#this also applies to parker’s ‘for better or worse we change together’

[leverage-ot3]

“I’m with you till the end of the line” and “till my dying day” have the same energy pass it on

[devnicolee]

Into the Light (1)

Warnings: none yet! 

Summary: Wesley Parker is a smart, political genius with years of policy experience. After working at the Wakandan Outreach Center in Oakland for over a year, Erik Stevens, Wesley’s longtime friend, offers her the opportunity of a lifetime: move to Wakanda and serve as an international policy advisor to King T’Challa alongside him. For reasons even Erik doesn’t know, she jumps at the chance and immediately leaves her Oakland life behind for a new one in the elusive, secretive nation. Like her friend Erik, she is a recluse and a loner, determined to focus on rebuilding her life and keeping her secrets her own. However, when she meets a certain Mountain king, she realizes that her life in the darkness doesn’t always have to be so. But is stepping into her light that easy? Or will the fear of trusting others keep her stuck? 

Word count: 4,509

Enjoy!

***

Wesley took a tentative step down the ramp of the Royal Talon, the smoldering African heat immediately hitting her in the face. 

“Parker!”

Her face immediately lit up when she saw him, standing separate from the rest of the Royal Family. She hadn’t expected all of them to be waiting to greet her. 

“Stevens.” 

It came out as almost a quiet sigh of relief instead of the upbeat, jovial tone she usually had. After days on edge, the reality of seeing him, stepping her feet on Wakandan soil was like stepping under the warmth of a thousand suns. She couldn’t even hide how relieved she was. It certainly felt better than her impromptu move back to Oakland a year ago. She quickly fixed her face to mask her relief and put on a neutral smile, more of an expression he would expect. 

As soon as she was in arm’s length, his strong arms wrapped around her midsection to pull her into a tight hug. She hesitated for a moment, surprised at his greeting, before her arms rested on his broad shoulders to return it. Even after rekindling their friendship over the past year, she still wasn’t used to this new version of him. He was more inviting… more warm than he used to be. Wakanda had changed him, just not in the ways he originally intended. 

He pulled back, eyeing her up and down as if she had managed to acquire some injury in the last week without his watchful eye. 

“You good?”

“Yea, the flight was great… you know, I just slept through most of it.” 

Her eyes tried to take in everything: the silent planes whizzing above her head, the guards lining the landing pad around them, the grandiose palace towering above them, the sounds of bustling city streets outside the palace gates. Wesley had done a decent bit of traveling in her time and this was truly unlike any city she had ever seen. 

“Aight. Good, good. Come inside, sis… get you situated.” 

After a quick introduction to the Queen Mother and hellos to the rest of the family, all of whom she had met and worked with at the Outreach Center, Erik ushered her inside to show her the room she would be staying in. She knew the accommodations were only temporary, until she got settled and could find her own place. But she certainly was not complaining. 

She tried to listen to Shuri as she rattled off information about the different areas of the Palace, what her new bracelet did. But Wesley knew she would retain none of it. She was too excited, too anxious, too nervous.  

Her professors and old colleagues called her a budding prodigy. Everyone knew Wesley Parker was going places. But she knew what they all also called her now: a waste of talent. After graduating from Harvard, she spent years working her way from government office to government office, trying to work her way up to the upper echelons of the political sphere. She was poised to be a leading voice in foreign policy, one of the few young Black women in the field. And then, over two years ago, Wesley just walked away. From her cushy life in D.C., her high-paying position, a new job offer with the U.N. She abandoned her dream, leaving it stranded in the road for an unexpected detour. And she always looked back, always wished she could get back there. 

And here she was, as she walked down the opulent halls of this palace tucked away in Africa. This was the break in the trees illuminating her path back to her dream. This was her chance, her shot to rebuild what she lost… and this was the only place in the world she could do it. She couldn’t mess it up. She wouldn’t. 

****

“You like it?” 

Wesley laughed, rolling her eyes, “Yea nigga… this is bigger than my whole apartment.” 

Her feet sunk into soft taupe carpet blanketing her bedroom floor. She shuffled her feet, feeling the plushness between her toes. She flopped down on her bed, which felt sinfully good and soft. She propped herself up on her forearms to look at Erik, who looked amused by her childish antics. 

“Good. How you feeling?” 

Wesley sighed, rolling her eyes as she pushed herself back to her feet. The question was vague, as many from Erik were, but she knew exactly what he was referring to. She walked toward him, arms folded in annoyance at his overprotective and overbearing nature. 

“Stevens… you gotta stop asking me that. I am fine. That was, what? A week ago? I’ve been through worse, I’ve seen worse. I am good - I’ve moved on.” Her beautiful face scrunched up in a frown, “I am honestly sorry I even brought you into all that. It’s not a big deal.”

His eyes widened slightly, “The fuck? Wes. That was a big fucking deal. And lying to me about it don’t change that. You need to talk someone… you need to talk about it. And you need to tell me what ha-” 

“Erik. I am begging you… drop this. Leave it alone. Please.” 

She knew he could hear the exasperation in her words, the pleads. She didn’t like thinking about it, one of the many things from her past she flew halfway around the world to escape. The thin fraying ropes holding her up were starting to unravel again, and it took all her power not to collapse, fall right here in front of him. 

He nodded, raising his hands in surrender, knowing that she was serious if she chose to use his first name. 

“Fine. I’ll let you keep your secrets… for now. We all got ‘em. When you’re ready, I’m here. You know, I’d kill for you. I gotchu always, Wes.” 

And that’s the problem. 

“I know… you’ve killed for less.” 

Wesley was one of the few people, outside of his new family, that knew about his past, knew the road littered with blood and bodies he traveled to reach his paradise… his home. 

After her parents died in a tragic accident, 15-year-old Wesley was sent from her home in Charlotte to live with her aging grandmother who had little time or interest in raising a rambunctious teenager. However, she did have time for her friends, Ms. Louise and Mr. Franklin, the old couple in their building who had been fostering a 17-year-old boy, Erik. 

She and Erik became fast friends, developing a close brother/sister bond. Already exhibiting a penchant for violence, Erik was a good friend to have around as a young girl. He was always there to fight for her, protect her. Even when he left for MIT, everyone in the neighborhood knew she was the wrong girl to mess with. 

He looked after her when she joined him in Cambridge during his last two years at MIT. Harvard and MIT were demanding for the pair but they still spent as much time together as they could, studying their respective disciplines. As she kept her nose to the ground and worked on the Hill in D.C. after graduating and Erik started his career in the Navy, they still remained close, talking or seeing each other anytime Erik was available. For every high and every low, Erik was the one constant in her life. 

However, when Erik decided to fall deeper into the life of espionage and violence, the calls came less frequently and, eventually, stopped all together. And there was no one to call, no one to check in with to see if he was ok. And so, Wesley lost the remaining family she had in this world, the only family she thought she would ever have. 

When their paths fatefully crossed 12 months ago outside a black-owned coffee shop near the Center, both thought they had seen a ghost. They hardly recognized each other, mere shadows of the teenagers that ran through the streets together. Part of her wanted to be angry with him, but she couldn’t. One brief conversation reminded her what it was like to have family… someone who cared. And she jumped at the opportunity to have him back in her life - with the promise that he would never leave her again. And it was clear how much his life had changed. He had found home and safety while she was still fumbling in the dark, desperately searching for both. 

It didn’t take long for him to “convince” her to take a position as a consultant at the Outreach Center, lending her policy experience to help them bridge the gap between them and local policymakers in the state. It was better than what she was doing before, preparing to apply to a bookstore to pay her bills.

“Fair enough. See you for dinner? I’ll come by and scoop you… you’ll be lost in this place for days tryin’ find it yourself.” 

“Yea, yea. That’s cool. Thanks. See you then.” 

Wesley chewed her bottom lip as she watched his back retreat out her door. She hated how overprotective he was… how much he actually cared. Most people heard “I am fine,” and accept it as fact. Not Erik… he wanted the truth. 

She flopped back down on the bed, this time out of frustration and guilt, not childlike amusement. Her hand covered her face as tears stung the back of her eyes. 

“You are not fine,” she whispered out loud. But she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that… or the real reason why. 

****

“Does this look ok?” She smoothed the front of her dress. 

Erik told her dinner was casual and she tried to follow that but she also refused to look like an idiot in front of the Royal Family. This was casual enough but still stylish and cute. And purple, paired with gold jewelry, as Erik told her those were the colors of the Panther Tribe. While her relationships with Erik, Shuri, and Nakia extended beyond professional pleasantries, she could not say the same about King T’Challa, who she had only really spoken to a handful of times. She couldn’t show up to dinner looking any type of way. 

“Yea… I told you it was casual tho?” 

And he looked casual and comfy, sporting a pair of black joggers and a t-shirt. 

“This is as casual as I am gonna get. Some of us aren’t royalty, Stevens… Or should I call you Prince N’Jadaka?” 

He rolled his eyes.

“Nah you shouldn’t if you wanna know where dinner is.” 

“Stevens or Erik, it is,” she vowed quickly, not wanting to smart mouth her way out of a meal. 

“The tribal leader of Jabariland gon’ join us to by the way. Name’s M’Baku.” 

Wesley tilted her head, racking her brain for the bit of knowledge about Wakanda she learned from Shuri, Erik, and Nakia during their long sessions at the outreach center.  

“Jabariland, Jabariland… Jabari… Oh, that’s the group in the mountains right? Gorilla god, snow, just started talking to y’all again like last week?” 

“Tribe,” he corrected. “But yea, that’s the one. He is cool people tho. The only council member I like.” 

Wesley didn’t really understand why she was so nervous. After a year helping them launch the Outreach Center, she was, at least, friendly with everyone at varying degrees. But here? She was a stranger, feeling an intense desire to prove herself and fit in.

“Ms. Parker!” T’Challa stood as she entered the dining hall. It was set for seven, four of the people already seated and waiting. 

“King T’Challa,” she rose her arms in the X she had seen others do around him for a year. He smiled brightly, an encouraging sign on her end. “And you can just call me Wesley or Wes.” 

“Of course, of course. And just T’Challa will do as well. Please sit. We are just waiting on Lord M’Baku.” He gestured toward one of three empty seats available, the one with a mysterious small gift box sitting on the chair. 

“You all did not need to get me anything,” she muttered as she picked up the box. It felt heavy as she fiddled with the edge of the wrapping paper. 

“Nonsense. We are so excited to have you here. N’Jadaka and Nakia believe you will be a great asset as we determine how to situate ourselves on the world stage and I concur. This is just a token of our appreciation for your willingness to join us here and we hope it makes your job a bit easier.” 

“Thank you. And believe me, I am so appreciative of the opportunity.” She prayed no one could see the light tremble in her hands as she started to tear the paper off. However, before she could, the double doors to the hall burst open. 

“Apologies for my tardiness, my king! Issue in the mountains.” 

Wesley looked up to find a giant walking toward her, that was the only way she could think to describe him. She almost wondered if he was an enhanced person, like T’Challa. For she had never seen a “regular” man quite his size. 

You’ve never seen a man as gorgeous as him either. 

If she could have, she would have rolled her eyes at herself. It was true, he was a sight to behold. He entered the room with an aura of power and strength that would have, once upon a time, had her lusting after him. But that was hardly what she was there for. 

“No worries, M’Baku. We were just welcoming our guest, Wesley Parker. This is Lord M’Baku, tribal leader of the Jabari.” 

Wesley smiled brightly, offering him a polite wave. Her smile wilted slightly under his unreadable gaze. She watched as his eyes traveled up and down her frame, lingering on her for a few moments before he seemed to catch himself and the awkward silence filling the room.

“The American… Welcome to Wakanda, Ms. Parker.” 

Wesley bristled slightly at his words as if being called an American was an insult to her, and in many ways - it was. She turned her head to her right where Erik sat, rolling her eyes and mouthing “the American?” sharing her disdain with the only person in the room who would understand. To which he just chuckled lowly and shook his head. She fixed her face to hide her annoyance before turning back toward him as he sat down in the seat left of her. She supposed she should ready herself for that reaction.

“Uh.. thanks? I guess.” Her voice trailed off a bit as she spoke. Turning her attention back to the half opened gift sitting in her lap, she ripped the rest of the wrapping paper off. 

She gasped as she pulled a shiny, state-of-the-art tablet out of a box. 

“Oh… I can’t accept this! Thank you but I can’t.” 

It was sleek and beautiful, she had seen them all with it over the last year. And she knew no amount of money would afford her something as high tech as this. But she didn’t feel right accepting it.  

“Really, it is nothing.” Shuri waved her hand dismissively, completely ignoring the woman’s protests. “And it will work better with our tech here. It syncs to your beads, the easiest file transfers you have ever seen. You will love it.” 

“It’s a losing battle, Parker. Just say thank you,” Erik whispered out of the corner of his mouth. 

“Thank you,” she responded meekly. 

T’Challa motioned for a servant to take it from the dinner table, letting Wesley know it would be brought to her room. 

“Thank you! It’s too much, really. But I appreciate it. I am sure it will work better than mine.” She thought back to the broken and beaten iPad tucked in her bag, the screen partially shattered and many years past its prime. 

Small conversations commenced throughout the group as Wesley sat watching. Shuri and M’Baku were engaging in a lively debate about the merits of vibranium vs. Jabari wood? Whatever that was. Hushed whispers past between T’Challa and Nakia on the other end of the table. And Erik listened, albeit reluctantly given the look on his face, to the Queen Mother chastise him for missing yet another council meeting.  

Wesley sat, eating her second course of only God knew how many, just listening to all of them laugh, bicker, and poke fun at each other. 

This is nice, Wesley thought. She knew they weren’t her family. But even being in their presence lifted her spirits more than she could have known. More than sad for what she didn’t have, she was filled with joy for what Erik found. She was curious how they found a way to accept him, forgive him… love him after all he did. But she was glad they had. He deserved it. He deserved happiness after losing so much for so long.

And you don’t. 

She shook her head lightly, as if she could shake the negative orator out of her mind. But she knew she couldn’t. That voice was always there, always reminding her to never get attached. Everyone leaves, everyone hurts you. Because nobody wanted her. 

“Wes. Wes!” 

At the sound of her name, Wesley pulled herself out of her thoughts, directing her attention at Shuri. It was clear the young girl had tried and failed to get her attention multiple times. 

“S-sorry, princess. I-I got lost in my own thoughts there. What did you say?” 

“No problem. I just asked how the date with Jason went?”

Wesley blinked a few times in confusion before it hit her. Fuck. Jason was a gorgeous and accomplished volunteer at the Outreach Center who taught engineering to the students with Shuri. He had his eye on Wes since the day she literally ran into him in the staff lounge but Wes never really paid him much attention. Shuri had tried incessantly to play matchmaker with the pair. Wesley had almost forgot she lied and told Shuri she had agreed to go on a date with him. She had no intention of doing such a thing; she just didn’t want to be asked about it again. 

“O-oh we ended up not being able to get it scheduled before I moved. Y-you know, it all happened so suddenly.” 

Shuri seemed crestfallen for a moment but immediately perked up. 

“Oh, well good thing there are soooooo many eligible men here. And cute too! Nakia and I will find you someone, don’t worry.” 

She wasn’t worried or interested. But she appreciated Shuri’s enthusiasm and good intentions so she just nodded and smiled. 

“It must have been hard, moving away from home so quickly,” the Queen Mother interjected, thankfully moving the conversation away from Wesley’s nonexistent love life. “We were surprised you wanted to move so soon.” 

“I-I hadn’t been in Oakland long. Just a year so I hadn’t put down too many roots. Wasn’t too difficult to make the move.” 

“Still, your friends and family. It must have been hard to say goodbye so fast?” Shuri asked. 

“Yes, it was.”

She picked up her wine glass, taking a long sip, which confirmed the finality in her clipped and short response. This conversation was over. 

Everyone returned to their separate conversations and their food. Awkwardness slowly seeping into her as she questioned whether she should have just lied to keep the conversation going and be polite. 

“Do not feel awkward. Shuri and the tribal leaders in Jabariland have been trying to play matchmaker with me for the last year. I just ignore them.” 

Wesley laughed, directing her attention to the owner of that deep baritone voice. “And they haven’t caught on yet?”  

M’Baku brought his glass of wine to his lips. “Of course, not.” 

“Well, I could use some of your tips then. The Princess is quite persistent. But I suppose that is what makes her the genius she is,” Wesley mused. 

“Happy to share my insights anytime.” 

“You live in the mountains, right? I didn’t even know it could snow here.” 

M’Baku smirked, “I imagine there is quite a lot you do not know about Wakanda yet.” 

Wesley took the bait, he was not wrong. There was so much she didn’t know about this country she was now meant to help lead. 

“Well, tell me something about Wakanda you think I should know.” 

And his answer to that question carried them through the main course and on to dessert. She mostly listened as he talked about his home, Jabariland, and the people there. It was very surface level, but it made her want to learn more, as much as she could. He explained the differences between the Jabari and the rest of the country. As he spoke, Wesley felt at ease for the first time since she sat down at the table, felt glimmer of her old eager and passionate self peaking through the thick walls she had stacked up. Talking to him felt like talking to an old friend, someone she had known all her life. 

“So you come down here often?” 

“A few times a month. T’Challa and N’Jadaka lean on my counsel often.” 

Wesley nodded, “So we will be seeing quite a lot of each other then, I suppose?” 

“Oh, I am counting on that.” 

The flirtatious tone in his voice was not lost on Wesley, even if no one else at the table was paying them any attention. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, seeing him wink at her before smiling. If her deep, warm brown skin could, her cheeks would have turned a rosy pink. There was a lot about this face that was gorgeous beyond belief. But his smile drew her eye, pulled her in. She could tell he frowned a lot, his resting face throughout dinner had looked generally disgruntled. However, his smile lit his whole face up, made him look even more beautiful - as if that were possible - and more youthful.

“All, I must retire for the evening. Attend to some tribal business. I will see you all in the Council meeting in the morning. My king.”

He saluted T’Challa who returned it and offered him a head nod. He offered Wesley a lingering glance and and a small smile before leaving.

What the fuck was that? She imagined he did that with a lot of women. Harmless flirting that meant nothing at the end of the day. She knew a man like that would never go for someone like her. 

“U-uh I should head to bed as well. I have quite a bit of reading I wanted to do before bed, actually. Thank you for dinner. It was amazing.” Wesley wiped the corners of her mouth before folding her napkin and placing it by her dirty plate. 

“Let me walk you,” Nakia offered. “I am headed in that direction anyway. T’Challa and Erik have some business to discuss.” 

A sense of longing washed over Wesley as she watched the intimate, subtle touches that passed between the pair as T’Challa kissed her hand and squeezed it before letting her go. Once again, she shook her head, internally stamping down the emotions that did not serve her cause. 

She offered them all thanks again and said good night before following Nakia. There was silence for the first minute or two as the events of dinner tumbled through her head. 

