#> like he believes his mission at the start of fs but by the end? the way he talks to frey? no way. he has doubts

[waloeders]

haigh..mini pre-confession fic anyone?

this is susurrus/jupe, its set after the events of fs+the dlc and the other fic i never uploaded....oops. its fine, u'll get the gist of it. also will eventually merge this into the actual story + put it on my neocities lmao

cw: fors.poken spoilers (ofc), mentions of the total destruction of athia and death in general

"ugh, my head." jupiter mumbled out, pushing themself up off the floor onto all fours. in the corner of his eye, the shattered remains of some breakbeast, that he hadn't cared to learn the name of, crumbled back into dust once more.

the last, desperate, attack from it had sent them flat on the ground and he coughed heavily at the rising pressure in his chest.

"now, that was quite the blow..." susurrus let out something akin to a snort, the golden light on their arm thrumming in turn with each word he spoke, "still, no major damage. off you go!"

jupiter rolled their eyes, but quickly regretted it as pain shot through them, "fuck..."

"oh dear, are you alright?" he muttered, tone almost sarcastic in its' sincerity, "how about we just sit nice and quietly for a minute? you still have some of those healing drafts left, no?"

in response, they flopped down to the floor, rolling onto their back to stare into the star-covered nightsky. far above, the distant moons of athia watched as he reached up with one arm, as if to catch it.

"d'you see it too jill?" jupiter mimicked, letting out a snort of exhaustion and ignoring as tears welled up, "you have no idea how much this sucks, 'rus."

"you do know i feel what you feel? i know exactly how much this 'sucks'." susurrus snarked back.

"i meant... the fighting sucks. it hurts. i'm bad at it-"

"-i hadn't noticed-" he interrupted.

"-but athia is so...empty. broken. all this fighting, all this destruction, all this death... it's so much." they mumbled, twiddling a thin strand of gold between his fingers. it had pulled itself from where susurrus lay, embedded in his right arm, and was slowly expanding throughout his body.

some part of jupiter knew, someday it would overtake him - susurrus would overtake him and then... death, presumably. from what little he had learned, very few had ever been bound to the demon and those who had..

the lucky ones died.

"there's so much here i don't understand, so many questions i have. so much of this world, its people, the culture was lost, and for what? revenge?" they continued and shook their head, sighing, "sometimes i think it burns more - knowing the world used to be full - than this," they gestured to where susurrus' golden energy had expanded up to his neck, "whole thing."

he remained silent for a moment.

"it was my duty...-is my duty. athia and its' people had to be destroyed." there was a flatness to the way the demon spoke.

"does it have to be?"

it happened whenever 'rus repeated his orders, jupiter had noted, and the strange spark of hope that sometimes intertwined itself into their chest returned.

"not all of us can escape our fate, you know. some of us run towards it, not away." the demon declared, golden light flaring up around their wrist once more.

"fates not the same as duty." they remarked, "and just because its' our duty, doesn't mean it's right.

"but...what if...you could? just escape your duty, your fate? would you?"

an uncomfortable silence fell as he seemed to consider the question. and, as they stared up at the distant, unfamiliar stars, galaxies away from home, the blonde man's thoughts began to spiral, tears finally spilling out.

"...you should make for a Refuge, instead of lounging out here - its' not safe. there's one nearby." he spoke up in barely a whisper, releasing a trail of miniature golden birds that they had become familiar with.

jupiter sighed, mumbling "alright.." and moved to follow. it was unlikely 'rus would answer the question today, then, but a small smile still wound its' way to them - that he had considered it at all.

and if they noticed the way one of his birds lingered particularly close to them as they hobbled along, they didn't mention it.

[genshin-impact-fics]

Streamer!Genshin Reacting to Character!(Y/N) Dying in Game

!Warning!: Major character deaths & angst

Characters: Diluc, Venti, Childe, & Zhongli

Diluc:

It was a race to get inside one of the bases of the Abyss Order to put a stop to whatever plans they were in the process of executing that could potentially put many lives in danger. Diluc was rather calm while playing though it would be a lie to say that it wasn’t a bit annoying that the route to the domain was timed

It was once inside the domain did things pick up fast as it seemed to be a fighting wave system which after beating the first two rooms there was a short scene where in the end Lisa and Amber stayed behind to hold off the incoming enemies so the rest of the group could go further. It seemed like forever doing some of the puzzles to unlock the doors to reach the next fight

In that fourth room after the defeat of hilichurls and abyss mages did suddenly a short cut scene appear to show the appearance of an Abyss Lector. As remembering how much he hated fighting this guy in the spiral abyss he already knew what he was in for; however that was until your character stepped forward with your weapon ready. Diluc was actually sad to have to leave you behind as he was hoping that you’d be one of the characters that went with him to the very end

“I think I’ve watched enough shows and movies to know what this could be leading up to.” He’d comment to his viewers as he finally reached the destination where the Abyss Herald was. Finishing the fight triggered another cutscene as the traveler’s sibling appeared and was making their small speech, asking if the lives of the “friends” the traveler made were worth losing

Diluc is watching with a straight face as he kinda expected this but the who was what he wasn’t sure about and truthfully the only one he’d be truly heartbroken about is your death, but they wouldn’t kill you now of all times right? Wrong; soon the cutscene finally came across where they had left you and you were leaning against the wall extremely injured with your weapon laying beside you. Diluc is frowning cuz he has to watch you die now

Listening to your final words as you spoke to no one Diluc would sulk in his chair a little. In the last moment before your eyes closed, if you mentioned something about not getting to tell his character your true feelings it is visible that Diluc looks like he wants to cry(but he doesn't). Once the screen showed the mission complete he’d grab the plush he had of your character and hold it looking at his camera. “Of all the characters I thought were going to die, I wasn’t ready for it to be (y/n).” At that point he’d probably call it a day from there but he’d still talk to his viewers as he probably would watch the tribute videos that fans had already made

Venti:

Everything was in chaos as it looked like archon war 2 was going to be taking place, but this time it was a war between the Abyss Order and the Archons. He was heading to Mondstadt to help and to check on you. Dvalin was flying around sending attacks at the abyss members. “Ah traveler there you are!” The sound of your voice as you landed before him; as weird as it was to see you in your archon robes was odd but you looked so good! After a short conversation you had gone flying off and it was time to get back to fighting

Things were looking good as it seemed like they were winning against the abyss order though it wasn’t over yet. It was until up in the air did a cutscene starting showing you and the traveler’s sibling fighting going at it. Venti is so captivated by how serious and cool you look fighting, but it all changed when the sibling landed a blow that caused you to fall from the sky ending up falling into the Whispering Woods

Venti couldn’t run fast enough to get to the woods to check up on you but when he did the first thing he saw was the sibling standing before you. He’s already sad and yelling at the sibling for hurting you though it seemed that now he was there the sibling went and disappeared revealing the real condition you were in. “No, no, no! This better not mean (y/n)’s dying.” He’d say in denial as he’s already starting to cry a little

“A-Ah Windblume h-haha… Sorry you have to see me like this.” Even in a moment like this you gave him such a cheesy grin until you seemed to grimace in pain. “Unfortunately it seems like… This is it for me. As long as the winds blow I will always be with you, so please watch over Mondstadt for me.” Your words were making Venti cry as it was like back in your story quest but only ten times worse. And to think it was already painful as it was your next words that did him in. “Maybe in another life we will find each other again and maybe then we can be together.”

Watching you start to glow until you turned into partials of light till nothing of you was left, Venti is devastated. The chat is crying with him as he’s saying how awful it was that his sibling had killed the love of his life! His viewers are going to send him fanart and fics to look at that was an alternative that you lived in the game

Childe:

It was a big fight with the confrontation of the Fatui Harbingers, facing off against one of the other stronger members that blocked the path to proceed to seeing the Tsaritsa. The boss’ first stage was fine; however during the second stage it seemed after losing a certain amount of health the damage that Childe was dealing significantly decreased.

It was when the cutscene started that Childe was already dreading the foul legacy form he’d be facing this time. You suddenly came out of nowhere and already in your foul legacy form yourself Childe is going crazy over how cool you look; he’s also swooning at the fact that you’ve come to his rescue. The fighting progressed until you landed a successful hit that weakened the other harbinger; however, at that same time the other harbinger managed to hit you with a powerful attack

Childe is screaming at the sight of your mask breaking while you fell to the ground. He’s so glad that his character is running over to check on you instead of the fight picking right up, but he’s already feeling the feels hit him hard cuz he hates seeing you hurt. Seeing you back to normal, the damage you sustained was really bad; then the worst thought came to his mind. “This-This better not be what I think it is,” he’s saying not looking away from the screen listening to you weakly talk

“Haha don’t give me that look sweetie, I couldn’t just let this be where your journey ends.” Hearing those words and the nickname you used for his character was sad. “To think we’d be able to travel together more, but hey… Promise you won’t stop fighting and could you look after my siblings for me.” Childe is literally crying now that the reality of the situation is clear. If he gets a choice of dialog to choose from he is going to pick the choice that says that he pinky promises

If your character smiled at the choice he wanted to smile but he’s also just sad, you were dying in his character's arms. If you had given a small love confession in the little bit of life that was in you, he’s going to ugly sob and once the fight was starting again he needs to pause by going into his bag

Immediately he goes getting his big plush of you and coming back to hug it and cleaning his tears with his sleeve before looking at the camera. “I wasn’t ready for this, my baby!” He was not expecting to be losing you; he figured that some characters would possibly die but you were the last character he thought would be killed off in the game. There’s Fs in the chat all around and the crying emote; it’s sad boi hours in this chili’s. He doesn't wanna do the fight but also he gotta avenge you so this last stage fight was for you. Afterwards he’s gonna go look at fanart and video edits

Zhongli:

After helping some of the other nations and their archon’s fend off the abyss order it was time he headed to Liyue to find you. Of course as usual it wasn’t going to be as easy as running around the harbor until he got word from Xiao that you were in Cuijue Slope. So he headed over to help you before anything seriously bad could happen to you

Getting to the open area there you were fighting against the sibling as you were even in your archon robes. Going in and interrupting the fight his sibling clearly looked annoyed and proceeded to try to get him to side with them which of course he didn’t. A Herald appeared to allow the sibling to get away which the fight with the Herald commenced

Just when Zhongli finished up the fight thinking he had won it strangely went to a cutscene as his character and you started to talk; however it was when the fallen Herald came out of nowhere about to attack his character but must to his surprise you shielded him not only taking the hit, but also using your elemental burst to finish off the enemy. Zhongli is frowning at how badly you were hurt as he already has a bad feeling this wasn’t going to end good; the traveler was helping you sit up after having fallen over

“I’m glad to see that you aren’t hurt my friend.” You said as you certainly have seen better days. “Sadly I believe my time has come… Do not be sad dear friend, I have lived many many years… As knowing you has been life changing. Though rocks change from erosion, know that no time will change how I felt about you.” Your words broke his heart as you had such a soft expression on your face as your body began to glow and before he knew it you turned into particles of light and disappeared. He probably wouldn’t cry at most maybe a tear but he is clearly upset about your passing in game and would take a break to talk to his viewers and maybe look at the fanart that surprisingly had been put out already

[getofy]

bakugo as your boyfriend would include...

request: what would dating bakugo be like?

gn!reader (but there are slight fem themes if you squint); fluff; headcanons; no spoilers

character: bakugo katsuki

a/n: this goes out to my one & only <333. ilysm deku kinnie pls enjoy! also, @ bakugo simps i hope this feeds u well. he’s sm fun to write for. headcanons + a short playlist are under the cut.

*ty to my bakugo kinnie/simp friend for helping me write this. i appreciate u. A LOT of these ideas r hers!!

-

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIM SOUNDS LIKE:

01. TEENAGE DIRTBAG by WHEATUS

02. GUTTER GIRL by HFHW

03. BOYFREN by LOVE LEO

04. IN TOO DEEP by SUM 41

05. TOUNGES by THE FRIGHTS

06. R U MINE? by ARCTIC MONKEYS

-

katsuki is a very emotional person. he feels incredibly deep and profound things, but has trouble expressing it in a healthy manner. this being so, him as your s/o would consist of a lot of subtle displays of affection! such as...

-> SHOWING YOU HOW TO DO STUFF:

he’ll teach you small things about his hobbies. will 100% show you how to play the drums, mountain climb, etc.

literally you learn so much with him it’s insane. he claims it’s because he couldn’t stand dating an incapable person, but in reality it’s just because he likes feeling useful/needed HAHA.

-> TOUCHING YOU:

this man is lowkey super clingy...so he will always find a way to be physically close to you.

a BIG fan of putting his arm around your shoulder fs. don’t mention it to him though because he’ll IMMEDIATELY stop doing it.

-> LETTING YOU SIT ON HIS LAP:

if you’re comfortable with it, he’d adore it if you sat on his lap!! like fr if you walked up to him when he was lounging on the couch and did it this is how it would go...

“what’re you doing?”

“sitting down, why?”

he just stares and then grunts before going back to whatever he was doing

don’t let his indifference fool you, he is very pleased.

probably looked up at the ceiling and thought about it for an hour once you left

he thinks about you a lot

-> ALWAYS COOKING FOR YOU:

he pretends like it’s a nuisance, but it genuinely makes his day when you eat the stuff he prepares. literally if you’re hungry just ask him to make you smth and he’ll do it. he actually gets angry if you decide to cook without him.

one time, katsuki seemed really tired because of training and school. so you tried to make something for the both of you guys to enjoy together. it uh...didn’t go well...

“what are you doing?!”

“cutting vegetables...”

“no. you’re doing it all wrong. give me the knife.”

“excuse me??”

“GIVE ME THE KNIFE.”

you ended up giving him the knife

the meal was great!?? but he scolded you for like 30 minutes after PLS.

-> SHOWING YOU OFF:

he’s proud that you’re his s/o, so of course he’s gonna brag about you to EVERYONE.

it’s not overbearing or in an annoying way either. it’s moreso him talking about your accomplishments and stuff like that.

he literally only shows you off for his own benefit. NEEDS everyone to know how cool you and him both are.

it’s an ego thing.

i take back what i said abt it not being annoying. it’s a nuisance to everyone who ain’t you.

-> SITTING NEXT TO YOU:

like i said before, he needs to be close to you at all times. sooo he always sits next to you. no questions asked.

expect to see a pouting, petty katsuki if you decide to sit next to somebody that isn’t him.

“are you seriously mad that i sat next to deku and not you on the bus?!”

“‘COURSE IM MAD.”

“you’re impossible.”

“HUH??????”

-> LETTING YOU WEAR HIS CLOTHES:

PRACTICALLY CHUCKS HIS SHIRTS AND HOODIES AT YOU. LITERALLY JUST- PELTS YOU WITH HIS CLOTHES UNTIL YOU PUT THEM ON.

you took his hoodie without asking ONE TIME and now he’s hooked on seeing you in his clothing.

he’ll always pretend like he’s doing you a favor though.

gotta love how annoying he is! 

-> GIFT GIVING

i wouldn’t go as far to say that gift giving is his love language, but he’ll buy things that you bring up in causal conversation a whole lot.

he just kinda bashfully shoves the gift in your hands and watches as you fawn over it.

“awww! how’d you know??”

“you wouldn’t shut up about it.”

he loves seeing your pleased expression!! +100 boost to katsuki’s confidence.

-> HELPING YOU WITH ACADEMICS:

we ALL know how smart this man is.

he will 100% help you study for school if you’re struggling!

don’t expect him to go easy on you though.

if anything, he’ll probably be harder on you because he really wants to see you succeed.

he basically carries you through math

-> KNOWING MUNDANE FACTS ABOUT YOU:

i can see him knowing EVERYTHING about you. your birthday, your morning routine, your favorite snacks, your favorite songs, etc.

it doesn’t take a lot for him to remember this stuff either???

like, he thinks you’re unforgettable, so he just knows

-> WANTING TO IMPRESS YOU:

he wants you to know how cool he is so bad it’s laughable.

he’ll show off during training exercises FOR SUREEEE

bakusquad teases him abt it when he does lol they ALLL know how whipped he is for you

kirishima: wow, you’re really into it today bakugo!

denki: well (y/n) IS watching

bakugo: SHUT UP.

MISC HEADCANONS!

-> you enable him so much...like way too much. please get on that. someone needs to hold this stupid man accountable. he probably likes it when you scold him despite his protests so don’t be afraid to tell him off baby.

-> your approval makes his heart go $$/!/?!!!error??77776. like, even before you two started dating, he would ALWAYS feel flustered whenever you would compliment his outfits, fighting style, etc. now that you guys are dating, he still feels extremely dazed when you dote on him.

he’ll probably act super cocky about it though

“ ‘course i look good, idiot.” 

he’s trying his best to suppress the stupid smile trying to take over his face. eventually, he lets it out, and tbh everyone in 1A knows that it’s because of smth cheesy you told him.

he is SUCH a softie for you it HURTTSSSS GAHHHH!!

-> katsuki is a very protective boyfriend.

this goes for everything, but especially applies during intense situations.

will literally lay his life down for you without thinking twice about it. don’t fight me on this. it’s canon.

if you’re going on a dangerous mission, you BEST believe this man is tagging along with you.

if for some reason he can’t go, he’ll make it a point to stay up way past his bed time waiting for you to come back.

when katsuki chooses you over sleep just know that you’ve won at life.

he doesn’t see you as inferior in any way. he knows you can handle yourself, but he really wants to keep you safe bc if something bad happened to the love of his life he would be in shambles.

on a lighter note, if mineta bugs you, he’ll absolutely wreck him. will literally punt that grape boy into the next stratosphere.

also!! he’s not the type to care about what you wear. if you’re wearing smth a bit more revealing, the most he’ll say is that you look hot. literally is so unbothered.

he trusts you a lot so it’s like 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

protective ≠ possessive

-> dates w/ him are super all over the place! one weekend, you guys will just chill in his dorm and the next he’ll be laughing maniacally as he chases you down during an intense round of laser tag.

-> he’s big fan of competition, so he’ll turn everything into one.

let him win.

-> his hands are really sensitive because of his quirk, so if you kissed them he’d turn to mush.

im literally begging you to touch this man. help him. he is so touch-starved it’s not funny.

-> he runs hot so cuddles w him are so nice and comforting :(. will pull you in close and tight and NEVER let go.

in short, while dating katsuki definitely comes with it’s quirks, it’s a beautiful relationship. he respects you endlessly and will do anything to ensure your happiness. treat him right and he’ll do the same!!

have fun dating explosion boy!

