#not including his two “canon” relationships but might update this timeline's final form later

[reevezs]

timestamps/verses.

//obviously, Zach's hair plays a huge role and it's the easiest to divide the timeline using, well, his hair colors. if, for any reason, this timeline doesn't work for our thread and Zach's age should be adjusted differently, I might simply switch to Underetmined. I'll probably put this somewhere below his bio, but his timeline goes like this:

UNDETERMINED

self-explanatory. used mostly for AUs, open starters and/or memes.

MAYBE I SHOULD DROP OUT OR DYE MY HAIR&CHANGE MY NAME

Age 22-24; shoulder-length&brown/bleached&short. | his brother just got married and moved out. Zach stays in the same building they grew up in, but moves a few floors down, to his own studio. he's made a few games and just discovered who he'd like to work with in the future. making a good portfolio to impress his future employer becomes a goal he begins working towards. he starts experimenting with his hair and his first attempt could have been more successful. lesson learned.

AND BABE I FADE TO SILVER; SILVER BLUE

Age 25-27; longer&silver/silver&baby blue. | Zach starts getting recognition for his work. he finally gets hired by his dream company, where he starts working on a new project. his grandpa gifts him his '69 Ford Mustang, which lets Zach enjoy off-the-grid trips more often. regarding his hair journey, Zach accidentally uses the wrong toner and ends up with blueish hair. of course, he does the only right thing – dyes it even more blue.

THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO STOP FEELING THIS BLUE ANYWAY

Age 27-30; shoulder-length electric blue/sometimes slightly faded and/or with purple strands. | after a few years of hard work, the game Zach usually refers to as "the big deal" gets published (Outlast series for reference, keeping the name in cases where the game's title should be mentioned) and it's a huge success. Zach goes back to working on solo projects when he has free time. it is also when he finds a Blue Heeler puppy and, after two weeks of fruitless search for his owners, decides to keep him. he names his new hiking partner Doom Slayer.

[writer-and-artist27]

3, 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 22, 23, 24, and 25 for the get to know your author ask?

Ahhhh! An ask! Thank you, anon. :) Anyways, let’s do this!

3.) What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else?

Considering my working on both Civilian Pianist and The Sea and Stars, I’ll have to say it depends. For CP, I tend to write from front of book to back in terms of the order, with chronological stuff coming with it, but with interludes and so on, I’ve had to delve into the timeline for the sake of consistency. I usually collaborate with Josh and Leo in that regard when it comes to keeping things on track. 

For S&S though? I try to do the same, just with sprinkles of many conversations with Lang and by extension, Beta, on keeping the CYB elements true to some extent (big ones being Kei and a lot of the CYB characters). Sometimes, this leads to me writing favorite scenes first, but then they go into storage for me to figure out for later. Most of the time, it’s still chronological first.

4.) Favorite character you’ve written

I’m actually going to exclude Tomoko from this question considering she is me to an extent. But for actual original characters barring influence like that, Hisako and Judai have been my favorites, with Hisako basically being able to say a lot of things that Tomoko just doesn’t say or won’t, and Judai being that funny, protective-yet-lenient dad I thought he might’ve been had Canon GX gone that way. A runner-up for this category is actually CP Kakashi though, since writing his floundering throughout the entire process of figuring out his feelings for Tomoko have been amusing. :d

8) Favorite genre to write

Emotional fluff. That’s all I can use to describe it. There’s a reason why a lot of early CP had so much hug-inducing fluff, and aside from me getting used to writing for Naruto in general, I enjoy writing those moments of lighthearted joy that Tomoko has when seeing friends (which in a way has shown up again and again in S&S whenever she hugs Kei). It’s only with CP going into arcs such as the Chunin Exams and everything leading up to Kannabi that adding in the emotion really got me going because of how emotionally open I myself can be. 

