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sharath3947 · 3 months

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The Booming World of Large Format Printings in Bangalore

Introduction:

Bangalore, India's tech hub, has witnessed a surge in demand for large-format printings. As businesses evolve and competition intensifies, the need for eye-catching, oversized visual communications has grown exponentially. This article delves into the thriving industry of Large Format Printings in Bangalore, exploring its applications, technologies, and impact on various sectors.

Understanding Large Format Printings

Large format printings refer to high-quality, oversized prints produced on specialized printers. These printings can be created on various materials, including paper, vinyl, fabric, and even rigid substrates, making them versatile for numerous applications across industries in Bangalore.

Key Applications of Large Format Printers in Bangalore

The versatility of large format printings has led to their widespread adoption across various sectors in Bangalore:

1. Advertising and Marketing: Billboards, banners, and point-of-sale displays

2. Corporate Branding: Office decor, trade show exhibits, and wall graphics

3. Retail: In-store signage, window displays, and promotional materials

4. Architecture and Real Estate: Architectural renderings, site plans, and property showcases

5. Education: Campus signage, educational posters, and event promotions

6. Entertainment and Events: Concert backdrops, movie posters, and event banners

Technologies Driving Large Format Printers in Bangalore

The large format printing industry in Bangalore employs cutting-edge technologies to produce high-quality outputs:

1. Inkjet Technology: Offers vibrant colours and fine detail

2. UV-curable Printing: Provides durability and versatility for various substrates

3. Latex Printing: Eco-friendly option with excellent colour quality

4. Dye-sublimation: Ideal for fabric and textile printing

5. Suitable for outdoor applications: Solvent and Eco-solvent printing

Factors Influencing Large Format Printing Quality in Bangalore

Several factors contribute to the quality of Large Format Printings in Bangalore:

1. Printer Resolution: Higher DPI (dots per inch) results in sharper images

2. Substrate Selection: Choosing the right material for the intended application

3. Color Management: Proper calibration for accurate colour reproduction

4. Print Speed: Balancing speed with quality for optimal results

The Impact of Large Format Printings on Bangalore's Advertising Landscape

Large-format printings have revolutionized outdoor advertising in Bangalore. From massive billboards along busy highways to creative building wraps in the central business district, these printings have transformed the city's visual landscape, offering businesses innovative ways to capture public attention.

Large Format Printers in Bangalore's Retail Sector

Large Format Printings in Bangalore have been widely adopted by the retail industry to elevate in-store experiences. Retailers use these impressive printings to create eye-catching window displays, promotional banners, and product showcases, effectively attracting customers and driving sales in the city's competitive market landscape.

The Role of Large Format Printers in Bangalore's Tech Industry

As a technology hub, Bangalore's tech companies leverage large format printings for various purposes. From showcasing product prototypes to creating engaging office spaces and event backdrops, these printings play a crucial role in the city's thriving tech ecosystem.

Environmental Considerations in Large Format Printings

With growing environmental awareness, many large format printing businesses in Bangalore are adopting eco-friendly practices:

1. Using water-based and eco-solvent inks

2. Offering recyclable and biodegradable printing materials

3. Implementing energy-efficient printing processes

4. Proper garbage disposal and recycling.

These initiatives help reduce the environmental impact of large format printings while meeting client demands for sustainable solutions.

Challenges Faced by Large Format Printing Industry in Bangalore

The industry for Large Format Printings in Bangalore, despite its rapid expansion, encounters several significant challenges:

1. High initial cost of technology and equipment purchase

2. Rapidly evolving printing technologies requiring frequent upgrades

3. Increasing competition and price pressures

4. Shortage of skilled operators and technicians

5. Fluctuating raw material costs

Overcoming these challenges requires strategic planning, continuous innovation, and investment in skill development.

Future Trends in Large Format Printings for Bangalore

The large format printing industry in Bangalore is poised for continued growth and innovation. Emerging trends include:

1. Integration of digital technologies like AR in printed materials

2. Increased demand for personalized and short-run printing

3. Advancements in 3D printing technologies

4. Growing focus on sustainable printing solutions

5. Expansion into new markets and applications, such as interior decor

Training and Skill Development for Large Format Printing Professionals

As the industry expands, there's a growing need for skilled professionals in large format printing. Several institutions and training centres in Bangalore now offer specialized courses covering:

1. Print technology and colour management

2. Material handling and finishing techniques

3. Design software for large-format printing

4. Equipment maintenance and troubleshooting

5. Project management for print production

These programs help bridge the skill gap and prepare professionals for the evolving demands of the industry.

Networking and Industry Events in Bangalore

Large Format Printings in Bangalore are prominently featured at numerous trade shows and networking events dedicated to the printing industry. These gatherings offer professionals in the field opportunities to:

1. Explore the latest technologies and equipment

2. Connect with suppliers and potential clients

3. Attend workshops and seminars

4. Keep abreast with market developments and recommended procedures.

In the industry, these kinds of gatherings are essential for promoting creativity and cooperation.

The Economic Impact of Large Format Printers in Bangalore

The large format printing industry contributes significantly to Bangalore's economy by:

1. Creating job opportunities across various skill levels

2. Supporting allied industries such as advertising and event management

3. Attracting investments in printing technologies and infrastructure

4. Enhancing the city's reputation as a hub for visual communications

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

What are the main applications of large format printers in Bangalore?

Large format printings are used in advertising, corporate branding, retail, architecture, education, and entertainment sectors for various purposes such as billboards, banners, office decor, and event displays.

What technologies are commonly used in large format printing in Bangalore?

The main technologies include inkjet, UV-curable, latex, dye-sublimation, and solvent/eco-solvent printing.

How are large format printing businesses in Bangalore addressing environmental concerns?

They're using eco-friendly inks, offering recyclable materials, implementing energy-efficient processes, and properly disposing of waste materials.

What challenges does the large format printing industry face in Bangalore?

Challenges include high initial investment costs, rapid technological changes, increasing competition, skilled labor shortages, and fluctuating raw material costs.

What developments are anticipated in the big format printing sector in Bangalore going forward?

Emerging trends include integration of AR in printed materials, increased demand for personalized printing, advancements in 3D printing, focus on sustainable solutions, and expansion into new markets like interior decor.

Conclusion: The Bright Future of Large Format Printers in Bangalore

Large Format Printings in Bangalore are poised for significant growth as the city expands and evolves. With technological advancements, sustainability initiatives, and diverse applications, the industry is set for innovation. These printings will remain crucial in shaping Bangalore's visual landscape across advertising, retail, technology, and art sectors, providing businesses with powerful tools for communication and brand visibility in India's Silicon Valley.

#largeformatprintersinbangalore, #largeformatprintingsinbangalore, #largeposterprintersinbangalore, #largescaleprinterinbangalore,

#largeformatprintersinbangalore #largeformatprintingsinbangalore #largeposterprintersinbangalore #largescaleprinterinbangalore

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shivam-video · 3 months

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Immersive Viewing Experience through Our LFD WALLS – At Few of Our Recent Events

An LFD is typically a display product that has been built specifically for professional environments to deliver content to a wide audience, such as digital signage. This is distinguished from small format displays such as desktop monitors that are used for personal interaction.

Important features and specifications to consider in LFD Wall :

Size : The size chosen should be correct for the application and environment, taking into consideration factors such as viewing distance and readability as well as overall visual impact.

Resolution : Contributing to the overall image quality, generally the higher the resolution the better, although the native resolution of source content also needs to be considered. Higher resolution means greater detail and an improved viewing experience and is sometimes a requirement such as with medical imaging.

Brightness : The brightness of the display is increased to overcome higher levels of ambient light, however there is a trade-off between brightness, contrast and color reproduction which is important when considering brand image. The market for higher brightness displays has increased recently as advertisers attempt to attract customers from outdoor spaces such as the High Street. This allows retailers and advertisers to replace print with digital posters and make the most of their real estate; something not possible with cost effective alternatives such as projection.

Color : There is a natural trade-off between brightness, contrast and color reproduction. As brightness increases it becomes more difficult to resolve detail in darker content and vibrant colors may wash out, becoming whiter. It’s important to note if the main function of a display is to overcome daylight conditions then being able to read images is usually more important than achieving exact color reproduction. Improvements in LED backlight technology are however dramatically reducing the trade-off so that quality in all environments can be maintained. These improvements also allow HDR standards to be implemented across the panel, so detail can be maintained in dark areas.

Connectivity : Connectivity allows devices such as laptops and video conferencing systems to interface with the display, so should be considered for both new builds and when retrofitting into a legacy environment. Rich connectivity will accommodate a range of sources and provide the ability to utilize a modern LFD even in environments that may be using an existing infrastructure.

What’s the best way to allow viewers to interact with an LFD?

Users can interact remotely with an LFD using IP asset management software. Screen mirroring also allows for peer to peer connectivity with compatible phones, tablets and laptops such as Windows 10 devices.

Touch functionality offers an additional hardware layer, allowing users to directly interact with the display through touch or a stylus device. Technologies include Infrared which is cost effective, Projective capacitive which is suitable for retail environments and In-Glass IR for natural handwriting. Touch enabled software can be pre-installed using embedded technology such as interactive whiteboard software or using a separate PC with touch interface.

Know More About :-

1. Creative Edge LED Cubes for Events and Exhibitions

2. More than 17+ Booths at Auto Expo 2023 by SHIVAM VIDEO

#LFD Walls on Rent #LFD Screens #LED Screens Rental #Seamless LFD Screens #Best Audio Visual Provider #Shivam Video

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mvsmediagroup · 4 months

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Revolutionizing Outdoor Marketing: The Power of Digital Advertising Trucks

Several advancements in outdoor marketing are evident, including the shift from traditional billboards to moving ones. Other forms of traditional outdoor advertising include posters, street furniture, retail, bulletins, and more. At present, advertising trucks have evolved and adapted modern features like LED screens. To know more, continue reading to discover how these innovations revolutionize outdoor marketing in the digital age.

The Rise of Digital Advertising Trucks

Digital LED trucks are vehicles with one or a few screens that showcase ads. With modern technology, some also have audio features, such as remote display control. These trucks showcase advertisers’ skills in producing ads with high conversions, from the strategy to effectively convey the campaign message and route.

These trucks have evolved from static billboards mostly seen along the freeway. These advertising methods were first developed during the late 1800s to promote brands and products. Additionally, there were also origins of mobile billboards on horse carts. Since its humble beginnings, these advertising efforts have come a long way.

Advantages of Rising Digital Mobile Billboards

Since their modernization, these trucks have much more to offer to advertisers and businesses. These perks include flexibility and customization, high visibility, interactive features, and cost-effectiveness. These are significant changes from its predecessors, which were mostly static and took much more effort to replace.

These boast flexibility and customization, with trucks capable of changing advertisements remotely and targeting specific locations. As mentioned, marketers strategize these trucks’ routes based on the campaign goals, making them highly visible. What makes these ads even better is that they are now interactive, with some advertisers utilizing QR codes to engage with bypassers. More importantly, this marketing approach is cost-effective, with better stats when it comes to cost-per-impression compared to traditional static billboards.

Due to the vast benefits these advertising measures offer, numerous industries utilize them. From local retailers, event promoters, real estate, tourism and hospitality, politicians, and more.

Challenges and Considerations

Before using an LED mobile billboard for your campaigns, there are a few factors you must consider. These factors may vary depending on your location or where you intend to launch the campaign. These challenges include regulatory hurdles, technical considerations, and environmental impact.

Each state and city has different regulations for these moving billboards, and it's important to follow these for a seamless campaign. Other technical considerations involve maintenance, power supply, and weather resilience. It’s important to partner with a service provider that has thoroughly thought these out and can still carry out the campaign despite external restrictions.

The Future of Outdoor Marketing

There has been a rise in advertising trucks and other modern outdoor advertising efforts. So, what should the future of this marketing approach look like? These high-resolution screens that roam a specific area can be changed with just a single click. Brands and advertisers can now change ads and messaging based on data gathered in real time.

Another perk to the future of outdoor advertising is data-driven personalization. Though it currently plays a significant role, the future holds better strategies for improving consumer behavior analysis. With this, advertisers have hyper-targeted advertising for a more precise data-gathering process.

Aside from the advantages mentioned above, future trends include dynamic and interactive digital displays that offer flexibility. In fact, there is a continuous rise in 3D-moving LED billboards. These displays draw lots of attention from people passing by due to their ability to showcase ads at the same angle as the human eye would see them.

On the other hand, potential changes in regulations may also change. These rules and parameters currently limit the operations of these moving billboards. However, they might change, and local governments may adapt to changes due to the rise in this marketing effort. Advertisers must also keep in mind that some areas are off-limits for specific reasons. These may involve protected areas due to their natural, historical, or cultural impact.

Integration with Other Marketing Channels

Mobile trucks can incorporate online and offline marketing strategies into one cohesive strategy. Advertisers should be aware that it is important to incorporate a seamless and consistent presence on various platforms. How can professionals do this? Moving billboards is part of the offline strategy, and marketers can help with online conversions by redirecting audiences to a platform that discusses the event, product, or brand.

Advertising trucks help increase a brand’s visibility and awareness by traveling to areas frequented by their target audience. They can do this by incorporating messaging and graphics in their campaign that resonate with their audience. In addition to this, they can showcase calls to action that encourage their target to engage with their online platforms.

Market Your Brand with LED Mobile Trucks

LED advertising trucks are revolutionizing the outdoor marketing scene due to their different benefits. Different companies in the United States offer these services to brands and entities, but how do you choose one? Trusting service providers who have been pioneers in the industry is one place to start. MVS Media Group has been in the mobile billboard game since 2003. We are a trusted partner with sharp, cutting-edge, and the latest technology to advertise your brands innovatively. Learn more about us today!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

If you’re a business looking to expand your advertising efforts into mobile trucks with digital billboards, here are a few questions you might have.