*do not repost my work without proper credit and my explicit permission

back to navigation -> click here

masterlist -> click here

[thevindicativevordan]

My Superfamily Set-Up

By and large I’m fairly happy with the upcoming Infinite Frontier status quo for the Superfamily. Granted that’s in part because I’m still convinced Kara will get an ongoing or mini in 2021, probably to coincide with her show returning, and PKJ hinted at plans for Steel on Twitter. But Kon has escaped the Titans dumpsterfire for a little while, and I’ve heard good things about Thompson as a writer as well. Kenan is popping back up in a one shot written by Yang that will hopefully herald more appearances in Batman/Superman. Jon is still co-protagonist with Clark in the main books, Tanya is in the Future State Shazam book and also a candidate for the FS Justice League book, so hopefully she’ll be in Titans Academy, and Lois is poised to be a big player in the upcoming Checkmate mini by Bendis. So fingers crossed, all the core members of the Superfamily will be in stuff come end of 2021.

Now that said, were DC to suddenly realize that I alone can save Superman, and asked me what kind of status quo I would like (whether for a mainline or Elseworld book makes no difference to me), this is the basic set up that I would go with:

Superman - I’d do a traditional status quo. Superman is disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter, married to Lois Lane, etc. I’d have Ma and Pa go back to being dead since I still am not a fan of them being alive. Note that this isn’t a reaction against Bendis, I loved Bendis’ run, but I do want to play with the traditional status quo a little bit before diving into something different. Especially since so many Superman writers have traditionally completely wasted the potential of Superman’s status quo.

Lois Lane - Similar to Superman I’d go with a more traditional status quo at the start. She works at the Daily Planet, she and Clark are married, she’s the best reporter in town, etc. I would eventually have her take over as editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet from Perry, I thought that was a great idea the New 52 wasted, and I love the idea of her and Cat Grant being rivals with the Daily Planet and Catco competing. 

Jon Kent - I’d restore kid Jon and toss him back to the Super Sons, not because I think what’s been done with him has been bad, but mostly because I don’t want to write him as Superman, I want to write Clark. Jon seems to be being set up to be co-Superman, and I just don’t have any interest in writing that. To restore kid Jon without destroying Bendis’ run which I enjoyed, I’d explain that teen Jon is actually the “evil” Jon we saw from the Super Sons of Tomorrow future. He went back in time and rescued his kid self from Earth 3, and explained to him that he wanted to prevent that future from coming to pass, but that he needed to take his younger self’s place to do so. Kid Jon agreed, after all he was terrified of becoming evil in both Tomasi’s Super Sons of Tomorrow and Bendis The Man of Steel, and has basically been in hiding watching the events and also studying Hypertime so he can learn how to avoid ending up evil. 

Clark and Lois would blow up at the Jons for the lie when Teen Jon judges he’s changed things enough for his kid self to return, but both Jons could point out that both Clark and Lois have kept secrets when they deemed it necessary from each other and Jon. That would be a neat conversation to have, and a way to continue the untraditional family dynamic that Bendis set up. You could keep teen Jon as a time anomaly until Hypertime catches up with him and restores him to his timeline, with him continuing to be Superman as penance, while kid Jon goes and pals around with Damian in Williamson’s Robin or whatever.

Superwoman/Kara Zor-El - I like the idea of Kara “graduating” to the Superwoman name. It’s open right now given Lana’s retirement, and I think it would suit Kara. I would keep Kara in National, it’s her own little corner to play in, but I would keep that development from (I believe it was) Andrea Shea, where Kara gets fired from Catco because she’s a terrible intern due to always running off to be a heroine. She and Kal talk, Kara admits she doesn’t really want to be a journalist, and so she goes and interns at STAR Labs. I hate how DC keeps turning all the members of the Superfamily into Clark clones. It’s goddamn stupid and I want them to please STOP. Why the hell would Kara want to go into journalism anyway? We’ve never even seen a damn journalist on Krypton! It’s a stupid thing they did on the TV show because they wanted to swipe Clark’s stuff. Let Kara be the scientist of the Els, the one who carries on the family tradition. What form that takes is something I’m open too, I liked Venditti making her interested in history in his annual, maybe make Kara an anthropologist? That would be hilarious. 

Also give Lena to Supergirl, they can be best friends, enemies, lovers, I don’t care. But Lena is wasting away in a vault under Lexcorp last we saw, and that’s a damn shame considering how popular CW Lena is. I’d also add Natasha Irons (who I’d rename Mastersmith) and Tanya Spears (Powerhouse) to Supergirl’s supporting cast, they could play off each other as three supergenuis women).

Kon-El/Conner Kent/Scion - I’m really excited to see what Thompson is going to do with Kon on the Suicide Squad, but here’s what I would do with him. Kon would finally be able to shake off the Superboy moniker and leave that to Jon. Instead he’d take the name “Scion” as a reflection of his origins, and a tie-in to his new status quo. In the wake of Death Metal, Lex Luthor would abruptly step down as head of Lexcorp, stating that he needs time to redefine himself in the wake of his latest attempt to justify himself as the true hero by serving Perpetua, ending up with him needing Superman to save the day again. While he is away, he’s turned over complete control of Lexcorp to his sole heir: Conner. Conner is now head of one of the evilest megacorps in existence, and is one of the wealthiest men alive. Conner knows this is just another maneuver by Lex in his neverending crusade against Superman, but he’s determined to not just be another pawn. He accepts control, renames Lexcorp Superman, Inc. His mission will be to transform the megacorp into the force for good it pretends to be. Conner will have to take on not only Lex loyalists and traitorous underlings who would love to be CEO themselves within Lexcorp, but new megacorps who have flocked to Metropolis in hope of establishing themselves, now that the former Master of Metropolis has abdicated his throne. Threats within and threats without, but armed with the powers/morals of Superman and the charm/brains of Lex Luthor, Kon is just cocky enough to think he can handle it.

John Henry Irons/Steel - It will be a big year for John Henry Irons. His private company Steelworks is about to go public and make him a billionaire. Lana Lang has accepted his marriage proposal and they’re due to be wed. His niece Natasha has left the nest and is off working at STAR Labs. Irons is posed to finally resurrect the decrepit Suicide Slum and allow it to catch up to the rest of the City of Tomorrow. However there are problems: new megacorps are moving into the city in the wake of Lex Luthor leaving, people are disappearing from Suicide Slum with dark rumors are spreading about the reasons why, and the people of Suicide Slum are accusing Irons of planning to gentrify the borough. Making matters worse, weapons that Irons designed as a young man are appearing on the streets of Metropolis, attracting negative attention from the media and putting Steelworks at risk. Irons is going to have to suit up and take up the fight all over Metropolis, from the darkest levels of the Undercity, to the bright deceptive board rooms at the top of skyscrapers in the city’s heart. Irons will have to reckon with his past to secure his future, and confront the evil Metropolis would rather pretend doesn’t exist.

Kenan Kong/New Super-Man - Look just give Yang a damn Kenan book and let him go wild. Right now is either the best or worst time to give Kenan a book given the situation with Hong Kong, but if anyone is equipped to deal with it, it’s Yang. I’ll just add that I would love to see Kenan on a Global Guardians team, but I’d also love to see Justice League of China as a spinoff book of the main Justice League. Kenan is as close as DC has come to their own Spider-Man/Invincible take on Superman, Jon sadly hasn’t really differentiated himself from his dad while Kenan is VERY different. I would love to see Kenan pushed more and would buy a new book in a heartbeat. Also put out a damn New Super-Man omnibus Jim Lee, for God’s sake can’t you abuse your power to push the character you wanted created and is actually good unlike most of Wildstorm? You’re shoving Grifter back into everything but not Kenan? Christ.

So yeah that’s the Superfamily status quo I’d establish. Keeping my Clark and Lois ideas close to my chest for now, but I might go into more detail later.

[aion-rsa]

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 12 Review: Diary Queen

https://ift.tt/3snx5Yt

This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 12

The Simpsons Season 32, episode 12, “Diary Queen,” may be the sweetest offering of the series. It’s not only sentimental and self-esteem-positive, it’s downright edumacational. At least for Bart, who certainly learns a lesson. Thankfully, as the episode explains by example, he probably won’t retain it.

“What’s the matter, Bart? I figure you’d be used to failing by now,” Edna Krabappel once consoled the spiky haired kid who seemed so determined to get through school without schooling. Marcia Wallace, who played the Springfield Elementary teacher, died unexpectedly in October 2013. Edna’s death was first acknowledged in “Four Regrettings and a Funeral,” from season 25, when Bart wrote “We’ll really miss you Mrs. K” on the chalkboard. He only wrote it once. Her death was punishment enough. Both the character and the voice actor were instrumental in the chemistry of The Simpsons, and chemistry happens to be one of the few things Bart’s ever excelled at in school, even pranking a talent show in the “Haw-Haw Land” episode. But he gets his beakers crossed in the latest installment.

“Diary Queen” opens with an inspired West Side Story song parody, “Too Nice” replacing “Tonight.”  It’s time for Ned Flanders’s annual yard sale, and he’s on a holy mission to undersell eBay. Comic Book Guy is looking for a broom to play Quidditch on, Waylen Smithers is going to score some kitsch, and Ned will finally toss those fuzzy dice Maude bought him to the bottom of an impulse item box of jokes he did not get. The Flanders family are parting with their humble possession in a public bid for humility, in case no one notices. Ned gives up Rod’s teeth. Todd consigns his toys to the auction block on the grass. “Playing is a sin that we regret,” one of the Flanders kids explains.

Ned’s bizarre outdoor bazaar is the only segment which has any meanness in it. The Springfieldians want to take advantage of Ned, and openly mock him. Carl and Lenny turn the yard sale into a yarn brawl, and Jimbo’s gang buys commemorative plates just to smash them. It’s enough to send Ned looking for the fans he always carries around in case of stress-induced hot flashes. As Patty and Selma are flicking ashes into Rod and Tod’s baby shoes, it seems Nelson, Bart, and Millhouse are the only ones worthy to buy Ned’s treasured mementos. And, of those, only Nelson’s purchase is authentic. He buys all the bad words, like “adultery” and “fornication,” which Ned cut out of his old religious texts. Nelson has a genuine use for them, you can just tell.

Bart and Millhouse buy the books. Even without the offending admonishments, they swear they’ll still find useful ways to better themselves. Their haul winds up being the fiery centerpiece for a supercool skateboarding feat which no one will ever see. It’s an old joke, but we do get to notice how big Millhouse’s nose looks when he’s picking it. One book, which gives the title to the episode, is spared the conflagration of Bart’s daredevil jump: Edna Krabappel’s diary. Bart recognizes the Ds and Fs, and Millhouse recognizes the smell of Parliament Lights 100s. It’s very telling how these are the most recognizable clues. They are each ready-made character punchlines.

The diary is a font of information. Bart and Millhouse learn all the teachers work night jobs during school hours, and the many lonely secrets of Groundskeeper Willie. But their first use of it is inspired gaggery. Bart learns Superintendent Chalmers keeps his car keys behind the visor. The two kids not only steal the car but take advantage of a free yogurt offer at a car wash. The idea that taking the yogurt and ditching the car is a “perfect crime” is great kids’ logic. It is a little odd, however, that Springfield’s Chief Wiggum sees fourth grade car thieves as inspiration for a little personal time with Officer Lou, but it works within Simpsons logic.

The central point of the episode is Bart’s relationship with his dead teacher, and his relationship with himself. He actually believes someone he thought only saw him as troublesome also considered him “smart as a whip.” It leads him to believe he actually has potential, which he translates to: all the time he was showing his butt he was showing promise. This spurs him into thinking about getting seriously educated. Not only does he try but he succeeds on his first dry run, resisting the urge to draw a skeleton head on a multiple-choice test grid, and getting an A. Not only does he finally understand how his sister Lisa doesn’t suck, but he puts himself on the same level.

Lisa goes through all the stages of jealousy, and even realizes she’s on the verge of obsession when even her imaginary comfort pony begins to look like Bart. This makes it worse, because realizing he is the only thing she can think about only makes her dwell on it. Lisa is usually the family genius, and how she reacts to Bart doing well really depends on the circumstance and need for story conflict. For instance, when Bart had to apply geometry to miniature golf in an early episode, Lisa brought a Zenlike understanding of all things which putt. Lisa does Bart a disservice tonight in the guise of doing the right thing. It’s her MO.

Of course, Marge and Lisa don’t trust Bart’s recent good grades, but while he comes up clean to Marge, Lisa digs up the dirt. Bart correlates “cruel” with “lying” because “they’re both great.” He thinks he’s going to win a Spelling Bee just because he has the potential to do it. Would it have been less cruel for Lisa to let him see how far his belief would get him? She’s set him up for worse humiliations just for an edge at science fairs.

Millhouse gets a few good gags tonight. When Lisa starts developing a rash because of the stress of not crushing her brother’s potential, he pulls cream out of his fanny pack labeled “rash stash.” Groundskeeper Willie is a highlight of the episode. His character has one of the most interesting takes on passive aggressive behavior in comedy. It’s not that he gets it backwards, so much as he pays it forward: Terrorizing Bart with the idea of simmering a new pet into rabbit stew when all he’s thinking of is how much bunnies love stewed carrots.

Read more

TV

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 11 Review: The Dad Feelings-Limited

By Tony Sokol

TV

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 10 Review: A Springfield Summer Christmas for Christmas

By Tony Sokol

Subtle social commentary makes its way into the episode. As this is the first episode since the Trump presidency, it opens with a Bald Eagle flying a sign asking “Is it safe yet?” We learn Ned doesn’t find Bill Maher funny. A priest tells Bart and Millhouse reading someone else’s diary in church is not the worst thing you can do within the hallowed walls. Moments later we see the priest handcuffed and escorted past the pews by the police. We can only wonder what offenses are happening at Reverend Lovejoy’s competition.

Fat Tony (Tony Montagna) tells his henchmen his crime family doesn’t kill children, “We wait till they’re 18.” Lisa is kept up at night by the cold dead eyes of Mike Pence. Subtle subversive commentary can be found when Principal Skinner declares the drug-free portion of the school assembly a success because Lisa, the only one in the auditorium, tells him she doesn’t do drugs. But the scene comes shortly after we learn Dr. Hibbert is pushing kiddie-Xanax “sleepies” and “dopies” on her. The best bad side effects are “Portuguese insolence” and the “tendency to see yourself as others see you.”

The episode has quite a few sight gags which work well. The sign outside the Spelling Bee contest reads H-E-A-R, and we see one of the losing contestants ripping up a dictionary on the way to the exit. When Ned starts to preachify in the treehouse, he only stops because Bart is drawing back a trigger finger on his slingshot. Mrs. Krabappel’s beloved cat not only was not harmed during the making of the episode, but was a willing participant, according to the closing disclaimer. One of the stills in the photo montage is of Krabappel watching The Bob Newhart Show, which Marcia Wallace was a regular on.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

For the majority of The Simpsons’ run, Mrs. Krabappel was a sexually independent woman who was often “looking for a substitute to teach me a lesson I sorely need.” She began dating widower Ned in “The Ned-Liest Catch” from season 22. They married in secret and stayed together until her death in “The Man Who Grew Too Much.” The cause of Edna’s death has never been revealed, except in a non-canon, future-set episode. For this installment, Wallace’s two lines are taken from earlier episodes. “Diary Queen” will be her last appearance.

This is a different kind of arc for The Simpsons. “Diary Queen” is on an uplifting trajectory until Lisa knocks it off course, and ends in a sudden life-affirming crash. Bart’s final warning to Marge, “I’ll go over the edge if you try to make me feel better,” is wonderfully skewered, but the final twist is a dose of treacle. The episode was originally slated to premiere on Valentine’s Day, and is a sweet sendoff.

The post The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 12 Review: Diary Queen appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2ZFdyq0

[kdtheghostwriter]

SNK #119 - Jaeger ni Kissu

Let me get some Fs in the chat, pls.

So, what the hell? Shiganshina am I right? What’s the deal with that crazy place, huh?

You would think this fandom, more than all the others, would be used to getting the slider when they expect a fastball. (That’s right! I know baseball stuff!) Even I have to admit, though, Isa got me with this one. It’s all pretty thrilling to me as a reader. I’ll explain why later but first, some housekeeping. Remember when I said this a few months ago? That Eren’s expression was less relieved and more shocked leaning toward concerned? Welp.

Arm extended; mouth agape. The universal signs of “No, not that you asshole!” It’s also masterful paneling to have Colt’s cry of “Wait!” superimposed onto the Attack Titan, which we know can’t speak. Eren was mortified by the idea of his hometown being overrun with Titans yet again. That was hardly surprising. What did surprise me was Zeke’s look of shock as the Grice brothers revealed themselves. He still screamed, of course, as should have been expected. But that moment of hesitation…hmm. I guess he really did like Colt. It’s not out of the question. He just liked his plan more.

And since we’re on the topic, I’d like some words about this panel right here.

Dammit all, this one hit more than any of the others for me. See, Zeke, it’s not just you who understands the joys and the sorrows and the burdens of being an older brother. I do myself. Falco realized what was about to happen and tried to save his brother’s life by pushing him away. Colt refused and held him tighter.

Don’t worry, Falco! Your big brother will always be with you!

Fuck me, how am I supposed to keep my chill after a scene like that? Sure enough, Colt was scorched as his brother transformed into a mindless, lumbering monster which transitions me nicely into something else I said in the aftermath of #117. Someone did indeed have to die. I only guessed wrong who.

Reiner is going to survive this manga whether he wants to or not. More importantly, what a champion Porco is. Knew he was cooked, so he put all his energy into healing his body. Then he left the cockpit to distract Falco’s Titan and save two people. The fact that he did this right after seeing the memory of his brother confessing to Reiner that he lied is no accident. He wasn’t just proving to Reiner he was better; he was getting one back at his big brother. It’s equal parts heroic and tragic which is par for the course of this series. He died in almost the exact same way Marcel did all those years ago – saving Reiner’s dumbass from being nommed up. I’ll miss you Porco, but at least you’ll live on in the memories of the little one.

