#.since like. out of universe it's based on the whole fiasco we had with the microsoft migration | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

just-here-for-the-moment · 3 years

Text

Lucky In Love

Based on this Ask from my lovely @wildemaven and on this Ask from my new mutual @prettylilhalforc - here's a Frankie Morales giant 9k-word super-fic for you guys!! (Moodboard by the lovely and super talented @wildemaven 💖)

I've never done this before for a fic, but here's the song that was in my head the whole time I was thinking about this story!

---

Word count: 9100+

Rating: explicit/mature, 18+ only

Outline: Frankie “Catfish” Morales x “Lucky”, a 30-something combat medic (cis/het female reader; “blank canvas”/no physical description/no name/no use of “Y/N”)

Warnings: curse words and vulgar language; mentions of masturbating; Frankie praising you; oral sex/F receiving; protected P/V sex; hickeys/M receiving; slight hair pulling/M receiving; primal Frankie if you squint real hard; one instance of Frankie restraining reader’s wrists with his hands; Frankie is a little insecure about himself but we make him feel good

---

You weren’t sure what was worse, the thong riding up your crack or the skirt you were constantly tugging down. The dress was too unlike you. Too tight on the top and too short on the bottom, the color too bold. The whole thing was too much. And you trusted your baby sister Cici, you really did, but this was too… “her” to be comfortable.

You cursed yourself for all of the tiny missteps along the way, all the little ‘alternate universe’ decisions where you could have stopped this fiasco by insisting on a different dress, or insisting that your mom come with you to the mall to act as a buffer against Cecilia’s gentle bullying, or insisting that you could just wear what was in your closet to Santi’s engagement party. But, oh no... “Sissy” had to have her way, always.

You loved your baby sister, and you mostly trusted her to help you with this stuff on occasion. Cecilia was never a mess, and she always smelled good and looked polished, and she had a constant stream of girlfriends lined up for dates… you just didn’t trust her to “get” you. She didn’t trust tomboy, blood-and-dirt since birth “Lucky” to dress up nice or be society-page material, any more than you trusted Little Miss “Ewww no blood or gross stuff ever!” to bandage a kitchen knife injury or a bullet wound.

So you let Cici drag you to the mall, after she insisted that your “all-purpose” black dress (which had gotten you through ten years worth of funerals, job interviews and holiday parties just fine) was all wrong for Santi’s engagement party. She had insisted that you would not find anything suitable at the standard department stores where your mom and aunties had shopped for decades. She had insisted that you try on armloads of ridiculous outfits at her favorite store. She had insisted that the sapphire blue color looked fantastic on every skin tone on Earth. She had insisted that the asymmetrical one-sleeved monstrosity looked ‘chic’ and not bizarre. She had insisted that you purchase a black lace thong and a matching strapless bra to wear under it because your usual “girl boxers” and sports bra would not do. She had insisted that you buy little black strappy shoes to go with it, and a tiny little non-functional purse that was only big enough to hold a credit card and a lipstick. She had insisted that you sit at the makeup counter and let a woman with really bold eyebrows decorate your face. She had insisted on dragging you to a mani-pedi appointment, on waxing your legs, on this and that, over and over during the entire 5-hour ordeal. She had even talked you into buying a new perfume, although you did win the argument over purchasing just a tiny rollerball and not an entire large bottle, because what if you hated it and it went to waste? And you liked spending time with Cici, because that was rare these days, but the whole thing just felt too extravagant, too alien, too weird.

So here you were, 7:30 p.m. sharp, ringing the doorbell at Santi’s fiancée’s parents house (no, mansion actually) out in the fucking hills, looking weird and smelling weird and feeling weird. But it was too late now. Might as well just get this over with, and maybe after the party you could change into the sweats and sneakers you always kept in your car for emergencies. Maybe Frankie or Will or Benny (or all three) would want to sneak out of the party early and go grab a beer.

The giant door flew open and a woman who you guessed was Santi’s future mother-in-law greeted you with a beaming smile.

“You must be Lucky!” She wrapped you in a big hug, and you angled your face awkwardly, worried about accidentally smearing your lipstick on her spotless champagne-colored cardigan. “I’m Linda. It’s so nice to meet you! Please come in and meet everyone.”

You let her usher you into the party, introducing you to ten or twelve relatives who you knew you would never see again after the wedding, and you would probably forget them before the end of the party because you were terrible with names anyway. You let Linda press a cold drink into your hand while you awkwardly tried to shake hands and juggle the drink and your little stupid purse at the same time. How the fuck does Cici manage this shit? You grinned at everyone while inwardly groaning and casting your gaze about for a familiar face. And then, thank the stars above, there was Santi, pulling you into a bear hug and giving you a big kiss on the cheek.

“Lucky! You look amazing. Let me guess, Cici fixed you up?”

“You know it.” You gave him a wry smile.

“Well, Fish is in the kitchen if you want to go say hi, and the Millers are in the library.” Then Santi lowered his voice to murmur in your ear. “You can escape back there and I’ll spare you the torture of wedding talk with my future in-laws.”

You sighed with relief as Pope released you, and you gave him a parting wink, said hello to a few more people, and made your way toward the kitchen. Fish was standing at a butcher block island that was bigger than your bathtub, helping himself to little finger sandwiches and chatting with a short, heavyset woman you instantly recognized as Santi’s grandmother.

“Miss Sofia!” You crossed the kitchen and set your drink and purse on the counter, then gave her a big hug and let her kiss you on both cheeks. You released her and turned to Fish, seeing a look of absolute shock on his face. You were in no mood for any bullshit comments or teasing, so you let Frankie wrap you in a warm hug and put your mouth to his ear, threatening him in a low growl.

"Fish, I swear on all that is holy, if you say a word about this damn dress..." You scowled at him as you pulled away, and then turned back to Santi’s abuela with a warm smile, propping your hip against the countertop next to Frankie.

“Miss Sofia, it’s so good to see you again. Are you excited about the wedding?”

“Sí, it’s going to be beautiful. Santiago’s girlfriend has everything planned out perfectly. I think she has her big wedding binder in the dining room if you want to go look. She has lots of pictures of the flowers she wants and the venue they picked out.”

“No, I’m sure that’s okay. I’ll see it when we go to the wedding.”

“Well, you look wonderful, sweetheart.” Mrs. Garcia narrowed her eyes at you mischievously. “So tell me, mija, when are you and this one getting married?” She winked at you and you heard Frankie choke on his drink.

Frankie turned around and scrambled for a napkin from the pile on the island. You felt your eyes widen and your face heat up. You hoped she didn’t think… no, there was no way. She wouldn’t know about your crush on Frankie, the little butterflies you had only ever mentioned to one person? You suddenly regretted telling Pope about your crush over a year ago. Santi wouldn’t have betrayed your confidence like that, would he? To his abuelita?

You shook your head nervously. “No, Miss Sofia, we’re not, uh…”

You weren’t sure how to continue. Frankie was single, but he hadn’t had a relationship since his long-term girlfriend left him after Colombia. He had put everything aside for his daughter and worked his ass off to care for her and co-parent and share custody, no matter how cruel his ex decided to be on any given day. You knew it had been almost two years since she left and more than a year since Fish had last gone out for anything even resembling a date.

You were single for the past two months after a string of monogamous disasters, but you knew Frankie wasn’t interested in you. Not after all of the gory details you had shared with the guys over the years about your failure to maintain a relationship for longer than six months, ever. There’s no way a man like Fish would welcome your chaos into his own life, not when he needed stability for himself and his kid.

Frankie recovered and gulped out, “We’re not dating. Just friends.”

Mrs. Garcia shook her head and clucked, “Oh, that’s too bad. I thought Santi said-”

“Said what?” Your voice sounded panicked. You shook your head and tried again, calmer. “Sorry, Santi said what?”

Your mind was racing. He wouldn’t have… but then again, Pope was a bigger gossip than your 15-year-old cousin. He was probably the last person you should have trusted with your personal feelings.

“Actually, you know what?” Miss Sofia patted your cheek tenderly, “I must be thinking of someone else. I’m getting all of you young ones mixed up in my old age. I’m going to go find Linda and ask her about the plans for the wedding cake.”

She left. You turned to Frankie, blowing air out of puffed cheeks. You reached for your drink. “Well that was weird.”

Fish looked stricken and nodded. “Yeah… weird.”

He took another gulp of his drink and you got your first good look at him. He looked grown up, less boyish than he usually did under his ever-present Standard Oil baseball cap and faded T-shirts. He was wearing an all-black ensemble: slacks, blazer, and a button-down shirt with the top three buttons undone. The black set off his dark eyes and hair, and he had even combed his unruly mop of curls into something resembling a style. He looked handsome, and you suddenly realized that you had been staring for about five seconds longer than was appropriate. You cleared your throat and tried to make conversation.

“So, Santi’s down for the count, huh? I always thought Will would get married first.”

Frankie looked away from you, a distant look in his eyes. “Yeah…”

You suddenly felt embarrassed. Maybe you had offended him? “I mean, not that you, you know- We thought you would get married, too- with the baby on the way, and all.”

Frankie looked at you with a pained expression. Leave it to me to bring up his ex, you thought. You scrambled to undo your faux pas.

“I mean, we didn’t know that she would- we thought she would marry you. But I guess she didn’t want to. Not that you aren’t husband material. We weren’t taking bets, or anything, but I wouldn’t have bet against you.” Sweet Jesus, how am I making this worse? Stop talking, dummy.

Frankie smiled conspiratorially, and the charming little crinkles around his eyes appeared, along with the dimple that made your knees weak, showing through his stubble. “We should take bets. Twenty bucks says Santiago isn’t the first to get hitched.”

You barked out a surprised laugh. “He’s got a date set, Fish! They’re getting married in 8 months. Who the hell is going to plan and execute a wedding fast enough to beat that? I just got dumped, again, and Will is single right now. And Benny? You really think he’s going to marry that college girl he just started seeing two weeks ago? Come on…”

Frankie rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes at you. “I don’t know who it’ll be, but I’m willing to bet it won’t be Santi. You wanna make it interesting? How about fifty dollars.”

You threw your head back and laughed. “You’re on, Morales. My fifty bucks says not one of us beats Santiago down the aisle.”

You shook hands with Frankie and then picked up your drink and your purse. “Now, I want to see this library and go torture the Miller brothers for a few hours. Whatever happens tonight, please do not let me get dragged into the dining room with the other women to look at the ‘wedding binder,’ whatever that is.”

Fish bumped your hip playfully with his own like he had done a hundred times before, but this time you almost fell sideways. “Watch it! Cici made me buy these goddamn high heels. I swear to crap I’ll stab you with one if you make me fall and break my ankle.”

“Yeah, but you have your med kit in your car, so you can do your own first aid.” Frankie laughed. “You want me to go grab your sneakers?”

You giggled around a mouthful of ice and then spit it back into the cup. “Can you imagine Linda’s face if I come out to the party wearing my fucking sneakers with this dress? She’d probably throw me out of her mansion.”

Fish wrapped his arm around your shoulders and walked you down the hallway. You tried to ignore how warm his hand was over your sleeveless shoulder, how big and safe he felt. Bodily contact with Frankie was always welcome, it had just gotten more and more exciting each time over the past few years. Where before he was a friend who gave you painful high fives or playful punches, now your nerves fluttered and your ‘lady bits’ throbbed each time he touched you. You weren’t sure what to do, if anything. Probably best to let things lie for now. You didn’t want to spill your feelings and scare him off. At least with friendship you could still be around him.

Frankie led you to the back of the house’s ground floor, and opened one side of a set of double doors. He stepped inside and you shuffled in behind him, unsure of how to navigate the deep carpet in your heels.

"Hot damn Morales, is that Lucky?!" Benny’s voice was loud, about two drinks into the night if you were going to bet on it.

“Fuck you, Benny,” You pointed a menacing finger at him. “And if you say one goddamn word about how I look like a fancy prostitute, I’ll deck you.”

Will threw his head back and chortled. He and Benny were lounging on sofas across from each other in an honest-to-goodness library right in someone’s house. The room was huge, lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with hundreds of books and lit with glass-shaded lamps that cast a warm glow on the cognac-colored leather sofas and a dark wood coffee table. A brick fireplace took up one wall, framed by two large windows that looked out over the back lawn where the trees twinkled with strings of party lights. It was gorgeous, and probably the only part of the house you were jealous of. You liked books and comfortable places to read. You wouldn’t want to clean the entire square footage of however many bedrooms and bathrooms this place had, but a library like this? You would take it in a heartbeat.

Fish took your hand and led you over to one of the sofas, where you flopped down with a sigh. You leaned down and undid the buckles of your heels and slipped your feet out, then you crossed your legs as best you could without flashing the guys. “Fuck this dress. I wish Cici had just let me wear my other dress.”

“Your funeral dress?” Will looked at you and raised his eyebrows. “Come on, Lucky. This is a happy occasion. And besides, you look nice.”

You nodded your head at Will. “Thank you for saying so. I just wish Pope was marrying someone less rich. We could be having his engagement party at a bar and I would have jeans on.” You sighed and looked at the Millers. “What’s new with you guys?”

You sipped your drink and let Benny chatter about his fight schedule and his new girlfriend, while you and Will traded verbal jabs and Frankie sat quietly on the sofa opposite you. Occasionally you caught Fish looking at you with that weird faraway expression in his eyes. You frowned at him once and he quickly darted his eyes to look away. Maybe his feelings were still hurt from when you said he wouldn’t get married? You could apologize again later.

Benny stood up and pulled a strip of six or seven condoms out of his pocket, offering them to Will. “Hey, bro, you want one? I saw that little bridesmaid looking at you earlier. And I don’t need them.”

Will frowned at his brother. “Why don’t you need them?”

Benny grinned. “My lady’s and my tests both came back clean today. She’s got an IUD and she’s gonna start letting me go bareback this weekend.”

The three of you groaned at Benny, flooding him with calls of “TMI!” and “Don’t be gross, Ben.”

Will reached out and tore two off the strip. Benny turned and threw the rest to Frankie.

“Fish, share these with Lucky.”

Frankie looked panicked. “With Lucky?”

Benny pointed at him. “Yeah, there are six other bridesmaids out there. I’m sure at least one of them wants to get with an ugly old man like you. And, hey, Lucky,” Benny leaned down and kissed you on the cheek. “You don’t look like a prostitute, you look like a million bucks. I think the bride’s brother is in law school or something. You should go lock that down before he sees you in fatigues.”

You reached up and patted Benny’s cheek. “Thank you, Ben. I love you.”

Will opened the door and turned back. “We’re gonna go check out the pool table in the games room. You guys wanna come?”

You groaned. “Ugh, there’s a games room? How big is this place? It’s like a freaking game of Clue in here.”

“You coming or not?”

You turned to raise your eyebrows at Fish. He scrunched his nose and gave you a non-committal shake of his head as he tossed the strip of condoms on the table. You looked back to Will with a lazy wave.

“Nah, I’m not strapping my heels back on unless it’s for a fire alarm. You guys have fun.”

The Miller brothers left and you turned back to Frankie. You drained your drink and looked for a coaster before you realized there were none. You were hesitant to put your glass down on the glossy wood table, but there was no place else to put it. Fuck it. You plunked it down on the table. You opened your mouth to apologize but Frankie started talking first.

“Hey, listen, I’m sorry about earlier.” Fish was rubbing his thumb across his lower lip, and your brain blanked out for a half-second.

“Sorry? What are you sorry for? I’m the one who brought up your ex and basically said I didn’t think you were marriage material.” You smiled and spread your hands wide in a sheepish gesture. “I was the rude one.”

“No, I meant Mrs. Garcia. She- I mean…” Frankie looked pained again. “I think she might have gotten the wrong idea about us. About you and me. I’m sorry I gave her the wrong idea.” Fish suddenly took interest in his drink and swirled the ice around.

You frowned. “How did you give her the wrong idea?”

“Well, I mean, she asked me why I wasn’t seeing anyone, and you know how she is. She pinched my cheek and I was suddenly 15 again. I couldn’t just lie and say it’s because of my ex and me sharing custody. I’m not seeing anyone because-” Frankie cleared his throat and turned pink. “Well, Santi said...”

You felt your frown deepen to a scowl. “Oh shit.” You started to scrub a hand across your eyes, until you remembered your makeup. Fuck.

You sighed. “Look, it’s nothing, I shouldn’t have said anything to Pope. Just forget whatever Miss Sofia told you. It’s really nothing.”

Frankie knitted his brows at you. “What did you tell Pope?”

You rolled your eyes toward the ceiling and held them there. Maybe if you didn’t look at Frankie it would be less painful.

You rushed the words out. “I told Pope over a year ago that I had a crush on you, and he told his grandma because he’s a huge fucking gossip, and then she repeated it back to you and made you uncomfortable just now.”

You blinked and sighed and looked back at Frankie, meeting his deep brown eyes with your own. “I shouldn’t have said anything to Pope, and he definitely shouldn’t have tattled to his abuelita about it. It’s really nothing, Fish. I just realized a while ago I had a crush on you, and I wasn’t going to say anything because I don’t want to scare you off from being my friend. Can you please just forget whatever Miss Sofia told you?”

Frankie had that odd faraway expression again, and you were starting to wonder if he had a concussion.

“She didn’t say anything about that.”

Your heart skipped a beat. “Wait, so then why are you apologizing? What are you talking about?”

“She asked me why I wasn’t seeing anyone and I said I was waiting to ask you out.”

You felt your mouth drop open, then you shook your head and tried to process what Frankie was saying.

“Wait, what?”

Frankie put his drink down on the table. “I- well, I’ve wanted to ask you out for a while, and Santi said that I should ask you out. But I didn’t think you would want to date me.”

“What? When? When did you want to ask me out?”

“A long time ago, but then you started dating that bartender, and you guys had a messy breakup and a few weeks later you started dating the personal trainer guy. Just the timing was never right.”

You looked at him and your voice went soft. “I’m single now, Fish. Why did you think I wouldn’t want to date you?”

He met your eyes and his tone was tight, his eyes full of self-doubt. “Well, I fucking work 50 hours a week trying to pay child support, I have to bend over backwards every time my ex wants to update the custody schedule. I don’t have any kind of a life to offer you. And I- I don’t- I’m definitely not as in shape as the last guy you dated.” Frankie turned the corners of his mouth down and shrugged. “I’m a mess.”

“What the fuck, Fish? You thought I wouldn’t want you?” You leaned forward and put your elbows on your knees.

“I’m the fucking mess, Fish. I’m the one who can’t keep a houseplant alive, or pay bills on time, or keep a man interested in me for longer than a football season.”

“Yeah, but you’re smart and you’re funny and you’re…” Frankie waved one of his big hands toward you. “You’re fucking gorgeous. I know you said not to say anything about the dress, but come on, Lucky. Give a guy a break. How can I not when you show up looking like that?”

You stared at Frankie and felt your face split into a wide grin. The realization of everything was washing over you in waves, each piece of new information settling into your brain and starting to make a weird kind of sense. Frankie wanted you. You wanted him. You were both single at the same time and you wanted each other. You were friends and you both wanted to make it more.

You felt suddenly shy with Frankie’s intense gaze on you, with the knowledge that he wanted you. You clenched your thighs at the sharp ache between your legs, and you bit your lip and widened your eyes at Frankie as he stood up and moved toward you.

You whispered up at him, “Do you want to…?”

Suddenly the door burst open and Benny and Will came back in, laughing like hyenas. You shot up off the couch and grabbed your heels, shoving your purse under one armpit.

“Drink refill?” You raised your eyebrows at Frankie and hoped he would get the message, and that the Millers wouldn’t want to join you.

Frankie bent over and grabbed both glasses off the table, swiping the condoms and tucking them into his pants pocket. “Yeah, I’ll come with you.”

Will and Benny flopped back down into their previous spots on the sofas.

“You guys should go check out the games room,” said Will. “There’s a pool table, but some other people were already playing. However I did kick Benny’s ass on the pinball machine.”

“Did not,” pouted Benny.

“Yeah, we’ll do that,” Frankie’s tone was flat, and if he was feeling anything like you were, the crowded games room was the last place he would want to go. You were hoping there was an empty bedroom upstairs. Hell, even a bathroom would be fine with you. There had to be at least five in this place.

You stepped outside and watched Fish close the library door. You looked up and down the hallway, but had zero guesses as to what each door might lead to. Frankie put both glasses down on a console table against the wall and took your heels from you, slinging the straps over two big fingers. He grabbed your hand and squeezed it as he leaned closer, towering over you.

“You wanna get out of here?”

You did, but for some reason your breath and all ability to speak had fled as you looked into his big brown eyes. You gulped and nodded. Frankie took your hand and walked you down the back hall, away from the kitchen and the party at the front of the house.

“Where are we going?”

“Up the back stairs.”

“There are back stairs, too? What the fuck?” You had seen a massive staircase in the front entryway of the house when you came in. Apparently a house this big needed back stairs as well?

“Yeah, Santi gave us the tour when we showed up early.” Frankie took you to the end of the hall and pulled you around a corner and up a set of narrow, carpeted stairs. “There’s a guest bedroom up here somewhere…” He turned at the top of the stairs and walked you down the hall to one of the doors. He poked his head inside to check, and then he pulled you into the darkened room with him.

You stared at the guest room in the dim light spilling in from the backyard string lights. There was a massive king size bed, an enormous chest of drawers, two armchairs, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom. The entire thing was bigger than your living room and bedroom combined.

“This is a fucking guest bedroom? What the fuck, Fish? How much money does this family have?”

Frankie locked the door and came up behind you, turning you to face him. “Don’t know, don’t care.” And then he put his big hands on either side of your face and pulled you in for a kiss.

You felt breathless and your head swam. You wondered momentarily if you should stop and wipe your lipstick off with a tissue or something, but that thought was washed away by Frankie’s mouth on yours, insistent and eager and hungry. You let your purse drop to the floor and wrapped your arms around his neck. He moved his hands down to circle your waist and pressed his tongue against your lips, and you opened to let him explore you.

You realized that Frankie was a great kisser, not too much pressure or too much tongue. He licked into your eager mouth with little exploratory touches, running the tip of his tongue up behind your front teeth and then darting back out to bite off a kiss with his lips before he came back for more. You explored the sandpaper-soft top of his tongue, and then the smooth underside, feeling shivers pool in your pelvis as your brain finally caught up.

