#pre punisher s1

[enneadchosen]

@wcldthngs​ / hearted for jake ( & emlyn )

Wandering the dark streets few dared to venture, Jake’s no stranger to the rougher side of town or the shady alleyways ⏤ feels more at home here, even. The broken and the outcast tossed to the wayside to fend for themselves, left to rot to the rats and filth. He comes here sometimes when he needs information or whenever he’s looking for something to punch, but he finds neither tonight. Eyes narrow at the movement ahead, shape shifting in the darkness. 

Instinct has his hand draw closer to the gun tucked in the back of his jacket, yet he doesn’t grasp it just yet. ❝ You think about jumpin’ me ‘n’ I’ll put a bullet between your eyes, compañero. ❞ It’s a clear warning, one he hoped the stranger would take heed of.

[minervas-hand]

Right to fear, wrong to believe

Just had a horrible realization and needed to meta it out.

How different they were before Edinburgh, when Crowley was sucked down into Hell.

Look at this flirty babygirl in the Bastille:

I mean could he climb that tree any faster?

(This is why I really like fics that place a more physical relationship here, pre-Bastille or just post-Bastille, because c'mon look at them. )

In S1 the next thing is 1862 and Crowley asking for insurance (with a cane ffs). And Aziraphale freaking out with his "fraternizing" BS. It's jarring, until we get 1827 filled in for us in S2.

@takeme-totheworld notes in this post:

Crowley sure went from "our respective head offices don't actually care how things get done" and "nobody ever has to know" to "walls have ears" FAST after Edinburgh. And Aziraphale went from looking at Crowley with hearts in his eyes to "I've been FrAtErNiZiNg" just as quickly. I'm more convinced than ever that Edinburgh was the first time Crowley ever actually got caught and punished for fucking around with Aziraphale/doing good deeds/whatever it was they yanked him back down to Hell for, and it scared the absolute shit out of both of them and changed the whole tone of their relationship after that.

Yes! - it's clear to me as well that the Edinburgh graveyard was a very bad turning point, where they both saw that Hell was listening and would intervene. And it did change their relationship drastically, for over a century and a half (really, until looming Armageddon loosened up the stakes for them).

But what about Heaven?

See the thing is, we know Azi's been worried about Heaven watching him for the past 6000 years.

But they haven't.

[GIFs posted by starrose17]

All this time, and Heaven had not seen them together. Hadn't noticed. Had not even LOOKED.

I want to mention what @starrose17 says about this here in this post:

What I love about this is her choice of words, “went back through the Earth Observation files.” This implies that these photos were already filed somewhere meaning somebody had to have been watching them which meant somewhere in the depths of the bureaucratic heaven there’s an underpaid angel clerk tasked with watching angels on Earth, and he’s been hording photos of his favourite Angel/Demon couple not reporting them to Michael because he wants to see what happens.

And that's exactly what this fic covers!: Spying Omens by @ednav

(Give this a read, it's fabulous.)

While I am here for this being exactly how that happens, the other scenario is colder and worse - there's no one watching, at all. It's just filing automatically and never seen until some Scrivener is called to pull a file.

From @fuckyeahisawthatat's comment here :

I found this scene to be quite chilling, actually. Not only is the idea of Heaven as a surveillance state brilliant (way to make “God is always watching” sound way more ominous) but this is exactly how modern surveillance states work. They don’t actively watch everybody all the time. That’s not physically possible for humans, and even if it is metaphysically possible for Heaven, it’s not a very efficient use of resources. Surveillance states watch people they deem “suspicious.” And once you’ve been put in the category of “suspicious,” they have massive amounts of data that they can comb through to collect a lot of information about you–to retroactively build a case justifying why you’re suspicious, to collect information about where you go and who you associate with, etc.

Yes.

So we either have secret collusion in the rank and file, or we have a surveillance state that is constantly reinforced to its subjects for fear's sake, for control.

(Well, it obviously could be both.)

BUT my point is… Up until Edinburgh, Hell has not been watching (or caring at least). And up until near the end of Armageddon't, neither has Heaven.

Oh, my poor Angel. Thousands of years, of denying yourself, of pushing Crowley away, of carrying around a tension that is it's own constellation.

After 1827 you might have reason, but for the 5000+ years before that?

Thousands of years and Heaven was not watching nor cared.

You were right to fear. And you were wrong to believe.

And that just breaks my heart.

[fairfowl]

As promised! Izzy-centric fic recs!

These are all gonna be pre S2 (and all Steddyhands because I was obsessed for like a year)

@crabgrave

Starting off strong with

1) Battle of the Boyfriends

This fic makes you laugh before it makes you cry. A steddyhands centric dramady mostly from Izzy's point of view, and I love this Izzy very much.

Isn't he precious? They absolutely hurt his feelings

2) Doldrums

This one is a two part series that starts with Izzy leaving the Revenge as Stede and Ed reunite post S1. He recruits Calico Jack and becomes captain of his own ship while he and Jack have a lot of sex (I actually enjoy Jack in this one lol) Ed and Izzy eventually partially work things out

The second part involves Izzy back on the ship in the beginning stages of steddyhands

I think the real strength of this series is Izzy's interactions with everyone, but especially Stede and Oluwande

3) The Nook is for Talking Shit

This is a Calico Jack hate!fic and I'm here for it. Also steddyhands because I've got a problem

In this fic Stede and Izzy bond offer a mutual enemy, and Izzy teaches Stede how to craft the perfect insult

I like that they laugh together, and I really like it when Stede stands up for Izzy ♡ (I also like that Izzy has a very good reason to hate Jack that involves him having been injured very badly)

4) Navigating By the Light of Your Stars

A delicious sandwich of a trilogy where the bread is BlackHands and Stizzy relationship studies, and the meat is steddyhands smut.

Featuring: GrayAce!Izzy, whump, Stede’s introduction to BDSM, and discussions of mortality ♡

5) A Pirate Triptych

Another steddyhands trilogy!

This is one I've seen on many recommendation lists and it is worth it. These men and their guilt I swear ♡

Post S1 Izzy schemes to get Stede back into Ed's good graces at his own expense.

If you like Izzy whump this is the fic for you

6) More Vivid than Sunsets, Brighter than Stars

On a shorter and sweeter note this little steddyhands bdsm fic explores Izzy running his mouth and Stede and Ed going a little too far in order to punish him. Everyone gets their feelings hurt ♡

Everyone is characterized well here but Ed is kind of the star of the show, he has to mediate this incident and he's hilarious

7) House of Mirrors

This one is pure Izzy whump with steddyhands caretaking. Izzy is sick, Ed spirals, Stede is Exhausted (tm)

I reread this one often

anyway I think this is what I have for now, I might post another list at some point because there are a couple of longfics that are very near and dear to my heart, plus S2 is not gonna stop me from reading new fic. I look forward to seeing more amputee!Izzy

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Okay but can we talk about how Diavolo treats Lucifer in Nightbringer! I'm obsessed with the clear difference and what it implies! Because it's so good!