 Speaking of little ones: maybe we should start calling her “Deadeye” Gabi Braun. This was such an inspired choice. Not just because of who pulled the trigger in the end (and partly because of whose gun she used), which got the intended reaction, but also because of who she hit. I thought for sure she would have taken aim for Zeke. It would have made sense. A wounded, stationary target is a lot easier to mark than one sprinting at full speed. (That’s what MGS3 taught me at least.) She’s a soldier, though, and the main reason she hijacked the blimp in Liberio was to kill The Usurper. It’s unclear to me if Magath’s mission here is strictly Dead or Alive or if they were trying to capture him but either way her mission, for now, appears to be accomplished. I say “appears to be” because it’s time for my favorite monthly mini-game:

WHY, SWAY, WHY??

There’s a lot we don’t know yet about Titan powers, Eldian biology and the transference from one vessel to another. If Marley’s goal specifically was to recapture the Founder instead of simply stopping Eren from using it, this is what Zeke would call a miscalculation. We know that Titan Powers get transferred Avatar-style to a rando newborn Eldian when a Shifter dies before succession. I actually believe there’s a lot of story left to go. But! There isn’t enough left to now try and track down, out of all the Eldians still in the world, which one holds this terrifying power. (That would make a great AU, though.) Not to mention, we don’t know what happens in the case of a Shifter holding more than one power. Do all three Titans go to one child? Do they get split up back into three by the P A T H S? We don’t know. All of this is reason to expect some chicanery in the next few months or so. Besides any of that we are no closer to knowing what Eren’s true intentions are in regards to why he wants to use the Founder. Isayama Hajime is absolutely the kind of author to blast his main character into oblivion before the story has concluded. He is not the kind of author to leave a stone unturned. We found out about the Shifters and we found out about the basement. Whatever knowledge was revealed to him will not be kept secret, even if it isn’t by his own hand.

Sidebar: decapitation is weird, even in messy circumstances like this one. The electric signals in the brain often keep firing for minutes after the head has been removed. This is how beheaded snakes continue to hiss and bite after the fact. My troll prediction would be Eren’s head landing in Zeke’s hand like so many baseballs in his lifetime; the Coordinate is activated and Shiganshina proceeds to have a bad time.

I don’t know, folks. I couldn’t help but think of one very important rule as I read the closing pages.

Always Double Tap, dude. Gabi just had to go for the swag. See, if she had popped Eren’s head like a bloody firework I would have said, “Welp, you had a good run, kid.” But nope. You went and left the most powerful being in existence an outside outside chance of survival, and if he does, even for a few seconds more, everybody is screwed.

No segue, I just love these two teaming up. It makes sense that Mikasa and Armin have gotten closer as Eren has gotten more distant. I think seeing how that dynamic evolves as the story builds to its conclusion will be very important. For now, on the surface level, they just really care for each other.

 The last time I got a feeling like this, I was a young lad watching Samurai Jack in the early 00s. I would watch every week without fail on the Cartoon Network, engrossed for the entire runtime. And then, oh, the long and nagging wait. I can admit that having most stuff On Demand is impossibly handy for this particular moment in history, but goddamn do I remember having to wait a whole ass week for my favorite show to come back. Fans of Shingeki no Kyojin don’t realize how good they have it.

Replicating that feeling is almost impossible, not just because of how product is released now. Every story has been told before, in some way. Sometime in the last Millenia or so, our slimy lizard brains have come to expect certain beats and structure from stories. It makes the stories good, but also predictable. I can tell you as a writer, it’s so very difficult to find a way to surprise people in a genuine and engaging way.

This is going to sound more cold and callous than intended but, it does involve manipulating an audience to achieve your desired outcome. You want to lead them to the place you want to go and let them think it was their plan all along. This is the Art of Storytelling: I know what you want better than you do. This involves knowing your audience, and I think it’s safe to say after his “I want to hurt people with this,” comment that no writer on the planet right now knows his audience better than Isayama.

Fans of SNK should be happy. I’ve said this before: it isn’t the best book out right now (that’s still OPM, read that shit) but it is the most unpredictable. That doesn’t always make a story good, but in this case, it’s the greatest factor. Feel free to speculate and discuss. That’s what fandom is for. Just give up now on trying to work out what comes next. Only one person knows that. Isa has had this story plotted out for years with diversions here and there. We won’t know until it all ends. Enjoy this ride now. I can promise you we will never see anything like this manga ever again.

  Stray Thoughts

- Still no Kyomi. Still no Tiny Queen. I know the main character just got his head yeeted but let’s get some deets now, pls.

- I was so looking forward to the memes and am happy to report that I wasn’t let down. Well done, friends.

- The 104th Squad continues to persist, as does Yelena. We’ll earmark this for later.

- The fact that both the Jaeger Brothers got shot before Floch Forster is high dark comedy.

- In a battle this chaotic, things like skill and experience are often nullified. It makes perfect sense that Eren would be caught off-guard by a soldier he didn’t even know was there, child though she may be. Right place, wrong time. These Things Happen.

- Armin taking out the Cart’s turret gun was a slick little callback to when he bought time for Eren to take down Bertolt.

- I’m interested in Armin’s game plan here. Marley’s infantry is about to be overrun by Titans, so what else does he aim to do? And how will Yelena interfere?

- Nile said he wouldn’t see his family again. We all knew he was right but man, the look on his face when his number was called. That’s tough. Shout-outs to Pixis, getting one last sip in. You a real one.

[agl03]

Hi! Thanks for all the time you take to write everything and asnwer all the Fandom asks!! This is my prompt : Jemma realizes she is pregnant after she is already deep undercover in Hydra. Or Fzzt happens after fs are already in a relationship. Whatever inspires your muse, thanks anyways. Have a good weekend!

Hi Anon,

I went with Door Number 1....Hope you like it.

Unexpected

Jemma did her best not to run to her apartment for fear if she was being followed by her current “employers” it would bring unwanted attention to herself.  

She’d been undercover in Hydra for a few weeks now and nearly every second of every day she regretted the decision to come.   Regretted listening to the Doctors who said she was making Fitz worse.  Regretted believing Coulson when he’d promised he’d keep her fully appraised of Fitz’s progress. Regretted that Fitz wouldn’t be at her side as she took what could be the most important test of her life.   

She and Fitz were still a bit unsettled.   The night they had been hiding at the motel they’d found comfort in each others arms.   With her crawling into his bed for the comfort of his arms.  His lips tentatively finding hers in the silence.   Then they fell together, mind, body, and soul.   She never regretted that night, if anything she regretted they hadn’t had another yet, but she did regret not being able to talk to him before the’d been abducted, before his coma, and before she left.  

She finally reached her apartment and locked the door with a satisfying click.  Finally allowing the tears to fall that had been threatening all day, the bag in her hand nearly pulling her to the floor with the implications within.  

With a steadying breath she pulled the boxes out of the bags and went into the bathroom..  Within ten minutes she was starting at found pink plus signs and digital display reading “Pregnant” back at her.

“Oh Fitz,” she breathed.

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

Fitz sat on the floor of Coulson’s office, the Directors desk torn apart in a few hundred pieces as he worked the complicated system that would hide Fury’s Tool Box within, and scowled at his own design.  It had seemed like a brilliant idea no two hours ago as it had come to him in a rare moment of clarity..  Now, in the middle of the night with his body and mind worn down it was all going to hell.  

“You should get some rest, start fresh tomorrow, everything will but much clearer with a sleep and tea” a soft voice said with a hand on his shoulder offering a small bit of comfort.  

Fitz closed his eyes and allowed himself to lean into the imaginary touch for a moment  before he let out a sigh of defeat.   

“I know,” he said already packing up his tools and trying to contain the chaos so Coulson could get a little work done on his desk in the morning.   

As he put the last tool into his bag he heard a buzzing noise suddenly coming from the many tablets on top of Coulson’s desk.      Fitz shuffled through the files and folders before he found where the noise is was coming from.  His blood running cold at what he saw.

It was Coulson’s private and normally encrypted tablet, the one he practically carried everywhere.  The screen was flashing bright red and a map flashing on a location.  

Agent J. Simmons in need of immediate extraction. Followed by a list of coordinates.

“Jemma,” he breathed.  Jemma was in danger and needed immediate extraction. 

Fitz tapped at the device trying to get more information but realized quickly he didn’t have the right pass codes or the time to hack it.  

Fitz didn’t hesitate what he did next.  First he used his phone to take a picture of her location before he dropped the tablet back on Coulson’s desk still vibrating in it’s alert.  Deep down he knew better than to do what he was about too, he knew he should go get someone, anyone, to go with him.  But all the hurt and fear of the last few months came crashing back.  How they didn’t know what to do with him and hid things from him.   

He knew if he got someone they’d make him stay behind and he may lose his chance to see Jemma.  She might not want to see him before he could apologize for being so horrible to her before they shipped her off again.  

He grabbed a go bag from the locker room before he went to the garage.   The adrenaline easily fueling his efforts to override the security in the garage and he got into the first SUV he could.

“Hold on Jemma, I’m coming.”

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

Jemma paced her small apartment with an Icer in hand as she waited for extract. Her other hand cradling her stomach that now when she inspected it had the slightest of bumps..  By her math she would be about twelve weeks along by now, her previous missed periods, weight gain, and sickness definitely not due to the stress of her mission as she’d previously thought.  

She’d activated her panic button precisely 129 minutes ago.  May had told her that a team would arrive for her in no less than 30 minutes after it was activated.  Fear gripped her that something had happened to the others that were preventing them from getting to her.  Or worse Hydra had intercepted the signal and was simply toying with her.   

She nearly jumped out of her skin when there was a knock at her door.   The knock wasn’t the coded one that Coulson or May would use when they stopped by, rather one that tore a sob from her chest, one that she’d longed to hear again, it was Fitz’s distinctive knock he’d had since their days at the academy.

Headless of the danger and numerous safety protocals she ran to the door and threw it open barreling right into Fitz’s chest.

“Fitz,” she sobbed clutching to him feeling more at home than she had in ages when she took in his familiar scent.  

“Jemma?” he said his own voice thick with emotion.

Jemma had enough sense to pull him into her apartment and bolt the door once more, all while never leaving his arms.  

Fitz went in with her easily and dropped his Icer and phone to pull her to him.  The speech he had been going through in his head the entire drive there completely going out the window in favor of “I’m sorry,” whispered into her hair over and over.   

Jemma savored being in his arms again unsure of why he was telling her he was sorry, she was the one who was sorry, she had left and unknowingly taken their unborn child into the bowls of Hydra as a result.  It was that thought that broke the spell and Jemma pulled back just enough to meet his uncertain eyes.  Those eyes she loved so much filled with fear and hope.  

“Where is the rest of the team?” She asked “Are they holding Hydra off while you get me out?”

“Hydra?” Fitz asked stunned.

Jemma felt another wave of anger well, they hadn’t told him where she’d gone or what she was doing.  

“Fitz, I’ve been undercover with Hydra,” Jemma said.  “I was able to get into their science division, they’ve had me doing grunt work, a complete waste of my talents....”

“They sent you to Hydra!” Fitz said his voice shrill.  “They thought you with Hydra was better than dealing with me?”

“Fitz no!” Jemma said and cupped his face.   “The Doctors and the team said I was making you worse and after I heard it enough I’m sorry but I started to believe it.  Then Coulson needed someone on the inside with Hydra and I felt it was the only option.”

Fitz was at a loss for words so instead he leaned forward and captured her lips pouring everything he couldn’t say into the the moment.

Jemma responded in kind and as usual in the end there were no words needed.   

This time when they broke away with their foreheads against one another’s and just savored the moment.   

“Missed you,” Fitz said as they finally pulled away.

“And I missed you,” Jemma said.  “I really do hate to break the moment but where are the others, I would prefer to get out  of here sooner rather than later and then you and I need to have a very serious discussion.”  

Fitz tensed at the mention of a serious discussion but knew there would be there were more pressing matters like what had caused Jemma to ask for an immediate extract.  

“There is no rest of the team, I kind of came on my own.  I was working on something in Coulson’s office when the message came in,” Fitz confessed and braced himself for what he knew was coming.

“Leopold Fitz!” Jemma snapped exactly has he’d predicted she would “You came to extract me from Hydra by yourself?  Have you been cleared to be back in the field even?”

“I didn’t know you were in Bloody Hydra,” Fitz countered but there was no bite to his words.  He knew what he’d done was incredibly foolish and Jemma was one of many telling off’s he was about to face.  

“Look you can finish telling me off later,” Fitz said picking up his phone and Icer again.  “We need to get out of here before whatever you hit your panic button about gets here.”

It was Jemma’s turn to become quiet.

“While we do need to hurry we have some time before the reason I pushed the button gets here,” Jemma said her hand going back to her stomach again.

Fitz looked at her confused but before he could question further the door just feet away was kicked in and Melinda May lead in a heavily armed trio of agents consisting of Trip, Skye, and Hunter.  

Fitzsimmons fell into each other, each one trying to protect the other from the threat.   

“Fitz!” Hunter shouted and lowered his weapon.

“What are you doing here?” Skye demanded  

“What does it look like I’m doing! Getting Simmons out of here!” Fitz snapped and clutched Jemma to him. 

May ended anymore argument before it even began.

“Everyone load up, we made enough noise coming in here that someone was bound to notice,” she ordered.   

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

Fitz had been right about being told off multiple times more.  Hunter, Skye and Trip had all had a turn a turn on the way back to base.  Followed by Coulson in his office when they returned to the base, May standing behind him scowling the entire time.  And finally Mack as Fitz walked back to his bunk so Jemma could do her debrief.  

He had tried to stay but one last single terrifying look from May send him back to his room.  He’d have a few minutes to regroup and them maybe get to finish the discussion he and Jemma had started earlier.   While he was wary of it  the fact Jemma had held his hand the entire way back to base and until the last moment before he was thrown out of the Director’s office offered him a fair amount of hope.  

There was a soft knock at his door less than an hour later and Jemma slipped in.  A happy sigh coming from her at the sight that waited for her.  Fitz had settled into his bed half attempting to read an article on his tablet.  He’d changed into his Pajamas and there was a small kettle steaming on the nightstand ready to pour two perfect cups of tea.

She couldn’t help herself as she ran across his bunk and practically leap onto his bed and into his arms again.  

Fitz tossed his tablet aside to gather her into his arms.  Thankful the awkwardness they had danced around after he woke up was gone.

“Missed you,” he said.

Jemma pulled back with a smile, the first real smile he’d seen from her since he’d woken up from his coma.

“I was only gone less than an hour,” she said happy with her decision not to go back to her bunk and change.  Sure she wanted out of these clothes but a couple of Fitz’s extras sounded a lot better than her own pajamas.  

Fitz just shrugged and pulled her close again.

“Now can you tell me what you were trying too earlier?” he asked.

Jemma shuffled around in his arms so her back was against his chest and she pulled his arms around her to rest on her stomach, her hands covering his own.  

“Do you remember that night in the motel?” she started feeling him take a sharp breath.  It was the first time either of them had spoken of it since it had happened.

“Best night of my life,” he whispered.

“Mine too,” Jemma said turning her head to meet his eyes, her hands pressed his ever so slightly into her stomach.  “In more ways than one.”

It only took a few moments for the pieces to fall into place.

“You’re pregnant,” he said in awe as he gently rubbed her stomach.

“We’re pregnant,” she echoed.  

Fitz leaned down and gently kissed her, never wanting to let her or their baby go ever again.  “I am the luckiest man on this or any planet,” he whispered again before he captured her lips once more.

There was still more to discuss and work out, but for now they would find each other again as they had twelve weeks ago.

[precenna]

Season 7 Speculation (SDCC)

Alright guys I got some info for AOS. As you all know San Diego Comic-Con was last weekend, which was a big deal for AOS becuase it will be their last SDCC as they are now done filming (they informed us there that they were finishing up the very last ep and we all, as an audience, sobbed). I did get the opportunity to go and see their panel as well as observe both their meet and greets (I also sobbed there too, it was emotional for me). During their panel, however, something a lot of people forgot about was one of the answers to the speed round questions that hold a lot of potential for the final season conflict.

During their panel on Thursday, the fans got to do their usual Q and A, BUT since we ran out of time reminiscing it was forced into a speed round (and I was SOOO CLOSE to asking them my question! AGH!) The questions were reduced answers of yes or no which one of the last ones was “Why havent the cast experienced the snap” or “Why hasnt the show lined up with the snapture” to which the directors quickly responded, They just havent gotten to it yet...

We all guessed this was coming, the cast would experience the snap and deal with the effects, but now I believe we do have confirmation from the directors/ writers that this will happen soon. Which leaves the question, which characters will vanish?

Im gonna cover FS here specifically becuase I am the most interested to see what their outcome will be:

So in my mind this can only go one of two ways. I am not a fan of the idea that the writers will have one of them will snap away. Considering the fact that half of this season was finding their way back to each other and getting them back to where they left off, it would feel like half of this season would be redundant. All the emotional trauma they have been conflicted with the past 5-6 years has  been confronted and they are FINALLY working on patching all of it up! Not only that, Fitz has already died! It is just not the logical move to have Fitz ash away because he just came back from being dead! And Jemma has spent a year trying to get him back! Would it really make sense for Jemma to dust away right when she accomplishes her mission? When they just started to resolve all their fears and traumas?! They would have gone through that whole arc for nothing! No pay off, not to mention it would make a lot of fans mad from using the constant ripping each other apart story line. (Still I would never put it past them...)

So we have two options left; both of them snapping away or neither of them. Honestly, as sad as it will be, I think that both of them are going to end up on the unlucky side of the snap. It makes sense when you think about it too. They have been consistently saying “I am never leaving your side again”. I believe the writers are going to FINALLY honour that promise. Even if they end up doing it in a heart wrenching way, with both of them snapping they will still be sticking to their “No matter what happens, I will be there by your side to comfort you. To protect you.” pledge! It would be a reassuring way for them to depart becuase we, as the fans, would know they are resting in peace for those 5 years TOGETHER! Not apart like all the other times, but finally together like they always should be. Jemma even stated this in ep 6 of season 6 when she finally was reunited with Fitz she proclaimed, “I don’t’ give a damn if we ever escape” because she is perfectly content with staying with Fitz in the mind prison for all eternity. All she needs is to be with him, and we all know Fitz feels the exact same way (after all they are “physically-linked”!)