Frankie. Kissing. You were finally kissing Frankie, and it was everything you hoped it would be. He was handsome and smelled amazing and he was your friend, your buddy. The guy who refused to treat you more delicately in the field just because you were a woman. The guy who grabbed your hips and shit-talked during pickup basketball games. The guy who consistently showed up for his friends no matter what. And now…? He was yours. Your Frankie.

He broke the kiss and moved his mouth down to your neck, nuzzling you under one ear, sending chills over your skin and causing your nipples to harden. He pressed his lips to your skin and you heard him inhale deeply through his nose.

“You smell amazing. You always smell good but I love whatever that perfume is.”

You smiled into the dark. “Thank you, F- Fish. It’s some- something Cici talked me into.” You could barely get the words out, your brain ricocheting with the sensation of him murmuring into your neck, the feeling of his hands on your waist, the way he pulled you into his broad frame.

He pulled back and you could see that little frown between his brows again. “Can you please not call me Fish while we’re making out? That’s all you ever call me.”

You laughed and tried to pull him back toward you for another kiss. “Okay, come here, Morales.”

His eyes looked sad, and he didn’t come any closer. “Please call me Frankie. I wanna hear you say it. I don’t think you’ve ever called me by my name the whole time we’ve known each other.”

You felt a little twinge in your chest, at the possibility that your joking just now had hurt him. Sometimes Frankie could be so sweet and so vulnerable, and you realized how momentous this was, how tenderly you needed to treat this version of himself that he had laid bare for you. You unwrapped your arms from his neck and moved your hands to lay flat against his chest on either side of his open collar.

You looked up at him in the near-dark and whispered, “Please, Frankie. I want you.”

That flipped a switch, and suddenly Frankie’s mouth was on yours again with a fury, his hands moving to grip you even tighter, one cupping the back of your head while the other moved down to your ass to press you tighter against him.

You could feel his erection start to grow as he kissed you. Fuck. If you had known that just saying his name would turn him on for you like this, you would have done it ages ago. You giggled at the thought and Frankie eased up a bit on his tender assault of your senses.

“I want you so much, baby.” His voice was low, almost a growl against your mouth. “I’ve wanted you for years. Please tell me this is real.”

You wrapped one hand around the back of his neck and pulled his head down to you, whispering against his ear. “Frankie, this is real. I love you and I want you and I don’t want to be with anyone else. Please, please take me to bed.” You licked your tongue out to capture his earlobe and pull it into your mouth, sucking and biting it gently between your front teeth.

Frankie moaned and flexed his knees, reaching down to wrap his big hands under your butt. He picked you up just a few inches off the floor and walked to the bed, tossing you on it. The sudden drop made you whoop, a little “Ooop!” and a laugh coming out much louder than you intended.

“You gotta be quiet, baby, or they’ll hear you downstairs,” Frankie whispered as he took off his jacket and flung it over an armchair. He kicked off his shoes and threatened, “You don’t want to have to stop now, do you?”

“No Frankie.” You lay back on the bed and watched Frankie as he kneeled on the bed and then crawled up to where you lay, his dark eyes hungry as he came closer. Your stomach flipped over at the sight of this gorgeous man coming for you. You felt like you were on a roller coaster, ready for the little build, the steady climb before the exhilarating drop. You wanted every moment of whatever Frankie had to offer you.

He lay on his side next to you, his head propped up on one big hand. You sat up.

“What’s wrong, baby girl?”

“Nothing, just wanted you to unzip my dress.” You turned your back to him and felt him fumble for the hidden zipper in the dark. He finally found it and pulled the zipper down all the way. You stood up and faced the bed. You wanted to see Frankie’s face when you undressed. He had seen pieces of your bare skin before, doing drills in a sports bra and shorts, or in a swimsuit at pool parties, but this was different. This was special.

You felt powerful and sexy and womanly as you met his eyes and started to peel the dress off of your shoulders. Maybe there was something to this shit after all, the matching bra and undies, the pretty dresses and the perfume. You doubted that undressing to reveal your usual cotton boyshorts and tattered sports bra would have had the same effect. You heard Frankie’s breath hitch as the dress dropped to reveal your black lace bra. You saw his fingers fisting into the bedspread when it fell further to show your underwear. And you heard him groan low in his chest when you stepped out of the dress pooled at your feet and did a little spin, turning to show him your thong.

You could have jumped in the air with how giddy you were, but instead you just grinned and crawled back up onto the bed to kneel over Frankie and kiss him. You felt his big hand come up to your ass and caress you, the other coming to the back of your neck to pull you down on top of him. You felt your panties get hot and damp, and you wanted to stop and savor every moment that was being shared between you. The words kept bouncing around in your head and you still couldn’t believe it. My Frankie. Mine.

He wrapped both arms around your waist and rolled you gently onto your back as he continued to kiss you deeply. His big hands were everywhere, caressing your breasts before trailing down to squeeze your hips, then traveling to your waist and then coming back up to cup your chin as he kissed you. His broad fingers trailed goosebumps everywhere they landed, the warmth of his gun-callused fingers so familiar and yet entirely new in this context. You wanted him everywhere all at once, in you and on you and under you. You almost couldn’t breathe for wanting him so much.

You put your hands on his chest and he pulled away, mistaking it for a request to stop.

“What’s the matter?”

“I just want to see you, Frankie. Can I open your shirt?”

He rolled away from you and you reached one hand up at the same time that he did, both of you working to open the buttons. Frankie reached down and pulled his shirt out from where it was tucked into his pants, then he pulled the whole thing off, revealing a tight black sleeveless undershirt. You gasped at the sight of his skin, pale in the low light, broad shoulders offset by the black fabric.

You reached down to grab the hem of his undershirt. “Off.” Your tone was soft, murmured in a low voice, but the command was unmistakable.

Frankie shifted to maneuver the undershirt off, and then there he was, all broad shoulders and soft belly and golden skin. He looked delicious. You trailed your hand up his bicep and across his shoulder, grazing his skin with your fingertips as you moved down his sternum to his tummy. He sucked in the tiniest hitch of breath as your fingers hit him there, and he wrapped his thick fingers around your wrist. “Babe…”

You looked at him with a frown, “No, I like it.”

He looked at you like you were crazy, but he took his hand away and let you continue. You flattened your hand and stroked him down the center of his abdomen, from his ribs to the waistband of his pants, reveling in the feel of his warmth and his fuzz and his sheer solid bulk. You whispered to him as you reversed course and stroked back up to his chest.

“You might think you’re not in as good a shape as other guys, but I love you, Francisco Morales. Don’t you dare change a thing.” You drifted your fingers up, swerving around his nipple and pectoral until you reached his neck. You cupped his jaw and pulled him down for a kiss. “I mean it. I love you.”

“I love you too.” He kissed you deeply and then buried his face in your neck, whispering your name, your real name, over and over again like a prayer. You had heard him say it exactly once the day you met, and then like everyone else in your life you insisted that he call you “Lucky” after that. And that had been how many years ago? Ten? 12?

You loved hearing Frankie shout your nickname in a military-loud voice during drills or a crisis, or laugh it out breathlessly as you joked over card games. You had always, always hated your given name. But now? Now the syllables of your name sounded magical, soft but heated as they were murmured against your skin by your lover.

Frankie moved his face down to nuzzle his prominent nose into your sternum, inhaling deeply again at the scent of the perfume you had applied there.

Under Cici’s strict and specific orders, you had dotted the rollerball of the new scent between your breasts, behind each earlobe, and on the inner aspect of each wrist. Apparently it was working. Frankie was moaning like a starving man presented with a massive dessert, and you could feel his erection somehow getting even harder where he lay pressed against your thigh.

“Fuck, baby. You smell fucking amazing. I can’t get enough of you.”

You felt your pussy clench at that, and you moaned, your mouth falling open as you tugged at his hair.

“Frankie, please…”

He slithered down another few inches and kissed your navel, working his lips down to your pubic mound. He pressed a kiss to the black lace of your panties and then opened his mouth wide, encompassing as much of your pussy as he could. You felt Frankie exhale a slow, hot breath of air against you. The sensation rippled through every nerve at once, and you grasped his hair even harder in your fists and almost shouted, “Oh fuck!”

“Shhh! Baby doll, you gotta be quiet.” Frankie placed a soft kiss to the top of your thigh, and then buried his nose into the V of your legs. You heard him inhale just as deeply as he had at your new perfume, and something about that act was so primal and so depraved that it made a new rush of slick soak your panties.

You moaned again, “Frankie, please, please…”

“Please what, baby? You want me to eat you out?”

“Yes, Frankie.” Your voice was high and breathy. “Please fucking eat me out right now, baby. Right now.”

Frankie reached for the waistband of your panties and pulled them down and off. You opened your legs wide for him and caught a flash of him grinning up at you as he settled his broad shoulders between your thighs.

He dove in eagerly. Frankie’s mouth was heavenly, hot and wet and nearly frantic as he kissed you there. He used his lips and tongue on your aching cunt just as tenderly and firmly as he had on your mouth. The novelty of it struck you at once and you felt a little self-conscious, suddenly wondering if you should have gotten some kind of lady waxing done there, too. Frankie, between my legs? Eating me out?

You didn’t have time to consider that for too long, as Frankie slipped two of his thick fingers inside of you, pulling another moan and a near-shout from your lungs. He paused to hiss again, “Shhh!” before he delved back in with a fury.

Your fingers tangled in his hair, pushing and pulling and pushing again. He was as steady in his attentions as he was behind the stick in the cockpit. He didn’t waver from his mission or let your tugging on his hair interfere. He just kept at it, licking you and suckling your clit into his mouth as he pistoned his fingers slowly in and out. It was divine, and he kept making little hums of satisfaction that let you know he was clearly enjoying himself. He worked his fingers into you and then added a third as he used his thumb and pinky finger to hold your labia open the way you had seen him do with paperback books. You felt the tickle building, all of your pleasure converging into one bundle of nerves that branched out from your clit.

Frankie crooked his middle finger up firmly against your g-spot, the spongy part of you that you could never reach yourself, no matter how you flexed your fingers. He flicked his tongue side to side across your clit, curled his fingers again and boom - you exploded into fireworks and heaving breaths, your thighs quivering while you squeezed them closed around his head and curled up into yourself. Your shoulders lifted up off the bed and your whole body spasmed three or four times as you felt your vagina clench hard around Frankie’s broad fingers. He used his free hand to tap your thigh and you lay back and tried to remember how to breathe.

Frankie licked you clean, lapping your cunt with long swipes of his flat tongue to ensure that your slick and his saliva didn’t drip onto the bedspread below you. You felt the last few clenches of your climax ebb away, and Frankie pulled his fingers out of you so quickly that it almost hurt. You ached at the sudden emptiness as he sat up and stuck his fingers into his mouth. You felt another vacant, aching throb in your core as you watched him close his eyes and lick you from his broad digits like he was savoring drips of melted ice cream. You wanted him entirely, yearned for him even though he was right there and he wasn’t going anywhere.

The man was talented, and you cursed yourself for not pursuing him sooner. Who knew that Frankie of all people would turn out to be the best oral you’d ever had? What other secrets was he hiding? You suddenly flashed back to a day in the field, the injury to Frankie’s thigh that required you to cut his pants leg all the way up, peeling them to the side and revealing a bulge of a package through his boxers. You had taken no notice of it back then, in the middle of the adrenaline-fueled need to stop the bleeding and get him to safety, but now… now the memory of it was like an old puzzle piece that you had been carrying around, looking for a spot to place it. Now you were about to find out, see it for yourself and you couldn’t wait.

You sat up and kneeled to press your chest against his, kissing him and running your fingers through his hair again, tugging and scratching at the longer strands at the back of his head. He wrapped his broad hands around your waist and moaned. He tasted like the both of you, the deep notes of himself and the ones of your own salty musk, standing out new against the background of Frankie. The mix was like home and vacation at the same time, familiar and novel, dizzying and welcoming and exciting all at once. You moaned and a few tears slipped out of your eyes at how badly you ached to feel him inside of you.

You reached down and curled your fingers around the thick of him, straining against his suit pants.

“Frankie, I want… I want you inside of me. Please.” You gripped him harder and his voice cracked on a groan like a teenage boy. He suddenly gripped you in a bear hug and wrestled you down onto the bed underneath him, devouring you with open-mouthed kisses, all teeth and tongue and furious licking. He moved again to lick and suck at your throat, and his erection pressed hard against your bare cunt. You groaned at the delicious pressure of it.

“Frankie… pants… off… please.”

He moaned a little sound of annoyance at having to pull away. He kneeled and pulled the strip of condoms out of his pants pocket, and then wrestled himself free of his belt and zipper, pushing his pants and underwear down and off in record time. His cock sprung free and it was as big and impressive as you had hoped. He looked glorious. You reached out to grab it in your fist. You gave it a few tentative pumps and then looked up into his beautiful face to see what kind of effect you were having on him.

Frankie looked down at you and swiped a broad hand down over his eyes and face, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Jesus, baby girl. You’re so perfect.” He wrapped his big hand around yours and pumped himself harder as his eyes fluttered closed. “You’re so fucking gorgeous. I’ve dreamed about you. Fucking gorgeous baby doll…”

“Frankie, I love you. I’ve dreamed about you, too. I touched myself and thought about you.”

He opened his eyes and wrapped his hand tighter around yours, cupping your face with his free hand. “Is that so, baby? You think about me and touch your pretty cunt? I think about you all the time while I’m fucking jerking off. You’re too fucking gorgeous baby. I love you so much.”

He let go and pulled your hand off of him, and then he opened a condom and rolled it on. He wrapped his fingers around your wrists and pulled them above your head as he shifted down over you to get into position.

“Is this okay?” He huffed the words at you as looked at you for approval.

You blinked and nodded. “Yes, yes, Frankie. Yes.”

He wrapped both of your wrists in one big hand and dove back down to kiss you fervently. He reached down with his free hand to guide his thick cock between your legs. You opened wide for him, waiting for the thick of him to enter you, to stretch you open.

Frankie broke the kiss to look deep into your eyes as he slotted the curve of his head against your entrance. You moaned and took a deep breath and then he breached you, thrusting into you with a rush and filling you up in one go. You keened out a cry, throwing your head back and flexing your fingers where they lay pressed under his strong grip.

“Shhh, baby doll.” Frankie nipped at your neck and nuzzled your earlobes while his free hand pinched and rolled your hard nipples between his fingers. “I thought I told you to stay quiet.”

You clenched around him at the order, something about soft Frankie flipping over into giving you commands was making you throb, making you ache for more.

“I can’t,” you whined out. “I can’t stay quiet, Frankie. Not with you inside me.” You hitched your legs up beside his hips and rocked your pelvis up and down, feeling him slide in and out of you.

“I just wanna bounce up and down on your thick cock all day and let you make me scream, baby boy.”

Frankie moaned and leaned down to lick and bite your mouth. You continued to rock your hips until he let go of your wrists and gripped your pelvis with both of his hands. He pressed you down into the mattress and started fucking you hard. Then he moved his hands to either side of your head and braced himself above you on both arms. You wrapped your legs around his waist and made him talk to you.

“Tell me what you’re thinking about, Frankie. Tell me how much you love me.” You turned your head to the side to lick and suck at the soft skin on the inner part of his forearm, up near his elbow.

Frankie gritted his words out between thrusts, biting them off and making the soft praises sound almost angry and hard.

“Fucking- goddamn- gorgeous- girl.” He clenched his jaw and huffed in a few ragged breaths. You sucked at his skin harder, lathering your tongue in between love bites. You were going to leave a mark, something he could look at for the next few days while he thought about this moment.

“Fucking- think about you- all goddamn day. Wanted to- fuck you- for ages. You’re fucking- fuck! Fucking so goddamn beautiful. Love you so much.”

You reached up and started petting his face, cooing soft words into him.

“Frankie, baby, I love you. That’s it, right there. Oh! I love you so much, baby. Come for me, Frankie.”

“Oh fuck. I’m coming- coming for you.” Frankie bit off a moan and then thrust deep into you as his hips shuddered. He fell onto you and you felt him thrust twice more before he stilled.

You wrapped your arms around his neck and ran your fingers through his hair. “Sweet boy. I love you so much. That was perfect. I love you, Frankie.”

He turned his face to you and kissed you deeply, murmuring quietly into your mouth.

“You’re fucking perfect, baby girl. Fucking perfect. God, I love you.”

Frankie grabbed the base of the condom and rolled off of you, then he went to the bathroom and turned the light on. The brightness of it startled you.

You wandered in behind him and peed while he tied off the condom and wrapped it up in some toilet paper. He tossed it in the wastebasket and then washed his hands. You stood at the sink and washed up while he wrapped his arms around you from behind and pressed himself against you.

“Oh shit, we forgot to take off your bra.” Frankie reached up and cupped one breast through the lace. “I never got to see your beautiful tits.” He met your eyes in the mirror and you both laughed.

You dried your hands and then wrapped your arms over his as he circled them around your waist again. “If you didn’t see them, how do you know they’re beautiful?”

He kept his gaze on yours in the mirror and pressed a slow, hot kiss to the top of your shoulder. Then he turned his head to brush his lips against your ear.

He whispered, “Because the rest of you is fucking gorgeous. Educated guess.”

You shivered at the goosebumps that ran from your neck to your toes. He met your eyes in the mirror again and you beamed, practically sparkling at him.

A thud-thud-thud at the bedroom door jolted you both out of your haze.

Will’s deep voice came through muffled as Frankie killed the bathroom light and you both scrambled for your clothes.

“Fish! Lucky! You guys in there?”

You made big eyes and shook your head frantically at Frankie as you whipped your dress up over your head. He made a “just wait’ motion to you, then he bent over and started pulling his pants on.

You heard Will try the doorknob and then knock again before he gave up and walked away.

A hysterical giggle burst out from your lips as you watched Frankie crouch and scramble to find his shoes. You turned your back to him, “Zip?”

He stood and zipped you up, and you kneeled on the floor and looked for your thong, tossing Frankie one of his shoes from under the bed.

“Where are my undies?”

“Got ‘em.” Frankie stood up and held up your thong. They dangled from one broad thumb. “They’re kinda wet though. You probably don’t want them back.”

You crossed the room to him, and he held them up above your head, just out of your reach. You wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

“You keep them, then. Naughty boy.”

Frankie grinned at you and tucked your panties into the front pocket of his shirt. “You’re never getting these back, baby.”

You laughed and sat on the bed to put your heels on. “As long as I get you back, that’s all I ask.”

Frankie beamed at you, and his smile practically lit the room.

---

Eight weeks later you and Frankie were lying on the beach under an umbrella, arguing for the millionth time over who owed who fifty dollars.

Frankie lay face up on his towel, while you sprawled face down next to him, propped up on your elbows with a fat paperback book held open with your right hand. His left hand gripped yours, fingers intertwined as you rubbed your thumb over and over the shiny new wedding band that gleamed against his golden tanned skin.

“Baby doll,” Frankie sounded really annoyed now. “I bet you that it wasn’t gonna be Santi walking down the aisle first. I won.”

You didn’t take your eyes off your book. “No, baby. I said- and I remember my exact words- that ‘not one’ of us would beat him getting married. And not one of us did. Two of us did. So technically I didn’t lose.”

“Jesus, baby, this again? You’re not going to win on semantics.” Frankie rolled onto his stomach and slung his arm over your lower back. He pulled you into a kiss. “You owe your husband fifty bucks.”

You kissed him deep, letting your tongue soothe him until he moaned softly into your mouth.

“I owe you no money, Mr. Morales.”

Frankie nuzzled your ear with his strong nose until you giggled. He growled low into your ear, “Lucky Morales, you are trouble. I never should have made that bet with you.”

“I think you made that bet because you wanted to marry me.”

“Okay that part might be true.” Frankie rolled over and lay back down on his towel.

He cocked his head at you and grinned. “You wanna bet we can get pregnant first?”

You tossed your book away with a, “Yes!” and then rolled over on top of him, kneeling to straddle him while you giggled.

You let your husband kiss you and kiss you while you listened to the waves roll in.

---

@quica-quica-quica @anaaaispunk @justanotherblonde23 @gracie7209 @nicolethered @honestly-shite @driedgreentomatoes @dihra-vesa @1800-fight-me @the-queen-of-fools @juletheghoul @kesskirata @honeymandos @silverwolf319 @mourningbirds1 @greeneyedblondie44 @spacedilf @maxwell--lord @anxiousandboujee @cevvie @sherala007 @writeforfandoms @libellule2001 @deadhumourist @mandoalorian @javierpinme @eri16 @mandocrasis @pilothusband @bastillealmighty @eri16 @jitterbugs927 @babiiface95 @toomanystoriessolittletime @yespolkadotkitty @fisforfulcrum @prettylilhalforc @mswarriorbabe80

249 notes · View notes

sebstanseabass · 3 years

Text

Afterglow (A Bucky Barnes AU fan fiction) - Chapter 5

Previous chapter links:

Afterglow chapters Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader CHAPTER FIVE

Sometimes, the universe works in different dumb ways. You're one of the few lucky people if you get what you want, and one of those who aren't; the ones who run out of luck every damn time. There's nothing more miserable than finding what you're not looking for, meeting the right person at the wrong time (or vice versa), getting the wrong take out food, or riding the wrong cab.

Unlike your first cab ride, this one was different. There was no loud music, no speeding, no overtaking, and no yelling -- definitely not what you needed right now. See how the universe works in different dumb ways?

If Bucky wasn't hungover right now, you would've ran all the way from White Wolf to the bar. God, how much did he drink last night? After thirty minutes, the cab finally stopped in front of the bar. Bucky paid a generous amount. "Keep the change." He said casually before stepping out of the cab.

Without second thoughts, you walked the steps down that lead to the door of the bar. In front of it were sealed boxes and cases of different kinds of liquor -- beer, champagne, wine, whiskey, vodka; you name it. Luckily, you always had the bar keys in your pockets in case of emergencies. Lucky for Steve, one of his employees just lived right above the bar and had the freedom to come down any time she wanted. Steve lived all the way in Brooklyn. Why he chose to work in the Upper West Side, you might never know. He was a pretty secretive person. No one from the bar staff knew anything about his personal life -- except that his family was from Rhode Island (perhaps).

