unsettledreads

[unsettledreads]

here’s a story about changelings

reposted from my old blog, which got deleted:   Mary was a beautiful baby, sweet and affectionate, but by the time she’s three she’s turned difficult and strange, with fey moods and a stubborn mouth that screams and bites but never says mama. But her mother’s well-used to hard work with little thanks, and when the village gossips wag their tongues she just shrugs, and pulls her difficult child away from their precious, perfect blossoms, before the bites draw blood. Mary’s mother doesn’t drown her in a bucket of saltwater, and she doesn’t take up the silver knife the wife of the village priest leaves out for her one Sunday brunch. She gives her daughter yarn, instead, and instead of a rowan stake through her inhuman heart she gives her a child’s first loom, oak and ash. She lets her vicious, uncooperative fairy daughter entertain herself with games of her own devising, in as much peace and comfort as either of them can manage. Mary grows up strangely, as a strange child would, learning everything in all the wrong order, and biting a great deal more than she should. But she also learns to weave, and takes to it with a grand passion. Soon enough she knows more than her mother–which isn’t all that much–and is striking out into unknown territory, turning out odd new knots and weaves, patterns as complex as spiderwebs and spellrings. “Aren’t you clever,” her mother says, of her work, and leaves her to her wool and flax and whatnot. Mary’s not biting anymore, and she smiles more than she frowns, and that’s about as much, her mother figures, as anyone should hope for from their child. Mary still cries sometimes, when the other girls reject her for her strange graces, her odd slow way of talking, her restless reaching fluttering hands that have learned to spin but never to settle. The other girls call her freak, witchblood, hobgoblin. “I don’t remember girls being quite so stupid when I was that age,” her mother says, brushing Mary’s hair smooth and steady like they’ve both learned to enjoy, smooth as a skein of silk. “Time was, you knew not to insult anyone you might need to flatter later. ‘Specially when you don’t know if they’re going to grow wings or horns or whatnot. Serve ‘em all right if you ever figure out curses.” “I want to go back,” Mary says. “I want to go home, to where I came from, where there’s people like me. If I’m a fairy’s child I should be in fairyland, and no one would call me a freak.” “Aye, well, I’d miss you though,” her mother says. “And I expect there’s stupid folk everywhere, even in fairyland. Cruel folk, too. You just have to make the best of things where you are, being my child instead.” Mary learns to read well enough, in between the weaving, especially when her mother tracks down the traveling booktraders and comes home with slim, precious manuals on dyes and stains and mordants, on pigments and patterns, diagrams too arcane for her own eyes but which make her daughter’s eyes shine. “We need an herb garden,” her daughter says, hands busy, flipping from page to page, pulling on her hair, twisting in her skirt, itching for a project. “Yarrow, and madder, and woad and weld…” “Well, start digging,” her mother says. “Won’t do you a harm to get out of the house now’n then.” Mary doesn’t like dirt but she’s learned determination well enough from her mother. She digs and digs, and plants what she’s given, and the first year doesn’t turn out so well but the second’s better, and by the third a cauldron’s always simmering something over the fire, and Mary’s taking in orders from girls five years older or more, turning out vivid bolts and spools and skeins of red and gold and blue, restless fingers dancing like they’ve summoned down the rainbow. Her mother figures she probably has. “Just as well you never got the hang of curses,” she says, admiring her bright new skirts. “I like this sort of trick a lot better.” Mary smiles, rocking back and forth on her heels, fingers already fluttering to find the next project. She finally grows up tall and fair, if a bit stooped and squinty, and time and age seem to calm her unhappy mouth about as well as it does for human children. Word gets around she never lies or breaks a bargain, and if the first seems odd for a fairy’s child then the second one seems fit enough. The undyed stacks of taken orders grow taller, the dyed lots of filled orders grow brighter, the loom in the corner for Mary’s own creations grows stranger and more complex. Mary’s hands callus just like her mother’s, become as strong and tough and smooth as the oak and ash of her needles and frames, though they never fall still. “Do you ever wonder what your real daughter would be like?” the priest’s wife asks, once. Mary’s mother snorts. “She wouldn’t be worth a damn at weaving,” she says. “Lord knows I never was. No, I’ll keep what I’ve been given and thank the givers kindly. It was a fair enough trade for me. Good day, ma’am.” Mary brings her mother sweet chamomile tea, that night, and a warm shawl in all the colors of a garden, and a hairbrush. In the morning, the priest’s son comes round, with payment for his mother’s pretty new dress and a shy smile just for Mary. He thinks her hair is nice, and her hands are even nicer, vibrant in their strength and skill and endless motion.   