#Chis Claremont

[ironsaguaro]

Jim Lee's X-MEN 5: We miss Chris Claremont! WOLVERINE vs Omega (yawn) Re...

[marvelousmrm]

Marvel Team-Up #85 (Claremont/Buscema, Sept 1979). Nat gets her most heroic moment since she had a solo feature in Amazing Adventures.

[anincompletelist]

rwrb fic recs! :D

I wanted to take the time to compile a few fics that have massively helped me over the last tough few months and never fail to bring a smile to my face (after the angst, of course)! thank you to everyone who takes the time to write for this lovely fandom, please keep it up! your words are so important and often change lives even when you don't realize it. I hope you're all doing well, and enjoy! <3

(please message me if for any reason you would like to be un-tagged!)

in no particular order:

he looks up grinning like the devil | @coffeecatsme | E | 38k

Henry can’t help it—he lets out a laugh and shakes his head. Beta Sigma Chi being a safe space is about as likely as the Republicans championing queer rights. “Right, and who’s this new president that somehow managed to turn around an entire fraternity?”

Pez winces. She hesitates at first, but then she must decide on something because her chin juts out. “Well,” she says slowly. “It’s Alexander Claremont-Diaz.”

Henry laughs so hard he almost falls off his seat.

Or, Henry Fox learns to fall in love with everything that is Alexander Claremont-Diaz, even if he insists on calling Henry "dude".

--

A Sporting Chance | @clottedcreamfudge | E | 126k

"Marry Henry - destination wedding. Combine all of our names so paperwork is a fucking nightmare." Henry stares at him and Pez rolls the dice, and-

"Congratulations to Alex and Henry Claremont-Diaz-Fox-Mountchristen," he says with a bright grin, and Alex punches the air and makes a 'whooping' noise. "Your wedding is attended by the Beckhams, the President, and several key members of congress. Henry is very gentle on your wedding night." Henry is going to fucking kill Pez.   "Fucking sweet," Alex says, because Henry is apparently the only one here trying not to have a coronary about all of this.

***

It had just been a party game, except now Henry is in way over his head.

--

a degree of fate | (locked) | lockedinmybody | E | 34k

Against the wishes of the palace, Henry decides to go back to university for a graduate's degree in Literature. And when you want to lay low, what's a better place than Austin University? It's not Henry's fault that Alex Claremont-Diaz is also there. Something must be his fault though, because despite having never met before and Henry only knowing him as the son of the Former President of America, Alex Claremont-Diaz clearly hates him. It's going to be a long two years.

--

the poem you make of me | @omgcmere | E | 91k

After being discovered on Instagram as a teenager, Alex Diaz is thriving as a social media influencer and model who just landed a high profile, high fashion contract with Calvin Klein. Alex can get any girl he wants, and he’s loving it. Meanwhile, British poet Henry Fox has just arrived in L.A. to kick off a North American tour promoting his new, steamy book of gay erotic poetry, and he’s attracting a lot of attention.

Bad blood is immediately sparked between them when Henry blows Alex off at their first meeting. Several tabloid rumors and an Instagram tantrum later, Alex and Henry are reluctantly thrust together to make nice, resulting in a grudging friendship and a magnetism between them that Alex can't explain. Why is Henry's poetry making Alex feel like this? And just what is it about Henry Fox that gets to him so much?

--

Mr. BodyPillow | @inexplicablymine | T+ | 21k

Two boys cuddling on a couch right on top of each other because they are in fact very gay™.

Inviting over a complete stranger for cuddles because you are touch starved might be the worst idea Henry has ever had, or the best.

--

More Amour | surveycorpsjean | E | 45k

Alex discovers something in Henry's closet that changes everything.

--

we've been here forever (here's the frozen proof) | @onward--upward | T+ | 12k

Objectively, I am aware that you – a stranger – cannot tell me my own sexuality any better than I can, however... Can you, please? Tell me? It’s 4am and I have been thinking about this for hours, and I can’t sleep.

Warmest regards, ACD *** It’s four in the morning, and Alex Claremont-Diaz has managed to follow a research spiral straight down into a personal crisis. It isn’t the first time.

--

Oblivion | milowren | NR | 31k | please CHECK TAGS & NOTES prior to reading!

What if the moment in the hospital wasn’t a false alarm and the publicity surrounding the forced bromance between Alex and Henry had the adverse effect of them being kidnapped together?

--

But I love him, whether or no. | @leaves-of-laurelin | E | 77k

Henry moves to New York City to help Pez with the opening of his new bar in the East Village. The location—fortunately for business, but unfortunately for Henry’s sanity—is directly across the street from a fire station. The sound of sirens is bad, Alex the gorgeous firefighter is worse. But when Alex helps Henry avoid a near catastrophe the night of the bar’s opening, the two form a tentative friendship that starts to develop into something more.

--

we might just get away with it | (locked) | smc_27 | E | 21k

Alex is a model. Henry is a journalist, and a bit of an asshole. Alex wants him anyway, even when it doesn’t feel good.

--

Hashtag Soulmates | @everwitch-magiks | E | 44k

Alex is perfect and handsome, the golden boy, everybody’s secret crush. So there is absolutely no way that he is the reader who screeches in caps lock every time that Henry posts as much as a drabble. There’s no way. Except Alex just closed his browser fast as fucking lightning, but not before Henry had gotten a good glimpse of the page Alex had open: AO3. ‘Don't Stop Me Now’, Henry’s current wip. The one that Henry literally just updated.

Sweet Jesus. Could it really be?

--

the rubble or our sins | weather_stained | E | 14k

As the Emperor's grandson, Henry despises the gladiator games and resents being forced to attend them — that is, until he sees Alexander fight. 

It's a romance doomed from the very beginning, as Henry's family is already pressuring him into joining the army and finding a wife, but he falls hard for Alex nonetheless. Will Henry find a way to be with him, or will he spend the rest of his life looking back on their time together?

--

that's all for now! I'd like to do this again very soon since there are so many new fics being posted that deserve love as well.

please let me know if there are any issues with the links, if you'd like to be un-tagged, or if you'd like to come and scream about these with me!

another good place for recs is @rwrbficrecs !

if you enjoy any of these (or any fic at all) please know - as someone who writes them as well - every single comment and kudos goes such a long way. it's not necessary, but it's always so much appreciated. <3

thank you for reading, and I hope everyone is having a lovely day/night! :D

-- anincompletelist / sarah

[bookoftheironfist]

    In which all of the comics fans who spent this whole episode going “Heal her, dummy! Heal her!” are finally rewarded! What a great reveal this is. I mentioned in an earlier post that this season did not dig very deep into the Iron Fist power-set, but it did give us two key components: the punching and the healing, and since the healing is much less famous than the punching, it was hugely exciting to see it spotlighted in this climactic moment. 

