skate designs, and look up to find Anthony with his head still buried in the computer. You bounce in your chair, waiting for him to look up at you, but when he doesn’t, you tap him yourself.

His head snaps to you and he smiles. “Yes?”

“Wanna see what I finished?” You smile proudly. Every time you finish a new design, you can’t help but be excited.

“Of course, Cora. Show me what you got.” He rolls his chair closer to yours to look at your tablet with you.

You hold your tablet in your hands, tilting it towards him. You start with the first skateboard drawing. “Okay, so I have four different skateboards and three different roller-skates to choose from. Tell me your favorite.”

You slide through each skateboard drawing, and Anthony “ooo’s” and “awe’s” at each one. You can’t tell which he likes the most because he is just as excited by every drawing you show him. The same thing happens when you go over the roller-skate drawings.

“These are all so good, Cora. I cannot believe how good you are at this,” he gushes when you finish.

You laugh. “They’re only mockups. They should be even better when I finish the real thing.”

“You should show Elle,” he tells you. “She could probably give you better advice than I can. She always knows how to personalize these projects for our clients better than anyone else.”

You admire how he speaks about her. You honestly can’t blame him. Despite Elle being cold towards you, you still had a lot of respect for her. She was obviously extremely talented, not just at her job, but at everything. She could step over into your field and know exactly what you needed to do or change to make the project perfect.

“Yeah,” you agree as you stand up. “I’ll go do that now.”

“Actually,” he stops you, placing his hand over yours as he pushes his seat back and stands as well. “I have to go discuss something with Mr. Cooper, so I can tell Elle to come in here.”

You nod your head in agreement, sitting back down.  

It’s only a few minutes before Elle walks in, closing the door behind her. She takes a seat next to you, but doesn’t say anything.

“Okay, so I haven’t finished all the mockups yet, but I was hoping you could tell me which you like most so I can try to mimic that style throughout the rest of the designs,” you explain.

“Alright,” she says simply.

You pause for a moment, waiting for her to say more. When she doesn’t, you tentatively pick up your tablet to swipe through the designs. She hums softly at each one, but doesn’t offer her opinion. You almost miss her insults. Her harsh critiques on the first project were what pushed you to create such good designs.

Slightly irritated, you sigh, putting down your tablet. “Are you gonna say anything?”

Her eyebrows pinch together. “What?”

“You always have something to say and now, when I’m actually asking for your critiques, you don’t want to say anything,” annoyance lines your voice.  

“Yeah because you’ll throw a fit if I do,” she bites back.

Confusion crosses your features. “What?”

She rolls her eyes. “Play dumb, whatever,” her arms cross over her chest.

“I’m not playing dumb-“

“Oh that’s right, you were just born that way.” She leans back in her chair, chin tilted upwards so she can look down on you.

You want to respond with an insult to match, but manage to contain yourself. “Look, I don’t ‘throw fits’ or whatever you think. Can you just be your usual bitchy self and critique my designs?”

She glares down at you for a second, eyes drifting around your face, assessing you. She sighs. “Fine. Show me again.”

You start at the beginning, with the first skateboard drawing.

“This is too similar to their original look. We need to put our own twist on it,” her tone is bitchy, but you find comfort in it. She sounds like herself.

You swipe to the next design.

When you see your work in front of her, it’s much easier for you to pick apart. It’s like you know exactly what she will and won’t like.

“Are you showing me the same drawing twice? What’s even different about this one?” Her nose scrunches with her questions.

“The wheels are different,” you defend yourself.

She looks at you flatly. She doesn’t even have to say anything for you to know to move on. You swipe to the next image.

“Okay…” she says hesitantly. “I can see the vision more with this one. It is a bit softer, but almost too much now. This style might work with the other drawings though. I just think the skateboard should be a little less soft than the rest of them.”

A smile graces your lips but you do your best to shield it from her. “Okay, I think you might like this one then,” you swipe to the next image.

“Yes, exactly,” she says excitedly. She quickly covers it up with a snarky remark, “you should’ve just shown me that one first. Could’ve saved me some time.”

You roll your eyes. “Anyway, now the roller-skate drawings.”

You swipe to the first one and as soon as you see it, immediately brace yourself for her critiques. You can already tell she is not going to like this one.

“Is this an ad for a preschool? Why does it look so childish?” They’re rhetorical questions. The cadence in her voice always reflects how she feels. 

You sigh. “I know, fuck, ignore this one,” you lift your finger to swipe to the next drawing.

“Wait,” she stops you. “Why did you draw it this way?” Her tone is softer this time.

Your finger taps the back of your tablet while you contemplate your answer. “I’m not sure,” you admit. “I just thought about all the new customers they would want to bring in, and I figured some would be children, so I think I just drew this one more childlike subconsciously.”

She hums as she takes in your words.

“It looks stupid, I know,” you quickly add.

“No, no,” her eyes stay focused on the drawing. “It just gives me an idea for something else. Can you send this to me separately?” Her eyes meet yours when she asks.

She looks almost sweet this way. Her entire face is relaxed- she doesn’t seem like she’s on the defense for once. Her head tilts slightly to the left, her eyes stare at yours expectantly.

Too caught up in the details of her, you nearly forget she’s asked you a question.

“Oh- yes- yeah I can send this to you.” You curse yourself in your head.

“Thanks,” her eyes continue watching you. Her head straightens back up, one side of her mouth lifts into a smirk. “You can swipe to the next one now,” she encourages you, eyes flicking from yours to the tablet and back.

You break your stare from hers and shake your head. “Right.” You swipe to the next design.

“I like this one. It matches the skateboard we agreed on, but it’s a little softer. I think you should make the colors on this lighter than the skateboard when you do the real piece.”

You appreciate the advice she offers. Truthfully, it saves you time in the long run.

You show her the last drawing as well, but you both agree the second one is best. 

You have a smile on your face by the end of your conversation. Of course, she was her usual bitchy self with her subtle insults and attitude, but she was much nicer this time. She had patience and advice and compliments, and you actually felt like you were able to connect with her in some way.

In moments like this, you understand why everyone seems to like her so much. She’s too easy to connect with, even when she’s being a pain.

Her fingers fiddle with the sleeve of her shirt, rubbing the material between them. “Do you think you can finish the other designs in the same style?”

“Of course. I’m the one who drew it,” you tease.

She scoffs in disbelief. “And you call me a smartass.” She pushes the chair back and stands to leave.

“You don’t have to leave, you know,” the words were out of your mouth before you realized you were speaking them. You weren’t sure why you were saying this, you just wanted her to know she had the option to stay.

“What?” She’s taken aback more than anything.

“I just mean- I know we’re working on this project together. You can work in here with us if you want to,” you offer. 

“I have to focus on my writing. I can’t have distractions.”

“I’ll be quiet. I’m quiet when I draw, anyway,” you throw out quickly.

One side of her mouth lifts slightly. “All my stuff is at my desk,” her voice drawls out, like she’s contemplating staying in the room.

“Just bring it in here,” you offer yet another solution to the problems keeping her out of the conference room. “Do you want me to get your stuff? I have to go check on Anthony anyway,” the lie slips through your teeth easily.

The side of her mouth lifts higher, but she sits. “Alright, if you’re going there anyway,” she agrees.

You scramble out of the conference room. What is wrong with you? There was no reason for you to act this way or offer to get her stuff. You’re sure you look like an idiot desperate for her approval.

Truth is, you wanted to keep this moment going. It’s not often you feel like you have a connection with Elle- not one deeper than annoyance, anyway. If you had the opportunity to keep her in this room longer, it was hard not to take it.

You grab her laptop from her desk and scan to see if there’s anything else you should grab for her.

Her desk is relatively empty. It’s neat and organized, with only a few pictures displayed to personalize it. You assume the main picture is of her and her family. There’s two smaller polaroids tucked into the frame: one of the group of friends in the office and one of her and some girl you don’t recognize.

It takes everything in you not to go through her desk in search of a deeper understanding of her as a person. Despite your curiosity, you manage to grab her laptop and walk away.

You stop by Mr. Cooper’s office to check in on Anthony, but you can see them still in conversation through the window, so you walk back into the conference room with Elle’s laptop and no Anthony.

She’s sitting, leaned back in her chair while it bends to accommodate her posture. One leg crosses over the other at the knee, her foot in the air kicking slightly. Her elbow is kicked back over the top of the chair, exuding confidence from head to toe. Her eyes drift over your frame when you walk in, from your shoes, to her laptop in your hands, to your eyes.

Your feet carry you closer to her. She snickers when you stumble as you get to your chair. You ignore her.

“So where’s Anthony?” she asks.

You place her laptop in front of her. “Still talking with Mr. Cooper. I didn’t want to interrupt them.”

Her eyebrows raise and her jaw drops open. “Oh, you do have a brain,” she exclaims in faux-surprise.

Your face falls flat. “I do you a favor and you return it with an insult?”

Her elbow pushes off the back of the chair, now sitting upright. “Actually, I think you’re doing yourself a favor,” the smugness in her tone sends waves of irritation up your spine.

“How am I doing me a favor?”