In S1, Diavolo and Lucifer are clearly friends and Diavolo is very openly infatuated with Lucifer but Lucifer has trauma related hangups about it and so puts a wall between them and is deferential to Diavolo. Their relationship is not equal despite the fact that they're friends

In the present (s2 to post s4) Lucifer and Diavolo are much better friends. Lucifer has moved past those previous hangups and due to that Lucifer is more open with him. Their relationship is that of equals now that Lucifer no longer hesitates to give his honest opinion to Diavolo rather than just being a yes man. Lucifer even punishes Diavolo, the way he does to his brothers + MC & Solomon, & honestly nothing shows the change in Lucifer's mindset more than that

Pre Nightbringer, which we see in the Glory Days Devilgram & in parts of S3, Angel! Lucifer distrusts and even dislikes Diavolo. Diavolo is still extremely infatuated. Over the course of the day they spend together, Lucifer relaxes around Diavolo and is more receptive to him. They're again on equal ground here

In Nightbringer, Diavolo's been unexpectedly thrust into the role of the ruler of his entire realm and he's struggling due to the tension with the celestial realm, with his citizens, with the more conservative noble demons. It's a year after the Fall and Lucifer and his brothers are clearly at Diavolo's mercy. They're war criminals with nowhere else to go. Since this is after Glory Days he's probably still just as infatuated with Lucifer. But he never shows it. He's friendly but also cool and professional and strict. Willing to enforce his law because there are many who doubt his abilities as a ruler. He's also nowhere near as confident as S1-4 Diavolo

He has a completely different attitude towards Lucifer, despite his possibly still existing feelings towards Lucifer, because:

1.) His ability as a ruler matters more and he can't be swayed by personal feelings

2.) Lucifer and he are very much not on equal grounds at the moment

Despite all of Diavolo's best intentions (most of which he is right about within the context of the type of story obey me is about) he tends to be very oblivious about other people's feelings until they are spelt out for him (something that is addressed in S3) but seeing him being so aware of the very delicate situation he's found himself in is amazing

Related posts:

Diavolo & Lucifer's relationship development

Lucifer's current attitude with diavolo

Diavolo & Lucifer being v. gay because as amazing as it is to see what they were like before, I miss their married era part 1

part 2

[thesherrinfordfacility]

so here's what we're told about the bet with satan:

god will allow whatever happens to job and his family to happen without intervention

heaven is following these orders, the terms of the permit, and will not interfere at all; whatever happens to job is in fact up to satan and hell's own actions

aziraphale considers the possibility that god does not necessarily want job and his family to suffer - or more specifically, that crowley is wrong

crowley is steadfast to the contrary, and asserts that god's will must be that the children die, and to question god is essentially to follow the same kind of fate (or as close as).

all of this is stating the fairly-obvious, i know. but i think we're possibly, once again, reading this scene and taking crowley's word for it - understandable, given that the minisode starts, and continues to be for a lot of scenes, from crowley's perspective. but there is nothing to indicate that god actively wants suffering brought on job and his family, nothing to show that that was her intent; satan seemed to initiate the bet, going by muriel's whole account, and god is letting whatever happens, happen.

because that's the thing: standing by and watching whilst hell does so is not, arguably, the right thing to do, but it is the right thing for god to do; to let her creation do what it wants. if hell chooses to go ahead with putting job and his family through hardship, then she will not - and should not - stop it. even when job is beseeching to her for answers, she does not give them; she cannot and will not get involved.

crowley and aziraphale do the right thing by putting a stop to it all, and i think that was the plan, particularly of the ineffable variety - not that crowley and aziraphale were pre-destined to stop it per se, but that all the players of her game would act on their own, and make their own choices. they would exercise their free will as they see fit, whether to cause suffering, or to prevent it. free will is not necessarily a good thing, but it is the right thing. this is the game of her own devising.

i also want to consider that this very situation may turn out to be, in part, a parallel of the fall. in the minisode, it seems that the reason why aziraphale didn't fall is because he did exactly as god intended - to act of his own free will, according to what he thought was right - but equally he would not have fallen if he had done the opposite (regardless of how he would essentially punish himself if he had told gabriel the truth). i don't think that god is in the business of punishing anyone, regardless of their motivations or moral alignment, if they are acting out of free will.

and further from this, i don't think god had a hand in the fall at all, not beyond it being - essentially - cool with her if some of her angels didn't agree with her plans for the universe. i don't think she cast them out in the way we're all imagining it to have happened. i think some of her creations acted with cruelty out of free will, and others did not. crowley obviously, more than likely anyway, belongs in the latter category. but she cannot interfere, she cannot and will not take free will away from them.

what crowley thought were her orders were unlikely to have ever been that at all. if anything - wherever crowley is or isn't placed in the narrative of the fall - i think she likely excused herself from deciding the fate of the fallen altogether, and left it to 'her people' to decide. her inaction, to allow the fall to happen, may not have been the right thing, but it ultimately the right thing for her to do. (frankly, i think we can take pontius pilate's handling of jesus' trial in Matthew as some further kind of parallel here)

then take into account aziraphale's constant rhetoric throughout s1 and s2 that humanity has a choice, that everyone has choices; i think he potentially understands god a little more than he's given credit for. and when he says that he's on god's side, specifically doesn't say heaven's, i think that's more literal than even he knows.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Post-S2 Fic Promotion Time

Summary: After being punished in Heaven for being in love as angels, Aziraphale and Crowley spend the next 6,000 years pretending their relationship never happened. Rating: E Chapters: 6/? Tags: Pre-Fall, Angel Crowley, Crowley has Trauma from the Fall, Aziraphale and Crowley Through The Ages, Post-Season/Series 02, Anxious Aziraphale, Mutual Pining, First Kiss, Guilt, 6000 Years of Repression, Arguing, Crying, Rejection, Getting Back Together, First Time, Angst with a Happy Ending

As the summary says, this fic features Aziraphale and Crowley through the ages, with the important difference of each scene in the timeline (some from the show, some made up by me) being altered by their attempt to ignore their former romance in Heaven as angels, and Aziraphale blaming himself for Crowley's Fall :D It’s a lot of angst, especially with Aziraphale thinking his romantic feelings are dangerous for Crowley, but it’ll have a happy ending.

This is a WIP, but the next chapter will tackle the events of s1 (the bandstand...👀), so we're going to catch up to the Final Fifteen soon enough.

Read here, please and thank

[princess-of-the-corner]

It's just like, even at first when the show was more joking in the first two seasons I was squinting at the fact that Marinette had like 3 love rivals and she was already awful to Lila in the s1 finale (which was an abuse of power) but then her willingly working with her bully to bully someone else just because Kagami was actually capable of forming a relationship with Adrien and then all that other stuff later with Chloé. Like, four girls being the worse to each other over a guy? Obviously that's Girl Power (/sarcasm)

Yeah no like.

Marinette being jealous is still a problem. Her doing questionable shit like stalking Lila or humiliating and sabotaging Kagami is bad(doubly so with Kagami because there is no justification like having proof she's of questionable morality). But pre-Season 5 I'd brush it off as fictional sitcom bad. Where yeah that shit's bad but the severity of it is cut by the tone of the show like many fictional series do.

Then Derision is like 'This thing was super fucking traumatizing to Marinette and she tried to do it to Kagami' but Marinette is still a 100% Good Person™ who doesn't get punished for this at all while Chloé is an irredeemable monster?

[annabelle1901]

Lost Frank Castle x Karen Page fic

Hi! So I don't really interact with anyone on Tumblr but I don't really know what else to do, so here we go. I'm back on my Kastle bullshit <3 and I've been trying to find this old fan fiction on AO3 that I started reading years ago. Stopped reading after a certain point but had the tab open on my phone and I thought I'd continue reading eventually.. And then my phone got stolen, and I forgot the title & author name. Not great. I've dedicated the past few days to looking for it and so far I got nothing.

So what I'm gonna do is write down everything I remember like a mad woman in the hope that this jogs someones memory. Please help me this fic haunts me. ANY sort of reference or whatever could potentially help (Tumblr posts, links, screenshots, Google history, etc)

Fandom: Daredevil/ the Punisher obv

Pairing: Frank Castle/ Karen Page

Rating: probably explicit (canon typical violence and eventual smut)

Published: 2016-2017 (started post s2 Daredevil but pre The Punisher s1 because I don't remember any of the plot or characters from that show showing up) might have been deleted in 2020ish

Length: has to be +10 chapters (long chapters as well, don't know if it was finished)

Characters: Matt Murdock/ Daredevil, Foggy Nelson, Claire Temple, Elektra Natchios (I vividly remember them making some sort of appearance)

now let's get really unhinged...

Plot:

Pretty sure the story starts on Karen's birthday but her mood is meh.. She's on her way home or something, gets in her car and Shining Star starts playing which let's her know that Frank was recently there. Something else must have alarmed her because she goes looking for him and finds him in like an alley around her building. He's in really bad shape, bloody practically dying. She carries him to her apartment and either helps him herself or calls Claire Temple.*

*Don't think it was in this part of the story but she helps Frank and makes a joke about him not being healthy enough to be sleeping with Karen anytime soon which makes them blush. Don't think they were intimate yet but tensions were rising.

For the next couple of chapters I remember it was mainly beautifully written angst between them in this contained space while he's healing. Karen doesn't want Frank to get killed while being the Punisher, he resists her care and tries to hurt her by saying "You aren't Maria and could never be" or something.