On the other side of things, the writers could have them both stay. FS are the ideal agents that S.H.I.E.L.D was based upon. We heard Mack say this earlier in season 6 and Coulson say it MANY times. Mack originally wanted FS to work on rebuilding the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy, but with Fitz’s, ahem, incident, and Jemma leaving for space to retrieve him, he couldnt have them work on the project. At least, not until they got back. If the writers decide to have them stay, they would get a 5 year “head start” on rebuilding the Academy with Dr. Benson (assuming he dosen’t ash as well). To add on to this idea, it could also be the chance FS have to finally start their family. (Although this is less likely becuase we have less evidence for it.) We all know the secrecy of the last season has been BRUTAL, but they did it for a reason. It has been speculation that Liz and Iain were seen on set with a little girl for the last ep. That is all I have heard however. At SDCC Liz and Iain were not there for the last signing becuase that Friday they were filming their final scenes together (which A, confirms we have Iain on set, and B proves we have a FS finale of some kind).

The directors also answered that they will be giving this series a happy ending with everything that the fans imagine becuase that is what all these characters deserve, happiness. So I am sure by the end of the series we will see them with their family already made (Yes!!!), but as for all the previous eps, that is more of a clouded line. As I said before, I am not a fan of the one disappears trope. But there is some evidence for it as well... We all know Iain has not been confirmed on set for a while becuase of work elsewhere, which means, you guessed it, a chance for him to be caught in the snap. The absent timing makes sense ,unless they waited to do all his scenes later when he was available, and gives explanation to a missing Fitz in the action (I do have other theories on that as well). Although I pray this is not the path they choose to go on it can be backed by schedules and timing. It is always a possibility...

If you guys want to see all the questions asked I am sure there are so many vids on the internet that you can find to watch the panel; it was honestly one of the greatest moments of my life to see them all walk out on stage! To watch the banter they all have with one another while still staying strong for the fans, and themselves, as they film what will be the last of our favourite show. This post was getting long so I figured I’d end it here but if anyone has any questions about CC I am here to answer them! OMG I was there for EVERYTHING AOS!! I have a 13 min vid to prove it at their last signing... yes I am obsessive but sentimental!! I never knew what was gonna kill me/ be heartbreaking so I just kept filming😅 I have images of them from the panel and signing (I WAS SO CLOSE TO GETTING TO MEET THEM BUT ALL THE PEOPLE IN FRONT HOGGED SO I LEFT WITH ONLY PICS) so if anyone wants to see I can show :)!

(Not the best quality, sorry, but I got them both smiling so woooo!!)

Anyway, I’m sure a lot of you already put these things together or have already known this from the beinning cause we are all so smart! but just thought I’d put it all in a nice post for us to store the info on! ;) Thanks for reading and lets watch the rest of our series with the brightest smiles on our faces! Cause thats all the characters, cast, and crew really want from us as it ends with a bang!!!

[dappersheep]

Oyster Study: Loyalties

Because it's an evident theme from the start, and since we have Oyster's backstory now available on top of the Oyster event (live as of this writing on CN and JP servers), I'm sharing up a character study I've been doing for a while.

This is, in no way, putting Spaghetti/Beer/insert FS here on a pedestal or giving them flak, but it is a study of what is pragmatic and plausible to happen given what we know of their personalities and chemistry.

Disclaimer: All my lore sources are translated materials (personal and outside) from the Oyster CN Wiki, Hinabes’ translation of the Oyster Event, amongst other volunteer sources and these may change in the future without warning.

Carry on after the line cut.

So "Loyalty" is a strong theme for Oyster. Most, if not all of the main content for him implies it in one way or another. And for all the obstacles thrown or offered to him to change allegiances, he still remains steadfast by choice.

Why is that? Why does he carry such a strong loyalty towards a person who is decidedly Not Good in the canon ‘verse of the lore and constantly refuses to abandon his loyalties? Honestly, there’s lots of factors that could give some light on that but know that I can’t speculate on all of it with just my perspective.

Before we get into the meat of things, we need to understand that Oyster knew what was happening with the business of Spaghetti over the course of his stay with them.

Oyster is also a smart Food Soul, with a sharp sense given that he notices shifts in moods and is perceptive when people keep information from him. He may be naive by Spaghetti's standards, but he isn't naive in that he is ignorant in comparison to Pizza, who copes by being optimistic to a fault, nor will Oyster believe everything and anything anyone says. This, I think, is his distrustful nature in play as wariness.

So he starts out distrustful due to severe neglect and his extremely unwanted presence by all the villagers, including his Master Attendant. Even Spaghetti was subjected to it when they met for the first time, and likely continued to be held in light doubt. This allows Oyster to carry a healthy note of skepticism, which in turn allows him to question Spaghetti’s motives and what Oyster is really there for.

Oyster wasn’t allowed to do anything more than trivial jobs for the longest time, despite him wanting to prove that he’s capable. Spaghetti refuses him each time, citing that ‘he’s not ready’ and ‘when you know the true darkness of this world.’

Why is this? How would Oyster be allowed to learn and get ready when he isn’t allowed to go on dangerous missions? This is probably a stretch comparison but, I figured it was Spaghetti taking care of his pawns in an indirect manner. Spaghetti knows Oyster is neglected and needs to adjust from social isolation to suddenly being surrounded by other people. Spaghetti himself is likely aware he is not the best person to be taking care of Oyster for obvious reasons, so more often than not, it was Borscht who handled and interacted with him.

Oyster needs time to learn to socialize without overwhelming him with tasks, allow him his own pacing so he doesn’t get stressed out and develop bad coping mechanisms. And even when Oyster thinks he is ready, Spaghetti is the one with the life experience and pretty much concludes, ‘No, you are not ready. Do not overestimate yourself.’

This repeated refusal would then likely put a wedge between him and Oyster, who might have been jealous that B52 got to escort Spaghetti. Regardless he knew very little about B52 or the real nature of the missions, all he wanted was to prove himself and pay back Spaghetti’s kindness for giving him a better home.

And even when B52 went missing, Spaghetti still refused to allow Oyster to escort him or do the hard missions despite the lack of manpower. Of course that’s going to go over so well with Oyster who is already getting frustrated with more refusals.

Borscht, who was more or less the missions giver of the team, was likely advised against giving him anything remotely arduous no matter how much he pleaded.

… Except we know she caved in. Thus Sakurajima happened, and would have turned very tragic hadn’t it been for Beer the Good Samaritan.

The experience allowed Oyster to see a different side to things, and also a step out of his comfort zone. He learned new things and that there are good fellows, other people he can learn to trust. But he knows he can’t just leave. Not out of fear of Spaghetti’s wrath, but that it would be a disservice to abandon him without saying a word.

Even when Beer offered Oyster to travel with him after expressing reservations about Spaghetti -unfairness, being relatively distant and aloof towards him, suspiciously problematic-, he can’t just abandon his obligations and the person who he owes a lot to. It’s also likely he saw that Spaghetti had good reason to delay him being sent on these missions, so in a way, it slightly humbled Oyster’s opinions of the redhead. And well, Oyster already thought of Borscht and Spaghetti as family despite not being blood related.

By the end of his bio, Oyster was advised again to leave Spaghetti. But by then, he knows there’s more to Spaghetti and his motives than the redhead is willing to show. Oyster knows it himself that his boss is not a pure man, but he was the first to show him kindness, and Oyster is adamant on repaying that with his loyalty.

It’s likely too, that the events of his bio sparked the whole ‘test of faith’ thing that is the overarching plot of the Oyster event. One could call it some sort of ‘coming of age’ ceremony that Spaghetti had planned for Oyster. We know how Spaghetti never half-asses anything and couple that with his trust issues? I feel Borscht’s great exasperation with her boss over the whole thing. And he did send most of the members of his organization to go give Oyster and Pretzel a hard time, at the same time, showing Oyster that he was Not Good. He never was ‘good’, and he doesn’t plan to sugarcoat it. Oyster had to understand that part if he wanted to stay.

Oyster has every reason to dislike and feel betrayed by Spaghetti by the event's end. Oyster also has had every chance to get away from Spaghetti, and Spaghetti literally gives him enough opportunities to do so (ie. every time he goes out on an errand, he could just never come back). But at the end of it all, even when Pretzel was alright with taking him away, Oyster refused.

And that incredible sense of loyalty (despite screaming at his bastard of a boss for that A+ test of faith) was enough for Spaghetti. This whole thing could be a good candidate for the My Master, Right or Wrong trope, though for now it’s looking to be less grim for Oyster.

In conclusion, Oyster’s sense of loyalty (and him in general) had gone through cycles and  developing each time. He knows it’s not the best decision to make, it’s also not the worst. What matters is that it’s his choice to make (and stay by Spaghetti’s side), and he will fight even Spaghetti for that right.

Other things of note:

It's also interesting to note that when Oyster said not to touch him, Spaghetti verbally stated he won’t, and made good on that. As far as I know, the only time he willfully did so was pulling Oyster behind him in the second to last chapter of the event. Otherwise, there is no mention of Spaghetti breaking this oath even subtly.

Peking (or was it Boston?) told Oyster that, ‘Following a dangerous guy like that will make you lose the things important to you.’ Now I don’t know how much Peking or Boston knows about Oyster, but Oyster literally has nothing else to his name and what is important to him is ironically, Spaghetti and Borscht. Maybe he senses that Oyster is still a contracted Food Soul, and assumes that he’s being used against his will for the sake of his MA. It could also mean “Beer’s friendship” as the important thing. It’s left open to debate.

Again, if anyone wants to discuss this with me, my ask is open for it.

[hope-for-olicity]

Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - April 27th, 2018

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them.

Remarkable multi-chapter WIP by @tsukikomew - What if Oliver met Felicity during the pilot instead of episode 3? Oliver Queen is back and determined to save his city. While the Hood sets off to take down evil and crime, Oliver Queen finds himself drawn to her. As the Hood makes a name for himself, Oliver has to decide what he's willing to sacrifice to save his city. A complete retelling of Season 1, 1 chapter per episode. https://archiveofourown.org/works/7011949/chapters/15967018

I'll Be Better (post 6x19) by @dust2dust34 - Post-6x19. Oliver gets a taste of his own medicine. https://archiveofourown.org/works/11888871/chapters/33201207

(My Waking) Nightmare by @alexiablackbriar13 - Post 6x19. Felicity awakens from a nightmare about Oliver dying due to being hurt while alone in the field... to find her husband missing from their bed. Understandably, she panics. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14377521

Above All Else multi-chapter WIP by shesimperfect_butshetries - A different take on episode 6x14: Rene shoots but Oliver jumps in front of Felicity. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14101470/chapters/32490537

Another Chance at Love multi-chapter WIP by @smkkbert - It’s been almost two years since Oliver lost his fiancée Detective McKenna Hall when she died in the line of duty. He closed his heart to love ever since, unable or unwilling to give love another chance. That changes when he meets Felicity Smoak at the annual gala of the Starling City Police Foundation. Is he ready to give love another chance, though? http://archiveofourown.org/works/13561101/chapters/31119801

A Dance With The Devil multi-chapter WIP by @it-was-a-red-heeler - A Season Five re-write http://archiveofourown.org/works/13792770/chapters/31707645

Olicity Fic Challenge 3: Pancakes by @spaztronautwriter - “You’re still here… and you’re making pancakes?” https://spaztronautwriter.tumblr.com/post/142778757233/olicity-fic-challenge-3-pancakes

No More Brownies (An Olicity AU) by @spaztronautwriter - Felicity contacts Oliver to make her pancakes after a drunken night including a brownie https://spaztronautwriter.tumblr.com/post/143197790313/no-more-brownies-an-olicity-au

Bottomless Breadsticks (An Olicity AU) by @spaztronautwriter - Oliver calls Felicity after his date steals his wallet. https://spaztronautwriter.tumblr.com/post/151680523148/bottomless-breadsticks-an-olicity-au#notes

Untitled by @smoaking-greenarrow - Arrow Out of Context Prompt: “Don’t worry. I’ll figure out what’s wrong with Oliver.”  “You’d be the first.” http://smoaking-greenarrow.tumblr.com/post/173174827739/could-you-do-5-please-from-the-arrow-season-2

Revelations by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - There's a lot that Ray doesn't ask about when Felicity shows up out the blue after they haven't seen each other in a year. Those answers come to him in time. If he's totally honest with himself, he isn't sure he was prepared for them. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14384493

Don't Take Satisfaction by HopeShannon3000 - When Curtis said he basically took satisfaction in Oliver being alone (in 6x19) i was disappointed that Felicity didn't say anything so i fixed it and made what i wanted her to say to Curtis. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14388264

Jealous Oliver Queen multi-chapter WIP by Overwatch_queen_olicity - Another alien invasion. This time, it's in National City. Kara calls for backup from team Arrow, Flash and Legends. When everyone meets up at the DEO new introductions are made. Winn instantly takes a liking to Felicity, but Oliver isn't too okay with that. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14395686/chapters/33243285

Last Dance (Post S6) by @dust2dust34 - Oliver and Felicity say good bye http://dust2dust34.tumblr.com/post/173200119409/and-because-im-in-an-angsty-mood-17-last

Untitled by @smoaking-greenarrow - Arrow Out of Context Prompt: “You deserve someone better, who can harness that light that’s still inside of you, but I’m not that person and I never will be.” http://smoaking-greenarrow.tumblr.com/post/173198269409/16-of-the-out-of-s2-context-prompts-plssss

Curious Transformations multi-chapter WIP by CharlotteCordelier - From the Department of I-didn't-think-this-all-the-way-through, a season 2 AU. Felicity comes to in a train station, missing some time. And that's only the beginning of the weirdness. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14161659/chapters/32641764

To Sacrifice the Sun multi-chapter WIP by @emmilynestill - Oliver and Felicity are ARGUS agents working on a mission in Mexico, the two share some very important history. A MUST READ! http://archiveofourown.org/works/7510744/chapters/22505918

Untitled by @felicityollies - Prompt: "my bf found my shampoo by smelling all of them" http://felicityollies.tumblr.com/post/173208772812/are-u-by-any-chance-writing-about-my-bf-found-my

Tempest multi-chapter WIP by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Three years ago, tragedy struck Julianna Queen’s life. Now, she wears a mask and fights at her father’s side, looking for closure and justice as she tries to find a path to move forward with her life while holding on to her past. But that may a bit more complicated than she thinks… http://archiveofourown.org/works/13309731/chapters/30461850

Damn It, Why Won't the Eagle Just Land Already? multi-chapter complete by @smewhereelse - President John Diggle would really appreciate it if everyone would stop gossiping about his security detail and his science advisor and get back to work. He’d appreciate it even more if his best friends would pull their heads out of their asses and get together already. A White House romantic comedy AU. https://archiveofourown.org/works/13132602/chapters/30040788

Butterflies Around a Flame... multi-chapter WIP by @arrow-through-my-writers-block -  Isabella doesn't expect a lengthy string of code on her laptop to transform into a letter from her recently deceased mother offering to tell her the truth about her father, but she accepts the ghostly offering with slight hesitation. In the confession comes the remarkable tale of Felicity Smoak's whirlwind romance with troublemaker Oliver Queen and their desperate attempt to escape the circumstances that brought them together in the first place. (inspired by the film 'Fire With Fire' | title from the song 'Birds of a Feather' by The Civil Wars) https://archiveofourown.org/works/7834591/chapters/17885317

Growing Together by @tsukikomew - In a world where the Gambit never goes down, Felicity Smoak just wants a burger. She just wants one night at Big Belly Burger the way it used to be, before Oliver Queen cut himself away from his family fortune and started being a server there. When she forgets her cell phone one night, Oliver tracks her down and begins a love story neither of them were expecting. https://archiveofourown.org/works/7548208

Coming Together by @tsukikomew - After Oliver Queen walked away from his fortune, he was surprised to meet the love of his life at Big Belly Burger. Now Olicity is confronted with dealing with Moira Queen. A continuation of "Growing Together". https://archiveofourown.org/works/10812036

Loving Together by @tsukikomew - Oliver and Felicity have done it all. They've overcome having no job, no money, and no place to go. They've overcome having three children and parents who were not always supportive. Now they have one more thing to overcome and it doesn't help they start out with three puking children. No matter what they are together and in love, and that's what matters. https://archiveofourown.org/works/10992861

Bodyguard multi-chapter WIP by @originalhybridlover - Felicity needs a new bodyguard and Diggle referred her to an old friend, Oliver Queen. Unknowingly she meets the man she would one day marry.  LOVE THIS and the writer says she’s working on an update :) https://archiveofourown.org/works/9656798/chapters/21814571

Oliver on Vacation multi-chapter complete by @tinaday3w - Olicity AU.  When Oliver Queen’s best friend, renowned psychiatrist Dr. John Diggle, encourages the stressed-out CEO to go on vacation, Oliver can’t believe Digg’s “vacation” choice is actually a psychiatric retreat nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Oliver simply doesn’t think he needs this kind of intensive therapy.  And he definitely doesn’t think he needs the attentions of Felicity – the frivolous, frolicking forest fairy who flits her way into his life and challenges all his assumptions.  What Oliver doesn’t know is that he’ll never be so happy to be proven wrong. A MUST READ! https://archiveofourown.org/works/4662243/chapters/10637169

Time for a Story multi-chapter WIP by @smkkbert - This fic shows Olicity and their life as a (married) couple with family. Although Olicity (and their kids) are the protagonists, other characters of Arrow and Flash make appearances. YOU NEED THIS STORY IN YOUR LIFE. http://archiveofourown.org/works/3912157/chapters/8757172

It's the Side Effects That Save Us by @theshipsfirstmate - Post-5x20, my attempt to sort through that wholly unsatisfying final Olicity scene. https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869822

Take Two by @yet-i-remain-quiet - A slight rewrite to the Olicity scene at the end of 6x19. When Felicity comes home after seeing the explosion and is looking for Oliver. What if the couple had had a real conversation. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14428407

The Story of Tonight multi-chapter WIP by @arrow-crack - Set in the Revolutionary War. Felicity, a rich daughter of General Smoak meets a strangely charming soldier under her father's command, Oliver Queen. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14073570/chapters/32423250

Re-Airrow 1x17 by @lostolicityscenes - Here is episode 1x17 FS version. https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/173275491621/re-airrow-episode-1x17-an-you-may-notice-that

Rainbow in the Dark multi-chapter Complete by @tdgal1 - The team is tracking a sex trafficking ring leading to an auction on a boat.  Oliver has a PTSD attack resulting in understanding his true feelings for Felicity. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14345985/chapters/33110745

Everybody Leaves by shesimperfect_butshetries - Rewrite of the end of 6x17. Felicity and Oliver discuss the collapse of Team Arrow. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14416086

Love On Top by @sanxo - This is a one shot, set after 6x19, I may say that it's a little an AU too, oh and its also a little celebration of the Olicity sexiversary! https://archiveofourown.org/works/14416902

Real Love (Is Never a Waste of Time) multi-chapter WIP by @callistawolf - Oliver and Felicity are CEOs who are more partners than they are rivals, but they still bicker whenever they meet up. Constantly pestered by their families and board members, they turn to each other for a simple solution. But marriage is never simple, especially when these two are involved. When Oliver's younger sister decides to hold her much-anticipated wedding on a tropical island and insists her brother and his wife attend, will the island paradise prove to be the tipping point in their carefully balanced relationship? https://archiveofourown.org/works/13604955/chapters/31233603

The Best Deceptions multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - From the moment Oliver Queen met Felicity Smoak, all he’d wanted to do was keep her safe. But to protect her and his city, he had to become something else. Five years later, Felicity finds herself wrapped up in a dangerous murder investigation and a treacherous relationship. Intent on finding out the truth, she has to rely on a government sector she doesn’t trust, the hacking skills she gave up on, and a man who she thought had given up on her. http://archiveofourown.org/works/13920333/chapters/32038635

// @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo// @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1// @quiveringbunny // @wrongshipper // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 //

[theclaravoyant]

out here in the dust (if you don’t have trust) - 5x12 coda Fitz Daisy

AN ~ This is a 5x12 coda. I wrote this before 5x14. I will be writing much after 5x14 and you’re welcome to prompt me. For now, have some healing and bonding and the quality FitzDaisy brotp content We Deserve because apparently the writers are coming for this brotp’s life!! Title from One Foot by Walk the Moon which is more of a romantic song but I love it so go with it.