What is truck advertising?

This truck advertising approach involves campaigns on trucks that roam around a specific area. Depending on the truck the brand or business chooses, the graphics may be static or digital.

Is it expensive to advertise?

Advertisement rates usually depend on the medium or platform being used. Rates are different online and offline. Offline advertising, like mobile trucks for ad rates, depends on the service provider.

What is the main purpose of billboard advertising?

Billboard advertising has existed since its beginnings to amplify the brands it endorses. These creative ads showcase a business or entity’s personality to leave an impression on individuals passing by.

#Mvsmediagroup #Advertising Trucks

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ledsigncompany · 7 months

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The Power of UV Digital Printing Signage and Metal Backlight Signage Boards

In today's competitive market, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to grab the attention of their target audience. One highly effective method that has emerged in recent years is the utilization of UV digital printing signage and metal backlight signage boards. These cutting-edge technologies offer businesses a unique opportunity to enhance their brand visibility and leave a lasting impression on potential customers. Let's delve into the remarkable benefits and applications of these signage solutions.

Enhancing Brand Visibility with UV Digital Printing Signage

UV Digital Printing Signage is revolutionizing the way businesses communicate with their audience. Utilizing advanced UV printing technology, these signs boast unparalleled clarity, vibrancy, and durability. Whether used for outdoor advertising, retail displays, or interior décor, UV digital printing signage commands attention and elevates brand presence.

Key Advantages of UV Digital Printing Signage:

1. Exceptional Image Quality: UV printing delivers stunning graphics and sharp text, ensuring that your message is conveyed with utmost clarity.

2. Versatility: From banners and posters to vehicle wraps and window graphics, UV digital printing can be applied to a wide range of materials, including wood, metal, acrylic, and more.

3. Longevity: UV-cured inks are resistant to fading and scratching, ensuring that your signage maintains its brilliance even in harsh outdoor environments.

4. Quick Turnaround: With rapid curing times, UV printing enables fast production, allowing businesses to meet tight deadlines and capitalize on time-sensitive promotions.

Illuminating Your Brand with Metal Backlight Signage Boards

In the realm of visual marketing, Metal Backlight Signage Boards stand out as a sophisticated and attention-grabbing solution. These illuminated signs combine the timeless elegance of metal craftsmanship with cutting-edge LED backlighting technology, creating a captivating visual experience that captivates viewers day and night.

Advantages of Metal Backlight Signage Boards:

1. Striking Aesthetics: The sleek, metallic finish exudes professionalism and sophistication, making a bold statement about your brand's identity.

2. Enhanced Visibility: LED backlighting ensures that your signage remains highly visible and impactful, even in low-light conditions or adverse weather.

3. Customization: From size and shape to color and illumination effects, metal backlight signage boards offer endless customization options to suit your brand's unique aesthetic and messaging requirements.

4. Durability: Crafted from high-quality metals such as aluminum or stainless steel, these signage solutions are built to withstand the elements and maintain their allure for years to come.

Applications Across Industries

The versatility and effectiveness of UV digital printing signage and metal backlight signage boards make them indispensable assets across various industries:

• Retail: Grab attention with vibrant window displays, promotional banners, and in-store signage that drive foot traffic and boost sales.

• Hospitality: Create memorable guest experiences with branded décor, directional signage, and illuminated displays that elevate the ambiance of hotels, restaurants, and event venues.

• Real Estate: Showcase properties in their best light with eye-catching yard signs, building wraps, and directional signage that attract potential buyers and tenants.

• Corporate: Reinforce brand identity and corporate messaging with sleek lobby displays, office signage, and dimensional logos that leave a lasting impression on clients and employees alike.

Conclusion

In an era where visual communication reigns supreme, investing in UV digital printing signage and metal backlight signage boards is a strategic decision that can yield significant returns for your business. By leveraging the power of these innovative signage solutions, you can enhance brand visibility, engage your target audience, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

#UV digital printing signage #Metal Backlight Signage Boards

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realestatewindowdesigner201-blog · 5 years

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How to choose real estate led window display- top 5 notes you should be aware of

To buy or not to buy, that’s not question, but where to buy, that is not an easy decision - especially if you are new to building your office window with real estate led window displays.

Due I am a real estate window designer, and I usually buy the real estate led light pocket from on-line shop, in the past 5 years, I have ordered such display from more than 15 one line shops at least, well, I don’t want to write all here, due some of them are really a nightmare experience for me. I try to choose some big of them and with a good purchasing experience to enjoy with you.

Most of them are dealers, not the real producer, but I think it is better to buy from real producer, the price is the lowest of course and they can produce something according to your actual need, and the quality is really good, and it is very flexible. the most of important, those factories now accept the trial mini order below 100pcs. and service is not bad. take Litplus for example, Litplus is a real producer from China and can supply 3 years warranty, and in fact, their display is really good performance, seldom need the aftersale service. I bought a parcel display 5 years before, they now still work without any problem.

Before buy from Litplus, as I said, I also buy such real estate window displays from several big on-line shops. part of them like vitrinemedia.com , display2go.com , prodisplay.com , novadisplay.com , deesign.com , showcaseartanframing.com, during of them deesign is USA secondary agent for vitrinemedia. they locate different countries. they really can supply a good sale service for you if you are from their local market. but the price are really expensive. but the product quality are nearly same as product be produced Litplus, that let me doubt if they all buy such product from Litplus, although the people from Litplus said no, and I think that should be their business secrets. and refuse to release any.

Vitrine media is one of big companies, they have sales company whole Europe. they supply a good sales aftersale service. and their price is really considerable. the display quality is same as display be produced by Litplus, The real estate window led display produced by Litplus has soared in popularity in recent years, and boasts a ton of celebrity fans including vatrine media, meanwhile, powers a third of the real estate display market today.

They are both great supplier for real estate led window display, although Litplus are more pay attention to develop and produce new model to satisfy the diversity of market and vitrine media show importance on the marketing, their sales companies locate whole Europe. but they are actually very different:

The price of real estate display be produced by Litplus is more competitive, no matter what order quantity it is, even only 1pc display, also enjoy a wholesale price, due Litplus focus on the small and medium business, it is China factory directly without any middle-dealer, that can save lots during the business.

Competitive price not mean low quality product. all the display are made of high quality acrylic sheet and long lifespan led light strip, all the display and its parts with 3 years warranty.

Litplus pay more attention to produce new model to satisfy the diversity of market, from its led strip brightness to led light colors, display appearance(sharp corner or round corner, with or without transparent hem, display sizes) and its flexible hanging, if clients need, Litplus can do it totally. and their customize order can be delivered within 7-15days, the delivery for normal order is 3-7days.

Litplus have a professional after-sales team, if there any question on display and its installation, can directly feedback and their people will deal with it sooner. they also make clear installation video to make the installation more easy. no need to hire a electrician with additional cost.

Vitrine media company show importance on marketing, their sales companies locate whole Europe, they are really a big company, and more powerful than Litplus, but that mean requires more cost on everything. although they are same quality display as Litplus.

Think you already know which one’s right for you? check out some more specific reading below:

1. Thickness and quality of acrylic led panel - who is the best?

As we all know, the acrylic light panel quality and its thickness decide the window display lifetime and effect. high quality acrylic led panel will not very easy to bent and yellowing when meet heat, and high quality acrylic sheet with high lighting transmittance rate, can reach above 90%, the whole window display will more bright and vivid.

Litplus display with 6mm thickness acrylic light panel, those acrylic panel are top grate quality. so the whole display with very good light effect and can guarantee 3 years warranty.

Some other competitors also produce such display, but their display just look same from appearance, the inner content are great different, they make a plastic shell with 6mm thickness around the display to make the whole window display and inner of it with only 2mm thickness acrylic led light panel, can only use half year at most, but they give you a 1 year warranty, their price is very very low, but can you dare to buy?

2. The technology of frame color are also very important.

All of Litplus faceplate are silk screen printing, very smooth and uniform in color, it can better hide the led light strip. the metal pieces for magnetics are sticked tightly in the right place with 3M sticker. to make sure the metal pieces not fall down when meet the heat that generate from the electrical power, I saw some competitor make display frame color with oil printing, not smooth and uniform, the printing oil leak out from the frame edge, can be seen everywhere. and smelly.

3. What brightness the led light can reach ?

All Litplus display led lights are customized with cool white color(around 6500K) , the brightness can reach above 4500lux. Litplus also have high light display and the brightness can reach above 7000lux. except for the cool with color, Litplus also produce other color temperature window display, one of clients ordered a parcel display with led light around 3000K, a warm color.

Litplus also make special cooler inside the display to reduce the heat from the electronic power to prolong the lifespan of display.

Some competitors only design a single side led light into display just to decrease the heat from the electronic power, they choose a normal white led light, such led light usually not very stable performance in color temperature, so such window display always appear blue led color, they have no other cooler technology, thus the whole display look dim.

4. Workmanship and monthly production are also one of important element.

With 2000 Square Meters Plants, More Than 20sets Advanced Machines And Comply With ISO9001:2008 Management Keep Us Produce 50000pcs Qualified Real Estate Displays Each Months. Litplus make sure every displays be produced with good workmanship.

It is great different from those competitors who make the display with hand-making only.

5. Aftersales and supports

As to the after sale service, Litplus insist 2 "R",that is "repair" and "replace", for all display, they supply 2-3years warranty, thier engineer will supply you a detail guiding for you to self-check the product problem within 3days once get your detail problem report, most of them can better get resolved, if unlucky, they will replace it. and they will responsible for the shipping. they will not responsible for the problem that caused by any mistakes human making.

If you are for the first time to import sth from China, not quite clear the import affairs, like the import tax and vat, please don't worry, their stuff will guide you, they will better help you with better service with their rich experience.

Other competitor also promise a 12month after sale service, in fact, their display can not last to 1year. how could they supply aftersales service for you?

Above all, if you are really looking For Professional Manufacturer With Good Trust, Contact with them Now To Benefit their Qualified Products, Competitive Price And Good Service.their website is https://www.ledwindowdisplay.com

Composted by Jessica

Real estate window designer

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brawltogethernow · 3 years

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@mirrorfalls submitted: Came across this while searching for James Bond’s scrambled-eggs recipe (long story). Your thoughts?

But did you find James Bond’s scrambled eggs recipe?

In this article, Scocca laments his inability to find accessible, lighthearted superhero comics suitable to read with his young son, while also demonstrating a mysterious aversion to looking at DC and Marvel’s lines of comics for children, which is where the accessible, lighthearted superhero comics suitable for reading with young children are. He wants his elementary schooler to be able to safely have the run of all superhero media so he doesn’t have to touch the yucky baby books.

This is not an industry-wide crisis. This is just one dude who got paid to write an article where he accidentally exposed one of his personal hangups.

The child headed toward the trade paperbacks of Marvel and D.C. superhero titles on the side wall […] a few steps in front of me. […] Is he with you? a clerk asked me. I said he was. You know, the clerk said, we have a kids’ section. The clerk gestured backward, at a few shelves near the entrance. I said, Thanks, we know and tried throwing in a little shrug, as the kid kept going.

You can’t just turn a seven-year-old child loose in a comic-book store to look at the superhero comic books. […] My seven-year-old really wanted to see that last Avengers movie […] that is, he wished it were a movie he could see, but he understood that it was, instead, a movie designed to scare and sadden him—a movie actively hostile to people like him.

They have a children’s section. Because comics are a medium suitable for stories for everybody, and they are sold in comic book shops, which have sections, like bookstores. You can use this organization to find books that you know in advance are suitable for children. What goes in that category is determined by industry professionals. This area will be bigger the bigger the shop is. These comics are not lower quality that titles from the main lines. They are actually slightly better-written on average.

Your local comic book shop has considerately wrapped Empowered in a plastic bag, so your child will not be drawn in by a colorful superhero and accidentally read a graphic scene. If you think your kid might find a memoir about internment camps upsetting, it is your job to notice them picking up They Called Us Enemy and read the blurb on the back before you let them have it. This comic adults are meant to read is in a comic book shop because that is where comics are sold. Not every public place is supposed to be Disneyland.

Movies have ratings systems. If you do not want your child to watch a PG-13 movie, you will find that most superhero cartoons are for children. They are about the same characters. Some are quite good! I really enjoyed Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Your child may like Avengers Assemble. At least I think that’s right. I’m always mixing those titles around.

This is a deeply weird bias for Scocca to casually demonstrate, because he identifies in the article that real childishness is striving for empty maturity.

He compares an old comic,

[…]a 1966 Spider-Man comic in which Spider-Man meets, fights, and defeats the Rhino; participates in a running argument between John Jameson and J. Jonah Jameson about his heroism; buys a motorcycle; breaks up with his first girlfriend, Betty Brant; flirts with Gwen Stacy; and reluctantly agrees to let Aunt May take him to meet her friend Mrs. Watson’s niece, Mary Jane.

and a new comic,

[…]a 21st century comic book in which Thor, brooding in a Katrina-destroyed New Orleans, beats up Iron Man. He also yells at Iron Man a lot about some incomprehensibly convoluted set of grievances, including involuntary cloning, that he believes Iron Man perpetrated against him while he was dead(?), and then summons some other Norse god from the beyond somehow for reasons having something to do with real estate. I think. Where the 1966 comic is zippy and fun and complete, the whole contemporary one is muddled and lugubrious and seems to constitute a tiny piece of a seemingly endless plot arc—simultaneously apocalyptic and inert.

and concludes that the edgier comic is actually less mature. This is true. (This is not news about mediocre comics.)