I also vividly remember a scene where he's grieving and keeps like tugging on this necklace Karen has on while he cries in her arms. She leaves her necklace at his family's graves and the groundskeeper or something tells her not to do that because it'll get stolen but she knows that but does it anyway as a sign of respect.

They sort admit their feelings eventually but don't sleep together yet because they know they can't go back after that. For some reason Frank needs to leave the city for a little while to re-home a dog I believe he found while on a "mission" and the idea is that the time apart will help them decide whether or not they want to be together. They reunite on a sunny, lovely day in the city and go back to her apartment and lots of smut ensues. Daredevil shows up at midnight/ morning to get Frank. Something's going down he needs his help. It doesn't end well somehow Karen gets involved and they both go to the same hospital. Frank is in a coma and Karen visits him when she's allowed and urges him to live sort of mirroring when he first got shot in the head at the carousel. He wakes up but needs to go back to prison. Everything is really bad. The press somehow knows about their relationship as well. Last scene I remember is Karen and Foggy talking about all this and a newspaper printing a picture of Karen's legs with the caption Keys to the Castle? or something. Gross everything sucks and that's where I stopped reading.

So that's about all I can remember, feels like a fever dream. If anyone could help me out I'd really appreciate it. Thx!!

[madcatacres]

I've seen a number of posts about ofmd's Ed Teach changing his careful avoidance being a personal killer after his dad (and no, shooting someone who's already shish kebabed does not count *by his rules* which are what we're talking about here - "technically the fire killed those people") and then mowing through a bunch of British navy guys when he thinks Stede may be dead after that massive attack on the Republic of Pirates. The immediate trigger is concern for Stede but also, Ed's first kills are a couple of armed uniformed bullies harassing who they think is a harmless fisherman, an old man, an easy target, over the mere fact that he might be fishing.

Ed killing the two naval guys in the rowboat pulling alongside his is a proportionate response there even without a panic or fugue state triggered by grief/concern for Stede. If soldiers or pigs decide they're going to fuck with you while and because you're a solitary, isolated helpless target and you can respond with lethal force, that is both proportionate and morally justified (fuck the law) as self-defense. You are in fear for your life in that situation if you have half a brain.

The pirates on and around RoP are also, I have to say, at war. This is a show that balances humor with issues about trauma and slapstick violence with occasional actual real world consequences, yeah, but remember historically this is an era when you could be a sort of franchised pirate called a privateer, the justification for the British Navy attacking Republic of Pirates is definitely that these are people attacking ships not under the control of a crown, not that they are just out there doing pirate shit, killing and maiming and robbing and worse (the worse gets mostly kept out of ofmd's slightly more light hearted and allegorical piracy-is-queerness universe, I feel like I need to specifically and briefly address that).

Besides that, while we're only shown adult pirates lying around the republic dead, we don't see any live children either. Whereas we've been very clearly (while the crew is shopping for stuff for Calypso's birthday) shown children running around the Republic earlier (two of them being the waifs played by Taika's kids). The level of atrocity beyond which the British were unwilling to go to is not tidily defined. Incidentally kids historically got pressed into service (one of the OFMD BTS photos I have seen shows a flyer posted with others in RoP referring to impressment so I think it's safe to consider it something alluded to by the actual show's plot) - quick rip from wikipedia article on impressment, "In 1703, an act [of the Parliament in England] passed limiting the impressment of boys under 18 years of age to those who were not apprenticed."

So yeah Ed absolutely gets blood on his hands personally for the first time in roughly thirty-five years, and that is a huge step for him but it's not only things falling into place with his integrating his identity, and killing for the crew and for love in the metaphoric landscape of piracy being queer love and family, it's also probably (in context of the show) more moral/responsible than the killing by proxy he's been doing as a pirate (although this is a show about pirates. Sort of.) So. Jackie's poisoning the occupying force and the guerrilla warfare in the stolen uniforms in context of the plot pass as reasonable measures (if desperate). I haven't seen those characterized anywhere as personal murdery actions. (Slightly off topic, I did see a post complain that Jackie passing out the poisoned booze wasn't FAST enough or, overlooking the incident entirely, that there wasn't an explicit enough example of racism/colonialist violence being punished in S2. Beg to differ. Jackie being less hotheaded than S1, pre-unbearding Jim is also entirely in character.) The staff of Spanish Jackie's, citizens (?) of the Republic of Pirates, and crew of the Revenge (and QAR) have been invaded and are at war. Ed's also at war, but no longer at war with himself.

I'm just gonna post this phrased awkwardly because every time the thought comes to mind and I want to compose something worded well I don't get around to it.

I'm leaving out any mention of a character death which I do not consider controversial and which had no immediate influence on Ed's (combat) actions. Also have some S3 speculative thoughts I'm keeping out of this rambly mess of a post.

[bard-llama]

ATLA WiP List

Yeah, it's not Wednesday. Sue me - Wednesdays have actually become a really bad day for me to write/share works in progress. So idk I'm just gonna do it whenever, I guess?

Anyway, every once in a while, I like to make lists of all my too-many WiPs, so that's what this is. Under a cut, because the list is gonna be super long.

So for context, I have 3 categories my WiP docs (fic series, long fic, and fic collection) and within those, have a mix of shippy and gen fics. So I'll break this list out by type and then gen vs Zukaang vs other.

Also, apparently tumblr won't let you do nested bullets anymore??????? wtf tumblr. Everyday, you get less and less usable.

Fic Series

All have at least one story in the series published on AO3.

Gen (2)

Balance (current fic: Earth and Air)

Accidental Shaman Zuko (current fic(s): An Equal and Opposite Reaction, Two Avatars on a Road Trip)

Zukaang (4)

Two Lovers, Forbidden from One Another (current fic: As the Breeze Shapes the Dunes)

Seduction of the Innocent (current fic(s): Book 1: Seduction of the Innocent, Book 2: Fables and Reflections, Book 3: untitled fic where worlds collide)

Ba Sing Se Boyfriends (current fic(s): Facing the Dragon (of the West), Chillin' in Ba Sing Se, untitled fic where they investigate the Dai Li)

Justice, Served Cold with a Side of Vengenace (current fic: The Unlearning of Fear (And the Acceptance of Love))

Long Fics

These fics got long enough to graduate to their own document, but are (probably) not a series.

Gen (4)

Zuko's Odyssey (pre-canon, mostly planning, few words - intended to be a mishmash of atla with The Odyssey)

Helping Hands (chronic pain fic where Zuko gets his hands stomped on by Zhao at Pohuai and has to work with Aang to escape)

A Second Chance at Family (time travel fic where Azula's lightning 'kills' Zuko and sends him back to mid-s1)

Thrice Cursed, Once Broken (post-canon au sorta - Zuko becomes Fire Lord after being imprisoned on the Day of Black Sun)

Zukaang (6)

Once Upon a Dream (soulmate dreamsharing au where Zuko has always dreamed of the cold and dark of Aang's iceberg)

Damned by a Look (s1 soulmate au where the Fire Lord authorizes the arrest of the Avatar's soulmate. Zuko ends up in Zhao's brig during the Northern Invasion when the Ocean possesses Aang and forces him to kill the invading soldiers)

(Going) Down and Out in Ba Sing Se (s2 au where Zuko chooses Aang in the finale and then has to deal with the aftermath)

The Fire Lord and the Avatar (s2 au where Zuko joins Aang early, unpublished)

Dragon Mama Zuko (s3 au where Zuko gets pregnant via dragon, so much written but not fucking ch 2 ugh)

Action, Inaction, and Consequences (post-canon fic where war criminals are put on trial)

Other (4)

The First Reaction to Truth is Hated (pre-canon, Aang & Kuzon & Bumi, Aang & Gyatso left the Southern Air Temple the day before Sozin's Comet. They survived, but now have to deal with the aftermath)

Hope for the Future (late s3 au, Zutaraang, Aang dreams of a future with Zuko and Katara. When Zuko shows up the next day, he's inclined to trust)

A Seat at the Table (post-canon, Zutaraang eventually, fic about recognizing sovereign powers outside the 4 nations)

A Royal Heir (post-canon fic, Zutaraang, Zuko needs a legitimate heir)

Fic Collections

AKA I have waaaaaay too many WiPs for them all to get their own document.