As soon as the question leaves your lips, you know you messed up. If you know the answer to the question, you’re sure she does, too. A blush coats your cheeks, embarrassment floods your system.

The next words leave her lips like fact, giving no room to argue, “you like me.”

You scoff, despite the deepening redness of your cheeks. “Yeah, right.”

Her lips curl. “You’re blushing.”

On instinct, your head turns away from her slightly, an attempt to shield the heat from her. “I am not. Fuck off,” you mutter.

“It’s cute,” she laughs.

“I don’t like you,” you insist. “You’re just not being a complete pain in my ass for once.”

“You can admit it,” she persists.

“I don’t-“

“Everyone likes me, Cora. It’s okay,” she coos. She’s taunting you.

“I thought you had work to do,” you change the subject instead.

She smiles like she knows she won. She opens her laptop and, for the first time since you’ve walked back into the conference room, lets her eyes leave you.

“Finish those mockups for me, won’t you?”

You don’t dignify her mockery with a response. Instead, you turn from her and start working on the last few mockups you need to finish.

It’s about an hour of working in silence- well, silence aside from Elle’s constant tapping on her keyboard- when Anthony walks back in.

“Wow,” he sings, “look at the two of you working together.”

You look up from your tablet at the sound of his voice. Elle’s sigh draws your eyes to her, the blank stare on her face aimed at Anthony.

“We were working until you so rudely interrupted us.”

He saunters over, arms swaying with each step, stopping at Elle’s chair and leaning overtop of her. He scans the contents on her laptop, wrapping one arm around her collarbones as he reads.

“You’re nearly done with the blog,” he observes. His arm unwraps from her as he plops himself down in the chair next to hers.

“Like I said, we were working- as in actually getting work done,” it’s like she can’t help the attitude seeping from her lips, but her tone is playful.

He pouts his lips at her. “Are you still mad at me?”

“Yes.”

He rolls his chair closer to her, grabbing the arm so he can maneuver it to make her face him. “How can I make it better?”

Her arms are crossed over her chest. She sighs, eyes looking up towards the ceiling and lip tapping against her chin in faux-thought. “You can buy me a coffee.”

He scrambles from his chair, muttering a quick “deal,” before nearly sprinting out of the room.

You laugh in disbelief. Her chair swivels to turn to you. She tosses her feet onto the table and crosses one over the other at her ankles. Her arms are still crossed, leaning back against the chair, a proud smile painted on her face.

“What?” she asks, as though she doesn’t already know.

“Do you always have people waiting on you hand-and-foot?” You’ve started to understand which jabs dig further under her skin. You figure it’s only fair considering how often she gets under yours.

Though, her smile doesn’t drop. “I do, actually. Are you looking to fetch me something else?”

Your initial jab seems to have backfired. “I’m not playing your games.”

She pushes her lips into a mocking pout. “You did earlier,” she argues. “Fetching my laptop like a good girl,” her cadence is though she were speaking to a dog. 

“You’re an ass,” is what you settle on. Still, your cheeks are burning red.

“Oh my god,” she laughs, “you like that.”

“I do not,” you argue, but your body betrays your words.

“You so do!” She accuses, laughter still heavy in her chest.

Your nails pinch into the fleshy part of your palm, a feeble attempt to control your irritation. You roll your eyes and shake your head, picking up your stylus to continue drawing in an attempt to ignore her.

She doesn’t stop. “Oh, don’t get all quiet on me now.” She drops her feet from the desk to lean closer to you, elbows on her knees. “Come on, Cora, be good and look at me.”

You open your mouth to tell her off, but the door swings open to reveal Anthony with a coffee in his hand and a proud smile on his face.

He stops in front of her. “Am I forgiven?” He bends over, head down and hands holding the coffee out in front of him.

Elle takes it from his hands, has a small sip, and smiles contently, before responding with a simple, “yes.” 

Anthony cheers, head lifting back up. When his eyes meet your face, concern crosses his face. “Are you okay, Cora?”

Before you have the chance to answer, Elle responds. “Oh, she’s ­very good, aren’t you, Cora?”

You should hit her- dump her coffee all over her stupid head- but you’re almost certain that would get you fired in a second. Instead, your nails bite further into your palms and you force yourself to take a deep breath.

Through gritted teeth, you speak, “yeah, just great.”

The three of you work in silence for a bit, until Mr. Cooper calls Elle into his office. She skips there, face relaxed and light on her feet.

“She’s in a good mood now, huh?” Anthony observes.

“Must be the coffee,” you mutter.

Although you know Elle was only teasing you earlier, the words remain echoing in your head, redness seeping into your skin when you think a little too hard about her voice uttering those words.

He laughs at your words. “I better start bringing her coffee every day.”

It’s now when your curiosity has truly gotten the better of you. You don’t want to ask him directly about his relationship with Elle, but you have to know if they’re together. You’ve held your tongue for long enough, you’re sure of it.

“You’d be quite the boyfriend for that,” is what you settle on.

Anthony laughs. Hard. Doubled over in his chair, the sound echoing across the walls. He collects himself for a second, but as soon as he looks at you and begins to speak, the laughter starts again.

Your eyebrows crease together, lips pushed into a frown. What was so funny?

“Do you think-“ a laugh to interrupt himself, “Do you think Elle and I are dating?”

“Are you not?”

He laughs again then, like it was the most absurd thing for you to think. “Absolutely not. Elle’s like my sister. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the girl, but it would never work between us,” he emphasizes the word.

You don’t understand how it could never work between them. Anthony is handsome. Elle is beautiful. They both have faces made for movie screens. They have faces that are supposed to be romantically paired.

“Why not?”

He contemplates his words. “Well, aside from the fact that we’re practically siblings, Elle doesn’t even like men.”

The revelation echoes in your head for the rest of the day. From when Elle walks back into the conference room, to when Mr. Cooper tells everyone to go home, on the train ride back to your apartment, till now, sitting in bed alone.

It shouldn’t affect you. It shouldn’t even matter- it doesn’t matter, you tell yourself.

Elle liking women doesn’t mean she could like you. You don’t even want her to like you. You don’t like Elle, so why would it matter if she liked women? It didn’t. Elle liking women was stupid, pointless information that was about as interesting as watching paint dry.

But you were an artist. You appreciated all forms of art, and you loved watching art form.

You loved watching paint dry. 

[b00knerd1o1]

Gwen was brainwashed by the spider society

The BITE method of brainwashing lays out the four Major methods of brainwashing that cults use.

Behavior control

Information control

Thought control

Emotional control

The way that Gwen depends upon and interacts with the spider society, and Miguel especially, meets all four of these.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Behavior control mainly consists of controlling what a person does, where they go, and who they interact with. In my opinion, this is the one we see most strongly in the movie. Gwen relies on the spider society to provide her with food and shelter. It's unclear if she has an official place to stay, but we do know that she often crashes with Hobie. Even though he isn't the biggest fan of Spider Society, he is still a part of it, and Gwen would not have met him and have been able to stay with him without them. They explicitly told Gwen she wasn't allowed to visit Miles, and she was only allowed to go to his dimension when she was given a mission there, so they are clearly controlling who she interacts with and where she goes.

Information control is just what it sounds like control of what information a person receives. Miguel is the person who explains why cannon events must take place. He's the one who controls the narrative. Despite Peter B. also being there when Miguel's universe collapsed, we never hear him say anything about his experience or what he witnessed. Miguel also monitors all the spiders very closely. While we never directly see it in the movie, it can be assumed that if any of the spiders begin to question his theory, he will likely intervene.

Thought control is more challenging to point out because we can't see into Gwen's brain and see what she's thinking, but we can make some assumptions. Before Gwen joined the Spider Society, she never would have hesitated to help someone, but she stopped Miles from helping Inspector Singh because she has been made to believe it's the right thing to do. Gwen would still never let an innocent person get hurt, and so there has to be a huge amount of cognitive dissonance there. Miguel also reprimands Gwen for questioning the cannon and his 'teachings.' This is an example of people not being allowed to have negative thoughts.

Even though we are not explicitly told Gwen's emotions, emotional control is still easy to point out. One thing that often draws people away from isolationist cults is a feeling of homesickness. Because of the way Spider Woman is treated in Gwen's home dimension and her last encounter with her father, Gwen likely feels little to no homesickness, and what little she does feel appears completely unattainable. This stops her from wanting to leave. Miguel also creates huge amounts of fear in his followers. It makes it seem like any one of their actions could cause the entire universe to collapse. Additionally, Gwen has the fear of being sent back home.

BITE brainwashing are not the only control tactic used on Gwen. There were a couple of other things I saw that didn't quite fit into any of the sections about, so I'm going to talk about them here.

Miguel creates a major "us VS them" narrative both between the spiders and villains, but also between the society and Miles. Creating a group of people that people can focus their anger and frustration on stops them from turning it on you. Miles is used as a scapegoat throughout the movie. He is blamed for the initial incident Miguel claims caused all the anomalies, despite it clearly not being his flat. If anyone is to blame, it would be Spot and Fisk, but that doesn't hold the same weight. By shunning one of their own, Miguel makes it clear that being a spider being does not automatically put you in his good graces.