11) What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

Hm… that’s hard to say since there are still moments where I go to early CP and think, “Holy crap, I wrote that?!” in an incredulous voice before rereading again and realizing, “Hey, this is kinda cute.” But for the aspect I’ve improved in the most, I would like to think I did a lot in the fight scene and rising-action/tension categories. Early CP had so much fluff, it was easy to accidentally lose people in it. But when getting into the hard-hitters, well, they hit hard with my most recent work, so I’m proud to look back at those chapters and pat myself on the back for making them.

12) Your weaknesses as an author

Ah. This question. Well, I can only think of two:

Falling back on others a little too often when my writing muse comes to a screeching halt (I mean, Lang’s seen a lot of my stuff when I’ve floundered to the point where I’m surprised she still likes reading my stuff, and there have been many moments where I held myself back from calling Josh and Leo for the sake of trying to figure something out on my own)

Missing commas and em dashes (basically “—”). This is yet another reason why early CP is kinda on the love-hate category for me, because past me missed so many commas. Argh.

13) Your strengths as an author

Just one I can think of:

Delving into the emotions of the character I’m writing in. Even if I struggle with understanding the character in some way (e.g. Kei since she is Lang’s OC, not mine, so she’s harder to write for), getting into their minds and showing the emotion that can come from them is my specialty somehow. Whether it’s because I’m so emotionally open in real life, or just me trying to understand the motivations of the people around me, it shows in CP and S&S really well to where I’m proud (and also kinda mortified) when reviewers comment saying that they’ve cried. Definitely have come a long way from last year, even if I still flounder from embarrassment at seeing my early stuff.

15) Why did you start writing?

I can only really think of a few reasons. Hope you don’t mind the long text post. *scratches head* Then again, you’ve come this far, and I’m grateful. :)

To convey an idea I really wanted to write that no one had really done so far. I’ve said before that CP started with the question of “What if Kakashi had a best friend?”, and that still stands. Adding in how there are very few Civilian OCs that I’ve seen in the Naruto fandom, along with the low coverage of civilians in Naruto in general, that was one factor.

Lang inspired me. Simple as that. Catch Your Breath literally caught my heart when I discovered it in the summer of 2015 (at least, I think it was 2015, I can’t fully remember), and when seeing Kei, I wanted to try writing something along the lines of that too. Not to mention, it’s because of Lang that I got back into Naruto, and I can’t thank her enough. 

Silver Queen’s Dreaming of Sunshine made me see beyond fanfiction again. Shikako caught my heart just as much as Kei.

I wanted to reflect on the growth I’ve done so far as a person. There’s a reason aside from angst as to why I had Vy die at age 18 to the point of it affecting Tomoko in her new life, since so much has happened since then. I’m still attending college, figuring things out little by little, but Tomoko is essentially that self-reflection that I never got to do until now. And seeing how I could’ve been while also exploring the current me in writing has been very much worth it.

I wanted to see what it was like. Posting on Fanfiction and all. Cross-posting on other sites (including AO3) was never really my thing, and my old FFN profile was just sitting on the website, dusty and all after a few select reviews for an old fanfic a friend was doing, so I just dusted it off and got to work.

18) Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?

Yes, there were. No doubt about that. For fanfic stuff…

Catch Your Breath. Still my main inspiration to this day. 

Dreaming of Sunshine, especially since it started the whole SI-OC genre in general.

Deja vu no Jutsu, for the worldbuilding and the limits that a writer can surpass (since Vixen Tail wrote a lot to take in, and it’s hard when your brain’s not hardwired for binging), and

Inoue Shiori by Hermionechan90. This was actually the first ever Civilian OC fic for Naruto I ever read, and after seeing Shiori’s accomplishments and her realm in the shinobi world, it got me thinking.

As for books…

Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series. For the mystery and attention to historical detail.

Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling and following books in the Cormoran Strike series, for being a mystery series that I found myself loving.

22) Are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

Sex scenes or anything related to smut, period. First, because I’m a demisexual person and the idea of Tomoko doing that kind of stuff equals “WHAT.” 

(Not helped by how Hisako is my spiritual avatar in the sense of protecting the girl, just because she’s so precious to me and the idea of her doing that equals O^O). 