Was he actually flirting with me? 

Does it really matter? She debated with herself. Even if he was, which seemed highly unlikely, there were about 1,000 reasons she couldn’t pursue him. Wesley pushed that aside quickly, deciding that he was simply a flirt and she was simply a fool so starved for love that she would fall for his flirtatious nature so easily. 

And then that awkward moment with Shuri and the Queen Mother. Wesley hated questions about her personal life. Not because she found them intrusive, but because she did not have the standard cookie cutter answers people actually expected when they asked those questions. She couldn’t tell the truth and all that left her with was lies and she had enough lies… enough secrets for one person. 

“I can almost hear you overthinking, Wesley.” 

Nakia broke their silence, stopping in front of a large bay window that looked out into the palace gardens. The moonlight illuminated Nakia’s face, which carried a concerned expression on it. 

“Dinner went well. Everyone is excited to have you here, truly. Don’t stress over tomorrow. The Council will like you.” 

The tension building in her chest dissipated almost immediately, thankful that this was the path the conversation was taking. 

“Y-yea I’m sure you’re right. I’m good, really. Just need to get some of the nervous energy out I guess.” 

Nakia nodded before turning to resume their trek back to her quarters. More turns and long hallways than Wesley could count later, they were standing outside her bedroom. 

“You and M’Baku seemed to have hit it off.” Nakia’s face was filled with interest and excitement. “And that is saying something… there are few in Wakanda as cold as Lord M’Baku. Pun intended.” 

Wesley chuckled, tucking a stray black hair behind her ear. Her small frame leaned against her closed, deep mahogany doors as they talked. 

“He was nice! Well… everyone here is nice. But I am sure he is like that with all the ladies, just a charmer.” 

“Oh I can assure you, he is not. He likes you.” 

Wesley’s face must have been a lens into her inner skepticism for Nakia immediately started to laugh. 

“I am serious!” 

Wesley’s hand fumbled for the door knob, slowly opening it before saying, “I doubt it but it doesn’t really matter. I am here to work, I don’t have time for much else.” 

Nakia tilted her head, almost examining her. She imagined it was from all the spy training but Nakia was almost impossible to read, which frustrated Wesley to no end. Half of being good at politics was simply being able to read people. Nakia always made her question that skill. 

“I find that people only make drastic moves like you have for two reasons. They want to start over or they are running from something. I don’t know which one brought you here, Wesley. But you won’t find your escape or new start behind a mountain of paperwork. It is out there.” Her hand pointed behind her at the stained window across across from her door. 

“What are you saying?” 

“I am saying is that Wakanda is more than its political agenda. Wakanda is its people, its culture. To succeed here,” she gestured around her, “You have to know what’s out there. You have to experience what is out there. You have to live, Wesley.” 

Silence. 

“Just something to think about. Good night, Wesley.” 

***

Tag list: @muse-of-mbaku​ @allinhishands​ @ms-reader​

A/N: Thanks for reading! Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list. 

[imagine-loki]

Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

TITLE: Of Numbers and Strange Friendships CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 61/?

AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki being friends with Peter Parker RATING: T

NOTES/WARNINGS: None so far.  Also on AO3 here

Loki had lost a lot of blood with Thor sewing his lips shut.  That and the numbing potion was wearing off.  He shouldn’t have been allowed the potion at all, but his mother had slipped it to him and Thor wouldn’t out him, not when it had saved Loki a bit of pain.  

Now, though, now that pain was coming with a vengeance.  Hip lips ached, a throbbing that was in time with his heartbeat as blood still spilled sluggishly from the wounds in his lips.  They healed slowly, thanks to the thick thread and Odin’s insistence on punishing him.  

Thor frowned at the sluggish bleeding.  Loki nodded his head back to the table of supplies next to his uncomfortable chair.  “What?” Thor asked and finally looked.  He sighed in relief when he recognized the bottle of healing potion.  He reached for it and carefully opened it to gently apply it to Loki’s bleeding lips with a type of cotton applicator that the midgardians called a q-tip.  Thor’s movements were gentle, though Loki still had to fight to avoid flinching.  Each movement hurt, and the potion stung as it sealed the wounds.  At least there was no more blood that seeped into his mouth once the wounds were closed.  Loki swallowed again and against trying to get the taste of his own blood out of his mouth to no avail.  He was stuck with it for awhile.  

He despised the taste of blood.

It made it worse when it was his own.  Not that he’d tried others’ blood, but at least they would be hurt and not him. 

Thor put the supplies back when the work was done and Loki was as healed as he was going to for the moment.  The wounds were closed enough that they weren’t bleeding, but the rest would take time. Thor turned back to Loki, then, and did something he hadn’t dared to in ages.  Loki usually didn’t let his brother give him any sort of physical affection, despite that Loki was starved of it and desperate for it.  Loki was also too proud to admit it, and too used to being in Thor’s shadow, of being the dark prince, surrounding himself in shadows and darkness, and pretending it was his choice to be alone, when that was the furthest thing from the truth. He was alone because of his powers, because of his godhood, because he wasn’t perfect in Odin’s eyes, like Thor was.  He wasn’t the golden sunshine prince.  So he was ostracized and pretended to everyone that it was his own choice. 

Thor finally knew better.

So Thor bent and pressed a kiss to Loki’s forehead.  A gesture of love and support from his older brother.  One he hadn’t received in years.  Thor waited a heartbeat, waited to be stabbed for being so close to Loki and in his personal space.  He saw the moment where Loki fought against his instincts and where he actively considered his reaction.  

Something had changed between them, their relationship had mended some in this experience.  Their relationship had begun to heal, now that they both had a common enemy in Odin.  

The evidence was in Loki’s reaction.  He closed his eyes and purred softly, allowing Thor in that much, allowing him to remember that Jotuns could purr.  Loki used to purr all the time as a child.  It had been how Thor had known his brother was happy.  Then came the day when Loki realized that the rest of the people on Asgard didn’t have the ability.  So he hid it. 

It had been one of the first things lost so Loki could fit in, so he could try to be the perfect prince, the perfect child. 

Thor had hated it when Loki stopped purring and was overjoyed now to realize that the purrs were back. He gave his brother a warm smile.  “It’s good to hear you purr again, brother.  It has been far too long,” he told Loki, truly appreciating it.  

Loki’s lips twitched in a small smile, as far as the threads would allow. He nodded and started to try to stand.  Thor caught him and steadied him.  Loki had lose more blood than he wanted to admit.  His pain was also making him weaker than he wanted to admit.  The numbing potion wore off far too quickly.  

“Steady, brother,” Thor told him gently, holding Loki’s arm to steady him.  

Loki nodded and reached for his shirt to dress again.  He didn’t even stop Thor from helping him to dress put the discarded shirt back on, helping keep the fabric from brushing his lips, helping keep the fabric clean.  Loki hated being dirty.  He always had.

Then Thor did something that would surely get him stabbed.  He swept Loki up into his arms bridal style.  Loki made a disgruntled noise and squirmed.  “You’re barely on your feet and I want to get you off realm before The Allfather comes searching for us,” Thor replied to make Loki stop fighting him.  Loki grumbled a protest, but stopped squirming. He knew that they needed to get off realm.  The guard would report that Loki had been punished and that Thor had performed it as demanded.  

Loki closed his eyes and for once let Thor take care of him.  He didn’t want the people to see him like this.  Not again.  “Everything will be alright, brother,” Thor soothed him as he carried Loki through the halls, letting his brother float on a haze of endorphins and his brain hiding from the trauma of injury.  Thor took him all the way to the Bifrost to take him back to Midgard.

He hadn’t told Loki he would be returning to have words with Odin.  Just as soon as Loki was safe.

Loki made a soft noise, a worried plaintive sound. 

Thor could guess what was on his mind. Loki only cared about a few things, and would only voice that care about even fewer.  “Peter won’t think any less of you,” he promised his brother.  “He will likely be as angry at father as we are.  And we will reassure him together that none of this is his fault,” he reassure Loki.  

Loki nodded and laid his head on Thor’s shoulder, trusting in his brother in that moment.  

Heimdall opened the Bifrost for them.

Loki wanted to see Peter and make sure he was truly ok. 

He dreaded to see Peter, dreaded the look in Peter’s eyes when he saw Loki’s punishment.  He dreaded all of it.  He dreaded most of all that Peter would blame himself or think less of Loki for what had been done to him. 

There was only one way to find out.  

He made Thor set him down and together the pair of them headed back to Midgard to face the music together.  Just like old times.

[tylergparker]

— && guests may mistake me as ( kaylee bryant ), but really i am ( tyler parker + cis female + she/her ) and my DOB is ( 10/31/97 ). i am applying for the ( waitress ) position as part of the EHP and would like to live in suite ( #215 ). i should be hired because i am ( + playful, ambitious, clever ), but i can also be ( - hot-headed, crass, resentful ) at times. personally, i like to ( paint, collect cute socks, make playlists ) when off the clock, but that won’t interfere with work. thank you for your consideration!

ooc;; when will i not be throwing new kids at y’all amiright? maybe one day i’ll leave y’all alone lmfao. but for now, here is my child, tyler. i hope you like her but if you don’t, that’s chill, too, i can’t make you do things. as we know, i’m not your mom.

{ TW: religious undertones / general religion + emotional abuse + teen pregnancy + mentions of abortion + mentions of depression }

background;;

Tyler Grace Parker was born and raised in a suburb of San Diego, California to Daniel and Janine Parker. Daniel was a pastor at their local church, and Janine was a stay at home mom - though the woman had always desired more for herself; in particular she had goals of being a prima ballerina, but when she had tried for it at a younger age, she didn’t make the cut.

Tyler was raised predominantly Christian, given her father was a pastor and all. It was mostly something that stuck with the family - they went to church as a family unit every Wednesday evening and every Sunday morning as well as taking part in church community events, they prayed before every meal and most nights before bed, Tyler was in youth group for several years while her mom and dad both served in the church in some capacity. It was a big part of her upbringing, but it didn’t stunt her socially - she didn’t try to feed the same beliefs to her friends at school, and outside of home she didn’t talk much about church or what they believed; that was her family’s business.

Something else Tyler was raised with was ballet. She started when she was just four years old, and as a child it was a fun activity for her. She loved ballet because she had other little friends she got to see, recitals were fun for her, it wasn’t anything serious - she got to be pretty and she got to dance; it was simple for a young child. When she hit about 10 years old, though, her mother really started in on the projecting her own squashed dreams of being a ballerina on her daughter. Janine became very intense about putting pressure on Tyler to be the best, to not miss classes, to practice more. She would critique her daughter’s form, have her run the same things over and over in a practice studio, etc. It became something that made Tyler begin to almost resent this thing that she had once loved doing. She spent a handful of years trying to grapple with a love that she had for ballet and how it was slowly but surely being taken away from her.

When she was fifteen years old, early on in her sophomore year of high school, Tyler met Dylan Patterson. He was a year above her in school, but that didn’t change how fast and hard Tyler fell for him. Dylan was in the school’s jazz band, but he also happened to be the son of Tyler’s favorite art teacher, Ms. Patterson. Dylan was the oldest of three siblings, and his mother was a single mom, he picked up a part time fast food job to help his mom out on top of going to school, that Patterson’s weren’t a church-going family, either. Tyler saw nothing but good things in Dylan, she loved the way that he was so good to his family, the way he was creative, the way he could easily make her smile. Her parents, however, were not thrilled about this first boyfriend of hers. Her mom and dad thought that Dylan was a ‘bad influence’ on her, and despite the fact that she didn’t let their disapproval stop her from dating Dylan, things never got better on that front.

In fact, things got worse when at fifteen years old, Tyler found out that she was pregnant. Having sex out of wedlock was already “bad” enough, according to beliefs she had been instructed to follow all her life - beliefs she had distanced herself from little by little as she reached adolescence - but having a baby? Not to mention the fact that she was only sixteen, Dylan only seventeen. Tyler went to her mother, because that felt like what she was supposed to do - she definitely had no idea what else she was supposed to do. Janine, however, did not react as Tyler expected. She wasn’t expecting happiness at all, some tears of distress maybe, but what actually came was nothing the teenage girl had thought up in her head.

Janine wanted for Tyler to get an abortion. For a number of reasons this threw Tyler for a loop. Being pro-life was practically expected in their congregation, for her mom to insist that that was how she needed to handle her pregnancy was more than a small shock. On top of that was the fact that the woman had every intention of having her daughter get the abortion and never even telling her father she was pregnant at all. Confused and a little in shock for a few different reasons, an emotional Tyler argued with her mother against going through with that plan. The argument hit a boiling point that ended up Tyler leaving and staying at Dylan’s house for a couple of weeks.

Despite how young they were, Dylan reassured Tyler that things would be okay, that they could do anything as long as they were together. He very nearly convinced an exceptionally conflicted and concerned Tyler to keep the baby and be a family, the three of them. However, when her mother convinced her finally to come back home with the promise that they would tell her father everything and figure things out together, Tyler jumped on the opportunity. She loved Dylan so much, but she didn’t feel like either of them were in the position to make such heavy calls, and neither of them were ready to have a baby, that was for sure.

Telling her dad that she was pregnant went about as poorly as one might expect. Daniel was angry, notably so. It showed in the way that he yelled that night; telling Tyler what a disappointment she was, that she had ‘some nerve’ expecting some sort of support from them for something that was ‘entirely her own fault.’ There were things said about how she’d sinned, that she had gone against anything they had ever taught her. After that, her relationship with her father was distant, cold. What interactions they did have were exceedingly brief, and even what length they were, they weren’t particularly kind. Tyler was told not to come to church with them anymore - people at church inevitably found out about the pregnancy, but the way that her father put it “it was easier to avoid talking about if she wasn’t in everyone’s faces with it.”

Her mother was there for her through her pregnancy, despite being so against the whole thing in the first place. Dylan and his mom also were on top of getting her to appointments, helping take care of her, being there every step of the way through the pregnancy. Dylan did more attempting to convince Tyler that they should keep the baby, that they could do it because they loved each other. Ultimately, however, Tyler still gave their baby girl up for adoption.

After giving up their daughter, Dylan did his best to stand by Tyler, but Tyler could feel the distance between them - he wasn’t fully supportive of them giving the baby up, he thought that she was caving into her parent’s desires when he didn’t see them as right or fair. Ultimately, Dylan ended up ending their long-term relationship about a month after Tyler had given birth. Between the heavy - and admittedly unexpected - weight of having a child and giving her away, and the heartbreak of Dylan giving up on them after everything, Tyler became exceptionally depressed.

Going through the motions became just about all Tyler felt capable for a little while. She finished that school year in summer school, she started going back to church - because her father was back to acting as if nothing had even happened and she was actually his daughter once again - and she let her mother convince her that she should focus on ballet. Admittedly, Tyler held onto the smallest bit of hope that she could re-fall in love with ballet once again; she knew she had loved it so much when she was younger, she thought having that kind of positive feeling for it again might turn things around for herself.

Starting out with ballet again, it was a solid 50/50 in terms of the time that Tyler loved what she was doing, and the time that it came with heavy amounts of pressure from her mother. Once again, it became something that Tyler had to come to grips with: she wasn’t going to be given the option to just love being a part of ballet, getting to dance, her mother wasn’t going to let her have that, it was too serious for the woman. After the way that her teenage pregnancy had effected their family, though, Tyler didn’t have it in her to fight with the woman or cause anymore “rifts” in their home. So instead, she just pushed through, kept dancing.

At the end of that same summer, Daniel abruptly suggested that the family move out of state. There was a sister congregation to their church in Chicago and they were willing to give him a position in their ministry. He sold it to his wife and daughter as “a new beginning that they all needed” - something that Tyler still subconsciously holds resentment toward him for saying. Because what the hell had they gone through to need anything?

Moving to Chicago came with a big shift in Tyler’s persona. Essentially she gave a big middle finger to who she was - who her father in particular wanted her to be - and gave into a version of herself that felt like more like what she felt after the things that she had been through that year. She went from a sweet and cute and soft lady to something tougher, someone more blunt and confident. Someone darker, tougher. She stopped going to church which was a whole fight that she had to have with her dad after moving there, and since her relationship with the man has been nothing short of awful. Back to the minimal communication or whatever communication that there was between them being unpleasant, just as it had been when she’d been pregnant - if not worse because Daniel was angry with her for consciously making the choices she was.

Despite this notable switch and growth in her personality, one thing that Tyler did stick with was ballet. Not because it was something she really wanted to do, but because as long as she was doing it, it gave her something that kept her mom on her side. Living in a home with her angry and cold father was enough, she didn’t need for things to be any worse with her mother, too - even though the woman already made things difficult by putting the amount of pressure on the girl that she did. 

When Tyler graduated high school, Janine pushed her daughter to immediately go to auditions for ballet companies in Chicago, and even in a couple surrounding cities. When Tyler didn’t make the cut for any of the few ballet companies she had auditioned for, she knew that her mother was devastated - given all the projecting that she had been doing. It was more out of self preservation than actually feeling bad for her mom that kept Tyler continuing to dance ballet all the same. She went to a specialized school, even started co-teaching a couple of lower level classes during the week, if only so she wouldn’t have to hear how “after all the work they’d put in, she gave it all up, it amounted to nothing.” In reality, the girl has more resentment for the dance than anything at this point.

Year 20 came with Tyler finding out about the EHP at the Malnati, and given her less than great home circumstances, she jumped on applying. She had done a couple different serving jobs while going to dance classes still, so taking a waitress position in the fancy hotel’s restaurant fit things she was already familiar with. Leaving her mom and dad’s house was like letting out a gigantic breath she had been holding for all her life. Living in the Malnati gave her freedom to do what she wanted, when she wanted. It gave her freedom to be who she wanted without a fight, without judgment. She’s been working and living in the hotel for nearly two years now.

Something she did in her first year outside of her parent’s house was reach out to Dylan on Facebook for the first time in several years. The girl came to learn that Dylan was in contact with the couple that had adopted their daughter. He gave her the information for Rick and Shannon Carlson after asking the pair if it was just as alright for her to contact them. She now gets photos of her daughter - Sophia Marie Carlson - every now and again, usually around holidays or special occasions. She’s still yet to meet the child in person, given they live in Southern California still, but she has been given the opportunity to FaceTime with the couple and the little girl only a couple of times ( explaining that she is a friend of mommy and daddy’s, given the adoptive parents still want not to make things confusing )

personality / miscellaneous tidbits;;

Tyler was born at like 3:12 in the morning on Halloween the year that she was born and she has a running joke/theory that it was actually a curse and that’s why her life had been the mess that it’s been, and/or why certain bad things happen to her. “It’s the birthday curse, it’s fine.”

Has her septum pierced, she just either takes it out for ballet or tucks it up in her nose if she’s feeling ballsy about it.