    In the comics, pre-Immortal Iron Fist Danny was, relatively speaking, an untrained Iron Fist-- which is to say that he didn’t know about a lot of the things that the chi of Shou-Lao could do. This wasn’t really his fault, as his predecessor, Orson Randall (who we will get to next episode!) took with him the source of that knowledge, the Book of the Iron Fist, when he ran away from K’un-Lun. Both 616 and MCU Danny are forced to learn a lot of the business of being the Iron Fist through lived experience, trial-and-error, and sometimes just by accident. 

The circumstances in which Danny discovers his healing powers in the comics are different than in the MCU, but equally desperate: he gets caught in a collapsing building and finds himself trapped in the rubble, dying from his injuries. On the edge of unconsciousness and hallucinating, he receives some vital information from the image of his uncle, Nu-An, the Yu-Ti of K’un-Lun: 

Nu-An: “Save yourself, young dragon!” Danny: “H-how?!” Nu-An: “The power lies within you, as it always has, nephew. The legacy of Shao-Lao can heal as well as kill... The Iron Fist is not a weapon--it is a force of will...and used properly, it can accomplish...miracles.” Iron Fist vol. 1 #4 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Janice Cohen, Frank Chiaramonte, and John Costanza

    Danny’s first healing experience is extremely painful and exhausting, but it works. He survives. Over time, he grows more comfortable with using the dragon chi in this way, and after his power-up in Immortal Iron Fist he is able to do so casually, whenever he needs to, for both himself and others.  

Lei Kung: “Daniel?” Danny: “Hunh...I healed without even thinking of it. And I don’t feel drained at all.” Immortal Iron Fist #8 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth

Danny: “Your doctors did most of the hard work weeks ago... All I’m doing...is focusing your chi a bit...” Dakota: “...Whoa...” Danny: “...To speed up your natural healing process.” Daredevil vol. 2 #111 by Ed Brubaker, Clay Mann, Matt Hollingsworth, Stefano Gaudiano, and Chris Eliopoulos

    MCU Danny is at much the same state of training as pre-Immortal Iron Fist 616 Danny, and I love that his effort at healing Colleen is clearly painful for both of them, reflecting that early power level and lack of experience. And the fact that Danny just passes the heck out afterward and is unconscious for the rest of the episode means a lot to me.  

    (There is a great issue of Heroes for Hire volume 1 in which a desperate, pre-Immortal power-level Danny heals Luke from life-threatening injuries and nearly kills himself in the process. Obviously, this is not on the same level as that, but it has a similar flavor.)  

    While this is all very exciting for geeky reasons, it is also a major plot point. After being teased as Colleen’s mysterious sensei earlier in the season, here Bakuto swoops in to save the day...much to the annoyance of Madame Gao, who is pissed that he’s muscling in on her Iron Fist manipulation efforts. And not only does Bakuto help, he knows about the Iron Fist-- including details that even Danny doesn’t know. That is hugely significant, a mystery that leads us directly into the next episode...

[I’ve been going through and providing in-depth commentary on Iron Fist season 1. Look here for all of the posts so far!]

[madworldmarvelareview]

my experience with extreme force shipping, anti lesbianism/sapphicism, and anti indigenous rhetoric on a roleplay server that claims not to perpetrate any of the above. 

i’m certain head mod summer will call this defamatory, as she did to the honest review (1 star) by my writing partner on disboard, so i’ve taken the time to include screenshots alongside my review below. any prospective members, current or past are welcome to message this account, or find me on discord @ dinahbabs.

marvelous mad world is a server that revolves around ass kissing the mod, summer, and her best friend, kelsey, while they berate you. the issues arise quickly when saying no, even nicely.. no is not an answer these two will accept, if they have their heart set on something.

to start us off, there was only 1 lesbian character on the server before i arrived, and i don't think they had any lesbian members. this will provide some context as we go along.

i first encountered lesbophobia when i didn’t want my lesbian (irene adler) in a throuple with a man (forge, married to mystique)— where the lesbian was treated as if she was an accoutrement to an m/f relationship, not a woman of her own. please note that i was never asked to be in this arrangement in any way, and i was also continuously told it wouldn't be an issue, i saw in character that two characters (raven and forge) were in a relationship (where raven says her heart has only room enough for him), leaving me open to do my own thing as the rules already state, and as one of the members confirmed in my dms. i was excited to go my own way and make something new.

the server's rules:

alt text: pressuring or manipulating others for ships or connections gets exactly 1 warning, and then a ban. absolutely no debate on this. you may ask, but do not under any circumstances pester, harass, or otherwise bug people about connections. no means no.

upon my exit, it was said that i “didn’t speak to the members in question” and went against server wishes. in the following screenshot you’ll see that i let moderators know i didn’t attempt to reach out yet because the person in question did not answer my past plotting dms, and the server policy clearly stated ships are free to create at your leisure as noted above.

before: pre acceptance screenshot.

after: summer lying about me asking to be told to speak to member kelsey, when i was accepted, knowing kelsey didn't answer. i reference here that i knew mystique was married, and made my other plans for a different ship.

member kelsey never answered my plotting dms, at which point i had made other plans, instead, she messaged me in character, which resulted in the following conversation between raven and irene:

irene telling raven she's moving on and did not have interest in a throuple.

when i conveyed my desire for my character to continue onto a new relationship, i was punished in and outside of character for doing so. 

where i make everyone clear i made other ship plans when i saw raven was married. (i would have told kelsey in dms, if she ever answered me, instead i noted their coparenting, that was shot down later.)

reaction from summer's forge: why would my lesbian character want a man in the first place?

reaction from summer's forge: irene never broke up a marriage, and sapphic characters are not property if you name a kid after them.

kelsey's raven and summer's forge reaction to irene not wanting to be their third?? i can't make this up.

mod summer's true intentions laid clear: irene never canonically said what was stated in the claremont run, raven hated forge after irene died, and raven/irene only recently defeating 40 years of homophobia to be together means nothing if summer can get m/f out of it.

the strangeness continues with anti indigenous behaviour, so much so that they named a child after my lesbian character (destiny), used a picture of an indigenous child, and coloured her pink/red, as if that isn’t added anti-indigeniety on display. 

indigenous child they coloured red.

later claiming to be purple after a review was posted.

hex coded proof, all red.

