#mockingbird skull

[kiell-r]

Bluebonnet Mockingbird on Redbubble

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers West Coast #55: THE BREAKING STRAIN

February, 1990

"Let there be an ENDING!"

Yes, please, let there!

Actually, by skipping everything not Avengers, Acts of Vengeance has been fairly bearable.

But still. Let's get this over with.

Last times in Wanda's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month: Vision was kidnapped by every world government, disassembled, rebuilt wrong, and has decided to join the East Coast Avengers, while leaving Wanda in the West. Wanda was also kidnapped by a Texas college and pumped full of racism goo. And had her children kidnapped and eaten by a Satanist who then exploded because they were actually not babies but chunks of Mephisto. Then, her mentor Agatha Harkness erased Wanda's memories of ever having children. On top of all that, a Deviant kidnapped Wanda to try to force her to marry a snake god.

I'm not surprised she's gone catatonic from all that. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

In Acts of Vengeance: Doctor Doom's robots sank Avengers Island. The U-Foes burned down the Avengers West Coast Mansion. Freedom Force smashed up Avengers Park and then the Mandarin and Wizard show up to smash it up some more. And Magneto sends Wanda's house into orbit, with Wanda inside.

I swear. The Avengers just aren't allowed any nice things.

Also, they caught the Wizard when the Mandarin ditched him.

And now, house in orbit.

Magneto muses on how Wanda is so catatonic that even getting thrown into orbit didn't get a reaction from her.

Magneto: "Clearly the time has come for a more direct approach."

Call me suspicious but I don't think Magneto's idea of mental health care is going to be very good.

But this is Acts of Vengeance. Which Magneto has ditched in order to go see Wanda.

There's an ending to let there be happening.

Thor announces to the assembled Avengers that all the trouble they've been doing through is definitely the act of Loki.

He doesn't know how Loki organized this but he's definitely sure of that.

Wasp is confused because Cloak and Dagger told her that Doctor Doom was behind things, based on their own Acts of Vengeance tie-ins.

And the Avengers have the Wizard locked up in a holding cell, loudly insisting to anyone that will listen that he's the mastermind of everything.

Speaking of the Wizard, he decides he doesn't want to be in Avengers jail anymore.

And he just leaves.

He has a miniature teleportation device built under a false fingernail and he uses it to make a portal directly to Acts of Vengeance headquarters.

Where, to his annoyance, he finds that his fellow Prime Movers don't really give a shit he was in Avengers jail. Because they're too busy debating whether Doctor Doom was ever hanging out with them or whether he was always a Doombot.

The Wizard immediately starts shit by yelling at the Mandarin for abandoning him.

The Mandarin: "Do not blame me for your own shortcomings, Wizard. When the tide of battle turned against us, I withdrew. you should have done the same."

Owned.

The Wizard shoots back that he did withdraw, once he felt like it! So there! But he had to put up with an Avengers interrogation before he could teleport from his cell.

Which Definitely Loki is very annoyed to hear about.

Definitely Loki: "Ignorant mortal! Say thou hast not done this thing!!" Wizard: "?!? Unhand me, lackey! How dare you raise hand or voice to your better?!"

And Loki takes exception to that. And reveals that he's Loki. Duh.

Kingpin just peacing out while everyone is gawking kills me.

He's the third smartest villain involved. After Doom, who may not have ever been involved, and Magneto, who only got involved to handle some personal business.

Meanwhile, another weird timeline thingy.

President Lincoln is attending the theater, as Presidents Lincoln are wont to do, but when John Wilkes Booth tries to shoot him, as Johns Wilkes Booths are wont to do, it aggros the full force of Kentucky woodsman in Lincoln and he jumps up and slaps Booth's aim astray.

Amazing.

So amazing that Immortus (sitting in on the divergence as a general) wishes he could just leave this timeline alone.

But in order to accomplish his vague goal of becoming master of time again, he has to snuff out all alternate timelines. For some reason.

He returns to Limbo (the time one) and discovers to his annoyance that his Wanda-stalking scanner has lost Wanda due to a "massive disruption of the Earth's electromagnetic field."

My dude.

You can't spy on her in hell. You can't spy on her if there are magnets.

You're being made to look like a chump by people who don't even know you're involved.

Wonder Man returns to the Avengers West Coast Compound from the Mole Man thing last time to find one entire missing cottage which should have a Wanda.

He asks Agatha Harkness, what the shit, you had one job!

Agatha says that the house was thrown into orbit faster than she could cast a spell to do anything about it.

US Agent shows up and says that the cottage is about thirty miles up and ten miles off from where it launched.

Wonder Man yells at US Agent for not doing anything to stop a cottage from launching into space.

... C'mon, dude. He has the powers of Captain America plus the power of being a jerk nobody likes. How is he supposed to stop a house launch?

Anyway, he wasn't even at the compound when the cottage launched. He was at the Mole Man thing too.

He got back just in time to see the house blast-off and then checked the tracking system to find where it had gone.

Wonder Man just wants to fly off after Wanda. Even though his belt jets don't work in space.

US Agent suggests using one of the space-capable Quinjets instead.

Wonder Man: "Well, this is a first! You being the calming influence in a situation, Agent!" US Agent: "Belay the jabber, Wonder Man.

The two find the house just floating in space.

Houses don't just launch themselves, usually, so US Agent suspects some supervillain plot. And since Wonder Man is near indestructible, he gets to go poke around while US Agent watches the ship.

And for some reason, Wonder Man puts on a space helmet. Guy doesn't need to breath but constantly wears space helmets or lets people grow gills on him.

Maybe he just wants to feel like one of the cool people. Maybe that's where Vision got it from.

Anyway, when Wonder Man approaches the orbiting house, it explodes in his face.

Geez. The Avengers just can't keep a headquarters unexploded, unsunk, or unburned down in this event.

But not time to follow up on exploding space houses. There's Acts of Vengeancing to wrap up.

Loki has the villains too stupid to have peaced out (Wizard, Red Skull, the Mandarin) magically levitated so he has a captive audience to rant at.

Loki: "FOOLS! Stupid, mortal imbeciles! And all the greater fool is Loki, that ever I did trust the petty egos of mortals with the consummation of my plan! I didst think that by directing so-called super-villains into attacking champions unaccustomed with their powers I could rid this world of super heroes... And in the process once and for all destroy those who have so long vexed me by their very existence!"

Loki singles out Wizard to yell at. Because teleporting directly from the Avengers' holding cell to Acts of Vengeance HQ means that if Thor uses Mjolnir, he could track the energy trace and just show up!

Thor: "Say thee not 'if', beloved sibling... Say thee rather WHEN!"

You have such a good sense of timing, Thor.

Also, he brought Dr Pym, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Captain America, Wasp, Iron Man, Vision, and Falcon with him to kick Loki's ass.

Loki responds to imminent booty thrashing by dismantling the Acts of Vengeance HQ to reveal it was located on the Isle of Silence this whole time!

The very place Loki was exiled when he tried to get Hulk and Thor to fight, which caused the Avengers to form.

So now Thor understands the why.

And despite being a place of exile, Loki has spent so much time here (a lot of it voluntary) that he has mastered the dimension.

He brings forth Silent Ones from below the ground to fight Captain America. He tangles Hawkeye and Mockingbird in roots. He buffets Falcon and Wasp with winds. He creates a plume of fire that engulfs Iron Man.

Cap tells Thor to go beat up Loki since he's the best one to do that. Not bogged down in some mischief currently and also very experienced at punching Loki in his Loki face.

Thor chases after Loki and Loki scampers away saying he'll only fight in a time and place of his choosing when he thinks he'll win! He creates a wall of ice between him and Thor.