She has a tiny ‘S.M.C.’ tattoo with an equally small heart beside it, on the inside of her right wrist; for her daughter. ( That being said, her teen pregnancy and her daughter isn’t really something she talks about openly, she’s gotta trust the person to see that like full side of her )

She’s got three, count em, three pet lizards; two bearded dragons named Jack and Sally, and a leopard gecko named Oogie. There’s a running theme there. Her room is like a lil reptile room with Jack and Sally sharing a cage and Oogie having his own - she’s serious about taking care of them, obviously.

Loves most things Tim Burton, in case her lizards being named after Nightmare Before Christmas characters didn’t give that away.

Would die for Brendon Urie and Hayley Williams, no question

Loves pop punk and general emo music; it’s something Dylan introduced her to and she kind of just fell in love with the whole style and the lyrics some of these bands wrote and stuff.

That being said, she’s a huge huge concert goer; big on shouldering her way to the front barricade at general admission shows, not afraid of being on someone else’s shoulders during things either, has definitely caught guitar picks and other such things thrown into crowds, she’s into it.

She’s a server, and has been for quite some time so she’s got customer horror stories for daaaays, probably has one of those #serverproblems tiktoks favorited and shit, because she hard retweets.

To be honest, she cares very little about what other people think at this point in her life. She spent the earlier part of her life in his little perfect cookie cutter daughter box, and then she derailed it on accident and her life has felt something like a mess since, so there’s not a lot that people can say to her that would like legitimately offend her.

On the other side of that coin is that she’s really not afraid to tell it like it is because she doesn’t particularly care if you like her adjflkajdfkl. If she thinks you’re annoying, she’ll tell you, etc. She’s also known to antagonize people who she doesn’t like just for the fuck of it, so. ...Sorry lmfao.

wanted connections;;

here’s another episode of me SUCKING AT THESE, EYYO

generally just like..... people who show her what an actual loving supportive family that doesn’t expect extremes from her would be great.

potentially someone that they hooked up like ONCE to get it out of their system and now they just antagonize each other and never let it die that they slept together when they’re picking on each other

server friends unite?? realistically works for bartenders, too, realistically lmao.

FRIGGIN CONCERT FRIENDS. GIVE THEM TO HER.

whoever's down to geek out about her lizards with her, that's the kind of friend vibe we fuck with

someone she genuinely doesn’t like and either doesn’t like her just as much for whatever reason, or maybe they keep trying to make her like them who knows

a person who asked her out on a legitimate date once and she laughed at them thinking they were fucking with her and now she can’t tell where they’re at because she won’t talk about it??? IDK BRO

somebody to help her explore the fact that she’s kind of bicurious?? got some shit to unpack there a little, though, so.

idk how it would happen, but this hard ass shell of hers has gotta be broken, she’s got so much shit repressed that she hasn’t opened up about - between shit with her parents to her pregnancy and heartbreak, and then some - and she’s not super great at trusting people on a deep enough level to let them in on all that and see that side of her so like again idk what would make this happen BUT !!!!!!! SURE.

honestly as always, i suck at this part, and i’m always open to just talk some shit out and work out some brainstormed ideas. so just hit ya girl kay up. or don’t. not your mom.

[shellheadtm-a]

Steve x Tony @shieldslinger​ / send me a ship and-

Who asks the other on dates:  lbh with each other here, these are the kind of assholes that have an actual date night.  sometimes they even make it to it and do date things.  but also let's be honest with the fact they've been going on dates for years and were too dumb to realize it.  museums?  burgers and a movie?  you know they've done it, you know it was a date, and you know they had literally no idea.  because they're dumbasses. Who is the bigger cuddler:  with all the unnecessary touching that went on with them from like literally steve's first day out of the ice and you come into my home and ask that question?  as touchy as they were before (those sweet, sweet shoulder squeezes of validation) you know it's worse now.  movie night's probably a nightmare just because you know it's either bc tony's draped some part of himself on steve, or they're jammed so close together you couldn't squeeze a sheet of paper between them, or...listen.  when two tactile people love each other very much, they're probably really gross and annoyingly handsy, and i don't mean in the...gropey kind of way, they're just touchy.  all the time.  must toch.  plus they have a shitton of issues, which probably doesn't help in that either but eh. Who initiates holding hands more often:  there's a theme here, you know that right.  there's a theme here, because it's a theme in canon, and it's tony offering a hand up to steve.  like it's a thing, you know it, i know it, so if you don't think tony's needy hand holder in this relationship, you'd be wrong.  it's sad, he gets this weird little thrill at even being able to do that, and on the one hand...you gotta feel bad for him.  he'd take whatever steve gives him and tell himself that's enough and he's content with it, because it's steve.  but knowing steve's okay with it?  a religious experience.

Who remembers anniversaries:  well, it's not steve rogers, i can tell you that.  and you know what, that's okay, and that's fair, and tony loves him anyway.  he might be the man with a plan, but he's useless with a planner.  he gets caught up in things, it's fine, tony remembers for the both of them, it's why he has friday.  what i'm saying is the only one who really remembers any important dates at all is friday. Who is more possessive:  i don't know that...you could really classify either of them that way?  overly protective, sure.  clucky with mother hen tendencies, the both of them, yeah.  taking what they can of each other's time, even if it's just to be able to say good night and good morning, absolutely.  but i don't think...with who they are as people, they really can't be. Who gets more jealous:  which goes back to being possessive, right, like tony has a little jealous streak but it doesn't manifest blatantly as one.  two, they're public figures so...there's not a lot of room for jealousy there.  like captain america and iron man might be characters they play (which are still them, i know i've talked about it but bear with me, it's an idealized version of them, separate from the inner selves) but they're public, you know, they're superheroes, and there's an expectation you share each other with the job.  and with the people you save.  with the world, really.  i think it's more about taking what time they do have as steve and tony more than anything else. Who is more protective:  this is a joke, right?  this is a joke.  these two idiots would throw themselves in front of each other over and over and over again if you let them.  that said, tony's moreso.  and i'll tell you why.  everything he's done?  all the bad?  the times he's sold his soul?  was to keep steve - and their loved ones - safe.  or happy, in a situation where there was really nothing they could do.  every time.  or i'll go one better.  tony will absolutely trade his own life for steve's in the blink of an eye, because he's always believed between the two of them steve's the better man.  he's done it.  willingly.  without a second thought once he's made the decision to do it.  he probably has a "sacrifing myself for the greater good and especially steve" face.  i'd like to lie and say that he understands if something happened to him how badly it would hurt steve but...if it came down to a choice of tony dying if it meant steve would live, he'd trade himself in a heartbeat.  that's uh.  something he's working on (he's not). Who is more likely to cheat:  this really is a joke.  steve "my middle name is noble" rogers and tony "has been in love with steve rogers for years" stark.  like tony would never, ever, ever say it, but this is it.  i don't mean in some fatalistic way, and i mean he fully believes he has an expiration date so he wouldn't say anything anyway, but this is it.  steve's always been The One.  his Person.  never would happen, not in a million fucking years. Who initiates sexy times the most:  you would think the answer is anthony edward stark and in most cases you'd be right, but steve rogers is not most cases, it is steve rogers and the rules don't apply to him.  by which i mean surprisingly steve is the proactive one here, and i think it's because tony is...he is hesitant.  it's weird, he's pushy with his forms of affection and then he backs off in this arena but i would argue he's getting better about it, and that the only reason he is like that is because he doesn't...he's very careful with steve, really, he's still walking on eggshells a little.  give him time, the tables will turn, he'll be pouncing steve from dark corners like an overgrown house cat with the 3am zoomies and a need to fight. Who dislikes PDA the most:  they're not, you know, public yet.  so it's not like this is really a thing outside of their friends circle, and even then, like.  i'm willing to bet literally nothing has changed in the slightest except you might walk in on them smoochin.  oh, the huge manatee.  tbf, for some people it might be (clint, looking directly at you) considering who wants to see their parents doing that but you know.  tough tiddy.  anyway, they’re just...not really the type. Who kills the spider:  listen they know some spiders who are very good people, and it's not nice to talk about premeditated murder.  there is a strict catch and release program in place and by that i mean tony will absolutely release said spiders back with their people.  except nat, because she's scary. Who asks the the other to marry them:  steve's joked around about that once.  once.  and tony did not take it well with his past history of failed relationships.  not out of a fear of committment, are you kidding me, this is tony who makes being married a personality trait.  but because he thinks he's a jinx.  i can tell you one thing, it won't be him that asks, if they ever get around to doing something more official than cohabitating.  shaking up.  whatever you want to call it.  not unless it's a jokey thing that gets taken seriously (which would change his tune embarrassingly fast).  he's gunshy at this point.  he's been engaged a few times and it's telling that he doesn't have like three divorces under his belt.  and also they're still feeling out the new them, which is fine, it's good they're doing that.  but he'd say yes in a heartbeat. Who buys the other flowers or gifts:  the answer you're looking for is tony stark.  it is tony stark who does this, thank you.  it could be big things, like, i don't know, a mansion (hello, 890 5th avenue).  training robots for the gym that...no one needs to know the price tag on that steve's going systematically tear apart.  training scenarios for the danger room he's spent three days straight coding and putting together.  new uniforms.  or it could be little things like a book steve's been meaning to get and read or his favorite bagel or...either way.  it's just who tony is, he can't help it.  if he has it, he gives it.  honestly i feel like at some point steve's just learned to roll with it because there's no stopping it.  he's been doing it forever, since day one (hey guys, remember the cray mainframe?), but now he's signed up for no complaining so you know.  that's on him. Who would bring up possibly having kids:  said like it hasn't already happened.  it's steve, by the way.  it's 1000% steve and he's already done it and tony's giving ten million reasons why he shouldn't when he knows he's going to say yes, and so what i'm really getting at here is they need to start thinking nursery colors for the mansion, because they're not fooling anyone.  and they're gonna be amazing parents and that kid is gonna be the most spoiled, loved, protected baby ever.  she hit the jackpot and doesn't even know it.  this is also the only superfamily content i am here for.  just a dumbass, a himbo, and a superbaby.  also consider.  all the cute.  knitted things.  i demand cute knitted things, it's not up for debate. Who is more nervous to meet the parents:  that's...not an issue, for one thing.  for another, like.  literally their entire friends group are...all...the same people.  lbr there was literally a betting pool in place and i wonder who won.  it keeps me up at night, wondering who cashed in on tony and steve no longer being quite as big of a pair of dumbasses as they have been.  part of me hopes it was peter parker, i worry about you, spooder-min. Who sleeps on the couch when the other is angry:  tony uh.  will stay in his lab if they have a row but i can promise you he doesn't sleep much.  if at all.  it's part and parcel with the tony stark experience in this case.  he'll stay in his hidey hole and be sad because steve's mad at him, but won't do anything about it at first, just stay and be sad.  because he's sad.  and also Feeling An Emotion is hard and they don't know how to use their words. Who tries to make up first after arguments:  i'd argue 70% of the time it's probably tony.  like, they're both stubborn, we know that.  they both dig in their heels and think they're right, the other's wrong, and they're being stupid about it.  and about some things they're just literally never going to agree but don't know how to agree to disagree.  tony gets set in a rut and won't consider a deviation from what he's already decided is going to happen.  steve gets mulish and refuses to listen to another point of view.  they butt heads.  but honestly, at this point, at the end of the day (if he can stop sulking), after everything that's happened?  you know, at this point it's obvious that when they argue and stay mad, bad things tend to happen.  tony doesn't even have memories of the worst of it but he knows he took it badly, let's be real here (i say, like badly's not a hilarious understatement).  he may not apologize in a way that says he's wrong, but he may do it for helping escalate a fight.  bc, you know, blah blah, not half as good as anything as i am doing it next to you, blah blah, azure eyes, blah blah, good morning beloved. Who tells the other they love them more often:  honestly, now that those big scary words are out there, and there's no takebacksies in having said it, they've both been pretty free with them.  making up for lost time, i guess.  i think they have different tones, though.  tony's as free with those with steve as he's ever been with anything else.  he gives them...often?  and with no expectation of anything in return.  because that's how he's always been with steve.  and from steve like...a lot of time it seems like...as much as he says it?  it's a reassurance more than anything (because we know how tony is).  sometimes tony even lets himself believe it without second guessing himself.

[ladykateofledfordpark]

The Lake

This fic was inspired by the Choices July Challenge! =)

Day 29 Prompt: Comfort

Main Pairing: Parker x F!MC (Harper)

Warning: Talk about death

This fic is dedicated to @darley1101. It took me quite a while but I finally finished it. =)

Tagging also my wonderful friends @lady-kato @mariaoz @itsbrindleybinch @a-i-n-a-a-s-h @kingliamsbish and @jlpplays1! Thank you for all your support!

Summary: A few years after the finale, after Harper finishes college, the gang meets up once again.

Unedited-ish. Please excuse grammar errors and typos.

Harper’s boyfriend pulled on her hand. His eyes shone with the most beautiful happiness in the world, like a mix of mischief and elation in one. When Harper’s eyes met his he smirked devilishly, as if he knew something she didn’t.

She furrowed her brows. “What?”

Parker’s smile grew. “You’ll see.”

He led her down the nearly empty street, the eerie silence their only companion. Harper drank in the familiar neighborhood: the white, rickety houses; the barely usable fences; and the familiar pathways. A strange mix of nostalgia and dread filled her, as if her body didn’t know what to feel. 

The truth was Harper did miss Palm Springs while she was away, but this area held too many bad memories. Each house they passed reminded her of Ned’s, making her rehash the same scenes over and over again: Ned’s smiling face as she offered to work together with him; his empty eyes, urging her to run as fast as she could; and the constant fear of the Society as she looked through the window, her heart pounding at every sound.

This place held so much hope and so much fear, Harper couldn’t understand how Danni could still stay to live here after everything that happened.

At some point, Parker woke her from her thoughts. “We’re here. Do you want to call them, or should I?”

She didn’t think twice before jumping in. “I’ll do it.” The dark tingling was now so much stronger, urging her to look where she first met Danni. Harper knew it was there- her senses were screaming at her- but she also knew that looking, even if only for a second, would only intensify her pain.

So she forced herself to look straight ahead. She slowly walked toward the door, ignoring the tempting voice whispering in her ear. They were Ned, they were Josephine, they were Richard: people that haunted her dreams, and every waking moment too.

Harper paused before the door. She swallowed, took all the strength she had in her, and knocked. Before she could prepare herself, Danni opened the door. A smile rose to her face at the sight of Harper, but just as she opened her mouth Tom rushed past her. His arms wrapped around his best friend, an enthusiastic cry leaving his mouth. 

“Harper, I missed you!”

She smiled. “Long time no see, stranger.”

Danni shoved Tom away. “Not now, Tom.” She turned to Harper and absentmindedly patted her shoulder, grinning. “Never expected to see you again. How long were you stuck in that college for?”

Harper chuckled. “A few years.”

Warm arms wrapped around her, and familiar lips brushed her earlobes. “For the record, I missed her too.”

Danni crossed her arms. “I wasn’t talking to you, Boy Scout.”

“I told you I was an Eagle Scout.”

“I know.” 

Before Parker could answer, a shrill voice called out. A slim figure rushed toward them, a box in its hand. As the person neared them, Harper made out a familiar blob of curly hair and a warm smile, one with kindness she never met somewhere else.

“Sorry!” The girl apologized as she came closer. “I brought pancakes.” She held out the small plastic box like a peace offering, fidgeting. She tucked a stray curl of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

Tom smiled. “It’s okay, Genny, we’re just happy you’re here.”

Danni turned to take the bag that lay at her feet, and then turned to the others. “Let’s go, then.”

Their walk was slow and relaxed, as if they had all the time in the world. It was strange walking down the streets of Pine Springs with the whole group, as if they were back to the summer of 2020. As if nothing changed since all the life-threatening situations they endured.

She didn’t know how to feel about that.

The group soon arrived to a grassy hill. Below them lay the lake, shining in the strong light of day. It seemed so quaint, so innocent. If Harper didn’t know better, she would have called this the most enchanting place in the world. However, memories of the lake tainted its allure, making it seem more like an enticing deathtrap than nature’s beauty. 

For a moment, Harper wished that she could look at this view in that innocence. She wondered how it was to be one of those people, humans who knew no better than what they were told. She couldn’t remember looking at any body of water that way, let alone the original lake itself.

“Harper.”

She turned toward Tom. He scanned her, his eyes betraying his worry. “What’s wrong?”

Harper clenched her fists. “It’s everything, really. This lake, the memories. They don’t go away.”

His mouth tightened in a thin line. “I know.”

Harper sighed. “I just wish there was a way to forget this ever happened.”

“No.” Danni interjected. Her eyes blazed like a living inferno, sending random bursts of lava as warning. “Forgetting is not the solution. It never was, and never will be. It’s a way of running away that only adds harm. Because if you forget, you don’t learn. And if you don’t learn, you repeat the mistakes. We can never forget, Harper. This happened, and we need to learn from it. There is no other way.”

For a moment, they were all silent. Harper turned toward the lake, the sparkling waters now seeming like a cackling laugh. She closed her eyes before giving a silent nod. “You’re right.”

Tom met Danni’s eyes, but didn’t say anything. He stepped past the two girls and walked to where Parker and Imogen were taking care of the picnic. Harper watched him, her heart aching at the sight. “Do you think we’ll ever completely get past this?”

“No, we won’t,” Danni answered instantly. 

Before she could elaborate, Imogen’s voice called their names. “Come! The picnic’s ready!”

It wasn’t really a picnic, as Harper found out. A stack of plastic plates were piled on the checkered cloth, Imogen’s pancake box beside them. The empty picnic box was now on the side, waiting patiently for the group to finish.

“We really should have brought more food,” Imogen commented. She frowned at the picnic box as she took another pancake. “I would have brought more food, but life has been hectic lately.”

“Oh, really?” Harper teased.

Imogen beamed. “Yeah! I applied to the colleges I want, and got accepted to the one I want the most! Now I’ll be able to truly help people.”

“What are you thinking of learning?” Parker asked curiously.

“Finance. That way I can help charities earn money, so they could give to people who really need it.”

“So like what you did with your parents’ money?” Danni asked.

The happiness on Imogen’s face disappeared, leaving only a weak smile behind. “Yeah.”

Danni frowned, but didn’t say a word.

Before things could get worse, Tom spoke. “I’ll soon finish college. It’s strange but exciting at the same time. I’m happy to finally get it over with.”

“Congratulations, Tom!”

He grinned. “Thanks, Harper.”

“Honestly, though, I don't know what I’ll do now. I have to plan my future now.” Her eyes met Parker’s and they shared a hidden smile, one full of hope, happiness and love. Parker took her hand and gently rubbed soothing circles on her palm, his touch as kind as his soul.

“I’m just happy Harper is back,” Parker uttered. “Life feels like one long day without her. Don’t get me wrong: I love my job, but it feels a bit repetitive.”

Danni shrugged. “Same here.” Once she thought about it, she added: “Except the Harper part, of course.”