"That's a lot of boxes." Bucky caught up with you. "Good thing I'm here."

"Please." You scoffed. "You're still hungover." I bet he couldn't even carry one small box, and even if he could, he'd just spill them all over the floor. But you didn't really know Bucky. You just knew him from Peter's stories. So, when he carried two big boxes at the same time right before you opened the door, the shock came over you. You wondered, spending all his time partying and drinking, where he stores all the alcohol he consumes.

"Where do you want me to put this?" Bucky asked.

"Just right behind the counter." You replied. "If you need some help, let me know."

"I got it all, doll, don't you worry." He chuckled, placing the boxes on top of the counter then jumping over it to reach the other side. You rolled your eyes and got more of the boxes that were sitting lonely outside. You put a stopper right between the small gap between the floor and the door. "Nice place you got here!" You heard Bucky yell amidst the city noises. "Different kind of bar."

"You mean not like the kind of bar you go to?"

You heard him chuckle. "Yeah, that. This one's kind of vintage."

"Yeah." You replied, sticking your head out by the door frame. "Like you!"

He gave you a small chuckle. The bar did give off some vintage mood -- that was why it was a bar for everyone. The kids were now discovering and loving all kinds of vintage stuff, people in their fifties come here 'cause it reminded them of their time, and some are just curious.

On the inside of the bar, everyone was completely shut out from the outside. There were no windows, only color-stained glasses on the wooden walls near the ceiling. You can never tell day from night inside unless you look at the wall clock.

You pushed some of the boxes on the floor. You didn't have enough upper body strength to carry them all the way to the counter. By the time you reached Bucky, you carried the boxes one by one and placed them on the counter, then he carried them over to the other side.

"So vintage." He commented once again. "You even got a jukebox. Does that even work?" He motioned towards the jukebox.

You sensed he wanted to try it for himself so you told him he could give it a little push. He smiled and jumped over the counter once more. "You don't always have to jump, Bucky." You showed him the wooden counter pass-through he could easily open but his focus was set on the jukebox. He found the plug and waited for it to light up.

"Cool. Just like they do in the movies."

"Of course. What did you expect when you plugged that in?" You carried one box to the counter and stopped near the jukebox, leaning over it. "Besides, didn't you guys have this during your time?"

"You make it sound like I came from the fifties."

You raised your eyebrows, crossing your arms. "So, what did you guys have?"

"Cassettes." He mumbled.

"We had iPods. But at some point I think we did have cassettes, then the CD, then the iPods. Still doesn't change the fact that you're basically a dinosaur." Then you made a roaring sound which you thought was the sound of dinosaurs.

"That's not how a dinosaur sounds like, Aria."

"Of course, you'd know." You teased before going back to get some more boxes.

Bucky started to push some buttons until a mellow song played. "It's been a long, long time." He mumbled.

"What?" You asked and stopped pushing the boxes.

"The song. It's named 'It's been a long, long time.' A buddy of mine's favorite song. He and his girlfriend used to dance to it. Haven't heard this song for a long time. Quite nice."

"It is nice." You commented. "But it's too dramatic. Put some Beatles on!"

He chuckled and pushed more buttons until a song from The Beatles played.

You resumed moving all the things inside. As the boxes got heavier, assuming they were mostly the new plates and glasses, Bucky removed his polo shirt and dropped it somewhere. He was still wearing the tank top he had yesterday. "Remind me to buy Peter some new clothes."

"You're really gonna buy him new clothes?" You grunted, carrying a heavy box on the counter, passing it to Bucky.

"Yeah." He made a face, clearly struggling with the box. "I kinda destroyed what was half in his closet."

"I heard, yeah." You replied while walking to the front door to get the cases.

"You got some more back there?" Bucky yelled.

"It's the last one. I got it."

For the next hour, you and Bucky spent unpacking and placing everything where they were supposed to be. You had a few phone calls from Peter, most were just him checking up on Bucky. You promised to tell him you'd tell the whole fiasco at the White Wolf when he gets here in the bar.

"I'll be there as fast as I can." Peter replied before hanging up. You told Bucky about the phone call and he mumbled something under his breath you couldn't quite decipher. You decided to leave him be as he unloaded the last box.

Before you could even ask about the mean drink he was supposed to make, he emerged from behind the counter, holding up two bottles in his hand. "You up for some drinks?"

"As long as you pay for it."

On his hands were two expensive unopened bottles. As long as they were still half full and paid by Bucky, you wouldn't get in any kind of trouble with Steve.

"I got you, doll. Don't worry." He popped both of them open and grabbed two cups and a shaker as you sat down one of the stools, shaking off the nickname he'd been giving you ever since you arrived here at the bar.

You barely paid attention to the song still playing on the jukebox as you watched Bucky make his supposedly mean drink. He started to tell a story about how he learned to make his own drinks. Unlike Peter, he didn't bother to beat around the bush. He kept everything short and precise: A bartender friend of his taught him how to make drinks then experimented on his own in his penthouse where he had a mini bar just for himself, which was inside his own office. Odd, you thought. Most people would have them on the corner of the living room, with wine glasses dangling on hanging wine holders and shelves full of liquor. Bucky's mind worked in a different way.

Bucky's very short story made you wonder of all the other classic Bucky stories you've been told -- the long ones Peter would tell you. You wondered if they were only adventurous and wild in Peter's words. Would they have been different if you'd heard them from Bucky?

"I'm gonna name this drink after you." Bucky snapped you out of your train of thought.

"What?"

"This one." He carefully handed me the drink. "I made it based on your personality."

"Bucky." You chuckled, gazing at the drink before me. Then returned it to him. "You don't even know me."

"And to think we were just engaged a while ago." He pursed his lips and leaned on the bar counter, then licked his lower lip. You tried your hardest not to give a quick glance at it but you obviously failed, so you stared at the drink in front of you once again.

"This drink is basically your judgement about me." You replied.

"It's a good judgement." He retorted. "Trust me."

"You're gonna pay, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." He playfully rolled his eyes. "Go on, try it."

Before you could even take a small sip, someone came in the door and your instinct was to say: "Sorry, we're closed right now" but it turned out to be Steve wearing denim on denim and a cap.

"Steve!" Quickly, you gave Bucky the drink he made you, then he hid it behind the counter where Steve could not take even a small peak. "Hey, I thought you were with your family."

Steve managed to catch his breath, leaning against the wall while keeping his eyes on you. "I have been calling you for the past few minutes. I thought you didn't make it here."

Your eyes widened, taking a quick glance at your phone which was on top of the bar counter. On the bright screen were a bunch of missed calls from Steve. You gave him an apologetic look and he just sighed as he walked towards the counter. Then, he caught a glimpse of Bucky who was right behind you.

"Right, right." You shook my head. "Bucky, this is Steve. He's my boss. And Steve, this is Bucky. He's Peter's stepbrother. He's just helping me out with the boxes."

There was an odd exchange between the two for a second or three. A knowing look. But you shrugged it off when Steve shook Bucky's hand over the counter. "Bucky. Nice to meet you."

Steve nodded. "Aren't you the owner of White Wolf?"

"That's me." Bucky chuckled, withdrawing his hand back after the friendly handshake.

Steve focused his attention back to you. "You could've called me y'know."

"It's okay. Bucky came to help. Besides," you gave Bucky a side glance, "he owes me."

"Zip it, doll."

You laughed, looking at Steve. "Aren't you supposed to be at your family gathering?" you asked, practically shooing Steve away, not wanting him to see Bucky making drinks behind the counter.

"Yeah, well I thought -- "

"Go, Steve. We're basically finished." You stood up and walked Steve out the door. Bucky yelled a simple goodbye as we walked.

"So," Steve whispered once we were at the door, "are you two..."

You gave him a look of disbelief. "What? No, no, no, no, no. We're not. We just met."

"That's what they all say."

"Rogers." You grunted as you opened the door. "Go."

"Wow, so eager to get me out of here. Are you gonna have sex on the floor?"

"Steve!"

"Please, don't have sex on the floor."

"No, we won't. Now go."

Steve laughed as he walked up the steps and hailed for a cab. "You say that now, Aria. Just remember to clean up afterwards."

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x y/n #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes x you #bucky fic #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes au #bucky au #bucky barnes story #au #fan fic #fan fiction #romance #bucky barnes fan fiction

41 notes · View notes

dear-kumari · 4 years

Note

Why don't we talk abt the double standards that exists in any? This chap jaeha tells hiury that he can't see violence against a defenceless woman no matter the circumstances while 2 chap ago he threatened the same woman of life just for trying to slap yona and let's not forget how they're absolutely fine to danger the mortal innocent ppl just to save(?) their immortal pal. Ofc I don't stand for hiurys violence but logically he's doing this to keep the most imp secret safe. But yk both situations aren't framed equally in terms of morality

Hi anon! fwiw, I haven’t actually read the chapter yet; I’m waiting for the fan scanlation rn, since ET Scans have made it abundantly clear that they aren’t reliable translators (ofc I can’t completely avoid them because ppl post their stuff in the tags, but whatever). So, just assume anything I say about it here is my impression based on quick translations and summaries I’ve seen on Twitter.

I do agree that there’s a double standard in the framing of CC vs. HHB, and that the tournament chapters vs. ch. 201/204 really drive home that double standard. As far as Jaeha’s actions, I guess I’ll push back a little on his behalf and say that he didn’t threaten Meinyan with violence in ch. 202, his best bro Kija did. We do have an instance of him threatening a defenseless woman’s life, though, and that was during the tournament! He also threatened her baby. :) But, ya know, it’s totally okay because he only trying to provoke Geuntae into cutting him down — which, given the circumstances, could’ve led to even worse consequences, like riots and political unrest breaking out because the Earth Tribe general killed the sacred green dragon — so yeah, no negative framing or callouts necessary for him there. Lovable scamp, that Jaeha. Even the guy whose wife and child he just threatened can’t stay mad at him!

Forgive me for going on a tangent here, but yeah, the whole tournament fiasco was some bs. The in-universe justification that Jaeha and Kija were “carefully aiming” the rocks so people wouldn’t get “seriously” hurt was also bs. Rapa almost got his face crushed in by one, and Hak had to catch a man-sized one and deflect others while in the middle of a crowd. People were also scrambling over each other in a panic to get out of the lower seats, so someone could’ve been hurt or killed there as well. Also, how the hell would they know that no one had been seriously injured? A projectile’s kinda out of your hands once you fling it, plus they both immediately passed out and had to get medical attention. Jaeha had no way of confirming that people hadn’t gotten hurt or killed; we can only assume he was right because no one’s brought it up since. Yayyy, I love when nothing matters

And like I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think they even needed to have “real” consequences for their actions during the tournament. What they needed was for literally anyone outside of their insular found family circle to be like “hey, that was stupid and immoral and you should feel bad.” Suwon and Keishuk have to deal with Yona’s righteous callouts in ch. 201/204 after making stupid reckless decisions, so where’s the righteous callout for the dragons’ stupid reckless decisions? Why is it okay for one group of people to go this far to protect their own but not okay when another group does basically the same thing? idk why this has to be said, but throwing deadly projectiles at crowds of innocent civilians isn't morally superior to siccing Hyuri on someone.

(Also re: Hyuri himself, I don’t think his morality or decision-making factors into this at all, so Jaeha’s words towards him kinda just feel unnecessary. The man has no agency, he’s just a big scary plot device. I love him and his wacky goofy murder antics, but it’s true.)

When the dragons go too far to keep their totally capable bros “safe” and ignore any alternatives, they get cheers and a knowing smirk from Hak and some flaccid “stop being so reckless” scolding from their bros. When the coup bois go too far to keep king and country safe and ignore any alternatives, they get smacked with callouts and villainous framing up the wazoo. More importantly, they only ever make decisions like this in service of getting characters from point A to point B and making Yona look good. There’s been a lot of debate about whether Suwon’s decision in the latest chapter was logical or not, but idk if it even matters. As long as this series feels the need to make hot passionate love to the protagonists’ self-righteousness at every turn, it will never mature into the good, nuanced coming-of-age story it thinks it is.

#Kumari answers #Kumari comments #Akatsuki no Yona #Yona of the Dawn #Anonymous #Hyuri #Jaeha #Suwon #Meinyan #Keishuk #Kija #Coup Crew #Thanks for the ask anon!#Also no I don't think everything about this chapter is bad #I like angry Suwon :) his kitty face brings me such joy #and I really like Meinyan #I'd prefer that she ally semi-antagonistically with the Coup Crew than with the HHB #but I guess Kusanagi /really/ needed her to owe the HHB her life instead of owing them nothing like the cool wildcard she is/was #oh well

28 notes · View notes

leakinghate · 6 years

Text

Legendarily Defensive: Editing the Gay Away in VLD

Disclaimer: This meta is a collaboration of the entirety of #TeamPurpleLion. We understand while we do touch on narrative romance, we are intentionally trying to be as ship-neutral as possible, and provide that which we only have evidence for. We encourage the experts in their respective ship-fandoms to meta as they do best on these topics, and we hope this can be a factual basis to springboard from.

In the most recent AfterBuzz interview March 4, 2019, Executive Producers Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim dos Santos revealed in no uncertain terms who, precisely, is responsible for the editing fiasco that resulted in the version of Season 8 presented to the fandom, including explaining to their viewers when the changes were called for, and a heretofore unknown why: the removal of a mlm relationship between two of the male Paladins.

Let’s break it down.

The interview itself is a little very difficult to stomach, especially the latter half. But, the first portion is an unusually open and honest discussion of what went down behind the scenes, and what it meant to the producers. It’s also the place where we’ll be lifting direct quotes from. The hosts of AfterBuzz allow the Executive Producers to have the floor and speak with quite a bit of leeway, and some very curious facts come to light. For anyone interested in the source, the interview can be found on Youtube.(3)

Voltron is a unique case. While much of the fan base may not have been around for prior incarnations of this franchise, it has existed for quite a while.

It originally came from a Japanese show Beast King GoLion. From this show, the robot we recognize from Voltron: Defender of the Universe, was created in 1984. There exists an interview with the Executive Producer of Defender of the Universe, Peter Keefe, as well as other cast and crew on the production of how BeastKing became Voltron.(4)

After Voltron: Defender of the Universe, several other iterations bloomed forth - some in the form of comics, some as sequels, some as reboots. The first series to follow Defender of the Universe was Voltron: The Third Dimension, a CGI-based sequel released in 1998.

While not nearly was popular as its predecessor, it managed to stir up some legal conflict:

“Worse, the Japanese creators of Beast King GoLion — Toei Animation — began saber-rattling. Toei believed World Events had overstepped the boundaries of their 1984 agreement and made the CGI series without buying those explicit rights.

To quash this dispute once and for all, Koplar and crew purchased GoLion outright in 2000. Now they had the freedom to adapt at will. But nothing was in the works.”(7)

As of 2000, Koplar and World Events Productions (WEP) owned all the rights to Voltron. Talk of a live action movie has been in the works since 2005, but with little traction. In 2010, WEP licensed rights for the Voltron franchise to Classic Media (now DreamWorks Classics) (7). By 2011, the animated series Voltron Force was released.

In 2014 Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos approached DreamWorks Animation with the idea of producing a new Voltron show, with the license DreamWorks had recently come to own through their acquisition of Classics Media. In 2016, Voltron: Legendary Defender launched.

It’s worth noting World Events Productions licensed rights to produce Voltron content to DreamWorks Studios. They did not hand over the entire franchise to do with as they saw fit. DreamWorks only purchased the ability to play with the characters and the story in whatever capacity WEP believed would remain on-brand.

Amidst the protests and visceral reaction to the final season of Legendary Defender, many have felt confusion about where to direct their frustrations.

In another post, @crystal-rebellion theorized the symbolism in Season 7’s Episode 4 ‘The Feud’ was actually a very blatant representation of what was going on behind the scenes, and why. (2)

Since the most recent interview, statements from the Executive Producers as well as the host have confirmed this to be an accurate assessment of the situation.

Joaquim Dos Santos says it himself:

"This is not a vilifying of DreamWorks. Any exec we ever interacted with was like, 'Hey, we understand why you want to tell the story, we understand where you're coming from. It's a little bit bigger than that. There's other sort of controlling parties with Voltron, which makes it unique.’ It's not just a DreamWorks owned property, and I think it got logistically really really weird." (3)

Seven times, he specifically mentions the pushback didn’t come from DreamWorks, but from ‘other controlling parties.’ He alludes to some logistical weirdness, the implication being a difference in creative direction, or some dissention from higher up. In fact, the hosts and EPs discuss a controlling IP owner eight times in the course of one interview.

He also says, in regard to the issue of LGBTQ+ representation and Adam specifically:

“Here's where we arrived on this. And we were pointing to things like Overwatch. We were pointing to Steven Universe. They're different scenarios, we were in a slightly different position. We didn't have that position of being the creators of this IP. And we also weren't a video game that was marketed to teens and above. We for all intents and purposes were started as a show for boys like 6 to 11 to sell as many toys as possible. And that's just like a fact and that's business, and it is what it is.” (3)

DreamWorks is not a platform that markets ‘toys for boys’ (a talking point brought up no fewer than five times) - but World Events is. President Robert Koplar himself states his target demographic is boys and their dads in Episode 12 from the Let’s Voltron podcast not once, but twice. (5)

The EPs confirm as much with their recent statement in the March 4th ABTV Voltron interview(3) that the possibility of a male paladin’s replacement was greenlit until the IP holder learned the male paladin was to be replaced with Acxa, a woman. This kind of sexist hypocrisy goes as far back as 1984 with Allura being spanked in front of her own team in one episode(11) and tied to a chair by them to prevent her escape in another(11). The 2003 Devil’s Due comic shows Lotor, who looks to be no more than five, witness his mother’s murder via strangulation by his father (complete with an expression of horror on her dead face)(12). Lotor then suffers the same type of non-lethal strangulation in a scene where his father interrupts what the comic refers to as “recreation” with a scantily clad blonde resembling both Lotor’s mother and Allura in a different series(13). All of this takes place in a franchise whose target demographic has consistently been six to eleven year old boys and their fathers. Koplar’s company has made their hypocritical moral stance abundantly clear in Legendary Defender, even going so far as to order the destruction of the entire final season. According to Dos Santos:

“Specifically with Season 7 and 8 we basically held onto Season 7 so Season 8 was like done by the time S7 was dropping. We had like a month left when reaction for Season 7 started coming in, and that was day of the drop. We were in a weird position. To DreamWorks's credit, the tide started changing internally. They came back to us and said, okay we're open to explore this relationship between Adam and Shiro so we were in this weird position where we had all the animation done, we had $0.00 left in the budget in terms of like what we could do and it was like, all right, we know Adam's fate is what it is, do we do this and sort of like take this step knowing that we're going to take some flack? And we decided to do it so we revised the dialogue. You can probably see it in the animation. If you really pay attention it's like, it's literally our editor cutting out mouths and like puppeting different dialogue. The dialogue is pretty vague, it's sort of the best we could do, and that was a process of discussing what we could actually have them say.”(3)

Hold the phone. Taken in context, Dos Santos is explaining the process of DreamWorks giving the showrunners the green light to change the epilogue of Season 8 to give Shiro the unambiguously gay orientation they had written out of Season 7. The problem is, there is no dialogue in the epilogue. Even if we consider the epilogue to consist of everything from “one year later” onward, there is no dialogue for Shiro and another male character that would have to be reworked.

Here is what we think happened: Season 8 was finished in June. The IP owner hated it and ordered it changed at the beginning of July. Those changes included cutting a male/male romance. August came and the fandom melted down over Adam dying. Hoping to avoid a repeat of the Adam debacle, in mid-August DreamWorks came around and offered to let the showrunners put something into Season 8 for more gay representation. By this point the edits to Season 8 were almost complete, the budget was gone, and time was short, so they opted to give Shiro a wedding during the ending, in the epilogue. In an effort to brush off the clear edits to Season 8, Dos Santos mentions the lip movements during the interview but is confusing the making of the epilogue with the rest of the edits.

Indeed, it seems those edits resulted not only in the deaths of the series’ heroine and a childhood abuse victim, but also in the demolition of not just one but possibly two completed romantic arcs. When discussing Allura and Lance’s romance, Dos Santos and Emma Fyffe have this to say:

JDS: I could see the argument where it’s like, it's basic. It's what we've kindof come to expect from okay the guy sort of turned around and-- but I think Lance's arc aside from being with Allura was bigger than the Allura love story.

EF: And Lance's overall story arc I really enjoyed. But again, I think it's this whole idea that we were dealing with this IP that was like "okay, monster of the week, it was like dudes being in love with one hot girl and just macho men with fighting robots and whatever was happening with Pidge".

JDS: Right, yes, yes. (3)

The showrunner himself not only agrees Lance’s milquetoast romantic arc was due to pushback from the IP holder, in discussing the controversy surrounding the main characters’ sexual orientation, Dos Santos inadvertently reveals a major romance between two male paladins was cut.

EF: ...it is important to know that, again, you have this character who is very much your sort of quintessential, like, alpha male.

JDS: That-that was the trope that we were trying to, like, sort of step on was that, you know. I grew up with characters like Duke. To a much lesser degree, he’s a big, giant robot Optimus Prime. The idea of Optimus Prime being with another Optimus Prime was off the table. Like it was a no-go. (3)

If Allura and Lance’s IP-owner-influenced romantic arc is any indication, clearly two main paladins being together was fine. Dos Santos is referring to the inability to pair two male mains.

We don't know for sure, and won't until the original S8 is released. But, we have reasonable cause to believe Keith was intended to be gay and part of the romance that got tanked. When speaking about Keith’s sexuality Dos Santos says:

JDS: Because, I think we didn’t, we didn’t pair him with anybody, you know what I mean. I think we didn’t designate sort of where he stood. We don’t know. It’s-- It’s--

KC: We don’t know

JDS: Yeah, it-- It doesn’t really matter to be honest with you. I mean it would be great to confirm just to make people happy, but, like at the end of the day he is who he is, and leaving it open to interpretation. (3)

Do you hear that? “It would be great to confirm”. Not that it would be great if they could have done it, but if they could have confirmed it. It seems that JDS conceptualizes Keith as having an attraction to men, but he was forbidden from making that fact plain. Again, we have no concrete evidence of who Keith was slated to be with, just that the writers couldn't have two gay male paladins.