And secondly… well, those CP fans who have seen Chapter 21 and my later “Announcement” chapter will easily understand why. For others, let’s just say I’m not as protected from society’s stuff as it might seem. I’ve seen some uncomfy stuff too, and it’s hard. 

23) Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

I feel like this is a weird answer, but strangely, my interactions with the older members of my family factor into this. The reason why I personally feel Judai and Hikari are so powerful in CP’s narrative (and not just because they’re honoring my original fanfiction roots in trying to write for Yugioh GX or their being our main heroine’s parents) is because my real Mom and Dad are personally involved in my life. I try to keep them updated every day I can, they help me whenever they can, and it’s been a mutually beneficial and loving relationship. I’ve seen my parents falter and worry, as Judai and Hikari have in-story, while also having a first-hand idea of how even adults in a child’s life can make mistakes (considering how things in life can be - my parents coming from Vietnam more so). So, having them in my life really helped in fleshing out the adult figures in Tomoko’s life, Judai and Hikari included.

24) Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

I would like to say ‘yes’ to this, but for once, I don’t think I can. I’ve had to research things to the point of knowing the subject matter better (e.g. wartimes in Naruto, looks into the psychological state that Tomoko might have, etc), but I still had outside help in the form of Josh, Leo, and by extension, Lang, Beta, and Abalisk. So I can’t call myself an expert. But considering how a lot of my stories have been rooted in emotion, I think I’m in fair territory.

25) Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of.

Oooh. Well, I don’t want to say too much, but an entire snippet for you, anon! This is all thanks to you~ :D 

The following scene was actually something I wrote while I was on my summer road trip, thinking it would be for the aftermath of S&S Chapter 13 (where the Drunk Guy incident happened, just with a better ending in the final version), but after some convos with Lang, Beta, and Leo, this specific scene ended up being scrapped (especially since Tomoko was saved much earlier than in CP, with the culprit not even being able to touch her). That doesn’t mean I still don’t like it - no - I just feel bad that I wasn’t able to include this!

Being set up to rest in my room for most of the day felt almost suffocating. Even if I knew it was for my own good.

Apparently trying to cook pancakes on my own after a long night seemed to not be the best idea I had in mind. Even if it sounded good at the time.

I gave everyone I knew such a bad scare last night, I had thought making them breakfast would be a good way to cheer them up. Instead, everyone was clamoring towards me, bustling me back into bed without even letting me finish cooking.

If I wasn’t physically a child already, this said more than enough.

Trying to sleep was difficult though. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of the endless stream of thoughts going through my head about what had happened and what I should be doing now or the state of my throat (which Kei did try to tend to again this morning before putting me back into my futon), but my eyes just couldn’t close. Sure, I could blink, but actually falling asleep didn’t seem like an option.

So instead, I was left staring up at the ceiling, counting the number of tiles up there while occasionally testing my voice with some light singing. Needless to say, it didn’t go so well.

“Haaa… haagh.”

I could’ve been a wheezing teapot if I didn’t know any better.

At least a notebook and pencil was left in reaching distance for me to use if I wanted to talk. My throat seemed to not be happy with me if I tried anyways.

I was already reaching 30 tiles when the door opened. Without even sitting up, I knew it was Kei from the casual sleepwear and messy black bedhead alone, walking in with a tray of food.

“You doing alright there, Tomo?” she said, voice quiet but still recognizable.

With my voice gone, I could only really nod and put on the best smile I could offer.

It was a broken smile, but a smile nonetheless.

But judging by Kei’s face, she didn’t believe the smile or me. Instead, she locked the door behind her, walked over to set the food to my right side and then hung her head. She wasn’t looking at me, but I could tell she was disturbed about something.

Then, she looked up at me with resolute eyes. “… I think I’ll ask Minato-sensei if I can take a break from missions.”

My heart froze.

Whether or not my panic showed on my face, Kei seemed to notice it enough and shook her head. “I know what you’re thinking, Tomo. This is the time of the Third Shinobi World War, and I should get some more experience out there before Kannabi happens.”

I nodded my head as fast as I could, not even caring that my hair was slapping my face while doing so.

