#probably mcu specific

[anonisbloggingsomewhere]

And what would you do if I wrote a fan fiction where flash is ace spec and mentally not doing great and also falling for Peter……..

[hersterical]

Can’t wait until 10-20 years from now when Thunderbolts is considered a classic bisexual awakening movie

[xxplastic-cubexx]

you open my Super Important Documents and its just pictures of charles xavier

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Okay so I'm doing a little research into Joaquin's official role in the military for Reasons (the brainworms are brainworming don't worry about it), and discovered he's an intelligence officer, which means he's most likely not a pilot despite being in the Air Force and also the Falcon. So like, please consider the following interaction for some future Avengers film:

"We gotta get this bird in the air, Joaquin, you're up." "Huh? I don't know how to fly a plane?" "?????? What do you mean you don't know how to fly a plane?????? You're literally the Falcon that's like. Your whole thing?????" "That's a wingsuit not a plane!" "YOU WERE IN THE AIR FORCE" "THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WAS A PILOT" "THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING THEN?"

[alienfailboy]

it's really crazy that people don't know that their favorite shows are propaganda

like i am a law and order svu enjoyer and i have watched every inch of criminal minds but you all can see that the cops are made to be likable and they're not actually like that. right?

[mania-sama]

january fic recs!

organization:

➼ fandom

✎ [Fic Name] by [Author] ❧ rating, word count (in progress tagged if work is not completed) ❧ relationship tags ❧ my description/notes ❧ Quotation

featured fandoms: voltron: legendary defender | jujutsu kaisen | haikyuu | harry potter | avatar: the last airbender | undertale | marvel cinematic universe

more of my fic recommendations: february | march | april | may

➼ voltron: legendary defender

✎ A Raven on the Path Home by artimess_chimes ❧ not rated, 31k ❧ keith/lance ❧ lance following the aftermath of the intergalactic war. the author does an amazing job of portraying depression from the depressed person's perspective. while lance does have a level of self-awareness that many people with mental illness do, the depression and ptsd override most of his common sense and relationality anyway. misery breeds misery; he does a very good job of behaving poorly and increasing his loneliness. and then he slowly owns up to his mistakes and rebuilds his support system that he had destroyed, but not without help. it's a really good personal growth journey with klance as a lovely addition to lance's behemoth of emotions ❧ Lynn looked at him unimpressed. “An insistence on independence is just using your own pride to deny yourself love.” 

✎ Asterism by idas_library ❧ mature, 92.0k (in progress) ❧ team voltron, keith/lance, allura/lotor, adam/shiro ❧ i REFUSE to believe that this is the author's first fanfiction, because this is ASTOUNDINGLY well done and indicative of years of writing. they must be an author outside of fanfiction. they must. anyway, the story follows the end of s1 when the wormhole gets screwed up, and instead of being in his lion and getting thrown into an ocean planet with hunk, lance is outside of his lion and gets tossed somewhere random. after almost dying in his suit in the middle of nowhere-space, he gets picked up by a galra outer ring outpost. cue a long, spiraling adventure to escape, and then the adventure beyond. not a single scene or OC is wasted (i would commit genocide for you, 697). of course, my whump-loving heart was cheering at the torture and whatnot, but none of it for nothing. everything has a purpose. the truly amazing part of this fic though is the very natural progression and growth of lance's character (much better than whatever the show had going on). he consistently uses his unique strengths to separate himself from the rest, and even though he is growing into a leadership role, he is just that: growing. there are chinks in his armor and a lot of path yet to travel, but the author is handling it phenomenally. it's impossible to tell where the story will go as of yet, but i have my theories. i am thoroughly impressed by the author's skill and the quality of this fic. ❧ That was the last good day, in Lance’s opinion. It was the last time his lungs ached from laughter, and the last time the tears in his eyes didn’t sting and the chill in the air didn’t quite reach his bones. It was the last good day for a long time.