They all live happily ever after. * Here’s another story: Gregor grew fast, even for a boy, grew tall and big and healthy and began shoving his older siblings around early. He was blunt and strange and flew into rages over odd things, over the taste of his porridge or the scratch of his shirt, over the sound of rain hammering on the roof, over being touched when he didn’t expect it and sometimes even when he did. He never wore shoes if he could help it and he could tell you the number of nails in the floorboards without looking, and his favorite thing was to sit in the pantry and run his hands through the bags of dry barley and corn and oat. Considering as how he had fists like a young ox by the time he was five, his family left him to it. “He’s a changeling,” his father said to his wife, expecting an argument, but men are often the last to know anything about their children, and his wife only shrugged and nodded, like the matter was already settled, and that was that. They didn’t bind Gregor in iron and leave him in the woods for his own kind to take back. They didn’t dig him a grave and load him into it early. They worked out what made Gregor angry, in much the same way they figured out the personal constellations of emotion for each of their other sons, and when spring came, Gregor’s father taught him about sprouts, and when autumn came, Gregor’s father taught him about sheaves. Meanwhile his mother didn’t mind his quiet company around the house, the way he always knew where she’d left the kettle, or the mending, because she was forgetful and he never missed a detail. “Pity you’re not a girl, you’d never drop a stitch of knitting,” she tells Gregor, in the winter, watching him shell peas. His brothers wrestle and yell before the hearth fire, but her fairy child just works quietly, turning peas by their threes and fours into the bowl. “You know exactly how many you’ve got there, don’t you?” she says. “Six hundred and thirteen,” he says, in his quiet, precise way. His mother says “Very good,” and never says Pity you’re not human. He smiles just like one, if not for quite the same reasons. The next autumn he’s seven, a lucky number that pleases him immensely, and his father takes him along to the mill with the grain. “What you got there?” The miller asks them. “Sixty measures of Prince barley, thirty two measures of Hare’s Ear corn, and eighteen of Abernathy Blue Slate oats,” Gregor says. “Total weight is three hundred fifty pounds, or near enough. Our horse is named Madam. The wagon doesn’t have a name. I’m Gregor.” “My son,” his father says. “The changeling one.” “Bit sharper’n your others, ain’t he?” the miller says, and his father laughs. Gregor feels proud and excited and shy, and it dries up all his words, sticks them in his throat. The mill is overwhelming, but the miller is kind, and tells him the name of each and every part when he points at it, and the names of all the grain in all the bags waiting for him to get to them. “Didn’t know the fair folk were much for machinery,” the miller says. Gregor shrugs. “I like seeds,” he says, each word shelled out with careful concentration. “And names. And numbers.” “Aye, well. Suppose that’d do it. Want t’help me load up the grist?” They leave the grain with the miller, who tells Gregor’s father to bring him back ‘round when he comes to pick up the cornflour and cracked barley and rolled oats. Gregor falls asleep in the nameless wagon on the way back, and when he wakes up he goes right back to the pantry, where the rest of the seeds are left, and he runs his hands through the shifting, soothing textures and thinks about turning wheels, about windspeed and counterweights. When he’s twelve–another lucky number–he goes to live in the mill with the miller, and he never leaves, and he lives happily ever after. * Here’s another: James is a small boy who likes animals much more than people, which doesn’t bother his parents overmuch, as someone needs to watch the sheep and make the sheepdogs mind. James learns the whistles and calls along with the lambs and puppies, and by the time he’s six he’s out all day, tending to the flock. His dad gives him a knife and his mom gives him a knapsack, and the sheepdogs give him doggy kisses and the sheep don’t give him too much trouble, considering. “It’s not right for a boy to have so few complaints,” his mother says, once, when he’s about eight. “Probably ain’t right for his parents to have so few complaints about their boy, neither,” his dad says. That’s about the end of it. James’ parents aren’t very talkative, either. They live the routines of a farm, up at dawn and down by dusk, clucking softly to the chickens and calling harshly to the goats, and James grows up slow but happy. When James is eleven, he’s sent to school, because he’s going to be a man and a man should know his numbers. He gets in fights for the first time in his life, unused to peers with two legs and loud mouths and quick fists. He doesn’t like the feel of slate and chalk against his fingers, or the harsh bite of a wooden bench against his legs. He doesn’t like the rules: rules for math, rules for meals, rules for sitting down and speaking when you’re spoken to and wearing shoes all day and sitting under a low ceiling in a crowded room with no sheep or sheepdogs. Not even a puppy. But his teacher is a good woman, patient and experienced, and James isn’t the first miserable, rocking, kicking, crying lost lamb ever handed into her care. She herds the other boys away from him, when she can, and lets him sit in the corner by the door, and have a soft rag to hold his slate and chalk with, so they don’t gnaw so dryly at his fingers. James learns his numbers well enough, eventually, but he also learns with the abruptness of any lamb taking their first few steps–tottering straight into a gallop–to read. Familiar with the sort of things a strange boy needs to know, his teacher gives him myths and legends and fairytales, and steps back. James reads about Arthur and Morgana, about Hercules and Odysseus, about djinni and banshee and brownies and bargains and quests and how sometimes, something that looks human is left to try and stumble along in the humans’ world, step by uncertain step, as best they can. James never comes to enjoy writing. He learns to talk, instead, full tilt, a leaping joyous gambol, and after a time no one wants to hit him anymore. The other boys sit next to him, instead, with their mouths closed, and their hands quiet on their knees.   “Let’s hear from James,” the men at the alehouse say, years later, when he’s become a man who still spends more time with sheep than anyone else, but who always comes back into town with something grand waiting for his friends on his tongue. “What’ve you got for us tonight, eh?” James finishes his pint, and stands up, and says, “Here’s a story about changelings.”