Focused on the Avengers, Loki loses his hold on the Wizard, the Mandarin, and the Red Skull.

Red Skull argues this is their best chance to strike at the heroes, while they're distracted.

The Mandarin calls him a stupid dumbass. This whole thing has been Loki's scheme and Mandarin isn't going down for it. He's leaving Loki to his own failure (like he did the Wizard. Consistent.)

When Loki dismantled the meeting place, he left the walls lying on the ground. And the dimensional portals built into each door is still active so the three villains not smart enough to fuck off until now now fuck off.

Wasp and Cap notice the villains getting away but, eh, they're busy right now. They'll get them next time.

Thor just smashes through the wall of ice because it's ice.

Thor: "Show thyself to have at least some fragment of our father in thee! Some small spirit of the godhood! Of the nobility which is our birthright!" Loki: "Speak to me not of nobility, Thor! Thou dost speak of music to one born deaf! There is but one Lord Loki serves, and that is power!"

Funny to think that in recent years, Thor gets along much better with Loki than he does with Odin.

Loki creates a giant rock hand to crush Thor but Thor crushes the hand instead. And hits the ground so hard that it makes a fissure that Loki falls down.

Which Thor then seals up so he can't escape.

Pretty perfunctory conclusion to this ENORMOUS company wide event.

Cap is like geez did you just kill him but no, "gods do not perish thus" not even Loki.

Loki is just trapped under millions of tons of Earth. But alive.

Thor explains that Loki was Big Mad that his actions created the Avengers so he wanted to destroy them with this big villain team-up. But he only strengthened the resolve of the heroes.

Thor: "Let the evil minds of the world beware! Ever and always shall the Avengers prevail!"

Yeah, Old Man Logan's backstory set-up IS dumb, Thor.

Anyway. Everything is solved forever.

The West Coast situated Avengers return there.

Iron Man flies off in one direction, Hank and Jan in another direction in a Quinjet.

Janet and Hank re-explain the plot and how Loki was Big Mad at creating the Avengers.

... This is really a lot more explaining than is needed.

I do like how Jan puts it.

Wasp: "So... that's that! Another threat ended, and this time it all started because Loki got tired of the other villains poking fun at him at the annual bad guys' picnic!"

Hank lands the Quinjet in the hanger. He goes off to check on Tiny Tigra and Wasp goes to change.

Another day, another new Wasp outfit.

But after changing into the blue and white number, Jan goes to check on Wanda.

The cottage seems to be back in place but Wasp finds US Agent sprawled on the floor and warning her to get away while she can.

Wasp: "Get away? From what... ? Who... ? What's going on here? Where's Wanda? Where's Wonder Man?" US Agent: "Dead! Blown to bits out in space! Get away... Get away..." Wasp: "Wonder Man... killed?? But... by who??"

Scarlet Witch: "By me, Janet! I dealt with him as I shall deal with all the Avengers, now that my power has been finally unleashed!" Wasp: "W-Wanda...??" US Agent: "Tried to warn you... Now... Too late... too late for everyone!"

Ahh, knew we'd get here eventually.

If there's three things everyone knows about John Byrne's Avengers run, it's Vision being disassembled, Wanda's children turning out to be devil chunks, and Wanda having a heel turn.

So whatever happened in space between Catatonic Wanda and Magneto, Wanda is Evil now and also had an Evil Costume Change and Haircut.

Honestly, this isn't a bad look for her. Shame about the whole evil thing, she looks stylish af.

But next week I'm alternating over to Avengers. I'd consider doing the Evil Wanda plot before switching back over except there's a weird interruption in the middle of the arc where Byrne quits the book in a huff.

So best to stick to alternating. Besides, the Avengers got stuff going on too. Remember all that stuff with Real Nebula and that one old man who blew up his own house? Yeah, that stuff is popping off!

Follow at @essential-avengers for all the best vowels. You like A's? I got tons. Buy them in bulk because this is an Avengers blog. Like, reblog, comment, whatever.

[hellenhighwater]

Okay why is this dove skull demanding a Mincing Mockingbird quote

I'm just trying to make the most normal plates I can here.

[methotrex8]

All this talk around AI has me thinking about the game SOMA.

In SOMA, there is an AI called the WAU that is programmed to preserve humanity at all costs. However, seeing as it’s a machine, it doesn’t know what makes humans human. This results in the following:

scans of humans’ brains being implanted into robots. They’re called Mockingbirds and often go insane with the dissonance of trapped in a nonhuman body.

Reanimated human corpses that are horribly mutated by the WAU. Some of these reanimated cadavers appear to be in a constant state of suffering, with some screaming or crying.

Comatose victims of said reanimated corpses kept alive only by being hooked up to the WAU, stuck in a dream state that they can’t wake up from, but *technically* still alive.

The protagonist, who is a scan of a terminally ill man from 2015 placed into the skull of a dead woman who is fused into a power suit.

The point of the game is to question what makes us human, but also what exactly is ‘human enough?’ Does any of the above count?

Idk man, maybe I’m reading too much into it. But that game left a mark in my soul and this talk of using actors’ likenesses and voices without their consent opened it back up again.

[heartsofbeskar]

the red wolf

mockingbird

oberyn martell x named fem!reader

warnings — language, sexual content, 18+ only

words — 3.8K

a/n: yall remember this?? yes??? i hope so!!

series masterlist — writing masterlist

prev — next

“I am going to be most blunt with you, Lady Stark. Have you and the Prince been intimate?”

The entire room seemed to still; the inhale of a fire breathing dragon moments before it expelled its deadly barrage of heat and destruction. They waited. 

Count one. 

Count two.

An exhale.

The steady thrum of your own heartbeat in your ears.

“Lord Tywin, I—” A glance spared to Oberyn. He sat, impassive, as if he were a portrait that had been painted long ago, left in place of the man of flesh and blood. “No! No, of course not, I am— I would never—”

An unexpected reprieve came in the form of Mace Tyrell. His face was blotchy red, as if an inexperienced young girl had applied rouge at random to his uneven skin.

“Is it really appropriate, my Lord, to so publicly question something so sacred as the young girl’s virtue—”

“It is no more or less appropriate than the murder of my grandson on his own wedding day!” Tywin’s voice was raised with what an onlooker may have described as unrestrained anger — but it was measured, carefully meted out, as all the words that had come before.

Your hands shook where they were clenched together under the rim of the dias— they may as well have been chained as Tyrion’s were. The smaller man looked at you now, and it felt like the weight of a great boulder crushed into your chest as you realized there was pity in his eyes. You didn’t want it, and it soured in your stomach the longer you felt it — as if it would rot you from the inside out, the contents of your soul spilling out for all to see.

Finally, Oberyn spoke. The tone of his voice was casual, but you could hear the underlying strain, that sense of unease that crept into it like a viper slithering through the bed of a garden.

“Forgive me — I fail to see the relevance of my relationship with the Lady Stark to your son’s trial.” He gestured with one ring-covered hand at the older man adjacent to him. “A relationship which, I assure you, is most platonic in nature. We have both known the great depths of grief and it is a comfort to speak about it with someone who understands such things.”

The crowd was uncharacteristically silent as the two men held each other’s gaze, elevated upon the judge’s platform, on full display. Their facades seemed to be stripping away, layer by convoluted layer, hurtling towards the exposure of the raw core that lay underneath this entire charade.

They ordered the butchery of my sister, and her infant children.

Oberyn’s words — it seemed like so many lifetimes ago that the two of you had sat in the shared sanctity of that abandoned section of the gardens — echoed through your head, forming a haunting rhythm that beat against the inside of your skull, and your muscles throbbed with the intensity.