The wording of his statements is just clear enough to avoid dishonesty and just vague enough so as not to break contract. Even beyond NDAs, it’s not as if the Executive Producers can speak more directly to these points. We already have evidence of the IP owner’s character in the form of the Voltron Store’s Twitter presence outright lying about WEP and the store being separate entities:

(8) When only a few weeks earlier they had liked a tweet explicitly identifying them as one and the same, while confirming they have the final say over what can be done with the characters:

(1)

Before the fandom realized that WEP was behind the edits to S8 of VLD, the information that they owned the license was accepted fact. This excerpt from the Lets Voltron Podcast, Episode 134, is just one example:

(talking about a Voltron reference in Ready Player One)

Host 1: For those of you not in the know, if you think DreamWorks is the all in all for Voltron. Well, World Events Productions is the company that owns --

Host 2: The Voltron intellectual property.

Host 1: Many of you have heard of DreamWorks obviously. They make the show. Well, World Events Productions owns the property and has helped make this new show and all previous shows possible.

LV Podcast EP 134, 5:00-5:30 (6)

Now? Many official avenues are hastily attempting to downplay WEP’s involvement. When reached for comment in February 2019 the LV Podcast claimed that DreamWorks owned the licence.

The official phone number listed on WEP’s website no longer offers an option to connect a person to WEP, instead it offers three options: to directly input an extension, the accounting department, and The Voltron Store. (9)

In an effort to prevent fans from contacting them with complaints, WEP have inadvertently made their association with The Voltron Store explicit. Regardless of what the twitter account may claim, they are one and the same company. If these incidents weren’t damning enough, the store has further attempted to engage in a subtle smear campaign by liking tweets from users apologizing for harassment and death threats the store had received over Season 8, when all groups bringing the problems with its forced edits to WEP’s attention have specifically advocated for civil and nonviolent communication. (8)

As the story unfolds, one point is clear: Each new interview brings more information forth, repeatedly shining the spotlight on one little office in St. Louis.

WEP LLC is a private company. It has no shareholders, investors, or boards to answer to. It is the sole IP holder of the Voltron brand, and its President is the only person in the entire world who has final say over what can and cannot be done with the characters. When someone says “the IP holder” they are really talking about one man: Bob Koplar.

#TeamPurpleLion is a collective of analysts ( @crystal-rebellion, @dragonofyang, @felixazrael, @leakinghate, and @voltronisruiningmylife )intent on tracking down the who, what, where, how, and why of the destruction of VLDS8. We present sourced & cited commentary, relying on evidence so the VLD community can see what happened behind the scenes.

#Shiro #Keith #Lance #sheith #klance #VLD #voltron #Voltron legendary defender #FREEVLDS8 #WEP #World Events Productions #meta #Hate tries to Meta #fubob #TeamPurpleLion #crystal-rebellion #felixazrael #homophobia #Allura

786 notes · View notes

multiverseofimagines · 5 years

Note

Hi, I can have ship of Queen and Bohap boys, please? I'm Brazilian. I have 24 yrs, 5'9, eyes and hair light brown, chubby & I wear glasse as. Geminian, moon in Sagittarius n rising in Leo. I like any kind of music, classical to current pop and I love history, occultism, astrology, esotericism, philosophy, religions and magic. I am serious, I can laugh at anything, I'm grumpy, I'm fun. I have introvert personality and I am very shy, l with people I know, I am outgoing and talkative! Please xxx

I ship you with.....

Brian and Joe

For Brian

I feel like you would meet Brian while in University.

You both were in most of the same classes together.

The only issue was that you were struggling in your AstroPhysics class.

You knew who you had to ask. He was the smartest in the class, and everyone asked him for help.

The only issue was that he would usually say no to those people. You had no idea why, but you need him, his help.

After class you stopped him outside the doorway, “ Brian, can I talk to you for a minute?” He was confused, you had never really spoken before, so why now?

“ What’s going on?”

“ I need your help with classes, I’m failing and you know Mrs.Smith, she refuses to be any help.”

Brian looked at you conflicted, “ Please. “ You begged, looking up at him.

“ Okay, alright.” he nodded and smiled.

And that was the beginning of long nights studying, and spending time together. Soon enough you became somewhat friends, going to see his Band every weekend and becoming friends with his mates.

He then asked you out the night before your final exam, admitting that he had felt something for you ever since, even before you had asked him for the help. He would take glances at you, looking upon your beauty. You didn’t know it until then but you had done the same.

Extras

Friends to Lovers exellence. I can just imagine you two having the cutest study dates in Uni and helping eachother all the time.

Cheating off of one another any chance you get.

Helping Roger with his homework all the time.

Staying up late and climbing onto the rooftop, talking about the stars and theories.

Brians nickname for you would 1000000% be “ Stardust” It would be at the beginning of every letter he wrote to you whilst on the road.

I could imagine you guys naming your kids after Greek Gods and Godesses. It would just be so ethreal.

Freddie loves you guys so much. He really belives that the two of you were made for one another.

For Joe

Joe definitely wasn’t the smartest in the room, but he sure was talented.

You’re not sure why you took on the role, you had never acted in your life, nor was it something you dreamed of doing.

It was as simple as; “ Just for fun.”

It was a short, bullshitting about some fake “scientific history” of Galaxy, Atoms and Soulmates.

Aka the cheesiest shit in the universe. But you had the voice for it, the intimidation of pure excellence and genius seething off of your tongue as you howled the script across the room. It wasn’t realistic, nor was anything in it true. Soulmates were inplausible, nothing but a myth. You wanted so badly to yell out “ Who wrote this shit?” but continued on anyway.

After rehearsal, you began walking back to your dressing room. Only to slam into a tall body, almost knocking you off your feet. You looked up at the face that had owned the torso you’d just bumped into. His hair was fiery auburn, his eyes a beautiful hazel color, looking into you with question.

“Im- so sorry-“ You began to apologize.

“ Aren’t you the main actress? You did amazing!” Your heart panged at actress. It wasn’t something that you had wanted to do but for some reason when he had said it, it made everything in you flutter.

He helped you walk back to your dressing room, taking the extra things you had in your hand. “ So what do you do?” You asked, the two of you still walking down the long corrodors of the venue.

“ I’m the writer.” You couldn’t help but laugh, it seemed too good to be true. His smile faded and he stopped, “ What’s funny?” He asked.

“ Well its just- you know none of this is real right? Soulmates- The theory of atoms being so close at some point that when they were seperated it causes them to come back together?? It’s unlogical.”

He scoffed and smirked down at you, “ It’s not about if its logical. It a story of hope, of true love. The fact that someone was made for you and you were made for them. You really need to get your head out of what they teach you in school about the stars, because there is always something that we as a human race don’t know about. And you my friend, won’t know anything about love until it hits you in the face.”

Extras

After that whole fiasco with Joe in the hallway, you realized that he was right. Your entire life had been based around science for the longest of times. Concrete evidence. But when you had met Joe it was as if a fire had lightened itself inside of you.

You realized that magical things can happen in mysterious ways, ways that you would never be able to explain.

Teaching Joe about zodiac signs and astrology because he’s literally clueless.

Joe constantly relating everything to “ Star Wars”

“ So like in Star Wars when the force-“

“ No Joe.”

You started to practice magic and became super eclectic and though Joe would love that you had opened up to such a unique way of life he would be so confused all the time.

“Why is there-? Crystals on the windowsill?”

“ What are all these jars for????”

“ YoUrE gOnnA bUrn ThE HoUse DowN”

It was hilarious, and sometimes he would join in on whatever antics you would be doing, because in the end he loved you. He loved when you would give him a crystal as a present, telling him what power it possesses, he loved when you would ask him to grab the weirdest things from the grocery store, he loved that you finally believed that there was such thing as destiny. Because you, were his destiny above all else.

This was really bad, I’m so sorry. I hope you enjoyed it somewhat though!!

#ships #ship #borhap ship #borhap imagines #queen ship #queen imagine

8 notes · View notes

geneticmisfit · 5 years

Text

Okay, so, I had posted this before, but it was during my Identity Crisis and Waning Muse so it didn’t really stick. Not anymore. Basically RIP to MCU canon but we’re doing things differently here.

Below you will find a numerous canon rewrites from Peter’s highschool years up to his post-graduation days, incorporating elements from the MCU movies, tv shows and games. No specific mentions on relationships and other characters unless it is necessary to the Narrative, because a lot of that tends to be extremely thread and partner based. We got it? Good.

ANYWAY ON WITH THE SHOW:

HIGH SCHOOL:

Freshman Year

-DECEMBER OF 2015 -Gains his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider during a class trip to Doctor Curt Connors’ lab in Empire State University. -Spends the Christmas Break discovering and learning about his abilities, makes his First Suit out of some old pajamas.

-JANUARY 2016

-Being a kid and wanting to make a quick buck with his abilities, he enters a wrestling competition against Crusher Hogan.

-It’s the classic wrestling origin. Peter gets swindled out of money, a burglar steals money from the fight manager, Peter lets the Burglar go out of anger and spite for the manager. -Uncle Ben is murdered, Peter goes after the assailant and is horrified to discover it is the same Burglar he had let go earlier. -When you do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you. -Guilt stricken, he realizes the importance of Power and Responsibility and starts to fight crime, initially stopping small crimes, petty robberies, etc.

MARCH TO JUNE 2016:

-Rumors of an Insectoid-Man spread quickly throughout the underworld, it is initially believed to be a Lie made by crooks who want to dodge blame, but more and more YouTube videos of a man in a red and blue pajamas doing extraordinary feats quickly kills that possibility. -At the recommendation of his teachers, Peter starts interning at Connors’ Lab in ESU, it allows him to get a closer look at the kind of spiders that bit him, and leads him to discover that the irradiated spiders are a project Connors is working on under the funding of Oscorp. -During his crime fighting, he unknowingly halts several of The Big Man’s jobs. -Frequently swings into and stops the crimes of Alex O’Hirn and Flint Marko. -He runs into his first Out of the Ordinary Bad Guy when he ends up fighting Stilt-Man, instead of going for his legs he just punches him out cold.

CIVIL WAR INCIDENT - JUNE 26TH 2016

This is where the first of the several big canon rewrites comes in. For starters, the Airport Fight happens in New York instead of Germany, and Tony does not recruit Peter for his cause or give him the new suit. What happens is as follows,

-Peter sees the news of The Winter Soldier’s attack on United Nations. ( For the purposes of this rewrite, let’s say Bucky gets extradited to the U.S. for interrogation and trial and he is held in the same SHIELD base Steve woke up from his coma or whatever ) -Peter and Ned argue about Spider-Man not going for Stilt-Man’s legs during their fight. -Hearing the news of JFK suddenly closing down and rumors of people spotting ‘Very Serious Government People’ , Peter puts the two and two together and leaves abruptly, heading to the Airport in hopes of ‘Auditioning’ for the Avengers, because that’s what you do when you are a 15 year old with superpowers. -Beginning of the airport fight and Steve and Tony’s argument happens the same, majority of the fight happens the same way. -Peter, as Spider-Man, jumps into the fray during the Line Up. He immediately swings to Tony’s side because Iron Man is the hero he idolizes the most at that point in time. -Tony and Peter banter, with Tony not wanting a kid there and Peter being a dumbass kid and wanting to impress Tony. -Peter does not fight Steve, he is only there to take down Bucky and Prove His Mettle as a superhero. -The entire sequence with Bucky and Sam versus Spidey happens as shown. -Seeing Giant-Man appear and grumbling himself about the whole Stilt-Man argument still, Peter realizes he can go for Scott’s legs to take him down and does the whole AT-AT takedown move. -Gets knocked back onto the ground like in the movie, Tony goes to check on him to make sure this dumbass kid didn’t get himself killed, seeing he is alive and well, Tony is impressed but he tells Peter to go home. -Bedroom scene occurs as a post-credits scene, it becomes less about Tony recruiting Peter to his side and more about figuring out what the deal with this Spider-Man Kid is, leaves the suitcase with the Stark Suit as he leaves, says they’ll be in touch.

HOMECOMING - END OF AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 23RD 2016 / SOPHOMORE YEAR

-Peter turns sixteen in August 10th. -The movie happens largely the same -a Film by Peter Parker and the Limo Conversation naturally doesn’t happen considering the afromentioned changes to Civil War. -Tony does not save Peter from drowning, Peter gets out of the lake on his own. Reason for this change is that this scene makes Tony way controlling and uncaring towards Peter? Which, compounded by the following scenes, really paints Tony in an awful light. It also makes it more impactful that the next time, and thus the first time, Peter properly interacts with Tony since Civil War is in the direct aftermath of the Ferry Fiasco when Tony comes to collect the suit. They are then both valid in their arguments in that Peter has let the Stark Suit’s abilities get to his head and act way reckless than he should, ( Stark Suit thus serving the same narrative purpose as the Symbiote Suit ) but it also makes Peter valid in that Tony has been completely ignoring Peter ( at least on the surface / from Peter’s point of view ) until it was too late. -Rest of the movie unfolds as shown. -Toomes is Peter’s first proper Super Villain.

OCTOBER 2016 - MAY 2017

-Toomes’ arrest causes his Alien Weapons empire to fracture and for alien tech to be more readily available to the highest bidder ( In the movie it seems like Toomes really wanted the sales to be more gradual and under the radar ) -Shocker breaks away from Toomes’ crew and ends up joining the Enforcers, working for Hammerhead, who works as the Right Hand Man for The Big Man. -Spidey’s encounters with the Enforcers leads Peter to learn about the existence of The Big Man. -Phineas Mason is still at large, Peter dubs him ‘ The Tinkerer behind Toomes ’ toys ’ because he does not directly know who he is but highly suspects his existence. -A Mysterious Benefactor starts bankrolling experiments for Super Mercs, armed with the alien tech, with the, initial, goal of ‘distracting’ Spider-Man from the Finer details of The Big Man’s organization (if he’s too busy fighting Super Villains, he’d be too busy to stop Illegal Shipments ya kno). -Alex O’Hirn undergoes the procedure to become the Rhino, having the experimental alien armor fused to his skin, and only able to perspirate through his face. It is due to this fact Peter manages to take him down the first time, ‘ overheating ’ him to get him to pass out. -During this incident, Spidey gets Rhino to spill the identity of the Big Man, one L. Thompson Lincoln, aka Tombstone. -It is also during this time Spidey has his first run-in with Captain George Stacy. -He goes to visit Tombstone to tell him he knows about him, promptly gets his ass kicked and high-thwips it out of there.

THANOS INCIDENT - MAY 2017

Welcome to the Big Canon Rewrite Number Two, here, Peter does not go to Titan. First part of his appearance happens as shown, with Peter seeing the giant Q ship up in the sky and sneaking out of the bus to help Tony and co. fight the Aliens, but after losing Strange to the ship’s tractor beam, he stays on Earth and helps with the clean-up in the aftermath. Maybe even bumping into a few Defenders while doing so wink wink nudge. As a result, he does not get the Iron Spider-Man suit, sorry Marvel’s toy department.

ENDGAME - DATE UNKNOWN

Okay here’s the deal, it literally does not matter how long it has been since they’ve been blipped. Literally anyone important to a plot has been Conveniently Snapped, only reason there is a five year jump is so they can age Cassie so she can become Stature in Ant Man 3, and have Tony have a family for the Drama of it. Literally that’s the only reason, there is a reason why Far From Home makes a joke out of it. So for the purposes of sanity, let’s just say they were snapped throughout the duration of the summer and they conveniently get brought back at the beginning of the school year. -This means Peter is a part of the Final Fight but in his Stark Suit instead of the Iron Spidey suit, he also does not activate Instant Kill (why the FUCK would he, Russos!!!!!) I don’t care either way about the hug, so that’s up in the air, but he definitely does not cling onto Tony’s body lmfao nah. It is nevertheless very upsetting and near-traumatic for him to see someone die in front of him (again!)

JUNIOR YEAR

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2017

-Peter is now seventeen. -And he’s got PTSD like a motherfucker lmfao. -Getting turned into dust and coming back has everyone rattled, so the Criminal Underworld is working overtime. - Captain Stacy comes to Midtown to teach about Criminology, and also to keep an eye on his kid considering the circumstances. -Silvio ‘Silvermane’ Manfredi, head of the Maggia, is also due to be released on parole by the end of the year, so various Mob factions are trying to prepare themselves. -As a result, schematics to make more Rhino-like people hit the market, Spidey and O’Hirn actually end up teaming-up together to destroy the schematics, resulting in a three way fight between them, Hammerhead, and the Manfredi mob. -Hammerhead’s recent repeated failures shakes Tombstone’s faith in him. -The Enforcers get fancy schmancy Combat Enhancement Suits, courtesy of The Tinkerer, and Spidey has to deal with them. -Hammerhead stops the Enforcers’ getaway attempt in secret, signaling a rift between him and Tombstone. -Manfredi is released right before Christmas.

JANUARY 2018

-The Gang War™ begins in full force. -Spidey’s hands are full navigating the powder keg of a situation, with Tombstone and Manfredi vying for control, with Hammerhead planning something behind the scenes.

FEBRUARY 14TH 2018 -Hammerhead arranges a meeting of the factions in Metropolitan Opera House, without Tombstone’s knowledge. -Once revealed, Tombstone does not take kindly to this disobedience. -Hammerhead reaches his breaking point and attacks Tombstone. -Silvermane decides to take both of them out to eliminate the competition fully. -Silvermane, in a mechanical combat suit of his own (because comics bebey) attacks Tombstone and Hammerhead, resulting in a three way fight. -Spidey arrives and has to fight the three of them. -After a long and exhausting battle, Spidey prevails, Silvermane is arrested once again, L. Thompson Lincoln is publicly revealed to be The Big Man of Crime, and Hammerhead is nowhere to be found. -Tombstone posts bail, but Captain Stacy tells Spidey that his crime empire is crippled and there is a power vacuum. One that a certain Wilson Fisk will take advantage of soon.

LATE FEBRUARY - JUNE 2018

-Spidey is basically doing clean-up duty in the aftermath of the Gang War™ -He is trying to find where Hammerhead is, but comes up empty. -All Spidey can find are the rumors that he went back to his old employment under the Maggia. -He takes down last of the known Manfredi fronts before preparing for his Europe trip (it’s the restaurant fight from the FFH trailers)

FAR FROM HOME - JUNE 2018 -Happens largely the way it is depicted in the movie -He does not have the Iron Spider Suit still, in case you forgot. -Smaller differences being Peter being pegged the ‘New Iron Man’ less because of his ‘Mentorship’ under Tony and more because people are just fucking desperate for a new Big Hero, which is where Mysterio comes in. -He sees Ben’s grave instead of Tony’s during the Mysterio Fun Tour of Trauma, Zombie Iron Man still comes out of it tho because Symbolism ( not because Tony is a new Uncle Ben figure, but because it represents Peter not always being able to save everyone, even though Tony’s condition was out of his hands.) -BIGGEST DIVERGENCE: Unless plotted, I generally DO NOT recognize Peter’s identity being outed. There are two options / variations I could go with -Peter IS claimed to be Spider-Man, but after a Movie’s worth of adventures, he enlists the help of either a skrull or Chameleon (Dmitri the Bus Driver in FFH) to have Spidey appear in the same room as Peter and re-establishes his secret identity. -Mysterio just brands Spider-Man as a menace and that’s that. In any case, this leads to..

SENIOR YEAR

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2018

-Peter turns eighteen. -Branded as a menace, Spider-Man is now disliked and hunted by most authorities. -Captain Stacy, however, does not believe Mysterio and is one of Spidey’s few friends still left in the police force. -He also makes numerous remarks towards Peter and Spider-Man that suggests he figured out his secret identity on his own. -Anastasia Kravinoff arrives in New York with the intention of Hunting Spider-Man. -At the same time, Mac Gargan is hired by The Mysterious Benefactor to undergo the Super Merc procedure to hunt Spider-Man. -Kraven has her first encounter with Spidey, in which she manages to tear off a piece of his suit that she later uses to track his scent. -Mr Harrington’s class trip to Bronx Zoo is promptly ruined when Kraven shows up tracking Spidey’s trail. -The publicized skirmish in the Zoo attracts the attention of Gargan, now in a mechanical suit with a long, poison-tipped tail, stylized after Gargan’s favorite arthropod, which easily earns him the nickname ‘Scorpion’. -Spidey manages to escape, but barely. -It all comes to a head in New York Botanical Garden is a totally epic final showdown. -Maybe Rhino gets involved too and it’s a full on Survival of the Fittest in the jungle. -Peter gets stung by the poison tail but manages to shake it off. -He gets speared in the thigh at least once during the battle. -Scorpion and Rhino get imprisoned in the Vault, Kravinoff gets arrested as well but she posts bail and gets out scot free because she’s got Powerful Connections™

JANUARY - MAY 2019

-Doctor Connors achieves a breakthrough on his Cross-Species formula -He tests it on himself, and initially achieves great results by regrowing his arm. -Over the following weeks, however, more and more side effects start to show by patches of green scales on his skin, increased aggression and hostility and occasional lapses in intelligence. -Around March, he has his first Lizard transformation. -Peter suspects it’s Connors, but he does not figure it out until April. -With each transformation, Connors stays as Lizard longer and longer. -I am basically ripping off the plot of the first TASM movie. -Peter and Gwen manage to synthesize an antidote. -Connors has a similar goal as to his movie counterpart, but he decides to Unleash the Lizard virus on top of Empire State Building. Because a) King Kong reference with Lizard climbing the antenna, and b) Connor going from Empire State University to Empire State Building, it’s a fun progression. -Spidey and Lizard fight on top of Empire State, with George Stacy coming to Spidey’s aid. -Spidey manages to administer the antidote to the Lizard, reverting him back to Connors who retains no memories of his actions as the Lizard. -Stacy gets injured by Lizard and before succumbing to his injuries, tells Peter to keep Gwen safe and ‘out of it’. -Lizard’s true identity remains unknown to the public, but Connors decides to relocate his family to Florida to get away from the noise of the city. Before leaving, he tells Peter to seek out his old colleague Otto Octavius if he wants to further his studies.