➼ jujutsu kaisen

✎ adolescent dreams & adult screams by twinprimes ❧ teen and up, 15.2k ❧ fushiguro megumi & gojo satoru, getou suguru/gojo satoru ❧ grief and trauma take many forms, and when you're trying to raise a kid you have no blood relation to that is ALSO the child of the man you killed (and give you a boat-load of trauma), it's kind of hard to deal with them. it also shows how it was never really about protecting megumi from harmful information; it's how gojo struggles to reconcile with what happened to him, what he did, and how to talk about it. it's hard to answer questions when you don't know how to give an answer without hurting yourself in the process. absolutely amazing. ❧ “I know he was a bad person,” Megumi continues. He doesn’t sound particularly upset. “And I know he did bad things that I don’t know about, too. So you don’t have to lie about it to me because you don’t want to ruin my opinion of him, or something stupid like that.”

✎ chronicles of a man trying his best by angryjane ❧ general audiences, 35.2k (in progress) ❧ fushiguro megumi & fushiguro tsumiki & gojo satoru & nanami kento, gojo satoru/nanami kento ❧ on the opposite of end of the spectrum, we have a menace-to-society!megumi being raised by reformed-menace-to-society!gojo. this is a series of 5 fics that i don't think is ever going to get updated again, but doesn't feel incomplete in any capacity. each is relatively a stand alone and is more a basic slice of life than it is anything else. it's very funny, especially if you don't take it seriously (which you shouldn't; allow the series to guide you in your emotions). hints of past satosugu, but mostly nanago. tsumiki is a menace in her own right, and nanami is only slightly better at hiding his down badness than gojo is. again, very much a crack series but is also powerful in the little moments where the cracks seal and a bit of angst and genuineness appears. my favorite fic of the series is definitely the room is filled with people who love you. ❧ Grumbling, Megumi relents, sacrificing his dessert to Nanami’s waiting hand before scrambling off the floor and scurrying towards the kitchen table. Hesitantly, Nanami trails after him, setting the tub, followed by the bouquet of roses, down on the table and picking up a paperback he finds there, wincing at the title. Taking up residence beneath the screaming smoke detector, he begins to fan Training Pets to Kill- A Beginner’s Ultimate Guide: Tips, Tricks, Legalities and more! above his head like an offering. 

➼ haikyuu

✎ and back to you again, step by step by step by eurydicees ❧ teen and up, 8.1k ❧ daishou suguru/kuroo tetsurou ❧ this is honestly a really interesting fic due to its perspective. no relationship is perfect, nor always 100% healthy. however, for the way the fic is written, we truly only get one side/interpretation of how the relationship works until little bits and pieces are revealed through dialogue provided to kuroo from daishou. more than it is a fic on relationships, it is a wonderful piece on manipulating perspective; the author has kuroo written sort of as a victim until daishou explains that he also felt hurt and victimized in the relationship. it shows just how important communication is, and how no one but the two people involved can provide the most reliable communication. it's really interesting and very well done, especially from a technique view. ❧ “He apologized,” Kuroo says. “You know how rare that is? I think he’s apologized for something, like, twice ever in his life, and one of those times was this. The other was because he broke my nose with a volleyball when we were seven.”

✎ Yaobikuni by PlumTea ❧ mature, 7.1k ❧ iwaizumi hajime/oikawa tooru ❧ on the topic of unhealthy relationships... very hesitantly am i recommending this not because i do not believe that the fic is good, but because i think this exposes more about me than i care to admit. yet here i am. anyway, if you want some insane power dynamics, toxic relationships, and a splash of horror, then this is the fic for you. oikawa is a merman and iwaizumi catches him because he wants to live forever. is it really cannibalism if one isn't even technically the same species? a question for the ages. it also ponders the unanswerable, undefinable paradox of immortality without actually making the main character live for a thousand years to find a suitable, relative answer. i adore this author's horror haikyuu works, i highly recommend everyone to read more from them. ❧ “So you want to live forever? You could end up feeling terrible forever, too.”