He seemed larger now, a hulking dragon that Tywin was all too eager to attempt to slay, as he had slain a entire house of dragons in the years before. The latter’s eyes shone with the potential blood that could be spilled over the dark stone floor. His brow twitched up his forehead by a hair's breadth.

Oberyn seemed to speak without need to open his mouth. Go ahead, old man. I have no fear of the true heart of this matter. Do you?

For a moment, a dizzying beat of time, you thought Tywin Lannister would rise to the silent taunt, that his cold demeanour would crumble and crack and scatter debris about King’s Landing.

He drew in a slow breath, and he lowered.

“Very well.” His tone was jovial, but a hand remained closed in a tight fist at his side. “I only feared, Prince Oberyn, that the young Lady Stark presumed to use you for your vast knowledge on bodily poisons to better inform a plot to kill the King … since he was poisoned.”

The blood continued to rush through your ears, a steady charge that echoed the days you spent in the woods of Winterfell. It was the streams in high summer, which would flow with the same ferocity and vigour towards lower ground, a race they did not even know they had entered into against nature itself. You went there now, eyes squeezing shut with a pressure almost painful. 

Your feet would sit in the running water, the bottom of your skirts tinted dark where they had been splashed upon, the breeze kissing along the bare skin of your ankles. The image of your toes was rippled by the waves distorting their shapes and colours where they were submerged. Rays of sun would glint off the surface of the stream. You would stare up through the canopy of trees, hints of the sky beyond breaking through the thick overlay of their leaves, blue and bright as you’d always imagined the Summer Isles to be. Some days, you would lay on the gentle forest floor, the soft moss and mud providing a welcome respite from long afternoons in lessons with your young sisters.

Oberyn’s voice, warmth and honey, pulled you back, to your feet solid on the wooden dais, your breath sharp where it sat in your throat. It had been pulling you back for some time now.

“I am glad we were able to assuage your fears, my Lord.” He leaned back in the grand wood chair. You noticed, for the first time, the ornate carvings that adorned its edges, the grandeur of design in all the judges’ seats. It sat in stark contrast to the dirt and hatred of the accusations thrown across the room all day. “I hope you can rest in the knowledge that Lady Stark is as innocent in these matters as you are in them.”

You did not miss the double meaning to Oberyn’s words — and you knew Tywin did not either. They held gazes for another long moment.

“You are dismissed, Lady Stark,” he finally spoke. His voice was low, a lion crouched in the grass, prey helpless in its sights as he decided whether he should let it live or snap its neck. “I have no more questions for you.”

Numbness washed through you as you stood, and followed you as you approached the bench — Lord Varys looking on you with another set of sympathetic eyes you didn’t want — and you passed it entirely, the Gods themselves guiding your feet to take you out, out, out, until the warm air mercifully kissed your skin, and you swallowed it down in great volumes, though the sanded path before you swam in your vision.

The bushes lining the path swam, too, as you retched into them.

—

The stillness of your room unnerved you as you sat, sat and waited for a fate that wasn’t even yours, but felt heavy on you all the same. It was Tyrion Lannister who would lose his head if he was found guilty. Tyrion Lannister who would stare down the execution block, stained with the blood of all those who came before, including that of your own father. Tyrion Lannister who would be sentenced to death at the hands of his own family.

So why did it feel as if his fate would become your own?

You waited so long that the sun began its descent through the sky, cutting through clouds and painting them hues of violet and orange. Children who had played among the bushes, ducking and weaving as they exchanged the role of seeker and sought out their companion, were called in for their evening meal, the sound of their light footsteps fading as they rushed towards home. And you waited. For someone, anyone, to enter through the door and give you news that you weren’t even sure you wanted to hear.

Relief was a sweet drug in your veins when it was Oberyn.

Unabashed, uncaring how it appeared, you rushed to him, wrapping him in an embrace the moment the door closed securely behind him. You knew him — trusted him — to be clever enough to make his way here unnoticed.

You clung to him, hands fisted in the back of his robe, as if he were an anchor and you were in a storm at sea. One of his hands cupped the back of your head, warmth emanating from the point of contact.

“He’s demanded a trial by combat,” he said softly. His breath fanned over your hair. You pulled back, just an inch, to tilt your face toward his. You couldn’t read the expression in his dark eyes. “Tyrion. He knew men would never grant him a fair trial … but the Gods may.”

Your hands tightened in the fabric. You had never known the Gods to be so kind as to bestow proper justice.

“It is an ordeal for another day,” Oberyn murmured. He searched your face, pouring an intensity into you that made your head spin. “You must trust me. Do you?”

“You know that I do,” you breathed. You watched his throat bob, brows drawn together tightly.

As his hand descended down your back, the thumb making a soothing motion against the material of your bodice, you felt a weight drop through your chest, and you surged forward.

Your lips against his felt like coming home. His hand in your hair tightened, and he took half a step back in surprise before pressing back with just as much strength, moulding his mouth to yours in a comfortable and familiar pattern. They played well together, your mouth and his, and for the first time you admitted to yourself it was a game you never wanted to end.

It could have been a moment or it could have been a lifetime before you broke off from him, heavy breaths intermingling in the spare inch of space between your lips. Words seemed impossible to form, your mind filled with sweet syrup that dripped through your body where it pressed against his. You tugged, insistent, on the edges of his jacket, knuckles brushing against bare his skin underneath. 

His free hand, warm and strong, came to rest on your waist and put pressure there, and for a terrifying moment you thought he meant to push you away. But then he followed your backwards movement easily, not giving room for any additional air between your bodies, and relief was a palpable taste in your mouth. He wanted this too.

You cupped your hands over his jaw, thumbs tracing along the hair styled there. It was longer than you were used to seeing on him, it’s shape less clean cut and more unruly, indicating that he had not shaved for several days now. Your mouth followed the path of your hands, descending from the sharpness of his jawbone to the smooth column of his neck. He tasted of the golden rays of the sun, of the steady richness of the earth beneath your feet. His skin underneath your mouth was the ground, and you floated down from the stars to meet it.

At your ministrations, he groaned, the sound vibrating out from his throat into your very bones, settling there. His thumb rubbed circles on your hip, the fabric just barely starting to bunch there.

“Raya…” he rumbled. “Little wolf.” You preened at both of your names from his lush mouth, pressing a hand to his arm and squeezing. “You must stop this before we go some place you cannot come back from.”

You pulled back, further this time, your eyes meeting his. They seemed to pass an infinite set of words between them before you could form any from your lips instead.

“I wish to go there, Oberyn,” you breathed. Even in the silence of the room, it was a strain to hear your own voice. “They all believe it anyway. Let me … please, I—“

His brow furrowed, his forehead coming to rest against yours. “This is not a kiss, little wolf.”

“I know.” Your voice came sharped this time, honed by the blade of frustration and the dissolution of hope. “They have taken … everything from me. My home, my family, my future.” You choked on the words as they clawed their way through your throat, leaving wounds over the scars that had existed there. “I want this and I want … I want to know someone who is kind and gentle. I want that, and I want it to be you. Please. Do not condemn me to a life without it.”

His eyes seemed to soften, and you closed yours as a familiar burn built within them. You felt a hand — so soft you could almost believe it was the wind — brush back the hair that had fallen into your face.

“Then it would be my honour.”

Before your eyes could open again, his lips were on yours once more, this time with a softness that threatened to melt your body from the inside. A single tear slipped free from its reins, spilling over your skin, leaving a hot trail behind. Oberyn wiped it away with a slow stroke of his thumb. He began to walk, urging you backwards, your steps clumsy but unhurried as he continued his attentions upon your mouth.