“But Tomo, you didn’t see it.” Kei took a breath, and I didn’t miss how her hands clenched the sides of my blanket. “You didn’t feel your own chakra when it happened.”

Now I was feeling confused. In my funk, I sat up and reached over to grab the notebook, flipping to the first blank page to scribble. It took a few moments, but by the time I looked up at her again, Kei was inclining her head at me in confusion once I turned the notebook over in her direction.

What do you mean, Kei? What does my chakra have to do with this?

“Tomo…” Kei then sighed, reaching over to poke my head. “Tomo, Tomo, Tomo.” With each repetition of my new nickname, she poked my forehead, and I found myself getting a bit irritated. “I’m a sensor, remember? And even if you’re okay now, you didn’t feel your chakra when you got attacked yesterday. You… You didn’t know how close you were to… well.” She paused, looking up at me again and I couldn’t miss the amount of emotion rolling through her eyes. “I almost lost you yesterday, Tomo.”

Oh. I opened my mouth, then closed it. The throbbing in my throat was becoming more obvious.

What am I supposed to say right now?

“I-I can’t…” Kei clenched her fists again as she looked down. “That can’t happen again. Until everything boils down, I want to be there for you if any bastards target you again.”

I could only find myself mouthing Kei’s name before closing my mouth again.

What was I supposed to say?

I glanced down at my own hands before the lightbulb went off. Then, I turned to another page in the notebook, scribbling again. Near me, I could hear Kei’s confused grunt at my actions. I was honestly hoping what I was writing was enough to reassure her.

Kei needed to hear my opinion at least. Even if I couldn’t physically voice it.

When I finally turned the page over in her direction, I tried to hide my own gulp.

I’ll be okay. I’m not fully alright now, but I’ll be okay. You don’t have to worry about me, Kei. You should focus on your training and your work so that this doesn’t happen again.

I’ll be alright.

Once Kei finished scanning my message, she looked up at me with softened eyes before reaching over. The last thing I was expecting was for her to push my notebook down into my lap before pulling me into a hug. “Tomo, you’re not fine at all. And it’s okay for you to rely on friends sometimes, y’know.”

I opened my mouth again, only to close it.

A hand started to run through my hair. “You’re my friend, Tomo, so let me be here for you. Please.”

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (137/158)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Thirty Six

“So where are all the stones?” Bruce asked. “Or rather, where were they?”

They all looked to Thor. Bruce still found it a little weird to see him with an eye again -- especially one that was a different color -- after seeing him for so long with an eyepatch. Thor was -- he was different. Thanos had done this. Thor had lost so much even before and unlike everyone else who seemed to have some some hope that those that had been dusted would return -- Thor’s losses wouldn’t be changed.

Bruce would never say he had trusted Loki -- but he more than anyone had gotten to see the complicated relationship that Thor and Loki had and in the end Loki did care for his people and it had seemed like he was more than willing to help going against Hela. Apparently the best way to unite two siblings was to put them against another sibling. There was also of course Loki’s attempt to stab Thanos. Thor had told him about Loki’s final moments. How he’d had the Space Stone on him somehow and he’d tried to trick Thanos only to fail. Thor had watched him die,

“It’s real this time,” Thor had said at the time. “He’s really dead.”

“The Space Stone was taken from my brother when Thanos attacked us,” Thor said. “Before then -- it was in the vault in Asgard where it was taken after the Chitauri attack in New York.”

“Shield had it before Loki got ahold of it,” Tony added.

Friday started mapping everything out visually for them, bringing up a picture of the tesseract as a way to identify it.

Carol who had was leaning against one of the tables stood up straight again, suddenly. “Wait,” she said. “That’s the power source -- that’s -- Goose ate that.”

“A goose did what now?” Tony asked.

Carol stepped forward and she pointed at the image of the tesseract. “That cube, Goose ate it and Fury kept Goose. I guess he got it back eventually if Shield had it.”

Bruce felt as confused as the rest of them probably were.

“Goose as in Fury’s cat?” Natasha asked.