✎ The SakuAtsu Documentary by the MSBY Black Jackals by lettersinpetals ❧ teen and up, 6.7k ❧ miya atsumu/sakusa kiyoomi ❧ very hilarious and very, very cute. i am always 100% down for some team shenanigans, and this one takes the cake. it's one large prank, and while the intended result was to simply amend the tense relationship between atsumu and sakusa while documenting their progress via vlogs, they got much more than they bargained for. the prank sakuatsu plays back is very funny as well and i did laugh out loud. ❧ “Something’s gotta give and we’re afraid we’ll find Atsumu’s corpse lying in a ditch,” Adriah said. “He’s a cocky prick, but he is also one of the country’s best setters, as much as I hate to admit it. We’d prefer not to lose him.”

➼ harry potter

✎ disguised as something else by aloneintherain ❧ teen and up, 3.1k ❧ harry potter & remus lupin & sirius black, harry potter & friends ❧ THE CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS. the one glaring vice that the harry potter series has, storywise, is that harry's prospective childhood trauma from the dursleys is almost never discussed. look me in the eyes and tell me he does not have an everlasting scar from their blatant neglect and abuse. that's right. you CAN"T. anyway, this story explores just a bit of that abuse, while also tackling the fact that he hasn't ever talked about it. he hasn't healed from that experience, and just because he's in a safe environment now with a loving family doesn't mean that scar has faded. in fact, it's a scab that's now picked open. wonderfully explores the process of talking about your feelings instead of bottling it up and pretending it doesn't exist. ❧ A part of him aches to crawl into that dark, cramped space and curl up next to Sirius. It’s safe in there, his hind-brain reminds him. Adult hands only ever reached in to drag him out.

➼ avatar: the last airbender

✎ the hands that feed by aloneintherain ❧ teen and up, 1.9k ❧ the gaang & zuko ❧ classic zuko scar reveal. no, these never get old. every author tackles it in a different way. i especially like the way this author approaches it in this fic (as evident as it is that i appreciate the way they write trauma and trauma recovery. see harry potter for reference). one of the important things about traumatic events is that it is incredibly important for a person to reveal their trauma by their own violation. ripping it out of someone or learning about their past via other conventions is a surefire way to dismantle trust and a certain amount of the healing process. in this, zuko involuntarily reveals how he got his scar, but he also, vitally, doesn't remember doing so. the gaang know that they aren't supposed to know. so, they are willing to give him time. time for him to come to them, step by miserable step, with his past burning the soles of his feet. they are all very kind to him even in this moment of stress and desperation. love love love it. ❧ Sokka felt like screaming. He couldn’t, not with Zuko so close and so confused. He wouldn’t stir up old memories. Wouldn’t hurt Zuko more than he’d already been hurt.

➼ undertale

✎ lest ye be judged by nilchance ❧ teen and up, 35.4k (in progress) ❧ papyrus & sans, asgor dreemurr & papyrus & sans ❧ man where do i even start with this. essentially, an au where everything is the same except that sans and papyrus were once homeless kids on the street who were eventually taken in by a merciful, guilt-ridden asgor, post the first six human deaths but pre gaster death. they don't stay for long, and everyone is memory wiped of their time with asgor anyway, but sans remembers. their time together is impactful in a way that can only be felt in the white spaces between every word and sentence. i am always for adding extra trauma to... any given character, so that was simply a bonus for me. the author also has a very well-defined interpretation of every major character, which really makes the series feel as near to canon as a fic could ever be in some aspects. every bond, word, and relationship shared and formed is important in some aspect, and it has consequences. the only sad thing about this series is that it very clearly had a build-up to sans revealing the complete truth and his personal feelings to his "family" in the post-true pacifist route, but. well. the series hasn't been updated since 2018. but it's okay because i still think it's all very much worth the read. every single one of the fics. my favorite is definitely the first fic (traumatized kids. yep that's the life), but runs in the family is a very close second. ❧ It had taken months before Chara stopped probing at the limits of his patience like a sore tooth. Seeing what it would take for Asgore to hit them. It's a hard lesson for a child to learn, harder to unlearn. Asgore keeps his hands open and voice easy. "Thank you."