It also has nothing to do with either comic being child-friendly, the article’s nominal thesis, except in the sense that ASM #41 (yes, I eyeballed that from that summary, yes I am just showing off now) is better written, making it more everyone-friendly. It also has practically more space dedicated to word balloons than art and is about a college student juggling girl problems and a part-time job with a tyrannical boss. But the immature one, as Scocca points out, is dour.

These are both teenagery issues, separated only by quality. It’s true that lots of new comics published by the big 2 are bad in the specific way Scocca describes here, taking themselves too seriously and hauled down by associated stories instead of buoyed by them. Some are not! Some titles from these companies’ main continuities are zippy, contained, and child friendly. Give your child The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! Or if you like vintage comics so much better, why don’t you…buy some?

The books on the kid’s rack are good and fun and totally suitable for parents to read with their children without wanting to scoop their eyeballs out. Scocca cites the Batman ‘66 comics as the brightly colored, tightly written all ages solution to his problem about sharing superhero stories with his son. My local comic shop stores this title in the kid’s section. I am glad that Scocca’s does not, as he seems to have a peculiar aversion to looking for comics to read with his son there.

Scocca cites Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as a superhero movie he could watch with his kids. (I was surprised when this line made it sound like he has several. I don’t want to assume the other one isn’t in this article because they’re a girl, but I very much am assuming that.) Great! Go to the kid’s section and look for Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. It’s a fun, zippy title directly inspired by ITSV where Miles, Gwen, and Peter superhero together. It’s much more tightly written than most of the various Spider-Verse comics, which are ambitiously messy ubercrossovers. You may not want to give those to children because they include murder and so on, but also you just have the choice between the two as an adult reader deciding how much continuity you want to deal with. Adventures is one of the only titles I would buy on sight before corona. The kid comic rack is a reliable place to take a break from How Comics Get Sometimes regardless of how old you are.

This article makes me feel quarrelsome. Maybe it’s that it doesn’t seem like exploration of a single idea so much as a loosely grouped bundle of things to kvetch about. Maybe it’s that the experience of getting into superheroes that Scocca describes experiencing, projects his seven-year-old son will experience, and from which he extrapolates a metaphorical microcosm of the history of the genre is completely alien to me.

Comic books [and] comic-book movies—are […] trapped in their imagined audience’s own awful passage from childhood to adolescence. A seven-year-old has a clean […] appreciation of superheroes. They like hero comics because the comics have heroes: bold, strong, vividly colored good guys to fight off the bad guys and make the world safe.

But seven-year-olds stop being seven. […] They become 13-year-olds, defensively trying to learn how to develop tastes about tastes.

The 13-year-old wants many things from comics, but the overarching one is that they want to prove that they’re not some seven-year-old baby anymore. They want gloomy heroes, miserable heroes, heroes who would make a seven-year-old feel bad. (Also boobs. They want boobs.)

Not because of the boobs line, although that does illicit an eyeroll that this gloomy thinkpiece is fretting over preserving the superhero experience of little boys who resemble the little boy the writer was while casually dismissing everyone else. I was one of those unlikable little seven-year-olds with a college reading level and the impression that maintaining it was the crux of my worth. I only read Books - distinguished media you could club someone with. I have a formative memory of pausing, enraptured, in front of a poster for Spider-Man 3, preparing to say that it looked pretty cool, and being beaten to the punch by my mother making a disparaging comment about how the movie was trash. It wasn’t out yet, but it was a superhero movie. That meant it was for loud, brainless children.

That was the total of my childhood experience with superheroes, excluding being the unwilling audience to incessant renditions of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” that left me wondering why in god’s name Batman’s sidekick was named Robin. I certainly never visited a comic book shop. I got into TvTropes, which got me into webcomics, which got me following David Willis, who got me into Ask Chris at ComicsAlliance, which led to me rewarding myself for studying like a demon for the AP tests with three volumes of Waid’s Daredevil, pitched as a return to the character being colorful and swashbuckling. I was seven…teen.

This is of the same thread as Scocca’s point that immaturity is running from childish things. It leaves me baffled that he doesn’t follow that maturity is embracing them.

I will disclose here that while I think it was dumb I had to overcome my upbringing’s deeply embedded shame associated with enjoying arbitrarily defined lowbrow media and children being childish, I think it’s fine that I was allowed largely unchecked access to technically age-inappropriate content. In my limited experience, content small children are too young for is also content they’re too young to understand, so it kind of just bounces off of them, and what actually ends up terrorizing them is unpredictable collages of impressions that strike out at them from content deemed perfectly child-friendly. I would not forbid a seven-year-old I was in charge of from seeing an MCU movie unless I had a reason to believe that specific child would not take it well. These are emotionally low-stakes bubblegum films. It will probably be easier to socialize with other kids if they have seen them.

But then, when I picture being in charge of a hypothetical child, I usually imagine this being the case because they are related to me, and the pupal stage in my family strongly resembles Wednesday Addams. ALL children love death and violence, though, right?? This isn’t a joke point. I know it looks like a joke point.

The MCU thing seems especially weird in light of the article’s particular focus on Spider-Man, which is the kiddie line of the MCU, even if they refused to waver from their usual formula enough to get a lower rating. Though I am more inclined to describe it as “preying on the young” than “child-friendly”.

(MCU movies are increasingly dubious propaganda, but I would not judge them in front of a child who wanted to watch them for that reason, just in case this led to them partaking of them without me the second they were old enough to and then they grew up to run a blog about them while our relationship suffered because they didn’t feel like it was safe to talk to me about their interests…Mom.)

I tried to overcome the philosophy of letting anyone read anything while compiling this handful of mostly-newish superhero recs for the road that anyone can read. (Handily, I have been in spitting distance of being hired as a comic shop clerk enough to have thought about it before):

For actual children:

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (the new one is reminiscent of ITSV, the old one is more like 616) any DC/Archie crossover, Archie’s Superteens The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (for bookish children who think they’re too good for comics and adults afraid of the kid’s section) Teen Titans Go (even if you hate the show) Superman Smashes the Klan

For teens:

Ms. Marvel Young Avengers (volume 2) Unbelievable Gwenpool Batman: Gotham Adventures Teen Titans Go (the tie-in comic based off the old show was also called this)

Here are a bunch of relevant C. S. Lewis quotes.

#me every time i read a comic book article by a rag not exclusively about comic books: i know more than you.#marvel #spidey #DCU #MCU critical #mirrorfalls #asks answered #submission #unearthed this and bashed it out in one sitting ... i have not been working on it since you sent it last year XD

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invisibleanonymousmonsters · 4 years

Text

no grave can hold my body down – 1/2

Character: Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

Summary: It took time to get Jason Todd away from the darkness. Sometimes it felt like he was always standing at a tipping point, at risk of completely losing himself. But not when he was with her. She made him better and she would continue to make him better.

Word Count: 5,500

A/N: I am very new to this fandom and extremely nervous to write something for it. To clarify, I have not read any of the comics. But I’ve watched a lot of the TV and movie adaptations, and have done a lot of research. Jason is much older in this – like 30? – and therefore the rest of the BatFam is older, as well. But this takes place after Jason Todd is resurrected, but is still on rocky territory with his family.

Jason dropped down to the fire escape of his apartment with a quietness that seemed impossible for how large he was.

On the other side of the small fire escape, Y/N sat with a blanket over her lap, a book in her hand, and a mug of coffee balanced perfectly on the metal grates.

“Thought I told you not to wait up for me,” Jason greeted, knowing she noticed his arrival, but just kept reading her book. His book, to be precise.

It was almost 4AM and Jason had called it a night after taking out an entire drug cartel. It had been a lot of waiting, until it finally led up to 20 minutes of utter chaos. He left them on a silver platter for the police to arrest them and actually clean up the mess.

Y/N finally looked up at him and he saw how tired her eyes seemed. But she gave him a soft smile, clearly happy to see him home and...alive.

A pang of guilt went through him. He did that to her.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she told him with a shrug.

Jason slowly nodded. Then he nudged his head towards the book, “Jane Eyre again?”

She smirked. “It’s a comfort read.”

He smiled back at her – which she couldn’t even see, because he was still wearing the red helmet that covered his entire head.

“You shouldn’t stay out here so long. It’s too cold.”

“I was waiting for you,” she countered.

“I thought you couldn’t sleep.”

“I couldn’t…because I was worried about you,” she finally admitted.

There it was.

“You have a voicemail on your cellphone. Alfred called,” she quickly added to change the subject.

Jason left his personal cellphone at home when he was on patrol, not wanting any sort of pointless distractions. Y/N had a direct line to his comms if there was an emergency, which was the only thing he cared about. His old family could figure out ways to contact him if they really wanted to. But he didn’t go out of his way to give them that info.

“Get inside before you catch a cold,” he told her as he nodded toward the open window.

She chuckled at his attempt to sound stern. It was hard for her to take it seriously. But she listened to him anyway, knowing that if she tried to ignore him, it would end in him dragging her inside. And that was not a physical battle she ever had a chance at winning.

30 minutes later, Y/N was laying in bed and still reading her book as Jason tried to erase the night.

He always took long, scolding showers after patrol. Even if there was no blood to be washed away, there was always a need to cleanse himself of…something.

Y/N had asked him if he was hurt as she crawled through the window back inside their apartment.

“I’m fine,” he’d insisted.

But she knew “fine” just meant he didn’t need stitches, or bones reset, or the need to call the actual doctor he had a certain under-the-table deal with. She also knew she shouldn’t be surprised when he took off his clothes and she would see new bruises and shallow cuts covering his skin.

Jason finally crawled into bed with nothing but his black briefs. His hair still wet from the burning shower he just took.

He let out a sigh and stared up at the ceiling.

It was always a battle for Y/N, trying to figure out when to leave Jason to his thoughts and when to force him to talk. She knew he couldn’t drown himself in his own mind. But she also knew she couldn’t pretend to be his therapist.

“J?” She asked him softly as she put her book down.

“Hmm?” He asked, looking at her.

“You OK?”

He nodded.

She let it be.

Jason turned his gaze back to the ceiling. “Alfred has a foundation to raise money for under-funded schools in Gotham. It’s all him, but it has Bruce’s name all over it so all the rich assholes will want to save face with the Wayne family by donating.”

“I can support that type of manipulation,” Y/N said with a smirk.

“He holds a gala at Wayne Manor for it every year. Gets them at least a mil every time.”

She listened closely.

Then Jason looked at her again. “He asked me to come this year.”

“Oh,” her face fell.

Jason had told Y/N about his tumultuous relationship with his family. While he mended most of the damage with his brothers, he wasn’t quite willing to do so with Bruce. Y/N didn’t try to push Jason to reconcile with his adoptive father. She understood his heartbreak and frustrations there. She wasn’t a huge fan of Bruce herself after learning the damage he’d done to her boyfriend.

But it was because of the past traumas that Y/N hadn’t met any of Jason’s hodgepodge, vigilante family.

She also guessed that it was his overprotectiveness of her that stopped him from wanting to fully submerge her in that part of his life. To Jason, the less she knew about the Bat Family, the safer she was.

“He asked me to bring you, too.” Jason suddenly added.

Y/N blinked. “I…I didn’t realize they knew about me.”

He smirked at that. “Of course they do.”

“Even Bruce?”

His smirk disappeared. “Well, I didn’t tell him. But he’s a nosey son of a bitch. And even if he didn’t figure it out for himself, one of my brothers probably ran their mouth.”

Y/N didn’t think Jason and Bruce had a conversation out of uniform since he became the Red Hood. Probably hadn’t even addressed each other by their actual names in years.

Y/N fully turned on her side to face her boyfriend and scooted closer. “What do you want to do?” She asked carefully.

Jason sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Then he too turned on his side and stole a look at her. She looked so tired, but still beautiful. He knew he put her through too much. He didn’t deserve her. And she deserved a better man than he could ever be. He had guilt on his conscience, blood on his hands. He was the poster child for the harshness that was Gotham. She was a normal woman who would’ve never gotten mixed up in this world if it weren’t for him.

But Y/N insisted that she wanted to be here. Told him so by just staying each and every day, and never questioning her decision. Even left New York City to slum it in Gotham with him.

Jason brushed some hair away from her face.

“You’d come with me?”

Her face scrunched from him even feeling the need to ask. “Of course.” Then she gave him a sad look, “I’ve been wanting to meet your family for awhile.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He asked.

Her eyes darkened. “You know why, J.”

He stayed silent.

“Listen, I know things haven’t been…good with your family. But I also know that they raised you. Whether you want to admit it or not, a lot of the man you are today is because of them. And I happen to love that man. So, yeah, I’ve wanted to meet them.”

Jason had a look full of love that he was trying to contain. “Come here,” he demanded with a grin.

Y/N giggled and moved into his arms.

Jason immediately pivoted her body so she was hovering over him. Without any hesitation, he pulled her down for a kiss.

“It’s gonna be filled with rich snobs and ass kissers. Don’t go hoping for a fun time,” he warned her as he narrowed his gaze playfully.

“Then you’re really gonna need me there. Who else is gonna make fun of them with you?” She teased.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Will this be a fancy affair?”

“Unfortunately.”

Her gaze darkened. “So, I’m gonna see you in a suit, huh?”

Jason pinched her sides.

Y/N yelped before laughing, “Do you even own a suit? I’ve never seen it in your closet.”

Suddenly he flipped her body so he was now the one hovering over her. Y/N couldn’t ignore Jason’s massive size when she was caged below him like that. “You’re on thin ice, kid.”

“Oooh. I’m so scared,” she mocked.

Jason almost looked offended.

But he sighed, getting back to the previous subject. “If I have to wear a suit, that means you have to wear a dress.”

“Or I could wear a suit, too.” She countered and raised a brow at him.