when i declined their ship, they said they were switching back to the child’s tribal name (the way it should have been!) “threatening” to refer to an indigenous child as her tribal name over a ship fallout feels so ugly. indigenous names are not a punishment. i replied to this blatant anti-indigenous and incel-like response with “my character would love that tribal name, actually!” to no response. 

proof of the change of name. after that, they only called this child "d".

that issue is further pressed with the demand of face claims, and yet mods use the wrong ethnicity or tribes for indigenous muses. it’s a shame with the amount of diversity, including a plethora of comic art, that they would not recognize that issue, and revert to art for characters that can’t be cast correctly. there is also a rule against problematic face claims but those with allegations of SA are still used as far as i can see. 

a few friends of mine were kicked the first day of pride, for a variety of things,

screenshot of the random group kick.

what i said back to it.

screenshot of the announcement after the group kick. two.

but the only ones i had anything to do was denying the mod and kelsey a ship, and asking for clarification about a comment made by another user. or maybe just being friends with them? who knows, since the ban message was for a group and not very specific. i remain not upset, since i stayed only to support my friends and am glad to be free of a place where female and non binary characters exist largely to be sexualized, but since there’s a one way narrative, it deserves to be cleared up as they beg their members for good reviews on disboard. 

the rules tell you not to only write ship things, but at least half of the server, if not more is all gratuitous and public (badly characterized, badly written) porn, or 2 line ship dialogue. all the conflict has been stripped away, and all that remains is love triangles, which the mod summer or member kelsey has placed herself at the center of for attention. thus, if your character if not in love with either’s roster, or are their “child”, you will be ignored and not privy to plots unless you invite yourselves to them. 

no villains are allowed, except the ones mod summer finds attractive, and then you have to stomach people writing rapists in group chats! lovely, and went dismissed when inquired about, since half of the villains on the ban list (like vulcan) have done less evil than the villains accepted (creed, canon rapist), or requested (like jason wyngarde, canon rapist). 

every other character by those two bears no resemblance to their canon iterations. 

mystique runs around calling her partner daddy, and is kelsey’s most sexualized character. she uses a black woman for raven while doing this, while her white roster is not treated the same. 

the server’s victor creed was said they removed SA from his history, but he threatens to seggsually assault mystique in a text thread. no action when this was brought up to staff, they said “raven wanting creed is a part of her marriage, so this (clearly worded SA threat while raven said no) was not actually SA. no offer to privatize the thread, or improvements on their tagging system to denote when there was blatant rape. 

server is also so low on lore knowledge they made jokes about scott summers and prof x having sex, as if prof didn’t meet scott as a minor aged child, and as if scott doesn’t see prof as a father figure! truly jarring to run a server without knowing base level info that results in grooming/incest jokes being made. 

when confronted with this triggering content, mods promised to implement a better spoilering and tagging system, and then never went ahead with it.  as of 6/19, has done nothing still.

the application demands a writing sample that showcases a lot of things, including dialogue, long introspection, but you won’t need it. the vast majority of what’s written here is 1 liner dms and smut. which really isn’t an issue, but if the average thread is two sentences, outside of their plot drabbles, which were admittedly nice by some members (when they made sense).

the server boasts two warnings, of which you will only receive none, if you nicely decline offers to ship with the mods. i would steer clear. the effort you have to put in to get approved is not worth putting up with the mods as they are. anyways big fuck you for trying to force me into a ship, expect my lesbian to be subsumed by your heterosexual pairing, and then be lesbophobic even after i left! lesbians aren’t side characters. you wouldn’t know that, or care, since i saw what you said after i left and it was heinous. as expected. 

as you can tell if you've been keeping up, i never had raven tell irene to fuck off. i was forced to say, in character, that irene was moving on, because member kelsey never answered dms.

lesbophobia post exit: one, two, three (discussing my writing partner's lesbian character).

so bad that they had to make an announcement about how lesbophobic their server was and how to behave. two.

classy party! on pride, to boot. no one in these screens is a lesbian, as you can guess, and the main perpetrators never apologized! not even to the server, who had to witness it all.

overall stop begging for server reviews, server likes, accept that you did things wrong, learn, private your server and enjoy your weird anti indigenous anti sapphic circlejerk! and never pressure people to ship again, you suck.

this next part is specifically for kelsey, who took it upon herself to be extra lesbophobic after my exit. no need to read unless you’re her. 

kelsey, you didn’t know i’d picked another ship because you never bothered to dm me back lol! not that i wanted to ship with you anyway after the way you treated me, and your atrocious characterizations, not just of mystique. i was also never demanded to contact you before apping, as evidenced below once more. 

link back to the conversation with gansey.

trying to accuse me of not reading irene comics (i have read all of her appearances over twice in their entirety), and that i didn’t “know her” feels nuts to come from a raven characterization with no depth except for her vaginal canal. maybe i just knew raven and irene well enough not to want to ship with a character written by you, whose most used words were “daddy” “fill me good” and who was so oversexualized as a black woman written by you, one as white as me, i felt so uncomfortable— and since i knew i’d read more raven than you ever will, would be wasting my time, and would derive no pleasure out of writing with a self insert. 

its bad when even your own friends joked about you killing your characters / banned you from doing it for attention when you weren’t getting enough. i’d tell you to log off and get some friends but get the sense keeping them would be a problem for you, you don’t seem like someone who puts the work into anything. 

your research about meg and i, who has only been writing for two years, confusing one sapphic for another, no doubt comes from your friend and server co mod “esther” formerly jackie, who was run off tumblr at least three times for derailing black lives matter discussions with white / personal issues and being anti romani, which she was in her server i was in too! she did a great job of pretending to hold herself accountable, but it all was told to us by a friend after. she’s now banned from a bunch of communities because of it. bet you didn’t know that, she’s tried to hide it quite well, but we all know who she is, and her life is largely a lie to rebrand after being run off multiple writing communities within the last 10 years. like you, she sexualized her characters that have been survivors of sexual abuse. i’m happy to be disliked by a person like that, and by you. 

i suspect you’ll continue to be friends with her because you’re twins, hiding behind online attention and praise because you’ll never have it in real life the way you dream of so badly, compensating by getting angry when someone doesn’t worship you. you crave the attention, and so i’ll make this the last time you ever get it from me. i’ll forget about you tomorrow, but you’ll always remember, won’t you? people like you always do. 

nothing but the best ahead,

liv

[valentinarestivo]

«La nostra piccolezza, la nostra insignificanza e natura mortale, mia e vostra, la cosa a cui per tutto il tempo cerchiamo di non pensare direttamente, che siamo minuscoli e alla mercé di grandi forze e che il tempo passa incessantemente e che ogni giorno abbiamo perso un altro giorno che non tornerà più e la nostra infanzia è finita e con lei l’adolescenza e il vigore della gioventù e presto anche l’età adulta, che tutto quello che vediamo intorno a noi non fa che decadere e andarsene, tutto se ne va e anche noi, anch’io, da come sono sfrecciati via questi primi quarantadue anni tra non molto me ne andrò anch’io, chi avrebbe mai immaginato che esistesse un modo più veritiero di dire “morire”, “andarsene”, il solo suono mi fa sentire come mi sento al crepuscolo di una domenica d’inverno…».