✎ disenchanted lullaby by nilchance ❧ general audiences, 1.6k ❧ papyrus & sans ❧ ah yes, the inevitable nihilism and mental collapse after a time loop. what i find the most interesting about post-true pacifism is that for a character like sans, it is much harder to reconcile a happy ending with what he'd experienced because he has absolutely no control over it. for other time loops, they have to deal with the conflict of wondering if they will accidentally reset it themselves. they are the main character. but for sans, who is not a main character, who is merely a bystander and victim to the never-ending resets, he has no control. no bearing over whether or not his journey restarts. and to start all over again - that is a terrifying prospect. of course he's got depression. who wouldn't? the way that it's approached in careful prose and the bonding of the two brothers is very precious to me. delicious fic. ❧ "Don't," he says, unexpectedly fierce. "I heard you crying like you were falling down, brother. I heard you say that you've given up. It's a little late to tell me you're happy."

✎ Revenant by Solena2 ❧ general audiences, 2.1k ❧ no defined relationships ❧ this fic au is horrifying if you think about it for more than 2 seconds. all of the characters who appear as "undead" (the ghosts and the skeletons) were, at one point, living humans that had all fallen down to the ruins and thus been slain by asgore. the items that they wore had been lost and scattered until, eventually, the seventh human child falls down and collects their other fallen humans' things as you do in the game. when you put it into the perspectives of the characters' jobs, especially for sans and papyrus who work for the very man that mercilessly killed them, it really drives in the entire hopelessness of the underground, that they really have no place else to go. it's also simply beautifully written. i love a one shot that makes you feel a host of complex, unforgiving emotions. ❧ Like those before them - they come, they leave, they die.

✎ Hairline Fractures by kaliawai512 ❧ teen and up, 31.3k ❧ papyrus & sans ❧ yes more discussion on the devastating, horrifying, everlasting effects of inescapable time loops, as i've mentioned under the description of the disenchanted lullaby. however, this fic takes at multiple steps further. they are 6 months into living in the human world, and it is pretty terrible for monsters. in the perspective of sans, he battles with daily racism(?), balancing multiple jobs, the guilt of watching his brother suffer, and wondering, wondering when the world will reset and it will all end. because, well, they had made it that far before, hadn't they? there is a scene though where sans gets drunk for the first time and it makes me ill because i was crudely reminded of my first time, which was a far more unpleasant experience than sans'. but its okay i powered through and it, in fact, one of the best scenes in the fic. the BEST part of this fic though is that the author somehow coded the actual papyrus and comic sans into the fic for the dialogue and i am now determined (hahahhaha) to figure out how to do that for myself. ❧ He should get up. He should really get up. Papyrus was worried, and every minute Sans lay there, he got more worried. Even if he couldn’t get up, he could at least respond. But every time Papyrus came to the door, he couldn’t make a sound come out. He tried, he tried over and over again, but his voice refused to respond.

➼ marvel cinematic universe

✎ out there, living in the sun by Hailfire_73 ❧ teen and up, 30.1k ❧ peter parker & richard parker, peter parker & tony stark, peter parker & avengers, pepper potts/tony stark ❧ peter parker's dad, richard, is an evil hydra agent that essentially has kept peter from the civilization. he runs experiments on kidnapped people, kills them, and discards of them. and peter, well, peter doesn't really know a life outside of this. and then he gets kidnapped by iron man and captain america. suddenly, the world is a lot larger than the haunted mansion he grew up in. it's a very interesting fic that not only handles the affects of abuse, but takes a very different route on peter's relationship with the avengers. because he never becomes "spider-man" in our sense and understanding of spider-man, he ends up developing his relationships differently. it's also interesting to see how the author approaches his character. they rip peter parker from the environment that made who he was, prevent him from ever getting in the suit and from saving a single person, yet they still manage to keep the core of his character alive. pretty awesome. also, there is a plant named spike. that's pretty cool. ❧ “Captain America? Get me out of here?” asked Peter, squinting his eyes and tilting his head. Iron Man hoisted him out of bed, and the covers went with him, hitting the floor by Peter’s feet. “Oh cool, I’m being kidnapped.”