END OF MAY 2019

-Peter Parker graduates Midtown School of Science and Technology. -He applies and is accepted by Empire State University. Peter does not consider any other college as he wants to stay in New York for obvious reasons.

FRESHMAN UNDERGRAD

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2019

-Peter is nineteen. -He starts his studies in ESU -He is still not the Most Popular -Peter reconnects with Harry Osborn (they are Old Childhood friends and Harry used to be in Midtown for the first year but then he went to Europe, as you do.) -Spidey is still branded as a menace and hunted, though not as ferociously as before as the public’s opinion starts to turn positive ever so slowly. -The Mysterious Benefactor has Alistair Smythe build robotic spiders to hunt and slay the Spider. Like Spider Slayers. Catchy name huh. -Peter has various encounters with Slayers while trying to figure out who is behind them -He eventually discovers it’s Alistair Smythe and tracks him to Oscorp. -Smythe unleashes the Ultimate Spider-Slayer, The Black Widow to try and stop Spidey once and for all. -Fight spills to the power plant, an Oscorp employee who is currently working on the plant, Max Dillon, gets caught in the crossfire and gets electrocuted. -Spidey manages to take down Smythe, Dillon is hospitalized. -Norman Osborn publicly denounces and distances himself from Smythe ( he’s The Mysterious Benefactor if you haven’t caught on yet ) -Norman profits both from making Super Mercs and Spider-Hunters for various factions behind the scenes, and for building housing units to hold said Super Mercs and Spider-Hunters, Vault is his creation. -He is also a terrible dad, but he does genuinely care for Harry, go figure. -Harry starts taking Gloublin Green, an experimental enhancer, to boost his academic and athletic life, as his body is regularly failing due to a hereditary disease (NOT the Goblin disease, the one Harry’s mom had in the PS4 game) -Max spends Christmas in the hospital and gradually transforms into Electro. -Black Cat drops in to give her Christmas Greetings by saying the mob is salvaging the parts from Spider-Slayer fights to re-arm themselves, also notifies him to the existence of a new Big Man consolidating power. -Peter thinks it’s Hammerhead, the only loose end from the previous Gang War, and starts his investigation into him. -Peter discovers Hammerhead leads the Maggia now, having quickly climbed through the ranks after the fallout of the last Gang War.

JANUARY - MAY 2020

-Harry joins the ESU football team, his performance enhanced by The Green. -Electro is Born and he’s Angry -He blames Smythe for his condition and tries to attack Oscorp, not knowing that Smythe is imprisoned. -Spidey arrives and fights him, fight eventually spilling to Times Square -Is it obvious I’ve started ripping off TASM 2 yet or…. -Electro is arrested and sent to Ravencroft for rehabilitation. -The news of a new Big Man starts making the rounds. -Harry’s Green Juicing gets bad, he starts blacking out.

SOPHOMORE UNDERGRAD

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2020

-Peter is twenty. -He starts interning for Otto Octavius after Doctor Connors’ suggestion. -Flint Marko returns after a long absence in the streets, Spidey learns that Marko left the life of crime when he fell in love and got married, but returned back into it once he learned his baby was born with a disease and he needed the money for surgery. -Bet you didn’t expect me to rip off Raimi in this. -Marko is offered money to undergo a Super Merc experiment of his own, inspired by the Elementals Mysterio faked back a few years ago. Experiment uses bio-electricity generated by Electro, but it goes ‘wrong’ and Marko is turned to dust. -Sike he can control it, he’s Sandman now. -Spidey and Sandman fight, once Peter learns of his motives, he tries to get him to stop. -Marko is told to stop the movement of an oil tanker so the new Big Man can siphon it dry. -Spidey and Marko fight on the tanker, tanker explodes, Marko expresses remorse for he only wanted the money and not to hurt anyone, so he helps usher the ship crew to safety and contains the explosion, turning into glass due to the heat. -Sandman is presumed deceased, but he survived and just blew away gently in the wind. -Maybe he’s out there somewhere who knows.

JANUARY - MAY 2021 -Norman discovers Harry’s Green Usage, he gets Harry to stop. -Stupid boy drinking the Green instead of inhaling it like his dad did I mean what -Harry discovers the Green exacerbated the progression of his illness. -Spidey meets Yuri Watanabe, who is the lead detective and later Captain who is after the Big Man and the Mob. -Peter discovers the identity of the actual new Big Man, it’s Wilson Fisk, quickly filling the power vacuum after Tombstone’s defeat. -Spidey and Fisk fight, with Fisk seriously injuring Spidey and him having to swing away.

JUNIOR UNDERGRAD

September - December 2021

-Peter is twenty one. -As Harry’s illness progresses more and more, he and Peter’s friendship is strained, Peter is unaware of the illness. -Norman starts winding down Super Merc experiments as he turns his focus into curing Harry. -He also readies for a mayoral run because he’s nothing if not a multitasker. -Harry wonders if Spider-Man’s abilities can cure him, wants a bit of his blood, Spidey is like ‘ew no wtf’ -Great Harry hates Spidey now. -Desperate, Harry springs Electro out of Ravencroft to sic him on Spidey and make him bleed. -Electro is like ‘Sure’ but once freed, he immediately goes to the Vault to try and kill Smythe. -You just can’t trust bio-electrical beings nowadays. -Spidey fights Electro in the Vault. -Electro cuts the power to the Vault and releases a bunch of inmates, but Spidey stops him before he can cut the power that holds the more super powered inmates. -Electro is imprisoned in the Vault.

MARCH - MAY 2020 -Yeah Peter had a quiet winter for once can you believe it. -Norman is elected mayor of New York, using his role in the building of the Vault to boost his approval ratings, motherfucker was playing the Long Game. -Norman revives his old genetic experiments to find a cure for Harry. -Devil’s Breath experiment is resurrected. -Harry’s condition worsens, Norman decides to send him to ‘Europe’ to heal. -In truth, Harry is in Oscorp in ‘stasis’. -Spidey’s attention turns yet again to the rising gang activity, he channels his focus into taking down Fisk.

SENIOR UNDERGRAD

SEPTEMBER 2020 - MAY 2021

-Pete turns twenty two. -He spends most of the year working on his thesis like a good nerd. -Spidey is occasionally tipped toward Fisk fronts by a Mysterious Goblinafactor -Norman wanted to bust into the Crime Scene being the Goblin and taking over the Big Man’s turfs but Fisk beat him to it so he has to be content with just being the Mayor for the time being -Goblins am I right. -He’s also the one who supplied Silvermane with his own armor. -Also the one who maaaay have broadened the rift between Hammerhead and Tombstone by sabotaging Hammerhead’s plans behind the scenes. -He is the Big Man behind the Big Men if you will. -Anyway back to Peter -Turns in his thesis, graduates ESU. Strength of his thesis is what convinces Otto to have Peter also come into work with him in the Brand New Octavius Industries. -Norman is content to just play the Mayor and let Fisk be as Spidey and Yuri gather more and more evidence.

POST-GRAD / INSOMNIAC’S SPIDEY STUFF -Events of the game happen broadly the same -Fisk is taken down, Mister Negative enters the scene, Devil’s Breath Incident happens and Spidey gets his ass thoroughly kicked by Sable, etc. etc. -Otto turns into Ock. -Ock facilitates the Vault Breakdown (MCU got a Raft up and running and it ain’t in NYC sooo, Vault it is) and forms the Sinister Six. -However instead of Vulture being part of the Sinister Six, it’s Kraven. She’s back for a proper rematch. -Unless plotted, May does not die from exposure to the virus, she just gets really messed up and hospitalized, but she gets cured later. -Events of the DLC happen largely as shown as well, Hammerhead techs himself up, Yuri goes Wraith, Sable kicks Spidey’s ass again but also grows a Heart. Aw. -Osborn resigns in disgrace, but as luck would have it, Fisk and Li’s arrest leaves a nice Goblin-shaped hole in the criminal underworld for Gosborn to fill. -Norman discovers Harry’s ‘cure’ is sorta sentient.

WILL GORMAN GOSBORN FINALLY FACE OFF WITH SPIDER MAN? WILL SPIDEY LEARN THE REAL MASTERMIND BEHIND EVERYTHING? WILL HARRY GET GOOPED? WILL PETER FINALLY DISCOVER WHY KIDS LOVE THE TASTE OF CAP’N CRUNCH?

ALL THAT AND MORE, NEXT TIME ON, THE SPECTACULAR ADVENTURES OF THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN!

#headcanon tag.#this is still my magnum opus ngl #rip to mcu canon but fuck em kids

7 notes · View notes

alexsmitposts · 4 years

Photo

Can We Trust the WHO? The most influential organization in the world with nominal responsibility for global health and epidemic issues is the United Nations’ World Health Organization, WHO, based in Geneva. What few know is the actual mechanisms of its political control, the shocking conflicts of interest, corruption and lack of transparency that permeate the agency that is supposed to be the impartial guide for getting through the current COVID-19 pandemic. The following is only part of what has come to public light. Pandemic declaration? On January 30 Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern or PHIEC. This came two days after Tedros met with China President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss the dramatic rise in severe cases of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan and surrounding areas that had reached dramatic proportions. Announcing his emergency PHIEC declaration, Tedros praised the Chinese quarantine measures, measures highly controversial in public health and never before in modern times attempted with entire cities, let alone countries. At the same time Tedros, curiously, criticized other countries who were moving to block flights to China to contain the strange new disease, leading to charges he was unduly defending China. The first three cases in Wuhan were reported, officially, on December 27, 2019, a full month earlier. The cases were all diagnosed with pneumonia from a “novel” or new form of SARS Coronavirus. Important to note is that the largest movement of people in the year, China’s Lunar New Year and Spring Festival, during which some 400 million citizens move throughout the land to join families went from January 17 through February 8. On January 23, at 2am two days before start of actual New Year festivities, Wuhan authorities declared an unprecedented lockdown of the entire city of 11 million as of 10am that day. By then, hundreds of thousands if not several million residents had fled in panic to avoid the quarantine. By the time the WHO declared its Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January, precious weeks had been lost to contain the disease. Yet Tedros effusively praised the “unprecedented” Chinese measures and criticized other countries for placing “stigma” on Chinese by cutting travel. In reference to the Wuhan COVID-19 spread and why WHO did not call it a pandemic, the WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, stated “There is no official category (for a pandemic)…WHO does not use the old system of 6 phases — that ranged from phase 1 (no reports of animal influenza causing human infections) to phase 6 (a pandemic) — that some people may be familiar with from H1N1 in 2009.” Then, in an about-face, on March 11, Tedros Adhanom announced for the first time that WHO was calling the novel coronavirus illness, now renamed COVID-19, a “global pandemic.” At that point WHO said there were more than 118,000 cases of COVID-19 in 114 countries, with 4,291 deaths. 2009 WHO Fake Pandemic Since an earlier WHO fiasco and scandal in 2009 over its declaration of a global pandemic around the “swine flu” or H1N1 as it was termed, the WHO decided to drop using the term pandemic. The reason is indicative of the corruption endemic to the WHO institution. Just weeks before first reports in 2009 of a young Mexican child being infected with a novel H1N1 “swine flu” virus in Veracruz, the WHO had quietly changed the traditional definition of pandemic. No longer was it necessary a reported disease be extremely widespread in many countries and extremely deadly or debilitating. It need only be widespread, like seasonal flu, should WHO “experts” want to declare pandemic. WHO H1N1 symptoms were the same as a bad cold. When then-WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan officially declared a Phase 6 global Pandemic emergency, that triggered national emergency programs including billions of dollars of government purchases of alleged H1N1 vaccines. At the end of the 2009 flu season it turned out the deaths due to H1N1 were tiny relative to the normal seasonal flu. Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician specialising in Pulmonology, was then chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 2009 he called for an inquiry into alleged conflicts of interest surrounding the EU response to the Swine Flu pandemic. The Netherlands Parliament as well discovered that Professor Albert Osterhaus of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the person at the center of the worldwide Swine Flu H1N1 Influenza A 2009 pandemic as the key advisor to WHO on influenza, was intimately positioned to personally profit from the billions of euros in vaccines allegedly aimed at H1N1. Many of the other WHO scientific experts who advised Dr Chan to declare pandemic were receiving money directly or indirectly from Big Pharma including GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and other major vaccine-makers. The WHO Swine Flu Pandemic declaration was a fake. 2009-10 saw the mildest influenza worldwide since medicine began tracking it. The pharma giants took in billions in the process. It was after the 2009 pandemic scandal that the WHO stopped using the 6 phase pandemic declaration and went to the totally vague and confusing “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” But now, Tedros and WHO arbitrarily decided to reintroduce the term pandemic, admitting though that they are still in the midst of creating yet a new definition of the term. “Pandemic” triggers more fear than “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” WHO’s SAGE Still Conflicted Despite the huge 2009-10 conflict-of-interest scandals linking Big Pharma to WHO, today the WHO under Tedros has done little to clean out corruption and conflicts of interest. The current WHO Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) is riddled with members who receive “financially significant” funds from either major vaccine makers, or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BGMF) or Wellcome Trust. In the latest posting by WHO of the 15 scientific members of SAGE, no fewer than 8 had declared interest, by law, of potential conflicts. In almost every case the significant financial funder of these 8 SAGE members included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck & Co. (MSD), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (a Gates-funded vaccine group), BMGF Global Health Scientific Advisory Committee, Pfizer, Novovax, GSK, Novartis, Gilead, and other leading pharma vaccine players. So much for independent scientific objectivity at WHO. Gates and WHO The fact that many of the members of WHO’s SAGE have financial ties to the Gates Foundation is highly revealing, even if not surprising. Today the WHO is primarily financed not by UN member governments, but by what is called a “public-private partnership” in which private vaccine companies and the group of Bill Gates-sponsored entities dominate. In the latest available financial report of WHO, for December 31, 2017, slightly more than half of the $2+ billion General Fund Budget of WHO was from private donors or external agencies such as World Bank or EU. Far the largest private or non-government funders of WHO are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation together with Gates-funded GAVI Vaccine Alliance, the Gates-initiated Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). Those three provided more than $474 million to WHO. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone gave a whopping $324,654,317 to WHO. By comparison, the largest state donor to WHO, the US Government, gave $401 million to WHO. Among other private donors we find the world’s leading vaccine and drug makers including Gilead Science (currently pressing to have its drug as treatment for COVID-19), GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Sanofi Pasteur, Merck Sharp and Dohme Chibret and Bayer AG. The drug makers gave tens of millions of dollars to WHO in 2017. This private pro-vaccine industry support for the WHO agenda from the Gates Foundation and Big Pharma is more than a simple conflict of interest. It is a de facto high-jacking of the UN agency responsible for coordinating worldwide responses to epidemics and disease. Further, the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest at some $50 billion, invests its tax-exempt dollars in those same vaccine makers including Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline. Against this background it should come as no surprise that Ethiopian politician, Tedros Adhanom, became head of WHO in 2017. Tedros is the first WHO director not a medical doctor despite his insistence on using Dr. as title. His is a doctor of philosophy in community health for “research investigating the effects of dams on the transmission of malaria in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.” Tedros, who was also Ethiopia Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2016, met Bill Gates when he was Ethiopian Health Minister and became Board Chair of the Gates-linked Global Fund Against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. Under Tedros, the notorious corruption and conflicts of interest at WHO have continued, even grown. According to a recent report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in 2018 and 2019 under Tedros, the WHO Health Emergencies Program, the section responsible for the COVID-19 global response, was cited with the highest risk rating noting the “failure to adequately finance the program and emergency operations [risks] inadequate delivery of results at country level.” The ABC report further found that there has also been a “surge in internal corruption allegations across the whole of the organisation, with the detection of multiple schemes aimed at defrauding large sums of money from the international body.” Not very reassuring. In early March Oxford University stopped using WHO data on COVID-19 because of repeated errors and inconsistencies the WHO refused to correct. The WHO test protocols for coronavirus tests have repeatedly been cited by various countries including Finland for flaws and false positives and other defects. This is the WHO which we now trust to guide us through the worst health crisis of the past century.

1 note · View note

crypticbeliever123 · 5 years

Text

Reposting my question because I guess I put too many tags for it to show up the first time but here goes

So basically I've had the idea to try my hand at a multi-fic universe of DC characters kinda akin to the MCU but I've been struggling to decide which of my ideas to go with for Superboy since his origins might shake up some of the other characters' narratives around him one way or another. So here are my 4 ideas. Which version of Superboy’s story sounds better?

Couple notes: In each of these cloning is unstable when you try to speed up the subject’s growth so Superboy is chronologically 16 no matter the version. Also, no matter what version it is Superman sees Superboy as a son and wants to be a part of his life but not every version has Superboy reciprocate that feeling. And finally he wears the 90s costume while doing heroics in each version, may or may not wear the t-shirt get up in his civvies though.

A version where Krypto, Streaky, and Beppo the Supermonkey were all Cadmus experiments gene spliced with Kryptonian DNA that escaped. Krypto then came to live with Clark and Streaky and Beppo finding their own homes to hide from Cadmus in. Meanwhile, they’re secretly acting as the Legion of Superpets behind the League’s back in an effort to stop their former prisoners and when their initial attempt at a rescue goes wrong Krypto goes to the League for help in rescuing not only Project 13 but also his captured teammates, using J’onn as a telepathic translator. Superman is flabbergasted to find that Krypto isn’t actually Jor-El’s long lost dog like he originally thought and that his pet has been leading a secret team of super animals the whole time and then he, Batman, and Martian Manhunter help Krypto and his team rescue Project 13 from Luthor, causing an incident wherein 13′s telekinetic meta-abilities become apparent forcing Luthor to flee and resulting in 13′s freedom at which point Superman discovers the boy is a hybrid clone of him and Luthor. Superboy then runs away from the Kent Farm, deciding that as nice as the Kents seem he doesn’t want to be under anyone else’s authority ever again.

A version where Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman track down Bizarro after receiving reports that the disfigured clone of Superman had been robbing baby stores and find him with a newborn baby who he claims to have rescued from ‘drowning’ in a large cylindrical container at a lab he’d been captured in. Superman accepts baby-sitting duty so Bizarro can lead Wonder Woman and Batman to the lab which has since been abandoned and the only thing left behind is a computer file on the infant which states it is the 13th attempt at cloning Superman with half Kryptonian/half Human DNA, though the latter genetic source is unlisted. Batman informs Superman of the discovery with Big Blue saying he kinda figured given how much the kid looks like him and says that he plans on raising the baby as his son Conner Kent. Fast-forward to when Conner is 4 and Clark and Lois are getting married. The boy’s introduced to Lex Luthor, who is in attendance as a long-time acquaintance of Clark’s and Conner and Lex both notice they have the same eyes, causing Lex to realize that Conner is the clone he created a few years previously and that Clark must be Superman to even have him at all. Meanwhile, Conner develops a phobia of Lex and tries to tell his dad as much but Clark passes it off as Conner not knowing Lex that well yet (Clark is kinda really dumb and too trusting of Lex in this and it causes Conner to grow up resenting him for not listening to his belief that Lex can’t be trusted based solely on his gut feeling). Cue Conner, who has inherited Lex’s masterful mind, recruiting a whole mess of teen heroes from around the world to be a part of a secret movement called the Teen Titans to fight the villains the Justice League turns a blind eye to, either willingly or unknowingly (such as Lex, The Court of Owls, and the Ninth Circle) all while operating as the head of the group from the shadows right under his dad and the League’s noses.

A version where we follow a sort of Death of Superman arc where Superboy escapes from Cadmus following the apparent death of Superman to avoid being killed as he was created to kill Superman and thus with him dead is deemed obsolete. This story would follow Superboy’s POV as he struggles with freedom for the first time and trying to shake the conditioning and Stockholm Syndrome he’s developed over years of growing up under Luthor’s thumb. He quickly meets Bart Allen, fresh from the future who makes it a point to befriend him because his grandpa Barry had told him it was inevitable that he’d wind up in the past and that Superboy would need someone looking out for him at this point. Superboy also meets Tim Drake, who is less than forthcoming about his double life, unlike Bart who told him straight up he was the Flash’s grandson from the future. Tim becomes his sole ‘normal’ friend and keeps his association with Superboy a secret from Batman so as to both not betray Superboy’s trust by getting Batman involved and also not have Bruce upend his personal investigation into Superboy’s mysterious origins. In this Superboy has a low self-confidence and anxiety but acts cocky and showboaty for the public because he thinks it’s what people would want as that’s how Lex always described Superman to him. Superman returns from the apparent grave and Superboy either avoids him like the plague or actively works to keep him alive out of fear that he’d once again be obsolete and a target for termination by Cadmus if Superman dies again, but loathes the idea of Superman as a father figure as the words father and son have taken on a dark and painful meaning after years of abuse by Luthor.

Sort of similar to the last version but instead of Superboy’s POV it’s from the POV of characters like Lois Lane, Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor, Jon Kent, John Henry Irons, Martha Kent, and Clark Kent, possibly others too. It focuses on Superboy as a mystery to be solved as he claims to have been literally born yesterday which Batman and Lois both have doubts about. Lex’s POV has him stressing out over Superboy’s actions. The story has Superman discovered alive and Cyborg Superman trying to kill him only to fail and be put away but in doing so Lois finds more reason to suspect Lex Luthor is behind Hank Henshaw turning into the Cyborg Superman and begins investigating it with some help from Batman who suspects her case might hold some connection to his investigation into Superboy. Unlike the last one, Superboy isn’t an anxious ball of nerves pretending to be confident but is actually defiant and refers to Superman’s efforts to get to know him controlling and manipulative (all he does is fly into Superboy’s path to try and stop him from just flying away before they can talk) which leads to Batman determining that Superboy was abused. Different POV per chapter with Superboy's POV coming in at the end after Clark is discovered alive but before he has a chance to try and get to know Superboy because of the Henshaw fiasco (thinking a two part fic here) where we learn just what Superboy was up to this whole time and see more of the real him. (Already working on this one but I'm not sure if I want to include it in the multi-fic universe or if it'll be a standalone story hard to say)

#superboy #conner Kent #kon-el #fanfiction #dc comics

8 notes · View notes

strxga · 6 years

Text

Stop stoking the fires. Just stop. Please.