Gen (55)

Agni's Little Flame (unpublished, spirits aren't supposed to play favorites, but they kinda do)

Unyielding (unpublished, never give up without a fight)

Zuko Collects Strays (unpublished, post-canon)

Zuko adapts other bending techniques (unpublished, Zuko accidentally uses an airbending move while firebending, then realizes there's potential in it)

Fire Control (unpublished, it takes a lot of control not to let fire burn wildly)

Those Who Tell Stories Rule the World (storyteller Zuko)

The Consequences of Breaking the Rules (late s3 au, Zuko is scared of messing up and getting punished by the Gaang)

Nightmares (unpublished, Katara is uncomfortable with Zuko's vocal nightmares. It's hard to hate someone when they're suffering.)

Being a Master Means Understanding That You Know Nothing (actually, this might be ready to publish????)

Healing Fire (unpublished, Zuko is in denial about his 'heat technique' actually healing people)

Sibling Rulers (unpublished, Azula and Zuko as Co-Rulers)

Azula and Her Brother (unpublished, Azula character study)

Breathing Fire (unpublished, tho ch 1 might be ready for publishing, Zuko's crew's reaction to this brat breathing fire all over the place)

Katara hating on Zuko (unpublished, set in the Western Air Temple, it's easy to hate Zuko until she learns more about him)

Zhao's Retribution (Zhao heavily injures Zuko, who is rescued by survivors of the 41st, who happen to follow Jeong Jeong. Aang, Katara, and Sokka still walk into Jeong Jeong's camp without noticing)

Viva la Resistance (unpublished, Zhao ends up regretting stealing Zuko's crew)

Aang in the Iceberg: Dreams (unpublished, while frozen, Aang exists in a dream world. Eventually, Zuko joins him)

Aang in the Iceberg: Angst Coma Time Travel (unpublished, when Zuko has his angst coma freakout in s2, he wakes up in the iceberg with Aang)

Punishment (unpublished, the Gaang is horrified when Zuko approaches them at the Western Air Temple, prepared for his punishment)

Muzzled (unpublished, Zhao welds a muzzle onto Zuko's face. The Gaang is horrified when they find him)

The Long Road to Recovery (unpublished, rejected by the Gaang in late s3, Zuko ends up imprisoned and tortured by the EK and the FN. After the war is over, he's found)

Trusted with a weapon (unpublished, Zuko realizes the Gaang trusts him when they aren't bothered at him sparring with Suki with his swords)

Gaang Established Routines (unpublished, the Gaang's domestic dynamic)

The Tournament of Kingship (post-canon, Bumi dies and Omashu's King has to be chosen thru a tournament. Naturally, Toph has to claim the title of Greatest Earthbender in the World)

Actions Speak Louder Than Words (unpublished, s3 Zuko apologizes to the Gaang thru acts of service/thoughtful gifts)

Spontaneous Combustion (unpublished, s2 au where Zuko stumbles upon a mystery in Ba Sing Se when people seemingly catch on fire out of nowhere)

Early s3 AU (unpublished, goes AU in the Sparky Sparky Boom Man episode and Zuko asks the Gaang to stop his Father, who just revealed his plans for the comet)

Choosing Nonviolence: Aang sees Zuko’s Scars (unpublished, Aang's vows of pacifism are challenged with every scar Zuko unveils. Zuko does not understand why he holds strong anyway.)

Choosing Nonviolence: What is Forgiveness? (unpublished, Zuko does not understand how Aang can refuse to kill Ozai)

Ozai is annoyed when his useless son befriends a blind EK noble (unpublished, pre-canon)

Truth Serum (unpublished, during The Chase, a pollen infects them and makes them tell the truth)

De-Aged Zuko (unpublished, s1 au where a spirit curses Zuko and the Gaang does not know what to think)

Flower language (unpublished, Zuko fucks up when he unknowingly burns Aang's friendship offering (a flower crown))

Working Together/Mission Fic (unpublished, s1 au where Zuko and Aang are captured by slavers and have to escape, along with the other kids who have been snatched)

Zuko becomes Fire Lord at 13 AU (unpublished, Zuko fights back in the Agni Kai. This changes everything.)

Toph joins S1 (unpublished, s1 au with bonus Toph, who utterly destroys the pirates Zuko is working with)

A Scarred Foundation (Zuko's badly scarred enough that he hides the worst of it with makeup)

Gifts (unpublished, late s3 fic, each culture views birthdays differently. Air Nomads don't track them, but they're very important on Kyoshi Island)

Katara POV Zuko tortured by Fire Lord (unpublished, in a world where everything went wrong, Katara is forced to admit that Zuko probably is, in fact, on their side - for all the good it does him now)

Ozai finds out Zuko joined the Avatar (unpublished, Ozai is so fucking annoyed with this damned brat getting in his way)

Kanna (unpublished, character study)

Gyatso runs away with Aang (unpublished, series au in which Gyatso gets frozen with Aang and wakes up 100 years later to Sokka and Katara)

Dad Convo (unpublished, Zuko has a few questions for Hakoda)

Shaking it up down south (unpublished, the South Pole has an issue with sexism. This turns out to be a problem in a post-war world where the women kept the tribe running while the men were away)

Something to Live For (unpublished, sometimes when you're in so much pain that it's hard to survive, you just need something to live for)

Earthbender Zuko (unpublished, don't have much, but wanna try to write the trope)

Avatar Zuko (unpublished, likewise, don't have much)

Getting Zuko to Sleep (unpublished, involves forced cuddles)

Keeping the Avatar Alive (unpublished, Zuko is maybe slightly obsessive about protecting Aang. He can't let his fuckup be the reason Aang dies. (Again.))

Self-Harming Zuko (unpublished, why does getting hurt as the Blue Spirit feel right?)

Haunted Toy (unpublished, after Lu Ten's death, Zuko discovers that a toy Lu Ten gave him appears to be haunted by Lu Ten)

Animal Transformation (unpublished, Zuko gets to be a finch hawk that the gaang takes care of in s1)

Time Travel Zuko 2: Electric Boogaloo (unpublished, future!Zuko comes back to s1 to tell Zuko all the shit no one ever said about how Ozai was fucking wrong)

Toph and Zuko’s Life-Changing Field Trip (unpublished, Toph is invited home by her parents and brings the Fire Lord. Turns out, her parents are trying to marry her off and now all the other suitors think they're competing with the Fire Lord. Zuko dgaf.)

Crossdressing Gaang (unpublished, post-canon, a convo about fancy clothes leads to the Gaang playing around with wearing the dresses Zuko's staff stock the wardrobes in their unused private rooms with. (They all pile onto Zuko's bed on the regular))

Oops, we've hit the character limit for this section oops.

Gen Part 2 (30)

Nerd Lords (unpublished, Zuko and Kuei meet when Zuko breaks into the royal library and accidentally end up becoming friends)

Fight Club (unpublished, Zuko has a talent for finding the underground fighting rings as they travel across the EK)

Instinctive Bending (unpublished, Zuko struggles to move the way his teachers tell him he should to bend. But when he doesn't think about it and just moves, his katas aren't right, but they work.)

Southern Water Tribe – why are there so many more men than women? (unpublished, AKA Llama messed up the math and decided to make plot out of it)

Drugged Zuko Rescue (unpublished, s2, Zuko gets caught by the Dai Li and drugged to high hell. He's pretty sure he's hallucinating the Avatar and the Water Tribe boy rescuing him)

Reputation (unpublished, pre-s1, Zuko's reputation is actually pretty positive amongst Earth Kingdomers. He pays a fair price for his supplies, he does odd jobs/investigates weird goings-on, he occasionally tracks down bounties, etc. Unless you happen to be impeding his search for the Avatar, the Prince is usually not bad to have come around town. Then the Avatar reappears.)

Silence (unpublished, Aang gets to enjoy my discomfort with silence)

Hidden Communities (unpublished, what if all the endangered peoples/creatures were hiding out together? AKA the Sun Warriors' Island has some surprises)

Jeong Jeong (unpublished, character study)

Gyatso adopting Aang (unpublished, Gyatso's POV of hearing baby!Aang laugh and immediately knowing this child is meant to be his.)