Another thing I want to bring up is the lens of "Look at all the good We/I do" Miguel casts on the spider society. I've never heard this brought up in major discussions of cults, but growing up Mormon, I saw this implemented a lot. Because the spiders are going around and helping people and returning anomalies to their correct dimensions, it appears on the surface as if they are doing good. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some huge board somewhere in the HQ that says something along the lines of "____ anomalies contained, ____ people saved, ____ universes saved." Even if they don't have that, any time anyone questions what the society is doing, he can reference those numbers and say, "How could you oppose us. How could you oppose all the good we have done."

I mentioned Gwen's reliance on the spider society a bit in the paragraph about mind control, but I want to expand on it. After she leaves her universe, her entire support network consists of the Spider Society. She has a mother figure. In Jesica, friends in Hobie and Pav, her 'job' is provided by them, her main form of transportation. Everything! She knows that these could easily be taken away. She knows Miguel didn't want her in the society in the first place. She knows that with a single slip up it will all be taken away.

Gwen pushing past all of this and speaking up at the movie's end is so impactful. She doesn't start out by questioning the canon theory; all she does is say Miguel needs to push Miles harder. That little step of admitting this man, who has taken up the mantle of a god, could have made a wrong decision is enormous. While she did still hurt Miles with her actions, it is still essential to understand why. She will still need to make up for her mistakes in the next film and win Miles's trust back, but labeling her a bad person ignores everything she went through.

References:

[primaviva]

Your theory is so good but it does make me really sad bc if they go down the 'we can't mess with the multiverse say goodbye everyone' route, then CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW ALONE GWEN WILL BE

She lost Peter, half gained back her dad but let's be fr that relationship will never be the same, then has to lose Miles, Hobie, Pav, Peter, Jess, Margo, EVERY SPIDERPERSON she knows and has found comfort in. She has to lose them in one go. like.... poor baby losing literally everything 🥲🥲

I'd cry for her but having said that I can 100% imagine the end of btsv being a no more multiverse travel. That or it's like multiversal travel more 'free' bc they find a safe way to do it without collapsing universes or sm

But yeah loved your theory and would love to hear more of your controversial opinions 😼

I HAVE SM TO SAY ON THIS OMG REMINDER

i love astv but the writing for the plot or just the concept that started astv is lazy and they thought they was slick

they wanted to make it seem like miles was lonely when he has ganke, someone who knows his secret, because they wanted to use his solitude to push the plot. to me that’s just a lil lazy because miles could’ve opened up to ganke and if he was overwhelmed he def would’ve told him because you can tell they are close friends.

AND GWEN IS NOT ALONE LIKE YES IN HER MIND SHE IS but it’s so funny cus she has more friends than miles from what they show in the movie like the way they portrayed the mary janes kinda made it seem like they were JUST bandmates

not only did they try to get her attention at the prom (yes they were there if you didn’t notice before the lizard attack and she was looking for pete) BUT MJ AND GWEN ARE BEST FRIENDS TOO like after her day one peter, mj is one of gwens close friends after betty brant (the girl w the beanie)

and it’s like yes they are alone but not in the physical sense. they tried to portray their solitude as they had no support systems that could understand them and therefore made the spider society this holy grail of people they can relate to when to me that isn’t true. they did this more heavy on gwen side where they made it seem like mj and them weren’t her close friends and yes she didn’t have her dad but even then she could’ve still opened up in a different way.

they both feel like they have a lot going on with no one to understand the pressure that lays on them. and they lowkey demonized rio by making miles give a latina mami attitude because yes of course two parents aren’t going to hear they kid out when he is giving them attitude and allat. and gwen just straight up ran away from her problems which she has a track record of doing.

i just feel like they are using this “omg they both have been so lonely yearning for each other” thing with miles and gwen to add to their dynamic and it takes away from a message of teen mental health and the generational differences that they could’ve done instead of this idea that you have to depend on people because that’s UNHEALTHY.

miles and gwen do not NEED each other but they are good to support each other and this narrative that they been obsessed with each other since they last saw each other is just unhealthy it’s really toxic to focus depend on individuals to make you happy instead of finding your own peace which is something they both need to learn. they barely knew each other too like it’s just very unrealistic like yes miles has every right to admire gwen because she was everything he wanted to become when finding out he’s spiderman but for him to draw her every single day since is ode like you can’t lie

I just hate when movies do this narrative where the two love interest lean on each other for support and are depressed when they aren’t around each other because 1) if you can’t be a stable person when someone you like isn’t around that’s 🚩 2) depending and literally glorifying someone who gives you happiness to the point where you put them on a pedestal which is literally what miles did is so again UNHEALTHY

idk it’s just wasted potential to actually discuss teen mental health and how to actually push teens to deal with it instead of finding ways of escapism like getting a s/o as a distraction, isolating themselves, self harming in ways that aren’t just physical pain you inflict on yourself like purposely neglecting your health, etc. especially since most spider people are teens it’s just i hate how they depicted it like miles and gwen have nobody to relate to in their universe when it was a personal matter on how to open up cus they only did that just for plot sake of “i need a watch to see all my friends in different universe and finally feel whole!!

like miles literally wanted to do a physicist type major just so he can see gwen and open a portal like does that not sound wild to y’all? lowkey villainous? lowkey a little too fixated, obsessed, and unhealthy? idk maybe it’s just me who has a problem with this choice or narrative and how they portrayed it cus nobody talks about this unless it’s people clowning miles for loving up on a snowbunny 😕

[moonvyx]

Special One Out - Peter Parker (Any)

(Idea from YT and a fanfic)

Warnings: Angst, death and unfair parents .

Y/N's parent's never liked her, there were so many unnecessary reasons why they disliked her. One of the reasons were that she had beautiful h/c hair, while they were brunettes. (If you're a brunette, you can pick a diff hair colour.)

At a very young age of 5, her little sister, Celia was born. (You can use your second name or another name if your name is Celia.)

Y/N craved the attention her parents gave Celia.

She tried to impress them with her daily drawings from school, she tried to impress them by knowing how to spell Czechoslovakia, (I had a hard time spelling this!) but they were unimpressed with everything she did, instead they were impressed with the blabs and whines of Celia.

When Y/N was in her first day of grade 1, her parents didn't say goodbye, not even a good luck kiss on the check.

She felt nervous, no one was there to assure her that it was all gonna be okay.

No one but Peter Parker.

The two met on the playground during lunchtime.

Y/N was sitting on one of the swings, watching all the kids eat and laugh together.

"Hello." A friendly voice greeted, Y/N turned her head to the person who owned the voice.

"Hi," She replied with a smile. "I'm Peter, Peter Parker." The sandy haired boy introduced. "Y/N L/N." The h/c girl replied back.

"May I sit here?" Peter asked, she nodded. "So how's your first day?" He questioned her again.

"Uneventful. Mom and dad didn't even tell me to have a great day." Y/N said sadly. Peter's brows furrowed and his lips turned into a forwn.

"Why?" He asked, "Well they dislike me, for some reason. I never knew why. I didn't ask, I didn't want to be even more disliked." She replied with a frown on her face.

"Oh..Well, that's terrible." Peter stated, looking at the girl. "Yeah, but it's fine. Happens all the time." She said.

"No, you deserve better." Peter said and hugged the girl. "A hug to brighten your day." He breathed. Y/N smiled and laughed, and hugged Peter back.

"I can tell this is a start of a beautiful friendship, Y/N." Peter smiled. "I'm sure it is." She replied with a smile.

Years passed, everything stayed the same.

Y/N's parents still adored Celia, she and Peter still stuck together and formed a beautiful friendship.

But things began to down downhill when a specific blonde began dating Peter.

Gwen Stacy.

Who wouldn't like her? She's pretty, smart, kind, thoughtful, she could he every man's dream girl.

Even Peter's.

And here you are, holding the rails of your balcony as your tears tell down like the Niagara falls.

All because he ditched you just to hang out with Gwen.

"I'm supposed to he used to this, he always ditches me for Gwen." You said, wiping the tears before going back inside your so called home.

"Y/N, I want you to go to the store and get Celia some ice cream, Cookies and Cream. Don't mess it up." Your father commanded strictly. You nodded softly before heading out.

The night was cold, very cold. You mentally thanked yourself for always wearing a hoodie.

As soon as you arrived at the store, you couldn't help but feel like someone has been following you. You just hoped it was some guy who was also going to the store.

But oh how wrong you were.

"That'll be $5," the old lady said. You nodded and hamd dnher your $5 before leaving the store with the plastic bag full of ice cream.

"Thanks miss, have a lovely night." You smiled at her as she also smiled back before leaving.

During your journey on your way home, the same feeling that someone was following you came back.

Scared, you started to walk faster and began to walk in streets where there were a lot of people to scare the man away, if possible.

But sadly the random street walking ended up at an alley with a dead end. You stopped right in your tracks as the man stood behind you, you could feel that he was smirking in success.

"What do you want from me? Leave me alone." You told the creepy man, but all he did was stand there with a creepy look on his face.