[unsettledreads]

Rating: Mature

Archive Warning: Show warnings

Category: M/M

Fandom: The Witcher (TV)

Relationship: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion

Characters: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of RiviaJaskier | DandelionEskel (The Witcher)Lambert (The Witcher)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern SettingAlternate Universe - Rock BandEverestPost-Break UpGetting Back TogetherTop Jaskier | DandelionAngst with a Happy EndingSoft Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia

Summary:

Excerpt from “Family History — Revisiting the Witcher Split Five Years Later,” GQ, Issue 1710, Nov. 2021

There was a time, not too long ago, when Witcher and its frontman Geralt Rivii were just about synonymous with 21st century rock. Notoriously taciturn, evasive in interviews but beloved by the industry for his rough, baritone voice, Geralt often seemed larger than life. He cut a fairytale profile on stage: stark white hair, intimidating size, and perhaps the least-dynamic presence of any frontman in history, as if someone had glued him to a backboard and stood him up in front of the microphone.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Underage Relationships: Quentin Beck/Peter Parker Characters: Peter Parker, Quentin Beck, Ned Leeds Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drug Dealer Quentin Beck, Dubious Consent, Consent Issues, Weed, Drug Dealer au, Blow Jobs, First Time, Come Eating, Shotgunning, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Underage Sex, Age Difference, Grooming, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Booty Calls, Alternate Universe - No Powers Summary:

Peter was guessing the new dealer would be kind of dumpy, a little too chill, and not quite the kind of guy Peter wanted to hang out more with. But Ned insisted this one was fun, and that he'd smoke them out when they picked up, so here Peter was, hitched behind Ned like a trailer.