You were feeling dizzy with it by the time your legs made contact with the bed behind you. With a sharp inhale, you broke off the kiss, your eyes blinking rapidly to adjust. His hands wasted not a single moment, moving down — your neck, your arms, circling your waist before settling behind you, where he deftly began to unstring the intricate laces of your bodice. You mentally cursed your own dressing decisions from that morning, but he seemed not to struggle, the fabric falling away from your body as it was an enemy he’d cut down on the field of battle without a second thought. The cool air rising from the bay kissed the bare skin of your shoulders, your back, you legs, as the dress pooled ever downwards, leaving you only in your light shift beneath.

A shiver crawled up your spine. Upon seeing it, Oberyn brushed a gentle hand down the bones. 

“Will it hurt?” you murmured. Your mother and Old Nan had imbued you with stories of the loss of maidenhood, a woman’s first battle, where she would adorn the sheets with blood not so dissimilar to her own flowering. 

He pushed you back further still, leaving you no choice but to climb onto the mattress behind you, gooseflesh rising where your bare skin met the silks of the bedding. The pillows gave way beneath you, a soft space to land as he hovered above you. Oberyn lowered his face into the crook of your neck, his breath pooling there.

“No, my little wolf,” he whispered into your skin. “It will, most assuredly, not hurt.”

Despite his words, you struggled to believe him, and you couldn’t help but feel your muscles tense slightly as his hand crept lower, running along your stomach, still covered by your shift, until he reached the tops of your thighs. His fingers played along the skin there, testing, as he propped himself up on his other elbow. His jacket had fallen open fully, exposing his chest underneath. It was smooth, golden, radiating a warmth that compensated for any chill entering the room from the open window.

His eyes poured into you as his hand slowly ran along the edge of your smallclothes, seeking permission at every step. You brought a hand up to the back of his head, running it through the close cropped but soft hair. You nodded almost imperceptibly, but he saw.

Drawing the last of your clothing down, pushing your shift up around your stomach, Oberyn touched you with reverence you had never imagined possible as he approached the place which no man had ever seen. You spared only a moment’s thought to the belief you’d had, once, that your husband would have been the first and only one to know you this way. He was faceless, nameless, some lord or knight whose face was soft and manner was kindly. Not yours to chose, but yours alone to have.

Oberyn was none of those things, but he was the one you wanted regardless.

Never breaking eye contact, his hand grazed along the apex of your thighs, light at first but increasing in pressure as you didn’t push it away. Your breath was caught in your throat, at first solely because it was cold — not because of the temperature of his skin but because of the sheer heat coming off of you in waves. You could feel it burn along the skin of your inner thighs. His hand was ice in comparison.

He continued to increase the pressure of his fingers on you, harder and harder still, but gently stroking all the while, and something began to build. You gasped into his mouth, hovering now above yours, eyes shutting unbidden against the sensation you struggled to make sense of for the first time in your life. His hand now worked masterfully on the very core of you, the blazing embers of a fire you had never imagined you possessed. 

Time seemed to slow to a syrupy crawl under his ministrations, and you began to feel suspended from it entirely. All that was, all that had ever existed, was the two of you in this bed, his hands on you, and yours on him where you grasped the back of his neck, nails digging into his skin whilst the pleasure built under yours.

“Howl for me, little wolf.” Oberyn’s voice was light and breathy, and his mouth descended onto your neck as his own body moved in rhythm with yours. You felt the hardness of him against your thigh, thinly veiled by the linen pants he still wore. You tried your best to oblige him, but all that passed your lips was an equally breathy moan. He laughed, not unkindly. The flow of it over your skin only heightened what you were feeling. “I suppose that’s close enough.”

You could not help but to laugh in return, but it was soon cut off by a gasp as he pressed one strong finger inside of you. 

It was fast becoming too much for you to bear, and you buried your face into the side of Oberyn’s, legs tightening of their own will around his forearm. He placed soft kisses onto the column of your throat, as if in encouragement. His finger crooked just so, his thumb pressing in succession, his lips searing hot against your skin, and the waves crashed upon the beach inside of you, your whole body tensing with an exquisite ache.

“You are beautiful,” Oberyn said. His eyes saw into your soul, into the essence of your being, and were full of nothing but admiration as he looked upon you. Gaze never straying from yours, he shifted, and with a few slow strokes pulled his hand away. 

He admired the remnants you’d left on his fingers, before bringing them back down to tend to his own garments. In a blur his pants were discarded, and you heard the soft sound of them landing somewhere undetermined on the stone floor. He came to settle between your legs, and you secured him there with your limbs in turn, but still — he hesitated.

You drew a hand along his jaw, cupping it in your palm, thumb gently tracing over his cheek. It felt as if your life hinged on this moment. All of the things your family had imagined for you fell to one side, with all that you wanted falling to the other. And, for once, you had a choice to tip the balance. With just three words, you did.

“I want this.”

It seemed that Oberyn needed not a word more. His mouth descended on yours, a kiss so reminiscent of the first one shared between you as he entered you. Instinctively your hands came up grasp his arms to either side of you as you processed the barrage of feelings coming over you.

As he continued to move within you — to make love to you, to take you, to fuck you — your mind spun. You could not believe that this was the woman’s duty as so many had spoken of it to you, from the time you were a young girl not yet flowered. A service to one’s husband, they had said. A responsibility most serious, to provide men with heirs at their behest.

But this… this was no duty, no sacrifice, no service you were to perform. This surely must be something different entirely, something sweeter than summerwine and immensely more intoxicating. With every movement of Oberyn’s hips, pleasure rippled through you, building impossibly high and crashing through every inch of your skin. You were on fire, you were submerged in ice. You were alive and you were dead. You were everywhere and you were nowhere, all in the same moment in time.

One of his hands explored your body at will, grazing against a breast, still hidden by the thin fabric of your shift, his thumb tracing around where you could see one nipple peaking a tent through it. Continuing its path, his hand descended between your thighs again, and this time you let out a stream of moans as the feelings layered within you, pooling in your centre.

“Oberyn. Oberyn.” Your voice came out as a whimper, saying his name like a prayer. He groaned, a long and low sound in the back of his throat, and his hips stuttered in their rhythm. Warmth grew within you, emanating from the point you were connected, settling in your limbs. His hand redoubled its efforts, and you followed him back into the waves, where they once again washed over your head, pulling you underneath to drown in the waters.

Moments later — you could not say how many or how you got there — he cradled you into his warm chest, his hand stroking along the bare skin of your upper back. You let yourself settle against him, your mind finally wiped free of kings and lords and wars and trials. It was only the two of you, and this room, and this bed. He had you, body and soul, and you him. And since the moment you’d left Winterfell, this felt like the only correct turn you’d been able to make.

You drew back for a moment to admire the planes of his face before pressing up with a gentle kiss against his lips, which were full with colour and swollen. You did not want to imagine what yours looked like.

“Raya,” he murmured against your lips. You smiled, only for a moment until the next words escaped him. “I’m going to volunteer as Tyrion’s champion.”

——

oh hello! im not sure if.. anyone still wants to be tagged in this but ill do everyone i tagged last chapter and if you dont want that lmk!

@radiowallet @pedros-mustache @magpie-to-the-morning @heavenseed76 @dazedrhapsody @highsviolets @sherala007 @adancedivasmom @skeletoncowboys @xsadderdazeforeverx @iamskyereads @mswarriorbabe80 @prettylilhalforc @elinedjarin @spoopyredacted @frannyzooey @fan-of-encouragement @djarinsbeskar @fucktheforce @leannawithacapitala @starla1979

love u all mwuah

[latin-phrases-showdown]

Finals

Memento mori

Means 'remember you must die'

Mostly showcased through artwork, a memento mori reminds us of the brevity of our time here and the fragility of human life.