Fitz & Daisy (plus a teensy bit of background FS), hurt/comfort, angst with a happy/hopeful ending. Rated T. 5x12 coda.

Read on AO3 (~1500wd)

out here in the dust (if you don’t have trust)

The reception was just as understated as the wedding that had preceded it: a collapsible trestle table decked out with the finest tablecloth two dollars could buy, matching red-and-white checked napkins, and paper plates full of assorted finger foods. Sandwiches and spring rolls, candy and cupcakes; the spread might have been more suited to a children’s party than to a wedding-of-the-century in a supernatural forest below the surface of the Earth. Nevertheless, the happy couple – from the looks of them, at least – had never been happier.

Unfortunately though, supernatural forest or no, the pressures of reality eventually began to sink back in. Mike and Davis melted away, and Deke took this as an opportunity to retreat back to the bunker-like safety of familiar ground. Mack followed after another round of congratulations, eager to return to Elena’s side. Daisy outlasted them all, but gradually her optimism and energy began to fade. Every time she caught sight of Coulson’s smile, every time the bittersweet timbre of his voice cut through to her, she felt a stab of rage and fear and love that scratched away at her happiness. As the crowd began to thin, there was less and less reinforcement, and soon, as happy as she wanted to be for them, Daisy found she could not look her best friends in the eye. Not when such angst was reflected in her own.

Said best friends, of course, began to notice this as Daisy distanced herself from the crowd. Jemma frowned, thinking of Coulson, thinking of how she herself would feel if her own father had given her such news. She glanced over at Fitz and saw that his smile had faded too. He was staring with a melancholy sort of ache, at where Daisy now sat on a hillock with her back to them, hugging her knees as she looked out over the water. When Fitz caught Jemma watching him, he tried to flash her a reassuring smile, but it was swallowed quickly by guilt. He dropped his head, playing uneasily with the food in his napkin. It had felt too strange to hide his concern, he thought, but just as strange that a profound sense of guilt should steal away what he had thought to be unquenchable happiness. His fight with Daisy, her fear and anger, still played on his mind. It felt selfish, to be so flagrantly happy when she was still so clearly torn apart inside.

Jemma saw the spiral he was turning down, and nudged his arm. She nodded back in Daisy’s direction.

“Talk to her,” she insisted: softly, calmly, firmly.

She wrapped a chocolate slice in a new napkin and pressed it into his hands, and Fitz reluctantly took on his mission, trying to pull himself into some semblance of order, of focus, of empathy, as he trudged the surprisingly long, surprisingly steep distance to his friend.

An apology sat on his tongue. Hung in the air. Refused to be spoken aloud.

Daisy took a deep breath.

“You can sit, if you want.”

Small relief, at least. Fitz approached and sat beside her. He offered the slice in silence, and she took it with a nod of appreciation, and laid it to rest on the napkin on her other side before she resumed her forward outlook. For a while, Fitz stared with her, but the silence was sour and uncomfortable to rest in. He tried not to sigh, as that would draw attention to it. Daisy picked at the grass, but it was not nearly distracting enough, so in the end, she spoke.

“I am happy for you guys, you know,” she said. “Really, I am. Didn’t want to bring the mood down, but… It’s been a bit of a long day.”

“That’s an understatement,” Fitz snorted, “but I get it. You’re worried about Coulson.”

Daisy snorted too. “That’s an understatement.”

Fitz could hear it in her voice, see it in her knotted shoulders and the way she still had not looked at him, the depth of what she meant. She was terrified and angry and somehow endeared and loving and lost and a whole, complex mixture of extreme emotions, all at once. He knew that impossible extremity well, but he’d still not yet worked out a way to reach into one’s soul and soothe it. There was one wound, however, that he could still hope to heal.

“I didn’t mean what I said, you know. Before, about Coulson. I don’t think trying to save him is stupid or naïve or whatever – besides, I mean, you know me. I’m the king of stupid naivety. Any other day I‘d be right there with you, but the truth is, this whole thing’s thrown me for a loop. First the Framework, then prison, and now this, it’s like everything I believe about myself and the world and the whole- the whole bloody universe is up in the air. I can’t make heads or tails of it, and, I dunno… sometimes I don’t think my heart’s in the right place anymore.”

“I’m sorry too,” Daisy said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I shouldn’t have gone after you like that, all that Hydra business. I don’t think you’re becoming some evil Nazi and I know you’d rather die than touch a hair on any of our heads. I’m really sorry I dug that stuff up. For what it’s worth, I think your heart is in the right place, or is at least looking for the right place. There’s just lots of right places it should be. You wanted to keep me safe, and that meant abandoning Coulson, so… wait, I didn’t mean-“

“No, you’re right,” Fitz insisted. “Abandoning. That’s just it. But I’m not too sure about the rest of it. You should’ve heard me, Daisy, I- I started volunteering people. I knew somebody would probably have to die and I had a list ready. I list I wasn’t on. Does that sound like a good heart to you?”

Daisy swallowed her words, because the answer was no and they both knew it. The effect was the same - a knife through both their guts - but after a beat, Daisy let out a wry laugh.

“It just wouldn’t be Shield without an existential crisis after every celebration, now would it?” she jested bravely. Then, sparing Fitz the pressure to appear humoured, she pushed on with a more solemn tone. “Look, maybe you’re right. Maybe something is going on with you, God knows you’ve been put through the ringer at least as much as the rest of us, if not more lately. Fear and anger, they can twist a person. I’ve been there. But love and forgiveness, they can untwist you, right?”

Fitz clenched his fist, and thought of the Framework. Of a man, like himself in so many ways, but twisted – twisted beyond what should have been recognition, except that more and more, he recognised. Shaking, Fitz felt the tears clog his throat. He couldn’t tell Daisy to stop talking. But now she was looking at him, and she could see the fear in his eyes, and changed her tack.

“A wise man once told me,” she reminded him, “that being good is a choice. Maybe you’re right about something changing inside you, maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re just scared and sick of dying. Either way, I know you know the right choice. When push comes to shove, I know in my heart that’s the one you’ll make, Fitz. That’s who you really are.”

She smiled gently. Hopefully. Any other day, Fitz might have smiled back. He might have left it there, and waited for her kindness and faith and wisdom to work its magic on his troubled mind. Today though, lost in a sea of exhaustion and uncertainty, he felt like he was walking out on the mast of a stormbound ship, and that somewhere she was reaching out, waiting to lead him back to solid ground. He reached through the storm toward her.

“The right choice is to save Coulson,” he said, his voice unsteady but his words true and spoken from the heart. “Save Coulson, and take the rest as it comes. Save the world. Together.”

There was a firmness to that last word. A promise. One that they have promised each other time and time again: to never leave each other behind. Today, it settled over Daisy’s heart uneasily, but it settled all the same, and for all her doubts about the road ahead, she found in it some consolation. She shuffled closer to Fitz, nuzzling against his side so they could share the serene supernatural view. He put an arm around her, grateful to have her close again, and quietly, Daisy added her voice to his vow.

“Together.”

[randomnessunicorn-imagine]

UT/UF Sans and US/FS Papyrus with an S/O that is a cyborg? They were made to combat threats to humanity and monster kind and fight powerful threats that can wipe out entire cities. Despite being incredibly powerful and being a walking war machine, they are a kind, adorable sweetheart but gets into serious mode when needed to fight, risking their life to protect everyone.

{ I took so much time to ultimate it, because I wantedto do different scenarios for every one of them since I like so muchscience-fiction thematic. It’s very long but I hope you will be satisfy ~ }

- Post scriptum: Here S/O is a Cyborg that is differentfrom a robot. Cyborgs have mechanical parts but also biological parts. They arenot just things made of tin and steel. In these scenarios, they appear justlike humans, you could never recognize the different between a human and a cyborg.Indeed, I took inspiration from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? of Philip K. Dick. Maybe I will use some elements of it just like the fact thatthe androids are very similar to humans, but they are super powerful like yousaid in your ask, and other things like the fake-memories, if cyborgs have atrue conscience etc.

I suggest reading this book because it is sointeresting, I’d like to read it again too. Or you can see the movie BladeRunner, it’s cool, too. Another interesting movie I could suggest about cyborgs are Ex Machina, it’s more recent and  A.I. Artificial Intelligence that it’s morefamous and older. That’s all. 

✴️ Sansy ;

Wars were oneof the things he hated the most in the existence. Why people could not stay inpeace? They had to fight against each other without any reason. Neither Godcould have redeemed them from their abominable sins. Innocents and pure soulswere always the ones to pay for the leader’s errors, they were the only ones tosuffer and die under the bombs. Luckily, the war has ended years ago, and thepoor skeleton could rest himself a little more.

Every war hasto end, sooner or later. The waiting is the most degrading part.

Beside it, Sanslearnt an important lesson: to find the beauty in the horror. It happened tohim, because he found you. You were one of the soldiers who helped civiliansduring the war, giving them comfort, foods and water. Actually, Sans did notlive the war, but he heard and saw on TV about it, suffering with the world insilence. You were a friend of Papyrus; he wanted to join up the army because hecould not see people die anymore, and he desired to be useful to his nation.Sans tried to dissuade him from this foolish idea because his brother was notfixed for it especially in this climate of tensions, Sans could not acceptsomeone could have killed Papyrus in a mission. That was too much for him!

You, beingPapyrus best friend, promised to Sans to protect Papyrus and never allow anyoneto harm him. Someway, you convinced your superior commander to bring you andPapyrus in a safer place, so the two of you helped people in need, the dangerstill existed but it was better than being in a real battlefield. You sentletters to Sans every weeks telling him how Papyrus felt and that he was safeand sound. The two of you started to become true friends until you and Papyrus cameback home so you could frequent Sans in the real life. He was so grateful towardsyou because you took care of his brother during those difficult months,protecting him from the war’s risks. He did not know how to pay your kindness,but you did it because you cared a lot about Papyrus and he was your friend.There was no reason to feel in debt with you. It was to be expected Sans andyou would have fallen in love for each other.

But the beautifulthings don’t last forever, just like the bad ones because life is still lunaticand capricious.

You have been recalledfor a service in the armed forces, again. Even if the war was over, sometime itcould happened. When the nation called, you could not run away from it. Therewere new menaces.

You and Sanskept sending letters to each other, he was so worried about you but he knew youwere capable of impossible things so he has tried to think positive once in hislife.

One day, he gota call he would have never desired to receive, it was from your boss and therewas no good news for him, because you were into a life-threatening situation.It seemed an enemy squad attacked your platoon.

Every nightmarehe left behind came back to life, tormenting his existence. When he believedpeace was finally moved toward his life, he realized it was an illusion. Justlike everything.

He could notbelieve you were dead… No, you were not still dead; there should have been somepossibilities to save you. You were fighting for your life this moment. Tosurvive. He could not leave you alone. Sans knew this world was cruel but hecould not stay here without doing nothing like he did in the Underground. Sansreached the hospital where you were admitted, talking with the doctors who saidyou had no chance to survive because you lost many parts of your body and mostof your organs were damaged, you were still alive because of the machine thatkept you live on. Wares and cables were stuck to your skin, as if they wereyour veins.

Sans recognisedthe new technology of bio-mechanic and Aplhys told to him it was possible “toplay” with life, even if it was not natural. A foolish idea hint his mind, sohe called Alphys immediately explaining to her his plan that she found crazybut she could understand Sans was desperate. He could not lose someone he lovedanymore.

He asked toAlphys if she could replace your damage organs with machines so you couldsurvive and breathing again. The surgery was long and difficult but it seemed atthe end everything went well. You could not believe being still alive becauseyou were dead a few moments ago.

You could notsee any difference since the robotic parts were hidden under your human skin,or, where your skin was missed, there was an artificial material covering youas it was real skin, and nobody could have been able to find out the alterations.You felt strange and alive in newer ways than before. You were stronger andyour moves were faster than ever. Sans explained to you that now you were like acyborg, even if he did not use this definition because he did not want to alarmyou, he just said you had artificial parts inside your body. Actually, the 80%of your body was mechanical; the only organs that remained intact were yourbrain, heart and soul.  The things thatmade you human despite everything. Beside it, he was glad to see you again andhe did not care what your form was, you were still you and that was the mostimportant thing.

✳️ Reddy ;

You were a warmachine and sometime even Sans was scared of you even if he knew you would havenever harmed him or his brother because you were a tender person. You were justprofessional at your job.

Sans could not understandthe reasons why you kept following this deadly road that was so incoherent fromthe nature of your soul. You explained to him that as a cyborg you were programmedin this way because it was your aim and you could not subtract yourself fromyour fate. He assumed they were just excuses and absurdities because you were anindividual with its own freedom. This world was different from his home so hecould not understand why you kept cutting your own wings like that. They brainwashed you, he thought, but it was the truth because you were a cyborg and acyborg was not supposed to feel the same emotions as a human. At the contraryof this concept, Sans saw you more genuine than everyone else. You had a sweet heart;it was as if they had depraved you from your true nature. Sans could nottolerate it, seeing you so impassive and reluctant. This made him thinkingabout his past self. When he was so vulnerable and weak, his brother alwaystreated him like rubbish. His mission was convincing you to follow a differentpath where there were no violence and murders because they are never worthy; heunderstood it when it was too late.  He havemade many mistakes in his life, because he did not have choice, but you got theopportunity to take decisions by yourself and change the awful destiny they preparedfor you.

One day, youcame back home harmed and tired because your training has been harder thanusual, and Sans was pissed to see you so miserable and gloomy. You knew he wasright and you needed a break to rescue your battery. You were not indestructibleand immune to pain. You still had human parts, because you were not a totalmachine. You got a real heart, limbs and soul. It did not matter since you werestill a regular person in his eyes even if your brain was a computer made of microchipsand cables. You were not a program or a mere object, so he wanted to make you comprehendit. Seeing you in those miserable conditions, Sans felt guilty because he was notsure how to help you. You felt helpless as well because he cared a lot aboutyou and you were making him disappointed and worried constantly. Actually, yourjob was not as important as he was, and you realized it was too dangerous andunfair. You saw the other soldiers acting so cruel and merciless, and they terrifiedyou so much. You did not want to become like them! It was not your true dream. Youhave never killed a single person but your boss required it from you. Heordered you to kill the enemies and you could not do that.

When youconfessed it to Sans, that you took the decision to leave your job, despite youwere programmed to fight, he was so happy and grateful because you were losing yourselfin that hell. The two of you could keep going on your way, leaving every memoryof violence behind.

✴️ Stretch ;

You were livingyour life with the other part of your heart, a skeleton called Papyrus. He wassweet and gentle in his own way and you were happy with him, despite your riskyjob because you were a soldier so your life was often in danger but Papyrusknew you were able to take care of yourself since you were well trained andsmart. He was not truly worried about your safety but he was apprehensive aboutanother thing. A secret he kept by himself he was unsure to confess you. Heknew your identity. Actually, it seemed a joke because it was impossible youdid not know who you truly were. At first, he found it funny and he thought youwere the one who was playing with his mind. Then, he realized you were unconsciousof everything. It was as if you were living a dream. It made him sad because hewas not supposed to know it and it would have been a problem if he had confessedto you the truth, it could be even so traumatic for your mind. The reality wasyou were not a human neither a monster like him. You were something else. Acyborg. Your appearance was identical to a human so you acted like one of themeven if you have never questioned your strength since a lot of people in thisworld were so strong thanks to technologies and hard trainings.

Papyrus investigatedabout your past and he did not find anything, it was as if your existence wasobscured from the world. It was abnormal. One day, he discovered a hiddendossier about you in the place where you worked. It seemed you were a deathperson. That had no sense. He studied those files for days without finding asolution to this enigma. Then, he had extended his research until he resolved themystery. You were a cyborg with implanted memories. The memories you had werenot your own, since they belonged to another person who was death for years.The family of this person could not accept the death of their son, so theyasked for the help of the Cyborg’s Corporation giving them the permission tobuild a cyborg with the features of their death son. Ironically, this personwas in the army, which was the reason why you were already skilled and preparedto fight. They had only taken back one of their greatest soldier but yourfamily was truly contented having their child back.

Papyrus wasdisgusted and alarmed about this behaviour because it was just like playingwith the death. You were unaware of this reality that was too much unrealisticto explain. He was not supposed to know it, so he was keeping the secret actinglike an ignorant. He pitied you because you were a beautiful person and you didnot deserve this treatment or being fool by your own family and your superiors.Maybe your parents did not want to shock you with this story, so you could livea normal life. Even your powers, confronted to other cyborgs, were lessdangerous, all for making truer this awful lie. Everything of you seemed real,even your happiness. The memories in your mind belonged to another person. Youlived with the illusion of a past. It could have destroyed you. He was not sureabout what to do. It could have been more problematic if you had found it outalone.