David Foster Wallace, Il Re pallido

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

(Ithaca 21 febbraio 1962 – Claremont , 12 settembre 2008)

[ofpineapplesanddawns]

Here you guys go, a little one-shot of The Surgeon and the dark vicar.

I’m sorry, I tried so hard to get through Inside Man, but the moment the usb’s contents were scene and Harry said it was his, I gave up. Any attempt further just made me angry at the terrible writing choices. Felt like I was watching AHS all over again. 

Anyway, here’s Harry at Claremont because that seems to be the best way for these two to meet.

On with the fic!

--

It wasn’t... the worst place to be, Harry told himself. 

He was given his own room, small, quiet, very private even if someone checked on him often. He wasn’t on any watch list here for reasons, but he was still kept under watchful eyes like ever other occupant in the building. The food was alright, the activities were... what you’d expect, and he knew to just keep his head down and his mouth shut.

The sessions were fine, he spoke when he had to or when he felt like it, they didn’t pressure him. Harry never knew what to talk about, it wasn’t exactly easy for him to admit all of this could have been solved if he had just refused to take the usb drive. 

But no, three people died and the blood was on Harry’s hands and nothing he could do would be able to wash it off.

All because he had tried to be a good man and do what he thought was right. 

Panic really does change a person, fear makes it worse. 

He missed his wife, his son. He missed his home, his life, but even if, when, he was proven innocent and was let go, he could never return. Maybe Harry could start a new life somewhere, leave behind his name and previous self, become a new person with a new backstory.

But Harry would always know, every time he looked in the mirror he saw the man who had fucked up.

God would never forgive him, he was sure of that.

Still, that didn’t stop him from quietly praying while outside in the courtyard, away from the other residents of Claremont. It was probably pointless, who would listen to someone like him, but he still felt comfort in an act he did for so long.

“Has anyone picked up for the phone for you yet?”

Harry glanced up, blinking, looking at a fellow prisoner. He had seen the man in a few of the group therapy sessions, and sometimes outside, often by himself. He looked a little older than Harry, with wild locks of gray and white hair with a beard to match. He was smiling, his eyes bright and calculating, as if reading deeply into Harry’s soul.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, looking pleased as peaches. “You’re the vicar, yes?”

“I... yes, I’m Harry Watling.” Harry said, his voice a little tight. “And you are..?”

“Ah, I’m shocked you don’t know already!” The man feigned shock and disappointment. “Guess I’m not as famous as I used to be. Well, it has been twenty years, lots of new folks for people to talk about in their podcasts and such, or whatever it is kids are doing these days.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Oh, yes. I’m Dr. Martin Whitly.” The man, Martin, smiled as he held out his hand. “The Surgeon.”

“You’re a doctor here?” Harry asked, confused, he thought he was a resident.

“Well, technically, yes, but not on staff! No, no, I’m here just like you, though from what I’ve heard, we are here for very different reasons.” He sat himself down next to Harry, still all smiles. “Kidnapping, imprisonment, association with murder, and something about chi-”

“I had nothing to do with that last one.” Harry snapped. “I made the mistake of helping someone out of the goodness of my heart and it ruined me and many other lives!”

He let out a shuddering breath, turning away. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Martin asked.

“For yelling, for... taking out some aggression on you. I’m trying... to not do that, to just... not be impulsive.” 

“You and many others here, my friend.” Martin chuckled. “I believe you, you know.”

Harry blinked. “What? Why?”

“Listen, I’ve been here for years, and have been associated with many... terrible people for longer.” Martin sniffed. “You look to be someone who got caught up in a nasty bit of trouble that you couldn’t get out of, made it worse for yourself.”

“I... yes, that’s basically it.” He looked at his hands, he could see it, blood, always there, never goes away, no matter how much he washes them. They’re getting dried out, a bit raw. Was this normal? He hadn’t killed anyone, but people died because of him anyway.

“And no one will believe you because of the scandal, and even when you’re proven to have been in the right, people will still not trust you.”

“Yeah...”

“You don’t belong here, why did they send you here?”

“Because... it’s the only place that would take my while they investigated, it’s so far from home, it’s safer. It’s safer for me because people think I’m.... that I’m into...”

Martin nodded. “Yes, those sort of prisoners don’t often deal well behind bars. But I believe you, Harry.” He was smiling again. “You’ve got someone in your corner, that’s always good.”

Harry looked at him and he felt himself smile for the first time in what felt like forever, even if it was just barely there. “Thank you, Martin. Um, if you don’t mind me asking... why are you here?”

The smile on Martin’s lips grew just a little more. “I’m The Surgeon, it’s not just my previous job, it’s my title.”

Someone called out Martin’s name and the man stood up, looking towards the orderly who had addressed him. “Right, seems I need to take my leave, wish they’d let me have a bit more fresh air, but restrictions and all, they’re the worst. See you later, Harry!”

Harry swallowed, watching the man as he walked away. Title? What had he meant by that? Of course the man was a doctor, he said so, but The Surgeon, that... that did sound...

Oh.

Oh dear. 

--

:)

[firstprince-ao3feed]

he looks up grinning like the devil

he looks up grinning like the devil https://ift.tt/98mHEDQ by coffeecatsme Henry can’t help it—he lets out a laugh and shakes his head. Beta Sigma Chi being a safe space is about as likely as the Republicans championing queer rights. “Right, and who’s this new president that somehow managed to turn around an entire fraternity?” Pez winces. She hesitates at first, but then she must decide on something because her chin juts out. “Well,” she says slowly. “It’s Alexander Claremont-Diaz.” Henry laughs so hard he almost falls off his seat. Or, Henry Fox learns to fall in love with everything that is Alexander Claremont-Diaz, even if he insists on calling Henry "dude". Words: 784, Chapters: 1/8, Language: English Fandoms: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Percy "Pez" Okonjo, Alex Claremont-Diaz, Nora Holleran, Original Characters Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Nora Holleran/Percy "Pez" Okonjo, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor & Percy "Pez" Okonjo Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, kind of, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Fraternities & Sororities, frat bro alex, but like make it queer, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love, Getting Together, Pet Names, but alex still calls henry dude, dude but romantically, Hurt/Comfort via AO3 works tagged 'Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor' https://ift.tt/hGYW7TX August 25, 2023 at 10:55AM