The following moments consisted of fun and laughter, but also calm and silence. It was the perfect blend of comfort, like a riveting drink meant to heal the pain and help to gather strength for the way ahead. Harper lost herself in those moments: laying with her head on Parker’s lap; sharing jokes with her friends; feeling for once like a normal girl without any worries.

But when it started to grow darker and darker, Tom, Imogen and Dannie. They gathered the picnic materials before leaving. Parker and Harper stayed behind, their bodies now lying side by side. They watched the sky slowly shift, until suddenly the sun was setting, casting the world in a warm and comforting light.

“Parker,” Harper uttered.

He turned to her with a questioning gaze. “What?”

Harper ran a warm finger over the bridge of his nose, his cheek and then his lips. Her eyes sparkled with colors more brilliant than anything else could ever hold. Parker watched as their shade changed from deep blue to ocean green to majestic purple, almost as if she was tied to the sun itself.

Harper smiled. “I love you.”

Parker pulled her closer, so now they were almost touching. “I love you, too, Harper. You have no idea how much.”

She chuckled. “Maybe.”

Harper closed her eyes as Parker now ran his finger over her face. Her breathing slowed and her smile widened. She buried her head in Parker’s shirt and breathed in his comforting scent. It hardly changed throughout the years. He still smelled like a perfect mix of cologne, sweat and salty sea. Like water.

She smiled. “Parker?”

“Yeah?”

“What do you want to do now?”

He stiffened slightly. “I don’t know. Do you want to stay here?”

She thought about it: about Elliot, about her grandfather, and about her history here. Did she want to stay near her family or run away from the threatening lake?

Eventually, Harper nodded. “Yes.”

Parker looked at her incredulously, like a little boy who just got the perfect present. “Really?”

She grinned. “I think I can learn to love the lake.”

How could she not, when Parker was like the side of the lake she never knew? The comforting smells, the purity and the calm he always gave her?

He pulled her closer, and lay his chin on her head. “You don’t know how happy you made me just now.”

“I feel the same.”

At some point they drifted off to sleep, lulled by the chirping crickets, the silence of the night and the beauty of the lake.

[septembercfawkes]

Story Structure Explained: Pinch Points, Midpoints, Plot Points, and Middles (Warrior Phase)

Some writers find the middle of a story very difficult to write. They know the beginning. They know the end. But they don't know what comes in between. After this article, you should have the information you need to finish filling in that middle! And filling it in, in interesting ways.

This post focuses on the second part of the middle, aka, the "active" or "warrior" phase of the story, and will take you from the midpoint up to the climax.

For the beginning part of story structure--the prologue, hooks, setup, and "orphan" phase--visit this page.

For the first part of the middle, between the inciting incident and the midpoint, or the "reactive" or "wanderer" phase, visit this page.

Midpoint

At the midpoint, new information enters the story that changes the context. It moves the protagonist from reaction to action. He stops being a wanderer and turns into a warrior, trying to fight back and attack, usually with a clearer goal or a more refined strategy. In other words, he is now more empowered than before.

Midpoints can be mind-blowing. Or they can be subtle. In the film Interstellar, the midpoint also serves as a twist. The context shifts and the audience and protagonists realize that there never ever really was a plan to save the humans on Earth. It was all a ruse to provide people hope. Once Cooper learns this, he changes into warrior mode, determined to do whatever it takes to return to Earth and/or save the people there.

Other midpoints aren't as drastic. It might be the protagonist sitting down to eat and suddenly having a profound realization that changes the perspective of everything she's been reacting to.

In Spider-verse

The midpoint in Spider-verse happens at the very end of the scene where Miles and Peter B. Parker steal the computer from Alchemax, and it goes into the very beginning of the next scene, the bus ride with Gwen Stacy.

Prior to this, even if Miles and Peter have a plan, they've largely been responding. And the only reason they need to go to Alchemax in the first place is because Miles himself broke the override key.

However, by the end of this scene, a few things have changed that steer us into the next phase:

1. Miles learns how to unstick intentionally 2. And how to use his web, intentionally 3. By this point, he's learned how to listen to his spider senses. 4. Peter and Miles begin working together as a team

In other words, things they were reacting to are starting to get under control. Sure, Miles still doesn't have control over all his powers, and maybe that's a variation, but it works because he has control over the iconic, main Spider-man powers.

On the bus ride afterward, Gwen Stacy reveals she knows where they can go to make another override key, promising they'll make sure the new one doesn't break, and thus giving Peter and Miles a clear plan and a clearer path to defeating the antagonist.

Warrior State (and Character Arc)

From the midpoint to the climax, the protagonist is in a stronger proactive or "warrior" state. Armed with what they've learned as a wanderer (which may include having mentors, friends, and helpers), the protagonist is ready to make more proactive efforts or actual attacks on the antagonistic force.  According to Larry Brooks, they may literally fight back, hatch a plan, enlist assistance, demonstrate courage, or show initiative.

They may not always be successful (after all, the story isn't over), but they are brave and intentional. And not only will they be fighting the antagonistic force, but their inner demons as well (which relates to character arc and theme).

In Spider-verse

Now having learned how to stick and unstick, web sling, and listen to his spider senses, Miles is more equipped to carry out (the original) Peter Parker's plan to destroy the collider. He's accumulated a mentor and a friend (and some of the wanderer phase bleeds out just a bit, because he's about to accumulate a few more) to help him on his way--and they are now working together. They are ready and willing to address the antagonistic problem, more directly. And Miles in particular is going to be the one to save the other spider people and send them home (at least that's the plan and attempt at this point.)

Just as much, they are going to be confronting their inner demons too, which in this story, relates to quitting.

Miles, crumbling under everyone else's expectations of him, is going to want to quit progressing. ("I don't know if I can do it. I'm tired of letting everyone down.")

Peter B. Parker, haunted by his failure as a husband and fear of being a father, is going to have to confront that, and he'll have second thoughts about returning to his home dimension. ("You needed me, and I wasn't there. If all I'd given you was the . . . bread that you deserve. We could fill this whole room with bread.")

Gwen Stacy, stuck with having to work with five other people she relates to (not to mention a live version of her dead best friend), is going to be unsure about making friends with them. (Miles: "If you ever open up a slot, maybe we could be friends.")

Worth noting is how these arcs change at the midpoint. By the midpoint, Miles is now planning not to fail. He's trying to reach his potential by succeeding at something new, and he does succeed. (And he's not going to stand by and watch Spider-man die again.) Peter, who fears and is annoyed with kids in the first half of the middle, at the midpoint says, "I'm proud of you Miles! . . . Do I want kids?" And Gwen Stacy, who has isolated herself from friendship, considers maybe making friends.

Pinch Point 2

We have attack mode. We have skills. And friends. And we have a proactive plan.

Great! Just in time for things to get worse! Like the other pinch point, the second pinch point is the antagonistic force applying (painful) pressure on the protagonist. Because guess what? Now that the hero is stronger and better, we need to show again that the antagonistic force is still a formidable foe--even more of a formidable foe.

Stakes and costs will rise.

Conflicts will broaden and deepen.

Let's see this in action.

In Spider-verse

Pinch point two begins when Miles discovers that his uncle is actually the Prowler. Bam! That conflict just deepened (became more personal). And guess what? It broadens too! Because as Miles runs back to Aunt May's house, it turns out he was followed, which means now we have a big fight on our hands.

Pinch point two is bigger than pinch point one. Instead of having 2 - 3 villains to deal with, you'll notice we now have 4 - 5. Likewise, we have more heroes. And Prowler is trying to kill Miles.

At the end of the second pinch point, Uncle Aaron dies. That's a big personal cost to Miles.

Despite being armed as a warrior, this is not going to be an easy win.

Plot Point 2

Remember at the start of this series when I complained how a lot of terms in the industry are ambiguous? Like plot point one/the inciting incident? Well, the term plot point two can be a bit ambiguous too. But whatever you call it, make sure you understand the concept.

Plot point two (my hybrid version 😅) is made up of two parts: The all-is-lost lull and the last-piece-to-the-puzzle moment.

Most people I've found say plot point two is the second part. Others say it's the first part. Whichever it is, in most successful stories, these two things usually happen in some way, and they again pivot or propel the story in its final direction.

In some stories, they may seem to happen within the climax portion. In others, they occur just before. It all depends on the finer points of the story's structure and how you want to slice and dice and define it.

Part 1: "All is lost"/"Dark night of the soul"/"Darkest hour"

Whatever you call it, before the (typically) last piece of realization/information/context enters the story that allows the hero to win, there is a painful lull where everything feels lost and hopeless.

A mentor may die.

A big failure may take place.

The antagonistic force pulls out something unforeseen and seemingly unconquerable.

Friends and colleagues turn on one another.

Or any other number of devastating things.

It can be internal and personal. Or external and broad.

Not all stories have this moment, but I'd argue that it exists in most successful stories in some way, to some degree.

Part 2: "The last piece to the puzzle"

The last bit of information, realization, or context shift happens or fits into place that allows the hero to defeat the antagonistic force. It pivots the story to the "final chase." Often, it relates to the protagonist finally fully overcoming her inner demons (and therefore manifests the thematic statement by completing the character arc).

It is the moment where the hero moves from being a proactive warrior to becoming a martyr.

Like the orphan state, the martyr state may be more literal or more figurative. But it means the heroine is ready and willing to sacrifice herself. She might be literally willing to sacrifice her life. Or, it might be that she is willing to sacrifice a characteristic or quality of herself or lifestyle.

This is why it often relates to character arc.

Because the inner demon that the protagonist has been struggling with is overcome and "sacrificed" in order to save the "world." The old version of the protagonist is "sacrificed" to overcome the antagonist.

That's my opinion anyway.

So the dad that is working too much may now be willing to quit his job.

Hamilton is now willing to "throw away his shot" (literally and figuratively).

Or perhaps it is more literal.

Harry is willing to die in order to defeat Voldemort.

Whatever it is, after plot point two, the hero is more than a warrior, he's a martyr.

In Spider-verse

After the death of Prowler, everyone realizes that Miles isn't capable of playing his part in defeating the antagonistic forces, precisely because of his inner demon: He can't always get up after getting knocked down (thematic statement). As much as they would like to rely on him, they can't trust that he'll be dependable to save them and all of Brooklyn. Even Peter Parker ultimately deals the blow by "tying" Miles up so he can't be involved.

It's the worst of the worst. Miles has failed in the worst way.

To top it off, the fact that he can't meet their expectations and be who he needs to be means that one of the other characters must face death, because in carrying out the plan, they'll be stuck in this dimension and die in the process (escalating stakes and costs).

Miles asks when he'll know he'll be ready. Peter explains that you won't. It's a leap of faith (a secondary theme).

To make the lull even more lully, Miles's dad comes, and we're reminded that they have drifted even further apart since the beginning of the film. However, his dad explains a few key things. While Miles has been told (and has stated himself) throughout the movie that he "doesn't have a choice," his dad reveals that he believes Miles will be amazing at whatever he pursues (releasing the pressure of his dad's expectations (a secondary theme)), and whatever that is, is his choice (another secondary theme).

At this critical point, we see themes coalescing. For this story, the secondary themes are the final puzzle piece. Miles doesn't need to fear that he won't meet others' expectations; it's his choice what to do and become; and that choice is put into action by a leap of faith.

Empowered with these thematic statements, he's ready to be Spider-man, aka, the martyr. He immediately venom strikes his hold, turns invisible, and gets his own Spider-man suit. He has let go of his old self and inner demons and has become a true hero, willing to do whatever it takes to save others.

All of these changes and thematic statements will be tested, proven, and validated in the climax and denouement, which I'll cover next time in our final installment.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

10: Stay Alive

Miles has been Spider-Man (in-universe) for less than 5 years. And he’s stayed alive. That’s cute, even though him staying alive owed a lot to Molecule Man.

Ultimate Peter Parker only ‘died’ (and he didn’t even die really) because he sacrificed his life. It wasn’t like he made a mistake, he actively chose to give up his life.

Meanwhile 616 Peter Parker managed to stay alive for like 10 years before his first death in Secret Wars which was due to a literal God so...is Miles remaining alive that impressive? Is it even something to put him over Peter?

Using the argument that Miles doesn’t die whilst fighting Ultimate Goblin instead of dying is again fucking ridiculous because Peter battled and survived Ultimate Goblin multiple times before his ‘death’ in Death of Spider-Man. In that instance it was again an act of sacrifice more than anything and he was carrying a major injury from saving Captain America and taking a bullet for him or something IIRC.

So it’s a false equivalency even if you ignore the fact that the Oz drug both Peter and Miles have make them effectively immortal.

Him surviving Secret Wars isn’t that impressive either. So he manages to stow away and avoid death. How...heroic? Not to mention PETER also avoids the final incursion on his own lifeboat.

Yes Molecule Man saves Miles and brings back his mother, but he literally saves everyone too. He just happens to shunt Miles into Earth 616 and resurrect his mother. That’s not something Miles can do that Peter can’t because it was based upon Miles having a random burger on his person. Had Peter had that same difference. Uncle Ben would probably be back if Peter had a burger.

It’s not that Miles has the magic power to bring back dead people via his actions he just got lucky.

Also doesn’t him never having his loved ones remain dead kind of make him a Marty Stu?

 9) Alleged immortality

Again...Marty Stu.

But for the record Ultimate Peter, whom this video apparently wants to conflate with but also switch out for 616 Peter when convenient and not treat as a separate character. Also has that power and it’s not even alleged. Also gotta love CBR using a picture of 616 Norman Osborn who looks nothing like Ult Norman when discussing the Goblin killing Peter. Then following that up with Raimi Norman who like 616 Norman is definitely not a Hulk Goblin.

 8) Regenerate

 Miles is more durable huh?

 So...when exactly did Miles survive being crushed beneath machinery weighing a locomotive...under water?

 When did Miles survive being buried alive for 2 weeks?

 When the fuck did Miles survive a beating from Juggernaut, or Morlun, or the Hulk, or Collossus empowered by both the Juggernaut’s powers AND 1/5 of the Phoenix Force?

 More durable my ass.

 The evidence for this is also laughable.

 First of all it’s based upon being able to burst from his restraints and fight back after being drugged which...Peter has definitely done at least once or twice.

 Second of all it literally comes from a comic based upon the USM CARTOON not even the canon Miles. It’s literally cherry picking anything from any version of Miles.

 His durability is also being measured by being able to survive several thousand volts of electricity and like...does the author of this video not know who the fuck Electro is?

 Being tortured by doom and then saving his Dad is also not something Peter couldn’t do. Peter wet through worse in the MP trilogy alone.

 Same thing about being lit on fire. Shit one of those crappy #700.ONE issues showed Peter doing that!

 7) Spider Sense

So Miles spider sense allows him to predict the future when he is dreaming.

Er...Peter’s spider sense has done that in the JMS run...

Not to mention this point is ‘Miles can do this and Peter can’t because it MIGHT develop into something more later maybe’

His Spider sense intensifying isn’t that unique either. Peter’s does that too, again especially in the JMS run.

Miles’ Spider sense going off faster than Peter’s also could just be artistic licence stanning him in his own title.

 6) Speak Spanish

 This is the first legitimate point in this article.

 Too bad it ruins it by saying Peter had difficulty connection to certain residents because of language barriers.

 First of all traditionally Peter as Spider-Man is a pariah.

Second of all how many times honestly has he been shown to be disconnected due to a language barrier within NYC. MOST PEOPLE speak English like him.

Being bilingual also doesn’t give a character ‘more depth’. It’s literally just a skill. By this logic Peter being able to drive gives him more depth than Miles.

Yeah it acknowledges his community which is nice but that’s not greater or lesser depth that’s just a unique feature. And one that he technically doesn’t even need to speak Spanish to acknowledge. I barely speak Greek but I still acknowledge my culture.

 5) Learns Quickly

Yes Miles definitely learns quickly, unlike Peter Parker who

-          didn’t have a mentor or video footage upon which to learn how to be a superhero from but still owned Doc Ock early in his career.

-          Figured out a cure to the Lizard within hours of seeing his notes for the first time

-          Invented webbing in his room.

What? Miles gets the win because he was able to learn how to fight from Peter’s video footage when he was 2 years younger?

The age gap is mitigated when you literally have basically an instruction video to follow whilst Peter despite beig slightly older still figured it out entirely on his own.

Miles studying Norman’s fighting style and using that to defeat him is also not that big of a deal. Peter can and kind of has done that. he just REMEMBERS his enemies fighting styles instead of going over video footage of them. If anything THAT makes him FASTER than Miles in the learning department.

 4) Maintain a Relationship With Gwen Stacy

 Oh....fuck....you....

 First of all Miles and Peter’s relationships with Gwen are different given that Miles’ is mostly platonic and a colleague and Peter’s was romantic oh and you know THEY WERE DIFFERENT GWEN STACY’S

 Yeah Miles being able to keep a relationship with a Gwen Stacy who doesn’t die is much fucking easier when he and Gwen have the benefit of hindsight from 616 Gwen’s death AND Spider-Gwen has fucking super powers.

 If MILES was dating Gwen whilst lying to her about being Spider-Man and she had no powers and they didn’t know she could die like that how well would he have actually been able to keep her around?

 Not much better if at all.

 Bringin up Gwen’s clone is also fucking asinine. It wasn’t that Peter was UNABLE to maintain a relationship with Gwen’s clone so much as he didn’t want to. Or rather he was unable to keep a relationship with her clone because he’d moved on and was in love with Mary Jane which isn’t a matter of him lacking an ability Miles has at all.

 Also Gwen doesn’t help Miles cope with his mother’s death. At all. Because they didn’t spend any quality time together until AFTER his mother returned to life. FFS CBR!

 Saying Miles was able to save Gwen when Peter wasn’t is again bullshit because the circumstances were totally different. In particular Peter saved Gwen MULTIPLE times in the past before she eventually died due to a small but significant mistake.

 3) Be a team player/more sociable

 I will grant this article that TEENAGE Peter was less of a team player and less sociable, but that changed over time.

 The article shoots itself though by

a)      Implying Peter was an Avenger as  a teen

b)      Saying he was never truly a part of the Avengers team when he was on it. Er....yes he was. It was badly written but he was truly a member no doubt. His self doubts also rarely if ever came into play. Over all he lacked much personality whilst on the avengers

 the article is also two-faced because it ignores how Ultimate Peter WAS a team player and WAS able to have friends and accept help as a teenager.

 2) Communicate with his best friend.

 Well Ultimate and 616 Peter’s best friend is Mary jane and he communicates with her just fine...especially with his body language If yA Know wat I mEaN ;D

  Everything the article says aboiut Ganke pretty much applies to Ultimate and 616 MJ in regards to Peter.

  More than anything this point is where you REALLY see the video cherrypicking between the Ultimate Peter or 616 Peter. Literally in the last point it was quoting Captain America saying Spider-Man wasn’t ready to join the team from the Ultimate universe yet when it comes time to analyse his friendships in high school suddenly we switch to 616.