Beck was chill, but he could not have been less dumpy.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: RocknRolla (2008) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Chechnyan 1 & Chechnyan 2 Characters: Chechnyan 1, aka The Czar, Chechnyan 2, Victor Additional Tags: Canonical Character Death, War, Backstory, Canon-Typical Violence, and a bit more besides Summary:

“Czar,” you say brightly, hand outstretched. “You’ve got quite the reputation.” You didn't mean to add the compliment.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 7/8 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, The Avengers - Character Additional Tags: Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Protective!Peter, The Avengers mistreat Tony, Peter isn't having any of that, Eventual Smut, Homelessness, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Strong!Peter, badass!Peter, Adult!Peter, insecure!Tony Summary:

To fill this prompt (I got out of hand): I was thinking of a separate universe where Tony, and all that he provides, is taken for granted by most of the other Avengers. Pete's the new recruit, and he's not cool with any of that.

Or: the fic where Tony finds a stray who sees the good in him.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Janet Van Dyne, Hank Pym, Thor (Marvel) Additional Tags: Fluff, Angst, Early in Canon, Identity Porn, Dating, Cuddling & Snuggling, Touch-Starved, Pajamas & Sleepwear, Sexual Dysfunction, Depression, Self-Hatred, Misunderstandings, Marriage Proposal, Heart Attacks, Identity Reveal, Happy Ending, Avengers Vol. 1 (1963), Marvel Trumps Hate 2019 Summary:

How do you date a robot? Even the twenty-first century doesn't have the answers to every question. Steve will have to figure this one out for himself -- after he politely rebuffs Mr. Stark's interest, of course. Sure, Mr. Stark is handsome, but Steve would rather be with his bodyguard. So when Iron Man agrees to go on a date with Steve, Steve couldn't be happier. He loves Iron Man with all of his heart, and their relationship rapidly grows serious. But why does Mr. Stark hate Iron Man so much? And why in the world is Mr. Stark trying to tear Steve and Iron Man apart?

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Janet Van Dyne Characters: Steve Rogers, AI Tony Stark - Character, Tony Stark Additional Tags: Angst, Fluff, Loneliness, Cuddling & Snuggling, Artificial Intelligence, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Masturbation, Avengers Vol. 8 (2018), Bittersweet Ending Summary:

When Steve shows up for the Avengers' team meeting, he quickly discovers that the version of Tony in attendance this week is the artificial intelligence. But Tony is still Tony, the man Steve has loved for years, and him being a hologram doesn't stop the two of them from falling for each other. They just have a few kinks to work out.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Iron Man (Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Quentin Beck/Peter Parker, Quentin Beck/Tony Stark, Quentin Beck/Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Quentin Beck, Tony Stark, Peter Parker Additional Tags: Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Father/Son Incest, Manipulative Quentin Beck, Quentin Beck Is a Good Bro, trust me it makes sense, Peter is 17 but that's legal in New York, Protective Tony Stark, Possessive Tony Stark, Sir Kink, Spitroasting, Deepthroating, Come Marking, Getting Together, Getting Back Together, (sort of), Alternate Universe - No Powers Summary:

Quentin has had to watch these two idiots pining over each other for years, and now that he's got both Starks notched in his belt, well. Time to do something about it.

-

In which Tony walks in on his ex fucking his son and ends up right where he swore he'd never go.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Quentin Beck/Tony Stark Characters: Quentin Beck, Tony Stark Additional Tags: Unresolved Sexual Tension, Until it isn't, Hate Sex, Violent Sex, Biting, Marking, Hair-pulling, Blood, Frottage, Nobody tops Nobody bottoms Summary:

The first time Tony got into a screaming match with Quentin was the moment he started to actually understand where the term rage boner stemmed from.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Additional Tags: BDSM, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Scene Gone Wrong, Subdrop, Aftercare, Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Dom Steve Rogers, Sub Tony Stark, Cuddling & Snuggling, Praise Kink, Subspace, Love Confessions, Avengers Vol. 3 (1998) Summary:

When Tony comes back from a very bad D/s date, in pain and abandoned by his dom, Steve offers to help Tony out and give him all the aftercare he so desperately needs.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Ultimates, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Characters: Steve Rogers (Ultimates), Tony Stark (Ultimates), Betty Ross, Nick Fury, Janet Pym (Ultimates), Hank Pym (Ultimates), Thor (Marvel), Donald Rumsfeld, Lesley Stahl, Rosie O'Donnell, Gail Barnes Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, canon-divergent, Fix-It, The Bush Era, Iraq War Fix-It, Queer History, The Fragile Masculinity of Steve Rogers, Your fave is problematic, The Saddest of Wanks, Crysturbation, Internalized Homophobia, Garden-Variety External Homophobia, Homophobic Slurs, Gay Catholic Guilt, conversion therapy, Forcible outing, Paparazzi, don’t ask don’t tell, Discussion of HIV/AIDS, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Disordered thinking, Cancer, Alcohol, Masturbation, Pornography, D/s play, Dom Tony Stark, Top Tony Stark, Sub Steve Rogers, Bottom Steve Rogers, under negotiated kink, Poor BDSM etiquette, Dirty Talk, Begging, Hand/Finger Kink, Service Kink, Leather, Fingering, Rimming, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Hand Jobs, Safe Sex and Protection, First Time Summary:

“Captain America represents the values of our country. The recent allegations about his sexuality are specious and designed to smear an American icon. Captain Rogers regularly attends the Church of Saint Agnes and invites the citizens of New York to attend worship with him this Sunday, April 14th. God bless America.”

Nobody was ever going to know. Steve would be a good husband, a good father, and he’d never give in to sin and touch another man.

But Steve makes two mistakes, one after the other: he leaves two words out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and he doesn’t notice a camera flash among the strobe lights of a dark club, because he’s dancing with his clumsy hands on Tony’s hips.

[unsettledreads]

So a feminization au in which Peter tries on lingerie out of curiosity and Tony catches him amd much to Peters surprise Tony's rather surprised but not disappointed.

[unsettledreads]

you know how steve always sleeps on the side of the bed facing the door "bECAUSE YOU ARE PRECIOUS TONY HUSH" okay but one if one night while they were asleep baddies did break in to try and snatch tony but were met with 240 pounds of kickass

If there was one good thing that would come out of this, it was that Steve now held the right to be able to gloat about being correct.

Although, when you woke up to the sound of foreign footsteps creeping through your bedroom as you held your very un-enhanced, very asleep and very vulnerable lover in your arms- that sort of thing tended to be pushed to the back of your mind.

(Read more, mobile users!)

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[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Origional Male Character Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov (Marvel) Additional Tags: Blackmail, Bondage, BDSM, Submission, Embarrassment, Rough Sex, Rough Oral Sex, Sex Tapes, Peter is 18 Summary:

Everything is going great for Peter until an ex tries to blackmail him. In desperation he tries to seek help from Pepper, but the last person he wants involved steps in to help - Tony Stark.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff, Vance Astrovik, Angelica Jones Additional Tags: Pining, Assumptions, Team Bonding, Love Confessions, Fluff, Cap_Ironman Bingo, Community: cap_ironman, Avengers Vol. 3 (1998) Summary:

The Avengers have been around a long time, and they have a lot of traditions. But when Steve finds out that the team has a tradition he's never been informed of, he learns that there's something Tony hasn't been telling him, either.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark Additional Tags: Kinktober, 69 (Sex Position), Blow Jobs, Precious Peter Parker, Ambiguous Age Summary:

When Tony suggest they sixty-nine Peter laughs.

He thought that was something people on did in porn.

[unsettledreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Additional Tags: Self-Bondage, Scene Gone Wrong, Overstimulation, Masturbation, Shame, Guilt, Pining, Avengers Vol. 3 (1998), Community: cap_ironman, Cap_Ironman Bingo Summary:

Steve has always considered Tony one of his best friends, and when Tony has a problem, Steve's always willing to help him out. He just never imagined that Tony would want his help in a situation like this one.