[scienza-magia]

Chi sono i miliardari dietro Kkr, il fondo che ha comprato la rete Tim

Kkr, chi sono i miliardari dietro il fondo che ha comprato la rete Tim. Li chiamano ‘I barbari’. Tutta colpa di un libro del 1989 che racconta il loro affare più celebre: il leveraged buyout – l’acquisizione con denaro preso in prestito – di Rjr Nabisco, all’epoca il 19esimo conglomerato industriale degli Stati Uniti. Rjr Nabisco, nata pochi anni prima dalla fusione tra un’azienda di tabacco e una di dolci, era guidata da F. Ross Johnson, che nell’autunno del 1988 decise di comprarla e toglierla dalla Borsa. Ne parlò con Henry Kravis, che assieme a George Roberts guidava il fondo Kkr. Poi cambiò idea e scelse di farsi affiancare dalla banca d’affari Shearson Lehman Hutton, progenitrice di Lehman Brothers, e dall’investitore Ted Forstmann. Kravis e Roberts, traditi, scatenarono un’asta. Dopo 40 giorni di intrighi, colpi bassi e trattative notturne, in cui entrarono in scena come consulenti, finanziatori o concorrenti tutti i pesi massimi di Wall Street, la vinsero. Intanto, però, il prezzo era lievitato. Il 30 novembre Kkr annunciò di avere comprato Rjr Nabisco a 109 dollari per azione. Prima del 20 ottobre, data delle prime notizie sull’acquisizione, il titolo veniva scambiato a 56 dollari. In tutto, Kravis e Roberts pagarono 24,88 miliardi: era il più grande leveraged buyout della storia. Forstmann li accusò di non avere “soldi veri”, ma “merda falsa da junk bond”, cioè da titoli spazzatura. Wall Street, secondo Forstmann, aveva l’obbligo di fermare investitori come Kravis: “Dobbiamo respingere i barbari che sono alle porte della città”. La frase ispirò il titolo del libro di due giornalisti del Wall Street Journal, Bryan Burrough e John Heylar: Barbarians at the Gate. Chi sono i fondatori di Kkr

Henry Kravis (a sinistra) e George Roberts, fondatori di Kkr (foto Ko Sasaki per Forbes) Share L’investimento in Rjr Nabisco fu perdente, a causa del prezzo spropositato e dei debiti contratti per completare l’operazione. Ciò nonostante, Kravis, 79 anni, e Roberts, 80, non sono sono stati cacciati dalla città. Oggi sono due delle 100 persone più ricche d’America, con patrimoni di 8,9 e 9,7 miliardi di dollari. Kkr è cresciuta fino a gestire asset per 500 miliardi e ad assemblare un portafoglio con centinaia di società. La sua ultima operazione è l’acquisto della rete di Tim per 22 miliardi di euro. Kravis, originario di Tulsa, in Oklahoma, e Roberts, nato a Houston, in Texas, sono cugini di primo grado e amici d’infanzia. Secondo la storia ufficiale di famiglia, il loro ultimo litigio risale al 1951, quando Kravis rimediò 23 punti di sutura. Frequentarono insieme il Claremont McKenna College, in California, e dopo qualche anno si ritrovarono alla Bear Sterns, una grande banca d’affari che sarebbe stata travolta dalla crisi dei mutui subprime e acquisita da JPMorgan. La nascita di Kkr In Bear Sterns, i cugini lavorarono sotto Jerome Kohlberg, capo della divisione finanziaria. Con lui formarono un trio specializzato in acquisizioni. Puntavano soprattutto ad aziende con problemi di successione, che erano troppo piccole per quotarsi in Borsa, ma che i fondatori non volevano cedere a un concorrente. Nel 1976 proposero alla banca di creare un fondo apposito. Quando i dirigenti rifiutarono, si misero in proprio. Con 120mila dollari dei loro risparmi, fondarono Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co: Kkr. La nuova società si specializzò in leveraged buyout. Negli anni ’80 divenne sempre più aggressiva e iniziò a comprare aziende sempre più grandi. Kohlberg, contrario al nuovo corso, si dimise nel 1987. Kravis e Roberts sono rimasti co-amministratori delegati fino al 2021, quando hanno nominato come successori Joseph Bae e Scott Nuttall (anche loro miliardari). Oggi sono co-presidenti esecutivi. Nella seconda parte della carriera hanno lavorato separati: Roberts si è stabilito a San Francisco, Kravis a New York, in un ufficio arredato con targhe commemorative delle operazioni più importanti di Kkr. Su una parete, una citazione di Machiavelli. Tradotta e parafrasata, suona così: “Chi introduce ha per nemici tutti coloro che traevano un beneficio dalle vecchie istituzioni e ha tiepidi difensori in tutti coloro che trarrebbero giovamento dalle nuove”. La seconda era di Kkr Nel XXI secolo Kravis e Roberts hanno provato a presentarsi con un nuovo volto da imprenditori illuminati. Quindici anni fa hanno siglato un accordo con la no-profit Environmental Defense Fund in cui si sono impegnati a tracciare i rifiuti prodotti dalle loro società, le emissioni di gas serra, il consumo d’acqua e l’uso di materiali tossici. “Vent’anni fa non ero un grande sostenitore dell’esg”, ha dichiarato Kravis a Forbes. “Per me la cosa più importante era: se la società guadagna bene, tutti gli stakeholder traggono benefici. Poi mi sono convertito”. Nella stessa intervista, Kravis ha raccontato come il modo di operare di Kkr sia distante da quello dei corporate raider, gli investitori che comprano aziende indebitate per smembrarle. “Non puoi comprare una società e tagliare tutti i costi. Non è un modello di business sostenibile. Se non reinvesti per creare nuovi prodotti, nuovi stabilimenti e nuovi modi di fare affari in nuovi mercati, alla fine morirai”. Nel 2010 Kkr ha arruolato come direttore della divisione industrial buyout Pete Stavros, un sostenitore della distribuzione di azioni ai dipendenti come strumento per aumentare la produttività. Dopo il suo insediamento, il fondo ha assegnato centinaia di milioni di dollari di titoli ai lavoratori delle imprese acquisite. Gli affari in Italia e il caso Marelli L’acquisto della rete di Tim è solo l’ultimo affare italiano di Kkr. Il fondo ha investito per la prima volta nel nostro Paese nel 2005 con Selenia, un’azienda di oli lubrificanti comprata per 835 milioni di euro e rivenduta due anni dopo a Petronas per un miliardo. Poi sono arrivate Sistemia (gestione crediti), Argenta (distributori automatici), Inaer (elicotteri), Sirti (reti di telecomunicazione), FiberCop (rete Tim), Industria chimica emiliana (principi attivi farmaceutici), Cmc (packaging), Fedrigoni (carta). Di recente si è parlato molto di Kkr anche per il caso Marelli. Il fondo ha acquistato l’azienda nell’ottobre 2018 da Fca per 5,8 miliardi di euro, tramite la giapponese Ck Holdings. La fusione ha dato vita al settimo polo mondiale della componentistica per auto, ma nel 2022 Marelli si è trovata schiacciata da 7,9 miliardi di debiti e ha dovuto varare un piano di ristrutturazione. A settembre Kkr ha annunciato la chiusura dello stabilimento di Crevalcore, in provincia di Bologna, poi sospesa. In quello di Venaria Reale, nel Torinese, secondo la Fiom sono a rischio 500 posti di lavoro. Read the full article