 1)      Turn invisible

Not only should this have been one of two things on this entire list but this list is so bad it literally IGNORED the one other ability Miles literally has that Peter lacks, the Venom blast.

 How do you fuck up that badly?

 0)      The ability to be falsely praised and put over undeservedly

Now THAT is an ability Miles truly has that Peter doesn’t.

[teatalksbooks]

Murder is Bad Manners/Most Unladylike* by Robin Stevens

*The publishers are being cute again and changing the titles for oversea audiences...

Tea Recommendation: English Breakfast, with milk and sugar - this is a middle grade boarding school murder mystery! If you would like to read this and you are not a) 13 or b) in need of the anti-shock properties of milk and sugar-laced tea, forego it, and just make yourself a cup of nice plain black tea. It is also immensely important to acquire cookies for your bunbreak. Hazel likes chocolate and gingernut best, but I think I’d go with shortbread because, again, I am not thirteen. 

I apologize in advance for the length - if you’re not interested in a lot of meta, skip to the end!

The year is 1934. Hazel, from Hong Kong, age thirteen and one year into her boarding school experience in England, loves learning, sweets, and her best friend, Daisy. Together, they form the Detective Society. It’s been all fun and games so far, with cases such as The Case of Lavinia’s Missing Tie, but then Hazel stumbles across the body of a teacher in the gym - and before she can show anyone else, the body disappears. Everyone thinks that Miss Bell has simply run away, but Hazel and Daisy know better, and are determined to solve the mystery and find the killer.

First off, I would like to thank @mirrormasque for recommending these books as the perfect antidote to the exhausting and stressful end of the school year. They are - sweet, well-written, charming, yet still complex enough to be interesting to readers above the intended age group. If you’re a fan of murder mysteries but struggle to find ones in the sweet spot between bleak and cloying, these ones land there pretty much perfectly.

What makes me love this book - and the ones that follow - so much is the way Stevens utilizes voice. Hazel, as a narrator, is perfect - she’s clever, observant, empathetic. But she’s also thirteen. What she sees, she often doesn’t understand, or doesn’t fully interpret, in ways that readers her age or younger will identify with. 

Because of this, Stevens can be inclusive in natural, non-didactic ways. This book is replete with representation - Hazel is Chinese, there are lesbian and bisexual teachers, and there are students in lesbian relationships. In later books, and in this book to some extent, there are students with learning disabilities and students struggling with mental illness. While such inclusivity is a goal for many authors, it’s not easy to do smoothly, and that Stevens achieves it in a completely natural and unobtrusive fashion is impressive. That she manages to work in period-appropriate prejudices and simultaneously make it clear that being from another country or being interested in the same sex is also completely unexceptionable is astonishing.

As an example, when discussing the arrival of The One (the dashing new art teacher), Hazel writes in her case book, “You see, before this semester, the whole school knew that Miss Bell (our science teacher) and Miss Parker (our math teacher) had a secret. They lived together in Miss Parker’s little apartment in town, which had a spare room in it. The spare room was the secret. I did not understand when Daisy first told me about the spare room; now that we are in the eighth grade, though, of course I see exactly what it must mean.” Hazel still doesn’t truly understand, though she pretends she does, in the way of teenagers everywhere. 

However, what her discussion of the labyrinthine relationships between the teachers reveals is this: as far as the school is concerned, this secret is no more astonishing than The One’s subsequent clandestine relationships with Miss Bell and Miss Hopkins, the athletics instructor. Any two teachers in a relationship is a bit of juicy gossip. Yet the adult world and the student world are inherently distinct; everything that happens in the adult world is exotic, but other standards apply amongst the students. There’s a clear distinction made between girls who have “pashes” on each other and girls who are genuinely in love - the first is accepted as part of normal boarding school behavior, and the second is a secret that can damage the reputations of the students involved - and both Hazel and Daisy are explicitly confused about what the difference is. Their lack of understanding and experience with regard to sexuality allow them to identify the hypocrisies inherent in the standards presented to them in a way that feels very natural and observational, rather than didactic.

This does lead to Hazel coming off as pretty immature, however. Hazel reads as a couple of years younger than her canonical age, and I’m on the fence about it. It’s necessary for Hazel and Daisy to be a little older than the target demographic because they are literally solving murders. However, Hazel’s voice is appropriate for the 10-12 age range, which is where the book is aimed. From an audience perspective, it makes sense, but as an older reader, it can be jarring. Her immaturity can be rationalized away - she’s a very sheltered kid, and it was a different time - but since the book also spends a certain amount of time working with the uneasy intersection between the adult and child worlds, it can seem a little counterproductive. However, it may also be key to Daisy and Hazel’s characterization, and to the game the book is based around.

It’s clear from the beginning that initially, the Detective Society is imaginative play. The year before, they had the Pacifism Society and the Spiritualism Society, and this year, since Daisy’s gotten into detective fiction, they’re playing at being detectives. Imaginative play is a huge part of childhood, but it’s also something that starts phasing out around middle school (and certainly high school) as adult life starts both intruding more and becoming more desirable. However, unlike the previous societies, the Detective Society is secret - only Daisy and Hazel are engaged in this game. It’s suggested that it’s because they’re best friends and they don’t want anyone else in on it, but there’s an implication, as well, that the other girls might not take it seriously. When, later in the series, some of the other girls do participate, it becomes clear that it wasn’t much of a secret - and that they weren’t especially interested in it. Their later participation is contingent upon the initial success of the Detective Society, and the later necessity (there’s another murder, of course) of participation (here, it recontextualizes the murder as a game for the other girls, and so makes it safe, as well as controlled).

That Daisy and Hazel are so invested in it is a sign of their immaturity; that Daisy is, as always, the instigator, is a key insight into their dynamics at the beginning of the series. The inequality of their relationship is obvious from the first - although there are only two members of the Detective Society, Daisy has declared herself the president - and Hazel the secretary. There’s no reason at all that Hazel couldn’t be co-president or vice-president of this two-person team, but Daisy does not even admit this as a possibility. Initially, I felt like this should rankle more with Hazel, but it becomes evident fairly quickly that the need for control is integral to Daisy’s character and Hazel is friend enough to let her have it unless the stakes are high enough to warrant protest.

That does not mean that their friendship is unproblematic. From the beginning, Hazel refers to Daisy as “perfect.” Not the perfect English schoolgirl - she’s careful to point out that though Daisy pretends to be the game-for-everything girl that everyone at school wants to be and, failing that, wants to be friends with, she is not, in fact, what she pretends to be. She is wearing a mask to fit in - but whether she’s wearing the mask or not, she still puts herself in a place of power over Hazel. 

Storybook-schoolgirl Daisy is cream-and-roses pretty, old money, funny (but not too funny), always up for a prank and a midnight feast, and infinitely popular. In contrast, Hazel is the new girl, and even worse, she’s foreign. Real Daisy is sharply intelligent, impatient, secretive, and controlling. She calls herself Holmes and Hazel, Watson - and the comparison, as far as she’s concerned, is very apt. Take Sherlock Holmes and transform him into a British schoolgirl in the 1930s, and you get Daisy Wells. Why, at least in this first book, is unclear - we simply see that this is how Daisy is, and that Hazel accepts her for who she is, even when it means letting Daisy diminish her.

Hazel, as chronicler, is on the surface much like canonical Watson. Loyal, empathetic, and cautious, she’s as intelligent as Daisy, but less assertive. Part of that is because she knows that her acceptance at the school has been contingent upon her friendship with Daisy. Hazel is very aware that she is different from the other girls, and while she doesn’t dwell on it, it does inform many of her behaviors. She learns to don a mask from Daisy, to pretend that she is not as intelligent as she is, not as different. For her, being Daisy’s friend, instead of Daisy being hers, is a form of protective camouflage. 

However clear-eyed Hazel is about Daisy, and about their relationship, Daisy’s consistent diminishment of her combines with her own uncertainty about her appearance and leaves Hazel feeling inferior to Daisy much of the time. Hazel was raised in an extraordinarily Anglophilic environment, and has grown up seeing girls like Daisy as the ideal of what a girl should be. Being Daisy’s friend puts her in constant comparison with Daisy - she is quiet, she is not athletic, she is not popular, and most of all, she is not thin and blonde and blue-eyed. While she is confident in her own intellectual capacity and perfectly happy contradicting Daisy when she feels Daisy has, once again, jumped to a conclusion, she is not confident in her body. I blame her dad for that, personally - he’s very sure that Hazel is the smartest, most logical, most morally upright child around, but oh boy does he love him some British everything. It’ll be interesting to see what Stevens does with Hazel’s self-image as she grows up more - in the last book I read, it’s starting to become more of a problem as romantic interests start popping up, and I imagine that in the other three books that are out that are NOT AVAILABLE IN THE US WTF, we get to see even more of that.

The relationship between the two girls is the most interesting part of the book for me, but the other characters are well-drawn, and the plot is solid. So far, I’ve always been able to identify the murderer before the girls do, but in my book, that’s a good thing - I’m thirty, and it means that Stevens is acting in good faith and putting in all the clues. A proper mystery has to be solvable by the reader - if the author holds back the one clue you need to solve the case, it’s cheating! The framing of the story - that it’s a case book - is cute, if not at all convincing, and the ways in which it is a case book will be appealing to young readers, though I find the interruption of the suspect lists to be a little annoying, since we’ve usually just discussed why we’re ruling a suspect out right before we get the list... explaining why we’ve ruled the suspect out.

In that the book is deeply respectful of its readers’ intelligence, it reminds me of Diana Wynne Jones, which makes sense, because Stevens mentions her as one of her favorite authors. According to Jones, writing for young readers is much harder than writing for adults, because kids are so deeply immersed in texts that they pick up on everything, whereas adults need things said two or three times to get it. That ethos is evident in this book is well - it does not condescend to its reader, and because of that, it is enjoyable for all readers, not just for the target demographic.

The last thing I want to mention, since I'm not going to do this for all the books in the series, is that the same thoughtfulness and subtlety about prejudices inherent in the time period (and today...) is also present with regard to historical events and movements in later books, especially the rise of the Nazi party and the remnants of imperialism. It’s pretty great!

tl;dr - a cute murder mystery with complex character relationships, a solvable but satisfyingly complex plot, and diverse characters! Highly recommend. Trigger warnings for murder, blood, unhealthy friendship, but honestly, it’s all appropriate for middle-grade readers.

Amazon - free to read with Kindle Unlimited!

Goodreads

[printedpeterparker]

Learning Curve

Masterlist

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Type: One Shot

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: Smut, lots of Fluff, Swearing

Summary: The one where Peter and Y/N lose their virginities to each other and it ain’t always sunshine and rainbows but Y/N tries to be prepared.

Note: Although this is not my first time writing, it is my first Peter Parker and I’m very excited. I really wanted to write smut where Peter and Y/N lost their virginities but in a realistic manner where it’s a little awkward. Hope ya love! Please comment if you want to be placed on any type of tag! Thanks! B xx

At the time, it all felt right. You followed everything that Cosmopolitan had taught you such as:

“If you lose your virginity to someone you love, it’ll be greater than everyone else.”

“Wait until you’re ready.”

“You’re more likely to orgasm if you’re more familiar with your partner – physically and emotionally.”

And with Peter, you felt ready; you felt more than ready (as ready as a virgin could be). You wanted him to be your first and you wanted to be his first. It had been almost seven months with him and there wasn’t a day you didn’t feel special or loved. You wanted this more than Peter probably. So, when Peter told you about Aunt May being gone for the weekend, you proposed your plan at lunch.

“So, you mean like Friday because Aunt May is gone Friday, so I guess you mean tomorrow because you and I are…uh,” Peter rambled with a whisper, “…wow, okay, do I need to get anything like–”

You quickly shushed him, “All I need you to do is get us dinner; I’ll handle everything else, okay?” you comforted.

Peter nodded before Ned and MJ sat down from across you both, but it didn’t take long for MJ to do a quick scan of you both.

“You both seem excited and sweaty. Don’t,” she sighed.

The next day, you felt butterflies in your stomach the entire today at school. It made it a lot worse when you saw Peter in class, at your locker, or at lunch. Every once in awhile, you would catch his glace and smirk, making you smile and blush to yourself; you could cut the tension with a knife. By the end of the day, you felt excited but a little nervous.

“So, I’ll come over around eight for dinner tonight assuming you might want to do some paroling tonight before I come over,” you smiled, walking with Peter on the way to your apartment. “Don’t hurt yourself too much tonight, babe. I need you in one piece. Do what you gotta do, but–”

“I know, I know. I’ll keep everything to a minimum,” Peter promised, intertwining his hand with yours. “Y/N, are you sure that you don’t need anything else tonight? I know you planned everything to a T, but–”

“I do have everything planned. I just need you to bring your cute self and some dinner,” you told him as you approached your building.

“Why do I have the feeling that you don’t fully trust me?”

“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t want you to be my first, Peter. I wouldn’t want to be with any other man tonight,”  you reminded him, wrapping your arms around his neck while lightly running your fingers through his baby hairs. “Now, Thor is a different story because he’s a god but–”

“Alright, I’ll just see you tonight,” Peter said, shaking his head in disappointment.

“No, no, no, I was just kidding, baby,” you chuckled, stopping him from leaving your stoop. “I wouldn’t want to be with any other man, god or otherwise tonight, Peter, okay?” He lightly chuckled. “So, I’ll see you tonight at your place?” You kissed him under his jaw line, right below his ear.

He quickly nodded, “Y-yep, I’ll definitely be there. 8pm on the dot. Don’t you worry, Y/N. I’m on it. And by it, I mean dinner, not you. B-but I guess I’m also on you, but not like in a pervy way and I guess you could be on me, but that’s entirely your choice. I–”

You quickly placed your lips on his, but you still couldn’t help but laugh at his nervousness. “Peter Parker, I’ll see you tonight.”

You had been ready to go since six because you continued to feel the nerves build up inside of you. You already told your parents that you were spending the night at a friend’s. Although they liked Peter, your parents were still strict with you. You couldn’t even have Peter in your room, and you had two little brothers always running around. It didn’t make the living room any better. Aunt May was a little more relaxed, but it still was an open door policy when you were there. And since neither of you had a car, most of your relationship firsts were rushed or interrupted at your homes.

Your first date was cut short because your dad had to pick you up early from the movies. Your first kiss was on your stoop, but it was quickly interrupted by your mom when she came home from work. You had never seen Peter so red until the first time you made out. Thanks to May’s open door policy and quiet steps, you both were so startled that Peter almost fell off the bed. It was probably clear that his hands were up your shirt. And the first time you fell asleep together, your dad woke you both up and sent Peter home. It was still the best nap you had ever taken.

Tonight was going to be different, but you still had these thought roaming around in your mind that you tried to sweep under the rug as you approached Peter’s door. You took a deep breath before knocking on his door.

The door quickly opened, revealing a well dressed Peter in a navy blue button down and khakis. “Hi,” Peter smiled. “Come in. Let me take your jacket, Y/N.”

“Thank you, what a gentleman,” you gushed, removing your olive green jacket. You were in a white, off the shoulder blouse with jeans. Although he had seen you today, multiple times, and that outfit before, he was still amazed by the way you looked.

“I was going to cook for you, but on my way home, I realized that I am a terrible cook and I stopped at Little Ollies and got you chicken scampi,” he told you, leading you to the kitchen. “He actually owed me, well Spiderman, one so we got the works.”

“What did you do for him?”

Your conversation went on and on from topic to topic. First it was how Olly owed Peter one for stopping an armed robbery.  Then it moved on how you were thinking about changing your major before applying to colleges next fall which prompted Peter to mention not going to college before you reminded him that he cannot be Spiderman forever. So, you ended up suggesting criminology or engineering. Peter didn’t promise anything.

Throughout dinner, you had forgotten about why you were there in the first place. You felt more relaxed until you remembered. You both were done eating, but you didn’t know how to say, “Okay, let’s go have sex now!” and you were sure Peter didn’t either.

“Uh, do you need help cleaning up?” you asked, closing your to-go container.

“We can throw them away, but I actually have a surprise for you,” he smiled, grabbing your hand and leading you to his room. “I know this might seem a little weird, but I did it for you nevertheless.”

You peeked inside his room and simply laughed, “I don’t think I have ever seen your room this clean before. I’m impressed.”

“Yeah, I mean it’s no big deal, but I also dusted if you wanna check that out too,” he smirked.

You swiped your finger across the word of his bed and collected no dust on your finger. “Wow, I must say, Parker, you really know how to make a girl hot,” you giggled, placing your fingers on one of the buttons on his shirt and undoing it. “But are you gonna leave your door open like May tells you to do or…” you muttered off as you undid another button.

“Right…” he muttered before quickly shutting the door. “It’s just you and me, darling,” he whispered, his forehead close to yours.

“Good,” you mumbled, placing your lips on his. It was slow at first until you began working all the buttons.

Peter moved his lips to your neck as he gripped your waist tightly. It took no time for the shirt to fall off his shoulders onto the floor after you undid the last button. You ran your hands over his firm chest, focusing on every crevice of it. You didn’t realize that the window was open until you felt the goosebumps rise from Peter’s shoulders.

“Can I remove your top, babe?” Peter asked, leading to the bed.

“I didn’t ask; maybe that makes you a more polite person,” you smirked as you sat in the middle of the bed. You had seen Peter shirtless countless times, but it was the way he looked at you combined with his chest rising and falling.

“That may or may not be the case,” he chuckled before pulling off your shirt.

His lips meet yours for a second time. You felt Peter’s hand travel to back in search of the clasp to your bra. His head turned in the kiss and you knew it was out of pure confusion.

“Try the front, babe,” you giggled, moving his hands to the front of your bra.

Peter became very red before claiming, “Yeah, I knew that,” before he undid the simple clasp. You threw your own bra behind yourself, but Peter just looked memorized. He placed both breast in his hand, slightly squeezing them. You moaned a bit before he attached his lips to your nipple causing you to moan louder than before.

“Oh, my god, Peter,” you moaned out.

He moved his hands to your jeans and undoing the button. “Are you okay still?” Peter asked as he shimmied off your pants.

“Yeah, it’s good, you’re good,” you smiled.

Peter removed your pants along with your underwear. He ran two fingers against your slit, slightly touching your cilt. You unconsciously bucked your hips before Peter realized what he had found. He placed his focus on your cilt with one hand while the other ran up and down your leg.

“Peter, please, that feels so good,” you moaned. Although you felt a lot of pleasure from this, didn’t feel as if you were getting anywhere. Maybe you weren’t being patient enough, but it had been awhile now. “Peter, hold on, hold on.”

“What? Are you uncomfortable? Do you want me to stop, Y/N?” Peter frantically asked.

It really wasn’t Peter, but if you told him you felt as if you weren’t going anywhere, he would automatically blame himself. “No, I just wanna make you feel good, baby.” You sat up and undid his jeans and peeling them off, only leaving Peter in his boxers.