Carol gave a short nod.

“I feel like I didn’t know Fury at all,” Tony said. “Super spy had a cat?”

Bruce didn’t think their conversation was at all relevant, but it was Steve that spoke up. “At least we know where the Space Stone has been over the years. What about the other stones?”

“I didn’t even know that was an Infinity Stone,” Carol said and there was something like awe in her voice, as if she was realizing something but she didn’t want to say it outloud.

“Okay. Quick overview. We know that Strange had the Time Stone -- was protecting it anyway,” Tony said.

“And Vision ended up with the Mind Stone,” Natasha said. “Before that it was on the scepter that we took from Sokovia.”

“Right,” Tony said and Friday updated the display.

“The Reality Stone was taken to the Collector by Sif,” Thor said, “we thought it’d be safer to not keep two stones together.”

“Smart,” Natasha said.

Bruce glanced at her. She had her arms crossed and she was looking at the display and Tony with interest. Next to her, Nebula had her usual stoic look, but somehow Bruce could see that she was definitely interested. He suspected that she knew a lot more about the stones than most of them due to her connection with Thanos.

“That’s four,” Carol said.

“What do we know about the other two stones?” Steve asked.

“The Power Stone and The Soul Stone,” Tony said.

“The Power Stone was given to the Nova Corps,” Rocket said. “My team and I gave it to them after Quill found it in some sort of cave. It’s how the team got formed.”

“And the Soul Stone?” Tony asked.

Bruce hadn’t heard about anyone encountering that stone. None of the others seemed to have any idea about it either and yet Thanos had had it meaning he must have gotten it from somewhere.

Nebula cleared her throat and didn’t seem entirely pleased to have them all look in her direction. “My sister figured out the location of the stone long ago. Thanos ordered her to find it and she did. It’s in Vormir. That’s where Thanos got it from.”

“Vormir,” Rocket said.

“That’s the six stones,” Rhodes said.

Tony nodded. He paced a little. Friday had added as much information as she could about the stones. Images and facts on what they knew about them.

“Now we only have to figure out how to get to them before Thanos does,” Tony said. “So the question is, where and when did he get the stones?”

Bruce could tell that there was a whole lot more for them to plan out and figure out but they were headed in the right direction and that was enough for the moment because it meant that they might yet find a way to set the world right.

---

Tony had timelines for each of the stones. It hadn’t taken them long to pinpoint where all the stones had been. Some like the Soul Stone had probably been stationary on that alien planet for a long time but he could tell that Nebula thought there was a trick to getting it -- something that kept anyone from just stopping by to grab it. Some of the others like The Mind Stone and the Space Stone had obviously been in a few different hands.

They could trace the Space Stone down to Steve’s time and then Howard had fished it out of the sea and it was Friday that got them the information on what happened to the Tesseract after Howard found it. Project Pegasus, research that joined NASA, the US Air Force, and Shield into trying to harness the power of the Tesseract. Tony sort of remembered reading a bit about it at some point, but it hadn’t seemed important at the time.

Carol filled them in on her part of it and Tony didn’t know if he or Rhodey were more shocked to find out that she had been an Air Force pilot. In the end, Carol told them the stone ended up with Fury and it remained with Shield until Loki stole it and then he opened up that wormhole with it allowing all the Chitauri into New York. In the meanwhile, Loki had had control of another stone -- the Mind Stone.

“It came from Thanos,” Bruce said. “He gave the Scepter to Loki so that Loki could enslave Earth and bring Thanos back a second stone.”

“He didn’t care if he won or not,” Tony said with some thought. “Loki just thought it was fun. He was following orders but he didn’t care one way or the other--”

And they had all thought that it was all Loki and that he had wanted to control Earth for some reason or another. Tony looked towards Thor.

“Loki is the god of mischief,” Thor said. “More interested in self-preservation until--” He trailed off and Tony could understand what Thor was going through. No matter what Loki was, he had still been Thor’s brother.