He smirked at her challenge. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you in one either.”

That seemed to please her.

“I promise I’ll look real pretty. Ya know, really play the part of the arm candy for the famous Jason Todd.”

Jason scoffed. “You’re always beautiful.” Then his gaze darkened. “And the arm candy was always Bruce and Dick’s thing. Not mine.”

“OK. So what should I be?”

“My accomplice,” Jason confirmed.

——————————————————

Y/N fidgeted in the back seat of the car as the black car drove to the outskirts of Gotham and to the Wayne Estate.

Jason had sent her a text from his patrol comms about something coming up. Vague, as always. He did it to keep her in the dark as much as possible.

Apparently he’d tried to tell Alfred they couldn’t make it. But the old man wouldn’t let him off the hook that easily. He told Jason he’d send a car for Y/N and that he better show up too.

Y/N had worn her fanciest dress, curled her hair, and done her makeup to perfection. She knew she could dress the part, but it was the acting bit that had her stressed out.

Despite Jason’s relationship with his family, she still dreaded the thought that they wouldn’t like her and that they wouldn’t approve. Yeah, they were secretly vigilantes, but they were also the richest people in Gotham.

Y/N swallowed as the car parked right outside the front entrance of Wayne Manor. There seemed to already be hundreds of people there. Everyone looked rich and fancier than Y/N could ever even pretend to be.

‘You’re here for Jason. You’re here for Jason.’ She repeated in her mind as the driver opened the door for her and offered his hand.

Y/N told herself to become a character as she held her head high and made her way into the mansion.

“Mansion” didn’t even seem to cover it. Y/N felt like she was in a Jane Austen novel or Downton Abbey.

Guests eyed her as soon as she made her way inside. She was much younger than the general demographic of the party. It seemed that old money also meant literally old.

She did a once over to see if she could find Jason. But he was nowhere to be found. Y/N decided she needed a drink to face a gala full of unwelcoming strangers alone.

She ignored the curious and judgmental gazes as she made her way to one of the many bars set up through the home.

‘Maybe red was too much,’ her imposter syndrome was telling her. Clearly it was making her stick out. But she knew Jason loved seeing her in red.

Y/N quickly ordered a strong drink from the bartender, who was kind enough to sense that this young woman needed liquid courage and she needed it fast.

“Are you sure you meant to use that bottle?” A male voice came up beside her, speaking to the bartender on her behalf.

Y/N turned to see a very boyishly handsome man with blue eyes and brown hair so dark that it was almost black.

He gave that bartender a look and Y/N watched as he nervously grabbed the much more expensive brand – the one Y/N would never in her life buy for herself.

“Thank you,” Y/N said as politely as possible when the bartender slid the drink towards her.

Then she turned her attention to the young man. “You didn’t have to do that.”

He gave her a crooked smirk. “You deserve the very best.”

Y/N might not have ever met Jason’s brothers. But they were famous enough to make frequent appearances in the media. Everyone in Gotham knew what the Wayne kids looked like. Especially Dick Grayson, who seemed to thrive in the spotlight in a similar manner to his father.

“Oh? And how do you know what I deserve? You don’t know me at all,” Y/N challenged with a tilt of her head.

Her sass seemed to excite him.

“Well, I was hoping, since I saved you from the cheap stuff, that you’d give me a chance to.”

Y/N shook her head with an almost baffled smile. This faux charm and air of confidence was so unlike Jason’s. While Jason was quietly confident and sure of himself. It came almost from a place of nihilism. But Dick…Dick had an edge of haughtiness and self importance.

“Your reputation precedes you, Dick Grayson,” Y/N cooed, with mischievous glint in her gaze, before taking a sip of her drink. He was right: this was the good stuff.

Dick’s amusement seemed to falter now that she confessed to knowing exactly who he was. “And what reputation is that exactly?”

“Cocky, charming…flirtatious.”

Dick didn’t seem to mind these adjectives at all. In fact, he seemed rather proud of himself. He stepped a little closer to her. “It feels a little unfair that you seem to know me, but I haven’t even gotten your name.”

Y/N tried to suppress her smile. She was really starting to enjoy this little game. “You’ll realize soon enough.”

“Well, until then…” He stepped even closer and somehow managed to put his hand on her back without it feeling creepy. “Would you like to dance?”

“Move that hand any lower, Dick, and I’ll fuckin’ break it,” Jason said from behind Y/N.

Dick barely moved away from Y/N, but looked at his brother with confusion.

Y/N turned and maneuvered her body away from Dick’s grasp.

Then she smiled at Jason as she took in the sight of her boyfriend wearing a suit. Like, a real suit, not one made for a vigilante. He managed to tame his hair without using too much product. And his face had its signature scruff but cleaned up a bit.

“How long has this one been annoying you?” Jason asked her.

“Not long,” she replied before giving him a sweet kiss.

Y/N turned to face Dick again, but remained close to Jason’s side. On instinct alone, Jason placed his hand on her back and pulled her even closer. It wasn’t possessive, but a habit he formed to comfort himself.

Dick blinked as his mind clearly figured out the change in situation.

“You’re Y/N?” He asked her.

She smirked. “Told you that you’d realize it soon enough.”

“Dick, this is my girlfriend, Y/N. Y/N, this is, Dick Grayson.”

Y/N didn’t miss how Jason didn’t refer to Dick as his brother.

To his credit, Dick recovered rather quickly and politely offered his hand. Y/N didn’t hesitate to shake it. After all, she still wanted to make a good impression on his family. And the flirting was harmless.

“I apologize for…” Dick’s words died out.

“Hitting on me?” Y/N offered with a laugh. “I would say I’m flattered, but I’m sure I’m one of many women you will be making moves on tonight.”

“Do it again, and I’ll swap out the rubber bullets in my guns, Dick.” Jason half warned and half joked.

Dick seemed unfazed by the threat. “Why don’t you say it a little louder so more people can hear?”

Jason ignored his brother’s warning.

He turned his gaze down to Y/N. “Let’s go introduce you to Alfred.”

Jason held her hand as he made his way through the crowd. It wasn’t hard to do. Y/N assumed it had to do with him technically being a Wayne or perhaps it was his large and imposing frame that told people to get the hell out of his way.

Then Y/N was standing in front of an elderly man who had perfect posture and mischievous edge to his welcoming smile.

“Master Jason, I see that you have finally brought Ms. Y/L/N for me to meet,” Alfred said with a smile.

Out of all his siblings and father, Alfred seemed to be the only family member that Jason didn’t hold any sort of grudge against. Though Y/N wasn’t really sure what anyone would have against him. From everything she heard, he sounded absolutely lovely.

He held out his hand, which Y/N instantly went to shake. But instead, Alfred brought her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on her knuckles. There was something about this family that made everything they do seem charming rather than creepy and uncomfortable.

Y/N laughed at the gesture. “It’s so nice to meet you, Alfred. I’ve heard so much about you.”

He patted her hand before letting it go gently. “I wish I could say the same for you, dear. But it would appear Master Jason prefers to keep you entirely to himself.”

She just gave him a polite – yet controlled – smile. Another side effect of Jason being overprotective of her.

“Thank you for sending the car for me. You didn’t have to do that,” she told him.

“Oh, nonsense. I would not allow this one to use any excuse for missing tonight.”

Y/N asked him about his foundation with genuine interest. Alfred answered all of her questions with enthusiasm. She wondered how often Alfred got to talk about normal things with the Wayne family. She could only imagine the manor was entirely consumed with matters of vigilantism.

Alfred also asked Y/N far more questions about herself than she was prepared for. It made her realize that Jason really did keep her quite the secret. Y/N knew she shouldn’t be offended by it, but it made her sad that Jason’s family had clearly shown such an interest in her. Had she known, she may have put more pressure on Jason to introduce her.

There was a lull in conversation when Alfred’s gaze turned to Jason.

“Have you spoken with him yet?” He asked evenly.

They all know who ‘him’ was.

“I’m here for you, Alfred.” Jason quickly answered. “And we’ve kept you selfishly to ourselves for far too long. I’m sure everyone here wants to talk with you.”

Nice save.

Alfred dipped his head and lowered his voice, “Oh, you are two of the few people here whom I actually wish to converse with…” He finished with a wink before leaving them.

“And here I thought you got all your charm from Bruce Wayne,” Y/N teased her boyfriend.

But when she looked up at Jason, he had a dazed looked in his eyes.

“Hey,” she squeezed his hand in comfort. “You don’t need to talk to him if you don’t want to. In fact, we can go now if you want.”

Jason snapped out of it then. “And leave without destroying this open bar? Absolutely not.” Then he seemed to take her in for the first time that night. “Plus, you deserve to be shown off.”

He leaned down to her ear. “I was so distracted with saving you from Dick that I didn’t get the chance to tell you how beautiful you looked tonight.”

No matter how many times he said things like that to her or made her feel this way, she still managed to blush at such compliments.

And for good measure, Jason sealed the praise with a kiss, lightly gripping her chin to make sure she didn’t escape too soon for his liking.

He barely pulled away from her lips when he smiled and muttered, “Come on. Let’s go steal ourselves a bottle of Dom Pérignon.”

“Jason,” she scolded in a whisper, “Those cost like $2,000!”

“Exactly.”

The next hour or so was filled with Jason and Y/N drinking champagne while standing in a corner that protected them from being interrupted. And Y/N did exactly as she promised: joking with Jason about all the stuck up rich people that just came to kiss ass and social climb.

They were laughing about an old man that was desperately trying to hit on a young woman half his age when someone politely cleared their throat beside them.

But Jason smiled at the interruption.

A young man, who couldn’t be older than his early 20s, was giving Y/N a delighted smile. However, the first thing she noticed were the shadows under his eyes and how tired he looked. But that didn’t stop his excitement from showing.

“Y/N, this is my younger brother, Tim Drake. Tim, this is my girlfriend, Y/N.”

With a dorky enthusiasm, he shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Y/N. We’ve all been annoying Jason about bringing you around for quite some time.”

She smiled, “So I’ve heard…” Then she gave Jason a subtle accusatory look.

Tim’s face turned serious, as if he just remembered why he came over in the first place. “I’m sorry to interrupt. Jason would you mind…umm…looking at something for me real quick?”

Jason’s back straightened.

Tim was trying to be polite to the two’s relationship by keeping out any and all details pertaining to their night life.

But it was clear to Y/N that was what Tim was referring to.

Jason looked down at her.

“You don’t have to babysit me,” she teased him. “Go. I can entertain myself.”

He kissed her cheek and whispered, “If I’m not back in 30 minutes, please come rescue me.”

She chuckled. “I would, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to find you...”

“I’ll bring him back in no time, Y/N. Promise.” Tim told her with a beaming smile.

Y/N watched them go and Jason gave her one last reluctant look over his shoulder before he disappeared around a corner.

Y/N sighed and poured another glass of champagne and told herself it was time to mingle. But when she looked up, there wasn’t a single person that looked like they had any interest in making new friends.

‘Some party this is,’ she thought to herself before abandoning her post and deciding to take herself on a tour of Wayne Manor.

Y/N decided she wanted to escape the curious and judgmental gazes of the party, and found herself in a darker hallway. Candles were lit everywhere, giving it a gothic semblance.

Y/N’s heartbeat quickened when she realized she’d discovered a hallway filled with artwork. Millions upon millions of dollars worth of artwork, to be precise.

She was glad no one else seemed to have wandered this far, for she could take her time to look at all of it.

“I think you might be the only guest of the manor who has ever taken the time to look at the artwork.”

Y/N jumped at the voice and turned to see the infamous Bruce Wayne watching her with what seemed to be amusement.

He was nearly as tall as Jason – nowhere near as stout, though. But that didn’t seem to matter because he had an intimidating presence that had Y/N realizing it made perfect sense that this man was also Batman.

She had no idea how long she’d been staring at the paintings. It was easy for her to get lost in art. It tended to consume her.

“Well, not everyone has a Caravaggio casually hanging in their home.”

Bruce chuckled at that.

“Sorry,” she quickly told him. “I didn’t mean to snoop. I feel like I’m at the Louvre.”

“Please,” he declined such an apology. “No one in that party could tell the difference between an oil and acrylic painting. It’s refreshing to meet someone who can appreciate art.” He paused. “Have you been?”

“Have I been where?”

“To the Louvre.”

“Oh,” she laughed. “Umm...no, sadly. It’s been my dream to go to Paris in general. I don’t speak French, though. So I don’t know how that would work out.”

Bruce Wayne seemed to be listening closely and had genuine interest in what she was saying. Which felt strange to her for some reason.

Suddenly, Y/N felt like she shouldn’t be talking to him. Jason made it clear he had no intention of making peace tonight. So Y/N figured she was meant to keep her distance as well.

“I’m…” she began.

“Y/F/N Y/L/N,” Bruce finished for her.

She raised a brow, unimpressed.

Of course Batman would know every single person coming into his home. He probably caught her lingering in this hallway from multiple hidden security cameras.

He reached out his hand. “Bruce Wayne.”

She hesitated, her eyes flickering between his fixed stare and his offered hand.

But it ended with her shaking it, nonetheless.

“Thank you for bringing Jason tonight. I have a feeling he would’ve never shown had it not been for you.”

Y/N’s jaw clenched in an attempt to stop herself from lashing out at Bruce.

Yes, Jason was protective of her. But Y/N was also protective of Jason.

It wasn’t the Wayne family that talked Jason out of the darkness. They weren’t the one who comforted him after his nightmares. They weren’t the one who kissed and touched the autopsy scars that he was ashamed of. They weren’t the one who made him realize he wasn’t a failure or a monster, that he was worth something.

That was Y/N.

And she wasn’t going to let any of them cause him to relapse.

“Did he tell you not to talk to me?” Bruce questioned.