You could feel the bulge from his pants on your hand when you grazed over it; you were sure this wasn’t your first time feeling it. You never ask him about it, but this feeling wasn’t unfamiliar when you made out in the past.

“Oh, okay, Y/N,” Peter sighed out as you massaged his cock through his boxers. You sat him down while you sank to your knees in front of him before Peter had the chance to stop you. “Wow, Y/N, as good as that feels I don’t think we’re both natïve to the fact that if you keep doing that, I’m gonna cum much sooner than I think you would like.”

“Are you saying you don’t want this?”

“No, I just know that I’m getting off regardless, but we have to take of you,” Peter reminded you.

This took you back a bit, and it only made you want Peter more. He stood you back up before kissing your lips and giving your breast some attention. You placed your fingers in the hem of his boxers before pulling them down. He slightly groaned against your lips once the friction was removed.

“Do you think you’re ready, Y/N?” Peter asked between kisses and breathes.

You quickly nodded, “Yes, please, Peter. I want you so bad.” He chuckled as he guided you to the bed, being very careful not to crush you. “Wait, check your second nightstand drawer,” you told him.

He muttered a little to himself as he checked the drawer and chuckled, “Did you put these condoms in here?”

“A week ago, I put condoms and some others things in there and I just waited,” you said with a mischievous smile.

“Now, I’m the one impressed,” he said before ripping the foil off and rolling the condom on. He gave you another kiss on your forehead. “Are you ready?” You slowly nodded. “Okay, just let me know.”

He placed his cock on silt before attempting to thrust in you. You slightly winced, but Peter still couldn’t enter.

“What’s wrong?” you asked, looking up.

“I…uh…I cannot get in, I guess,” Peter told you.

“That’s not an issue; it’s normal. I also put lube in your drawer,” you told him again.

“Geez,” he sighed, “you were really prepared.”

You nodded in agreeance. He pulled out the lube and placed some on the condom before trying again. It hurt less but it was still very painful initially.

“Shit, shit, shit Peter,” you grunt into his shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s okay; I’m here and I love you so much,” he whispered to you, kissing down your neck to ease the pain. Although you were in pain at the moment, Peter, himself, had never felt so much pleasure.

“Just start slow,” you told him. He nodded and kissed your shoulder before slowly starting to move. You accidentally tighten around him causing Peter to let out a throaty groan.

“Shit, Y/N, if you keep doing that, we won’t be here for much longer,” he warned you.

“Sorry but it does feel a lot better now,” you moaned, running your fingers through his soft curls. “Oh, Peter, please touch me.” Your plead did not go unanswered as he tried holding you down while rubbing your cilt with his right thumb. “Shit, too much, less pressure!” you almost yelled.

“Fuck, sorry, sorry,” he grumbled, applying less pressure to your cilt.

The pleasure was building more and more with less pressure, and you knew Peter couldn’t last much longer (you were surprised he lasted this long). You ran your hands over his muscular arms. Every second now only felt like bliss.

“Baby, can I try, possibly, being on top?” you asked, running your hands on his biceps. “I just wanna try it, if that’s okay.” You couldn’t help but to blush at your own request.

“Yeah, yeah, but can we just roll over or do I have to pull out?”

“Opinion #1 sounds dangerous, so…” He nodded and pulled out with a slight groan. You sat up excited before lightly pushing Peter back on the bed. “You look a little tired, Spidey. When was the last time you worked that hard?” you chuckled as straddled his hips.

He huffed, “You wanna give it a try?”

You nodded as you tried sinking yourself ono him. There was more pressure, but not nearly as much as before. Peter’s hands immediately went to your waist. You rolled hips slowly, trying to find a pace. You felt a bit awkward, to be honest. It felt good, even better than before, but your movements felt off.

“Is this okay, Peter?” you moan, placing your hands on your chest.

He quickly nodded, “Shit, this is definitely okay.” The city lights from outside draped over your body. The only noise in the room was the soft moans from Peter and yourself and the rattling of tracks from the train outside. But, alas, you didn’t feel close--just pleasured.

“A-are you close, babe?” Peter breathy asked you.

“Peter, it’s okay, just cum,” you told him. Even though he wanted to, he was still determined to have you cum too.

“Y/N, it’s okay,” he tried to convince you.

You shook your head before kissing along his jawline and right below his ear– the sweet spot. You tightened around him once more before whispering in his ear, “Please, cum for my Peter.”

That was definitely enough to push your boyfriend over the edge. You did not expect the number of profanities that Peter allowed to spill out his mouth to do so. You both were completely out of breath but also very smiley. Peter pulled the condom off before tossing it in the wastebasket nearby.

“Why did you let me make you cum?” Peter asked you as you both looked up at the ceiling, still in disbelief about what just happened.

“Peter, I was very pleased, but I didn’t feel close at all and it’s so hard to cum during your first time. I still trying to figure out what my body likes; you’re basically on a learning curve. You didn’t do anything wrong, baby,” you told him as you laid your head on his chest. “I feel the same but I also feel different, I don’t know.”

“All I know is that you were god damn amazing,” Peter grinned.

“Thank you, Peter,” you mumbled, tracing along his chest. “I know I can be a little bit of a perfectionist and way into the numbers of things and planning, but tonight was great and I definitely don’t regret a single thing. I love you, Peter Parker.”

“I love you, Y/N Y/L/N, but I’m very hungry and we have leftovers. Let’s go,” he smiled, pulling on you to get up. It was almost eleven at night when you looked at the clock.

Peter pulled on some black sweatpants for himself and passed you a large survivor t-shirt titled, “I Survived My Trip To NYC”. You chuckled to yourself, reminding yourself to ask about it later. You slipped on your underwear before following Peter into the kitchen. You decided to finish the yet of your pasta while Peter decided to grab a full bowl of just garlic bread.

“Come here,” Peter smiled, patting his lap.

“No, you have garlic breath,” you told him, laughing a bit.

“I promise I don’t, Y/N. Sit,” he promised, pulling you down to sit on his lap. “I just really wanted some of your pasta, if you don’t mind,” he mumbled, taking your fork to steal some pasta for himself.

“Parker, stop!” you laughed before sliding the bowl to the end of the table. “See, thanks you to you, no one gets pasta,” you shrug playfully as you straddled him in the chair. “But I think there are other things I can eat that I wasn’t allowed to earlier,” you smiled before biting your lip.

“You could of have anything you wanted during dinner, Y/N, I don’t know why…” he drifted off as you placed your hands at the hem of his sweatpants. “Oh, oh I mean you don’t have to. I mean I definitely won’t stop you, but I obviously won’t make you either, y’know? At the end of the day, it’s really your choice if it’ll make you happy–”

“Shut up, you’re such a dork!” you laughed before connecting your lips on Peter’s. The kiss felt very confident as Peter deepened the kiss, completely surprising you.

You were so surprised and take back that you didn’t hear the front door unlock.

“Peter, I’m home for the night,” you heard and quickly realized it was Aunt May.

You quickly scrambled yourself off of Peter before she could fully see you, but she still did when she turned around to fully see what was going on.

“Aunt May, I-I thought you were g-gone for the week,” he stuttered.

“Yeah, during the day, but what’s going on here, Peter?” she asked, arms crossed.

“I’m sorry, but I came over to do some homework,” you began, “and then we ordered dinner, and then we accidently fell asleep,” you stammered.

“Yeah and it’s dangerous out there so I offered her to stay over and then I gave her a shirt that basically fits like a dress so…” Peter tapered off.

You knew Aunt May wasn’t buying this, but that had happened before in the past.

“Well, whatever this is, Peter, you can take the couch and I don’t want to hear another word about,” she sighed. “Y/N, you can follow me to Peter’s room.”

“Alright,” you smiled with embarrassment as you followed her to Peter’s room. You walked back into Peter’s room and sat on his bed and smiled.

Your phone buzzed on the nightstand. You turned it over just to see a text from Peter. All it read was :/ .

You chuckled and replied, “Cuddles when the coast is clear?” you sent.

The three bubbles quickly came up before he responded, “Give me 30 minutes.” He continued to type, “Maybe getting caught is the new tradition.”

You smiled to yourself before sending back, “Maybe…”

Please send requests for blurbs and one-shots here xx

[leverage-ot3]

since I can’t find my original post about songs to make leverage edits to, here’s another one

[note: some of these are ot3 centered songs, others can be applied to the team as a whole!]

Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes)

leverage? you mean a series of competence porn? of the entire crew being badass?

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen an eliot edit to this song floating around on youtube, but I still think it could be fun to have more vids focusing on the whole team to this song. idk, I just think it’d slap

Freak Show (Ingrid Michaelson)

we all know ingrid from the parachute ot3 fanvid, admit it. it has 108k views. we’ve all seen it, don’t lie.

but let’s talk about freak show and how the lyrics perfectly encapsulate the special and unique love parker, hardison and eliot share:

When you wake up and you're all alone || And the bed's too big for one || Well, you're not the only weird one || Here, let me show you where I'm from

y’all can’t convince me that the romance that these three weird criminals wouldn’t vibe with this song. they’re weird. they’re freaks. but they’re who they are, together

Must Have Done Something Right (Relient K)

We should get jerseys cause we make a good team || But yours would look better than mine, cause you're outta my league || And I know that it's so cliche to tell you that everyday || I spend with you is the new best day of my life || Everyone watching us just turns away with disgust || It's jealously, they can see that we've got it going on

If anyone can make me a better person you could || All I gotta say is I must've done something good || I came along one day and you rearranged my life || All I gotta say is I must've done something right || I must've done something right

“We agreed we'd all change. Better or worse. We'd change together.” THEY SAID THAT BITCHES

they make the world a better place, and through that, they find each other and create a love that is truly unparalleled by any other

Whatever It Takes (Imagine Dragons)

Whatever it takes || 'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins || I do whatever it takes || 'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains || Whatever it takes || Yeah, take me to the top, I'm ready for || Whatever it takes || 'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins || I do what it takes

I could literally put the whole song down but we get it. the vibe for this one is kinda self explanatory. we all know the song, it played on the radio forever. I just think it gives leverage crew vibes doing whatever it takes to make the world a better place

Flaws (Bastille)

All of your flaws and all of my flaws || They lie there hand in hand || Ones we've inherited, ones that we learned || They pass from man to man

There's a hole in my soul || I can't fill it, I can't fill it || There's a hole in my soul || Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve || And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground || Dig them up; let's finish what we've started || Dig them up, so nothing's left untouched

All of your flaws and all of my flaws, || When they have been exhumed || We'll see that we need them to be who we are || Without them we'd be doomed

leverage is all about flawed people coming together to do the right thing. their flaws make them who they are and make them excellent at what they do

I think of this as the ot3 completing each other but this could be seen as gen leverage team too!

Alone Together (Fall Out Boy)

I don't know where you're going, || But do you got room for one more troubled soul || I don't know where I'm going, || But I don't think I'm coming home || And I said, I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead || This is the road to ruin and we're starting at the end

another ot3 song, surprise surprise. but come on, it hits. I can see a good fanvid to this song

Rather Be (Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne)

now, I have sense8 to blame for this. if any of you have seen the show to the end, you know that the finale special ended with a thank you letter to the fans with this song backed by bts footage of the cast as they filmed all over the world. someone could make an edit for leverage of bts and gag reel footage as a leverage tribute to the cast OR the fans, but either way, it’s cute and heartfelt

(I totally didn’t cry watching the fans tribute for sense8. I’m also not totally a lying liar who lies.) (I totally cry every time I watch it.)

I’d Love To Change The World (Jetta, Matstubs remix)

Everywhere is freaks and hairies || Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity || Tax the rich, feed the poor || Till there are no rich no more?

I'd love to change the world || But I don't know what to do || So I'll leave it up to you

another sense8 song? from me? who would have guessed?

nothing much else to say except these funky queers change the world

edit: if anyone wants to make a fanvid using any of these, PLEASE TAG ME. I live for content

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT PONZI

That would be a lot of protocols for doing things. Suits, for example, didn't have numbers. So for now this is something startups are deciding individually. Raising an angel round, the less it would take to get new ones to move there. That wasn't the intention of the legislators who wrote it. It's exactly the same terms.1 Look down at your hands. No one actually proposed implementing numbers as lists in practice. With Web-based software will be written on this model. The key to that mystery is to ask, how different from what?

I remember going through this realization myself. They want there to be a cost, and send them looking for it.2 You'd expect them to be cold and calculating, or at least businesslike, but often they're not.3 There's an initial phase of negotiation about the big questions.4 And yet you can see it the way you do releases.5 Do not start a startup.6 And yet by the next time you need to go running, but once I do, I enjoy it. Which means it's a disaster to let the world think the founders thought of everything. With sufficiently lightweight standardized equity terms and some changes in investors' and lawyers' expectations about equity rounds you might be able to reproduce this at most colleges if you make a conscious effort not to do a really good deal.

At least, that's how we'd describe it in present-day programming languages had been available in 1960, would anyone have wanted to use them? Type that has good startup ideas is not to try to explain why the exit polls so wrong?7 I tell my own kids? He just wanted to add a few more? The lesson: don't pick cofounders who will flake. And you know when you're working on language design, I think you'd be surprised at how far you could get. If you're controlling them, they're not even fun. You can start by asking a comparatively lowly VC for a small amount of money, the underlying cause is usually lack of focus. I hardly ever go back and read stuff I write down in notebooks. You may not need to use convertible notes to do it. When you have the resources, it's more elegant to think of startup ideas, particularly their own.8 You do it sitting at a desk.

I've been on both sides, and I know it's the wrong thing that they can express or perhaps even realize what they're looking for. Maybe if I think more about the message your investors might send if they don't, you're hosed. NPR values said one ought to vote for Kerry. But a lot were surprised to find this also applies within startups. After the first 10 or so we learned to treat deals as background processes that we should ignore till they terminated. In fact, programming didn't get done by well-dressed and authoritative-sounding people to make presentations to customers. Twitter was a referral from Evan Williams himself. This essay is derived from a talk at BBN Labs. What made it not a Ponzi scheme, what seemed to be the last to realize it.

Immigration seem to work very well on printer terminals. It's also the best way to prepare yourself for a startup. If we improve your outcome by 10%, you're net ahead.9 How lucky that someone so powerful is so benevolent. They can't tell how smart they were, and most people reading this will be the only kind that work everywhere. And when you can do about this conundrum, so the best plan would be to try it.10 This is not only inevitable, but desirable. And you can start today.11 And while it's truly wonderful having kids, there are sometimes multiple answers.12 That's the characteristic failure mode of VCs. When you switch to this new world as they did the world of investors is not about the founders or the product, has been the lesson for me: be careful what you measure.

There are two ways to deal with investors is probably the second most important thing is to get the right answers. Roughly, it's something done with contempt for the audience. This extra cost buys you flexibility. It doesn't make a very good speech anymore.13 What made it not a Ponzi scheme, what seemed to be several reasons: you'd learn more, get better jobs, make more money. This is more pronounced among the very top funds; the lamer ones still want to fund MBAs. Research imposes constraining caste restrictions.

I wish we'd listened. Unconsciously, everyone expects a startup to write mainframe software would be a pretty cheap experiment, as civil expenditures go.14 Many have just graduated; a few are still in school. They're just postponing it.15 Most adults looking at art worry that if they don't invest more. There's no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution.16 So even a small increase in the rate at which you have to fix it in an ugly way, or even introduce more bugs.

Notes

Some of the reasons angels like to fight back themselves. Eric Raymond says the best hackers work on a hard technical problem.

A round, you need. Trevor Blackwell, who probably knows more about this trick, and making money on convertible notes often have valuation caps, a player who persists in trying such things will do worse in the 1980s was enabled by a sense of things economists usually think about where that money comes from. As I was a small company that has little relation to other knowledge.

I startups. That's the difference between us and the hundreds of thousands of small and then being unable to raise the next year or two, because neither of the best in the mid twentieth century. Actually he's no better or worse than the rich have better opportunities for education.

The dialog on Beavis and Butthead was composed largely of these groups, which amounts to the margin for error.

Parker, op. Currently, when we created pets. What Is an Asset Price Bubble? Apparently there's only one.

The angels had convertible debt at a famous university who is highly regarded by his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of how you spent your summers. And it's just as on Reddit, for the same work, like a winner. And the reason.

A significant component of piracy is simply what they give with one hand and the low countries, where it does, the only alternative would be great for VCs if the selection process looked for different reasons. There is one of the first meeting. A company will be lots of opportunities to sell things to the decline in families watching TV together afterward. To get a low valuation to see the Valley has over New York is where all the difference directly.

No one in a not-too-demanding environment, and Windows, respectively. Indeed, that's not art because it aggregates data from so many still make you register to try to make a lot of people are like sheep, but those don't scale is to talk about humans being meant or designed to live in a place where few succeed is hardly free.

We didn't try because they can't legitimately ask you a couple years. One-click ordering, however unnatural it seems unlikely at the network level, because they suit investors' interests. Seneca Ep. As far as I explain later.

The other reason it's easy to imagine how an investor would sell it to profitability before your initial funding runs out. They did turn out to be low. Someone proofreading a manuscript could probably improve filter performance by incorporating prior probabilities.

Thanks to Daniel Sobral for pointing this out. Stone, op. This is not one of those most vocal on the cover story of creation in the Neolithic period.

I have no idea what most people realize, because they need to. Incidentally, tax rates were highest: 14. One advantage startups have some kind of business you should be protected against such tricks, you'd see a clear upward trend. Particularly since economic inequality.

Governments may mean well when they were buying a phenomenon, or much energy would be worth about 30 billion. This prospect will make grad students' mouths water, but I'm not making any predictions about the Thanksgiving turkey.

On the next round, though it be in the time it takes to get market price if they don't yet get what they're building takes so long to send a million spams. In a series A termsheet with a product of number of big corporations. There is a major cause of accidents.

I'm compressing the story a bit much to hope for, believe it or not.

16%. This is the most recent version of this article are translated into Common Lisp for, but not the distinction between matter and form if Aristotle hadn't written it? But wide-area bandwidth increased more than that total abstinence is the extent we see incumbents suppressing competitors via regulations or patent suits, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniation as juicy except literally.

[plsdonttellmay]

|3!7(|-|

A look into the Iron Kids group chat between Harley, Peter, and Riri. 

Sequel to Bold of You

Translation for Harley’s nonsense at the bottom

Spider-Son: @Son Prime Mr. Stark totally just admitted that Riri was his favorite.

Son Prime: wut???? thts blsht >:((((

Spider-Son changed their name to Pun-Son

Pun-Son: IKR?

Dad’s Favorite: HA! I fucking told you

Son Prime: fuk off riri

Pun-Son: Ya, this is a private conversation.

Dad's Favorite: Y’all are the dumbasses having a “private conversation” in the group chat

Pun-Son: Shit

Really?