A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers.

The [picture on the right] is Pablo Picasso's 'Goat's Skull, Bottle and Candle'

Per aspera ad astra

Means "to the stars through difficulties / a rough road leads to the stars"

It’s the motto of many groups (both real and fictional) including government entities, schools, research institutions, fraternities/sororities. It appears in novels including "to kill a mockingbird” and “red rising.” It’s the starfleet motto in star trek. It appears in many songs. It’s the title of a tribute exhibit to the apollo i astronauts and written on a plaque at the site where they died. and it’s recorded, in morse code, on the track called “sounds of the earth,” on the voyager golden records that are on voyager 1 and 2 that are intended to represent the human species to any other life out there that may come across the spacecraft in the distant future.

[cornerofhell]

The mane six Casualverse Kids!

Twilight Sparkle x Applejack

- Demeter Honeycrisp (He/She/They)

- Saturn Harvest (They/Them)

Rarity x Tempest

- Unbreakable Diamond (He/Him)

Fluttershy x Discord

- Mockingbird (He/Him)

- Happy Hyacinth (She/Her)

- Cloud Nine (He/Him)

Rainbow Dash x Pinkie Pie x Cheese Sandwich

- Cookie Crusher (She/Her)

- Sugar Skull (She/They)

- Hot Tamale (They/Them)

- Raspberry Cheesecake (Lil Cheese) (She/Her)

[dollypartonswig]

My top 10 books of the year!

1 ) The Nothing Man - Catherine Ryan Howard -

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man--the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family's killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim's not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man. Jim soon beings to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won't give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first.

2 ) The Night Ship - Jess Kidd -

1629: A newly orphaned young girl named Mayken is bound for the Dutch East Indies on the Batavia , one of the greatest ships of the Dutch Golden Age. Curious and mischievous, Mayken spends the long journey going on misadventures above and below the deck, searching for a mythical monster. But the true monsters might be closer than she thinks. 1989: A lonely boy named Gil is sent to live off the coast of Western Australia among the seasonal fishing community where his late mother once resided. There, on the tiny reef-shrouded island, he discovers the story of an infamous shipwreck…

3) The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams -

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

4) Midnight Is The Darkest Hour - Ashley Winstead -

Ruth Collier has always felt like an outsider, even as her father rains fire and brimstone from the church pulpit. In Bottom Springs, his word is as good as law. But there are things the townspeople fear more than God, like the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to kill sinners in their beds on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp, a hunt for the Low Man begins. Suspicion turns to Everett – Ruth's oldest friend, with a dark past. As Ruth and Everett grow closer, Ruth begins to unearth the town's secrets, determined to discover the truth. But as the line between good and evil grows ever thin, how far will Ruth go to save the person she loves most?

5) The Appeal - Janice Hallett -

The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival. But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—or of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.

6) My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite -

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other...

7) Outlawed - Anna North -

The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.

8) Madhouse At The End Of The Earth - Julian Sancton -

The harrowing true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry--with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter. Drawing on firsthand accounts of the Belgica's voyage and exclusive access to the ship's logbook, Sancton tells the tale of its long, isolated imprisonment on the ice--a story that NASA studies today in its research on isolation for missions to Mars. In vivid, hair-raising prose, Sancton recounts the myriad forces that drove these men right up to and over the brink of madness.

9) Morbidly Yours - Ivy Fairbanks -

Callum Flannelly would rather dive into an open grave than take a stranger to dinner and a movie. But he can only inherit the family undertaking business and carry on their legacy under one condition: He must marry before his 35th birthday. So it’s out of the mortuary and into the dating scene. Lark Thompson would rather get crushed by a falling anvil than stay next to a funeral home during her stay in Galway, Ireland. The vivacious American cartoon creator and animator came here to embrace life, not be reminded of losing her husband. When Lark learns of Callum’s dilemma and aversion to marrying out of necessity rather than love, she agrees to help the introverted mortician. Although sworn off love herself, she is optimistic that Callum can find The One and secure his inheritance. But as the dating project progresses and their friendship grows, so does a mutual attraction. The more time she spends with serious, sarcastic Callum, the more she dreads finding him a match. And the more disastrous dates he endures, the more he dreads Lark’s imminent return to the states. If they think it’s possible to ignore their connection, they’re dead wrong.

10) Bunny - Mona Awad -

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

[lightdustchild]

Thanks for writing the hawks x reader oneshot! I was reading down your page and I wanted to ask for a dabi x sister reader and if it’s ok how would he react to her getting kidnapped? If you don’t that’s totally ok!

-mockingbird annon

If you got kidnapped

Dabi x sister reader head cannons

So dabi would go to your room in the morning to tease you like usual

Once he didn't see you there he would look all over the house for you

Finding out you aren't there he'll go to the league and get them to search for you till they find your location

He will barge in the building blowing anything in his path to flames until he finds you his little sister

Once he gets there he helps you out before beating the person that kidnapped you to a pulpe

Small one shot of it:

"Hey you squirt!" Dabi said as he kicked down your door. He then looked around finding you where not in your room. Closing the door he goes down the stairs "Y/n? Where are you!" He hollers as he starts searching the house literally everywhere possible. Eventually figuring out you weren't here he grabbed his found and dialed togas's number. "Hey dabi!!!" Toga squealed into the phone, "Y/n's missing." Was all he said and she got the message "On it" she then hung up and dabi started pacing the room. Where the fuck could you be!? After seeming forever his phone rang again and he picked up this time it was shigaraki "I found the kid I'll send you the address and head down there to help" he said in a monotone voice. "I got it handle" was all dabi said and hung up looking at the coordinates and ran out of the house towards the building. It was broken covered in vines and the door looked like it could fall of its hinges any second. Dabi lifted his leg up and kicked the door down "Come out, come out where ever you are!" He said in a sing song voice as he looked for the kidnappers. Eventually finding you tied in a room he un did the ropes and grabbed you. You started shaking and pointed behind him. He turned around to see the people that kidnapped you in dark black hoods.

Dabi grinned and charged for this first one punching his skull before gripping the person's neck and activating his quirk there neck desangrating as they fell to the ground the others ran screaming like children as dabi chased them a lit them aflame as we before scopping you up "Let's go home"

Note: hello I apologize for not uploading anything I do not have Wi-Fi at my house at the moment I'm on my moms hotspot as we speak.

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

Back to School Supplemental - Geniuses In action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.)

Founded by Nadia Van Dyne, the young heroine known as the Unstoppable Wasp, the Geniuses In action Research Labs is an enterprise that endeavors to assess the Earth's greatest female scientific minds and provide them with the support and guidance needed to help them fulfill their potential.  

With the aide of Edwin Jarvis, Nadia recruited several young scientists and offered them funding and a research space to continue their studies and conduct their experiments.  Dr. Barbara Morese (Mockingbird) has acted as a mentor to these young scientists and the former villains, Poundcakes and Letha were later brought on to provide security.  

Thus far, there have been four principle researches working at the GIRL lab, each focusing on a different scientific discipline.  These young scientists include:

Priya Aggarwal

A true prodigy in the field of theoretical botany.  Priya developed a special formula that facilities communication with plant life.  An accident caused by a saboteur caused Priya to become exposed to a gaseous form of this formula and she ended up gaining the ability to telepathically control plant life.  

Priscilla LaShayla Smith

Shay, as she prefers to be called, is a young technological genius who was trying to build a functioning teleportation machine.   A malfunction in her device caused an explosion that caused Shay to be thrown from the window of the apartment she shared with her father.  Fortunately, The Wasp was there to save Shay and the young woman went on to accept Nadia’s invitation to join GIRL. Whist there, Shay worked alongside Tai in creating a pair of ‘Vision Gloves’ that utilized Horton Cells to make them temporarily intangible; thus allowing for entirely non-invasive surgical procedures.  