Papyrus made a promiseto himself when he reached the surface: no more lies. He was sick and tired oflies and degradation. In his life, he has been forced to lie to everyone about manythings, faking smile and joy. Like it was a theatre piece. Shakespeare was theone saying this wise thing: All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merelyplayers; they have their exists and their entrances, and one man in his time playsmany parts. Papyrus had not the energy to play, anymore. He was going to tellyou the truth even if it was painful. No truth in this world was gentle and innocuous,and he knew it very well.

One day, hetold you everything he learnt about your past, he felt guilty but he was readyto accept every decision you would have taken because you were the victim here.Not him. He loved you so much and he believed you had the right to know who youreally were.

As he predicted,you were shocked about it and you could not believe it thinking he was jokingand he was becoming crazy saying all these idiocies. He has never been more seriousthan that. You knew he could not joke about a grave argument like it. You fellin a black hole of insecurities and fears, unable to think wisely. You did notknow who you could believe since your family was the one who fool you, first. Theconfusion in your mind was undefinable and deep. You spent the few last days inthe darkness, but Papyrus was by your side despite you acted cold and insecuretowards him but he could understand since you were traumatised.

After a longtime of meditation, you decided to keep the secret because you did know howthings were going to be, but you did not want to continue this life of lies. Atthe end, you thanked Papyrus for his confession and he was glad you were notmad at him anymore. You also decided to leave the army because you were not thatperson anymore. You were not the ghost of someone else, neither a death personnor a substitute. You were only who you desired to be.

✳️ Rus ;

The shadows surrenderedevery corner of the city like a blanket that not spare anything of this miserablelife. You felt empty and unmotivated but, at the same time, sad and confused.You could not find the meaning of your existence. If a meaning has everexisted, because you were not a true human, or a true organism. You were bornlike a cyborg, a mere machine made of titan and some other artificial material.A thing. Neither the moon up above could have been able to give you some answersabout the shadow that covered your soul. It was something artificial as well,not a true one. That moon, the glowing sphere in the dark sky, was just likeyou. It shined in the sky without a true meaning and its light was not even itsown, because the moon reflected other lights just like a mirror.  

When you wereborn, three years ago, you had the illusion of being the only one. That yourmemory and your essence were real and unique. Then, you found out the truth,the cruel sense of your reality. You were just a cyborg made to fight the enemyof the Galaxy. You were not sure about these “enemies”. You have never seenthem for real. You did not know a lot about the world, despite the fact thatyou were very intelligent, you could calculate in a second how many stars were shiningin this instant. It did not satisfy you. Your experiences, just like your own conscience,were only simulacrums, they were not true but neither false. In the moment ofyour birth, they have installed fake memories in your brain. The memories ofsomeone else, nobody could say where they came from, or if they wereartificial. You had the illusion of reality. You had reminiscences about yourfamily, you could remember the first birthday you spent with them, when youwere a child and you ran carefree in the woods near your house. You have livedonly three years, something was wrong in you. Your creators, you have nevermet them, gave you those memories so you could seem a lot like a human. Theillusion was a part of your formation. People consider androids like youunnatural and dangerous, because you could not understand true emotions likethe other person that were made of bones and skin did. These illusions madeyour poor artificial heart trembling because it was unfair. You were askingyourself if even the feelings you felt were just a math’s formula. An equationjust like everything else.

While you werelost in your dark thoughts, a familiar hand touched your shoulder; your mouthproduced a little scream of surprise. It was your mate, a skeleton of the monsterskind, so you could say you were neither one of them. Papyrus was such a sweetperson and you could not understand why he could tolerate an entity like you.Papyrus did not care if you were made of skin or titan, because he loved youwith all his soul, it was the only essential thing to him. He was the most sensitiveperson you have ever known, even if you did not know many people. He could understandwhat you got in your mind with only one look. Actually, he was a sort of existentialistphilosopher and he had so many problems with his life since he had atraumatizing past. After a long pause of silence, he took the chance to speak,«Something wrong, hon?», it was a rhetorical question since he already kneweverything. You sighed, saying, «I am not sure about this life anymore…I mean, I’dlike being able to take my own decisions. Or feel something real.» he took yourhand, with delicacy before speaking, «You should! We could go away wherever youdesire, I don’t really care about what people say. If they are too stupid to understandyou, they can fuck themselves!», his voice was still placid, unemotional.

There was athing you had learnt alone: the discrimination. Everyone saw cyborgs just likemere killer machines. You were considerate an object, a weapon of destruction. Whydid you feel all this misery if you were just a machine? It was driving youcrazy. Papyrus has never seen you in that way, for him you were a normal personlike everyone else. If you did not like fighting, to be a sleeve of this ungratefulsociety, you should have denied it. It was all. One day, you have confessed tohim that you were not sure about your sentiment towards him. If everything inyou was programmed, how could you be sure about reality? Was your love pre-setas well? Strangely, he did not feel offended. He was just touched by yourfragility and naivety. He told you that the feelings you had for him were realbecause he could perceive them. You have learnt to love, but also to hate and tolive by yourself. By the experiences you made. Your creators gave you the bases andfrom them you have developed your own personality, taking your own decisions. Youwere different from the other cyborgs since you had your own plans. Then, youfinally understood the truth. You were sick of this life, and you realized youhad possibilities to become a real being. You had your own race, you were not ahuman or a monster but only yourself. Then, you hugged Papyrus for all hisbenevolence, because you felt guilty for all your dark thoughts. There was noneed to feel like this, he reassured you. Papyrus could not see a person likeyou, with that sweet and fragile soul, fighting entities from other planets orother cyborgs. It had no sense in his mind.  Nobody had the right to write your own fate,you were the one who got this privilege. It was a lesson Papyrus learnt wherehe placed his feet on the surface, a softer place than his home. He wanted youto absorb the same concept so you could be truly free.

[chocolatequeennk]

Forever and Never Apart, 14/42

Summary: After taking a year to recover from the Master, the Doctor and Rose are ready to travel again. But Time keeps pushing them forward, and instead of going back to their old life, they slowly realise that they’re stepping into a new life. Friends new and old are meeting on the TARDIS, and when the stars start going out, the Doctor and Rose face the biggest change of all: the return of Bad Wolf.

Series 4 with Rose, part 7 of Being to Timelessness; sequel to Taking Time (AO3 | FF.NET | TSP)

Betaed by @lastbluetardis, @rudennotgingr, @jabber-who-key, and @pellaaearien. Thank you so much!

AO3 | FF.NET | TSP

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12 | Ch 13

Chapter Fourteen: A Real Team Effort

“Sixty-six percent in major population areas, and rising.”

A muscle pulsed in Colonel Mace’s jaw. “Doctor, Miss Tyler, with me please.”

Rose and the Doctor shared a look, then followed the colonel back into his office.

Colonel Mace leaned back in his chair, his hands spread out in front of him. “You were right, Doctor. The Sontarans did try to take over the factory. But something has just occurred to me. If they’ve had this teleport equipment in the building the whole time, and if their battle prowess is as advanced as you claim, they could have stopped us this morning before we took over the factory. They waited until we were inside. Why?”

The answer was painfully obvious to the Doctor and Rose, but they couldn’t let Colonel Mace know about Not-Martha. She was the only thing keeping the planet from getting blown apart.

The Doctor leaned forward. “Because they wanted UNIT here. You gave them something they needed. Something now hidden inside the factory. Something precious.” Something like the real Martha.

The man frowned, then his expression cleared. “The mole. The person who’s been cancelling the missile launch every time.”

The Doctor nodded. “Exactly. And I think that means it’s time for us to make use of our own mole. Would you mind if we called Donna from here?”

Colonel Mace stood up. “Not at all. I’ll go see if Captain Price has had any luck tracing the cancellation signal.”

Rose’s phone was in the Doctor’s hand before the door shut behind Colonel Mace. “Will you keep an eye on our favourite clone, Rose?” he asked as he scrolled through her address book, looking for Donna’s number. “Let me know if she’s coming this way, or if she looks overly suspicious I suppose.”

Rose turned her chair so she could see Not-Martha through the glass door, and the Doctor found Donna’s name and dialled.

Donna picked up after the first ring. “What’s happened? Where are you?” she asked, her voice rapid with fear.

“Still on Earth,” he told her, keeping his voice low and even to calm her down. “But don’t worry, we’ve got our secret weapon.”

“What’s that?”

He leaned back in the chair. “You.”

“Oh.” Donna grunted softly, and he could picture the scowl on her face. “Somehow that’s not making me happy. Can’t you just zap us down to Earth with that remote thing?”

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck; he hadn’t considered she might believe that little white lie. “Yeah, I haven’t got a remote, though I really should.” He jumped up and started pacing the office. “I need you on that ship. That’s why I made them move the TARDIS. I’m sorry. But you’ve got to go outside.”

“But there’s Sonteruns out there,” she protested.

“Sontarans,” he corrected. “But they’ll all be on battle stations right now.” He shot a quick glance at Rose, then leaned against the wall when she nodded. “They don’t exactly walk about having coffee. I can talk you through it.”

“But what if they find me?”

It was the obvious question, and he didn’t have an answer. Because he couldn’t promise that they wouldn’t. There was a chance—a bigger chance than he liked—that she would be caught.

He squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. “I know, and I wouldn’t ask, but there’s nothing else I can do. The whole planet is choking, Donna.”

There was a long pause, then he could hear her take a deep breath. “What do you need me to do?”

Rose was looking at the Doctor anxiously, and he nodded and gave her a small smile. Once again, their companions were proving why they got invited along in the first place.

“The Sontarans are inside the factory, which means they’ve got a teleport link with the ship, but they’ll have deadlocked it. I need you to reopen the link.”

“But I can’t even mend a fuse.”

The Doctor sighed and tilted his head back. “Donna, stop talking about yourself like that,” he said bluntly. “You can do this. I promise.”

Donna swallowed hard and looked around at the relatively safe TARDIS console room. She wasn’t at all certain she could do whatever the Doctor needed from her, but his confidence gave her the courage to try. She’d been walking around the console to the door, and now she lowered the phone and slowly opened the door, just enough to peek out.

The short, armoured body of a Sontaran greeted her, and she carefully closed the door. “There’s a Sonterun,” she informed the Doctor, then corrected herself before he could. “Sontaran.”

“Did he see you?” the Doctor asked, and she could hear the fear in his voice..

She shook her head. “No, he’s got his back to me.”

The Doctor whispered, like he was afraid the Sontaran could hear him over the phone. “Right, Donna, listen. On the back of his neck, on his collar there’s a sort of plug, like a hole. The probic vent. One blow to the probic vent knocks ‘em out.”

Donna realised what he was asking, and she couldn’t help but voice the obvious objection. “But he’s going to kill me.”

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said, and the genuine distress in his voice made her wish she hadn’t pointed out that possibility. “I swear I’m so sorry, but you’ve got to try.”

Panic warred with determination. This was obviously the only plan the Doctor had. If she didn’t manage to get that teleport working, the Earth would choke. Her mum and granddad, everyone she knew—they would all die.

Donna took a deep breath and walked up the ramp to the console. The mallet the Doctor liked to use for what Rose called “percussive maintenance” hung from a small hook. She took it in hand and slunk back over to the door.

The Sontaran didn’t move when she slipped out of the TARDIS. As she crept up on him, she saw the spot the Doctor was talking about—a small circle inside of a larger circle, right on the back of his neck.

As silently as she could, she raised the mallet and brought it down hard on the pro—on the vent thingy. To her surprise and absolute delight, the four-foot killing machine went down like a sack of potatoes.

Donna did a little dance and brought the phone back up to her mouth. “Back of the neck,” she cheered quietly.  

“Oh, well done!” the Doctor breathed. “Now then, you have to find the external junction feed to the teleport.”

Donna’s heart raced as she crept through the Sontaran ship. Taking down one soldier with his back to her was one thing; risking running into more was quite another.

“What, what’s it look like?” Her eyes darted back and forth, taking in every detail of the dark grey corridor, alert to anything that might indicate another Sontaran was coming.

“A circular panel on the wall,” the Doctor replied. “Big symbol on the front, like a, like a letter T with a horizontal line through it. Or, or, two Fs back to back.”

Donna frowned, trying to picture that. As it turned out, it didn’t matter yet. “Oh. Well, there’s a door,” she told the Doctor when she turned the corner.

“Should be a switch by the side.”

She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “Yeah there is. But it’s Sontaran shaped; you need three fingers.”

“You’ve got three fingers.”

“Oh, yeah.” With the adrenaline rushing through her, she didn’t even mind his slightly condescending tone of voice. She just adjusted her fingers to the shape of the switch and pressed, holding her breath that the room on the other side would be empty.

The door slid open, and there was no one in sight. “I’m through.”

“Oh, you are brilliant, you are.”

Donna rolled her eyes at the Doctor’s cooing. “Shut up,” she snapped, even though she glowed with pleasure at the praise. “Right. T with a line through it.”

She waited for the next direction, but instead, the Doctor suddenly said, “Got to go. Keep the line open,” and ended the call.

Donna looked at the phone in her hand. “Keep the line open,” she hissed. “Who am I going to be taking calls from?” She looked back the way she’d come, but without a guarantee that it would be any safer than what lay ahead, she took a deep breath and kept going.

There was another door a few yards away, and she approached it cautiously. She still hadn’t found that T with a line through it—if she could find that before the Doctor called back, hopefully he’d get her out of here finally.

She was almost at the door when it slid open, and Donna just barely had time to spin and hide behind the bulky door frame. Two lines of Sontarans marched through, and she kept waiting for one of them to spot her. They were soldiers, though, focused on their mission and not any details that might be out of place.

Still. As she watched them march past, she added this to the list of things she would yell at the Doctor for when she saw him again.

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor pressed the end call button and slid the phone into his pocket. Rose had just told him Colonel Mace was back and marching around the room purposely, and frankly, he wasn’t sure he trusted the man not to have come up with yet another plan that would lead to UNIT deaths.

“Doctor,” the colonel said when they stepped out of the office. “Your plan to keep Sontarans inside the warehouse alone has worked, but there’s been a difficulty we didn’t consider.”

“What do you mean?” the Doctor argued. “Everyone’s out and alive.” As soon as he said it, the problem was obvious. “Everyone’s out. They’re all standing around outside, and you don’t have enough gas masks to go around, because why would you? You didn’t expect this kind of situation when you left headquarters today.”

Colonel Mace nodded. “Exactly. But I think we’ve come up with a solution.” He tossed the Doctor and Rose both gas masks. “Positions. That means everyone.”

The Doctor grabbed his coat and had just gotten one arm into the sleeve when Not-Martha came around the corner and glared at him and Rose.

“You’re not going without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said breezily as he finished putting his coat on. “Would we, Rose?”

“Definitely not,” she agreed.

Rose pulled her gas mask on and grinned up at the Doctor. “Hey Doctor.”

“Are you my mummy?” they said in unison, then broke into giggles.

Not-Martha looked at them in absolute disgust. Which really, if they hadn’t already known she wasn’t Martha, that would have been a big indicator right there. Because after travelling with them for a year, Martha knew their quirky sense of humour.

“Yeah,” she said harshly, “I think Colonel Mace is waiting for us outside, if you’re done messing about.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and gestured for her to go first. Then he took Rose’s hand and they followed the clone outside.

What do you think the colonel is going to do? Rose asked.

The Doctor shook his head. Not a clue. I have an idea personally—the terraform device at Rattigan Academy. But a) that won’t do any good until we stop the source of the gas, and b) I doubt UNIT knows he’s got one of those.

Colonel Mace was pacing impatiently when they reached him, and the Doctor couldn’t resist needling him a bit. “Reporting as ordered, sir!” he said, snapping a sloppy salute.

The colonel rolled his eyes. “If you could concentrate.” He whipped off his own gas mask and replaced it with a cap matching his khaki uniform. “Attention, all troops. The Sontarans might think of us as primitive, as does every passing species with an axe to grind. They think we’re an easy target for their poison gas, but we will not just sit here and choke to death. We have more technology available to us than they realise, and we will use what we have to give us enough time to fight back against the warriors of Sontar.” He tilted his head to speak into the radio clipped to his shoulder. “Trap One to Hawk Major. Go, go, go.”

A massive downdraft caught the Doctor by surprise and nearly knocked him down. He felt Rose grab onto his arm to hold herself upright, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the rapidly clearing skies. There was something up there, but he couldn’t quite make out yet what it was.

“It’s working,” Colonel Mace said into his radio. “The area’s clearing. Engines to maximum.”

The breeze strengthened, and he and Rose braced against each other to stay upright. The shape in the sky was recognisable now.

“It’s the Valiant,” Rose shouted over the engines.

“UNIT Carrier Ship Valiant reporting for duty,” Colonel Mace said proudly. “With engines strong enough to clear away the fog.”

The Doctor took his gas mask off and laughed as he ran his hand through his hair. He had to admit he never would have thought to use the Valiant like that. “Whoa, that’s brilliant.”

Colonel Mace rocked back on his heels. “Thank you, Doctor.” A furrow appeared between his eyebrows. “Of course, that only helps the greater London area, but just like you are instructed in a plane crash to put on your own oxygen masks before helping anyone else…”

The Doctor nodded. “Best if we can keep breathing for a little bit longer here. That way, we have time to save the entire planet. I’m truly impressed, Colonel,” he said sincerely.

Colonel Mace stood a little straighter, a proud smile on his face. “And your plan, Doctor? Is it—?

“Going exactly as expected,” the Doctor said quickly, before Colonel Mace could give Donna’s location away to Not-Martha. “In fact, I think it’s time to initiate the next phase.” He raised his eyebrows at the clone and bounced lightly on his toes. “What do you say, Martha Jones? One more run with Rose and me, for old times’ sake?”

She glanced at the colonel, and he nodded sharply. “Permission granted, Dr. Jones. You have my permission to follow any orders the Doctor gives—or whatever he likes to call his directives—that seem necessary for the salvation of this planet.”

Not-Martha nodded and snapped a salute, then grinned at the Doctor. “Ready whenever you are.”

The Doctor started to return her smile, then pretended to remember something. “I left my sonic screwdriver on Colonel Mace’s desk,” he lied. “Rose, why don’t you and Martha get into the building? I’ll catch you up. And be careful of the mines!” he ordered as he jogged towards the trailer.