✎ for peter by Hailfire_73 ❧ general audiences, 19.0k ❧ peter parker & tony stark + family, pepper potts/tony stark ❧ peter parker gets turned into a dog instead of dusting away when thanos snapped. I KNOW BUT HEAR ME OUT. the fic is (mostly) set in tony's perspective, and he doesn't really know that peter is a dog now. he just knows that its now his responsibility to take care of this stray dog that peter had picked up before the snap. it follows the 5 years of tony and his blooming family, his grieving, his attempts to keep peter's memory alive, while peter does everything he can to somehow communicate to tony that he's still here. it's a really good fic; tony very clearly projects his mourning onto "buddy the dog", and it, in turn, makes him a better father to his daughter. fair warning though: do NOT feed your dog cheeseburgers instead of dog food on a regular basis! that will kill your dog!!! do not do as tony does!!!!! ❧ “Wanna come home with me?” asked Tony. “Look, I’m not Peter, I’m nowhere near as good and kind, hell I don’t even really like dogs, but… I have a house with a big yard and plenty of squirrels and rats to chase and… if you’re lucky, I might even feed you.”

[dichard-grayson]

Pros and cons of my mom being a middle aged craft lady that is friends with other middle aged craft ladies:

Pros: she knows someone with a cricut and said I could commission t-shirts from them after I complained about the lack of falcon merch

Cons:

[writeraid]

Makeshift suit design idea for 'If Riley ever somehow accidentally becomes an avatar' because there is NO WAY someone can do what she does and not even so much as almost accidentally make a deal with an ancient deity.

..except I have no idea who that would be, so there's no symbols or anything. (Honestly not even sure if these colors are technically accurate to ancient Egypt but like..a three-piece suit also isn't accurate to ancient Egypt so-)

Fun Details: I'm imaging whichever god/goddess it is is slightly kinder for whatever reason, and so the suit contains some little things for Riley's comfort: Riley has some form of unspecified connective tissue disorder (more than likely one of the more common-ish type of EDS, I'm intentionally leaving it vague) and the rings and bands around her shoulders act as some sort of magical avatar suit braces. Idk, so many sci-fi/fantasy-type costumes accidentally make rings that are basically splint rings, and I just felt like that was too perfect not to include..

[nya-in-the-multiverse]

my mommy issues 🤝 my daddy issues

making me script the best dad/father figure in every dr and not a single mother/mother figure in any

[wander-wren]

i love seeing fandom usernames in my kudos/comments/bookmarks that are not for any fandom i’ve ever written for

i know most everyone has several fandoms, but it’s just funny to me. what is captain america’s shield doing in my anime slash

[hersterical]

Generally speaking I feel like all of the mcu tv shows and specials have been better than the movies

Almost like if you give the creative teams more space and freedom to make stories they actually care about and aren’t as concerned about appealing to as large of an audience as possible or prioritizing the connecting it to a larger story over the story itself, then that makes the stories better

[ao3commentoftheday]

Okay, I'm back at it with another attempt to help the people who want to find ship fic for a character and don't really mind who that character is shipped with.

Up til this point, I've been focused on trying to find a way to identify all the fics that ship a particular character. This time around, I want to remove all of the fics that don't ship them while keeping the ones that do have them as a main character in the fic.

This is imperfect, but it's netted much better results!