He continued to not say anything, but when the one and only Spiderman jumped down from a building, the creepy man immediately grabbed your arm and ran away with you.

Oh but he wasn't alone, 2 other creepy men came out of nowhere and distracted Spiderman as the man who held you run away.

"Get off me!"You yelled at the man. "Let go off me!" He groaned and took out a handkerchief and sprayed it with some weird cologne and covered you mouth and nose with it, making you unconscious.

Before you could fully black-out, the man said "Now you'll shut up."

~

Y/N woke up with a banging headache. Groaning, she tried to move her arms but realised they were tied to a pole.

"Ah, I see that you're awake. Great timing, your spider boy is here." The same man who covered her mouth earlier said.

"What does this have to do with me?" She asked, attempting to untie the ropes. The man laughed darkly. "Oh you'll see. Just wait." He said before walking away.

~

A few minutes have passed, it honestly felt like hours for Y/N. She sighed before looking around.

At the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar Blue and Red Spandex walking around the building.

Relieved, she signaled the hero to come towards her direction. "Psst, Spider-Man!" She exclaimed, but only enough for him to hear.

It seems like his Spider senses heard her voice and alerted him. "Y/N," He said happily and walked to her. "I'm glad you're alright."

She recognised that voice, she paused for a moment before her eyes widened. "Peter?"

Peter's eyes widened, "I-I'm not Peter. Who's Peter?" Y/N laughed, "I know that voice anywhere, Parker. I thought you were a genius." She smiled as he did the same.

"Anyways, let's get you out of here." He said before untying the ropes.

"Not so fast, spider boy." A voice said, the hero turned around in frustration. "Look man, you have no reason to get this innocent fine young lady in trouble." He said.

Spiderman then shot a web towards the criminal, only to be dodged. Laughing, the man called in the rest of his gang and started to attack the hero.

Everyone was so focused on their own thing that they didn't know that one of the gang members placed a bomb.

The other men had already left after leaving Spider-Man tired on the floor, they knew exactly what was gonna happen, and so did Peter.

So with all his strength, he got up and ran to Y/N, who was trying to free herself all this time.

"Peter..Help." She begged, her eyes full of worry. "Shh, it's alright. I'll get you out of here." He said and untied her.

With Y/N free, the two ran for their lives but it was too late, the bomb exploded as soon as they reached the exit.

The blast was strong, it made the two fly away from each other, one of them still near the exit and the other near the edge of the building.

Peter got up and looked around for Y/N, only to see her on the floor, full of bruises.

The ground below her was about to break. Worried, Peter ran as fast as he could to save her.

But it already broke.

She felll.

He didn't hesitate to jump down after her, not forgetting to shoot a web to catch her.

Luckily, his web was able to wrap itself around Y/N's waist, Y/N looked up and saw Peter and gave him a big smile. She mouthed a "thank you" to him as he smiled back.

But the happy moment was ruined when the web snapped, making Y/N fall and scream.

Peter shot another web, hoping that it'd grip on her tighter this time. But it didn't.

He kept trying and trying until one of them didn't fail him.

He smiled again and made sure she was safe as he went next to her.

"Hey," Peter greeted with a dorky smile.

"Hey." Y/N said.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He said, caressing her cheek. "And I to you." The two stared at each other romantically.

The two got down safely, earning many claps from the crowd.

The two never broke their loving stare, that was until Y/N spotted one of the men pointing a gun towards Peter's back.

With no hesitation, she changed their positions and heard a gun shot after. Gasps and screams echoed through the area.

"Y-Y/N?" Peter asked, he looked at her back and saw there was blood leaking from a hole.

"No." He said in realization, he made her face him and begged with tears forming, "Stay with me, Y/N. Please. Stay with me."

But her eyes were already closed.

[skulljackxiii]

Dramaronpa: Star Struck- Gwen Reveal

".................." *stares quietly more* ".....mmm." (What're you doing you dumbass! Don't just stand there, try to introduce yourself already! You'll be entirely alone forever if you just stand there awkwardly without saying a word. Anything, ANYTHING AT ALL!!) (No...Wait! Calm down, just blurting out random crap will just isolate yourself even further. Besides it's not entirely your fault that there's this awkward silence, she hasn't tried to talk to you at all, instead she glued herself to that journal that she has and not looked at you once. In fact this entire time, all I ever saw her do up to this point is looking at that book and writing stuff down. What's her deal?) (Oh wait! I remember her now, I covered her once in one of my videos when I was dying for content. She's Gwen, known to be called the greatest and most influential literary genius of our time. I dug up quite a bit to understand her past, and I gotta say that she lives up to the title.) (At the early age of 9, with no cultural literary background at that point, submitted her first poem in a city wide art contest where all ages were applicable. Despite the diverse competition, not only did her SINGLE submission won and beat out all other entries in every category, but the major of the city personally came to congratulate and hand out her prize in the flesh. It's been said that when the major heard about Gwen's poem and read it, he was in such awe of its beautiful words that his body completely seized up as his eyes started flooding the room like a raging waterfall. His was still in tears when he arrived to meet with Gwen. Several NEWs channels went on to cover the story of this upcoming prodigy.) (Since then, Gwen jumped ahead in life and built a fortune for herself when she started publishing her work at the age of 13. She releases poetry books that's been sold in the millions in different parts of the globe. I remember that she made even more dough when her work reached the hearts of the film industry and had her work be adapted to movies, which later won renown academy awards. She's so influential that to this day, her work is being dissected and studied in classes for modern schools and private institutions.) (I looked through hundreds of reviews for her books and they all say that after reading the first few words of each line, they were in a trance and felt that they were immediately transported to that poem's world. I personally never looked into her books because if all the reviews say are true, then I world be scarred for life if I read a single poem.) (Despite her massive popularity and everyone adoring her literary work, all of her poetry books covers limited and grim themes/genres; tragic romance, crude violence, unfair fate, unstable relationships, fake personas, and of course her most known, traumatic horror. It doesn't really entice me to read it further when each and every single one of her poems are parred with their own shock art drawings, that she makes herself, that further enhances the experience and atmosphere of her work.) (Other than that, there wasn't any other juicy stuff going on around her, well if you don't count some of the weird theories and speculations about her from some random online threads. Some say that she possesses the dead spirits of famous poets and authors to write for her, there's some say that she's a witch and that her poems are actually spells that casts illusions that makes her work more interesting, and others say that her books are actually cursed and the only way that it could be lifted is to purchase and read her entire series.) (Obviously these are exaggerated, but I did include this stuff in my video about her because I wanted to make it more captivating, and it was. But now, I do occasionally see glimpses of her whispering to herself and talk almost like completely different people whenever she's alone, so I guess the stories aren't too crazy.) (Though I gotta say that for someone that writes stuff that could make a onion cry in fear and shits itself, I thought that they would look like their work, messed up and deformed. But things are different now.) (I mean, when I looked at her photo from back then I didn't think much of her...but looking at her now, up close and in person...She's so...so......sooo.....) "...Sexy." ".........................................!?!!???!!!!!" (OH SHITTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I said that OUT LOUD!!!!! Nice going you HORNY DICKHEAD!!! QUICKLY!!! Recover! Recover! Recover!) *clearing up throat* *cracked/shaky voice* "ThIS OcEan ViEw iS sO...SeXY!...IT JuSt..TakeS youR BrEaThE AwAY...AnD Makes yoU FeELS so......HotTt? (........Nailed it)

[lady-literature]

I rewrite Sky High

okay so, disclaimer: sky high was actually pretty damn good for it’s time and a lot of the plot twists/tropes used in it were still just starting out and not as commonplace as they are today. so 10/10 really good movie.

Also as i was writing this, it turned into half analysis of what’s already in the movie and half things I would change about the movie so,,, yeah. enjoy!

***

So the point about Sky High is that and the way the school and hero society as a whole works, is that you, as the audience, are supposed to look at it and know that it’s a flawed system. We’re supposed to see it as an injustice that kids are sorted into hero or sidekick- Sorry, I mean ‘Hero Support,’ on your first day of school based on something you can’t even control.

(This movie was my hero academia-ing it up before it was cool.)

Anyway, the movie calls a lot of attention to it in the beginning, but then doesn't actually give it the resolution it deserves in the end. Which, not cool guys.

The Hero/Sidekick debacle is, on the whole, a very thinly veiled metaphor for the problems minorities face. Specifically, those of the alphabet mafia, or LGBTQ, as we’re more commonly known.

There are a lot of examples for this so I’ll speed through the big ones real quick:

Will’s nerves regarding not having attraction to girls superpowers?

The way he tries to fake having an attraction to girls superpowers to get approval from his dad?

Being literally outed in front of his whole class (by someone named Boomer no less) and then immediately trying to hide it from his parents as long as possible?

The constant references to being a ‘late bloomer’. Doesn’t it remind you of the common phrases: ‘it’s just a phase’ or ‘don’t worry. You’ll start liking [opposite gender] eventually.’ ?