[thebridgehqs]

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@meloniva

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #286

Tue Jan 05 2021 [08:04 PM] Wack'd: 'S an X-Men crossover, proclaims the cover [08:04 PM] Wack'd: Joy [08:05 PM] Bocaj: The Essex-Men [08:05 PM] Wack'd: We open in media res with the Four coming home from some massive space exploration [08:05 PM] Bocaj: They just do that offscreen sometimes [08:06 PM] Bocaj: And other times they make huge productions out of space exploration [08:06 PM] Wack'd: I assumed it was because of Secret Wars II nonsense but nah it's just so Bryne can do some metajokes

[08:06 PM] Wack'd: Also: ass shot [08:06 PM] Umbramatic: oh geez [08:07 PM] Wack'd: My theory is if cosmic doesn't sell it's because most people are bad at writing cosmic [08:08 PM] Wack'd: Lotta portent and politics and tossing around Big Important Proper Nouns [08:09 PM] Bocaj: I'll subscribe to that theory [08:09 PM] maxwellelvis: Something something Prequel Trilogy [08:09 PM] Wack'd: Anyway they gotta land at an airport because the Avengers don't have a large enough airfield. Sure [08:09 PM] Umbramatic: weird [08:09 PM] Bocaj: Although the Avengers don't have an airfield I dont think. They just tend to launch from the mansion [08:10 PM] Wack'd: Yeah I mean same with the Baxter, so [08:10 PM] Wack'd: I dunno if this is needlessly petty but I honestly can't help but focus on this bumper sticker

[08:10 PM] Wack'd: If it's a deliberate political statement it sure does add up [08:12 PM] Wack'd: Anyway the Avengers have a glowing redheaded woman in a tube [08:12 PM] Wack'd: I assume it's [insert whoever had the Phoenix at the time here] [08:14 PM] Bocaj: Glowing redhead? My guess is for Mary Jane [08:14 PM] Bocaj: She's overdue [08:14 PM] Wack'd: None of the assembled Avengers or the Four know who she is so Johnny decides to scram while Reed goes into research mode [08:14 PM] maxwellelvis: I don't think it's Rachel, I think by now she's over in London with Excalibur. [08:15 PM] Wack'd: Reasons why Jen has a crush on Hercules: he's the actual mythological Hercules, he's got eyes like Tom Selleck. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Passed unacknowledged at the time, somehow, is that the fact that he’s 5000 years old is also part of it. Because of course.] [08:15 PM] maxwellelvis: Those are good enough reasons. [08:15 PM] Bocaj: In Byrne's She-Hulk book Jen keeps having romance novel cover style daydreams about him [08:15 PM] Bocaj: Or will have. Time. [08:16 PM] Umbramatic: fucking time [08:16 PM] Wack'd: Jarvis is the real superhero

[08:17 PM] Bocaj: I've been saying that for years [08:17 PM] Umbramatic: jarvis is a good boi [08:17 PM] maxwellelvis: Now if Hercules had the MUSTACHE of Tom Selleck, I'd probably join Jen in that fantasizing. [08:17 PM] Umbramatic: my mother has a mug that says "saving myself for Tom Selleck" [08:18 PM] Wack'd: So whoever this is breaks out of their chamber and starts tossing Reed and the Avengers around like flies, ranting about whatever the fuck's going on in X-Men and accusing them all of being robot imposters [08:18 PM] maxwellelvis: In that case it might be Rachel. [08:18 PM] maxwellelvis: She's been through... a lot. [08:19 PM] Wack'd: Sue uses a force field to keep herself bolted to the floor, and then traps redheaded lady in one which seems to subdue her [08:19 PM] maxwellelvis: Does she have tattoos of triangles/spikes running along the sides of her face? [08:19 PM] Wack'd: No [08:19 PM] maxwellelvis: Then it might not be Rachel. [08:20 PM] Wack'd: Just a regular redheaded comics lady with no distinguishing features [08:20 PM] Wack'd: Oh it's Jean Grey still [08:20 PM] Wack'd: That's on me for hedging my bets I guess [08:20 PM] Umbramatic: hi jean [08:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Would you have counted "very short hair" as a distinguishing feature? [08:21 PM] Wack'd: I might if she didn't have armpit-length hair [08:21 PM] Bocaj: Darn Jean Grey always in pods [08:22 PM] maxwellelvis: Because Rachel tends to cut her hair very short. It's how you know she's the edgier alternative to her mom and later, to her present-timeline self. [08:22 PM] Bocaj: Punky Birdster [08:22 PM] maxwellelvis: That and the tattoos on her face, more firey aura, and spiky jumpsuit. [08:23 PM] maxwellelvis: In fact as Phoenix, Rachel tends to use the flames of the Phoenix to mask her face. [08:23 PM] maxwellelvis: Makes her look slightly Dormammu-ish. [08:23 PM] Umbramatic: oh huh [08:23 PM] Wack'd: Jean has lost memories of a buncha stuff and wants to go to Prof X to get help but Steve refuses because they're associating with Magneto and Steve's got a bug up his butt about it