While the Space Stone -- the Tesseract -- had been taken with Loki to Asgard, the Mind Stone had remained on Earth with Shield and Hydra had gotten ahold of it. It was later, in the aftermath of Shield turning out to be Hydra that they started searching for it. Eventually, it would end up bringing Vision to life.  

The more they went over everything the more they realized how much influence the stones had on their lives. Thor told them about the Aether -- The Reality Stone -- and how Jane Foster had been able to become a vessel for the stone. Before Jane came upon it on accident no one had known where the stone was. In the end, Odin had sent the stone somewhere safe with someone named The Collector.

“I’ve met the guy,” Rocket put in, “kinda weird and kinda obsessed with the stones. He was willing to pay a pretty penny for the Orb.”

“With a name like The Collector, what did you expect?” Tony asked.

He liked Rocket. The guy was snarky and pretended like he didn’t care and yet Tony could tell that he was broken up about the loss of his team. Tony was actually a bit curious about how Rocket and Quill got along since they both seemed to be of the opinion that they each lead the team. But Rocket was also brilliantly smart and Tony appreciated all the input that Rocket gave them.

“Yeah, well,” Rocket said, “I just wanted my share of the units.”

Rocket told them about his own encounter with The Collector and the stone that Quill had found and that Rocket had tried to steal from him. Gamora had been after it as well.

“She was supposed to bring it back to Thanos,” Nebula put in. “Of course, she aimed to betray him and I -- I meant to take it from her and take the glory of bringing the stone in.”

“Not your finest moment,” Tony said.

Nebula shook her head and her lips quirked up.

“In the end, we took the stone and gave it to the Nova Corps and in return none of us went back to prison,” Rocket said.

“The Nova Corps was obliterated,” Carol said.

“Probably as a result of Thanos taking the stone,” Natasha said.

The Time Stone was with Strange and none of them could pinpoint when Strange had gotten the stone or where it had been before Strange was tasked with protecting it. When Tony asked Friday about Doctor Strange she brought up all kinds of files about him and Tony was only a little surprised to learn how successful he’d been as a neurosurgeon before his accident.

“Didn’t -- I think Helen mentioned him to me once,” Tony said. “I didn’t put that together after meeting him.”

It was Rhodey that answered. “Yeah, Tones, he would have been able to fix me. Probably.”

“Oh.”

Tony hadn’t noticed Strange’s hands -- maybe he hadn’t looked closely enough -- but if the accident happened in 2016, they could assume that Strange hadn’t become the guardian of the Time Stone or a user of the mystic arts or whatever he’d called them until after his accident. Before that Tony could only assume that the stone had been in some other wizard’s possession. Maybe Wong’s.

“We know where and when they’ve all been more of less,” Steve said, speaking for the first time in a while.

When Tony looked in his direction, he found that Steve had begun drawing up a graphic for the stones and their timeline on the dry erase board.  

“Some will be easier to get to than others,” Tony said and then he looked towards Scott, “and with time travel we might be able to just plan each retrieval. How accurate will our timing be?”

Scott looked a little panicked. “I -- well, the quantum realm is not the most stable place to be but I think it’s possible to control a time vortex. Kind of thought controlled.”

Tony suddenly felt like maybe he was still going to be dead by the time 2025 came about because Scott had a weird way of trying to show how confident he was about something and it was decidedly concerning. If their entire plan hinged on time travel, then the time travel needed to work perfectly.

“We should maybe do better than just suppose that it will work,” Bruce said like the true scientist that he was. “I’m going to need you to tell me everything you know.”

“I have everything that Janet had and she was kind of the expert.”

Tony didn’t say anything, but he could have face palmed. Hadn’t Scott realized that they probably needed to look at that earlier than this moment?

“But you said it works on thought,” Carol said.

“It does,” Scott said. “Well, that’s sort of how I got here...but I didn’t mean to get here so--”

Tony sighed. Steve met his eyes and gave him a small smile and Tony just -- he could do this. Maybe Scott’s thoughts hadn’t been focused enough. Maybe...maybe they needed something that could focus someone’s thoughts in a way that allowed there to be no error.

Chapter One Hundred Thirty Eight