The scene in the kitchen, right after Will introduces the Sidekick Squad (and yes, that is what I’ll be referring to them as for the rest of this essay tumblr post). Will is so obviously trying to gauge how his dad is going to take his friends being sidekicks and also him being a sidekick. I just, this is so blatantly a coming out scene? How does anybody not see it as that?

(also the dad talking so offhandedly about bigotry and the hatred his own father had for sidekicks??? Who else has been there?)

Will telling his dad that he doesn’t care, that he’s proud of being gay to be a sidekick is just,,, *chef’s kiss*

With all of this backing behind Will and him growing into not being ashamed of his lack of powers, My first change would be that Will does not, in fact receive his father’s super strength. It’s just such a cop out! The movie had all this amazing build up, and this brilliant metaphor it could have used and, instead, they threw it all away.

The sudden acquisition of powers and immediate acceptance by his peers, feels too close to someone being ‘fixed’. That Will wasn’t good enough the way he was and had to be better, had to be his father in order to be good enough.

So, no. Will remains powerless.

Instead of the revelation of ‘he’s strong’, we get to let the Sidekick Squad shine.

Lash and Speed still cause a fight between Warren and Will, but when Will is under the table, the sidekicks actually do something.

Will knocks the table over (not, like, lifting Warren up but something closer to pushing him off. I mean, even I could push upwards from underneath a table fast enough that if someone is standing on it, they’d lose their balance and fall to the ground) and that starts things.

The Sidekick Squad all grab forgotten lunch trays or cartons of milk or something and throw it at Warren. It isn’t long then that the whole scene devolves into a food fight (Zach, at least, does not have good aim and probably hits a bystander accidentally, drawing more people in, until the whole cafeteria is involved.) The fight turns into something more playful, but still with that bit of an undertone of trying to actually hurt each other.

Ethan melts at one point and (accidentally) causes Warren to slip and land on his back, Magenta probably punches someone (not Warren) and Zach is just mouthing off to anybody who gets close enough. Near the end, right before Principal Powers shows up, Layla finally gets the right idea and just fire extinguishes the shit out of Warren.

(Side note here: I am very much also nixing the Layla crushes on Will plotline. I love best friends to lovers just as much as the next person but… no. Let kids see boy/girl friendships! 

Instead, I will be inserting a Layla/Warren love story and you can consider this the first scene on the road for that.)

Anyway, the whole Sidekick Squad plus Warren ends up in the detention room and all of them are covered in food. Right after Principal Powers leaves, the Sidekick Squad is immediately talking excitedly to each other about how cool they just were and what they did. Basically it’s very wholesome and they’re all hyping each other up and then one of them, Layla or Will, excitedly turns to Warren and goes, ‘and that thing you did with the fireballs? God! I don’t think Lash is going to have any eyebrows for a month’ and the tension between them all but drops.

Warren, of course, tries to push them away and not get involved with their ridiculousness, but the Sidekick Squad is stubborn and by the end of detention, everyone but Warren is in agreement that he’s a part of the Squad now. They will not leave him alone. They also start hanging out at the Paper Lantern all the time just to annoy/make fun of him in that loving way friends do.

(I just want Warren to be a part of the Squad guys. Will calls him his best friend at the end but what did the movie actually do to show they were friends? Nothing, that’s what. I want that fixed.)

So the cafeteria fight boosts the whole Squad’s reputation, right? People think those sidekicks are pretty cool, and they get their fifteen minutes of fame. Only… Will gets a little hooked on the feeling of being popular. He doesn’t want to be a capital-h Hero or anything! But, well… he’d be lying if he didn’t like people thinking he was cool.

The others don’t really care all that much about being cool, but Will does. He hates that he does but what is he supposed to do? He can’t change how he feels. So he starts trying to make himself more popular and sometimes tries dragging his friends into stupid schemes.

And then enter stage right, one Gwen Grayson.

I prefer Gwen being Royal Pain’s daughter, actually. A girl who would’ve had no stock in this fight but her mother, who is sickly and weak and survives mostly because her daughter takes care of her, practically brainwashes Gwen to do her bidding.

Gwen is a minion here, and also, perhaps, a victim.

At first, she follows her mom’s orders and charms Will into dating her. She also feeds into his desire to gain popularity but can’t, in this world, break him from his friends. Actually, Will brings Gwen along to the Sidekick Squad hangouts and, slowly, she becomes a part of the group too.

She starts to doubt her mother. Starts to care for Will and the Squad.

She throws the party, and the Squad is all invited (trying to break them up isn’t conducive to the Plan her mother has anyway and wouldn’t work besides) but she lures Will away to make out and… other things, and he brings her to the Sanctum for privacy just like before. She still steals the pacifier (or whatever death ray equivalent you want idk) but she and Will don’t break up at the end of the night.

It’s not actually until two days later, right before the dance is going to start, does Gwen decide she can’t stand back and let this happen anymore. She spills the whole plot and her betrayal to Will when he comes to pick her up for the dance. She’s crying and apologizing and basically expecting to be hated forever by the only people she thinks ever actually liked her.

And, well. Will is furious at her for lying but there’s more important things to deal with at the moment. They’ll talk more about this and he’ll be angry, but that’s all going to be later. Right now they have a school to save so he grabs her hand and starts running to warn the rest of their friends.

Things happen mostly as canon from that point with minor changes.

It’s Warren who pulls Layla into a kiss before they all split off into groups, telling her to kick ass and stay safe before sprinting off after Speed. There have been scenes throughout the movie where the two are very obviously getting closer and are into each other. And then, before the dance, while Gwen and Will we’re technically going as a couple, the whole Squad was going as a group.

When Warren and Layla saw each other all dolled up, it’s very cliché. Warren says she looks nice and Layla visibly gulps at his outfit of a button down and suit pants, sleeves rolled up to his elbows (because homeboy does not wear a full tux you can fight me on this).

And also, Will doesn’t fight Royal Pain by himself. Instead, Gwen is there with him and they don’t fight with super strength. Gwen’s been helping Will build an arsenal of gadgets a la Batman and the two face off against her mom together, Gwen with her powers, and Will acting as half support and half as a watered-down Batman who still needs some more training before he’s totally polished.

The school falls from the sky, but Gwen buys them time by keeping the anti gravs working through sheer force of will, while Will holds off her mom from attacking her while she’s vulnerable and concentrating. Magenta eventually kills the EMP or whatever it was, and the day is saved.

Gwen passes out, cause ~drama~ but she ends up okay so don’t worry. She’s just exhausted. 

The sidekicks get their recognition and then immediately bounce because dances suck and they all agree that they should go to the Paper Lantern instead to celebrate cause they’re tired, alright? Saving the day is hard.

So it’s all of them, a little battered and bruised and exhausted, crowded into this corner booth and laughing and being kids. The camera does it’s fade to comic book page thing, and the narration is something more along the lines of:

“Royal Pain and her cronies got locked away. Gwen and I talked things out, and she’s getting help for all the stuff her mom did to her. We’re taking things slow in the meantime.

The school is undergoing a lot of changes to the curriculum and getting rid of the whole ‘hero/sidekick’ divisions. (Mostly at the urging of my parents… and Layla). Next year is going to look a lot different, I think.

But it’ll be a good different, just like we are. None of us were what we were expected to be, and, I think, we’re going to keep defying expectations. There’s a whole world out there that needs changing.

And I can’t think of a better group of friends to do it with.”

THE END

(just give me found family saves the day by being themselves rather than somebody else, give me them saving the day because they care about each other, give me them fighting for what’s right and fixing things. please i am b e g g i n g.)

***

Additional nitpicks that are small but Very Important to Me

Coach Boomer is still called coach Boomer because there is no way I am missing out on the ‘okay, boomer’ jokes

Layla stays like Layla, but i’d like for the movie to stop trying to make her seem annoying for her beliefs or like she’s wrong to be so vocal about them. Her caring about things that are wrong ends up as the butt of too many jokes and i… do not like that.

Why so many dad/son scenes? Why this janky imbalance parenting dynamic between the Strongholds. Knock that shit off. I want happy functional family thank you very much

Mr Boy and the mad scientist are very obviously in a relationship

Wait, actually: mr boy, mad scientist and Boomer are al in a poly relationship and are ridiculous about it

I’d like to see more of the sidekick classes going over like, ‘the boring’ parts of the job, and teaching the kids how to deal with the aftermath of the heroes heroics, just to hammer in the fact that the system is fucked up and that it’s messed up that the heroes get all the recognition while the sidekicks are left to clean up the mess

Use actual 14 year old actors? These kids look like seniors.

Or, if you want more ‘mature’ characters make it so sky high is like,,, a finishing school or smth. Something kids 16 and over go to.

(What the fuck kind of parent thinks that their freshman child dating a senior is a good idea?? An almost adult coming onto a fourteen year old??? Are you trying to make Will’s parents (particularly the dad) seem like irresponsible assholes??)

Gwen is, at most, a year above Will in this rewrite, kay?

[biclarke]

…Is this about Yelena being asexual? Because if so you’re being very mean about it.