Ying Liu

Ying was an orphan raised in the notorious Red Room where she befriended Nadia.  During her training at the Red Room, Ying showed a affinity and tremendous skill for biochemistry.  It was with Ying’s help that Nadia had recreated the size-changing Pym particle thus facilitating her escape.  After this escape, Ying was dispatched to retrieve her.  This ultimately offered Ying the chance to escape herself, yet her Red Room handlers had implanted a miniature bomb at the base of her skull to dissuade defection.  Nadia and Shay were able to safely remove this bomb with the use of the Vision Gloves and Ying went on to join GIRL.  

Taina Miranda

Taina ‘Tai’ Miranda was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age.  She applied herself to the study of engineering, robots and cybernetics.  She used these skills to provide improved accommodations to her home, including a lift for her wheelchair and a exo-suit that enabled her to play goalie for her sister’s soccer club.  Hearing about these feats, Nadia recruited Tai to GIRL and the young woman jumped at the chance at having greater resources to pursue her experiments.      

Additional members of the Geniuses In action Research Labs include  Amber Silverstein, Jeanne Foucault, Justine, and Lexi Miranda.  The enterprise first appeared in the pages of The Unstoppable Wasp #2 (2017).  

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #313: THIEVES HONOR

January, 1990

The ULTIMATE Super-Villain Team-Up! Plus -> Beginning -- the FATE of the SCARLET WITCH!

Plus, it's the 90s! Dark times ahead! Allegedly! Things still feel pretty 80s around here, to be honest but we've only just got here.

Also, hi, Black Widow! Guess you're here to capitalize on the more fluid roster of the Byrne run. Should we call you the Gray Widow now? Because of that costume?

(I've been a little rude to the Wizard during Acts of Vengeance but c'mon, the ultimate team-up is the Wizard and Silver Samurai oh that's the Mandarin. Still not very ultimate. Now if Thanos and Doom worked together, that'd be scary.)

Last times in Acts of Vengeance: Some Doom robots sank Avengers Island while the Avengers were busy elsewhere. The U-Foes tried to burn down the Avengers West Coast Mansion. Freedom Force attacked Avengers Park, for some reason unrelated to Acts of Vengeance. Mole Man attacked Los Angeles with giant monsters, convinced that the Avengers attacked him first.

Slowly, the Avengers have realized that someone is targeting them, using the general chaos of villains picking unusual fights as cover. But they don't know yet that the someone is a big conspiracy among top villains and the Wizard.

Also, not just in Acts of Vengeance but in general, Scarlet Witch's life has been horrible! Her husband was dismantled, rebuilt without emotions, and decided to professionally separate from her. Not just that but she was crammed full of racism goo and then her babies turned out to be Actually Satan. Then Agatha Harkness erased her memory of ever having children. So because of some or all of that, Wanda keeps lapsing into catatonia.

She's having a difficult time.

Speaking of difficult times, on top of all the villain attacks and HQ destruction, the public has turned against superheroes and Congress is debating a superpower registration act.

Times are tough.

Jarvis, watching the unruly crowd on the security monitors, asks Captain America if there's nothing the Avengers can do to calm the crowd.

Captain America: "Unfortunately not, Jarvis. We're just great when it comes to dealing with super-villains and cosmic menaces... but public opinion is something we cant' possibly control."

That's pretty big talk from a dude wearing a flag. Who gives such great speeches that he has on multiple occasions turned a mob around!

Weirdly, Captain America is sometimes portrayed as just bad and disinterested in PR.

During Kurt Busiek's later run, Cap found himself unable to deal with a concerted PR campaign against the Avengers and turned leadership over to the Wasp.

Which. Okay. That makes sense. I can see her as the Avenger leader great at PR.

(Still though. Captain America talks down mobs so much. You don't even want to try, Cap??)

In this specific instance, the Avengers have other stuff to attend to.

Captain America, Vision, and Wonder Man are going to be diving to where Avengers Island sank to see if they can salvage anything.

I don't know why Wonder Man is here. He was just in California. I'm glad that the Avengers are being more fluid between the East and West but I can't fathom why people are coming and going.

In the meantime, Hawkeye and Mockingbird are holding down the fort in the Midwest with the Great Lakes Avengers.

Who we haven't seen in a bit? Did Byrne backburner whatever he was doing with them?

Meanwhile, the Mandarin lands in Avengers Park and is immediately met with racism.

He is a villain but geez, NYPD officer. Don't be a dick.

Also, I really did mistake the Mandarin for Silver Samurai on first glance. I guess he's upped his game with power armor to better match Iron Man.

A police officer, maybe even the same one that was racist, runs up to the Mandarin and tells him he doesn't know who he is but maybe he better take a hike before he gets arrested for something.

The Mandarin: "Amazing... Do I face a bold warrior, or a blustering buffoon? It matters not."

And then he burns the guy to death with one of his special rings.

The police open fire on the Mandarin but he blocks the bullets with a force field and then starts killing cops.

Although, really, he's here to fight the Avengers.

Back at "Prime Movers" HQ, Doctor Doom is outraged at how dumb the Mandarin is.

VICTOR VON DOOM: "Dolt! Moron! How has this fool survived so long as a foe of Iron Man... when his every word and action shows him to have the fighting sense of a novice in a nunnery!!"

Doom says that if Doom were in the Mandarin's place, Doom would have reduced the Avengers' backup HQ to a crater instead of wasting time terrorizing cops.

Red Skull comes in just in time to zing Doom by pointing out how often Doom gets ousted from his own kingdom.

Doom doesn't like being talked to like that but Red Skull persists, saying... uh... I'm pretty sure he's saying that in his time (World War II) he would have had someone like Doom (guess) tortured and killed just for funsies.

It's really cathartic when Doom backhands Red Skull and tells him off for "angering your betters!"

But Red Skull turns being slapped across the room into a flip and pulls a science gun on Doom.

Apparently, Red Skull has been placed into a new peak-human body? I don't really know what's been going on with him but I suspect there's always something like that happening with the Skull so he can keep up with Captain America.

Red Skull's science gun must be really potent because he shoots Doctor Doom and the guy goes flying to smash into one of those big computer monitors.

Kingpin comes in at the noise and is not impressed with his fellow top villains.

Kingpin: "Well, well, well... The childre are at play again, I see."

Red Skull threatens to shoot him too but crime man has more dunking to do.

Kingpin: "Spare me your preachings, Nazi. If I have learned nothing else in my brief association with you and Doctor Doom... I have learned that neither of you understands the true meaning, the true source of the power you claim to possess. You are infants in the modern world... playing your little games of world conquest... feint and counter feint... While all the while the true power slips ever through your fingers." Red Skull: "You... dare... ?!!" Kingpin: "Yes, Skull. I dare. The Kingpin of crime dares all."

I think he talks a big game but he is consistently slapped down when he tries to reach past really powerful at normal crime. But then again, he usually isn't interested in anything beyond that. There's no profit in the end of the world, etc etc.

Meanwhile, Captain America and Wonder Man (who doesn't need a diving helmet but is wearing one anyway to be like the cool kids) dive down to the sunken Avengers Island.

Alas, fair island headquarters. We barely knew ye.

The good news is that since Avengers Island was a floating artificial island, a lot of the equipment was water-proofed Just In Case.

Water-proofed enough to be salvageable after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for a day or so?

They won't know until they haul stuff out. Which isn't today. Today is just poking around and moving some smaller stuff.

They're interrupted by Jarvis calling on the emergency channel.

Jarvis who is wearing his eyepatch again.