He wasn’t one to beat around the bush.

Y/N narrowed her eyes. “Jason doesn’t tell me what to do.”

Bruce smirked at how she didn’t back down and met his confrontation with confidence. “You’re not too fond of me, are you?”

Y/N shifted her weight a bit, but kept quiet, not wanting to confirm or deny his suspicions.

“I’m not sure what Jason told–”

“He told me everything,” Y/N cut him off sharply.

Bruce tilted his head. “Surely not everything.” Proving that he knew Jason completely kept Y/N away from his vigilante and crime life.

Then Y/N lost her composure and took a step toward Bruce. “You call him your greatest failure,” she accused him.

“Because I let him down.”

“But it doesn’t matter how you meant it. How do you think that makes him feel?”

Bruce’s body tensed and his jaw tightened.

Suddenly a dog came running out of nowhere and nearly tackled Y/N. She managed to stay on her feet, but her glass of champagne was knocked from her grasp and shattered on the floor.

“Titus!” Bruce growled at the dog.

A second later, a boy came running.

“Damian, what did I tell you about keeping pets away from parties,” Bruce scolded.

“I apologize,” Damian told Y/N in a voice that should’ve belonged to an adult, rather than a pre-teen boy. But he seemed rather annoyed that he had to apologize to a stranger.

Y/N chuckled at the black Great Dane. She barely had to bend down to pet the giant dog. “It’s fine. Dogs are always my favorite people I meet at parties.”

Damian looked between his father and Y/N, immediately getting the sense that she was not the average party guest.

“Who’s she?” He asked bluntly.

“Damian, this is Y/F/N Y/L/N.” Bruce gestured with an upturned palm.

“Todd’s companion?” Damian stated, clearly sounding unimpressed.

Jesus. They really did all know about her.

“Damian…” was all Bruce said to warn his son.

“I don’t know what you see in him.”

“That’s enough, Damian.” Bruce snapped.

That finally got the boy to shut his mouth.

Y/N was about to tell both of them that it was fine. She had expected such greetings from Jason’s youngest brother.

But her attention was diverted when she noticed Jason standing at the edge of the hallway.

Bruce followed her gaze.

There was a stare down between the two men that felt like an hour to Y/N.

“Jason,” Bruce greeted steadily.

Jason looked at his family coldly. “Bruce,” he replied with even less emotion. Then he looked down at his youngest brother, “Demon Spawn.”

“Todd,” Damian spat back.

Jason’s gaze softened when it landed on Y/N. Ignoring the tension, he reached out a hand in her direction. “We should say our goodbyes to Alfred.”

Y/N nodded and walked to her boyfriend, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.

He quickly guided them back to the party without a second glance to Bruce and Damian.

As soon as they were in a mass of people again, Y/N turned to Jason to ask him if he was OK. A part of her felt guilty, like she’d been caught doing something bad by being alone with Bruce Wayne.

But Jason seemed to sense her concern and spoke before she could. “I’m stealing another bottle of champagne before we go,” and quickly went to the bar.

“He lasted longer than I expected,” Dick’s voice came up beside her.

Y/N barely glanced at him. “I’m proud of him,” was all she replied, as they both watched him.

“I apologize for my behavior earlier. I’m afraid I didn’t give you the best first impression.”

Y/N fully turned to face him and laughed lightly. “I promise I won’t hold it against you.”

“I’m sure you think we’re all just being polite…but all of us really were looking forward to meeting you, Y/N.”

“Even Damian?” She teased.

Dick laughed. “Well, rumor is that Titus took an immediate liking to you. And Damian trusts his pets’ judgement of character more than any of ours.”

News really did travel fast in this family.

Y/N smiled at that. “I’ve wanted to meet all of you for so long. I’m glad we finally made it happen.” She went back to their original topic.

Dick winced. “I’d rather not think about what Jason’s said about us…”

“I think you might be pleasantly surprised,” she countered.

“Ready to go?” Jason interrupted, ignoring Dick.

For good measure, he dipped down to kiss Y/N’s bare shoulder.

“Yeah, let’s go say bye to Alfred.”

But she turned back to Dick. And to everyone’s surprise, she wrapped him into a hug. Dick was surprised, but welcomed the gesture.

“Please keep an eye on him out there,” she whispered to him quietly enough so Jason didn’t have a chance of overhearing.

“Of course,” he told her.

————————

Bruce pretended to be listening to a conversation with old family friends as he watched Y/N and Jason hug Alfred goodbye.

He noticed Y/N say something to Alfred that made the butler’s face go serious. Then she handed him a business card.

Bruce wanted to talk with Jason. He’d been both dreading and looking forward to tonight, hoping a miracle would occur and he could finally mend things with his son.

But the way Jason had looked at him, Bruce knew everything he was feeling and it was clear Jason wasn’t going to let things go between them any time soon.

Bruce politely excused himself and went to Alfred’s side.

“What was that last bit about?” Bruce asked, indirectly telling Alfred that he’d been observing their conversation.

Now the two men both watched Jason and Y/N from a window that gave a view of the front drive.

Y/N threw her head back and laughed loudly at something Jason had whispered in her ear.

“She asked if I could teach her first aid.”

They both know it went much deeper than first aid. Y/N was asking Alfred to show her how to stitch wounds, how to extract bullets, when to know Jason was too hurt to be fixed up by his inexperienced girlfriend.

“She’s good for him,” Bruce thought aloud.

“That she is, Master Bruce.”

“I forgot what his laugh sounded like.” Bruce paused for a moment before adding, “I’ve never seen him smile like this. Not even before…” His words died. They both knew what ‘before’ was referring to.

Suddenly Y/N pointed to Jason as she walked backwards, clearly giving him a warning of some sort.

But Jason ignored her as he grabbed her by the waist and threw her over his shoulder. One of his hands was wrapped tightly around her thighs, securing her body to his chest, while the other hand held a bottle of champagne.

They could hear Y/N’s laughter, even from inside the mansion.

Alfred observed how Bruce watched his second son. “You must give him more time, Master Bruce.”

However, Bruce said nothing in return.

--------------------

Part 2

Please, please, please let me know what you think. I will take constructive criticism on my characterization of Jason Todd, as long as it’s done nicely😅

[Also, I finally stopped being lazy and made my own header. 😂]

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leahdarkspear · 3 years

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Echo Isles Reimagined, Pt 1 - Loa Isle

Here it is, my first post! A brief note about this series - I stated that I’d be making posts about how I envisioned the Echo Isles after the Darkspear retook them from Zalazane, but my version is nowhere near as finished as I’d like just yet. So bear with me because this is still very much a work in progress.

**This is a very long post with many pictures, and so for courtesy I’ll be putting the bulk of the post under the cut.**

So I’m beginning my Echo Isles series with a post about the place formerly known as Spitescale Cove. This was the site of the naga invasion of the Echo Isles, led by the sea witch Zar’jira.

One of the things that’s always been a pet peeve of mine with WoW, especially the Vanilla/BC area zones, is the sparseness of it all. “Villages” comprised of maybe two houses, forests with only handful of trees. Wowpedia describes the Echo Isles as a cluster of tropical landmasses teeming with tigers, raptors, and other dangerous predators, yet what we get is... well, not that. I’m personally a big fan of Dreamwalker’s art and the way they depict the zones. So when I set about redesigning the Isles, I took inspiration from their poster of the Echo Isles:

So without further adieu, this is the current depiction of Spitescale Cove in retail WoW:

And THIS is my version. Welcome to Loa Isle:

I imagine the Darkspear to be a practical, waste-not-want-not type of people, and so I could easily see them dismantling every remnant of naga occupation and repurposing the islet for their own use, including the caverns below. They would then rename the area Loa Isle, and use the valuable real estate to build temples and shrines so that they could finally properly worship their deities once more. You can see that they’ve also allowed the natural flora of the area to return and flourish. Paths have been laid to points of interest on the islet’s interior, while the coastal path has been marked with braziers. Signs have been placed to direct trolls to their shrine of choice:

The return of the plant life to the islet also allowed for the diverse fauna of the region to make a comeback as well. The native Bloodtalon Raptor, Island Boar, Wildmane Lynxes, and Island Tigers, along with a plethora of tropical birds, bugs, lizards and snakes. Pygmy Surf Crawlers scuttle along the coast, a popular source of food for the island troll denizens.

(The monkey, or rather Echo Isles Fruit Thief as I named them, I added because on the ambiance track you can hear monkeys screeching, and yet there’s not a single monkey in sight on the Isles. It’s a minor thing, but it makes a big difference to me XD. )

Now as we continue up the path, we reach two temples. The larger is dedicated to Bwonsamdi, and the smaller one to Gonk. (As the patron loa of the Darkspear tribe, I saw fit to give Bwonsamdi the grandest shrine and one of the only proper buildings on the isle. I’ll give you a better look at the various shrines in later posts.)

And just around the corner from the temples, we have a monument dedicated to Zuni, built at the site of his death. You can see the rubble of the toppled sea witch statue behind it. Flowers, candles, and offerings adorn the monument. Darkspear lives are difficult and are often cut short by war and the constant threats that plague Azeroth, but I’d like to think that rather than making the tribe jaded, it serves to strengthen their appreciation for the time they are given, and to honor those who would sacrifice themselves for a better tomorrow.

Well, this post has gone on long enough, so I’ll bring it to a close. I really hope you all enjoyed it! Stay tuned for an in-depth look at the loa shrines on the isle!

#wow headcanon #echo isles #leah imagines #echo isles reimagined #custom screenshots

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signlandcanada · 2 months

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karimac · 3 years

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...turn of the wheel

A/N: Series level is 18+/minors DNI This is the start of my second series that revolves around the arrival of my OC Kari MacOrish in the MCU. No serious warnings here beyond some cinematic battles, Irish mythological beasts and cute Halloween kids.

The "wheel" in the title refers to the Celtic Wheel of the Year. The stories in this series will be tied to holidays, both Celtic and non-Celtic, and other events from the time before Infinity War.

All Irish phrases done with Google Translate

Word count: 4.7K

Image credit: Image by Here and now, unfortunately, ends my journey on Pixabay from Pixabay

Samhain, or the night The Avengers met The Cupcake Lady

You had spent a lot of your life, long as it was, doing all sorts of things to make money.

Sometimes you were a mercenary.

Sometimes you were a wandering healer.

Sometimes you were a singer.

Once or twice you tried your hand at being a reporter, but the last time at The Daily Bugle left a sour taste in your mouth, so you fell back on the one thing you truly loved--baking.

Your brother Keir, a wizard when it came to investing, had left the family with a decent amount of money in its coffers before he died, so you used some of it to buy an old bakery space in Manhattan. It was close to a lot of major office buildings, so, you figured, foot traffic was likely going to be pretty good.

It was also close to the one piece of Manhattan real estate that interested you the most: Avengers Tower.

You contracted workers to help clean and renovate the space, and then you found a good group of chefs, counter help and front of store staff to help you make the place one that would draw people in. And in a city where kitschy names were king, you had one that, you hoped, would draw a crowd: Cutie Pie-Tutti Bakery & Café.

While anyone that knew you had magic abilities might assume you would use them to make things work, that was not your style. The food had to be real and not conjured up, the service friendly and the word-of-mouth advertising could not be coerced.

You made sure to give food and help to the local hospitals, schools, police and fire stations, and a little piece on your shop in New York magazine led someone to your door you never expected to see.

You had thought Clint Barton might stroll in for a coffee and a donut, or maybe Natasha Romanoff might place an order for the Ptichye Moloko, or Bird’s Milk Cake, that your new server Sergei recommended be added to the menu once a group of UN delegates mentioned it to him on a recent visit.

Nope. The visitor was none other than Pepper Potts. The CEO of Stark Industries was not someone you’d have expected to walk into the 1940s/1950s style eatery with the red vinyl upholstered chairs and vintage linoleum tables and countertops. Movie posters and photos of sports stars from the New York teams lined the walls, and the music was more classic than anything, although those classics did include some of your favorite tunes from the 1960s and 1970s. The juke box was digital, though. Not everything could be vintage.

To be honest, you’d hoped Steve Rogers would wander in so you could talk to him, but that had not happened yet. You didn’t want to drop like an atomic bomb into the man’s life unless you absolutely had to do so. He was Captain America after all, and you were not too sure he’d believe your backstory after all these years. You also had no clue if he knew Bucky Barnes was alive or not, and that was something he needed to know, but he also needed to be told carefully. You never liked making gut punches, and this would have been the king of them all.

While your hostess, Michelle, made sure that customers were seated quickly, she also gave you the heads up that Potts had walked in. Yes, many of your staff were gifted in ways no one would guess, so the mental “tap” was most appreciated.

“Ms. Potts?” you asked as you saw Pepper checking out a large order of glittering purple "50 is the new 30!" cupcakes on the counter being picked up for an Upper East Side birthday party, “Can I help you?”

“The Cupcake Lady, right?” Potts asked as you nodded back to her. “Tony won’t believe I actually got to meet you. He had one of your creations at the event you did for the mayor’s office, and he snagged one for me. They are so good!”

“Thank you, I have one of the best staffs here in the city, and I am very proud of their work,” you said as you pointed to the group of men and women who were keeping things moving in the kitchen.

“And that’s why I’m here,” Pepper said as she looked at another tray of decorated cupcakes being put into boxes. “The Avengers are hosting a party on Halloween for some local children’s groups, and we’d love to have your cupcakes as some of the goodies for the event.”

“The Avengers? Wow, that is truly an honor after all they did to save New York,” you said as some of your staff crowded closer to where you were chatting with Potts. “Let me grab my iPad so you can see what we have to offer. We can make sure that all items are clearly marked to avoid problems with allergies. We can work with whatever your guidelines are.”