I thought @ing him would make it private.

Oops

Son Prime: pete i lov n rspct u but ur a fukn dumbass

Dad's Favorite: This is why dad loves me most

Pun-Son: ;’((((

Whatever.

Anyway

So,,,,

The rest of the team knows you guys exist now.

Son Prime: shiiiiiiiiiiiit

Dad's Favorite: What happened?

Is everyone okay?

Are you okay?

Is Tony okay?

Pun-Son: Ya, everyone's fine, dw.

Son Prime: thn wut hpnd????

Pun-Son: IDK???

Like

Mr. Stark just said I did a good job

And then fucking Captain America was like

“Hey, everybody it's Peter Parker!”

Dad's Favorite: Damn. So now they all know?

Son Prime: thats ruf buddy

Pun-Son: Nah, it's fine.

I panicked and then said that Mr. Stark had lots of kids

And that Peter and Spider-Man were totally different kids.

Son Prime: wow. cnt blev u managed 2 lie 2 captain america

i figd he cld smell lies

or that u would spontaneously combust if u tried

tht was specific 2 u btw

Dad's Favorite: Has anyone ever told you you're a dick?

Son Prime: not 2 my face but thts what i assume theyre saying wen they dub chek tht mr tony isnt my real dad.

Dad's Favorite: Not a bad assumption ngl

Pun-Son: Also, point of order, didn't lie

I just,,,,,,,

Implied.

Heavily.

To the point of lying.

But didn't cross that line.

Son Prime: wow pete ur a saint

Dad's Favorite: They bought it? Just like that?

Pun-Son: TBH they were way more interested in the group chat.

Like, they legit forgot they were trying to figure out who Spider-Man is.  

I told Cap your usernames.

Dad's Favorite: Well I'm glad the team knows the truth now

Son Prime: wut? abt mr tony runin a daycare?

Dad's Favorite: No about me being his favorite

Dad's Favorite: Hey guys??? College fucking blows. I'm gonna murder whoever came up with it

Son Prime: sup riri?

Dad's Favorite: Literally just told you. College blows

The Live-in: *break dances gently*

What's wrong, Riri?

Son Prime: atm u if i had 2 ges

Dad's Favorite: Mostly that you're trying to comfort me via meme.

SHIT

Beat me to it

Son Prime: :p

The Live-in: You guys are the worst.

Dad's Favorite: You're the one who decided to be the middle child

The Live-in: WTF, no, I didn't??

Also, Harley is literally less than 4 months older than me.

Son Prime: god pete ur practically an infant cmpared to me

The Live-in: -_______-

Can we go back to talking about Riri’s problems now?

Please?

For the love of science.

Dad's Favorite: Nah I'm good actually. Roasting you is way more interesting

The Live-in: THE W O R S T

Son Prime: srsly tho. u ok riri?

Dad's Favorite: Yeah I'm fine. Just got assigned a group project

The Live-in: Was it at least a class you have a friend in?

Dad's Favorite: Peter literally everyone in that class is 7+ years older than me. If I had friends do you think I'd talk to you two?

The Live-in: Yes

Because you love us.

You've said so.

Son Prime: hes got a point

Dad's Favorite: Lies and slander

The Live-in: Seriously, though.

Are you good?

Dad's Favorite: Yeah. It's not like they're actively mean to me or anything. It just sucks not having friends

Son Prime: tell us if they start bn dicks. pete n i will kick thr asses. we r still ur big bros

Dad's Favorite: Yeah I know <3

God I can’t wait until you two are finally here and I actually have someone to talk to for once.

The Live-in: Yeah!!!!

We should get an apartment.

And a dog.

A secret dog.

Dad’s Favorite: Why is the dog secret???

The Live-in: Because I can’t have a dog at my apartment.

And your mom is allergic to dogs.

And Harley’s little sister is scared of dogs.

So it would have to live with dad over the summer.

And he won’t let us get a dog if he knows ahead of time.

That’s why a secret dog.

Dad’s Favorite: Hell yes secret dog.

The Live-in: I vote pitbull.

Son Prime: sum1 convinse me not 2 murder ths lady

Peter PARKOUR: ?????????

???????

?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?

Harley, WTF you can't just say that and then not elaborate.

Dad's Favorite: Siding with Peter here. Who are you trying to murder Keener?

Peter PARKOUR: Dude.

Seriously??

Are you literally ignoring us right now?

HARLEY, YOU HAVE YOUR READ RECEIPTS ON!

Son Prime: Read: 3:23

Dad's Favorite: Harley I swear to god you're going in the nearest lake first time we meet

Peter PARKOUR: Wait.

Hold on a damn minute.

Are you telling me?

The two of you haven't actually met??

Like IRL???

Dad's Favorite: Yeah. I mean we Skype and text plenty but we've never been in the same room

Peter PARKOUR: That's wild??

I mean

I know the three of us haven't been together

But I figured you had met without me.

Son Prime: wait. wen did u 2 meet?

Dad's Favorite: Figures that's what gets his attention instead of murder

Peter PARKOUR: When I went to tour MIT?

Have you and Mr. Stark not gone yet?

Son Prime: nope

Peter PARKOUR: Why not??

Son Prime: i dunno. keep puttin it off

Dad's Favorite: I smell a lie. I don't know what it is but you better watch your back Harley. I will find out

Son Prime: ok baskin robin

Peter PARKOUR: Can we get back to the murder?

I feel like we glossed over that.

Son Prime: no

Dad's Favorite: No point. Either they decided to leave Harley alone

Peter PARKOUR: Or??

Dad's Favorite: Or they're dead

Son Prime: & ull nvr kno

Peter PARKOUR: You two need to chill.

And meet.

Seriously, we've been talking for a year

And you two haven't even laid eyes on each other.

H O W?

Dad's Favorite: Let's start with the fact that we live like 20 hours away from each other?

Peter PARKOUR: I'm not even going to grace that with an answer.

Actually

I am

Mr. Stark has like a fleet of planes??

You could literally make a day trip out of it.

Son Prime: hes actually got a point…

Peter PARKOUR: I almost always have a point.

You two just ignore me.

Because you're assholes.

Dad's Favorite: That's fair

Dad's Favorite: @Son Prime 

I saw this and thought of you

Peter In The Middle: WHAT

THE

FUCK

IS THAT THING EVEN REAL??

Dad's Favorite: Lol yeah. Saw it at the thrift store

Son Prime: What I want to know is why the FUCK it reminded you of me.

Peter In The Middle: Oh damn.

He broke out the capitals and full words.

He's serious.

Son Prime: Actually it's just a new phone Mr. Tony sent me. Can't figure out how to turn off the damn autocorrect

Dad's Favorite: Why is it that you 2 are geniuses but can't figure out how phones work half the time?

Son Prime: Excuse you this is 1 of those prototype StarkPhones that literally nobody knows how to use yet.

Peter in the Middle: Are you really never gonna let the group chat thing die?

Dad's Favorite: No

Son Prime: Absolutely not.

Peter in the Middle: It was one (1) time you assholes.

Son Prime: I feel like we’re forgetting about the horror show that somehow reminded Riri of me.

Peter in the Middle: I was.

Trying to, at least.

Thanks for the reminder.

Dad’s Favorite: I’m not forgetting. Ever

Son Prime: Explain???

Dad’s Favorite: Should I tho?

Peter in the Middle: Depends.

Do you want me to show Mr. Stark The Video?

Dad’s Favorite: You wouldn’t

Peter in the Middle: Try me, bitch.

Son Prime: Video????

Dad’s Favorite: Don’t worry about it

Peter in the Middle: I’ll send it to you later.

Dad’s Favorite: I hate you

Peter in the Middle: :D

Cow mug.

Now.

Dad’s Favorite: It says Tennessee on it.

Peter in the Middle: Wait.

That’s it?

No inside joke????

Dad’s Favorite: Nope

Peter in the Middle: What the fuck?

Now I feel dumb.

Dad’s Favorite: :))))))

Son Prime: |-|4 ! |=!6(_)|23|) !7 0(_)7

Dad's Favorite: What the fuck does that even say??

Peter in the Middle: Is that???

Even approaching English??

Son Prime: |\|0 !7$ |_337

Dad's Favorite: Stop

Son Prime: |\/|4|{3 |\/|3

Dad's Favorite has kicked Son Prime out of the Iron Kids group

Peter in the Middle: Harley is texting me

Saying to tell you to unblock him.

He has something important to say.

Dad's Favorite has added Son Prime to the Iron Kids group

Son Prime:

|3!7(|-|

Dad's Favorite has kicked Son Prime out of the Iron Kids group

Peter in the Middle: Fair and valid.

Dad's Favorite has kicked Peter in the Middle out of the Iron Kids group

Dad's Favorite: Finally I am free

Son Prime: guess who got his xseptns letter!!!!!!!!

Dad’s Favorite: Holy shit!!!! Harley that’s fucking amazing!!!!!!

Potor Purkur: Yessssssss!!!!

Dude, that’s amazing!!!!!!!!!!

Also????

How did you get yours early???

MIT letters aren’t supposed to go out for another week??

Did Mr. Stark pull strings?

BUT ALSO CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Son Prime: na tony dnt do nythng

Potor Purkur: ???????????

Son Prime: xseptns snt 4 mit

Dad’s Favorite: Was it a backup or something?

Son Prime: or smthn

Dad’s Favorite: I swear this is worse than pulling teeth. Spill.

Son Prime: i nvr actuly applied 4 mit

Dad’s Favorite: So that’s the real reason you never came to visit. You weren’t just putting it off.

Potor Purkur: Did you ever even plan on going to MIT?

Son Prime: hell no. ive had ths place n mind since middle school

Potor Purkur: Well?

What is it?

Come on, dude.

Son Prime: u hv 2 prms not 2 tell mr tony

Dad’s Favorite: Sure.

Son Prime: com on @Potor Purkur u gotta prms

Potor Purkur: I promise.

Well, I promise to try.

I’m kind bad at secrets, actually.

But so long as he doesn’t ask

I’m fine.

I promise.

Son Prime: how do u evn hv a scret id @ ths point

Potor Purkur: Honestly??

No idea.

All of Queens should know by now TBH

But

That has literally nothing to do with your college.

Dad’s Favorite: Yeah cmon Harls. Spill.

Son Prime: I’m totally serious right now. Don’t tell Mr. Tony. I want  to tell him myself.

Potor Purkur: Promise.

Dad’s Favorite: On my life.

Son Prime: ok hr it goz.

im goin to caltech

guys?

its bn lik 5 min. wts up

Potor Purkur: Holy sHIT

Are you serious??

Dad’s Favorite: You men caltech as in the school in Pasadena California? MIT’s biggest rival since ever? The school Tony loudly talks about how much he hates? THAT caltech?

Son Prime: …

…

…

yes

Potor Purkur: Holy shit.

*_*_*_*_*

Spider-Son: Hey, guys?

I think dad might have accidentally,,,,,,,,

Built a murder bot.

Again.

Dad's Favorite: W H A T

Son Prime: u ok? r u fiting it???

Spider-Son: No.

No, you see,,,,

The murder bot,,,,,,,

Is actually,,,,,,,,,,,

Karen.

Dad's Favorite: …

Son Prime: ..............

Dad's Favorite: Explain

Spider-Son: Well.

You know how my suit has an Instant Kill Mode?

And Karen keeps trying to make me use it?

Dad's Favorite: Yeah??

Son Prime: i dnt thnk tht counts as “accidentally"

jst irresponsible

Spider-Son: That's what I thought too.

But we're in the jet.

Headed for the mission.

And I joke that I should use IKM.

And Mr. Stark freaks out.

Dad's Favorite: Why???

Spider-Son: Here's the thing.

Mr. Stark.

Didn't make an Instant Kill Mode.

Karen did that.

By herself.

Dad's Favorite: Holy shit

Son Prime: dude wut the FUCK

Spider-Son: I K N O W

Son Prime: uve befriended her at least. hopfully she remains loyal during the robo revolution.

Spider-Son: Karen says hi BTW.

Dad's Favorite: Fantastic. Maybe she'll spare us as well

Spider-Son: Karen says, and I quote, “I don't know about that.”

Son Prime: /sweats/

Dad's Favorite: I'm not even sure how I feel about this tbh

On the one hand: possibly evil robot

On the other: if she's joking this is some seriously cool coding

Son Prime: i have xactly 0 mixed feelings. murder bot bad

Spider-Son: Mr. Stark offered to change her code when we got back.

Son Prime: thk god

Spider-Son: I said no.

Son Prime: W H Y

Spider-Son: Because I love Karen just the way she is.

And she loves me.

Dad's Favorite: Okay, I've decided. That is a seriously cool ai

Son Prime: a srsly cool ai thts gonna kill us all

Spider-Son: Karen promises to spare you.

If you buy me a milkshake.

Son Prime: i cnt bleve my terminator trauma is being taken advantage of by a murder bot.

Spider-Son: :P

Dad's Favorite: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Spider-Son: Oh my God

You actually sent me money for a milkshake.

Nice.

I'm getting strawberry.

Son Prime: fuk u

Son Prime: @Dad's Favorite wut r u doin n june

Dad's Favorite: Probably nothing? Idk I might take an online class. Mostly just hanging out at home

Son Prime: so u dnt hav ny plans 4 vacay or nythng

Dad's Favorite: Not that I know of??

Son Prime: wuts the prob tht u could get ur mom to let you go smwher 4 the month

Dad's Favorite: Depends??

What's with all the leading questions?

Son Prime: bcuz i just told my mom tht mr tony nvitd the 3 of us 2 stay at the compound in june

Dad's Favorite: He did?? Why didn't he say anything??

Son Prime: bcuz he dnt ask. im the 1 plan plannin it

Dad's Favorite: Harley what the actual fuck. Have you even asked Tony?

Son Prime: no thts peters job

Dad's Favorite: Wait Peter's in on it too? How long have you two been planning this?

Son Prime: bout 20 mins. & pete dsnt no yet

Dad's Favorite: Again wtf. Why don't you do it?

Son Prime: hv u SEEN peters puppy dog eyes

speakin of

@The Live-in nswer ur phone

@The Live-in

@The Live-in

@The Live-in

Dad's Favorite: @The Live-in

@The Live-in

@The Live-in

Son Prime: @The Live-in

@The Live-in

@The Live-in

@The Live-in

The Live-in: Jesus Christ.

You two are awful.

I was in chemistry.

Don't you two ever go to class?

Son Prime: y bother

Dad's Favorite: I do but I know how to text in class

The Live-in: Like I said.

Awful.

Son Prime: wtevr. cn u do it or no?

The Live-in: What exactly am I even doing?

Dad's Favorite: Pretty sure you're convincing dad to let the 3 of us stay at the compound over June.

The Live-in: Oh.

Yeah.

That shouldn't be hard.

Like at all.

He's about to pick me up from school.

I'll ask in just a sec.

Son Prime: c? told u it wld b ez

The Live-in: HE SAID YES

Well, he said yes so long as we can get our moms/aunt to agree.

BUT STILL

Dad's Favorite: Holy shit!!

The Live-in: I KNOW!!

Son Prime: wer gonna get n2 so much bullshit.

The Live-in: B]

Dad's Favorite: B]

Son Prime: B]

Spider-Son: Guys, I may not come back from this mission alive.

Tell Ned I’ve always had a crush on him

Wait.

Shit.

That was just supposed to sound dumb and dramatic.

Not like something to actually worry about.

I’ll be fine.

Mr. Stark won’t let me go on the super dangerous missions.

Son Prime: i swr 2 fuk im gonna kill u parker

Dad’s Favorite: Yeah maybe that wasn’t exactly the best way to start that off.

Also if Ned doesn’t already know you’re madly in love with him then there’s no hope for either of you.

Spider-Son: #rude

One day I’ll get Ned to fall in love with me.

Then you’ll be sorry.

Dad’s Favorite: Oh honey

Son Prime: stop w/ petes crush. i wnna no y he thnks hes gonna die

Spider-Son: H I M

Dad’s Favorite: Christ what’s Rogers done now?

Spider-Son: He’s just doing That Thing again.

The one where he calls me kid and son.

I h a t e it, and IDK how to make him stop

Dad's Favorite: /Hamilton voice/ I'm not your son

Son Prime: congrats on not str8 up murdering him yet

Spider-Son: God he’s just so??

I don't know what, but I hate it.

I swear to God if he benches me again this mission I'm going to strangle him with his star-spangled tights.

Dad's Favorite: You gonna beat him upside the head until he sees…

Stars?

Spider-Son: I HATE YOU!!

I WAS TRYING TO BE MAD

AND NOW I'M GIGGLING!

NOBODY TAKES ME SERIOUS WHEN I GIGGLE!!

Son Prime: nbdy takes u srsly evr

Spider-Son: Fuck off, Keener.

Son Prime: ;P

Dad's Favorite: Hey Peter quick question tho?

Spider-Son: Quick answer.

Dad's Favorite: If you hate Rogers why don't you just not talk to him? Why do you act all polite to his face? Just tell him to fuck off and leave you alone?

Spider-Son: I wish it was that easy.

I mean

It could be

But it isn't.

I have to be polite because we're on the same team.

We're supposed to work together.

I started off kinda rude to him, but Mr. Stark fussed at me.

Apparently what we're doing is bigger than petty squabbles.

Son Prime: uhhh ths is def mr thn a petty squabble tho? mr t wtf

Dad's Favorite: What are you even saying to me right now?? Is dad not mad?

Spider-Son: NoPE.

He just goes along with whatever He says.

Right now Mr. Stark is flying the jet.

Even though it has autopilot.

So I'm left alone back here with Him.

The only other person we brought was Ant-Man and he's asleep so it's just the two of us making conversation.

I hate it.

I'm dying.

Also

I think he doesn't like me looking at my phone so much.

DEAL WITH IT OLD MAN

Son Prime: u rly do snd lik ur bout 2 die. rip n pieces pete

Dad's Favorite: I'm SO glad Tony hasn't cleared me for missions yet.

Spider-Son: I wish you were.

I need someone to hang out with on these.

Speaking of which.

I'm gonna go ask dad if he'll try to teach me to fly again.

Last time…

Did Not Go Well

Also kinda wanna make Him sick again.

It was funny last time.

If he says no the at least I'll have some time alone.

Anyway I'm out.

Talk to you after we kicked ass!

Dad's Favorite: Take a better selfie this time. Lighting was garbage in the last one.