[08:24 PM] Wack'd: Was Magneto being a maybe-good-guy still a huge deal in 1986? That feels wrong [08:24 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah. [08:24 PM] maxwellelvis: It wasn't until like, the early 90's that he stopped being a good guy, but it always felt weird. [08:25 PM] maxwellelvis: When he showed up in New Mutants, the kids all QUIT and went to go be child soldiers for the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle instead. [08:25 PM] Bocaj: In secret wars it was still a big deal that he claimed to be mostly good [08:25 PM] Bocaj: And that wasn’t so long ago [08:25 PM] Wack'd: Fair [08:26 PM] Wack'd: Reed is skeptical of bringing Jean back to her house because she's been presumed dead and it'd freak out her folks which, y'know, good point [08:26 PM] Bocaj: Call ahead? [08:26 PM] Bocaj: Anyone? [08:26 PM] Bocaj: Haha just kidding x men never pick up a phone [08:26 PM] Wack'd: Oh I mean, like [08:26 PM] Wack'd: Her home-home [08:27 PM] Wack'd: Where her biological family lives [08:27 PM] Bocaj: Call ahead [08:27 PM] maxwellelvis: Mr. and Mrs. Gray only exist when it's convenient. [08:27 PM] Bocaj: Hah! [08:27 PM] Wack'd: Right yeah, seems like the good compromise position [08:27 PM] maxwellelvis: Same goes for all the X-Men's parents, come to think of it. [08:27 PM] Wack'd: But Sue is like "she's having a mental breakdown and needs familiar surroundings and a sense of security so, like, we cross that bridge when we get there I guess" [08:27 PM] Wack'd: Oh good! They do in fact call ahead [08:28 PM] Wack'd: But only get answering machine [08:28 PM] Bocaj: I’m as smart as a comic character [08:28 PM] maxwellelvis: Bummer [08:30 PM] Umbramatic: now i wonder what the X-Answering Machine is like [08:30 PM] maxwellelvis: They don't have one. [08:30 PM] maxwellelvis: Otherwise, Excalibur would never have happened. [08:30 PM] Bocaj: “You know what to do, bub” [08:31 PM] Bocaj: And then the answering machine recording doesn’t click on [08:31 PM] maxwellelvis: Or it's a "Please Leave A Message"-themed rewrite of the "Pryde of the X-Men" theme. [08:31 PM] Bocaj: Ha [08:32 PM] Wack'd: So uh [08:32 PM] Wack'd: Rest of the issue is expositing X-Men stuff [08:32 PM] Wack'd: Jean is a clone, or maybe she isn't, or maybe an energy being made a facsimile of her, or something [08:32 PM] maxwellelvis: "PLEASE LET ME BACK ON THE MAIN BOOK!" [08:33 PM] Wack'd: Yeah I cannot be bothered. So much Xnobabble [08:33 PM] maxwellelvis: "DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I NEED TO BE ON THAT BOOK?! I GAVE ALPHA FLIGHT AN ONGOING FOR GOD'S SAKE!" [08:34 PM] Bocaj: Fun story: Claremont insisted on some changes to the Phoenix stuff to line up with his own ideas and shooter went sure. And this made Byrne big mad and he refused to make the changes so that’s why Claremont has a writing credit. And I’ve heard why Byrne quit FF [08:35 PM] Wack'd: “Basically, this story and the back-up in Classic X-Men explain that the Phoenix Force replaced Jean and Jean has spent the convening years in suspended animation healing at the bottom of Jamaica Bay.” [08:35 PM] Wack'd: Alright [08:36 PM] Umbramatic: that's some jucy drama bocaj [08:36 PM] Wack'd: “According to Byrne, the changes were written and drawn by Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice. Hence, the story reads somewhat disjointed in part, regarding the nature of the Phoenix Force.” [08:36 PM] Wack'd: You don't say [08:36 PM] Bocaj: Thaaaaats Byrne [08:36 PM] Bocaj: The drama part anyway [08:37 PM] Wack'd: Why the fuck did any of this have to happen in Fantastic Four that's what I wanna know [08:37 PM] Bocaj: Nothing, I think he just wanted to slide in his ideas about Phoenix despite being off book [08:37 PM] Wack'd: *siiiiiiiiiiigh* [08:38 PM] Bocaj: I say it should have happened in X factor since that’s the reason Jean is back and the reason why Scott is a bad husband [08:39 PM] Bocaj: It looks like it got built up in avengers and FF. Stay in your own stuff X

[marvelousmrm]

Marvel Team-Up #64 (Claremont/Byrne, Dec 1977). The Daughters of the Dragon try to defeat Davos themselves, but Danny needs to prove he’s still worthy to carry the chi of Shou-Lao the Undying. Pretty satisfying wrap-up to Iron Fist’s first run, even though it had to sneak into a Spidey book to pull it off.

[bestjunkremovalinlandempire]

GUESS WHO’S BACK!!

[bookoftheironfist]

    Heeeeey! Who could that possibly be? For a character who clearly was going to show up at some point-- this is an Iron Fist story, after all-- they did a great job of keeping his identity a mystery. I love this guy in the comics and had no idea that this was him.  

    Introducing him this way does a lot to build suspense, keep viewers guessing, and make his eventual reveal extra exciting. I also love it because while the circumstances are not the same, it is reminiscent of how this mystery man was first introduced in the comics as well: out of nowhere, in small glimpses through which he eventually reveals who he is and what he wants. The difference in the comics is that Danny has never met this person before-- he’s just a strange man who keeps jumping out of alleys and aggressively hugging him. It’s great.

Danny: “Heart of the dragon, what’s he doing to me? My body’s on fire, my strength draining away...as if my very soul was being torn out of me!! Can’t take much more of this-- agony is...beyond belief! Must...break free!!”

Davos: “Excellent, Iron Fist. You’re all I hoped for-- and more.”

Danny: “What...do you mean? Who are you?!?”

Davos: “Who am I, Daniel Rand-K’ai? I am your executioner!”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #14 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Dan Green, Annette Kawecki, and Janice Cohen

Davos: “Step into my arms, young fool.”

Danny: “Gods! Iron Fist glow erupting around us...energy-- my chi, my immortal soul--! Being drained from my...body! Can’t...resist!”

Davos: “And our duel is ended. For now.”

Danny: “Ooooohhhhhh...”

Davos: “Your life is mine for the taking, boy-- but I want more than that. I want what your cursed father denied me. I want the Iron Fist! And not all your vaunted skill can stop me!”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #15 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Dan Green, Annette Kawecki, and B. Patterson

(Aggressive Hugging is a big Iron Fist thing that, tragically, wasn’t utilized in the show.)

[iimanga]

The Whole Marvelous Super Ultra Cosmic Magical Comic Book Universe

The produce of imagination and business that was Marvel Comics was a synchronic harmony sounded by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and every one of the creators and craftsmen and inkers and colorists who worked there. Everything began during the mid 1960's the point at which the Fantastic Four and Spider-man and the X-men (The Uncanny X-Men) were framed from the creative mind of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

X-men was a film industry crush the previous summer. I'm certain you additionally recall the profoundly effective Hulk TV show.