Crooked World (unpublished, Zuko has always known his world was different than the ones he read about)

Fire, Water, and Government (Know Nothing of Mercy) (Pirate Zuko AU)

Time Loop/Loop Zoop (unpublished, Zuko gets stuck in a time loop during s1 that always ends with his ship blowing up/him dying)

Southern Water Tribe Mixed Children (unpublished, Ten years after the end of the war, the Southern Water Tribe is rocked with controversy as tribesmen who left the fleet during the war petition to return with their mixed blood families.)

Brother (unpublished, Azula has a different understanding of what family means than the Gaang does)

The Truth About the Air Army (unpublished, Zuko reads through the libraries at the Air Temples and discovers the truth of who the Air Nomads were. After becoming Fire Lord, he decides that everyone needs to learn that truth)

Blue Spirit Reveal (unpublished, after the Ember Island Players, Sokka asks about the Blue Spirit that saved Aang in the play)

Post-canon Iroh and Zuko (unpublished, Zuko feels guilty for feeling abandoned when Iroh leaves for Ba Sing Se just after Zuko gets crowned)

Jet Redemption (unpublished, post-canon au where post-war negotiations end up taking place in Gaipan, which is about halfway between Ba Sing Se and Caldera City. Meanwhile, a certain someone has gone through a journey of his own. Earning trust back will take some serious work)

Aang being worthy of power (unpublished, Zuko's research taught him clearly how powerful the Avatar is. Like, frighteningly powerful. And yet, Aang uses that power with caution and delicacy. Zuko reflects on how much control it must take to actively avoid doing harm)

Ursa finds Zuko in his banishment (unpublished, okay this actually has nothing written, but I'm counting it bc it'll be fun)

The Power Behind the Throne (post-canon, Zuko has to deal with people thinking Iroh is controlling things behind the scenes)

Balance (unpublished, set during the Western Air Temple, when The Duke asks what balance actually means, they discover that Zuko's a giant nerd whose research has given him Opinions on this.)

“Come with me.” (unpublished, s1 au where Aang brings an injured Blue Spirit back to camp with him. Zuko is too concussed to protest overly much)

Attacking a surrendered opponent (unpublished, the Gaang discovers that Zuko believes that surrender just leaves one open for the next attack. Then they realize that for him, it always has. Not just with Ozai - but with Katara at the Western Air Temple, too)

Joo Dee (unpublished, Zuko attends Ba Sing Se University, which means he has a Joo Dee tail from the moment he enters the Middle Ring. People avoid him because of it, and Zuko just wants someone to talk over his lessons with. So one day, he decides to actually try chatting with her)

Mid-s3 Dreamsharing (unpublished, Zuko is plagued with nightmares while back at the palace. The spirits decide that he needs the help of those whose destiny is tied to his to figure out where he stands. Only the Gaang doesn't actually know that it's Zuko they're helping as they move through a dreamscape adventure)

Dark Water Spirit Curse (unpublished, AKA Llama nerded out over the deep sea interpretation of dark water and tried to do something with that. Therefore, Zuko is bioluminscent now lmao)

How Zuko Became a Radical Socialist (unpublished, AKA Llama vents about for-profit healthcare via Zuko in Ba Sing Se)

Blue Spirit puts out fires (unpublished, pre-canon au where Zuko tries not to use firebending when out as the Blue Spirit. When he is forced to, he never creates his own flames, he just extinguishes others. This leads to rumors about the Blue Spirit's ability to put out a bender's fire. The sensible firebenders are frightened by this prospect)

Zukaang (44)

Rope Burns (unpublished, Aang reflecting on rope burns and when they hurt and when they don't)

Blue Spirit Tagalong (Zuko ends up haunted by the Blue Spirit)

Relationship Reveal (unpublished, post-canon with Zukaang in a secret relationship - until they get careless and get caught by Zuko's advisors)

I'm Your Fire, Your Desire (s3 au where Zukaang get together at the Western Air Temple, now with a bonus PWP set in the future)

Shirtless Sparring (unpublished, wrestling pwp)

Return to Pohuai (unpublished, pwp Blue Spirit roleplay)

Our Love Become a Funeral Pyre (unpublished, Zuko is Kuzon reincarnated and dreams of Kuzon's life with Aang before the comet)

Gay Bar (unpublished, s2 au where they each unknowingly patronize the same gay bar in Ba Sing Se)

Airbender Blow Jobs (unpublished, pwp)

Fluffy Zukaang (unpublished, s3 fluff)

“My heart feels like it’s dancing when I look at you.” (unpublished, post-canon, Zuko is very dense about his emotions)

Aang Approaching Zuko Morning After (unpublished, s2 au where Aang stops by the teashop)

Rose Petals and Candlelight (unpublished, Aang spoils Zuko with t-rated intimacy)

Treasure (unpublished, on the 3rd anniversary of Zuko's crowning, Aang gifts him a black pearl that he found the first time Zuko took them diving)

"I'm in love with your voice" (unpublished, set during the s1 finale when they're snowed in in a cave and end up having to talk)

First Kiss/First Time (unpublished, when Zuko kisses him, Aang freaks out - and runs to the South Pole. Fire Lady Mai is the one to come beat some sense into him)

Pao’s Teashop Office Sex (unpublished, s2 pwp)

Body Swap (unpublished, s2 au in which Aang and Zuko switch bodies. Aang is not prepared for Zuko's pain - or his retail experience. Might be gen, might not)

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (Aang likes the way Zuko watches him intently)

Sexytimes - Voyeurism (unpublished pwp, Aang ties Zuko up and makes him watch him touch himself)

Gossip (unpublished, Aang is excited about getting together with Zuko and has to tell someone. Toph is safest.)

Temporarily Genderbent Aang picks up Zuko (unpublished post-canon pwp)

Blue Spirit x Avatar Aang (unpublished, the Fire Nation is a little too invested in the potential relationship between the Blue Spirit and the Avatar, and where the Fire Lord fits in)

“We need to stop dancing around it. All it does is hurt us both!” (unpublished, Aang thinks he's dreaming and kisses Zuko at the North Pole - only it turns out to be real and neither know how to deal with that in the aftermath)

Identity Porn (unpublished, Aang does not know who the Blue Spirit is, but that doesn't stop him from flirting extensively)

“I can’t stop thinking about you. When I wake up, when I’m about to fall asleep…” (unpublished, Aang doesn't know what to think when Zuko confesses without even realizing what he's confessing)

Soulmate Potential (unpublished, people don't have a predestined soulmate. Some people click more easily than others, but the potential is there with anyone. Including one's enemy.)

Ba Sing Se AU (unpublished, this was SUPPOSED to be a setup to write Zuko's POV of Same Side Sex, because mostly it's been Aang's POV when I've done it so far, but uh... setup takes a lot of work and it grows a life of its own. So now we have Aang and Zuko dating pre-s2 finale and the ripple effects of that. Also, might end up Zutaraang)

Dream Sex (unpublished, pre-canon, aged up Zuko dreams about the Avatar having their way with him.)