Go to that character's tag. You can do this by tapping on their tag at the top of a fic, for example. I experimented with a few characters for this, but here's the tag for Darcy Lewis MCU

Once you're on that character's tag, open up the Filters menu by tapping on the button labelled Filters. If you're on a computer, the Filters menu is already on the right-hand side of the screen.

In the Exclude section, tap on the word Categories and tap on the X next to Gen. You can also X out any ship configurations you aren't interested in reading today.

Keep scrolling down towards the bottom of the Filters menu and stop when you reach the Search Within Results box. In that box, type summary: Darcy (or whatever name your fave is most often referred to by). If they have more than one name that people call them, use summary: Darcy OR summary: "other name". If the name is more than one word, put the name in quotation marks to keep those words together in the search.

Press the Search & Filter button and enjoy the results!

This method took the tag results down from over 21K fics to just over 7.5K fics. It included ones that seemed romantic/sexual but used the & indicator when they probably should have used /.

It also includes fics that didn't indicate which category they belong to.

You can narrow your results further by excluding other items. For example, if you're in the mood for smut, you can exclude the G and T rated fics and get your list down to about 3.4K (in this example).

You could also do the opposite if you want something shippy that isn't sex by excluding the M and E fics instead. And don't forget that you can exclude fics that use specific Archive Warnings as well.

[lilia-calderus-pet-goat]

Something of note about Lilia's tarot spread is that—it's hers. The cards she pulls aren't precisely who the characters are to themselves, but who they are and what they represent to Lilia. As her coven, in her life.

Like, I don't really know my tarot that well—I'm just pulling themes from within the episode and my general understanding.

But when she was reading for Billy, he was fittingly represented by the Magician. But for Lilia, he was the “windfall.” He was the tower, reversed. Miraculous transformation. Because she, having put the sigil on him, saved him from the destruction and lead to his miraculous transformation. And to her, he was the windfall, because without him, she wouldn't be here, with her coven. She wouldn't have found herself.

Alice's is very straight forward—“full of fire, fights bravely.” It's how Lilia saw her, what Lilia had once again predicted for her. 'Wound suffered, lessons learned.' Specifically, Lilia wasn't able to warn Alice, but she learned her lesson. So, this time, she makes sure to warn Agatha. “When she calls you a coward, hit the deck.”

And why does she warn Agatha? Agatha represents her 'obstacles,' after all. Maybe so—Lilia's literal obstacle at this stage ends up being the Salem Seven, who merely want Agatha. Yet she chooses to stay behind to save a woman who probably wouldn't do the same for her. And the reason is—for her, Agatha is the Three of Swords. She looks at her and sees Heartbreak, (Rio) Sorrow, (Evanora) Grief (Nicholas). And Lilia is willing to forgive her—to sacrifice herself for her—even if the universe itself doesn't think she deserves it. This is different from how Agatha views herself, or even how Billy views her, since he initially pulls out the Chariot. One might say it's a random choice, but the Chariot is described as representing “determination, success, and control.” It's about overcoming challenges and gaining victory through maintaining control of your surroundings—which, I argue, embodies Agatha pretty well. So The Three of Swords is who Agatha is to Lilia. She doesn't hate her, or see her as a force to be reckoned with. She pities her. After all, the Queen of Cups is defined by her empathy.

Then, of course, Jen. Jen is Lilia's path ahead. Not only because she has a brilliant future of her own ahead of her in the mcu, now with her powers unbound. Because Lilia senses all the trapped light and bound power that Jen carries—“The High Priestess: Immense spiritual power, unable or unwilling to use it--” but also because Jen, the survivor, is the one who will carry on Lilia's memory. All those centuries, Lilia had been alone—there was no 'path ahead.' Everything was a jumbled mess, her “path” was non-linear and twisty. And Jen, after centuries of solitude, was her light in the dark, guiding her through the dark tunnels, as her mind wandered through her timeline searching for answers. Jen was the only person in centuries who bothered to see her as something more, to acknowledge her strength, and to help her fill in the gaps as best as she could. And so Lilia sees so much hope in Jennifer—who won't stop becoming better and better. Because for Jen, the Queen of Cups is her path behind. Wound suffered, lessons learned. “I couldn't save Lilia, I didn't even try to save Alice, I'll be damned if I let you two idiots die.”