Not completely, it’s more people seeing that one panel and misunderstanding it. It’s also a really dark and gross miniseries that’s literally about Yelena’s mentor figure who she says she saw as a father having violent sex with a woman who pretends to be Yelena for his enjoyment (consensually I just want to be clear) without Yelena’s knowledge. Keep in mind this is someone who had been training Yelena since she was a child. He gets murdered and Yelena is trying to find out who did it.

The panel where she says I’m not anything is a reoccurring theme throughout this series specifically about her not seeing herself as the black widow and her dehumanization of herself. The full page itself is about the woman she was talking to goading Yelena by asking if she was into BDSM. The panel was her saying Yelena’s dead mentor always thought she was a lesbian. (which is also implied at one point to be part of why he believed she’d never go for him iirc 😷)

If I’m being honest most of Yelena’s interactions with this woman make no damn sense. An earlier scene kinda implied Yelena was having trouble not submitting to the orders the woman was giving out as a dom. Which contextually was again about her feeling inferior as the Black Widow, but it was still Weird and kinda made me feel like the writer was getting a little too into their interaction tbh…

This is also early years Yelena where the original writers were a little better with the character. She was written as a foil to Natasha’s sexuality and a subversion of the sexual female spy trope. Later writers actually changed that and made her much less nuanced and did things like have her lecture Natasha on the importance of sexually manipulating targets.

The comic that panel is from is also from the Marvel Max line from the early 2000’s, which if you don’t read comics you won’t know is the edgy comics that can go way too far with their content sometimes.

I understand seeing Yelena as ace. The writer saying as much is a good indicator. But seeing people use that panel as proof is really not the serve they think it is. This is the same comic that has Yelena having a conversation with someone and the artist randomly drawing her nipple outline in her shirt and then a shot of her ass in the next panel.

But fr if you want to interpret it as her talking about being aroace, that’s completely in your rights go for it. Just wish more people understood what miniseries that panel is from if nothing else.

(It was also about a panel with Kate Bishop and Gwen Poole that was weirdly taken out of context, but I don’t see it as often and most people don’t take it seriously so it’s not as big a deal tbh)

[iliumheightnights]

Let Me Make You Proud [3] | Tony Stark x Son!Reader

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Tony Stark x Son!Reader

Summary: (M/N) is forced to face his past to save his friends and family. However, sometimes the skeletons in the closet are too much to face.

A/N: The Final part of the let me make you proud series. A long time coming too. I’ve been writing this for months and yet it still feels like I rushed it. So I’m not TOO happy with it but I hope you all enjoy it. Lots of Stark Reader stories in the future, cause I’m a ho for dad Tony and son.

Read from the start

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“So let me get this straight- or as straight as I can with you here. The Kree general Hala came and kidnapped all the avengers, plus Kamala and Doreen and now you’re here asking for my help?”

“Yeah that’s pretty much it.” (M/N) sat on Gwen’s beat up couch in her garage, his father next to him. The two still very much in an awkward stage. 

“Also the zoo was destroyed.” Everyone looked towards PRYSM. “What? I figured that was big news too.”

“I did like that zoo. So what’s the plan? We can’t just go without a plan.”

Tony stood up. “Woah woah woah. Plan? No, there is no plan for the two of you. I’ll get with shield and we’ll save the avengers. You-” He points at (M/N) “Will go back to the tower and wait for us to come back.”

(M/N) let out a chuckle before standing up. “Tough shit. She took my friends and family. I’m coming and putting her in her place. Gwen get your things, We’ll think of a plan on the way..first we have to find the ship.”

“Oh! Oh! I scanned the ship's heat signatures during the fight. I can try my best to track it!” PRYSM spoke up, bouncing a little as they said it. “Good. We’ll need that to find it...now we just need a way to get to it…” (M/N) looked at his dad. “I KNOW the avengers have a space ship. We’ll need that.”

Tony sighed and pinched his nose before looking back at the other three. “The avengers don’t have a space ship.” The three seemed to be at a loss. “I have a spaceship. I just let them borrow it.” That immediately made the other three perk up. “I guess if I can’t stop you...I better help get us there in one piece.” (M/N) patted his shoulder. “It’s the least you could do. Alright, let’s get going then shall we?”  (M/N), Tony and PRYSM moved to the garage door. “You guys go ahead. I’ll meet you at the tower. I need to get suited up.” (M/N) only nodded understanding and Tony looked confused. “Who exactly are you again?” His son quickly pushed him out of the garage. “Later, later. Let her do her thing.”

Exiting the garage the two were greeted by the sight of Happy, who seemed genuinely surprised to see (M/N). “Hey happy. Love what you’ve done to the hair.” Happy stuttered before smiling and opening the door for the boy he had known since he was born. “It’s good to see ya kid.” (Y/N) helped PRYSM into the car and hopped in. The car ride back to the tower was...intense to be sure. Tony looked like he wanted to talk to (M/N), but the boy was looking everywhere but him. PRSYM was the only one in the car really saying anything and that’s because they kept saying “oo’s and ah’s”. Happy was the one to break the silence. “So...kid. Where’ve ya been?” (M/N) smiled at him. “All over. I’ve only been back here for a couple months. My favorite place I went was Alaska. Might go back there someday.” After that the ride was quiet again. The car pulled into the tower's garage and everyone got out. Happy gave (M/N) a hug before going back to his normal routine. Tony, (M/N) and PRYSM entered the elevator and returned to the common area. Once the elevator opened Tony watched as (M/N) slowly took in the tower after the years he had been away. “I’m...I’m going to prep the ship.” Tony said before taking the elevator down a few floors to the hangar. (M/N) chuckled as the elevator doors closed. “It’s been years PRYSM and yet...he still can’t talk to me like I’m his son.” The little robot rolled up next to him. “It’s just awkward. Like you said it’s been years and he’s trying to figure out how to find the words.” The boy nodded and walked to his room.

His room was just like how he remembered it. However he noticed that dust was collecting on lots of things and it seemed like someone had been in it recently based on his journals left on his bed. He sat down on the bed and began looking through his notebooks. He looked at his old drawings and smiled, ever since he left he’s returned to drawing for himself instead of blueprints. He got lost in the books he didn’t notice when Tony entered the room. “Hey. The ships getting ready for take off we still have a bit.” He looked around the room and smiled at his son. “The rooms just like you left it. I didn’t want to mess anything up. It’s ready for whenever you’re ready to move back in.” (M/N) squinted at this. “What is this?” Tony looked at him with a confused look. “What’s what?” (M/N) stood up from the bed. “This! All of this! Are you just going to pretend like everything’s okay? That somehow after two years I’d just magically forgive you for the lifetime of neglect you put me through?” Tony was about to say something but (M/N) stopped him. “You know...I thought about what I’d say if I ever saw you again. I tried to put the words to how you made me feel...but I can’t. When I see you all I can see is how much I love you, but that I was never enough for you. When I see you, I see myself as a failure. All I ever wanted...was for you to love me like I loved you.” Tears began to form in (M/N)’s eyes. Tony closed his eyes and when he opened them he looked his son in the eyes, his own also glittering with tears. “(M/N) I know it doesn’t mean anything but-” At that moment he was interrupted by the voice of the A.I. “Sir. The ship is ready for launch.” (M/N) shook his head and pushed past his dad. “Later. We’ll talk about this after we rescue everyone.” Tony only nodded. “Yeah. you’re right.”

Walking into the hangar, (M/N) smirked at the ship. “Well, that’ll do. Now…” (M/N) typed into his phone and not long after the sound of webshooters could be heard. With a flip, Gwen landed on the hangar deck through the door wearing her spider gwen suit. “Hey guys. Ooohhh shit! Look at that!” She started freaking out over the ship. Tony was at a loss for words. “What...uh? Who are you?” (M/N) smirked. “Remember how I said I wanted one? This is Gwen, you met earlier. She has the same powers as Peter. Maybe a couple different things.” Gwen waved at him before turning back to the ship. “Well let’s GOOOO! I want to see space!” PRSYM grabbed (M/N)’s hand and pulled him toward the ship.

The ship was more like a modified quinjet able to travel space. (M/N) took the co-pilot's seat while Tony took the pilots' seat. PRYSM and Gwen got situated and Tony began the launch sequence. “You sure you want to do this?” He looked at everyone who only nodded. “Absolutely. Let’s go.” Tony let out a sigh and flew the ship out of the hangar. It wasn’t long before the ship had broke the atmosphere and the group starred out into space. “Alright PRYSM. Tell us where we need to go.” PRYSM was staring out into space. “Oh! OF COURSE!”  PRYSM’s eyes lit up and a holographic map appeared. “That way!”

Tony did exactly as PRYSM instructed and it wasn’t long before Hala’s ship came into view. “Ladies, Gentlemen, and PRYSM. We’re here.” Their small ship was slowly approaching the massive one. “Okay so what’s the plan exactly?” Gwen asked. “Easy. Board the ship, rescue the avengers, Kamala and Doreen, Then blow the ship to hell and back.” (M/N) said. “As for Hala. We’ll deal with her if we have to.” His dad looked at him with concern. “That’s not much of a plan.” (M/N) crossed his arms. “Well there really isn’t anything we can plan for this. Unless you have any ideas?” Tony was about to say something but stopped when he couldn’t think of anything. “Exactly. So let’s just do our best and be careful.”