“I knew you’d be the best place to check after everything Tony said about that event,” Pepper continued to say as she looked through your menu. Cristiano, your head pastry chef, was beaming as Pepper went over the lengthy list of treats. You gave him a big thumbs up before seeing what Potts was planning to order.

Cutie Pie-Tutti was not the only bakery being contracted for this event, and that was fine by you. Your operation was not the biggest in town, so spreading out the work to several places made a lot more sense. The main goal had been getting this contract for your staff because it meant a financially merrier holiday season ahead for them, and for you, well, it could change everything and put you back into the world you belonged to more than this one. You’d be back in the good fight once more, and for the first time in ages, you’d be fighting alongside other like-minded souls. You hadn’t experienced that too often since your last siblings died.

Halloween morning arrived, and the staff was busy packing all the cupcakes in boxes. “Please make sure the boxes with the special ones for The Avengers are marked and kept to the side. I want to hand those over personally,” you said to Adrianna, another mystic who had gotten her life upended when she moved to New York with promises of fame and fortune on Broadway. A lot of your staff was made up of mystics, fairies, elves and others who fell into the gray areas of life in the modern human world. Some came from the city, while others came from Ireland, Russia, Chile, Nigeria and Taiwan. You loved the vibrancy that all these souls brought to your bakery/café. It made it feel more like home.

“Hey! Excuse me!” a tall, slightly disheveled man in a dark suit said as he made his way back to the kitchen. “I’m Happy Hogan, Ms. Potts’ head of security. I wanted to give you the security passes for the event.”

“Ah! Mr. Hogan! Thank you,” you said as you took the passes and then handed the man one of the Halloween Specials that had been set aside for your usual last minute customers. The cupcake was devil’s food filled with a creamy center, and the crimson frosting was a wonderful blood orange-flavored sweet concoction. It was topped off with a marzipan Jack O’Lantern. “Happy Halloween, Mr. Hogan!”

“Oh wow! Pepper is going to be jealous! Happy Halloween!” he said as he exited through the front door and went back to his waiting car.

“OK, everyone who is going tonight, here are your passes,” you said as you handed out the very techy Stark lanyards and badges. “The rest of you, when we leave, head home. Thank you all for what you did to make this possible! We’ll be closed tomorrow so you can recuperate from all this. A blessed Samhain to you all! Happy Halloween!”

“Boss, are you going to talk to the Captain tonight?” Cristiano said as he closed up another box before handing it off to the crew filling the racks in the bakery van and the rented truck you got for the event. Cristiano was from Spain, a friend of Michelle’s and the best baker you had seen in ages upon ages. “I hope it all works out.”

“All I know is that Thor won’t be there, so I’ll have to see if Steve is around. He should be, but if he isn’t, I’ll just keep my head down as much as I can. I plan to go in costume anyway, so I can blend in and get out of sight if I need to,” you replied as you looked at the bag with your costume. You prayed this was not the stupidest choice in the world, but it seemed, at the time anyway, a fun nod to what you really were.

Daryl, the driver who usually made deliveries for you around the city, had kindly held off going to a party with his friends to help you get the food to Avengers Tower. When you got out of the van, you immediately regretted the slightly goofy Samantha Stevens costume from “Bewitched,” the TV show from the 60s that you used to watch all the time. It was a little black dress, a pointed hat and a broom. It was a bit minimalist, but it was either that or Glinda the Good Witch from “The Wizard of Oz,” and that big poofy dress would have been hell to wear in the front seat of that van!

You had to hold in a chuckle as you saw various Avengers members in their Halloween garb. Clint Barton, the man called Hawkeye, was James Bond. Col. James Rhodes was standing next to Tony Stark, and both men had decided that the “Miami Vice” duo of Crockett and Tubbs was a good idea. Pepper Potts had opted for Marilyn Monroe’s “Seven Year Itch” dress, and Stark kept nudging her to stand over a subway grating to get it to fan out like it had in the movie. Natasha Romanoff had not arrived yet, and neither had Steve Rogers. The fact Steve was a no-show was something you’d deal with later.

“Oh! The Cupcake Lady!” Sam Wilson, also known as The Falcon, said as he came up with Wanda Maximoff and The Vision. Wilson was dressed up as a player for the New Orleans Saints football team, while Maximoff and Vision went as a couple of hippies or generic singers from a 1960s variety show. They had on love beads, tunic tops and bell bottom jeans. They also both looked a bit lost, and that made you feel bad. You knew how it felt to be in a new place, and sometimes it sucked.

“Hey there! Great costume choice! I may not be a Who Dat Diva, but I think that rocks!” you said to Wilson as you opened up one of the special Avengers cupcake boxes. You actually did follow football a bit, a habit you picked up from some of your work crew. “These are for the team. Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!”

As you grabbed the second box of the Avengers specials, you turned to Potts and Stark with a big smile on your face. “Monster Mash” was playing on the sound system from the Tower, and all the kids seemed to be having a blast. Tiny Hulks, Black Widows, Elsas, ghosts and bumblebees, along with miniature first responders of all kinds were lining up to get their goodies, and that made you so happy. You even saw a kid dressed as Groot, and it was amazing to see the detail he had put into his costume. You may have loved Yule more, but nothing beat seeing the kids on Halloween.

Then you noticed that Stark and Potts weren’t feeling the joy of the holiday. The look of concern on their faces made you do a double take. The area was filling with fog, and there was howling in the streets around the tower. It was apparently not part of the party festivities.

“Uhm, you better get the kiddie poos out of here, Pepper,” Stark said as he suddenly ditched the TV detective costume and stepped into a waiting Iron Man armor. “Cupcake Lady, you may want to do the same.”

A screaming child ran past you and straight into the legs of the newly arrived Black Widow. “Headless…” the child said before she clamored into Romanoff’s arms.

You turned and saw what the girl was talking about.

“Hey, Ichabod! Go back to Sleepy Hollow!” Stark yelled as a very Irish spectre, a Dullahan, sat on a horse, holding its severed head in one hand and a sword in the other.

“The damned thing won’t listen to you,” you grumbled as you got between it and Stark. “He’s looking for souls to take back with him. And he didn’t come alone.”

Sure, the Dullahan was going to be a nightmare to dispatch, but what scared you more was what was behind the Dullahan.

It seemed that someone with a very big jones for Irish mythology had gone and let out every type of beastie in the book. You were lucky you hadn’t seen a banshee yet, but you would not bet the ranch that one would not come onto the scene, screaming bloody murder as she looked for a new victim.

“Ms. Cupcake Lady, can I call you Cupcake? You really should go inside…” Stark started to say as Wilson moved up behind you to get you out of the battlefield.

Oh, were they in for a surprise!

As more kids came running toward the building and away from the pack of demons, creatures and anything else that some demented wizard conjured up for the night, you took a deep breath and made a run at the insanity in front of you, your tacky costume suddenly replaced by your armor of office—a gunmetal base suit with gleaming gold and silver chest plate, bracers and leg coverings.

“Pepper, why is your culinary expert over there beheading a demon?” Rhodes asked as he snapped down the visor of his War Machine armor. “Where did you find her? In that Off Broadway Buffy musical? Or was she roaming around in the Village? I know. Medieval Times out in Jersey!”

“Wait. She’s not listening to us. We’re The Avengers,” Stark spouted before dodging the head that had been in the Dullahan’s hand. Well, half of the head anyway. You had cleaved it in half and set the remainder on fire, tossing it into a pack of demons that somehow followed the Dullhan out of the spirit realm.

“I take it you lot haven’t fought demons before?” you shouted back to the assembled Avengers as you spun around and jammed a sword into the center face of what looked like a three-headed dragon known as an Ellén Trechend back home. “Tonight is not the night to be in training on your own. Anyone who can fly, you better get airborne…”

“Excuse me, Cupcake, but you don’t call audibles on this,” Stark groaned before he saw the great battle hound Failinis charging at Romanoff. It looked like a demented version of the Irish wolfhounds that marched in the parade route on St. Patrick’s Day.

“Did you say demons? Aren’t the two legged ones bad enough? Where did these come from anyway?” Black Widow asked before she shot the Failinis in the head.

“I’m guessing a rogue wizard decided to open a hellmouth for Samhain. I’ve seen it before. When you next speak to Thor, ask him. I’m pretty sure he’ll remember that day well, if not all that fondly,” you said as you tried to survey the situation. The fog was getting worse, and you feared The Avengers would get sucked into some demon’s maw if you didn’t help them out fast.

But that momentary check of the battlefield didn’t last long as the Dullahan tried to retrieve the flaming portion of its head, making a return run at some of the party goers in the process.

“Today of all days!” you spouted before deciding you needed to finish off the Dullahan first. “If any of you would like to lend a hand, now would be a great time to start!"

Potts, who had come back out after the last of the children were ushered inside to relative safety, still seemed a bit dumbstruck by what she saw. “Who are you? I mean really?” she asked as you lifted off the ground and made another dive at the Dullahan.

“She’s Red Sonja!” one of the kids, this one dressed as Buzz Lightyear, yelled from the doorway of the Tower.

“No, she’s Artemis, like in the comics!” a tiny ballerina shouted before you turned in mid-air, waved your left hand and carefully shut the doors to the Tower with a sigil lock.

“Have any of you heard of The Morrigan, the Irish battle goddess?” you asked knowing full well they likely had not.

“The Morrigan?” Falcon asked as the head of the Dullahan’s horse soon landed on the ground with a thud right by his feet. “What the hell?”

“Sorry, but I have to get that damned thing out of the way!” you yelled as you leaped up and cut the Dullahan in half. “Please, this city needs you all tonight. You want a crash course in demonology and demon fighting? I can do it on the fly. But I can’t do this alone.”

You would have preferred doing a telepathic link with everyone, but there was too much going on. You didn't have the time to explain such links to the team, and any mental intrusions would likely just make them think you were the bad guy all along. And how the heck would it work on Vision anyway? He wasn’t human to begin with.

“I can bless your weapons. I can talk you all through this. Please. We need to get them out of here before things get worse. You do not want to see Fomorian giants strolling through midtown. I’ve fought them. Not fun.”

Falcon was the first to take you up on the request for help. “Cupcake Lady, you can tell me you’re a backup singer for The Foo Fighters, and I’d believe it,” he said as he programmed Redwing, his drone, to make a strafing run at a pack of fuath, or Scottish water demons, which had crawled out of a manhole. “What are those things?”

“Water demons, but they are not Irish, so I am not sure what playbook their maniac leader is using!” you shouted back to Falcon as you turned to see War Machine and Iron Man both going after an oversized buggane, a cousin of the more common troll that was just as vicious. “Falcon, where is Captain America? We could use his shield right about now.”

“He’s away on a mission,” Wilson replied, and you mulled over how to respond to his comment. Telling him your story seemed pretty much a no-go, so you simply nodded back to him before an arrow flew past your head and into the chest of another buggane before it exploded. It was a good thing the Avengers’ James Bond that night was also their archer.

“I am going to put the head of the lunatic who started this on a pike for all to see!” you shouted as you flew higher into the night sky to see if you could figure out where these things were coming from.

“Cersei Lannister, a bit too graphic, or was that just a bad joke?” Stark asked as he flew around another buggane and sent a volley of small rockets at the damned thing. “You hang around with Jon Snow a little too long?”

“Friends of mine were the inspiration for most of the modern fantasy literature they now make into TV shows,” you huffed as you banked, trying to decide how to get these damned things back to the gateway they exited from. You’d keep flying without the wings for the moment. They’d likely just get cut to ribbons anyway, and you didn’t want to reveal everything tonight because Steve was away.

“Falcon, can your friend Redwing do some recon to see where these things crawled out from?” you asked as you suddenly stopped as a roar shook the buildings nearby. “No, not tonight!”

“I think this thing is worse than the headless guy,” Black Widow said as she pointed toward a plume of smoke and fire lighting up a small newsstand near the Tower. It was also worse than the Ellén Trechend that was in play before. You muttered under your breath in Irish as you felt the ground shake beneath your feet.

“How the hell did that thing get loose? Saint Murrough O'Heaney was supposed to have banished it to Lough Foyle until Judgement Day,” you grumbled as the Lig-na-Paiste, the last great dragon of Ireland, raised its head and blew fire at the buildings around the Tower. It then turned toward the Avengers, ready to set off another fiery blast, but soon a wall of debris came between it and them. Wanda Maximoff had been busy while you were getting covered in ichor.

“I know it might not last long, but it was worth a shot,” the Sokovian said in her accented English as Vision stayed close by her so none of the smaller demons would take her down.

“Thank you,” you said to Maximoff before turning back to Wilson. “Falcon, any luck?” you asked as he called up the video being broadcast by Redwing. He showed it to you, and you wanted to smack your head into a wall as you saw the Fomorian giant Balor. He had one eye, reddish skin and leathery demons wings, and he was as evil as they came. His gaze would also kill anyone it touched, so keeping it from getting to the Tower became your sole objective.

“Look, Falcon, Sam. What your drone just showed us is way out of The Avengers skill set, but right now I don’t have any other choice…” you said as you swallowed hard and looked at the collection of demonic nonsense clogging the streets of Manhattan. “When you see Steve, please tell him you saw Red, and let him know I had to give Dum Dum back his hat, OK?”

You turned to head back into the fight, but Wilson stopped you. “Look, I have no idea what that all means. I’ll tell him. But you are not going into this by yourself. I don’t care if you think you are an Irish battle goddess or not…”

“I am her avatar. That is not a lie,” you said as you did your best to get your head back into the present and not let it wander to the past. “I am going to sound insane,” you said as you turned around and looked at the group before you. “Please let this work.”