Finally, Death, Rio. Well—it's obvious. In tarot, death isn't literal. It's mist often symbolic. Transformation, end of a cycle, new beginnings. Which is why we never see Lilia's corpse, and we never see Rio collect her. Because unlike Alice, Lilia went into the afterlife willingly. And for her, it was a beautiful release. After years of running out of time—she got to start anew—knowing that this time, she managed to save her coven. (I'd also like to think that the reason we don't see Rio collect Sharon is because it was a peaceful death—joining Mr. Davis instead of suffering further. Whereas Alice finally had something to live for, but I digress. I've already made my posts about Alice.)

I think that this is all relatively obvious—but I genuinely can't stop thinking about Lilia and her dynamics with the rest of the coven.

[rena2307]

A question for all those who like Marvel x DC crossovers, more specifically the Spider-Man in Gotham ones.

Can you explain the lack of Christmas content? And no, I'm not talking about Christmas specials or Head-canons. I'm talking about the fact that both Bruce and Peter are Jewish.

Yes, I know it's not canonically confirmed, and no, I'm not talking about beliefs because I know Batman is an atheist.

But as far as upbringing goes, there have been references from both sides and it makes me think. I know a lot of people like the MCU Spider-Man to appear in crossovers.

But I remember this and since it's 3:30 in the morning I think, can you imagine?

An 8-year-old baby Peter Parker showing up on Dick Grayson's doorstep one day, explaining that an ex-girlfriend of his, Mary Parker his mother, died 2 weeks ago and with a DNA test in hand? It should also be added that he did all of this by himself, he cried for his mother for a week, then went to get a DNA test (don't ask how), then tracked down all the information on his father along with his address (also don't ask how), and then got a bus ticket to Bluehavens.

Richard Grayson only knows two things, well three.

1. His baby is a copy of him as a child with the soul of a mini Tim inside, they'll probably be best friends when they meet.

2. This adorable, little boy wearing overly baggy, worn out clothes, an inhaler in his other hand that doesn't hold the DNA test, and the most adorable doe eyes you've ever seen is his son, his baby, his little flying Grayson and his beloved little bird, screw everything else, he's his, even if he wasn't his biological son, that simple fact just reaffirms everything else.

3. He'll have to explain to Bruce after all the lectures he got from him as a teenager, and all his teasing about it when Damian showed up, that he got an ex pregnant when he was 19 and went to New York incognito.

I sweat a little, it's best to introduce him during the family Christmas (or rather Hanukkah) dinner, at least he knows he'll be happy to be a grandfather.

"Oh, by the way," Peter said over breakfast two weeks later.

They had come a long way during that time, and since he was a smart kid, just like Tim, it didn't take long for him to figure out his secret identity, which made certain things easier.

"I'm Jewish, my mother and uncles raised me celebrating Hanukkah, but I have no problem celebrating Christmas with your family, Dad, I just wanted you to know."

Still a little disoriented from lack of sleep after a night of patrol, it took him a little while to register the information, after it reached his brain, his movements to eat his pancakes stopped, he finally opened his eyes to look at his son and let out a big sigh of relief.

Now he would not only show up to Hanukkah dinner with a grandson for Bruce but one he could connect with based on one of his favorite holidays from when he was a child like him.

(Later at work he would realize how Peter had addressed him)

[kahuna-burger]

Got a note that reminded me this existed, so some elaboration. I had been reading a fic where Rumlow ”tried to use his Cyanide Tooth," and my brain just stopped and went SERIOUSLY???

*insert gif set of Frank Grillo saying, ”I'm a physical guy. I like to get punched in the face," in an interview*

Man is a field agent. Potentially gets thrown into walls for a paycheck, spends time in the ring for training and recreation. Is a Cyanide Tooth really a reasonable accessory?