I genuinely can’t believe I have to write this post, it’s honestly genuinely surprising how the FNDM hasn’t changed at all from the past years and I’m just so tired of it. So tired of all the drama, the character hate, the toxicity, please just, stop this, stop this already!

Ever since Seeing Red the FNDM has been on a constant back-and-forth between shitting on certain characters while also elevating others to the highest praise, and while usually this wouldn’t be such a huge deal, it is because this has gone way past the point of tolerable but to the point of harassment and blatantly fake accusations. Obviously I’m referring to the whole Adam vs. Bumblebee fiasco that’s been stirring on the pot for far too long, and trust me, this has been going on for far too long and starting to get EXTREMELY out of hand.

Each and every single day I go to the Adam Taurus tag I see nothing but hatred and venom being spewed at Adam’s fans, calling them abusers, misogynists, scum of the Earth, abuse apologists and other far worse things, and the worst part is that NONE of the Adam fans I have spoken with have EVER excused his character. In fact they’ve all agreed he was an asshole who got what he deserved. Some agree the narrative did a good job of handling it while others disagree, and that’s good and all! We all have our different opinions, but when we as a community bundle together to single this specific group of fans who particularly enjoyed Adam’s character for whatever reason and proceed to harassment and take over the character’s tag and just fill it to the brim with hatred? Then we, as a FNDM, are doing something WRONG!

Bumblebee and Blacksun shippers are CONSTANTLY asking their tags to be kept nice and sweet with no hatred in it, so why is it so hard to ask for the same for the Adam fans? They know their character isn’t the most universally well-liked, but when you lunge all these fake accusations and branding and labeling them as something they aren’t? Things are being taken to the extreme and being taken way too far! Especially when these bullies CELEBRATE Adam’s death and shove it in their faces. Imagine if someone did the same to you, if someone went ahead and made FUN of you when your favorite character in not just RWBY but in any medium died. Would you like that? Would it feel good to be on the receiving end of that?

Adam wasn’t the best character or person. He had the POTENTIAL TO BE MORE but he wasn’t - Kerry and Miles settled on writing him that way and they did, but that excuses NO ONE to harass these FANS for believing and wanting their favorite character to be more than just the yandere ex-boyfriend trope. There are soooo many unconfirmed or just plainly false headcanons about Adam being spread about him in the tag or lies being told to new fans that just make him even far more despicable than he already was in canon: A few examples of this is I’ve seen people present their headcanons of Adam sexually assaulting Blake, stabbing her before or even that she discovered her Semblance after he physically assaulted her while they were together on the White Fang WHEN THERE’S NOT EVEN A PROPER BASIS FOR THAT!

As far as we KNOW, he only took advantage of her emotionally, which is bad enough as it is. But Adam is by far NOT the only character with these traits yet he’s the only character I see being demonized further by the FNDM. You want a long list of other characters who are abusive and very much as real as Adam is yet get absolutely no hatred for their actions? Some of which are on Chibi as well: -Cinder Fall -Roman Torchwick -Neopolitan -Hazel Rainart -Tyrian Callows -Raven Branwen -Jacques Schnee -Corsac Albain -Fennec Albain -Ilia Amitola

I could even list a few more but these are the first examples that come to that. Let’s take a look at the similarities between Adam and the other listed characters:

-Adam is the leader of a terrorist organization, the White Fang -Cinder is a member of the biggest criminal and terrorism organization EVER. -Adam killed multiple Humans and Faunus alike. -Raven is the leader of a group of bandits that casually assaults and murders settlements outside of the Kingdoms for supplies to survive. -Jacques leads the S.D.C. and is single-handedly responsible for Faunus abuse and oppression and operating outside the law for his own selfish interests. -Roman is a thief and murderer who cares only about himself and is willing to take as many lives as necessary if it means to survive. -Cinder orchestrated the Fall of Beacon which led to multiple lives from ALL the Kingdoms to end prematurely. -Adam supposedly took advantage of Blake emotionally while they were both in the White Fang and used manipulation to keep her by his side. -Cinder emotionally AND physically has assaulted, threatened and manipulated Emerald. -Raven is emotionally manipulative and tried to take advantage of Yang and make her feel inferior to her so she could maintain the illusion of power. -Adam was on a quest of obtaining power to accomplish his goals. -Cinder desired power so obsessively that she not only joined Salem but allowed herself to be turned into a Human-Grimm hybrid. -Raven’s whole shtick is about being powerful enough to lead her tribe! -Adam has an unhealthy obsession with killing Blake for betraying him. -Cinder has an even unhealthier fixation on Ruby and torturing her, wishing to see her burn to ashes in front of her, even to the point she’s still obsessed with her. -Hazel holds Ozpin accountable for something out of his power and is obsessed with murdering him over and over for his own satisfaction. -Tyrian is just straight-up psychopathic and a mass murderer who delights in killing! -Neopolitan expressed a twisted and wicked delight at the idea of extinguishing Yang’s life. -Adam stabbed and hurt Blake and cut Yang’s arm as a display of power. -Cinder killed Pyrrha and left a nasty scar on Weiss too after piercing her with a spear. -Adam groomed a young Blake into serving by his side as a soldier despite him being much older while Ghira was still part of the White Fang. -Ilia, if we’re going by the Adam Trailer, was around Adam’s same grown age while Blake was, at the oldest, 12. So even if she didn’t groom her, she still felt attraction for a minor, which is pretty bad! -Adam lied to all the Faunus and claimed he cared for them. -Fennec and Corsac did the same to the entirety of Menagerie. -Adam has tried to kill Blake multiple times. -So did Corsac, Ilia and Fennec.

All these fucking characters are based on reality! People like Tyrian are mass murderers that are still frequent! People like Hazel who form a grudge and never let go until the target of their hatred’s life is beyond miserable, people like Neopolitan who take a sick satisfaction in hurting those who are down and enjoys inflicting pain on others. Criminals like Roman who kill and steal as long as it’s for their self-interests, people like Raven and Jacques who form negligent and abusive parents that only hurt their children, people like Adam who are abusive and crave to be seen as a savior in order to retain power. People like Cinder who are not satisfied with obtaining power and using it to crush others but who won’t stop until the people they oppress cannot dare even lift a finger against them like a megalomaniac tyrant! All these characters, not just Adam have real-life counterparts that are just as frightening!

Oh and let’s not forget when Yang was about to be killed by Neopolitan was there outrage for her character? Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, most of the FNDM loved it so much they started SHIPPING these two characters together! Why?! Hell if I know! Because they’re both women I suppose and for some reason the FNDM excused Neopolitan’s behavior, but when it’s a male character the one doing the hurting then he gets demonized to all hell and back. I’ve seen absolutely zero arguments in the FNDM when it comes to women-on-women violence though. But I guess it’s because it’s empowering for the fans for some reason? I don’t know. I just know one thing.

All these fucking characters are real, and they’re terrifying! Yet they’re still in Chibi. All these female villains are dark beyond belief yet they get excused! Why, because they’re women? Because they’re pretty?! Regardless they’re all just as bad as Adam fucking Taurus yet no one says fucking anything! Why are still only the males that get demonized? Why are the fans still so toxic to others? Why has this FNDM not fucking changed since 2014?! I’m sick and tired of it. I didn’t want to write this post yet here I am doing so because this hot garbage mess of a FNDM can’t go at least a fucking day without being wild.

Respect other people. Stop accusing them of shit they’re not guilty of. Just stop. Stop stoking the fires of drama. Just get along with each other! Let people like the characters they want to like and for the love of God stop harassing each other and just be at peace!

#rwby #adam taurus #blake belladonna #cinder fall #yang xiao long #fndm

57 notes · View notes

kyleisme14 · 5 years

Text

My trip to Area 51 - unedited

On Facebook, a kid from Bakersfield created an event. He uses his page, perfectly named, shitposting because my life is in shambles and makes 'storm area 51, they can't stop us all' and seemingly overnight a million people said that they would be attending. I did attend. Shitposting because my life is in shambles is inadvertent the most zeitgeist worthy name for this page. Shitposting is when you share terrible content that you know is bad just to get a reaction. You are sharing a low effort joke for the sense of connection from others. Because my life is in shambles, this anonymous statement of personal vulnerability, I shall try and make a low effort attempt at connection. This is what our age is all about. We are doomed to be as connected and as isolated as possible. This had a chance of being a real life meme where we'd be isolated no longer.

The page became an immediate stronghold for memes. It adopted other internet jokes like Karens asking to see managers, Kyle's drinking monster energy drink for invincibility, and Naruto runners being faster than bullets, as ways of infiltrating the base. And also generated new ones about what people would find inside Area 51 like the 10th doctor to recommend a toothpaste or where my girlfriend wants to go for dinner or how we'd sneak in with a minivan but escape with a space ship. The killer meme was how once we 'free them aliens' we'd keep them as lovers and bang them so hard that we 'clapped them cheeks'. This was the low effort comedy that this meme page generated.

Was it a joke or would people actually go? At first I did not know why I needed to go to area 51, and everybody seemed to ask me. I failed to recruit any friends to join me on the quest, 7 hours driving to the infamous base. Most thought I was crazy for going. My brother told me to be safe. My sister thought I was joking, and called to counter my bluff. Whenever somebody said they couldn't go, I pittied them because I was sure they were going to miss something incredible and life affirming. I was excited because I had no idea what was going to go down, and nobody in the whole world did. I stopped at the army surplus. I thought we'd either see a humanitarian crisis like fyre fest or a government crackdown. Don't forget, 2 million people clicked GOING online, so even if 1% came that'd be 10,000 people to a town with a population of 1000. The airforce released a warning about 'raiding' active military bases being a bad idea and the use of deadly force being a possibility. Lincoln County, one of nevadas sleepiest, had to call in enough police to potentially break up a neo-woodstock.

I always wanted to go to area 51 since I first learned about aliens as a kid. When I asked the big question of are we alone in the universe? If there was an answer, if somebody had the evidence, if it was anywhere, it was stored at area 51. UFO's and little green men were hiding somewhere in Nevada... at least according to pop mythology. In grade school I would check out the same book over and over from the library, about aliens and the search for exterterestrial life and the scientists who were looking at the stars. There was a spooky section about times aliens might have visited early humans based on cave paintings and statues. And then the next page was all about area 51, where the government did secret expirements on alien artifacts and maybe had a specimen. So I've been captivated since at least then. Area 51 represents a big secret. A mystery! And somebody powerful, a general or established congress person, knows and is keeping the answers from us. So as an anti-establishment, meme and alien lover, I was fascinated with this 'movement,' that would of 'raid the base'. I wanted to go and find out how many people like me were out there! Turns out I wasn't completely alone! But... for the ignorant... What is Area 51? I could never believe people weren't following the biggest BREAKING news of our lives. But for those out of the loop, Area 51 is an infamous hotspot for UFO lovers. It has a rich history in alien folklore. But here is the factual history: Nevada is almost all federal land. and it was used back in the day for nuclear testing. an original tourist attraction to Las Vegas was watching nuclear testing in the distance...

Some airforce commanders were flying around dropping bombs when they spied a dried lakebed next to a mountain, Groom Lake. They landed on it and found it to be a perfectly flat natural runway. Excellent for testing expiremental aircraft. The facility became known as Area 51. And was where the airforce and Lockheed Corp developed the U-2 stealth bomber. They brought the best and brightest scientists and engineers to develop new aeronautics and weaponry for the US military. At the height of the Cold War, any foreign technology that was aquired would be brought to Area 51 to be tested and backwards-engineered. You can imagine Chinese reactors and Russian jets being taken apart and used by the best tinkerer's and best test pilots. People at the highest levels of classified access. Because if you are one of the folks who are handling stolen foreign items, you are so classified that your spouse isn't supposed to know what you do all day. Yes honey, I was testing out the Ruskies new fighter plane! They don't even know we have it! These were experts in aeronautics and weapons science who could decipher technology even if the instructions were in another language... so perhaps if the US government were to encounter any other 'foreign technology' of an unknown origin, maybe they'd send it to Area 51 to be backwards engineered? That's the set up, those are the facts, the rest is conjecture and tinfoil hats stuff. Like unexplained phenomena, military released sightings that definitely aren't weather baloons and general mysticism. Do you believe in aliens or not?

If you believe that it's more likely that our government would keep aliens a secret than releasing that information to the public... welcome to the club! If not, do some reading. As I drove across the desert, down lonesome roads and through one horse towns, I realized what I was doing. I was driving into the middle of nowhere, likely to stand around doing nothing... and boy was I excited. My plan was to go and maybe film something and if that didn't work out I'd put on an alien costume and hold a sign. I figured that there'd be a bunch of cameras and I could use it to collectively protest all sorts of wrongs in the world. One of the initial reacitons to the playful event was, 'hey there are more imporant places to raid! why not raid the border detention centers, why not congress, why not the oil companies?' To which I say, hell yes... but that's not shitposting. That's being earnest and noble. This was about being ironic and part of a joke. This was about chasing an internet meme into the ground and disecting it until all that was left was the human connection. I had a sign and costume and figured that even if nobody showed up at least news organizations would be covering it. The sign I held said, Peace on earth ain't coming from outer space, and I really believe that. We shouldn't expect peace to come from somewhere else in the universe, it has to start right here at home, inside each of us. I wanted to get that message out. The day of the event, due to classic internet decentralization, people debated whether the raid meet up (located at the Area 51 gate) should be at 3am on friday morning or 3am on saturday morning. Most people kind of agreed to just gather sporadically between those two times. I monitored a live stream late on thursday to confirm that millions of people weren't gathering to make American History. Instead, about 30 people gathered for that 3am moment. I only missed a photo-op. I awoke on friday morning and drove towards my destiny. There were two events scheduled. One hosted by the facebook Shitposting kid who decided to use his 15 minutes of fame to organize a rave in the desert at the local Little Ale'inn, a motel close to the gate. The other was set up by a filmmaker who made a movie about Area 51 at the Alien Research Center. Both locales are alien themed tchotchke paradises designed to sell the eager UFO tourist any manner of t-shirt, shot glass or Alien doll. These spots have a fun feel and would be desert trinket spots selling only desert sage and gems if not for the boon of being next to an infamous mystery base.

The dueling events were both hoping to capitalize on the rush of people to the desert for the raid. Alienstock, as shitpost called it, was going to be a kumbaya style gathering. But everybody thought it was an alibi for shitpost incase anybody got in actual trouble at the gate and roped him in. Shitpost from bakersfield ended up not even going to his own event out of fear. Also the county sued him for the cost of preparing for a potential fiasco. The Alien Research Center event was going to have famous Alien Community folks speak and some high end music performances. But as I drove down the dusty route 375, known as Exterterestrial Highway, I saw very few people on the roads. Lots and lots of cops. It became obvious that the whole county and the organizers of these events had been preparingor at least 30,000 people. They had nearly 200 port-a-potties. Which makes sense, if 1% of the people who claimed they were coming online came! The reality was that maybe only 1% of 1% showed up to these sleepy nevada towns on the edge of a fabled military base. The imediate reality of the events was that they were extremely underattended, but that was also a blessing. it made everything a little bit more intimate and accessible. I pulled into the dusty parking lot of the Little Ale'inn to find a rag tag DIY music festival set up. People were essentially tailgating on the side of the road. It was a scene and it was dusty. All sorts of folks were jovially milling about, some in alien themed costume, many with cameras. Many folks with booze, despite the morning. I pulled out a camera and tried interviewing people, but found that everybody I talked to had the exact same talking points. Do you believe in aliens? Duh. Why are you here? Free them Aliens. Do you really think they are in the base? Yes, but maybe now they've been moved. What did you think would happen if we charged? We'd all get killed or arrested. Nobody seemed to have really believed in the facebook post's idea of 'they can't stop us all.' Most people were sure that, especially with the meager turn out, the military and police could stop us all. Everybody just wanted to see what would happen, expecting anywhere from fyre festival 2.0 to a bloodbath to nothing. Everybody had listened to the same Joe Rogan podcast, where he'd interviewed Bob Lazar who claims to have worked at the base. That podcast was the bible of this gathering and was what had inspired Shitpost to shitpost.

It was special that everybody was a believer. That's rare that strangers are all on the same wavelength. Nobody seemed to have any doubts that the government knew about aliens and weren't telling the public. And it was agreed that UFO's had been tested and stored at the base. Everybody I ended up meeting seemed pretty prepared. They had plenty of water and booze and camping supplies, so the idea that a humanitarian crisis was going to occur dissapated completely and reminded me of a group outting to the desert. Most important was that everybody at the event seemed to be in on the joke. They might believe in aliens but had no plans of raiding the base in actuality. Aliens might exist but the might of the US government is way more certain. The police presence alone was insane, but they merely hinted at the military might behind the base's perimeter. The police actually became quite friendly once they realized it wasn't going to be a boodbath. But the silent and hooded guards behind the gate remained terrifying with big guns and big dogs. There was definitely the threat of violence if you crossed. But we all joked that maybe if a million more people showed up we'd actually start Naruto running passed the guards.

After a while of milling around quasi-interviewing people I decided there were enough people with cameras that I should just put on my alien costume and go to the gate and get in front of the camera. I was taken to the gate by some friends I'd made while trying to get interviews. Evan and Kevin were two dudes I became super weirdly close on the day of the Raid. Each of us had come by ourselves from far away, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles, with a vague intention of documenting it in some way. I had a vision of either a mini doc or article, Evan was a photographer and who took some insanely beautiful photos (featured here).

Kevin was a video creation guru who just wanted to make as much instagram content as possible. Kevin was by far the most successful, he's got that showman's knack to always get on camera with insanely high energy. There were a lot of cameras and each one he'd run up to and start lecturing about how the governemnt needed to release the secret documents! It was a great bit especially with his Boston Townie accent turned all the way up.

Evan explained how he was drawn to the site by a mysterious desire to see what would happen. He expressed it best as, 'this is like a reddit safe post.' People will find safes while remodeling or cleaning a house and say, 'hey reddit, look i found a safe, i'm going to open it and see what's inside!' Then people get excited trying to guess what marvelous jackpot could be in that old dusty safe. They wait desperately for the original poster to share an update. More often than not the poster never returns and people are left waiting for nothing.

Once and a while there will be an updated post to show what was found inside and sometime's it's a haul of trinkets and dubloons and rare items that were saved throughout time to be found by some noble internet user. but then most of the time it's like, wow a roll of coins from 1953! "so yeah i felt obligated to go and find out what was in the safe and share it with reddit even if there actually was nothing inside. reddit deserves to know.' evan said. Because sometimes those posts are just as important, the safe find coming back to say, 'hey we cracked the safe, but turns out there was nothing in it! here's a picture of an empty safe."

So I was beginning to realize that I was standing inside an empty safe. But wow, all of these people had also come to be here and that was something special. It's not often that we get to organically be around likeminded strangers that all have such clear and imediate shared experience. Here we all were, because of a a meme, just to see what would happen. The gathering had a magical quality because we were an internet joke that had left the cyber space and entered the meat space. It was a silly idea that was reaching a physical end point.

I stood around the gate for a good while, we chatted with everybody, shook hands with the police guarding the gate, exchanged instagram handles and shared jokes we'd heard on the internet. You could tell people were really cutting loose. Most people spent most of their time on their computers it seemed. Hey, me too. We shouted 'clap them cheeks' and 'let them out.' We were all in on the joke. There were still mainly cameras and I got interviewed and photographed by dozens including history channels ancient aliens and the nytimes and countless youtubers and instagramers. It all kind of culminated when Kevin and Evan were getting cold and saying we should leave, I heard a distant 'clap them cheeks' chant and booty shuffling down the lonesome road to the infamous Area 51 gate was Riley Reid! Pornhub's number 1 star. She's somebody I have searched for all my life, on google. She did a strip tease and pretended to rush the gate. She was an internet hero in the flesh, and she was in on the joke too! A perfect metaphor, eh?

The next morning, hungover from the excitement and extrovertism of the day before I was sitting in a diner scouring news websites for mentions of the raid and looking for photos of myself. Behind me I heard some locals discussing, a gravelly voice said, "usually this town has 1 car every 10 minutes. this weekend we've got like 1 car every minute!" The townsfolk seemed to have had the wildest weekend of their lives. Me too. I managed to get into a few articles in my green alien suit. A USA Today affiliate newspaper even printed a whole write up about me and my sign. On the way back, realizing I expected nothing, and found little more than nothing, I was completely satisfied. I had held my sign for peace and found a version of it, internet strangers, weirdos from all over had gathered peacefully to celebrate an idea. A silly and anti authoritarian conspiracy idea, but an idea none the less. I decided the reason I was drove all this way through beautiful american desert land, was because it's something I would have thought was cool as an 11 year old. A mission to see aliens and the people who wanted to meet them. Radical.

#area 51 #journey #journalism #adventure #aliens #clap them cheeks

1 note · View note

missjanjie · 5 years

Text

Branjie Fic | Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer (8/11)

Title: Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer Summary: Brooke Lynn is a graduate student anxiously embracing her new position as her favorite dance professors’ new TA. Vanessa is a sophomore dance major who just might make her way into being more than the teacher(assistant)’s pet. (lesbian/university AU) Word Count: ~2.4k (this chapter)/~21.3k (total) Relationship: Branjie (Vanessa ‘Vanjie’ Mateo/Brooke Lynn Hytes) Rating: E

Read on AO3 | Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch.5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7

“Please, please, please? Come on, I think you owe me a little,” Brooke Lynn whined as she padded behind Katya, who was pacing back and forth in the studio. This back and forth had been going on for nearly twenty minutes at that point, but she was fairly certain she was wearing her down.

Katya sighed and came to a halt, nearly making Brooke Lynn crash into her. “Fine. But you’re not allowed to complain about the dinner fiasco anymore,” she paused to think. “Come by my apartment tomorrow morning. But I swear, if you fuck up my car—”

“I couldn’t possibly treat it any worse than you do,” Brooke retorted before perking up. “Thank you!” she hugged her tightly and ran right back out the door. While she had a car back in Canada, there was no reason for her to bring it down to the city. At least, she never thought there was a reason until she found herself in need of a ride to take a pretty Latina on a scenic date out on Long Island.