Words flew from your lips in Irish as green energy runes and sigils swirled around your hands. “Bealtaine an rud atá ar eolas agam," you said. It meant, "May what I know be what you know,” and they were the last words you said as a wave of emerald energy washed over The Avengers. “It will wear off once this fight is over. I need to get to Balor, and maybe I can lead that big eejit away with me,” you said to Falcon as your sword gave way to a double-headed battle axe as you ran in front of the Lig-na-Paiste, and with every step, you became more The Morrigan and less the girl from County Kildare. But this time she held back the full-force show and let you retain the form that was less likely to scare The Avengers or their guests. {{Thank you, Phantom Queen}} you thought as you watched the newly-enhanced team push the horde of creatures back toward Times Square and the hole they crawled out of this time. You weren’t an Avenger, but for a few more minutes, they would be part of the Seven Nations Army, the greatest fighting force of Celts the world had ever seen.

“Remind me not to read any scary stories tonight to the kiddos,” Stark said as he sent a repulsor blast at more of the lesser demons that had been terrorizing tourists and New Yorkers alike. “You are kidding me. These freakshows picked a spot near the Jekyll and Hyde Club? How tacky.”

“Tony, I don’t care if they win the prize for tacky,” Rhodes replied as he flew close to the Lig-na-Paiste and sent a barrage of rockets at it to guide it back toward the gateway. “And why does this remind me of that last Ghostbusters movie?”

“Mr. Stark, Wanda and I will do crowd control to clear the path,” Vision said as the duo worked as a unit to get more people out of the area.

“And where did Xena…well, I’ll be damned,” Stark said as he saw the top of your head as you dodged in and out of a group around the Fomorian Balor. Falcon was on your six, and you were very glad to have him there.

You also realized no one here had ever met anyone from the Sanctum Sanctorum yet. You could have used their help right now, but that was not to be at the moment.

“Cupcake, what do we do to get the big dragon off the street?” Falcon shouted as you took your axe and swung it at Balor. Your blessing was holding, and the team remained safe for the moment.

"That didn't work!" Black Widow shouted as she watched Balor flexing his massive wings. The cyclops laughed as your axe missed him until he turned to see you had ripped open his portal and had made it unstable. Anything with full-on magic in its soul, good or evil, was going to be sucked inside that void thanks to your deliberate near miss.

“Just herd it toward the rip and get everyone on your team out of here!” you yelled back to Falcon as you felt the portal pulling you inside as well. “Thank you all!”

Suddenly you felt a line zip out and wrap around your wrist. Black Widow was trying to keep you anchored so you didn’t get pulled in. You swung your axe to cut it, and you could tell the Widow was a tad miffed. “Natasha, thank you, but I need to see this through. Just make sure the kids are all safe. I’ve been doing this for 1,500 years. One more ride into the black won’t kill me. I have too much to do.”

{{If only you knew}} you thought to yourself as you looked up to see Hawkeye perched on the corner of the Jekyll and Hyde Club sending arrow volleys toward Balor and his crew, taking out several of them before they were sucked into the portal.

Then you noticed Wanda getting pulled toward it as well. Your blessing was now a curse, and you had to fix that fast. “Take the Celts only, and release The Avengers,” you whispered as the group, except for Maximoff, stopped in their tracks. {{And not her. Not now}} you thought as Vision, at that very moment, looped his arms around Wanda to hold her fast.

As Iron Man and War Machine pushed the Lig-na-Paiste back into the portal with repulsor blasts and arms fire, the gateway started to close, and you breathed a sigh of relief as you let it pull you backward. You knew you’d be back eventually. And right now the thought of a few days in Ireland was not a bad one. You had to figure out which rogue from your long list of interlopers caused this. That was going to take a bit of work.

“Go raibh maith agat. Thank you,” you said as you bowed to The Avengers. “May the ancestors watch over you this Samhain night. Until the world calls on us again…” With a flash of green, the portal closed, and your allies stood on the other side looking at where the gateway had been, and you could hear Sam Wilson muttering the words “Dum Dum’s hat” as you ran after Balor.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother, @historygeekfics

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phases--ofthemoon · 3 years

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PHASES CH. 7

Warnings some language, grief

Emerson

Come Monday Mary got me in touch with a friend of hers who had a house for rent that she thought I might be interested in. The woman had retired further south so her house here in Forks had been empty for some time. It was out beyond the outskirts of town surrounded by woods just off one of the main roads. With the small inheritance I had left behind from my Mom plus what I would get when my house in North Carolina officially sold, I had enough to be comfortable for a long while. I could probably even buy a house if I wanted but I figured it was probably smart to rent for now at least until I found myself a decent job here.

When I met the realtor at the house I was pleasantly surprised. It was a small cozy cabin built out of pine logs with dark green shutters and it had a covered front porch with a rocking chair. It looked very picturesque from the outside, like something you'd see in a vacation rental brochure.

Once inside it was just as inviting, there was a small living room with a beautiful rustic stone fireplace. The living area led into the kitchen and dining area. There was a half bath downstairs and a full bath and two bedrooms upstairs. It wasn’t a big house but it felt cozy which was perfect. All the wood gave it a warmth that just felt comforting. Maybe I’ll get a dog. I could picture a dog sleeping in front of the fire place, the thought brought a smile to my face.

Walking through with the real estate agent I was already sold but when the lady led me back downstairs and toward what I assumed was the back door it led out to a back deck nearly the size of the living room. There were four Adirondack chairs in a circle facing a little metal fire pit above the chairs was an open pergola strung with glass string light bulbs. I could only imagine how beautiful it looked at night. Standing on that deck felt like a private oasis with no neighbors in sight just the majestic woods surrounding this little log cabin. I was sold. This was my new home.

The next few days were spent with the agent getting the documents and paperwork filled out for renting my new place. I was so grateful to Mary for helping me find this place and she even insisted I use her as a reference on the application. I was excited I could already envision decorating the place and what it would look like once I moved in.

It was partially furnished, there was a four poster wooden bed in the master bedroom with a matching oak dresser and a loveseat and matching chair in the living room. They were Items that the owner had left behind since she didn’t want to move them all the way to her new home. They were nice pieces that were very well taken care of which I was super grateful for. It was a really good start but I would definitely need to get more pieces once I moved in. Mary was already giving me suggestions of places to go shopping telling me about a few good options right here in town.

By Thursday all the paperwork was finalized and I was given the keys, I was so excited. I drove over to the Inn and thanked Mary profusely, she was just happy she could help and knew it would be a good fit for me. She was sad to see me leave the Inn she had enjoyed my company these past two weeks. I assured her I would be stopping by quite frequently and would have to have her and Ralph over for dinner once I got settled.

I loaded up my car with my belongings and headed to my little cabin. Even though it felt like it was well out of the town area it was only a 15 minute drive from the Inn and a 10 minute drive from downtown. It was nice that it was close enough to everything but still had that out in the woods vibe. I settled in quickly that evening. I ordered some pizza and did some cleaning in the kitchen and the bathrooms but everything was pretty tidy already especially for being vacant for awhile. I looked around and made a list of what I would need to finish furnishing the house as well as made a grocery and kitchen essentials list. I had a few boxes to unpack but I decided that would be my plan for tomorrow as well as going to the grocery store and furniture store. I slept surprisingly well that night. It was so quiet and peaceful here. I thought I would have been a little scared in a new house all by myself but I oddly enough felt very safe here.

The next morning I rolled out of bed grabbing my blanket and headed downstairs to make some coffee, I had been pleasantly surprised to find a coffee maker in one of the cabinets also left behind by the owner. Mary was sweet enough to send me off with a basket of coffee essentials; a bag of her favorite ground coffee beans, filters, sugar, creamer packets, stirrers and a mug that read the ‘Calawah Inn’. I smiled at her thoughtfulness it would go perfect with my mug collection that was yet to be unpacked. Mary also stocked the basket with some baked goods to tide me over for a couple days which I was more than excited to dig in to.

After I finished brewing and preparing my coffee I took my blanket and walked out to the back porch. I took a seat in one of the chairs and just took in the beautiful morning. It was still early but the sun was steady rising as it peaked a bit through the clouds. It was pretty chilly, fall was definitely on its way. I wrapped my blanket around me tighter as I took a sip of my hot coffee. I sat there for a while enjoying the peacefulness around me and the sounds of the forest. As I finished my coffee I let my mind wander soon I only had one thing on my mind, Jacob.

We hadn’t seen each other since he gave me a tour around town last weekend and the only talking we had done was when he called me Wednesday morning to let me know my car was done. Mary had driven me over to the shop but when I got there it was just Joe and Josh one of the other mechanics. I had to admit I was bummed Jacob wasn’t there. He had been on my mind pretty consistently over the past week. I wanted to see him again and hang out with him again but I didn't know if he even wanted that.

I almost texted him a few times but chickened out. Other than that one phone call I hadn’t heard a word from him. I didn’t want to come off super eager especially if he just wasn’t interested in being friends or whatever else.. I let out a sigh. I would think over it today and maybe I’d call or text him tonight. With that I finished my coffee and went back inside to get ready and start my day. I had plenty of errands to run but I was just excited to get this house looking like a home.

After I got ready, I grabbed my lists and keys and headed out the door. There was a little second hand furniture store Mary had given me the name of to go check out so I decided to go there first. It was a little storefront with a small warehouse in the back. The lady whose name I learned was Anne, was the very sweet shop owner and I could tell her and Mary were good friends by the way she gushed about her. She let me browse the entire warehouse and even told me there were some extra items around back that were still on a truck waiting to be put into inventory.

There were a lot of nice solid wood pieces that I could refinish, my mom and I had done tons of DIY projects like that when I was growing up. We were never poor but there were some harder times when I was growing up where we had to keep a tight budget so I was taught to be thrifty. I honestly had loved it, working on projects, finding hidden treasures it became our thing. I wondered what she would have thought of Forks, what she would have thought of me moving all the way out here, I just hoped that she would be proud of me and not think I was a coward from running away from our home in North Carolina. I had to shake the thoughts away if I thought about her too long I would be crying in no time, I missed her terribly. Would it ever get easier?

After about two hours combing through the warehouse I found several pieces that has a ton of potential. I found a round walnut dining table with four matching chairs, that was probably the best find since It didn't even need refinishing. I also picked out an off white wooden coffee table that I planned to give a fresh coat of paint to and some new hardware. I also snagged a couple nightstands for the bedrooms, a vanity for the master, an end table for the living room, and a small corner hutch for the dining area. I was so thrilled with everything I found and most everything didn’t need a ton of work, mostly some sanding, maybe some new stain and paint. I could already envision how things were going to look.   

Anne tagged everything I picked out and I went ahead and paid for everything. She said she’d have her sons move everything to the back so they’d be ready to be loaded whenever I could come pick all of it up. I was able to fit the two night stands and end table in my little sedan but I was gonna need someone with a truck for the rest of the furniture and some man power…Hmm. Jacob. He definitely has the physique for doing some heavy lifting and Mary did say he had a lot of young guy friends on the reservation that I’m sure could help and at least one of them was bound to have a truck right? With that I made the decision to call Jacob tonight to see if him and some of his friends could potentially help me out this weekend and I would make sure to cook lunch or something for them as a thank you. It would give me the perfect excuse to talk to him again and see him if he agreed…I was already getting butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

Before I left the furniture store I made sure I still had enough room for groceries and headed toward the only real grocery/convenient store in town. It was smaller than most of the grocery stores back home but I was able to get just about everything I needed. I’d probably have to make a trip up to Port Angeles soon to find a Walmart to get some house hold items like extra bed sheets, towels, rugs and additional decor. Once I finished at the grocery store I headed back home to unload everything, stock the kitchen and start unpacking the boxes I had taken with me.

I hadn’t brought a ton of stuff from North Carolina most of the items I decided to take besides clothes were family heirlooms or had sentimental value to them. Like my mom and I’s coffee mug collection, some quilts and linens, our family china and some other miscellaneous appliances and cookware. By late that afternoon everything was cleaned up and put away and I was happy with my productivity.

It was a little chilly so I started a fire in the fireplace, I was thankful there was a large pile of chopped wood against the side of the house and for summer camp teaching me how to start a fire. It was a skill that did come in handy, after the fire was nicely going I grabbed my favorite candle and lit it and placed it on the kitchen counter. It was from a local little shop back home that made homemade candles a the scent was called “Hometown” which was supposed to smell like coastal North Carolina. Within a few minutes the warm Sandalwood, beach grass with a hint of sea salt filled the room. I closed my eyes and for a second I felt like I was back home. I felt like any moment I’d hear my mom’s voice. I hadn’t lit this candle since she passed.

I walked over to the couch where I had placed the blanket that was always on her bed. I laid down and wrapped myself in it, I could still smell the faintness of her perfume on it. I inhaled deeply and hugged the blanket close and released all the tears I had been suppressing since I had arrived in Forks. I must of cried myself to sleep because I woke up out of sorts and saw it was now dark outside the only glow in the house coming from the fire which was mostly just embers now and the flickering of the candle in the kitchen. I threw some more logs on the fire and walked into the kitchen and turned on the lights looking over at the clock that read 6:15pm. I should probably make some dinner. First I needed a hot shower thought, all that crying took a lot of out me. I felt emotionally and physically drained. I headed upstairs to wash off the long day.

The hot water felt amazing I took my time and did a little extra pampering, exfoliating, shaving even gave myself a hair mask. I exited the shower feeling like a new woman. That cry was definitely cathartic. I dug out my favorite nightgown, it was my mom’s and when I was little I liked to play dress up in it. It was white cotton with with lace trim around the v neckline and the camisole bodice laced up the front. It had lace appliqué detailing around the waist and down the two front seems and the ruffle hem came right above my knees. It had these romantic vintage vibes to it which I just loved. I grabbed a pair of my coziest socks and threw a chunky oversized cardigan on to keep me warm and headed downstairs to cook some dinner.