As soon as he was out of Not-Martha’s sight, he pulled Rose’s phone out of his pocket and hit redial.  “Donna, hold on. I’m coming,” he assured her, then he ended the call and dropped the phone back in his pocket.  

He caught back up with Rose and the clone just inside the building, at the top of a flight of stairs. “All right, let’s see if we can solve this poison gas problem, once and for all,” the Doctor said. He scanned the building with the sonic screwdriver, winking at Rose as he did. “Scanning for alien tech, just like you always wanted, love.”

She grinned at him, her tongue peeking out. “Finally, some Spock,” she teased as she took his hand.

“Alien technology, this-a-way,” the Doctor said, leading the way down the stairs and through empty hallways. He knew most of the Sontarans were up on the ground floor, attempting to break through the barrier that would let them out of the factory, but he’d been worried that they might have left a guard behind. He should have known the Sontarans would be more interested in warfare than guard duty.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Not-Martha drop her phone back into the pocket of her lab coat. UNIT hasn’t given up firing on the Sontaran ship, he told Rose. I really thought Colonel Mace understood.

Rose brushed her thumb over his as they walked down the stairs, the motion-activated lights turning on overhead as they walked. Can you blame him, Doctor? You say they’ll die if they take on the Sontarans, but if the gas reaches 80%, the whole planet dies anyway.

I know. You’re right. It’s just…

You wish he trusted you. And he does—look at how much he’s been willing to give. Don’t blame him for wanting to do something. It’s his job to protect the planet, after all.

The lights flickered on when they reached the main basement corridor, and the Doctor turned slowly, trying to get a direction from the sonic screwdriver. “This way,” he said when he got a heading.

The beeping of the sonic sped up as they approached a door at the end of the hallway. The Doctor glanced down at the device, then pushed the door open and walked through yet another set of plastic flaps.

A body on a gurney caught his attention immediately, and he and Rose jogged over to their former companion. “Oh, Martha, I’m so sorry.” He pressed his fingers to her throat and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt her pulse. “Still alive,” he told Rose.

Behind him, he heard the click of a safety being removed. He glanced over his shoulder, and Not-Martha had a gun pointed at him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Rose growled. She took a step towards Not-Martha, but when the Doctor quickly shook his head, she stopped. You’d better have a plan then, she told him, looking at him through narrowed eyes.

“Wish you carried a gun now?” Not-Martha taunted.

The Doctor turned back to the real Martha, looking for the tube that connected her to the clone. “Not at all,” unable to keep a note of triumph from his voice when he found it.

“I’ve been stopping the nuclear launch all this time.”

The Doctor straightened and turned to face her. “Doing exactly what I wanted,” he said, enjoying the confusion and uncertainty that flickered across her face. “I needed to stop the missiles, just as much as the Sontarans.” He slowly circled her, trying to keep Rose and the real Martha out of the line of fire. “I’m not having Earth start an interstellar war. You’re a triple agent.”

Her brow furrowed as they turned in a slow circle. “When did you know?”

“About you? Oh, right from the start. Reduced iris contraction, slight thinning of the hair follicles on the left temple. And, frankly, you smell. You might as well have worn a t-shirt saying ‘clone.’” He’d come full circle, now standing behind Martha’s head. “Although, maybe not in front of Captain Jack. You remember him, don’t you? Because you’ve got all her memories.”

Something glinted in her eyes, and she lifted her chin. “You’re right, Doctor. I do have all her memories. Enough to know that the best way to get a reaction out of you… is this.”

She moved her arm, and the weapon was now pointed directly at Rose.

“Martha, don’t,” the Doctor growled.

The clone smirked. “But I’m not Martha, remember? I’m a Sontaran operative, following their agenda. And they need to keep Martha Jones unconscious for a while longer.”

The Doctor tried to move himself in between Rose and the clone, but she shook her head and gestured with the gun for him to stay where he was.

He flexed his fingers and reached for Rose over the bond. Get her talking, Rose. If you can distract her, I can unhook our Martha from the machine, and that will debilitate the clone.

Rose stepped towards the clone. “There’s one question I’ve wondered ever since we realised you were a clone,” she said. “Why do the Sontarans care if Earth fires at them?”

Not-Martha smiled condescendingly at Rose, and for a moment, her gaze was off the Doctor entirely. He reached down quickly and grabbed the tube off her neck, and the clone collapsed as Martha gasped for air.

The gun, Rose, he ordered as he supported Martha with hands under her back. He heard the weapon skitter across the floor.

“It’s all right, it’s all right,” he told Martha as she latched onto him. “I’m here, I’m here. I’ve got you, I’ve got you.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “There was this thing, Doctor, this alien, with this head.”

Rose’s phone rang in his pocket, and the Doctor let go of Martha and grabbed the phone. “Oh! Blimey, I’m busy.” He accepted the call and brought the phone to his ear. “Got it?” he asked Donna.

“Yes. Now hurry up.”

He raked a hand through his head and started pacing, only sparing a glance for the clone on the floor. “Take off the covering. All the blue switches inside flick them up like a fuse box, and that should get the teleport working.”

“Oh, my God,” Martha gasped. “That’s me.” She started to get off the gurney, but looked at her state of dress in obvious embarrassment.

“Here.” The Doctor took off his coat and handed it to her, then lay down on his back in the teleport pod.

Rose and Martha shared a smile as Martha pulled the coat on. “I see he hasn’t changed much,” Martha commented as she got down on the floor with Rose and her clone. She reached out for the clone.

“Don’t touch me,” the clone stammered.

“It’s not my fault,” Martha protested. She looked at her clone for a moment, trying to think of the best way to convince her to help them. “The Sontarans created you, but you had all my memories.”

Pain was drawn on the clone’s face in sharp lines. “You’ve got a brother, sister, mother, and father.”

Martha’s heart ached at the thought of her family, out there somewhere, choking to death on the poison gas. “If you don’t help me, they’re going to die.”

“You love them,” the clone observed.

Martha nodded fiercely. “Yes. Remember that?”

There was a loud clanging noise behind them, and then the Doctor demanded, “The gas. Tell us about the gas.”

“He’s the enemy,” the clone cried.  

Martha put a soothing hand on her shoulder. “Then tell me. It’s not just poison; what’s it for?” The clone’s eyes were going dull, and Martha knew they didn’t have much time before she died. “Martha, please,” she implored, hoping the use of her name would soften her.  

She swallowed hard, and looked right at Martha. “Caesofine concentrate,” she said, her voice raspy. “It’s one part of bosteen, two parts probic five.”

“Clonefeed,” the Doctor groaned. “It’s clonefeed!”

“What’s clonefeed, Doctor?” Rose asked.

Martha looked at him over her shoulder as he launched into a rapid-fire lecture, gesturing with his hands as he spoke. “Like amniotic fluid for Sontarans,” he explained. “That’s why they’re not invading—they’re converting the atmosphere, changing the planet into a clone world. Earth becomes a great big hatchery. Because the Sontarans are clones—that’s how they reproduce.” His eyes widened. “Give them a planet this big, they’ll create billions of new soldiers. The gas isn’t poison. It’s food.”

He ran off again, but Martha honestly didn’t care about the Doctor right now. Her clone was clinging to the metal pole, trying desperately to stay alive.

“My heart,” she stammered. “It’s getting slower.”

Martha shook her head sadly. She’d been trained about this kind of clone in her introduction to UNIT—once the signal was broken between the original and the clone, there was no way to keep the clone alive. And if she knew that, then so did her clone.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

The clone looked at her. “In your mind, you’ve got so many plans. There’s so much that you want to do.”

“And I will.” Martha nodded. “Never do tomorrow what you can do today, my mum says, because—”

“Because you never know how long you’ve got. Martha Jones. All that life.”

The fervent desire to have that life for herself was written on the clone’s face, and Martha wished there was a way she could give her that. She’d insisted earlier that this wasn’t her fault, but it wasn’t the clone’s fault, either. She’d been brought into existence to serve a purpose, and now that her purpose was over, she would die.

It wasn’t fair. Life was more than that. They stared at each other for a long moment, and then the clone finally died.

The Doctor looked up when Rose’s shadow appeared on the floor of the teleport pod. Martha’s clone just died. Felt kinda out of place over there.

He nodded, then finished what he was doing on the controls. Donna’s harsh whisper of his name echoed in the pod a second later, at the same moment as the lights all came on. He reached up and grabbed the phone.

“Yeah?” he whispered.

“Blue switches done.”

Before he could cheer, she said one more sentence.

“But they’ve found me.”

The Doctor leapt out of the teleport pod and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the controls. “Now!”

Donna materialised a moment later, still holding his mallet and gasping and panting in fear. “Have I ever told you how much I hate you?” she shrieked as she hugged him.

He squeezed her tight, then pushed her towards Rose. “Go hug Rose,” he told her. “Got to bring the TARDIS down.” He watched Rose as he manipulated the controls on the teleport with the sonic screwdriver. When she smiled in relief, he grinned back at her. The TARDIS was back where they’d left her.

“Right, now. Martha, you coming?” he called out as he deadlocked the teleport system open so the Sontarans couldn’t lock him out again.

She stood up and held out her phone as she walked towards him. “What about this nuclear launch thing?”

“Just keep pressing ‘N,’” he instructed. “We want to keep those missiles on the ground.”

“There’s two of them,” Donna stuttered, looking from the Martha wearing his coat to the one dead on the floor.

Rose put her hand on Donna’s back and guided her to the teleport pod. “She’s a clone, Donna. It’s a long story.”

The Doctor grinned at them. “Here we go. The old team, back together. Well, the new team,” he amended as he reset the coordinates he wanted the teleport to connect to.

“We’re not going back on that ship!” Donna cried out, her voice shrill with panic.

“No, no, no. No,” the Doctor reassured her. “I needed to get the teleport working so that we could get to”—He pressed the button and the ATMOS factory disappeared, replaced by the Rattigan Academy—“Here. The Rattigan Academy, owned by…”

Luke stood in the middle of the room, pointing a gun at the teleport pod. “Don’t tell anyone what I did,” he babbled, and the gun shook dangerously in his hands as he walked towards them. “It wasn’t my fault, the Sontarans lied to me, they—”

The Doctor met Luke halfway, snatched the gun out of his hands, and tossed it away. “If I see one more gun,” he muttered as he strode out of the room.

What are you going to do, Doctor? Rose asked as they reached the “visioning lab.”

Luke was building devices to terraform a new planet. I’m going to use it to terraform Earth instead.

Donna, Martha, and Luke arrived as he started running around the lab, gathering the parts he needed. “Caesofine gas—that’s why the Sontarans had to stop the missiles. They were holding back.” He looked at the slightly curved bottom of one part and shook his head, then spun around and grabbed his mallet out of Donna’s hand and banged it, hard. “Because caesofine gas is volatile, that’s why they had to use you to stop the nuclear attack. Ground to air engagement could spark off the whole thing.”

“What, like set fire to the atmosphere?” Martha asked incredulously.

The Doctor nodded as he fit the ignition pin into place. “Yeah. They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army. And all the time we had Luke here in his dream factory. Planning a little trip, were we?” he snarled as he used the sonic to weld the pieces together.

Luke hunched his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest. “They promised me a new world,” the teen said petulantly.

“You were building equipment, ready to terraform El Mundo Luko so that humans could live there and breathe the air with this.” He put the final piece in place and the lights turned on. “An atmospheric converter.”

The Doctor draped the cables over his neck, then picked up the device and raced out to the park in front of the house. What little bit of clearing they’d been granted by the Valiant was rapidly filling with the caesofine gas again.

“That’s London,” Donna mumbled, sounding shell-shocked. “You can’t even see it. My family’s in there.”

He pressed his lips together. They all had family in London, and if this didn’t work… “If I can get this on the right setting.”

“Doctor, hold on,” Martha ordered. “You said the atmosphere would ignite.”

The atmospheric converter clicked onto the right setting, and he jumped up and ran back a few steps. “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” he said, then pressed the button.

An energy pulse shot up into the sky and disappeared in the fog. A moment later, they heard an explosion, and the caesofine gas caught on fire.

The back-blast from the explosion hit them, and then the fire started moving, following the fuel.

“Please, please, please, please, please, please, please,” the Doctor mumbled.

The fire burned for an unending thirty seconds, and then it disappeared, leaving blue skies behind. “Oh yes!” the Doctor cheered, punching the air.

“He’s a genius,” Luke stammered.

“He’s the Doctor,” Rose said.

The Doctor wanted to bask in her pride, but he knew the Sontarans wouldn’t take the loss of their clone world lying down. “Now we’re in trouble,” he grunted as he picked up the atmospheric converter and raced back to the front room of the house.

He set the device down on the desk and used the sonic screwdriver to adjust the firing mechanism, putting it on a timer instead of a simple trigger ignition. “Ninety seconds should be enough,” he mumbled to himself as he worked.

“Enough for what?” Rose asked.

Reconnecting the last wire started his ninety seconds. The Doctor moved fast as he picked the weapon back up and carried it into the teleport pod. “Sontarans are never defeated. They’ll be preparing for war. I have to stop them.” He hefted the device. “I’ve recalibrated this for Sontaran air,” he explained.

“But you put it on a delay, because you have to give them a choice,” Rose realised.

“Exactly.” He pressed the teleport, and as he disappeared, he told her, I love you.

Rose’s fear buffeted him for a moment, then he felt her try to control it so it wouldn’t distract him. It was a gesture he appreciated, since he was now on the Sontaran ship, staring straight into the face of General Staal.

“Oh, excellent,” the Sontaran said.

The Doctor set the atmospheric converter down and grabbed the trigger. If they thought he had to press the button to get the device to go off, they wouldn’t expect it to be on a timer.

Fifty seconds left.

“General Staal, you know what this is,” he said, rocking back and forth on his feet until he was back within arm’s reach of the teleport controls. “But there’s one more option. You can go. Just leave. Sontaran High Command need never know what happened here.”

“Your stratagem would be wise if Sontarans feared death, but we do not. At arms,” Staal ordered. Sontaran soldiers filled the room, helmets up and weapons at the ready.  

The Doctor sighed; he’d expected this from the Sontarans, but he didn’t like the thought of killing an entire ship of soldiers. “I’ll do it, Staal. If it saves the Earth, I’ll do it.”

“A warrior doesn’t talk; he acts,” Staal scoffed.

Twenty-five seconds left.

“I am giving you the chance to leave,” the Doctor pleaded desperately.  

“And miss the glory of this moment?”

Over the tannoy, another Sontaran announced, “All weapons targeting Earth, sir. Firing in twenty.”

Fifteen seconds.

“I’m warning you,” the Doctor said, his fingers twitching towards the teleport controls.  

“And I salute you. Take aim.”

Ten seconds.

“I’ll do it.”

“Then do it!”

The Doctor dropped the trigger and slammed his hand down on the teleport control. The last thing he saw as he disappeared from the ship was the sudden realisation on Staal’s face.

Rose threw herself into his arms when he rematerialised, and he welcomed her hug. The mixture of relief and regret when he won the day by killing the other side was always difficult to deal with.

You did what you had to do, Doctor, she told him as she ran her hand through his hair soothingly. You gave them a choice, and they still were going to destroy the planet.

He sighed and pressed a kiss to her neck. I know. Thank you for reminding me.

She squeezed him tight, then let go of him and took his hand instead.

The Doctor glanced around at his team. How much fun could they have if they travelled with both Donna and Martha?

Then he spotted Luke Rattigan, shifting towards the door. “Oh, no you don’t,” he told the teenager, collaring him quickly. “You can claim all you want that the Sontarans lied to you, but I bet you understood those fifty-two deaths perfectly. You were willing to let people die so you could have your own planet.”

“It’s not… people don’t… I was tired of being an outsider!” he exclaimed.

The Doctor took a zip tie out of his pocket and bound his wrists together, then looked at Rose over the top of Luke’s head. “Rose, call UNIT and get us a ride out of here.”

She nodded and pulled out her phone, and he focused his attention on the teen again. “No, you felt like your intelligence entitled you to more attention, more praise than the world gave you. And when they didn’t fall at your feet, the way you thought you deserved, you cast them aside.” The Doctor growled in the back of his throat as he dragged Luke outside. “An entire planet sentenced to die, and all because one teenager had delusions of grandeur.”

Luke scuffed the toe of his trainer against the gravel driveway. “I know. You’re right; I know.”

The Doctor blinked. He hadn’t expected that. “Really?” he asked skeptically. “The sudden change of heart wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’re being taken into custody, would it?”

A scowl crossed Luke’s face, but then he sighed. “No. It was watching you, Doctor. Because I used to think that I was the cleverest person in the world, and that meant people should praise me. But you—you’re way more clever than I’ll ever be, and you use it to help people. You went up on that ship even though you knew they might shoot you on sight.” Luke looked over the Doctor’s shoulder. “I’d never do something like that.”

The Doctor tilted his head and looked down at the teenager. He really was just eighteen, he remembered. Plenty of people who did stupid things at eighteen went on to be fine, upstanding citizens. Okay, so maybe most of those people didn’t agree to turn the entire planet over to an alien force, but the theory held true.

“We’ll see what UNIT wants to do with you,” he said, keeping his answer as non-committal as possible.  

oOoOoOoOo

Donna slept the night in her old bed. They’d only lived in this house for a little more than a year before she’d left, so it still didn’t feel like home. Instead of childhood trinkets, the few knickknacks were the things she’d picked up on her travels.

No one woke her up the next morning, and when she came downstairs after getting a hot shower, her granddad handed her a cup of coffee. “Your mother is off doing the shopping,” he explained. “Didn’t want to wake you—thought you looked done in when you came home last night.”

Donna snorted. “It’s never stopped her before.”

“Now, Donna,” he said. “Remember, she thought we were all going to die last night.”

That triggered a memory of the one other time Sylvia Noble had let her daughter have a lie-in without nagging at her to get up: the day after her almost-wedding.

“Yeah, I suppose.” Donna took a sip of coffee, then looked at her granddad. “I’m going back out there with them, Gramps,” she said quietly.

“Well of course you are! My granddaughter, helping save the world!” He beamed and patted her on the shoulder. “I always felt like  you were meant for more than just a regular life.”

The front door swung open and Sylvia walked into the house, groceries in hand. “The streets are half-empty. People still aren’t driving. There’s kids on bikes all over the place. It’s wonderful. Unpack that lot, I’m going to see if Suzette’s all right.”