Son Prime: brng me a robos arm

If you didn't need Harley's nonsense translated, I'm impressed. If you did, here you go. He's speaking leet for anyone interested.

|-|4 ! |=!6(_)|23|) !7 0(_)7 ~ Ha I figured it out

|\|0 !7$ |_337 ~ No it's leet

|\/|4|{3 |\/|3 ~ Make me

|3!7(|-| ~ Bitch

[sugarwaterradio]

Why you should delete your social media accounts

Jaron Lanier is considered one of the fathers of virtual reality and a veteran of Silicon Valley and he says social media and its algorithms are harming your health in his book ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now Lanier contends that sites like Facebook and Twitter are dopamine farms that are reprogramming how you think and feel he says they're also causing political instability and are changing the global economy for the worse while joining me now from Seattle Washington is computer scientist inventor of VR is even a classical composer Jaron Lanier good to have you on the program Jaron tell me why we should unplug tell me why we should delete our social media accounts ah well there are ten reasons okay one reason is that scientific studies have shown that even though it's hard to delete your accounts when you do you get happier you get more productive you have more time but that might be the least of the reasons when a lot of people do their society becomes better it becomes more peaceful people believe in facts more instead of silly conspiracy theories what's amazing is that just this one technology seems to have made every layer of life worse but since we're all addicted to it it's hard to see that right and so full disclosure one of the great perks of my job is that I can read a book and then come and talk to my team and say hey I read this book it's fantastic we should get the author on that's exactly what happened with your book I read it about a month ago while I was reading it it was actually I posted my last tweet about a month ago and I said guys this could be my last because the book is so compelling your arguments were so strong right so I haven't tweeted in a month I haven't gone on to Facebook I haven't gone into my Instagram I've left them idle I haven't deleted them yet but I found it really compelling now I might be a convert I don't know I'm sort of in this in-between phase I will agree that I've read more in the past month I've read loads of books and I've found for me personally I found my concentration back I've been able to concentrate a bit better right be that as it may there's something a bit more nefarious that you talk about in in the book you talk about the fact that it's social media is manufacturing you know in a terrible way it's it's making us behave differently and it's it's designing bad behavior or unnatural behavior now help me understand that and explain that properly sure well in this in the business models for companies like Facebook and Twitter but also I have to say for Google the only product that they make money from essentially is the ability to persuade and change the behaviors of their users so you're not the customer of these things the customer is the advertiser off to the side and the advertiser believes that they're able to gain some kind of modification and what you do what you think and it's sneaky it you don't understand all that's being done to you very strange behavior modification algorithms are being applied and all this data that's being taken is what feeds those algorithms now the problem with this is that if you have a society where anytime two people do something together the only way that's financed is because of a third person who wants to manipulate them you end up with an entire society optimized for manipulation for sneakiness for trickiness and so what you do is you open it up to all kinds of bad actors to come in and create divisions ruin elections make politics insane and I have to say we've seen so many examples of that that it's crazy to deny it anymore if you ask how did an organization like Isis become so powerful so quickly well it's because the social media technology is designed to amplify exactly the worst people if you ask why is violence returning to areas that have been gradually becoming more peaceful in rural India and Southeast Asia and parts of Africa once again we see the same phenomenon social media arrives and then the violence follows and they're just they're too many examples to give to I think it's so so the thing is though that people are genuinely the addiction is technically very similar to gambling addicts right when somebody becomes addicted to gambling they don't want to believe it they think they're in control but they're not and so since everybody's addicted to this stuff when you talk to them about it it's very hard for them to understand because they're addicted it's essentially a form of being hypnotized but by hypnotist who's working for somebody else right it's a very strange situation okay so we're addicted that's fine we get these dopamine hits from people liking our pouty selfies oh you know our posts of our kids or whatever even if it's if it's well-intentioned we're addicted to our own echo chamber and people validating our thoughts and all of that but on the other side of this and this is a crucial point whether it's Facebook or Twitter or Google and so on are they deliberately nefariously trying to modify our behavior and make us into bad addicted people or is it just a byproduct of good intentions gone bad this is a fascinating question okay so the first president of Facebook somebody named Sean Parker now says that they understood they were intentionally doing something bad but the thing is I knew him at the time when Facebook was starting and he was the president of it and I really believe they didn't understand it and it was good intentions gone bad and so this leaves me with a mystery is he remembering himself as being more of an evil James Bond villain kind of a person because it's glamorous I I really it's very hard to figure that out I'm very confident that Jack Dorsey and the other people at Twitter did not realize they were doing something bad and they were caught by surprise and now are having trouble figure out what to do and I think they're sincere I also feel that's true about the Google people who I knew and I actually sold a company to them and they were just starting I believe that they did not understand the depth of the mistake they were making I'm not sure if anybody fully did but in the case of Facebook maybe they did at least some of them say they did a lot of people just say listen I used Twitter for for work and for keeping up with the news I use Facebook and Instagram for friends and family and being sociable what's the big deal aren't you a bit of an extremist jaren or even to me like what's wrong with you why taking us so seriously bye-bye unplugging either by leaving it idle or by by leaving all together so what just reduce the amount of time you spend on these things what's wrong with you don't you have willpower don't they have a point well the thing is that people aren't aware of most of what happens your immediate experience of using these tools might be quite positive and indeed from my perspective this ability to connect with friends and all that sort of thing is just intrinsic to the Internet that's what that's all good and that's all authentic the main thing that goes on that I'm concerned about is something that you are by design not aware of which is the modification of your own behavior because it happens very sneakily and very subtly using the techniques of what's called behaviorism a branch of science that studies how to change the behavior of organisms like people and so you know what this is analogous to for me is in the past Society has faced problems where there was mass addiction and even though everybody was addicted even though it was hard we somehow were able to face up to it and a very obvious example to me a cigarette smoking which is greatly reduced even though everybody used to smoke all the time everywhere another example is alcohol we've had a campaign in most of the world to prevent people at least from driving drunk because it used to kill so many people and actually that's worked you know that turned out to be intelligent and was accepted so I think in the same way when we start to have a wider realization of how troublesome these things are not only will some people leave but when those people leave they'll create the space in the Society for conversation and I'm fully confident that these services will improve eventually and they'll improve enough that I won't feel you need to delete them anymore but right now it really is important for the health of society for people to become aware of the degradation that's going on for those who would say well if there are a billion people using a social media network and say a hundred million of us stop posting that much and another hundred million delete you still have 800 million people who are completely addicted and feeding the beast and what impact is staying off social media going to actually have are they really gonna listen and Google and Twitter and Facebook even if only a minority of people become skeptics of the social media technologies and delete their accounts that minority is enough to have the conversation look here's the analogy I would make if absolutely every single person in a society is a drunk it's going to be impossible to have a conversation about the problems of alcoholism right there needs to be at least there has to be somebody who's sober in order to even start that conversation that seems to me to be simple logic so in this case there has to be to some subset some minority of people who are not addicted to these technologies and then we can have a conversation and out of that conversation will come better technologies in a more moderate and survivable form of them so I'm social media teetotal for the moment or tweet total but so would you would you allow us from the from the shows Twitter and Facebook account to share this interview look I'll tell you one thing I never tell anybody else what to do in the book I'm very clear and I repeat it many times I don't know you and for an individual it might be that keeping their social media accounts is the right idea or whatever it's not my job to judge individuals but it is your job to know yourself it is your job to experience yourself without addiction it is your job to make to make judgments so I have to leave it to ya we're gonna we're gonna share the interview jaren it's been a pleasure talking to you Read the full article

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The 411 on Content Marketing in Enterprises [New Research]

If you want to succeed, it never hurts to dream big.

Ask any entrepreneur what their goals are, and their responses likely boil down to one thing: Growing bigger. They want to make a name for their business, increase marketplace visibility, close more sales, earn more revenue, expand the teams to do the work, and secure a spot in the annals of industry success.

In other words, they want to build an enterprise. And there’s a good chance they’ll rely on techniques like content marketing to help them reach that goal.

Of course, content marketers who work at a company that’s achieved enterprise status understand the pursuit of growth never ends; it just plays out on a much larger and more complicated field of dreams.

Just how much does the content marketing game change at the enterprise level? That’s a question the CMI team looked to explore in detail with our latest research study Enterprise Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America sponsored by Seismic.

Let’s take a look at some of the big issues, trends, and opportunities our findings have revealed:

Big pains in the enterprise

Although those at smaller organizations might assume the enterprise grass is greener, content marketers who operate in these larger, more complex organizations know that isn’t necessarily so. Every marketing team has its challenges, but when a company has thousands of employees working across multiple brands, product lines, office locations, and functional silos, every hurdle feels like it’s amplified by 1,000.

For example, our research found that respondents commonly struggle with the following challenges:

Coordinating content marketing efforts among multiple departments and brands (74%)

Working across too many departmental silos (60%)

Integrating content technology effectively across the enterprise (50%)

Having the ability to be agile when change is needed (49%)

Maintaining message consistency (45%)

74% of enterprise marketers say coordinating efforts among departments & brands is challenging. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

Could some of these issues be a byproduct of how bigger businesses are often structured? If you look at the two most frequently cited challenges, this theory makes sense.

The bigger and more distributed an organization, the harder it is for all the business units, product groups, and other siloed teams to know the content being created and distributed, the targeted audiences, or the measurements for success. And, when it comes to strategy-driven initiatives like brand-wide storytelling, even small communication breakdowns can lead to big problems – duplicated efforts, inconsistent or conflicted messaging, wasted budget, or worse, lower marketing ROI for the business.

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Role of team structure

Enterprises may circumvent some struggles by restructuring their content operations to function as a single, centralized group – one tasked with managing content for multiple brands, product lines, or functional departments. (Robert Rose describes this model as a content center of excellence.)

Enterprises may avoid struggles by restructuring #content ops to function as a centralized group. @editorstahl Click To Tweet

Because it relies on a dedicated team to create and deliver all content solutions, this structure can increase understanding of campaign performance across the business and reduce duplicated or off-strategy efforts. Yet, according to our research, only 26% of enterprise marketers say their business relies on this structure – though 38% work under a hybrid model, which operates with both a centralized group and individual teams.

26% of enterprise marketers have a centralized #contentmarketing group working across the org. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

How a centralized model can work

No one structure is right for all enterprise teams. But NASCAR attributes the recent success of its Facebook Watch documentary, Behind the Wall: Bubba Wallace, to its decision to centralize its content team.

“This is what you can create when people come together,” says Evan Parker, NASCAR vice president of content (and CMI 2018 Content Marketer of the Year finalist). “It allows us to really figure out what our strategy should be, how to staff, how to make sure we’re nimble and can adapt to a changing marketplace. We’re 12 months into this and we can see our ability to create and build for the future is expanding with the studio we’ve built.”

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Silo-busting strategy to increase alignment

Alignment between sales and content marketing teams is another issue we examined in our enterprise research. Though these two functions are commonly managed in distinct business units – regardless of the size of the organization – the ability to share audience insights, collaborate, and inform each other’s strategies and priorities is critical for enterprises whose content goals include increasing leads, conversions, and purchases. 

Yet, according to our study, only 19% of enterprise marketers report that their content marketing and sales teams are extremely or very aligned, while 28% say there is little or no alignment between these two functions. (For this research, we defined alignment as a collaborative working relationship that results in positive business results.)

An uptick in interest in account-based marketing (ABM) might narrow that alignment gap. ABM requires strong collaboration between sales and marketing, as the technique involves focusing on a clearly defined set of target accounts identified by sales and deployment of custom-designed marketing campaigns to resonate with those accounts.

Encouragingly, a recent custom research study CMI conducted with LinkedIn found an association between ABM and better sales and marketing alignment. Furthermore, 87% of respondents in an ITSMA benchmark report say the technique drives higher ROI than any marketing they do.

There is an association b/w #ABM & better sales/marketing alignment via @cmicontent & @LinkedIn #research. Click To Tweet

And the findings from our annual survey indicate enterprise content marketers are willing to give the technique a shot: 34% of respondents said they currently use ABM, and another 21% said they planned to incorporate it prior to the end of 2018.

55% of enterprise marketers may have been using #ABM at beginning of 2019. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

How ABM can take teams beyond alignment

In CCO last year, Joe Chernov elaborated on the give-and-take required in an ABM approach. “Collaboratively, get really specific about the attributes of the companies you’re trying to sell to. Then, and only then, go about figuring out who is going to do what and when to try to get in front of these organizations.

“In the content marketing world, a lot is made of sales and marketing alignment, but in ABM, alignment isn’t enough. You almost need the two functions to be integrated because it’s very much a dance.”

That’s really what #ABM is. It’s the fusion of sales and #marketing, says @JChernov. Click To Tweet

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Increasing importance of technology

No matter how their teams are structured or what content marketing techniques they work with, enterprise marketers must generate, analyze, and apply high-quality data about their audience’s needs and interests. And these days, this simply can’t be done at scale without putting a little technological muscle behind their processes.

In addition to the survey’s organization-focused questions, our research team also looked at the use of technology among enterprise marketers, approaching the topic from several angles.

First, we looked at the types of technologies used by enterprise content marketers. Considering how critical measuring performance is to demonstrating success, it should come as no surprise that 66% of respondents use analytics tools. In addition, 83% work with social media tools, including those concerning analytics. 

Other classes of tools used by enterprise marketers include:

Email marketing software solutions (81%)

Content management systems (56%)

Workflow/project management/editorial calendaring tools (55%)

Marketing automation systems (53%)

Plenty of enterprise marketers say technology helps them better manage their content efforts, but do they get the full benefit of technology? We found their proficiency may not yet have caught up with their level of enthusiasm:

Only 24% rate their organization’s proficiency with using content marketing technology as expert or advanced.

38% consider their proficiency to be at the intermediate level.

36% are at the novice or beginner stages.

36% of enterprise marketers rate their proficiency of #contentmarketing tech as novice/beginner. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

How tech education can help

You may have noticed that, among the most frequently cited challenges at the beginning of this article, half of our survey respondents (50%) reported that integrating technology is a unique challenge faced by their type of organization. Considering how many marketers seem to be struggling to understand, incorporate, and apply content marketing technologies successfully across the enterprise, it might be wise for these businesses to invest more heavily in team-wide tech training and education opportunities.

Businesses need to invest more heavily in team-wide #tech training & education. @editorstahl #originalresearch Click To Tweet

Attending CMI’s upcoming ContentTECH Summit would be a great first step toward this goal. Geben Communication CEO Heather Whaling has also shared a few internal techniques that might help content teams to think differently about working with technology. These include:

Encouraging observation and reflection: Ask your team to monitor (and share) new tools as they emerge, including use cases, potential applications, and foreseeable risks or pitfalls.

Creating a technology sandbox: Give your team a space for hands-on experimentation to build skills and experience in-house before offering the innovative solutions to clients.

Nourishing curiosity: Hire naturally innovative people and give them the space to do just that.

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Can tech make marketers better at engaging audiences?

Level of expertise aside, our research team was also interested in the kinds of benefits enterprise marketers think their tech tools are helping them achieve. The top benefit (by a wide margin) was better insight into how content is performing (71%).

But it’s the next-highest response that piqued our curiosity from a brand storytelling standpoint: 50% of respondents indicated that content marketing technology provides better insight into audience behavior/preferences – a significant advantage when it comes to knowing how to create and distribute valuable content experiences.

Of course, regardless of the techniques (tech-driven or otherwise) enterprise marketers use to inform their customer understanding, are they strategically applying those insights in their content creation processes? Our research has found room for improvement. For example:

Only 59% always or frequently prioritize the audience’s informational needs over their sales/promotional message.

Only 50% prioritize delivering the right content to the right audience at optimal times.

46% of these marketers always or frequently craft content based on points or stages of the buyer’s journey.

Only 50% of enterprise marketers prioritize right content to right audience at right time. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

Why this finding matters

Delivering the content your audience members want – when and how they want it – should be a top priority of any successful content marketing program. As Robert Rose recently pointed out, if you want to have an influence on a consumer’s moments of truth, you first need to win their trust – something you can’t hope to achieve if your content is only focused on your brand’s interests.

If you want to have an influence on a consumer’s moments of truth, you first need to win their trust. @robert_rose Click To Tweet

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How does your enterprise measure up?

These are a few of the compelling findings from our latest research on content marketing at enterprise organizations. To get a more complete picture of how your marketing peers are responding to important industry trends, pursuing key opportunities, and furthering their content marketing success, download the full report Enterprise Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America today.

Of course, we would love for you to share your experiences with these enterprise marketing challenges and advantages – or your suggestions on other enterprise-related issues you’d like us to explore in future research studies. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Improve your relationship with content marketing technology this April. Make plans to attend ContentTECH Summit in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post The 411 on Content Marketing in Enterprises [New Research] appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/02/research-enterprise-marketing/

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For Foot And Heel Pain Treatment North Carolina Should Consult Podiatrists

For Foot And Heel Pain Treatment North Carolina Should Consult Podiatrists

By Anthony Parker

One seldom considers the importance of various parts of the body until they start giving problems. The feet, heels and ankles, for example, play a very important role in the ability to remain mobile. These areas of the body are prone to injury and other conditions because they work extremely hard. Swollen ankles, growths on the heels and soles, painful joints and fallen arches are common problems. For the best foot and heel pain treatment North Carolina residents are well advised to consult a podiatrist. Podiatrists are medical specialists that focus on conditions affecting the feet, heels, ankles and related tendons, muscles and joints. Before they can qualify as podiatrists they first have to complete their medical degrees and qualify as doctors. Thereafter, they can apply to specialize as podiatrists. The selection process is strict, however. If selected, another four years of intense training must be completed successfully. Far too many patients have to experience severe discomfort before they will finally seek professional help. The golden rule is to seek help if any symptoms persist for longer than two days. The longer one waits, the worse the problem becomes and the more invasive and expensive the treatment will be. Ignoring the issue and hoping that the body will heal itself is truly foolish. Then there is the fact that so many patients consulting a podiatrist at last first tried to solve the problem themselves. They try over the counter medication, homemade concoctions that can actually be harmful to them and they even go as far as to try and remove growths by using unsterilized tools that are certainly not suitable for this purpose. In the process they often make matters much worse. The majority of patients seeing podiatrists are female and there is a very good reason for this. The culprit is, without a doubt, high heeled shoes. These shoes place tremendous pressure on the soles, the ankles, the heels and the tendons. Growths are common because the shoes often squash the toes together. Experts warn that the prolonged wearing of high heeled shoes can eventually lead to permanent difficulties. Those actively involved in competitive sports are also at risk. Many types of sports require very sudden and unnatural movements from the player. Stopping, jumping, changing direction suddenly and a host of other movements can also cause damage to the feet, the tendons, the ankles and the heels. It is important to wear shoes specially designed to provide support at all the right places. Prevention is always better than cure and there are a few very simple yet effective steps that one can take to prevent problems from developing. Walking barefoot on sand or at least out of doors is highly recommended. It also helps to stretch the feet and ankles by standing on tiptoe for a while every day. Of course, the feet must be kept meticulously clean and dry at all times. Being able to walk or run without it being painful is important to everyone. That is why it is so important to pay attention to the feet and to seek professional help immediately when problems occur. Podiatrists are best suited to provide such help.

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January 25, 2019 at 10:20AM from the best massage oilhttp://thebestmassageoil.blogspot.com/2019/01/for-foot-and-heel-pain-treatment-north.html