I decided on something simple, some pasta with some meat sauce. I started the water and browning some spicy Italian sausage and within 30 minutes dinner was finishing up. I went to grab the olive oil from the cabinet above the stove but I had pushed it back too far when putting away the groceries. Damnit. I grabbed the little folding stool from the pantry and pushed up against the stove. Downfall of only being a little over five foot, you cannot reach anything. I stood on the stool now able to see easily into the cabinet and noticed there was a bottle tucked in the back I hadn’t see earlier, it was a bottle of liquor, whiskey to be exact. Score. I wasn’t a big drinker but I did drink socially with my college friends and my mom had let me have a drink every now and then once I graduated high school. Mostly I just had beer with friends and wine on holidays with my mom but when it came to liquor I was partial to whiskey. That's all my ex had drank, he was a little older than me and already 21 when we were dating so when I hung out with him I’d drink it too, eventually I developed a taste for it.

I figured it must be a sign, after how emotional today got a little drink to take off the edge might be nice. I grabbed a small glass and a few ice cubes out of the ice tray and poured myself a drink. “Cheers” I said to myself in the kitchen and downed the brown liquid. It burned and warmed my insides all at once, I had never heard of this particular whiskey but it was pretty good. I'd have to keep the bottle for future reference.

I refilled my glass and sipped on it while I plated up my dinner. Without my table I’d have to either stand in the kitchen at the counter or sit on the couch. Hmm. Couch it is. I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV, one of the things I had brought from home. There weren't a ton of local free channels but I was able to find some sitcom that seemed alright enough. I’d have to check out cable providers and see what was available out here. I didn’t watch a ton of TV but there were few shows I liked and I enjoyed having it on in the background sometimes.

After I finished eating I put away the leftovers and started cleaning up the kitchen. I shrugged off my cardigan while I rinsed dishes to put them in the dishwasher. Between the fireplace roaring nicely and the second glass of whiskey I was toasty warm. Once the kitchen was back in order I grabbed my cell to head outside. Now that I had a little extra liquid courage in me I needed to call Jacob before it got too late…

I stepped out and was hit with a brisk breeze. Ooh shit it’s a little cold. I ran back in and grabbed the blanket off the couch since it would cover more of me than my cardigan would and walked back out the back door. Much better. I walked over to the railing and sat down my phone and whiskey glass. It was definitely colder tonight but the chill in the air that was kind of exhilarating. I wrapped the blanket tighter over my bare shoulders and looked out into the dark forest as I stood on my back deck.

The sounds of wind in the trees was comforting, I looked up past the lit string lights and noticed the moon peaking out from behind some clouds. I looked like it was almost a full moon. It really was beautiful here. Okay enough stalling. I picked up my cell and stared at it now feeling nervous again. Come on now or never. Maybe I could just text him? No no I was asking for a favor the polite thing to do is call him. I scrolled down through my contacts and once I was on his number I pressed the green button. Here goes nothing.

#twilight #twilight fanfiction #jacob black fanfiction #jacob black #wolf pack #forks washington

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squirrelly831 · 3 years

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Proposal [Mark and Jaebum]

Remember how it was noted that Jaebum almost lost Yuna? Well this was one of the two times. The first was when she wouldn't even give him a chance to date her. This includes some angst, but not enough to have a trigger (: just a good old punch in the face (don't really punch your friend in the face--unless they deserve it) (:

xoxo

Mark

Christmas was Marcie’s and Mark’s favorite time of year. Not only was it near their anniversary since they began to date, but it was a time they both got to see their families for a big reunion. Christmas in LA was always fun for them as their families would spend the day together as a happy family for the past four years. However, this year, the families spent Christmas in snowy Colorado at Marcie’s and Mark’s vacation home. To Mark and Marcie, family was important which was why they were so important with their next step.

Mark had planned proposing to Marcie for the past six months with the help of their parents. Marcie was on an expedition in the United Kingdom and was due to conclude it a week before Christmas. The distance was what made Mark more sure of proposing. Being away from Marcie was normal in their relationship due to their jobs, but he hated being home alone. Mark also feared that one day, Marcie may realize how much better she was without him and leave him.

Marcie was getting out of the airport with her cart of luggage from her several month long trip. She tucked herself deeper into her winter coat as she looked for her family. Her body was sore from all the bending and digging, but it gave her a sense of satisfaction as they may have discovered more history about Stonehenge.

“Ciecie!”

Her head whipped around to see Mark with a giant poster with her parents and his. Forgetting her bags, she ran up to Mark and threw her arms around Mark’s neck. Her father retrieved her bags as Mark held her tightly in his arms taking in her scent. Marcie loved the adventure her work gave her, but she loved her home with Mark so much more. “I love you” she whispered in the crook of his neck.

“I love you more” he kissed her head before she pulled back and he gave her a kiss on the lips.

The family spent the week before Christmas catching up with Mark and Marcie as well as McKenzie and Changkyun who had stopped in to visit and announce their wedding plans for the following year. Marcie was asked to be McKenzie’s maid of honor which Marcie immediately accepted while Changkyun asked Mark to be one of his best men which he readily agreed. Due to the wedding announcement, Mark debated on proposing after their news, but with a push from both their parents and McKenzie’s not so subtle threat, he pushed forward.

Christmas Eve, the families attended church so that Christmas Day, they could spend it together. Everyone was opening presents dressed casually minus Mark and Marcie who had plans afterwards to go celebrate their anniversary. Done with the presents, the parents cleaned up the wrapping paper and subtly moved as McKenzie grabbed her phone and hit record. Mark and Marcie were the only ones by the Christmas tree and Mark couldn’t help the smile that grazed his lips.

Marcie stood to move, but he caught her hand stopping her as he reached for the final present, “This one is for you from me.” A blush crossed his face as Marcie took the small bag.

Cooly she pulled out the gift paper and found a jewelry box. She smiled expecting another ring or earring to add to the collection Mark had already given her. However, when she flipped open the box, she let out a gasp before looking at Mark who was kneeling before her.

Mark cleared his throat as he felt nervous. “I found the reason for my smile, the day I met you. You complete me, make me, and fulfil me. So will you marry me, Marcie Delilah Addington?”

Marcie’s shaky hand was over her mouth as tears fell down her face. Words would not form and she nodded her head. Mark stood up and took the ring out the box and placed it on Marcie’s finger as the family cheered. He wiped her face of the fallen tears before he kissed her.

Jaebum

To say Jaebum took Yuna for granted was an understatement. It’s not that he meant it on purpose, but he was so used to her being there by his side. At least she had been until she walked out the door of their shared apartment with a small bag of clothes. The slamming of the door was the only noise that was made. Jaebum sat on the couch unmoved from his position. The emotions in him swirled, anger, sadness, betrayal, but most importantly emptiness. Yuna walked out on him. The woman he promised his life to stabbed him in the back-- and it was all his fault.

Yuna wiped a tear off her cheek as she tried to maintain her calm exterior. She was broken inside, but as she walked down the hall past the neighbors she sure heard their shouting match--she held her head up high. She wouldn’t cry. Not there where people would judge her. Where people would assume he left her. Paparazzi would eat up that story and his fans would believe it as they have always hated her. The elevator opened and shut once she was inside. When she was finally alone, her tears spilled and she let out a sob down ten floors of their apartment complex. Her heart felt like it was being ripped apart as she descended down to the main lobby. When she was free from the elevator, she fled no longer caring for the stares of others as she raced out to her car.

A week of silence from Jaebum is what led the others to investigate starting at his apartment. Mark punched in the code to the apartment and opened the door to darkness. The guys rushed inside and saw Jaebum on the couch fast asleep with his phone clutched in his hand. “Jae?” Mark approached him and gave him a shake.

Jaebum shot up, “Yuna!” He exclaimed but his sadness returned when he saw the guys, “It’s just you guys.”

“Just us?” Jinyoung’s eyebrow rose, “You haven’t answered our texts in over a week and that’s your response to us?”

Jaebum rubbed his eyes, “That’s not what I meant… I just--I expected Yuna to come home and she hasn’t.” The men went silent and tension rose. “She left me” Jaebum explained, causing them to exhale as they had feared something had happened to her.

“Why? Out of all of us, we wouldn’t have expected you two to break up?”

Jaebum felt a wave of guilt, “It’s my fault… I told her I didn’t need a paper to tell me we were in love--”

“Oh no you didn’t” the guys groaned their complaints. “Why would you tell her that? She’s been waiting to be your wife since well forever!” Bambam huffed.

“I know, I didn’t think of that when I said it. Of course, I wanna marry her, but we’re so young…”

“Have you even proposed to her?” Mark countered and Jaebum fell silent. A deafening answer to them and they shook their heads. “You haven’t even bothered to make your relationship serious, dude. No wonder she left.”

Jaebum jumped from the couch and caught Mark by his collar, “I AM SERIOUS ABOUT HER!”

Mark swatted his hands off him as his anger grew, “Really? Where? Fuck, Jaebum we’re all engaged or married and you’re still fucking dating.”

“I know that. I was just waiting for the right time to propose…”

Mark gestured around the dark room, “I say the perfect time has sailed. She’s gone, Jaebum. And instead of going after her, you let her walk out!”

“I KNOW--”

Mark swung at Jaebum, punching him in the jaw. The others reacted as BamBam and Yugyeom grabbed Mark from swinging again while Youngjae and Jackson rushed to Jaebum’s side and Jinyoung stood between them. “Stop moping around and fucking do something.” Mark easily shoved Bambam and Yugyeom off him and he turned to leave. “Get your head out your ass. You aren’t the only one remotely suffering.”

Mark left, leaving the others and Jaebum alone. Jaebum’s hand cradled his jaw as his other hand clenched, “I know he’s right.. I just don’t know what to do.”

“I think you do know what to do, hyung,” Yugyeom replied. And the truth was Jaebum did know but was terrified.

Another week had gone by before Yuna heard any word from Jaebum asking to meet him in their favorite spot--the hill that had a view of the sky. At first, Yuna was going to chuck the letter and tell him to go to hell, but she missed him. Maybe she had over reacted that they were still just boyfriend and girlfriend. Yes, she wanted to be his wife. She loved him so of course she wanted to marry him. She reluctantly gathered herself and got her makeup on before she headed out to the meeting place.

Jaebum checked his watch again for the hundredth time as he moved the bundle of pink roses in his hand. A throat cleared and his head shot up to see Yuna in one of her favorite sweaters and skirts. He had a chance to make up with her! Had this been a breakup, Yuna would have gone a full 9 yards to show what he was losing--something she had done with men who never had the fortunate chance to be with her. The words he had practiced for over a week were gone as he stared at his girlfriend.

“Well? I didn’t come here to be stared at” Yuna scowled. “I was going to meet up with the real estate agent” she lied. She saw the flicker of hurt in Jaebum’s eyes and she began to feel guilt build, but she shook it off. We’re not staying with him if he won’t look to a future with us, she coached herself as she crossed her arms.

Jaebum bit his lower lip as he held out the flowers, “I just wanted to talk to you…” Yuna took the roses and pressed them to her. “You were right.”

“About?”

“Everything. How I was selfish about not wanting to get married and how I only thought of myself.” His hands felt clammy as he tried to speak. “You chased after me for so long and compared to that, the amount of chasing I’ve done has been nothing. But I love you, you have to know tha--”

Yuna pushed her hair off her shoulder, “It’s not enough.”

Jaebum’s shoulders slumped, “I know... “

“You can love me now and eventually find another woman who you love more. Someone you’d want to start a family with. I could be too annoying to be a wife to you…”

Jaebum’s eyes met her in a panic, “I was a kid when I said that. I never--” No, back then he meant it.

Yuna took a seat on the bench as Jaebum watched her, “It’s stupid. We were kids, but to have the guy you were obsessed with at one point to say that to you, even as a kid, is a hit to your ego. Who’s to say you wouldn’t feel that way again?” Yuna sighed. “Maybe we should just call it quits? With GOT7 and your work, doing this” she swung her finger between the two of them “is just going to make your work so much harder.”

She gave him one of her fake smiles and Jaebum wanted to scream. He saw the pain he brought her, the uncertainty she had due to him unable to make them official. Jaebum knew this was more than something he said as a child. This was her love language, she needed action. Words only meant so much to her compared to actions and Jaebum failed. “Don’t you see, you leaving me will make my life harder” he shook his head, “I wouldn’t be able to function without you.” Yuna sighed as she went to stand, but Jaebum placed his hand on her shoulder as he knelt in front of her. “I know I suck sometimes. I don’t show you that you’re the only one for me, but you have to believe me when I say that. You’re as important to me as the boys if not more.” He pulled out a ring box from his pockets and opened it. Yuna’s eyes widened as a gasp escaped her lips. “And I know this is a pretty shitty way to propose, but I had to show you that you are the only one I want. Mook Yuna, will you marry me?”

Yuna’s eyes watered as she looked from Jaebum to the ring. “Idiot…” Jaebum chuckled as he took out the ring and placed it on her finger. “You’re such an idiot.”

Jaebum pulled her into his arms as she cried. Her fist hit him in the chest a couple of times before it stilled and her left hand wrapped around his neck. “I still need an answer.”

“You wanna die? You put me through all this stress and you want an answer?” She pulled back with anger in her eyes. “I should kill you! I’ve lost years off my life because of you. You sho--”

“Oh shut up” Jaebum rolled his eyes playfully as he leaned over and pressed his lips to hers to silence her complaints. He could have sworn she cursed him under her breath, but when she kissed him back he knew he got the answer he needed.

Part II || Part III

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Written & revamped by Squirrelly831

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