And I was joking about this with someone and devolved into riffing on the teeth in general, like ”Pierce dies because he can't break his ice chewing habit” and got to ”hydra is outed years early cause an agent gets punched in a bar fight and dies from it!"

And my brain said "DUN! DUN!!!” and I suddenly had this perfect, beautiful image of the Law & Order guys running down first SHIELD, then Hydra as the Second Half Twist, and it was so awesome.

Anyone else out there still low key obsessed with early/mid seasons Law&Order and wanna collaborate on an MCU crossover where Jack McCoy busts open Hydra investigating a barroom brawl manslaughter?

[heresmyfiddlestick]

The Story and the Engine. I'm so relieved I gave my friends a rundown via PowerPoint presentation of the Doctor Who Is a TV Show Theory before this season began because we just keep winning. when I saw it was Inua Ellams and a barbershop I knew what we were doing - it's about communal storytelling as a means of keeping a community and culture, specifically African and diaspora culture. if you don't know about Ellams' play Barber Shop Chronicles, read up about it

holy shit is it delightful to see 15 in Africa. he is chumming it up in the market, he has a secret handshake with Omo. the Blackness of this episode was refreshing and inspiring. Ellams specifically addresses the differences in attitude the Doctor has experienced having changed his skin tone-- which is a really nice mirror to last year's episode 5, which didn't say it outright but really made you feel it along with him.

i'm really amused by Belinda just hanging back in the TARDIS. what was she planning on doing? she doesn't have a bedroom, and this console room doesn't have chairs. love that the TARDIS is helpful to her, though. she probably has some sympathy for Belinda, and we know she had a thing for the previous nurse passenger...

then of course we've got the whole conceit of the barbershop. we're telling stories to power some nefarious machine. an enigmatic man with a goatee and a weird little handheld doohickey and a pseudonym is holding people hostage. he's the Master. an exceptionally gorgeous but nonetheless mysterious woman walks in and the Doctor can't quite place her... no wait, she's the Master. oh wait, they're talking about gods-- it's another Pantheon thing?

NOPE! and thank god for that, too. it was great that we were able to have so much talk about real-world gods and not get dragged into the multi-season Pantheon arc. good to have the distinction between Doctor Who gods (ineffable and terrifying) and real-world gods (MCU fans)

(speaking of: i watched on Disney+ and that Endgame namecheck really added another layer of meta)

to be honest, the ultimate explanation of what The Barber is up to left me a bit cold. i really love it with my {{esquivalience}} hat on: we are unraveling the relationship between stories and storytellers, between original creators and the work that exists separate from them, between what stories are valued more than others (The Barber doesn't stop Abby while she is braiding the Doctor's hair, even though she is telling a story about why he should). this is all great and juicy and full of the language of rope. but there was just something that felt a bit uneven about it. a bit abstract, maybe. part of why i'm thrown is that... The Barber is an immortal human? and this was not really touched further on. not that we need to stop and explain everything that happens in our sci-fi show...

back to the ramble

how did the Doctor know that story about Belinda? i don't think she will have had a moment to just stop and chat with him about this one shitty shift. maybe he spoke to the woman she saved while he was looking for her? good to see Mrs. Flood get a look-in. mighty sturdy fourth-wall on this show, with the amount of people trying to bust it down

i loved the Fugitive Doctor jumpscare. i love leaving her as unexplained as possible. i love her existing in the back of the Doctor's mind

The Barber's first little beginning of the Nexus... that's a loom, right? that's looms? #loomwatch

oh and one last thing. Nigeria in the real world is where several formerly-lost 60s episodes have been found, notably The Enemy of the World and most of The Web of Fear in 2013. nothing in the story about that, but it is another great echo in the echo chamber of the TV show theory, especially with the recent literal depiction of film being burned this season

great ep. great season.