Boarding the ship was surprisingly easy. All they did was connect their to the hull and cut their way through. Once on board the group made their way towards anything that seemed like a prison ward. The hallways of the ship were...eerie to say the least. It was like any generic ship you see in scifi movies with the creepy hum of engines. “I’m detecting lot’s of life signs from not far ahead.” PRYSM said. They followed the little robot until they found themselves in a large room with many cages. They found the prison, however there was something off. “Something’s not right. Where’s all the guards at?”

“HELLLLLOOOO!? IS ANYONE HERE!?” PRYSM yelled out. “Prysm shhh!” (M/N) tried to shush them. However nothing came after they expected some retaliation, instead they heard. “Hello? Who’s there?” That was Steve! “Steve!?” (M/N) ran towards the voice and found Steve and the other avengers. “(M/N)! Tony! What are you doing here?” Prysm hacked into their cell and shut off the energy door. “Rescuing you.” Peter got off his seat and smirked. “Aren’t you a little short to be a stormtrooper?”  (M/N) smirked at him. “I don’t know where you get your delusions laser brain.” Peter let out a laugh at the star wars quote. Of course Peter and (M/N) had started off rocky, but travelling made (M/N) realize it wasn’t the boy’s fault. He was tackled by someone. “(M/NNNNNNNNNNNNN!), I’m so glad to see you!” Doreen. She pulled back and (M/N) saw the look in her eyes, the worry. “They took Kamala.”

There wasn’t any time to waste. No hesitation. Once he heard Kamala was taken (M/N) started making his way towards the command center. Gwen, Doreen and Prysm followed close behind. Tony and the other avengers hadn’t even noticed they left. Typical. It really wasn’t hard to find the Command Bridge. The one with the big door on the end of the ship. “You guys ready?” Everyone got into fighting stances. “Yep.” “Yes.” “LET’S DO THIS!”

The door of the bridge was blasted open and the group rushed in. Rushing inside they found Kamala already in her own fight with Hala. “Guys!” Hala looked over and became distracted enough for Kamala to land a punch and knocked her out. “Ugh...that was a pain.” She shook out her hand and ran to her friends. “Guys! (M/N)! Gwen! You’re here!” The sound of footsteps brought the group out of their small victory. Tony and the other avengers ran in. “Oh god. You’re alright. Don’t EVER run off like that again.” Tony panicked. “It’s alright, we’re alright.” (M/N) laughed. “We’re alright for now. But Earth isn’t.” Kamala said, everyone listening to her. “She said she’s ordered the ship to head to Earth and to begin destroying anything it sees. She’s ordered it to raise the planet!” Everyone looked absolutely horrified. “How do we stop it?” Gwen asked. “What about the self destruct? There has to be one on here?” Peter asked. “IT’S BEEN TAMPERED! THE AUTO SELF DESTRUCT HAS BEEN ERASED!” Prysm shouted as they looked through the ship's computer. “There isn’t anything we can do.” (M/N) looked over the computer with Prysm. “That’s not true. The engines. We can set off a detonation and this whole place will blow. Kaboom.” Everyone agreed that sounded like the best plan. “You all get back to the ship and get out of here. I’ll set off the detonation.” (M/N) said making everyone look at him. “No. Absolutely not. I can’t lose you. I just got you back.” (M/N) shook his head. “There’s no time to argue. You all get out of here, I’ll blow this candle stick and escape on one of their ships.” (M/N) began walking towards the engine room but was stopped by Tony. “No. We’ll find another way. It’s too risky. I can send the su-” “DAD!” Tony stopped talking. “Just this once...let me make you proud.” It was then that (M/N) saw it. The love, the worry, everything he ever wanted, in Tony’s eyes. Not looking at Peter...looking at him. Tony relaxed his grip. “Okay...just come back to me. I love you.” (M/N) smiled, tears running down his face. “I love you too. Don’t worry. I don’t plan on dying.”

(M/N) made his way to the engine room, however he was stopped by a group of Kree guards. “Of course you come AFTER.” He didn’t slow down. Using his powers he lifted them up, slamming them into the ceiling then slamming them to the ground. “Welcome to Earth.” He passed them and continued to the engine room. The engine room was large and VERY loud. “Alright...explosion. That’s easy.” (M/N) ran to one of the computers that helped control the reactor. “If I set this to full power and overload that… There. That should do it.” He didn’t need to check anything because as soon as it was locked an explosion from a lower deck shook everything. “Shit. Gotta go...get off the ship, get off the ship!”

Luckily he had checked that the hangar was nearby. Arriving there he discovered all of the ships had been taken. “Great!” Another explosion shook the ship. Was this it? Was this the end? At least he stopped the ship before it could do anything to Earth. He thought of his friends. Gwen, Doreen, Kamala. The avengers, Clint. His dad. At least they were safe. Then the sound of a ship pulling into the hangar brought him out of his thoughts. The ship he arrived on was turning around and Peter and Gwen were on the ramp. “(M/N)! Come on!” Peter called out to him. He didn’t need to be told twice. He began running and used his powers to launch himself up. Peter and Gwen used their webs to to pull him in. They closed the ramp. “He’s in! Get us out of here!” Gwen shouted.

As the ship got safely away from the Kree ship, they watched as the reactor overloaded and the ship exploded into a ball of fire. “You did it. Good job...even if I wasn’t needed.” Gwen said to him. “Hey. To be fair, I thought it would be more of a fight then it actually was.” Gwen lightly punched his shoulder and went to talk to the others. (M/N) was left with Peter. “Hey…” (M/N) spoke. “Hey. Look (M/N) I just wanted to apologize. I didn’t realize tha-” (M/N) stopped him. “Pete. You’ve got nothing to apologize for. I know you weren’t trying to do anything to hurt me. In fact I should probably apologize for smashing your lego death star.” Peter grimaced at the thought. “It’s alright. I got to rebuild it so that was alright. If you’re sticking around I’d love to hang out...maybe be friends?” (M/N) smirked and patted his shoulder. “I’d like that.” Continuing through the ship. He was greeted by the avengers, each embracing him after all of these years for the first time. Clint walked up to him. (M/N) could feel his heart skip a beat. He hadn’t kept in good contact with Clint in a while and he felt bad for it, after all it was him that helped him. “H-hey Clint. It’s good to see you.” Clint glared at him making (M/N) sweat before he broke into a smile and pulled him into a hug. “Oh god...it’s so good to see you kid. You’ve grown up. It suits you.” (M/N) hugged him back. “Thanks dad.” He said in a sarcastic voice. “But for real, thank you. You really helped me discover who I am.” Clint rubbed his head. “Anytime kiddo. Now...I think someone wants to talk to you.” Clint pulled back and turned him towards Tony who was waiting for him. “Dad.” Tony didn’t say anything just quickly pulled him into a hug and held onto him tightly. After the shock wore off, (M/N) held on just as tight. “I really thought that was it. I was going to die there.” Tony let out a laugh, but there was no humor behind it. “I wasn’t about to let that happen.” He pulled back and looked his son in the eyes. “I promise you kid. I’m going to do everything I can to show you how much I love you. I can’t change the past, but I can give us a future. Please let me-” He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as (M/N) pulled him into another crushing hug. 

“Let’s go home.”

[petersasteria]

Homework Help - Peter Parker

Pairing: Peter x Single mom!Reader

Both are aged up and I thought that y’all might want to read a regular one shot for now to take a break from the Disney theme.

PP Masterlist

1.8k words

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Your 5 year old son, Aidan, was having trouble with his homework. You couldn't help him because you were currently in a Zoom meeting in the living room. Aidan was having trouble figuring out what 8+9 was. He looked out the window and saw something red and blue.

As a curious 5 year old boy, that was enough for him to abandon his homework. He got out of his seat and walked towards the window. He looked out the opened window and saw Spider-Man sitting on the fire escape. Aidan grinned and slowly and carefully got out of the window. Successfully getting out, Aidan stood behind Spider-Man.

Peter felt a presence behind him and he turned around and saw a cute little boy standing behind him. They just stared at each other and Aidan giggled after a second, "Hi 'pide-man!"

Peter smiled under his mask and fully turned to the kid, "Hi there, lil' fella!"

"I need help." Aidan frowned and pointed at his desk. Peter glanced at his desk and saw an activity book that pre-school gave to kids to take home. He turned to the kid and asked, "Homework?"

Aidan could only nod.

"Ahh, what do you need help with?" Peter asked nicely.

"I 'on know 8+9." Aidan pouted. "Can you come and help me? You can come in! Mommy won't mind because she said I can ask for help."

"Oh, um, okay." Peter said. Even though he knew that the kid's mommy most likely meant a different kind of help. He watched as the kid carefully got back inside and motioned for him to come in too. Not wanting to disappoint, Peter climbed in through the window as Aidan giggled and clapped his hands.

"'Pide-man's in my room!" Aidan giggled and walked to his tiny desk. Peter knelt down next to him and saw the activity where Aidan was stuck on. Aidan pointed at the top left corner and said, "Aidan is m' name. See? It's right there!"