Donna and her granddad shared a look, and then he shook his head. “I won’t tell her. Best not. Just keep it as our little secret, eh?”

“Yeah,” Donna said, trying to ignore the wistful notion that maybe someday, her mother would be proud of who she really was.

“And you go with them, those amazing friends of yours. You go and see the stars, and then bring a bit of them back for your old Gramps.”

Donna’s throat closed up at the sight of her granddad’s tears, so she stood up and walked around the table until she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and press a kiss to the top of his head.

“Love you,” she managed to say through the tears that threatened. She squeezed his shoulder, then walked out of the house, away from the one thing it was hard to leave behind.

oOoOoOoOo

Rose poured Martha another cup of coffee. She’d come over for breakfast that morning, and they’d spent an hour just catching up on everything that had happened since they’d seen each other last.

“So you’ve worked with Jack a few times?” the Doctor asked.

Martha nodded. “I’m the closest thing there is to a liaison between UNIT and Torchwood. Since I know Jack already, it works out.”

Rose leaned back and took a sip of her tea. “Now, there’s one more thing we haven’t talked about.”

Martha blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“See, that’s it.” Rose raised an eyebrow. “You keep smiling, like you’re thinking about some secret you have. Who is he?”

Martha sighed, but she smiled happily. “Tom. Tom Milligan. We met at the end of that year, and then when everything went back to normal, I looked him up. He’s a doctor working in paediatrics.”

“Oh, a doctor?” The Doctor straightened his tie. “I hear we make excellent romantic partners.”

Martha rolled her eyes. “We’ve been together for about four months. But he’s in Africa right now, so…” As the sentence dangled, unfinished, she wrapped her hands around her coffee mug and stared down into it.

Rose nodded, then pushed back from the table. “Come on, Donna should be back any minute.” She had a hunch that Martha’s relationship wasn’t completely perfect, but she wasn’t going to push for answers until her friend was ready to talk about it.

The door opened as they reached the console room and Donna walked in, her lips pressed together in a slight grimace.

“How were they?” asked Martha.

Donna shrugged. “Oh, same old stuff.” She wiped a tear from her face. “They’re fine.”

Rose looked at their two companions, current and former. Somehow she’d never thought of their friends meeting up on Earth after travelling with them, but this adventure with the Sontarans had shown her how valuable it could be to have a network of friends who knew each other and knew how to get in touch with them, when necessary.

Maybe we could take one trip together to cement their friendship and get Team TARDIS going.

She tilted her head back and looked at the Doctor. When he nodded, she nudged Martha with her elbow. “Hey, why don’t you come along with us for a trip? Just one quick adventure with the new team, for old times’ sake?”

Martha sighed and ran her hand over the railing. “Oh, I have missed all this, but, you know…” She nodded firmly. “I’m good here, back at home. Plus, I’ve got Tom, and who knows when the Doctor would bring me back?”

Rose, Martha and Donna all laughed when the Doctor rolled his eyes. “All right, all right.”

Martha started for the door. “But this still isn’t goodbye,” she said, waving her finger at them. “You’d better come as quickly the next time I call as you did this time.”

Rose felt a glimmer of the TARDIS’ intent a second before the doors slammed shut. “What are you doing?” she yelled at the ship, circling the console, looking for an idea.

“What? What?” the Doctor demanded as he did the same thing. The time rotor was chugging up and down, so they were definitely in flight, but there were no indications anywhere of where they were going or why.

“Doctor, don’t you dare!” Martha clung to a strut as they rocketed through the Vortex on a rather bumpy ride.

“No, no, no. I didn’t touch anything.” He grabbed the monitor and pulled it around to face him. “We’re in flight. It’s not me.”

“Where are we going?” Donna shouted.

“Not a clue,” Rose said tersely, staring at the blank nav panel. “She’s not telling us anything. Wherever we’re going, it’s supposed to be a surprise, I guess.”

“Well both of you listen to me.” Martha tried to cross her arms over her chest, but quickly reached out for the console when she started to fall. “You take me home. Take me home right now!”

“We can’t, Martha,” Rose snapped. “If we could, we would, but we can’t, all right?”

Martha’s eyes narrowed, and Rose knew she’d sounded just like the Doctor, once again.

“So you can’t stop it,” Donna said, her voice rising in pitch a little as they hit a patch of turbulence. “But why’d she just take off like that, without any warning? And she seemed to want you along, Martha, the way she slammed the doors in your face.”

Time spun around Rose, pulling them away from the ever-present nexus of timelines down one golden path. The TARDIS hummed in the back of her head, and Rose took a deep breath, then closed off her awareness of the future as much as possible.

The ship hit a temporal bump, and Rose laughed out loud when she was jolted into the Doctor. Martha and Donna looked at her with wide, frightened eyes, and she grinned at them.

“Hold on tight, ladies!” she crowed. “There’s something big coming.”

kofiwidget2.init('Buy Me a Coffee', '#46b798', 'A803DKE');kofiwidget2.draw();

[superiorjello]

Supernatural/Star Wars Crossover AU:

Dean is a force sensitive. His mother is killed by a yellow-eyed Sith when she tries to stop that Sith from corrupting Sam. John’s force powers awaken in that stressful situation and he starts to train himself, Dean and Sam as they search for ways to find and kill the Sith who killed Mary. They meet a few other force-sensitives along the way. John ends up killed by the Sith, and Sam starts using his emotions with his force powers while Dean tries to keep them both in the light.

An important thing at this point is they’ve been dealing with people who are force-sensitive, but too weak in it for the Jedi to care about. (excepting of course the Sith, they’re actually powerful but nobody believes they still exist)

When the yellow-eyed Sith cuts off Sam’s hand and leaves him to die, Dean tries to fight him, and starts to lose. But then he gives in to his hate, and wins. He has fallen to the dark side, but his brother is safe, and the Sith who killed their parents is dead.

They meet another FS named Ruby, and she seems pretty strong. Sam likes her but Dean doesn’t trust her- she’s got too much of the dark side in her. And she’s dragging Sam down with her. Their friend Bobby, some crazy old hermit who fixes up old ships at his junkyard on the outer rim, agrees that she’s dangerous.

But she says she knows a way to bring Dean back to the light, and so Sam keeps her around.

Dean disappears. He’s kidnapped by another Sith. Lilith. Sam doesn’t see him for months, and Ruby brings Sam closer to the dark side.

The Clone Wars break out.

Dean is saved. A Jedi named Castiel attacks Lilith’s ship, and frees Dean. He sees that Dean is fallen, but not yet a Sith, and helps bring him back to the light side. He has to go back to the war, and so leaves Dean to make his own way back to Bobby’s, who then leads him to Sam. Sam is grey. Very grey, but not fallen, and still training with Ruby.

Castiel shows up with some news. Lilith is following a trail of information to the location of Lucifer, an ancient Sith from the Old Republic that has been frozen in carbonite for ages. Cas needs Sam and Dean to help him stop Lilith, and Ruby offers some information on her abilities.

Cas and Dean end up on a side mission when Sam and Ruby catch up with Lilith at a Sith temple. Ruby, who has been fostering attachment between herself and Sam, sacrifices herself by getting cut down by Lilith so Sam gets angry and falls to the dark side while fighting Lilith. He kills her, but his fall in the temple breaks the seal that was keeping Lucifer in carbonite.

Lucifer tries to get Sam as his apprentice, to be trained as a Sith, and a Jedi named Michael tries to get Dean as his apprentice because of some damn fool prophecy about two brothers fighting and bringing balance to the force.

Also Dean and Sam are starting to get stupid powerful in the force, but all of their friends are being killed off in the Clone Wars by Sith and Jedi alike. The Sith only believe in the strong, and the Jedi don’t want to risk non-Jedi force users falling to the dark. The only Jedi that stands by Dean and Sam is Cas, and the other Jedi start to doubt in him for it. They also make ‘friends’ with a Sith apprentice named Crowley, who assists them on occasion- for a price.

Sam agrees to be Lucifer’s apprentice and tricks Lucifer and Michael into getting frozen into carbonite with him.

Dean and Cas start looking for ways to free Sam, but get separated.

Sam shows up. He doesn’t remember anything about the past while, but is acting weird.

Cas and Crowley found a way to release just him from the carbonite, but the release has messed with his head a little, and his force powers are out of control and start bursting out unexpectedly. Cas and Crowley also get the location of a bunch of Old Republic weapons that Lucifer had told Sam about before freezing.

Castiel betrays Crowley and takes them for himself, but jokes on him because they’re posessed by the spirits of some really powerful old Sith Lords and he releases some really bad mojo into the universe, and also wipes his own memory in the process.

As Sam and Dean run around trying to contain the Sith spirits, Sam’s force powers are still on the fritz, and they keep looking for Cas, who is the only Jedi trained in mind-healing who would help them. When they do find him he of course has no memories of even being a Jedi, but agrees to try and help. He takes Sam’s crazy into himself, shifting the force-problems in the process but healing Sam. He also regains his memories, but disjointedly

They run into a FS named Kevin who has force-visions on how to trap the Sith spirits and they, along with a slicer named Charlie, manage to trap the spirits in this weird place called Mortis. Problem is, Dean and Cas are stuck as well- though Cas is sane again.

Dean gets out. Sam gets a dog. Cas gets out but the Jedi order catch him and use Revan’s Cure to make him spy on the Winchesters.

Kevin finds a way to seal the dark side of the force, and Sam starts going through the trials to do so. A Sith named Abaddon shows up and starts killing, and Sam and Dean meet their grandfather Henry, a former Jedi apprentice who has been chasing Abaddon for years. He dies protecting the brothers but shows them an ancient Jedi temple they can use as a hideout.

Castiel finds an ancient Jedi holocron there and breaks his Jedi ‘Cure’ and goes on the run from the Jedi when they order him to kill Dean.

Sam and Dean capture Crowley and bring him back to the light with help from Kevin, but fail in sealing away the dark side.

Then the Republic and Jedi Order fall, under Order 66.

[jemmafitzsimmons]

AoS Rewatch Positivity Chain

I was tagged by @unlessimwrongwhichyouknowimnot, @inevitablefan-ne-girl, and @fitzsimmonsftw for @consoledacup‘s positivity chain. Thank you!

I’m behind (big surprise), so here are my thoughts about FitzSimmons in 1x07. 

This episode is a FS delight from start to finish. I still can’t believe so much happened, and it was such a wonderful showcase of Fitz and how he’s such a clever agent. Even though it’s difficult to watch knowing that Ward is hydra, it’s still entertaining to see their early dynamic and how much Ward respects Fitz by the end of the episode. My favorite line has got to be “I am every bit the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that you are.” His conviction behind those words was so powerful, and I recently giffed the scene, so it’s amazing to see how he’s nearly tearing up in that moment. He’s so passionate about his work and wanting to feel understood (which makes a lot more sense now since we know more about his childhood....), so that moment was certainly a highlight for me.

This was also a great episode to see how much FS talk about each other when they’re not physically together. When they first arrive on the mission, Fitz is babbling away about Jemma non-stop. And when Jemma’s at the hub with Skye, all she can really think about is Fitz. It’s such a sweet way of showcasing their friendship even when they don’t have scenes together.

The moments of FS together in this ep were so special as well. It’s amazing to think this aired right after 1x06 (I guess they wanted to bring back a bit of comedy with these two), but it’s definitely clear they’ve taken their roles as agents a lot more seriously since Jemma’s near death experience. And the little hand grab when Fitz is getting ready to go out on his mission will always be one of my favorite moments.

And of course, I can’t forget about all the stellar Jemma moments. One of my faves is her face when she’s watching Fitz struggle through the glass door. I can only imagine what sort of awkward moments she witnessed of Fitz at the Academy when he was a teenager. :D And of course her whole bad girl shenanigans scene is AMAZE. How did the poor girl become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent if she acts like that under pressure? Poor girl’s got a lot to learn.

Tagging @accio-the-force, @leggypeggys, and @reymanova!

[agent-85]

Hi! So I'm really late ^^' but I just saw the ep and what a deception... I got messages before telling me how awesome it was and I really don't get it. I mean the lmd arc was amazing with how FS was pushed to the front and their story was build up perfectly for them to have their win and save everyone for once and not just used as support. And again writers messed up everything with the cheapest twist ever with LMD!Fitz and make it a Daisy moment, she always hijack storyline, I can't stand it(1)

(2) anymore. After the will-thing, then the fact the FS were mostly put aside from the hive storyline at the end again for daisy, then this... I don't understand the writing decision in this show, they just aim for "shocking" twists at the expense of the story. Ironically I hated the Ghost rider storyline and was saved by 4x08 from quiting and now I loved this arc and 4x15 makes me want to quit... Maybe the hiatus is a good thing at the end. Sorry its looks like a rant, but its just deception.:)

They there, anon!

I gotta say, I completely disagree. I think this last episode is easily one of the top five in the series, if not in the top three. But everyone has their own opinion, of course!

But @consoledacup explained this pretty well in this post. So let me just add to that! Sometimes things don’t happen the way we expect them to, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Yes, I agree that it would have been cool to see FitzSimmons save the world together! And you’re right that they set up FitzSimmons perfectly for this arc. But I don’t think this was a deception. A twist, sure, but a fair one. They also set it up pretty well that Fitz could be an LMD, which is why half the fandom called it ahead of time. Jemma was the only one who COULDN’T have been the LMD, because she was with Davis and had an alibi. Everyone else was alone at some point. Also, just the way it was shot, we tracked her, she was the first to get to the meeting place, etc. 

So going into the episode, I felt the chances of Fitz being an LMD were 50/50. And, I mean, there’s no way that Radcliffe was not going out of his way to grab Fitz. Fitz is a son figure to him, as well as his greatest threat. Now he has him, and Fitz can’t hurt him. Best possible scenario for Radcliffe.

So, I mean, it really could have gone either way, but here’s why this way isn’t cheap: it made sense and felt true to character. 

The main problems with 3A are the logical inconsistencies/plot holes (Will hates science but is an astronaut and therefore a scientist, Will should be like 40 at least, the Hive we meet on Maveth isn’t close to the one on Earth, Jemma has PTSD and then not and then does, etc.) and then they took the love triangle thing WAY too far (which took away Jemma’s agency and made Fitz a martyr). Jemma wasn’t just out of character, she was a different character every episode of every scene depending on what they needed. I mean, retroactively giving her a crush on Ward? Come on. We don’t need her to be portrayed as a person who falls for whomever happens to save her. 

In contrast, Jemma (and Fitz) have been very consistent in 4B. Jemma has been loving and supportive while still admitting that Fitz made mistakes. She’s against Fitz looking into AIDA, but she is still reasonable and changes her mind when Fitz explains what’s going on. Before and after she finds out, she’s on Fitz’s side, trying to help him through Radcliffe’s betrayal as best as she can. Meanwhile, Fitz sees that he let Racliffe manipulate him, and he feels more and more guilty about his contribution as things get worse. How great is it that he has Jemma still by his side! Still reassuring him! Telling him that he’s good, and whatever happens, they’ll fix it together.

Now, that Fitz has been kidnapped, it’s up to Jemma to pick up the pieces. I’m super excited to see that, because it’s the opposite of what happened in 3A. Jemma is determined, she’s in charge, and she’s going to get her man. What she’s doing lines up with the person she’s been since season one, and I feel like it’s about time! Jemma is brave and selfless, and it;s about time she gets to actually be that on screen, for goodness sake. She gets the short end of the stick so many times! And since I was disappointed that Fitz almost went to another dimension and Jemma didn’t even know about it until after, I am pumped to see Jemma go into action this time.

As for Daisy, I didn’t see it that way. I think Daisy and Jemma were pretty equally heroic on this one, each playing to their strengths. And I mean, that whole conversation between them is just Daist telling Jemma how great she is and how much she and Fitz to belong together. When I watched it for the first time, and Daisy starts saying that there’s one thing she knows for sure, I expected her to talk about duty, or honor, or being the shield. Instead, she tells Jemma that she wants Jemma and Fitz to get their happy ending, and she’s willing to fight for it. I mean, Daisy is focused in FitzSimmons! That’s pretty significant.

I believe that Agents of SHIELD is best as an ensemble show, so I hate it when it turns into The Daisy Show. Not because I don’t like Daisy, but because every single character is just as great as she is, and they all have fantastic chemistry with each other, and I like to see the bounce off each other. You take ANY two main characters, literally ANY two, and you lock them up in a room together, and you get something amazing. I don’t care if it’s Coulson and Bobbi, or May and Mack, or what. This cast and these characters are fantastic. So, this episode, you basically get Daisy and Jemma locked in a room, and it’s probably one of the best scenes of a pretty great episode. I loved it! I love their friendship!

And yes, you’re right to say that FitzSimmons HAVE been set aside for Daisy before. It HAS been The Daisy Show before. So I understand where you’re coming from. BUT! They are going into this as equal partners. They’re going to save the team together. And already, we see that Jemma has her mission, and Daisy has hers. They’re both in something of a pickle, and they’ll have to figure their way out. If they were together, Daisy might overshadow Jemma, but since they’re apart, it’s looking like they’ll both get their chance to shine. Again, I’m super excited.

And I mean, I admit that they could easily mess this up. I don’t want Space Boyfriend 2.0, for example, That would be a mistake and a waste of time. (The girl in the limo, BTW, is either Agnes or his mother. If you look, it’s an older woman’s hand. I highly doubt that it’s a love interest.) I don’t want Daisy to take over. And let me tell you, Jemma better not make some guy do all the saving for her, because then I will be pretty upset. 

There are definitely reasons to be wary, anon. But so far they’ve been very careful and consistent with setting it up, and if they just continue on their own path, it’s going to be amazing. I’m trying to not get my hopes up too high, but I’m not going to criticize the writers for making a mistake they haven’t made yet.

I understand that everyone reacts differently to the same story! There’s no better example of that than when I went to NYCC and saw a 4x03 before it aired, an anon asked me if there was Philinda in the episode, and I honestly didn’t remember. And there’s actually quite a bit of Philinda in it! But I wasn’t looking for Philinda, I was looking for FitzSimmons, so I missed it. I’m sure a Philinda shipper wouldn’t have missed it! So, we all watch the show and see different things, and that’s how we know that we’re not robots. So I respect your take on the episode, anon. I hope I was able to let you see it from my point of view.