Author Zuko: Blue Spirit/Avatar Aang (unpublished, Aang is not excited to hear that a new play is coming out about the Avatar and the Blue Spirit. He is unaware that Zuko secretly wrote the play)

Author Zuko: Zuko writes about the Fire Lord and Avatar’s Bond Thru Time (unpublished, Zuko's a fucking nerd who uses primary sources to back up his pet thesis that his destiny is tied to Aang's)

Cheering Up on a Bad Day (unpublished, Aang pines and tries to lighten Zuko's mood after a rough day as Fire Lord)

Masked Affection (s2 au where the Blue Spirit and Aang end up in a secret relationship. When Aang finds a badly injured Blue Spirit, the lines between Zuko and the mask begin to blur)

Post-Canon Hanahaki AU (unpublished, Zuko starts coughing up strange flowers and is in denial about what it could mean)

Gaang in Ba Sing Se with Aang trying to befriend Zuko without telling them who ‘Li’ is (unpublished, Aang explores the Lower Ring by taking Zuko on 'dates'. He tells the Gaang about it, but neglects to mention who 'Li' really is)

Freudian Nightmares (porn with plot, Aang dreams about Zuko, then gets the chance to experience him in reality)

Depression and Executive Dysfunction (unpublished, set in s3 but goes au in s2, Zuko and Aang had a secret relationship in Ba Sing Se - and Zuko chose Azula anyway. He regrets it, but even once he joins the Gaang, he knows he'll never be able to make up for that. The despair of knowing he can never recover what they once had makes it hard to try some days. Aang just wants to help)

Marking: Scandalized Sokka/Fuck “Aang must be protected” bullshit (unpublished, Aang enjoys getting marked up by his lover. The rest of the Gaang is a bit scandalized and it breaks their brains a little when Aang bluntly says he likes the marks)

Facefucking (unpublished, post-canon pwp, Zuko needs a break from being Fire Lord and wants to not think for a while. Surrendering to Aang's control is a good way to make that happen)

Dreamsharing, but it’s all sex (unpublished, au where Zuko has wet dreams about the Avatar even before he actually finds them. Somehow this is supposed to involve them sharing dreams. I don't really know how)

Destined to Love You/You’re the One I’ve Been Searching For (unpublished, Zuko has been overly obsessed with the Avatar for a long time. It's totally normal for him to care a little too much about Aang's opinion. It doesn't mean anything)

Sauna (unpublished, post-canon pwp where Aang convinces Zuko to take a break from ruling to soak in the sauna)

How tf is Li dating the Avatar? A teashop customer perspective (unpublished, an aspiring fangirl/writer in Ba Sing Se speculates on how exactly the surly teashop server managed to become the Avatar's boyfriend)

Artist!Zuko (unpublished, Zuko likes to doodle. His obsession with the Avatar means that they are often his muse - and once he finds Aang, he fixates hard)

Other (23)

What's Yours is Mine (unpublished, the Gaang cause waves when they wear pieces of Zuko's wardrobe. The gossip is hilarious.)

Come to the Good Side, We Have Cookies (sorta gen???? the Gaang kidnaps Zuko to try to befriend him. Zuko is not amused.)

Oviposition PWP (unpublished, Zuko gets railed by dragons)

Reading Lips (Gaang/Zuko, the Gaang all take an opportunity to kiss Zuko, but fail to ever actually talk to him about it)

To Weave a Tangled Web (Aang suggests that Zuko marry Kuei as a step towards their vision for the future. He forgets monogamy is a thing and fails to actually talk about what that means)

Zuko blows Aang while Katara watches (unpublished, Zutaraang(ish) pwp)

Commitment to Balance (Aang/Zuko/Katara/Toph, "Let's get married. For balance.")

Zuko navigating 10 (billion) relationships (unpublished, Zuko as the fandom bicycle lmao)

Zutaraang PWP (unpublished, sparring porn)

Zutaraang Lap Sex (unpublished pwp)

Aang loves his friends (unpublished, idk might be gen, might be full Gaang. Aang just loves his family.)

Katara and Aang decide to pursue Zuko (unpublished, post-canon, Aang approaches Katara to talk about polyamory)

Everyone is in love with Zuko: He catches a clue (unpublished, full Gaang/Zuko as fandom bicycle, Zuko realizes he's in love with his friends and is worried about what his wife will think. His wife thinks "fucking finally!")

I Still Dream About You (Are You Lonely For Me Too?) (Gaang/Zuko, unpublished, the Gaang shared one drunken, half-remembered night ages ago. It still haunts them.)

Sparring for who gets to take Aang (unpublished, Zutaraang pwp)

An Arrangement for World Peace (unpublished, Toph/Zuko, Marriage alliances are as old as time. Why not take advantage of that?)

Fuck Buddies (unpublished, Toph/Zuko, s3 aged up au)

Mai/Zuko/Toph – Post-Canon Fire Nation Trio (unpublished pwp that might grow plot)

The Southern Waterbending Line (unpublished, Kataang/Zutaraang, Aang and Katara both want to revive their people's bending disciplines, but there's no guarantee their children will be benders. Questioning how bending is passed down leads to learning more about Gran Gran Kanna's past)

Zuko is not in touch with his emotions (unpublished, Gaang/Zuko, Mai sits Zuko down for a therapy session with Ty Lee to help him realize that his friends are in love with him)

Aang as a sexual being/Fuck “Aang is so innocent and pure” (unpublished, AKA Llama gets annoyed at fandom's infantilization of Aang. Aang may be young, but he still grew up in a culture that believed in open and unashamed access to information, including info about sexuality)

Masturbation is normal and healthy (unpublished, Gaang/Aang, au where Aang is the one who teaches the Gaang about masturbation)

Attempt at omegaverse (unpublished, Gaang/Zuko probably, hopefully a pwp but it might grow plot)

Total WiPs: 172 🤯🤯🤯

[guardian-of-soho]

so im too scared to ask neil himself, so im just gonna ask my fav fan account..

the scene with pre-fall crowley and aziraphale looking at the nebulas that he created.

was this before there was a hell, or was it just before crowley had fallen?

i do not know much about biblical lore and im not finding any answers online

You’re so kind!! That scene happens before Hell exists and before the war in Heaven is fought — it’s implied in s1 (Aziraphale) and s2 (Crowley) that Crowley and Aziraphale fought on opposite sides. And we can guess that Hell was only created after the War began and angels began falling and had to make a place for themselves outside Heaven, since none of them seem to like it there. That’s the Good Omens lore, not the Bible; in the Christian Bible demons have access to mortal and immortal planes but Hell itself exists for their punishment, too. It’s not their realm. (Later Christian ideas merged with Greek ideas and made Hell a place that belonged to the Devil. Jewish ideas often leave out any concept of Hell or any definitive afterlife.)

There’s no consensus on when the War happened, in Good Omens or in the Bible, but it’s usually assumed that happened after the initial creation of the mortal universe, and they’re just getting the machines running in the nebula scene! So presumably all the angels are still on one side, Hell hasn’t been founded, and if there’s any rebellion, it hasn’t come into the open yet.

[dichromaticdyke]

🗣 - Do you have angst opinions or HCs for any of your Skwistok universes? I'm a big fan of religious truama Toki and self-esteem problems Skwisgaar. I also really like the dynamic of envy/jealousy and admirer/admired that intertwines with their relationship.

breaks fingers.

religious trauma, yes, 1000%. my biggest headcanon for pretty much any skwistok dynamic is that, toki fell absolutely in love with skwisgaar at first sight. enamored with the man he sees as an angel who saved him from the streets. but skwisgaar doesn't return that love, not in the way toki wants or expects anyway. skwisgaar is blunt and sarcastic and way too mean about his playing. so their rivalry goes on, toki's feelings fade and turn to hate. this works not just with his religious trauma, but slowly getting over it too. he sees skwisgaar as an angel, but the angels all forsook him and left him to rot in his punishment hole and die on the streets of america. skwisgaar might have been his angel to save him, but how does he know this angel won't forsake him again?

or, something he thinks is hate, anyway. we saw this in the s1 finale when he told skwisgaar he always hated him. and skwisgaar said he knows.

but here's the thing—skwisgaar is perceptive. he didn't just know that toki had grown to hate him, he'd known that toki loved him before too. but he missed his chance.

because i think skwisgaar started to have feelings for toki pre-s1, right when toki's feelings started to fade. and he knows this, he knows he probably missed his chance with toki. he tries so hard to get over his feelings through the rivalry, but all it does is make him obsess over toki more than he already did.

most of the series i see as their feelings being unrequited from skwisgaar's pov specifically. most of the series, toki is a bitter hater who only cares about getting his solo and annoying skwisgaar because it's funny. they're still close friends of course, we see them palling around together all the time, but neither of them want it to go further for different reasons. but in DSR, we see that skwisgaar is at the core of his happy place. so DSR kind of reminds toki that he doesn't truly hate skwisgaar. how could he?

DSR and then AOTD is of course what finally makes those two idiots realize how much they care for each other.

fuck idk how angsty this is. lmfao. big angst fodder for me is also just the idea that toki could fucking destroy skwisgaar's career whenever he wanted. not just in bookklok. but he's strong, he's violent, he has anger issues. he could do irreparable damage to skwisgaar's body if he wanted to. COUGH COUGH.

there’s that tension between them. the like between love and hate. love wins out, i believe, but fuck they have so much DRAMA.