Peter nodded, "Yes, I can see that." Peter was sort of distracted with Aidan's answers, though. The kid wasn't dumb. He was just sort of slow on numbers. He got some of the answers wrong. Like, 5+5. Peter hummed to himself and immediately thought that he should correct everything. There's no way he would let Aidan go to school the next day with wrong answers.

"Aidan, buddy, what's 5+5?" Peter asked and pointed on the first problem. Aidan gave him a cute smile.

"That's easy! It's 2!" Aidan clapped. Peter shook his head, "Nope. Think again, pal."

Aidan pouted, "But it's 2."

"Why?" Peter asked. He was curious as to how Aidan got that answer.

Aidan held up one hand and said, "See? 'Tis 5."

"Okay, and then?"

Aidan held up his other hand and said, "It's another 5! I have two 5's now. 5+5 is 2!"

'Technically, he's not wrong.' Peter thought. 'In a scientific context, that's correct. He has two hands. But this is math.'

"How many fingers do you have?" Peter asked.

"I 'on know." Aidan shrugged and rested his head on the desk, clearly getting bored now. "I'm only 5." Aidan looked at the colored markers on his desk and decided in his mind that he'll draw a picture for his mommy later when Spider-Man leaves.

Peter thought of a strategy. He looked at the colored markers Aidan was looking at. There was about a hundred of them. "Is it alright if I borrow these?" Peter asked nicely. Aidan nodded, not having the energy to say proper response.

Peter randomly took 10 colored markers and laid 5 of them neatly on the desk. Aidan sat up properly once he saw his favorite color. In a way, it gave him motivation.

"How many colored markers do you see on the table?" Peter asked sweetly as he watched Aidan counted them one by one.

"1...2...3...4...5! I see 5!" Aidan grinned. Peter nodded, "That's right! I'll add 5 more."

Peter laid down 5 more markers and asked, "Now, how many markers are there?"

"1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10! I see 10!" Aidan smiled sweetly.

"Yeah! So, what's 5+5?" Peter asked again.

"Hm... 'm not sure." Aidan frowned. "Can I try?"

"Yes, you can."

"Is it 10?"

"Very good!" Peter clapped and Aidan laughed. Peter erased Aidan's wrong answer and Aidan took his pencil and wrote '10' as the correct answer.

The next few minutes were consisted of counting and colored markers. But the homework also had a 5-item question on subtractions. Of course, Aidan just kept answering because he thought it was still addition.

"Hold up, Aidan." Peter chuckled and erased Aidan's answer on the first question to subtraction.

"Why erase it?" Aidan whined. "5-2 is 7!"

Peter shook his head, "Nope. We're on subtractions now, buddy. The sign is already different. In addition, we use a cross; a small letter 't'. In subtraction, we use a little line."

"What?" Aidan blinked. "I 'on get it."

"Well," Peter started and laid down 5 colored markers. "Instead of adding 2 colored markers like in addition, we remove it."

Aidan watched carefully as Peter removed 2 colored markers. "I took 2 colored markers away, right? How many markers are left?" Peter asked.

"2!" Aidan said proudly.

"Why is it 2?" Peter asked.

"Because you said you took 2 markers." Aidan shrugged casually.

'Huh, smart-ass.' Peter thought.

"Okay, let me rephrase that." Peter said as he put back the two markers he took. "There are 5 markers, right?"

"Right!"

"How many markers are left when 2 markers are gone?" Peter asked and swiftly took 2 markers away. Aidan held his head on one hand while his other hand counted the remaining markers.

"1...2...3!"

"Okay, so what's 5-2?"

"3!" Aidan cheered and wrote down the correct answer.

"That's right!" Peter grinned and continued on teaching him.

Meanwhile, your Zoom meeting ended and heard two voices coming from your son's room and immediately panicked. You grabbed the nearest 'weapon' near you, which was a flower vase, and tiptoed to your son's room.

You pressed your ear against the door and furrowed your eyebrows when you heard giggling. You opened the door with confusion written all over your face and your eyes widened at the sight of Peter helping your son with his homework.

"I asked help from 'pide-man." Aidan said coolly. "He's teaching me math."

You and Peter stared at each other. It's been a while since you saw him. Aidan was busy writing the answer to the last question to even pay attention to the both of you.

"Aidan, is it okay if I talk to Pe- I mean, Spider-Man for a bit?" You asked sweetly. "I'll check your homework later."

"Okay mommy!" Aidan smiled and grabbed a piece of paper and began drawing something for Spider-Man as a 'thank you' present.

You and Peter walked out of Aidan's room and went to the living room. Peter took off his mask and said, "I didn't know you were his mom."

"Yeah, that's fine." You said.

You dated Peter back in high school, but he broke up with you in college because he claimed that he was in love with someone else. That 'someone else' was Gwen Stacy aka the girl who has been flirting with Peter all year long.

"So... Aidan, huh?" Peter said after an awkward silence. "I assume you had him when you were 20?"

"You assume correctly." You said and placed the flower vase back on the coffee table.

"I-Is he mine?" Peter asked. "It all lines up and-"

"No."

"What?"

"You're not his dad." You said.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked. He was... well, he didn't know what to feel. At first, Aidan was just another kid but for some reason he's grown to be fond of him. Then, he saw you and then he felt as if he was connected to you and Aidan. Now, you told him that Aidan wasn't his and he felt sad? Disappointed? Relieved? He wasn't sure.

"You know what I mean. Aidan isn't yours and I know that because I made a drunk decision a week after our break up and then 9 months later, Aidan was born. That's why I 'dropped out'. I took online classes instead and after a year and a half of taking online classes, I switched to a different university and physically attended online classes there. Of course, my parents disowned me and I had to do everything by myself. It was hard, but I pushed through." You explained.

"Oh." Peter said as he sat down on the couch. You sat next to him and asked, "How's Gwen?"

"We broke up after a year of dating." Peter said. "She wasn't who I thought she was. She used to be this really nice girl and then somewhere along the way, she changed. Hung out with the wrong crowd and then she cheated."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." You frowned.

"That's alright. I moved on." Peter shrugged.

"Good for you." You smiled at him softly which he returned. "I, uh, I have to start making snacks for Aidan now. You're welcome to stay if you want."

"Oh, no thanks. I have to get going." Peter said and both of you stood up from the couch. "It was nice seeing you, Y/N."

"It was nice seeing you too, Peter. Thanks for helping Aidan with his homework. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. I'm glad that I helped." Peter smiled. "Is it okay if I get your number? I'd really like to get in touch again."

You looked at him and nodded, "Sure."

He happily handed you his phone and watched you type in your number. You gave it back to him and he thanked you. He walked back to Aidan's room with his hand on the door knob before turning to you, "Hey Y/N?"

"Yeah?" You looked at him.

"I'm sorry for breaking up with you and I'm sorry that no one was there for you when you had Aidan."

"It's not your fault, Peter." You gave him a small smile.

"Yeah, but I could've checked up on you the moment you fell off the grid. It was the least I could do. After all, we were once friends and a decent friend would do that." Peter said guiltily.

"It's all in the past now." You assured.

"I'd like to make it up to you." Peter said and just as you were about to open your mouth to say something, Aidan's door opened and a smiling Aidan appeared. He looked at Peter and smiled, "Wow, you look handsome, 'pide-man!"

"Thank you." Peter chuckled. Aidan handed him a drawing and said it was a 'thank you' gift. It was a drawing of him and Peter with numbers surrounding them. "I have to get going." Peter said.

"Say goodbye to Spider-Man, Aidan." You said.

"Bye!" Aidan said and went straight to the living room to watch cartoons.

Peter looked at you once more and said, "I mean it. I want to make it up to you."

"Well, you have my number. Text me." You smiled politely. "Have a safe swing, Peter."

He only smiled and put on his mask before going in Aidan's room and leaving through the window. You followed after him and looked out the window to watch him swing around.

Peter was your first love and both of you drifted away only to see each other again years later. Perhaps it was fate. Maybe both of you were meant to be. After all, sometimes, first loves are last loves.

* * * *

𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @blueleatherbag @harryismysunflower @buckys-little-hoe @justanothermarvelmaniac @itstaskeen @heeeyitskay @slytherin-chaser @quaksonhehe @yaya4302 @lil-mellow-bunbun @starlight-starks @swiftmind @alexx-stancati @sovereignparker @nerdyandproudofitsstuff @pearce14 @xfirstfemale-marauderx @cherthegoddess @chewymoustachio @cocoamoonmalfoy

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @marvelousell @justasmisunderstoodasloki @rubberducky-jrr @petersholland @osterfieldnholland @miraclesoflove @god-knows-what-am-i-doing @perspectiveparker @hollands-weasley @itstaskeen @call-me-baby-gir1 @the-panwitch @iamaunicorn4704 @chloecreatesfictions @holland-styles @halfblood-princess-505 @spidey-reids-2003 @whatthefuckimbisexual @justanothermarvelmaniac @unsaidholland @musicalkeys @lost-in-the-stars03 @hufflepuffprincess24 @hollanddolanfangirl @parkerpeter24