Brooke Lynn went right from the studio to Vanessa’s dorm, knocking excitedly on the door and hardly waiting a second after she opened it. “Everything’s in place for tomorrow. It’s gonna be great,” she let herself in to the dorm and sat on Vanessa’s bed. “You’re going to have so much fun, I promise,” she regretted saying that the instant it came out of her mouth, though, afraid that she had just jinxed things and unleashed a horrible chain of events to follow. Not that she would ever announce that fear.

Vanessa sat down on Brooke’s lap, twirling her hair around her fingers and placing little kisses over her face. “You know you don’t gotta do nothing crazy for me, right?” she left a small hickey at the base of her jaw. “We don’t have to do anything, or wear anything…”

“There will be plenty of time for that too, I promise,” Brooke cooed, holding her head in place to kiss her properly. “Just let me do something cute for you, ya stubborn bitch, okay?” she let out a jokingly exasperated huff, then a surprised gasp when Vanessa pinned her down to the bed.

Vanessa lingered over her for a moment, then kissed her deeply. “I look forward to it.”

----------

The drive took Brooke Lynn and Vanessa a little over an hour and a half, lucking out with minimal traffic. However, it took Vanessa all of twenty minutes to doze off and sleep the rest of the way there, lucking out even further in avoiding any sharp turns, bumps, or potholes. Brooke Lynn didn’t mind either way, of course. She would steal glances at her sleeping girlfriend every now and then and find it adorable, and she almost hated to wake her when they arrived at the destination. “Vanjie, baby, we’re here,” she gently shook her awake.

“I’m up, I’m up,” Vanessa sat up, a bit disoriented. She blinked rapidly as she fully woke up, looking around. She saw rows and rows of trees surrounded by an expanse of fall foliage. As someone who only alternated between Manhattan and Florida, it wasn’t a sight she saw very often, nearly tripping over herself to get out of the car and take a picture. “Brooke Lynn! Get out here and look at this!”

Brooke Lynn giggled fondly as she got out of the car. “It’s a beautiful day out, isn’t it?” she wrapped her arm around Vanessa’s waist and kissed her cheek. “C’mon, we didn’t come all the way out here just to look at trees. We came to pick apples off them,” she hummed, leading her into the orchard, where she paid for a bag for each of them before looking around.

Vanessa tilted her head as she looked down the rows of trees. “How many different types of apples are there?” she asked with furrowed brows.

“The website said twenty-seven,” Brooke recalled as they began to walk down the rows. “I think we should get the ones that aren’t in grocery stores. Or even like, Whole Foods,” she mused, plucking an apple from a tree, something that was quite easy for her to do at her height.

“There is no way there are twenty-seven types of apples,” Vanessa muttered and shook her head, picking from one of the shorter trees. She was about to take a bite of one when her phone started to go off. “Oh, hold up, it’s my mom,” she answered cheerily.

Brooke watched as Vanessa spoke animatedly with her mom. She was speaking in Spanish for the most part, leaving her in the dark. She didn’t mind, in fact, one thing she had always loved about New York was hearing the various dialects people around her spoke in.

“No, todavía no he reservado mi vuelo, ¿por qué?” Vanessa scratched the back of her head, then her eyes widened. “¿Vienes aquí?” she still seemed confused but had perked up in excitement. Then there was a pause, hesitation in her tone. “¿Puedo traer a mi ... um, hay alguien que quiero que conozcas?” she winced but laughed. Her cheeks had a noticeable blush on them. “No hagas una gran cosa al respecto, por favor,” there was a soft sigh of relief, she seemed content. “Sí, yo también te quiero, adios,” she hung up and shoved her phone into her pocket.

“Is everything okay?” Brooke asked with a mouth half-full of apple. She could eavesdrop all she wanted; it didn’t clear up anything. She took French in high school and hardly remembered any of that either.

Vanessa smiled, but there was still an air of nervousness around her. “Normally I go down to see my mom over Thanksgiving, but she just told me she’s coming up, cause my auntie in Washington Heights decided to hold it this year. And since I figured you don’t celebrate it…I asked to bring you,” she glanced down, chewing on her lip.

Brooke felt a pang of nerves hit her as well. They had only just allowed themselves to consider what they had a real relationship, and now she was less than a month away from meeting the family. “Yeah, uh, I’ll just have to let my mom know. I’m sure she’ll understand,” she spoke as if she was still holding her breath but smiled warmly. “Alright, let’s get going, the traffic’s gonna be hell, and we need to find somewhere decent to stop and eat,” she shook off the unease and got back in the car with Vanessa. She wasn’t about to let anything interfere with their perfect date.

----------

“Has Brooke Lynn seemed a little…off to you lately?” Vanessa asked.

A’keria couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Girl, no one pays more attention to her than you. If anyone’s gonna notice any change, it’ll probably just be you,” she looked at her friend’s face fall and sigh. “Why does she seem ‘off’ to you?”

“She didn’t answer any of my texts yesterday til like, almost midnight, and when she did, she was just like, ‘oh sorry, I was busy’. Then in class she seemed super distracted and kept looking at her phone and shit. She just isn’t like that, you know?” Vanessa frowned, fumbling with the sleeves of her sweater.

Instead of sympathy, A’keria rolled her eyes again. “I’m not sure if this has occurred to you, but Brooke Lynn is an adult, she’s probably doing graduate work or paying bills or something like that,” she sat beside Vanessa and put a hand on top of hers. “Have you considered that you might be projecting a little after the whole thing with the ginger bitch?”

Vanessa crossed her arms. “I am not!” she looked down, thinking with knitted brows. “Or maybe I am, I don’t know…what should I do, then?”

“Wait it out, I’m sure it’ll be fine. And if not, talk to her and figure it out,” she shrugged. “In the meantime, get your ass together, we gotta go to work.”

Vanessa groaned and got up. Work had become so much of a chore as of late. The customers were no better or worse than usual, but her boss seemed to have developed a vendetta against her. Suddenly, she was getting shorter, worse hours, and she hadn’t pieced together why.

“He’s probably just mad ‘cause you threatened to call corporate after he grabbed your ass,” A’keria offered.

“Brooke Lynn taught me how to do that. That’s what happens when you date a white lady,” she beamed proudly, getting through the rest of her shift, doing her best to ignore the way her boss would give her a dirty look every time she glanced in that direction.

By the time her shift ended, however, Vanessa was tired and cranky. She just wanted to relax and get comfortable. And for her, that meant letting herself into Brooke Lynn’s apartment with the spare key she knew was left under the mat. “Brooooke?” no answer. “Brooke Lynn?” she could hear her voice from inside her room, and that pissed her off. “Really, bitch? You’re gonna cold shoulder me?” she stormed towards her room, only to stop in her tracks with a perplexed expression.

Brooke Lynn was sitting on the floor with a couple books in front of her. She had her phone sitting atop one of the books and had headphones in her ears. At first, it appeared that A’keria was right with her theory that she was doing course work, but then she continued talking to herself. “Quiero un vaso de agua por favor,” she repeated the phrase a couple more times, scribbling into a notebook.

Vanessa beamed, leaning against the door frame. Okay, maybe she had been a little paranoid, and maybe she had just ruined a surprised Brooke had been planning. But she didn’t need the anxiety of a surprise beyond this anyway, she decided. She quietly walked up behind her and kneeled down, carefully taking out her headphones and whispering “Quieres ayuda, mi amada?” in her ear and kissing her cheek.

Blushing fiercely, Brooke closed her books and set her phone aside. “You know, I told you about my spare key in case of emergency,” she murmured with a soft laugh. She turned to face Vanessa, accepting the kiss the other girl placed on her lips.

“I did have an emergency,” Vanessa defended. “I missed you and you weren’t answering my texts,” she pouted and sat across from her. “You’re teaching yourself Spanish?”

Brooke nodded, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. “I wanted to surprise you at Thanksgiving by introducing myself to your family in Spanish without sounding like a confused six-year-old,” she confessed softly.

“Well, you can still surprise her. My family probably won’t have the highest expectations…no offense,” Vanessa hummed. “I’m gonna help you though. We can make it fun, like a game,” she offered brightly. She tilted her head in thought for a moment. “I’ll give you words for you to translate, and if you get it right, I’ll take an article of clothing off, and if you get it wrong, you do,” she told her with a slight smirk.

“Sounds a lot more fun than answering to an animated green bird,” Brooke retorted with a laugh. “Alright, hit me.”

And so, they went back and forth. Vanessa would think of words off the top of her head and Brooke Lynn would translate them to varying degrees of success. After about ten minutes, Vanessa was still in her bra and panties while Brooke had lost every item of clothing. “You’re getting there,” she offered in consolation, though it was really a win-win as far as either of them were concerned.

“But I still need to learn the important things,” Brooke insisted, grinning at her confused expression before continuing. “Like, how do you say…’kiss me’?” she asked as innocently as she could muster. Vanessa rolled her eyes and giggled. “Besame.”

Brooke leaned forward and carded her fingers through Vanessa’s hair. “Besame, Vanessa,” she did her best to sound seductive and sultry, only using her proper first name because she felt it flowed better. She didn’t wait for a response, moving her hand to gently grasp her jaw and kissing her deeply. “Am I getting it yet?” she asked softly, resting their foreheads together.

“You a damn fast learner,” Vanessa chuckled. “And I can see why you like being a teacher so much,” she joked, kissing her again. “But, you know, even if you weren’t, I think they’d appreciate the effort. I know I sure do. I’ve dated white girls before, none of them ever gave a shit about learning. Always saying ‘oh I know enough from high school’ or some shit,” she remarked. “What I’m trying to say is, thank you for caring about me.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” Brooke shook her head. “The bare minimum you should expect out of a relationship is someone that cares about you. Otherwise, there’s no point, that’s not a relationship worth having,” she took Vanessa onto her lap. “Now…” her expression changed into a smirk. “let me show you how much I care,” she picked her up and placed her on the bed, “and spell out all of those vocabulary words with my tongue,” she slid off her underwear as she spoke.

Vanessa smirked, propping a pillow up under her head. “Damn, you nasty too. I really hit the fucking jackpot,” she hummed, tossing her bra aside as well.

Brooke kissed Vanessa and gazed into her eyes. “You really haven’t been treated like you deserve,” she frowned for a moment, then kissed down her torso before her head ducked between her thighs. While not actually spelling out words with her tongue, she moved skillfully in ways she knew her girlfriend liked, never stopping or flinching as she moaned and writhed.

“Fuck, baby don’t stop, just like that,” Vanessa pleaded, ever the vocal one – something Brooke Lynn had found to be as unsurprising as it was enjoyable. She hardly took a moment to breathe until she was fully spent and laying sprawled across the bed in a post-orgasm bliss. “Mm, have I ever told you how good you are at that?”

“I’ve had a hunch,” she replied with a smug grin, coming back up to kiss her sweetly. “Now get some rest, you’ve worked so hard as a teacher today,” she cooed and lay beside her.

#branjie #branjie fic #branjie fanfic #branjie fanfiction #rpdr rpf

6 notes · View notes

dat-town · 6 years

Text

when the stars are gone

Characters: Myungjun & You

Genre: angst

Setting: greek myth in modern era au [moodboard]

Summary: The constellations disappear and one falls right into you.

Warning: mentions of death and violence

Words: 3.1k

for @kmhoodys from your asa ♥

Everything changed overnight.

One of the very few things humanity universally accepted to be true proved all of them wrong and made each belief crumble. People even started doubting things they used to believe in and that was scientifically proven like the Sun rising on the East. Nobody could believe anything they saw anymore.

Why? Easy.

Because from one day to another, all the constellations disappeared from the sky.

Without any forecasting sign, any worrisome news, the next day the night sky was empty save from the Moon and the bright spark of the planet Venus. Any star smaller than the Sun just weren't there anymore and nobody, no astrophysicist or the NASA could explain the phenomena. So people did what they did best when they didn't understood something: they made up stories. They claimed that the apocalypse started just like this: with the lack of stars.

And unbeknownst to you, one of them fell right into you. Literally. With such grace and strength, that you were strangled to the ground of the back garden of your parents’ place. You would have called it misfortune blaming Fortuna but he would have called it the right alignment of the (not even existing) stars that you were right there, right then.

“Hello.”

A soft voice startled and pulled you out of the state of shock you were in due to the fall and the possible concussion you suffered. It was soothing, the way his tone seemed to soothe over the vowels creating the kind of melody you never wanted to forget. You faintly wondered if you were dreaming when opening your eyes you saw an unfamiliar pair of bright, coal dark eyes staring down at you in worry. Honey brown hair fell into the stranger’s forehead, over the smooth skin and your hands itched to touch, to brush the fringe away. His lean body hovered over yours which was a huge disrespect of your personal place and yet, his mere presence took your breath away. Not to mention his unexpected entrance.

“Hi...” you mumbled still a bit dazed and accepted the offered hand that pulled you up from the ground. Standing on unsteady legs you found yourself face-to-face with a young man looking as ethereal as one could get in his simple, elegant, white clothes and with that handsome face of his. He was like nobody you had ever met and you couldn't even pinpoint what it was about him that made you feel like this. Was it the vibe he radiated off or the knowing, piercing look of his eyes?

“Who are you?” was the first question you blurted out because you didn't want to draw false conclusions from the fact that he wondered in your parents’ garden. Maybe he was allowed to. He could have been a new neighbour you didn't know about since you had been away for the last four months because of university.

“Oh forgive me for being so rude. I forgot as I was just as startled as yourself. Everything happened so fast,” the guy apologized seemingly sincere and you found his choice of words pretty interesting. “People used to call me Perseus but it's been awhile since I used that name. You may call me Myungjun, or Jun for short if you prefer.”

As he introduced himself, you furrowed your eyebrows at the mention of the ancient name.

“Perseus as in the constellation?” you looked up only to be welcomed by the empty, black sky and then back at the boy shining brightly just by standing there.

“Yeah exactly.”

It seemed like the stranger… Myungjun, you reminded yourself, didn't feel the need to explain it any further and silence stretched far between you two. You were about to ask what he was doing here or what brought him here so fast he couldn't stop the collision but the question died on your lips as you heard your name being called from the house.

“That was my little brother. I have to go,” you excused yourself and turned around to go in, so Sanha didn't have to come out to get you and drag you inside. But before you walked away you just had to tell him about your concern of him being there because something was up with this whole situation.

“You should leave if my parents didn't allow you to cross our garden,” you told him and with that and one last, curious gaze thrown his way, you left, shutting the door behind you just to be sure.

It wasn't long after when you first heard the news about other unexplainable events. For example the enormous (six feet tall!) scorpion that attacked New York or the huge lion wandering on the streets in the East. Yet, it wasn't until the appearance of two identical brothers acting like heroes who spoke a strange dialect that people connected the dots: the constellations that disappeared from the sky was now actually down on Earth.

Like Perseus.

The realization made your throat close-up and for once you listened to your parents who insisted that you shouldn't go back to university until things get a bit safer. But it didn't look very promising for now.

Even Hercules who liked to be called Rocky now declared on national television that the whole fiasco was the revenge of gods for not believing in them. Though rumours had it that Selene, the goddess of night sky and stars, was kidnapped and the emptiness of her position caused the havoc. Whatever it was, chaos emerged. People had to face attacks of animals multiple of their normal size or even mythological creatures wandering on the streets. Orion, or as he preferred to be named now: Jinjin, being the talented hunter he was, teamed up with Hercules and together they tried to make sure no innocent human life was taken. However, it wasn't that easy, they couldn't be anywhere.

For example, right here.

You were just back from grocery shopping when you saw your brother hiding behind the corner of one of your neighbours' house. You were just about to call his name when he noticed you and one look with wild hand gestures was enough to silence you. A low animalistic grunt made you freeze in your place before you spotted the huge long-neck dinosaur-like monster with a really ugly and scary head. You quickly crouched down and hid behind a rubbish container before it could notice you and eat you because based on the mess on the street, it was looking for food in the bins. Taking a few shallow breaths you glanced out on your left to check Sanha's position and come up with ways how to get there but the boy looked utterly panicked and kept pointing to something behind you. You didn't know what to make of it until the loud sound of a huff on your right. You quickly turned around and faced the head of the monster. Geez, it was almost as big in itself as you crouched down. Not to mention the dark eyes and the huge flashed teeth of it.

Over the loud, fearful drumming thumps of your heart you barely heard the Run! order before you saw a familiar figure in the line of your vision with a makeshift armour made of the cap of a garbage bin and a long, sharp kitchen knife. It all happened so fast, you barely registered what you were in the middle of and then you heard the frizzing sound and smell of flesh burning and the head of the monster rolled away once Myungjun cut it off its slim neck.

“Are you okay?” he crouched down in front of you and offered a helping hand. You had a slight déjavu as you took it.

“Yeah, I am. Just surprised,” you admitted and damn how could you not notice last time how soft his skin was? And how warm was the care in his chocolate brown orbs? “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Anytime,” he smiled a bit cheekily still not letting go of your hand and it was so absurd. You didn't know how long you would have just stood there if your brother didn't step in.

“Guys, it's a hydra,” he yelled and it was only his warning that saved you from the jet of flame the now two-headed monster sent your way. Where one head was cut off two new grew into its place and you desperately started searching for some information about how to kill it for good.

“Come on,” Myungjun tugged you farther away and you followed him because in your shocked state you didn't know what else to do. When you reached Sanha's side you couldn't help but notice that your little brother towered over both of you. (Why did he have to grow so tall for real?)

“Should we call I don't know… the military?” you suggested running out of ideas already and Sanha sorted at your idea murmuring something probably savage under his breath.

“There's no need. I can handle it,” Myungjun claimed with a confident smile.

“Dude, you didn't even know it was a hydra,” your brother rolled his eyes and he was right. Cutting off the head wasn't the best idea because now it had two and one of them could emit fire.

“But now I know and I know what to do with it. Just keep her away,” he pointed at you and you knew it was the wrong time to complain that you weren't a damsel in distress since he really did kind of saved you earlier.

“Who is this guy?” Sanha asked once Myungjun was off to fight with the hydra.

“Perseus,” you blurted out without thinking, long-forgotten childhood stories of Greek mythology coming back.

“The ancient hero?”

“It looks like it,” you said dreamily, watching the scene unfold before you in awe. Myungjun moved out of the way of fire and sliced the heads so elegantly like a dancer but it seemed like an endless one as he slayed one head after the other but more and more kept growing into the old ones place. Was he crazy? Which part of hydra didn't he understand? You were fuming as you watched as his chances got slimmer minute by minute and wanted to scream out of frustration when he climbed up to the monster.

“Wait! I think I know what he's trying to do,” your brother stopped you when you tried to end this nonsense and then you realized it too. How the dozen of heads all turned around in a circle surrounding Myungjun, preparing for an attack. But just in that moment when they did lunge forward he jumped off and the heads bit onto their own necks, spit fire onto their body itself.

After a minute of struggling the hydra dropped dead onto the ground. You didn't even notice that you were holding your breath until you finally let it out relieved when the monster turned into nothing but ashes. If you weren't so focused on Myungjun, you would have noticed the Hydra constellation back on the sky in that moment. But seeing how uncertain he stood there on wobbly legs you ran to him without hesitation. He must have been exhausted from the fight because otherwise he looked okay, wearing his battle scars proudly.

“Are you alright?” you asked just to be sure and boldly touched his cheek, stroking the skin there below a bloody scar.

“Yeah, it's just… it's been a while,” he let out a tired sigh and it didn't take a lot to convince him to follow you inside the house, so you could treat his wounds and give him something to eat and drink. It was adorable how disgusted face he pulled when he tried coffee but he couldn't stop eating the chocolate cupcakes you just made.

“Okay, now try to stay still. I need to clean your wounds before they get infected,” you told him firmly and sat him down on a kitchen chair. Luckily your parents weren't at home yet or otherwise it would have been a bit difficult to explain what the demigod was doing in your house eating dessert.

Myungjun hissed when the antiseptic made contact with the wound on his cheek and you suppressed a smile. He was rather cute when he wasn't out there fighting mythical creatures.

“Must be nice to be a demigod but you aren't invincible. Be more careful next time,” you warned him as you applied some cooling cream over the scar. After you finished, you were a bit taken aback when you found his bright eyes on you from such a short distance. It took your breath away once again.

“Were you… worried about me?” he asked slowly and softly and your heart palpitations had never been worse.

“Of course I was,” you admitted and quickly turned away to pack the first-aid box.

It was his turn to suppress a smile.

Soon your parents arrived and after Sanha's shortened version of your earlier adventure, they made Myungjun to stay for dinner, too. Poor guy was interrogated so much but at least after your parents learned about his skills they finally agreed to let you go back to the capital for university if he went with you. Your argument that you couldn't live in fear just because of some mythical creatures running on the streets didn't seem to be good enough but when Myungjun mentioned he actually wanted to get to the capital to meet up some other heroes, they immediately suggested that you should accompany him. They thought you were safer with him which was a rather selfish reason to stay with him but Myungjun didn’t seem to mind neither your company, nor the long train ride.

You helped him adjust to the big city life and you became popular among your peers for being friends with one of the Greek mythology version of Avengers or so people called these heroes who came to life and made sure to get rid of the monsters. It took quite some time but the constellations got back to their originals places one by one except the heroes themselves who tried to integrate into the society.

University life was boring as always but when you got home Myungjun was there to make your day better. He still marvelled at a few new inventions and damn, he loved to eat a lot! He told you a lot of stories but your favourites were when he told you about himself. You loved listening to his voice no matter what he talked about. It was so lovely and peculiar, made you feel safe and made you smile. Just like his silly antics you adored so much.

Yet, you couldn't help but wonder about the what ifs.

“Will you stay here for good?” you asked out loud in one particularly weak moment while casually snuggling up on the couch and watching some comedy you didn't even really pay attention to.

“I don't know,” Myungjun sighed; he seemed worried too. “The gods are moody, unpredictable creatures always making hasty decisions.”

“I don't want you to leave,” you blurted out and it turned out a very clumsy confession as your cheeks got pink. But the demigod might have been just as enamoured as he took your hand in his intertwining your fingers.

“I don't want to leave either,” he said and it was enough to ease your heart.

Yet so very naive of you, so mundane, you forgot about a crucial detail. Or maybe you just didn't want to care, not until you had to…

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon when someone rang the bell of your apartment, so you stopped in the middle of baking to open the door. On the other side of the threshold stood the most beautiful girl you have ever seen. Her shiny black hair was the canvas of night and her eyes were like the prettiest ink splashes on the sugary colour of her skin. She smiled like royalty did and you didn't know what could have brought her onto your doorstep.