OH OH OH OH.

i’m also cooking with an AU where they were too late to save toki in DSR…and i’ll leave it at that. but just know that how could skwisgaar NOT blame himself when he’s the one who invited toki into the band

[piratechnics]

i'm thinking again (dangerous) and i'm thinking about @indigovigilance 's post about rings and aziraphale doing smth in heaven to risk punishment but crowley giving his archangel ring away to protect him and sacrifice himself. and then i'm thinking about them on the wall of eden and about aziraphale telling crowley he gave his sword away and i'm thinking about how i love parallels with my entire being

oh and i'm also thinking about how s1 and s2 have a+c meeting in different contexts and not really knowing each other. and a season 3 opening of aziraphale 'unlocking' his ring tenth-doctor-memory-fob-watch style and being exposed to memories of a pre-fall crowley that he never knew, thus 'meeting' crowley truly, as he is, for the first time

[ao3feed-fratt]

The way you kiss me I can tell you miss me

The way you kiss me, I can tell you miss me https://archiveofourown.org/works/55038424 by NatalieK Whatever fight might have been lurking in him, bubbling just beneath the surface, it goes out. Frank leans in, holds Red’s jaw, scratchy in the palm of his hand, and feels him sag against him, supported (trapped) between his body and the kitchen counter. No way out. He kisses Frank back, slowly, actually fucking hums into the kiss, and this is easy, this is familiar. They can’t yell at each other when they’re kissing. ~ After the events of Defenders, Daredevil S3 and Punisher S1&2, Frank finds himself back in New York with no immediate crisis looming. He decides to pay a visit to an old friend. Words: 3559, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017), Marvel Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Frank Castle, Matt Murdock Relationships: Frank Castle/Matt Murdock Additional Tags: Angst, (just a tiny bit), Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, POV Frank Castle, enemies to reluctant allies to fuckbuddies to ???, Anal Sex, who put all these feeling in here, Pre-Relationship, Sharing a Bed via AO3 works tagged 'Frank Castle/Matt Murdock' https://archiveofourown.org April 07, 2024 at 04:11PM

[still-a-morosexual-help]

I'd love to hear your thoughts about Dad!Lucifer actually. Pretty please?

Okay okay but Lucifer;

who gives MC a key to the house because it's their home too

Who gets really happy when Mammon talks about how much he likes Lucifer

Who can't help but cave to his brothers when they plead for something

Who is worried about Asmo even though Asmo is upset with him

Who gets a tiny pleased smile on his face after MC calls them family

Who goes whenever Mammon calls him to hangout

Who breaks the pastry/treat he got from the place he was working at and gave MC the biggest part

Who introduced Levi to anime

Who has a general idea about what's going on in the anime Levi is currently watching

Who shares his coat with MC because it's cold

Who complains about his brothers but gets protective when someone else says something about them

Who finds it adorable when Mammon slips up and accidentally calls him dad

Who takes candid pictures of his kids

Who pleads with Diavolo to let him handle the punishment the one time Mammon pushes too hard and genuinely pisses off Diavolo

Who complains about them but still tucks his kids in when they tire themselves out after a party

Who arranges a family trip to see flowers which are supposed to make people who see them together get lucky/be happy or something like that

Who orders take away for his family when he goes out to eat without them

Who sometimes brings home his kids favourite food

Who arranges picnics for his kids

Who buys train tickets for Mammon, MC and Luke even though he said he wouldn't

Who picked up the oddballs of the Celestial Realm and encouraged them and helped them to grow

Who picks up Mammon's shifts at Hell's Kitchen so that Mammon can study

Who was willing to give up a part of his life for Beel with 0 hesitation

Who, according to Mammon, despite being free/less stressed after losing his memories will never be truly happy because he loves his family too much to be happy living a life where he's forgotten them

Who is more than willing to villanise himself to his kids if that means they won't cross the line & get hurt like Lilith did in the Celestial Realm, and so now thinks and accepts that they all dislike him

Who went to Diavolo so that Mammon could get the car in the colour he wanted

Who is genuinely shocked and upset whenever he's confronted with the way his words and actions have hurt his family (he managed to give all his kids issues and is just so confused whenever they bring it up, this is such a real life situation that it makes me want to throw up)

Who tells his family not to get carried away and hurt themselves or someone else when they start playing around in public

Who doesn't want to be perceived as a boring stick in the mud but also wants nothing more than to go on a factory tour

Who acknowledges that MC is strong enough to look after themself but also that won't stop him from worrying about them

Mammon calls him 'old man'

Who does genuinely believe in all his kids and what they can achieve but says it so infrequently that when he does express that they all malfunction

Who helps Asmo choose his accessories and says that if Asmo wanted to spend time with him he could just ask

Who says he believes in Mammon and then helps him re-write the proposals

Who takes the things his kids forgot at home and gives it to them at school

Who always has a proud little smile when MC shows how much their magic has grown

AND THIS IS ALL CANON! These are all things he's done in canon, he drives me insane, I'm obsessed

Okay look - he's absolutely terrible at times. Like genuinely there are times when he makes my blood boil, specially during S1, the S1 era devilgrams and the pre-canon devilgrams but he's such a complicated character? Who gets character development and we get to see how he softens after being reassured that what happened to Lilith won't happen again (which I've spoken about in detail in another post)

This asshole probably packs lunches with little notes for all his kids whenever it's his turn to cook on a RAD day

He'd absolutely throw hands if an outsider says shit about his family even though just seconds ago he was cussing them out

If it's one of the days where he actually makes it to bed instead of sleeping at his desk he first has to check to make sure all the kids are safely tucked in bed

He probably goes to every one of Beel's fangol matches

If he drove it'd be a minivan

He's got 7 adopted kids in total and 1 biological kid and he loves them all to death & back but he's got so many issues that he has no idea how to properly show it, so only the emotionally intelligent kids know it but even they have their doubts sometimes and it's all a huge mess but holy shit is he trying

He's my favourite grouchy old bastard and one of my favourite parts when writing fics is sprinkling Lucifer just being a Dad into them whenever I can

[thesherrinfordfacility]

another batshit theory for the ages...

though tbh it's just a summary that interweaves a variety of them. it's long and rambly im sorry

so @booksandmate added this increíble addition to what was honestly meant as a half-hearted shitpost, and then allowed me to pepe-silvia at them in their DMs, but it's been spinning in my head ever since - because if we consider if crowley had managed to reach ten before the lightning strike, and managed to control his temper... well, what would have happened?

but that's not necessarily what im looking at here, specifically. i am however gonna start with ep1 and the lightning strike, because im somewhat dogged by nina's words in ep6 that now suddenly feel like a healthy helping of foreshadowing:

that everything started with the locked-in-the-coffeeshop-incident, which of course was precipitated by crowley losing his rag, summoning (?) lightning, and it bouncing off the café.

noting a couple of things: the lightning definitely appears to originate from crowley, right? it may well be calling like-to-like, but either way the lightning starts in him, and we suddenly then have either a) a bolt summoned from the heavens, channeled through him, and hitting the café, or b) two bolts, one of which relays back and forth from the heavens, and a further bolt rebounded on the café.

but what... is the point? im relatively on the team that it could just be building crowley-lore, playing into the "crowley is a very powerful demon 💅" characterisation, and it has the ultimate byproduct of kick-starting the events of the s2 plot; like @booksandmate said, without crowley counting to ten and controlling his anger, we wouldn't have the above, wouldn't have nina and maggie locked in the café, etc etc. but.

this locking-in business could easily, i hubristically presume (albeit less exciting, admittedly), have been written as caused by something else, or not occurred altogether (and maggie would still have shared with aziraphale that she thinks she's in love with nina, gave her the LP etc)... so why specifically did it require crowley, and such a raw display of 'demonic' power?

with that in mind, do we assume it serves a different purpose, or at least has another layer? well, we collectively seem to be surmising the latter, given god's words in the job minisode:

do you know the rules of the heavens? did you set the constellations in the sky? can you send lightning bolts and get them to report back to you?