The book really goes back and forth on whether he needs it or is just wearing it to look cool.

It looks very cool. You do you, Jarvis.

Anyway, he reports that some dude is trying to blast through the ground of Avengers Park to get to the sub-basement.

Captain America ID's the guy as the Mandarin and the three Avengers haul ass towards New York.

Captain America: "Jarvis is a good man, but we've left him holding the fort too many times in the past." Vision: "I concur, Captain America. And against a foe like the Mandarin I fear even one so resourceful as Jarvis may be at a loss."

I like that it sounds like Vision is saying, with his computer logic, that if it was someone less than the Mandarin, Jarvis would kick their ass.

If it was Stilt-Man, Jarvis would have him flat on his ass in no time.

In the most recent Avengers comic as of this typing, (Avengers vol 9 #11) Jarvis and Jarvis' assistant beat the shit out of the Mad Thinker. Jarvis can throw hands.

Anyway.

The Wizard is also flying towards the Mandarin.

He noticed the guy leave the very secret headquarters and went to go call him an idiot for messing up the Wizard's very well-planned Acts of Vengeance. Yup, this is Wizard's plan and the Mandarin is screwing it up by attacking the Avengers too soon!

Then the Wizard gets tackled by Wonder Man because he wasn't watching his own ass.

The Wizard breaks free, blasting Wonder Man into the ground, while mocking that he wasted time with bluster like all heroes do.

Vision tries to tangle with Wizard next but he also made the mistake of loudly announcing his presence.

You'd think his computer brain would have told him not to do that.

Wizard easily dodges away from Vision's grasp and then Russian reversals by fisting Vision instead of vice versa.

Alas, Vision. Turns out losing your emotions has not made you a more efficient fighter. You get punked basically the same as always.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in California, the Avengers West Coast Compound and specifically Wanda's house.

After getting back from the Quinjet crash, I guess Hank and Wasp just propped Wanda up in a chair and left her to Agatha Harkness to watch.

Because that's where she is.

Propped up catatonic in a chair and being watched by Agatha Harkness.

Agatha Harkness: "*Sigh* It is still no use, Ebony. My former pupil is utterly unresponsive. She has suffered too many traumas in the past few weeks even for her to bear. Her robot husband, kidnapped, dismantled, reprogrammed... Her beloved children revealed as nothing more than figments of her mutant imagination. And, most recently, having her mind stolen from her by the Deviant known as Ghaur, part of his plan to turn her into one of the Brides of..."

I notice you conveniently left out where you magically wiped her memories of ever having children.

And I feel that very well could be related to whatever is going on with her brain.

Agatha.

Anyway, Agatha gets distracted. She feels like someone is coming up to the house but none of the proximity alarms are alarming.

She goes outside and sees no one, not even with her Special Eyes.

(Special magic eyes)

Then the house launches into space, without her.

Surprise, it's Magneto.

(Also surprisingly funny, it's implied that launching a house into orbit was his anti-magic contingency for getting one over on Agatha)

Magneto: "Now it is time for a long delayed reunion. Good afternoon, daughter. What a pity you cannot express your joy on seeing me again."

I don't know that she would if she could.

Although, I guess in the Vision and Scarlet Witch Vol 2, she did sorta reconcile with Magneto.

But in these circumstances, I don't think she'd be thrilled to see him.

Especially considering how he continues that thought.

Magneto: "But soon enough will come a time when you will know joy beyond your wildest dreams! The joy only absolute power can bring!"

Go home, old man.

Anyway, back over in the A-plot, Captain America arrives at Avengers Park in a Quinjet. Hellcat and Black Widow also arrive, but by leaping and swinging over rooftops.

Cap promptly gets shot down by the Mandarin.

Right when he was telling the two to hang back since they don't have superpowers.

Mandarin: "You worry so much about others, Captain... When it is you who are most at hazard!"

Ya burnt.

(Also, c'mon, Cap. Black Widow doesn't have powers, maybe, but Hellcat is wearing a suit that jacks her up to superhuman levels. C'mon with that. C'mon.)

Also, also, god damn, another Quinjet going down? Not to mention all the ones that fell into the ocean when Avengers Island sank? That's a lot of damaged and destroyed Quinjets lately.

This has to be hurting Tony in the bank account.

Mandarin tries to chop Captain America. An honorable death for an honorable foe. I mean sure, he's passed out after a plane crash but definitely an honorable death.

Black Widow and Hellcat jump Mandarin to save Cap. They punk him a bit but he manages to toss them away and blast them.

But this gives Cap enough time to recover and he bonks the Mandarin in the head with his shield.

It makes a WHONG! sound against Mandarin's helmet.

Love a good sound effect.

Captain America: "You must be really tired of being corrected by now, Mandarin... So I won't bother telling you how wrong you are. You're quite bright enough to figure it out for yourself!"

Burned.

The Mandarin uses his rings to freeze Cap's feet in a giant block of ice. And then Wizard swoops in to blast Cap.

Captain America flips out of the way, even with the ice weighing him down.

And Wonder Man recovers enough from his earlier attack on the Wizard to fly in and pop the guy in the noggin.

Even looks like he dented his helmet. Nice.

Mandarin complains that the Wizard's interference ruined his plan, which was clearly going so well before.

Then he gets hit by Mjolnir and his day gets worse.

Vision melts the ice block off of Cap's legs so now the full team of Thor, Black Widow, Wonder Man, Vision, Captain America, and Hellcat confront the Mandarin and the Wizard.

The Mandarin decides 'fuck this, actually', uses his black light ring to befuddle the heroes, and then ditches.

Ditches the Wizard to be caught by the Avengers.

Hah!

They think he's just one small fish in the conspiracy but Wizard loudly insists that he's the mastermind.

Captain America: "And you're going to tell us everything you know. We've deduced this current madness is part of some overall scheme to destroy the Avengers. We also know, courtesy of Cloak and Dagger, that Doctor Doom is somehow behind it all..." Wizard: "Then you know nothing, Captain. Do you really think a blustering charlatan such as Doom could craft a plan so ingenious in its multifarious texturings? This plan is mine, and mine alone! The others who I have recruited to my needs may well believe each move they make is of their own devising... But it is the wondrous Wizard who conceived the scheme... and it is I who shall enjoy the final victory!"

Definitely Loki is scrying this interrogation and laughs at how Wizard thinks he's the mastermind when, actually, Definitely Loki is the one pulling the strings.

But Definitely Loki gets interrupted from his favorite hobby in this event, watching things and being smug about it, by the noise of his pawns (the Prime Movers) bickering again.

Red Skull is yelling at the returned Mandarin for ditching the Wizard. Also, he throws in some racism. Because, Red Skull.

Mandarin shoots back that it was Wizard's own fault he got captured, for being stupid.

Definitely Loki points out that maybe they should spring Wizard before he spills too many beans, out of spite.

The Mandarin takes issue with Definitely Loki's presumption and Kingpin implies that he's the mastermind, confusing Red Skull who thinks he's the mastermind.

But then Doom explodes.

Revealing that the Doom that Red Skull easily punked was a Doombot.

(A very Byrne move)

Doom was never directly involved in this plot. He sent a Doombot because he didn't feel like the scheme was worth his attention.

So when this inevitably falls apart, it doesn't reflect on Doom at all!

Kind of a weak point to end an issue on but I love the drama of Doom blowing up from the earlier tussle, revealing it was just a robot.

Next time, Avengers West Coast #55, Acts of Vengeance concludes.

It has felt very bearable, covering only the Avengers parts.

Follow @essential-avengers. Like and reblog these posts, maybe.