“Hello. I'm looking for Perseus. Is he here?” she asked in a very melodic voice.

“Excuse me but who are you?” you asked politely but the answer didn't came from the girl in front of you but from Myungjun himself from behind you.

“Andromeda,” he whispered and your heart clenched.

Oh. Andromeda… as in his wife from the mythology. How could you forget that?

“Oh I will leave you alone to talk then. I will be in the kitchen,” you cleared your throat and got away as quickly as you could without looking at Myungjun. You didn't want to witness the pity in his eyes or hear them being all lovey-dovey.

You went back to your loyal cupcakes and started decorating them with frosting one by one hoping their sweetness will make you forget that ugly bitterness and hopelessness in you. You were actually so focused on getting the design right, you didn't even hear Myungjun's approaching footsteps until he gently, ever-so-lovingly hugged you from behind.

You tensed under his touch, heart thumping loudly as you asked: “Where's Andromeda?”

“I sent her away,” he answered simply and even if you secretly wished for this, you were utterly confused.

“Why?”

“It had been millenniums. Enough time for love to change, to grow cold,” he explained seriously and then, a lot softer, almost timidly, he whispered into the juncture between your neck and shoulder: “To fell in love with someone new.”

Your breath hitched and you didn't know what to say. It seemed like you didn't need to because Myungjun didn't expect you to. He just kept you in his embrace and you let him.

Life with a demigod wasn't easy, not always, but Myungjun made it feel like it was. Loving him almost came naturally. Thus, losing him hurt almost unbearably so.

The gods were indeed cruel because marking the one year anniversary of the day of your first meeting, the day when all the stars were suddenly gone, the night sky demanded back what it lost.

At first you refused to believe he disappeared when he wasn't there when you came home. He didn't answer your calls, nor your texts. You started to worry, then panicking, and by the time you looked up at the sky from your balcony, you barely saw anything through the tears in your eyes. Because you knew what you would find there even before you saw it, the bright Perseus constellation back in its place where he belonged: among the stars, light years away from you.

Still, you were sure that he looked after you even from up there.

#astro imagines #astro oneshot #astro scenarios #astro x reader #astro mj #mj imagine #mj oneshot #mj scenario #myungjun imagine #myungjun oneshot #myungjun scenario #mj x reader #myungjun x reader #greek myth au #stories #i hope you like it

24 notes · View notes

malecsecretsanta · 6 years

Text

Merry Christmas, @Parabitri!

This idea turned out to be far more angsty than anything I usually write but it insisted on being written. I love the way Magnus and Alec always find their way back to each other, no matter what universe you put them into.

This is their Hallmark-style Christmas Story - I hope you enjoy it!

Read on AO3

******

This Christmas

Chapter 1

I remember,

I wish I could forget

What you did last December

You left my heart a mess.

- Ariana Grande (& George Michael), Last Christmas

~ The Present: 22nd December 2018 ~

“Are you sure Alec won’t mind?” Magnus asked for what had to be the fourth time that morning as he followed Izzy inside the apartment she and Alec shared.

“When has Alec ever said no to you?” Izzy threw over her shoulder with a wink as she opened Alec’s bedroom door and sauntered in.

“Well, there was that whole morning after the Yule Ball fiasco,” Magnus muttered to himself, dragging his feet as he followed Izzy.

“Besides,” Izzy said as she flopped down on Alec’s bed apparently oblivious to Magnus’ dark comments, “You and I both know, Alec’s the only person who has an early enough edition of Gray’s Anatomy to feature the illustrations you need.”

“They’re too valuable for any libraries to stock before about the 18th edition,” Magnus agreed with a sigh as he approached Alec’s bookshelves brushing his fingers lightly over the soft leather spine, tracing the gilded letters which identified it as a hallowed second edition.

“You said you’ve tried every other option, Magnus, and your essay is due in tonight. It’s not like you can just call and ask him. Even if by some miracle he isn’t still in the remote mountain villages in Timor-Leste then he’ll be in transit. You know as well as I do that any time he gets funded flights it means he’s on a stopping all stations round the world tour of obscure airports. Even if you managed to get a message to him, there’s no guarantee he’d be able to get an answer back in time.”

“I know,” Magnus sighed easing the book gently out from between its neighbours and cradling it close to his chest. He wanted Alec home but he also half-dreaded the idea that the tension that had grown like a wedge between them might still be there. “Thank you, Isabelle. I guess I’d better go finish my essay. You’ll let me know if you hear from him?”

“Of course! Hopefully this time he’ll remember to let us know before he boards the last plane so we can meet him at the airport, I know Max is dying to use the latest sign he’s made.”

Magnus laughed, thinking of Max’s ever-expanding stack of ‘Welcome Home Alec’ signs. At this point, they’d need to bring everyone they knew in order to hold up even half of them.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

[Throughout human history there have been many iterations of the symbol which represents the human heart. The first non-medical European illustration of the heart is thought to be a drawing accompanying the medieval French poem Le Roman De La Poire circa 1255 however it was not until the early 1500s that the familiar shape made its appearance...

...but why does this symbol bear so little resemblance to the human anatomy it represents? There are plenty of theories, the most prominent one being that most of our ‘knowledge’ of human anatomy in the 13th and 14th centuries was based on animal biology, in particular reptiles, which much more closely resemble the familiar scalloped shape of the heart icon. The ability of early physicians to view or study the human body was fiercely regulated and controlled - with many unable to view a single dissection let alone partake in the kind of labs that are a standard part of modern medical tuition. As such, Henry Gray’s seminal work Gray’s Anatomy, first published in 1858, was a turning point in the depiction of the human heart…]

Magnus' fingers stilled on his keyboard as he glanced again at the book he’d brought back to his apartment almost four hours earlier. It was ridiculous but he still hadn’t opened it. The thing was, he hadn’t told Izzy the whole truth. Yes, this essay was for his History of Medicine subject and accounted for almost a third of his grade but it was also final piece of his application to join Médecins Sans Frontières’ new project, working in the new hospital Alec had spent the past year helping local engineers design and build. Alec would be going back for another whole year to support the development of sustainable water supply for the school and the rest of the village. Following your best friend halfway around the world was madness, especially when things had never been quite the same between them since last year’s Yule Ball.

~ Morning After the Yule Balle: 19th December 2017 ~

Magnus came to slowly, groaning as he peeled gritty eyes open just long enough to take in the couch and apartment around him before squeezing them shut again. It wasn’t the first time since becoming friends with the Lightwoods three years earlier that he’d woken up on their sofa but the blinding headache was new. So was the fact that he couldn’t for the life of him remember how he’d gotten back here. He barely remembered any of the Yule Ball. Burying his head further in the soft pillows Magnus vowed never to mix first-generation antihistamines and alcohol again.

“Breakfast?”

Magnus’ eyes snapped open his lips curling at the corners as he took in the sight of Alec setting a breakfast tray on the coffee table beside him. The man really was an angel sometimes.

“I figured you’d need something to help wash down the aspirin,” Alec said, smiling back as he reached over and placed two pills on Magnus’ palm, following it with a glass of water.

“My hero,” Magnus said, downing the tablets and finally tearing his eyes from Alec and focusing on the food in front of him. “You made me blueberry pancakes, Alexander? That’s not exactly standard hangover fare. If you were anyone else I’d think you were trying to seduce me with your culinary skills.”

Magnus grinned at the way Alec’s cheeks heated at the suggestion and he became suddenly fascinated with his boots. Whatever the cause, Magnus wasn’t complaining - in fact, he almost moaned as he took that first blissful bite of pancake. Alec really would make an excellent husband to someone one of these days. Too bad there wasn’t any handy mistletoe or he might...Magnus’ thoughts ground to a sudden halt as he suddenly remembered kissing someone under the mistletoe last night at the ball. It hadn’t been a typical crappy holiday season hook-up either, it had been incredible. He found himself describing it to Alec as he ate: the way her lips had felt against his, passionate and wild yet somehow also tender as if she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to devour Magnus or worship him. The way her fingers had tightened in his hair, tugging roughly to adjust the angle of his head, deepening the kiss, only for those same clever fingers to send shivers of pure pleasure as they massaged away any last traces of pain. The worst part was, despite remembering every tiny detail of the kiss, he had no memory of the person who’d done the kissing.

“Please Alec, you were there last night you have to help me find her!” Magnus said, looking up beseechingly at his best friend only to realise something was wrong.

At some point during his monologue, the blushing, solicitous angel who’d made him breakfast had been replaced by a stone statue.

“You remember the kiss but don’t remember the-the-the person, at all?” Alec asked harshly his fists clenching at his sides.

Magnus flinched, feeling suddenly ashamed even though he didn’t know why it was such a big deal to Alec if Magnus’ memory had decided to defy logic. Before he’d had a chance to ask, Alec had turned away, his shoulders tense as he’d gathered up the remnants of Magnus’ now cold breakfast.

Tray in hand he’d barely looked at Magnus as he’d apologised, “I can’t do this, Magnus. I-I-I thought -” Alec sighed sounding frustrated but resigned. “I’ve got that application for Engineers Without Borders to finish.”

Magnus tried to get up and follow him into the kitchen but the world still spun horribly when he attempted to stand and he was forced to sit again so he didn’t fall down. The last thing he needed was for an already grumpy Alec to have to bandage his head when he split it open on the sharp corner of his coffee table. Impatiently, he waited for Alec to reappear, which took considerably longer than Magnus had expected.

When at least he came out he headed straight for the door his bag already slung over his shoulder giving every appearance of intending to leave without another word.

“Alec?” Magnus called out after him, wishing his head would stop pounding long enough for him to figure out whatever this was.

Alec turned, his hand resting on the door handle still refusing to meet Magnus’ eyes. “I have to go. Feel free to stay as long as you need.” And then he walked out, closing the door firmly behind him.

Magnus had waited, half expecting at any moment that his best friend would come back and tell him what exactly he’d said that upset him so much. After over an hour, Magnus had to accept the unwelcome fact that Alec wasn’t coming back. He wasn’t answering any of Magnus’ messages either. He knew he was being selfish, knew how important that application was to Alec even though the thought of them being on opposite sides of the globe sounded miserable to Magnus all of a sudden. It would be the first time in almost three years since Izzy and Magnus had met on their first day of med school that they’d have to go more than a few weeks without seeing one another. At present, barely a day went past that they didn’t speak, one way or another, whether it was IM, in person or notes passed via Izzy.

Despite Alec’s continued refusal to discuss anything about the Yule Ball, Magnus had kept looking - amazed to discover that despite there having been hundreds of people at the ball, somehow no one had seen Magnus spending time with any women other than Dot, Cat and Izzy and he was absolutely certain it hadn’t been any of them. He’d even tried to convince the photographer to go through their shots from last night only to discover to that the man was crazy enough to still be using film and hadn’t had time to get the negatives developed yet. Rolling his eyes at the pretentiousness of art students in general, Magnus had hunted on in vain.

~ The Present: 22nd December 2018 ~

Magnus sighed, running his fingers over the soft leather cover of Gray’s Anatomy. He could still remember the first time Alec had shown it to him. It had been a gift from his grandfather on his mother’s side, the same one that was responsible for Alec’s middle name being ‘Gideon’. He’d apparently been convinced, despite Alec’s complete lack of interest in medicine, that book that had been in their family for generations would inspire Alec to become the next doctor in the family. The meticulous technical drawings the book was famous had inspired him just not to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He’d taken his love of the book’s illustrations and developed a fascination for cartography, drafting and surveying, finally settling on a career in engineering. Izzy had told Magnus that Alec had offered her the book when she’d first set her heart on doing medicine but she’d knew she’d never love it the way Alec did. She wanted the modern textbooks, the ones filled with gory colour photographs of real bodies, not the elegant etchings done over a hundred and fifty years earlier.

Magnus, by contrast, had happily indulged Alec’s passion and they’d spent hours pouring through the book together over the years every time Magnus had happened to need to reference one or other of the illustrations as he learnt about the body’s various structures and systems. As much as he’d adored it when Alec bought him a modern copy of Gray’s Anatomy for his birthday he always defaulted back to Alec’s copy with its incredible single-colour woodcut illustrations whenever he could. The text might mostly have become redundant has as medical knowledge changed fundamentally and rapidly over the past century but the illustrations were as important now as they’d ever been.

He missed Alec. Magnus hadn’t realised how much he’d relied on his presence until his absence left a gaping hole in his life. It’s been almost a year and Alec is still the first person he wants to tell whenever anything happens. He might finally have stopped getting his phone out and staring out compose texts he can’t send but it still aches everytime he remembers Alec’s sat-phone is for emergencies only. Going from talking every day to exchanging infrequent emails had felt worse than some of his breakups. Then again, for the last few years, he’s always had Alec there helping him pick up the pieces whenever a relationship inevitably failed. He’d always scoffed at the adage ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ but it’s been 355 days since Alec left and he’s sitting at his desk hours before an important assignment is due incapable of completing it because he doesn’t want to open a book that would remind him too much of the man he wants, more than anything else, this Christmas. Too bad he felt certain Alec didn’t feel the same way about him.

Sighing, Magnus opened the cover and scanned the index of illustrations for the one he was looking for. There, under the heading ‘Heart’, the illustration he’d looked everywhere for: ‘Circulation of Blood in an Adult’ directing him to page six hundred and twenty-nine. Picking up the tome Magnus started at the middle and skimmed gently through the pages, slowing when he finally reached the six-hundreds to turn each individual page so as not to miss it. Magnus nearly dropped the book in surprise when he turned the final page and a colour photograph slides out onto the desk.

A single glance is enough to make him forget Gray’s Anatomy, forget the essay he has only hours left to finish and the application he needs to ace. On the desk in front of him is a photograph from last year’s Yule Ball. A photo of him and Alec wrapped tightly in one another’s arms, kissing under the mistletoe.

Chapter 2

I confess,

I loved you more than I let on but you weren’t ready for it and I wasn’t going to pour myself into hands that couldn’t hold me

- Lauren Eden, Of Yesteryear

~ The Present: 22nd December 2018 ~

Having seen the photo, Magnus wonders how he could possibly have forgotten. He’s spent an entire year comparing every kiss he shared to this one, like Prince Charming with his stupid glass slipper, finding them woefully disappointing by contrast. The thing was, with the exception of giants like Alec, he was tall so it hadn’t occurred to him why the angle always felt off - no matter what he tried. God, he was such an idiot! How could he have ignored what was right in front of him all this time? And why hadn’t Alec said something? But as soon as that thought occurred to him, he knew exactly why.

Who in their right mind would confess when the object of their affection not only didn’t remember them but had also somehow misgendered them in the process. Magnus felt physically ill as their conversation the next morning replayed in his head with full 5.1 surround sound, complete with high definition technicolour images of Alec’s transformation from breakfast baring angel to the stony-faced statue he’d been by the time he left the apartment. The fact Alec had hidden the photo here, in his most treasured book under the heading ‘Heart’ made the tears that had welled up unnoticed spill out over his cheeks.

With shaking fingers Magnus picked the photo up off the desk, the knife in his heart twisting as he realised they were both smiling as they kissed. Steeling himself, he flipped the photo drawing in a sharp breath as he saw the inscription in Alec’s familiar all-caps handwriting and in smaller text printed directly onto the photo, the photographer's details.

‘A NIGHT TO REMEMBER’ MAGNUS BANE & ALEC LIGHTWOOD YULE BALL 18TH DEC 2017

PHOTOGRAPHER: J. GHAMSARI - EDITION: 1/1 - PRINTED: 24TH DEC 2017

He’d thought nothing could make this situation worse, but one glance at the date the photo had been printed made Magnus want the ground to open beneath his feet to transport him straight to hell. Alec had tried to tell him and Magnus had unintentionally broken his heart a second time instead. By the time Magnus had realised his mistake, Alec had already left the country.

~ December 24th, 2017 ~

Magnus groaned when he heard the doorbell, it would probably be carollers but as the only person home the night before Christmas Magnus had promised his housemates he wouldn’t let any last minute parcels go unsigned for. Snatching his shirt up from where it lay discarded beside the sofa and buttoning it haphazardly Magnus made his way down the long passage to the front door, stunned to see it was Alec standing on the sill, a thick manilla envelope clasped in one hand.

“Alec, what are you doing here? I thought you would have gone back home for what’s left of the holidays,” Magnus said noticing the way Alec’s eyes lingered on his exposed chest a beat longer than they usually would before darting away.

“It’s - uh, it’s about last week,” Alec paused, threading his fingers roughly through his hair in that familiar tell of mental agitation. “Look, you’ve got every reason to be mad at me. The next morning, after the Yule Ball - I know I should have-”

“Allowed me to drag you halfway ‘round NYU on a wild goose chase when neither of us had any idea who we were looking for?” Magnus interrupted smoothly, laughing softly. “I should never have asked, Alec, I know how important getting that internship application in was to you. Besides, it doesn’t matter now anyway.”

“It doesn’t?” Alec asked roughly, his gaze piercing as he froze in place.

“Surely you know me better than to think I’d let it rest until I found out, Alexander?”

“You - you’ve remembered?” Alec asked, looking suddenly paler.

“Not exactly. But Camille - you remember her from the presentation night for the Medical Prize, don’t you? She found out I was looking for her and admitted she’d been my mysterious stranger all along. Apparently, my crush wasn’t so unrequited after all. So you see, it’s all worked out. She’s coming around later tonight if you wanted to stay and meet her?”

“No.”

Magnus’ head snapped back, surprised by the vehemence in that single word but before he had a chance to do more than raise an eyebrow, Alec had continued.

“I mean, I’d be interrupting your evening plans. I should let you -” Alec paused again, his teeth sinking into his lip almost hard enough to draw blood. “I have to go. Merry Christmas, Magnus.”

“Wait, Alec!” Magnus called out, hating this sudden chill between them as Alec turned away. “Surely you didn’t just come here to apologise. You should stay, have a drink with me. It is Christmas after all.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Well, can you at least tell me when we’re catching up next?” Magnus asked, suddenly feeling the need to make sure he hadn’t somehow irrevocably ruined the friendship without even realising it. “I know you had planned to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with your family but seeing as you’re still here...”

“Actually, I, um. I got offered the internship with Engineers Without Borders,” Alec muttered, shifting his feet.

“Alexander! That’s fantastic, now you have to come in and have a drink with me, tell me all about it. Where they’re sending you, for how long - I want to know everything!” Instinctive Magnus reached out, tugging on the arm of Alec’s long black coat. It hurt when instead of smiling Alec pulled away.

“I fly out January 1st. I’ll be gone all year. It’s - I’ll be living in one of the mountain villages in Timor-Leste, they’ve got a new project to build a hospital there and if things go well, I can stay to work on securing the town’s water supply the year after. They said they’d try and get me back in time for next Christmas. So I - um - I have to go. You know, packing and everything.”

Every other time Alec’s said anything about the project his passion had been radiant, which meant these clipped sentences and flat tone had to be Magnus’ fault. Magnus cursed the Yule Ball, cursed the fact he couldn’t even abandon his plans with Camille because he hadn’t thought to get her number. Cursed the fact he was meant to be going away with Cat and Ragnor to have New Year's Eve at Cat’s family’s Chalet. So this was it? Alec was leaving the country in a few days for an entire year and Magnus wouldn’t get to see him again till next Christmas?

“At least let me take you out to the airport, Alec,” Magnus said, throwing caution to the wind and jettisoning his New Year's plans.

“But-” Alec began, displaying that adorable furrowed brow of his.

“Nothing is more important than seeing my best friend off on the trip of a lifetime,” Magnus assured him. “I’ll be at that airport whether you let me drive you or not. I’m not below blackmailing Izzy into telling me so you may as well just accept it.”

Alec’s rueful smile was like sunshine, the man he recognised peeking out from behind the rigid facade he was putting up.

“You really want to get up at six in the morning just to see me off at the gate?” Alec asked, raising a challenging eyebrow.

“I’ll be on your doorstep at five,” Magnus shot back, his lips automatically curling to match Alec’s.

“If you’re late I’m leaving without you,” Alec threatened sliding back into their familiar banter without even seeming to realise he was doing it.

“Okay.”

“Okay. You’re on.” Alec nodded, holding Magnus’ gaze before saying softly, “Merry Christmas, Magnus.”

“Merry Christmas, Alexander.”

~ The Present: 22nd December 2018 ~

Magnus needed a drink.

His crush on Camille had been madness and she’d played him for the fool he was. She’d strung him along for almost 3 weeks after ‘confessing’ to being his mysterious mistletoe kiss. She’d made a game out of kissing him everywhere except his lips, correctly assuming that he’d realise the minute their lips met that something was off. He’d been so caught up in wanting it to be her, wanting to believe that she felt the way he did about her. But even she’d tired of that game eventually, laughing at his naivety when she’d finally revealed she hadn’t even noticed him at the Yule Ball, she’d just thought it would be fun to see how long she could string him along because surely the top medical student couldn’t be that stupid? Well, apparently he was. He’d spilled the whole humiliating affair out in one of his emails to Alec. It makes perfect sense now that Alec had barely referenced the whole mess when he’d finally replied over a week later. Then again, it wasn’t like Alec had super reliable internet at the best of times, so it could also be that Magnus was projecting.

Getting up, Magnus paced over to the drinks cart, skipping his usual ice and pouring whiskey liberally into the waiting tumbler. Tossing it back in a single swallow Magnus tried to figure out what to do. It’s been a whole year since that photograph had been taken, it’d hardly be surprising if the intervening time had been enough to thoroughly destroy whatever feelings Alec might once have had for him. Did he really want to risk destroying their friendship a second time?

Yes.

The answer was immediate. He was in love with Alexander Lightwood and he had to know if there was any chance to make this work. Hell, he’d been prepared to follow the man to the other side of the world without the tiniest shred of real evidence to justify his hopes, now at least he knew it was possible. There had been real passion in that kiss and tenderness in the breakfast he’d made for him the next morning. He just hoped Alec was willing to give him a chance to show just how much he wanted that future.

To Be Continued

#Parabitri #malecsanta18 #*fics18 #*gifts18

40 notes · View notes