obviously the last two now, in retrospect, seem very significant in the context of what we find out about crowley in both s1 and s2; he created nebulae and hung stars and planets, and now can seem to summon lightning. i originally wondered if it were simply a message to crowley or at least the audience that god was still watching, and had not forsaken crowley at all, but i do now ponder if its something more.

the first one is iffy, but actually... well, it definitely seems that crowley has the better measure of heaven than aziraphale or indeed anyone else has - what its motivations and limitations are, to say the least. even his line about the bees; in this respect, he is deeply perceptive of the intragroup dynamic of heaven in a way that the angels are not. and then, if we hypothesise about crowley in a pre- to post-fall context, that he Only Asked Questions, an action that may turn out to have precipitated the Big Bad, then yeah - maybe crowley does in fact know the rules of the heavens, and learnt it the hard way.

and this doesn't even take into account the whole general parallel between job and crowley in receiving undue punishment "and not even to know why". whilst i do still hold that the minisode flashbacks may well be crowley's POV, that is largely irrelevant; we know crowley displaces his emotions surrounding the fall/god onto his plants in modern day, and we are immediately introduced to the minisode with the display of him doing the same to job's goats.

either way, i think that we can be reasonably certain that whilst maybe unintentional at the time, god's words were a direct mirror to events unfolding/character history revealed for crowley at the very least in s2. even if we step outside taking god's action/inaction literally in job, and see it as a parable, it's a lesson that sometimes suffering occurs for no reason, that the universe is not always explainable and certainly not always good, but trust in god and god's power. icky to think about, at least for me, but the same passage (job 41, god's answers) then brings me to my next thought: the matchbox.

i wrote a follow up to a fab post looking at where i feel the matchbox might come into play (specifically, job 41:19 that is inscribed on the side of it), but here is the précis of sorts:

given that the matchbox features the quote before being dropped in heaven, it was potentially placed there in the pub as a long-standing direction for gabriel 'for when the time came', a mark of omniscience

the passage itself may refer to the leviathan as per job, but imagery-wise refers to the heaven trial in s1, where crowley-as-aziraphale spits out fire at the archangels

it's the last thing gabriel reads before he heads down to earth. he still thinks it's aziraphale (ie. heaven is presumably not aware of the body-swap at that point), and so heads to where he knows aziraphale will be - the bookshop - to seek... protection?

if the message however was put there by god, who is omniscient (and the narrator of s1), they would have been directing gabriel towards crowley, not aziraphale... crowley who is homeless living in his car, but whose own last sanctuary is that same bookshop

and lastly, it seems that it's only crowley that is able to unlock gabriel's memories... we know that crowley definitely has some kind of hypnotic, trance-like power, and this might be key... especially as gabriel then starts recounting memories (and prophecies...?) that he wasn't present for - only god, job, aziraphale and crowley.

(tbh, i then wonder how far the 'signs from the almighty' might extend to buddy holly playing in that bar, for beelzebub to introduce the concept of music to gabriel, 'information in a tuneful way'.)

i also want to pay some attention to the 25-lazarii miracle, because im still obsessed by the idea that the miracle didn't quite work as intended, or at least not in the way crowley ends up describing in ep6. summary:

gabriel took his gabrielness and put it in the fly, and the fly followed him into the bookshop and continued to chill there quite happily for all of s2

michael and shax seem to be able to sense gabriel to varying degrees - michael in ep2, and shax in ep3 - where i think it's possible they're sensing the consciousness of gabriel stored in the fly. in any case, they are all able to perceive and acknowledge jim as a inconsequential human, which in any case goes directly against 'not noticing' him in that form

when aziraphale and crowley do the miracle, they hold hands with jim - where gabriel definitively isn't - and attempt to hide gabriel. but if gabriel isn't in there, and it didn't work on jim, and yet a miracle still registers up in heaven, what did the miracle actually do? did it hide someone else?

if god is somehow channelling themself through jim, as we see in ep2 and ep3, did the boys - in fact - hide god?

but then, now that im thinking about, would a miracle of that magnitude only take 25 lazarii? what if instead it's the son of god, who has the power of words to give eternal life? the power, when he returns, to grant humanity eternal salvation, or eternal punishment? john 6:68 (yes, the verse number struck me dumb for a minute):

hold that thought (sorry) for a minute though, because the lightning strike came before hiding anything... so, does the lightning serve a different purpose, in the wider narrative? well, let's consult matthew 24 and break it down:

lighting strike? ✅* (more on this later on)

carcass around which eagles (or vultures depending on the version) gather? im gonna hazard a ✅

or considering the more metaphorical:

sun shall be darkened, moon will not give her light? bit of a stretch, but darkness fell pretty quick in ep5, certainly more rapid than would be warranted for 6.30pm, and lasted that way, presumably, until the demons had all been eviscerated... so, tentative ✅ (though given the green lighting... it could have all just been the demons, sure)

stars from heaven, and powers of heaven will be shaken? not too sure on the stars, unless you potentially count it in with the above darkness thing, but the metatron making a surprise appearance would suggest that the powers definitely be shooketh ✅

if we look at verse 30, this suggests that this hasn't happened just yet; that whilst we may be gearing up towards the second coming, it hasn't actually happened*, and this is where we'll lead into s3.

but if we continue matthew 24 (discussed in this post and this post too by @paperbunny):

days of noah: okay so yeah this could well be a literal flood, and tbh i still think (i wear glasses, so full disclosure ok) that that little snippet behind aziraphale in the first link looks like an optical illusion of a flood, but the chapter continues to clarify a little more about what was happening before the great flood, that humanity will exist in a similar bliss until the second coming arrives... so, a tentative ✅

eating and drinking ✅ there is a lot of eating and drinking imagery in s2, no doubt, but i feel like the coffee and eccles cakes in ep1, before the lightning, play a potentially major part here* (again, more on this later on)

marrying and giving in marriage ✅ if you take into account the whole maggie/nina subplot, gabriel/beelzebub subplot, and then The Big One that is crowley's marriage proposal in ep6

one shall be taken, the other left ✅ 💀 i don't need to explain this surely

two women grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, the other left ✅ ...ish. grinding maybe as a reference to how maggie and nina end up in the café together, working together, then visit crowley and end up Not Getting Together for Good Reason, but where crowley leaves them is that maggie is back in the record store, asleep (and waiting for nina to heal)

but where i come back to the *s is twofold:

nina says eccles cakes would calm someone down. aziraphale seems to consider it, and believe her. he takes the eccles cakes with him, deliberately hands them off to crowley so he can open the door, and the last interior shot before crowley loses his mind is the cakes, untouched, on the table. we know aziraphale seems to have a knack for unconscious miracles/reality manipulation, so what if by believing the eccles cakes would in fact calm crowley down, they actually magically take on the attribute that they would calm him down? im calling this diversion-from-matthew-24 #1

and then the lightning strike itself; crowley fails to rein in his temper, and the lightning shenanigans happen... but matthew describes that it cometh from the east, and shineth unto the west... but in crowley's case, the lightning strikes the bookshop, which lies to the east (going by the compass in aziraphale's bookshop) (actually technically north-east i guess)... diversion-from-matthew-24 #2.

this where im wondering a few things, as a culmination of all of the above...

did god foresee a good portion of all of this, and the events that follow, and warn gabriel ahead of time to seek out aziraphale and crowley via the medium of the matchbox?

does crowley, having not eaten the cakes, summon lighting because he did not Calm Down, constituting as the first sign of the second coming - and was just a wee bit ahead of schedule?

and did he botch it, à la s1 baby swap, by it hitting the coffeeshop instead of the bookshop (going to the east, not the west)? and is the lightning reaching upwards towards the heavens significant?

did crowley's lightning summon jesus, yank his... spirit? soul? out of heaven, and bring it earthside, and it attached itself to jim, currently a vacant vessel?

aziraphale and crowley hide said jesus spirit inadvertently with the 25 lazarii miracle, expecting to hide gabriel?

when jim goes all purple-eyed-mystic-meg, is that jesus speaking? speaking as an omniscient being with his mother's voice, and prophesying the rest of the second coming with "a tempest... great storms"?

and yet, despite this, all the signs of the second coming continue throughout s2, and possibly even kick-start the last judgement, with the various mentions of people going missing? hell being understaffed?

if you've made it this far, kudos