[whisperthatruns]

Shrike Tree

Most days back then I would walk by the shrike tree, a dead hawthorn at the base of a hill. The shrike had pinned smaller birds on the tree's black thorns and the sun had stripped them of their feathers. Some of the dead ones hung at eye level while some burned holes in the sky overhead. At least it is honest, the body apparent and not rotting in the dirt. And I, having never seen the shrike at work, can only imagine how the breasts were driven into the branches. When I saw him he'd be watching from a different tree with his mask like Zorro and the gray cape of his wings. At first glance he could have been a mockingbird or a jay if you didn't take note of how his beak was hooked. If you didn't know the ruthlessness of what he did--- ah, but that is a human judgment. They are mute, of course, a silence at the center of a bigger silence, these rawhide ornaments, their bald skulls showing. And notice how I've slipped into the present tense as if they were still with me. Of course they are still with me.                  *                  *                  * They hang there, desiccating by the trail where I walked, back when I could walk, before life pinned me on its thorn. It is ferocious, life, but it must eat, then leaves us with the artifact. Which is: these black silhouettes in the midday sun, strict and jagged, like an Asian script. A tragedy that is not without its glamour. Not without the runes of the wizened meat. Because imagine the luck!---to be plucked from the air, to be drenched and dried in the sun's bright voltage--- well, hard luck is luck, nonetheless. With a chunk of sky in each eye socket. And the pierced heart strung up like a pearl.

Lucia Perillo, Luck Is Luck (2005), reprinted in Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones: Selected and New Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2016)

[drabbles-of-writing]

Wing AU. The Collector is a Caucasian Eagle because that’s the bird that Zeus sent to rip Prometheus’ liver out every night. The Collector keeps their wings underneath his cloak and brings them out in grand shows of power, or to show off, since they’re fucking massive. The Collector absolutely loves to chase other people around and watch them panic cause of how fucking fast he is. After escaping he makes a massive nest on the skull where he keeps all his shinies, and livers. -Punk Anon

consider, consider: caucasian eagle wings that are patterned like a mockingbird, just with a more crescent-like white patch. it's known that the Collector is no True species of bird, but it's still widely debated if they're a hybrid, some weird thing that shifts between different kinds at will, or if they're just so ancient they Aren't any known species today.

and your SO right about the grand show thing. the Collector is already terrifying enough as he is but then he'll just bust out the giant wings when they're being flashy or decide to be a little shit. it works. everyone is doubly terrified. except for Eda, who's in absolute SHAMBLES that she can't fight people over who has the biggest wings in the Isles anymore, cause it sure as hell ain't her.

it's common to see the Collector NYOOMING out of his nest by the skull and around the Isles he's continuously reshaping. He's there in a flash, gone the next. They like to make a habit out of snatching shinies right out from people's noses or just plain out of the air before darting back to their nest. They've started a game where they fly into the sky with King and drop him before diving down to catch him before he hits the ground. Eda hasn't found out about it yet, but when she does, hoooo boy. boutta throw hands with a child

[dailydillard]

Cruelty is a mystery, and the waste of pain. But if we describe a world to compass these things, a world that is a long, brute game, then we bump against another mystery: the inrush of power and light, the canary that sings on the skull. Unless all ages and races of men have been deluded by the same mass hypnotist (who?), there seems to be such a thing as beauty, a grace wholly gratuitous. About five years ago I saw a mockingbird make a straight vertical descent from the roof gutter of a four-story building. It was an act as careless and spontaneous as the curl of a stem or the kindling of a star.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974

[slipsthrufingers]

2, 3, 24 for the book asks please!!

2. Did you reread anything? What?

Yes, a few things for work (The Crucible, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Handmaid's Tale) and a few things for fun reasons: (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Gideon and Harrow the Ninth, The Stand)

I also reread A Court of Thorns and Roses thinking that maybe this time I would find it good because I have seen so many people gushing about it but no. I was right the first time. It's not good.

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Not ranked because that would require more thinking from me that I want without having finished my reading for the year, but these five are definitely up there:

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu

Passing by Nella Larsen

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Yes, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I'd loved The Night Circus but I just could not get into the repetition in her writing style. Where in TNC it had been cutesy and twee this time I found it obnoxious and wanted some more tangible plot to hang onto. I was 2/3rds through and still didn't feel like I knew what the plot was so I gave it up.

Ask me more reading asks!

[mister-e-filman]

Intermission: Bailey and Peter's List of Characters with Multiversal Counterparts

DC Marvel

Adam Strange Star Lord

Alfred Jarvis

Amazo Adaptoid

Anti-Monitor, Imperiex Prime Galactus

Aquaman Namor the Submariner

A.R.G.U.S. S.H.I.E.L.D.

Artemis Kate Bishop

Atomic Skull Ghost Rider

Bane Crossbones

Banshee Silver Banshee

Batman Moon Knight, Knight Thrasher

Beast Boy Reptil

Black Alice Rogue

Black Canary Mockingbird, Black Widow

Black Lightning, Bolt Electro

Black Mask Red Skull

Black Racer The Silver Surfer

Black Spider Spider-Man

Blue Beatle Beatle

Brainiac Ultron

Bumblebee The Wasp

Captain Boomerang Boomerang

Captain Cold Blizzard

Catwoman Black Cat

Cheetah Tiagra

Cinderblock The Thing

Clayface Sandman

Cyborg Deathlok, Machineman

Darkseid Thanos

DC's Enchantress Marvel's Enchantress

DC's Scarecrow Marvel's Scarecrow

Deadshot Bullseye

Deathstroke, Red Tool Deadpool

Dex-Starr Rocket Raccoon

Doom Patrol X-Men

Doomsday Abomination

Dr. Fate Dr. Strange

Dr. Polaris, Dr. Diehard Magneto

Dreamslayer Dormammu

Firestorm Human Torch

Gizmo, Gorgon Dr. Octopus

Godspeed Runner

Gorilla Grodd Gorilla-Man

Green Arrow Hawkeye

Green Lantern Quasar

Green Lantern Corps Nova Corps

Guardian, Cmd. Steele, Gnl. Glory, Shield Captain America

Hawkman Angel, Falcon

H.I.V.E. A.I.M.

Hourman, Calendar Man Father Time

Icicle, Killer Frost Iceman, Jack Jrost

John Constantine Peter Wisdom

Justice League The Avengers, Squadron Supreme

Kid Devil Nightcrawler

Killer Kroc The Lizard

King Shark Tiger Shark

Kismet Eternity

Kobra Hydra

Lobo The Wolverine

Lord Havoc Dr. Doom

Mr. Mxyzptlk Impossible Man

Mogo Ego

Multiplex Multiple Man

Niles Calder Professor X

Phantom Stranger Phantom Reporter

Plastic Man, Elongated Man Mr. Fantastic, Thin-Man

Raven Phoenix

Red Hood The Winter Soldier

Red Lion, Bronze Tiger Black Panther

Red Tornado The Vision

Richard Dragon Shang-Chi

Rocket Red, Steel Iron Man

Scandal Savage X-23

Shazam!, Power Girl Captain Marvel

Soloman Grundy, Damage Hulk

Star Sapphire Moonstone

Starfire Firestar

Stargirl Aurora

Suicide Squad Freedom Force

Superman Gladiator, Hyperion, Sentry, Kallark

Swamp Thing Man Thing

Teen Titans Young Allies

The Atom Ant-Man

The Black Spider Spider-Man

The Flash Quicksilver, the Whizzer

Tobias Whale Kingpin

Tracer, Mammoth Sabertooth

Trigon Marvel's Lucifer, Surtur

Wonder Woman Power Princess

Zatana The Scarlet Witch

Author's note: Sorry about the mess, I tried to keep everything as tidy as possible. I did the best that I could, oh well.