The most punctual X-men comprised of Jean (Marvel Girl) Gray (who later turned into the amazingly well known Phoenix), Professor X (Xavier), Cyclops (Scott Summers), the insightful Beast (Hank McCoy), and Iceman (Bobbie). Freaks brought into the world with exceptional "super-freak" capacities.

Later came the New Mutants with more youthful characters having freak controls that occasionally appeared to have them (the main sort of comic book story I don't care for).

These characters from X-men including (Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Banshee, Kitty) advanced with the appearance of the imagination of John Byrne (beginning in issue #108 of X-men) and Chris Claremont (Giant Sized X-men #1 and Uncanny X-men #94 now esteemed at $500. up in "mint" condition. The most famous person was the principle star in the X-men film- - Wolverine. There makes certain to be a continuation for this film industry crush.

X-men Comics instructed kids that bias is shrewd. Individuals who live in dread and in this way eagerness attempt to annihilate what they don't comprehend.

Fascinating that both the latest Star Wars film and X-men film truly investigated lawmakers (Congress). In the event that force undermines totally is it conceivable our framework is totally bad? The Senator in the X-men film took in his example somewhat late.

Insect man- - the new Marvel film in progress - is about a typical young child anxiety (menaces thumping him, not getting any darlings, skin break out, etc is gentle stuff contrasted with the present school encounters -, for example, not having chance and killed while going to or going to the everyday schedule lured by a destructive medication or tainted by a stellar infection) is only nibbled by a radioactive bug (revolutionary stuff for the mid 1960's).

This gives Peter Parker super powers- - creepy crawly controls - whenever intensified a man could lift a truck and convey it 20 miles as insects do. (Try not to get me going discussing Henry Pym the Antman who became Giant Man in the Marvel's Avengers ((Capt. America, Thor the Thunder God etc.))). Add to that Peter Parker was likewise a splendid understudy who had the option to concoct a web shooter and other extraordinary innovations. What's more, Spider-man was brought into the world as a bi-result of the bi-item known as radioactive material (which Science actually doesn't have the foggiest idea how to dispose of). (Take a stab at telling that to the Bush organization). Everything is energy! Recall Tesla curls.

However, Marvel was not by any means the only spot strutting superpowered characters.

D.C. Funnies (Time Warner), as well, used folklore and accounts of Biblical extents to entrain, invigorate and energize ages of youngsters, children and grown-ups from the 1940's to introduce.

A few characters like Superman, Atom, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, JLA and others and even D.C's. adaptation of Capt. Wonder might have been propelled by profound writing which recounted Hindu Gods and Goddesses and surprisingly Biblical personages who could remain in fire and so forth

Contents and Wit

Superheroes: starting through human creative mind and from writing, folklore, religion.

However most likely comic makers just made up their wondrous stories.

When I talked with Gerry Conway for the Comics Journal he conceded to me that he had investigated a portion of the funnies he composed. Conway's companion accomplice Roy Thomas no question investigated Conan and Thor and other material while author and supervisor at Marvel. They cooperated on the incredible enlivened Fire and Ice film. (Ralph Bakshi/Frank Frazetta).

Also, at first Thomas got the Conan property over to Marvel from Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzana, CA. (Tarzana- - Tarzan...get it? That's right, it also is a comic.)

More seasoned society know and love the endless Films and TV shows and serials highlighting these and other most loved brilliant characters: Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Commander Cody (which might have enlivened the Rocketeer comic and film).

COMIC BOOKS - Born by the sheer exhurberance of the actual Universe through the vehicle of the Human Being!

The Comic Industry is an analogy forever. An inestimable dramatization unfurling. In any case, not to place old wine into new containers: Many occasions in the past Marvel and D.C. have joined to do specials that helps the play of imagination. I initially met Stan Lee while I was the administrator of a Comic Book Store in Studio City, California in the 1970's.

Or then again, more precisely, I met him through his works at Marvel Comics - his exceptional contents and mind in 1961.

Exceptionally astute association with the fans through clubs and letter sections in bygone times caused one to feel like one was a piece of something. With Merry Marvel "we had a place."

Stan Lee's accounts contained genuine person's, finished with issues and the start of incredible groundbreaking thoughts and standards for carrying on with a decent life.

As when Spider-man didn't stop a Burglar - a similar Burglar who later killed his caring Uncle- - Peter Parker (Spider-man) got the message - serve humankind. With extraordinary force comes liability.

Furthermore, obligation is the capacity to react.

Energizing anecdotal stories loaded with experience and energy with ethics. Outlined lavishly.

Wonder Super characters were at first looked on by society as trouble makers. Even subsequent to saving human butt large number of times.

J. Jonah Jameson (modest Editor of the Daily Bugle paper) has abhorred Spider-person for more than 30 years. Jameson really attempted to annihilate Spider-man by turning into a super reprobate.

Adrenaline junkie (blind Attorney yet Batman-esque in capacities and actual strength and spryness - however with uplifted faculties) the Man unafraid was regularly marked a scalawag too from the start.

Similar to the always well known Incredible Hulk - first deified as a comic book during the 1960's. Who went from dull and idiotic to approach virtuoso relying upon the decade where this suffering person is perused.

What we dread we regularly view as shrewd.

Funnies have attempted to instruct us that the means are pretty much as significant as the finishes they produce.

What we do en route decides the outcome we will get. Funnies are distributed in light of the fact that a word sounds great to the distributer. However, a portion of these new youthful free distributers need to find out about the significance inside these words (thus do their clients). However, more capacity to these ambitious youths.

What is Yoga, Meditation, Tai Chi, Mantra? What is Zen? (One youthful upstart distributer of "Harmony - intergalactic Ninja" had never known about Alan Watts - incredible advertiser of Zen until I let him know Alan Watts was a renowned and famous scholar turned maverick Philosopher and Author (one of many) liable for acquainting Eastern Religions with the profoundly starved West- - frequently heard on KPFK radio. Alan Watts is potentially the chief advertiser of Zen. Watts' book " The Wisdom of Insecurity," specifies, for goodness' sake, Comic Books. What are Chakras? The Tao implies what? When children grow up and find out with regards to Meditation will they be spoiled by our ineptitude and insatiability?

Trendy expressions ordinarily lower cognizance and create turmoil. Obviously when I use to distribute stuff as a young person I made up names that sounded great however had almost no significance, for example, Beyond Infinity, مانجا لاند, Eon the Magazine of Graphic Illusions. I know less now than I did then, at that point. What is make, craftsmanship, Love, Truth?

I held a few signature parties with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1970's and 1980's. I tossed more than 50 effective signature parties with numerous awesome comic book specialists and authors. I'd have the occasion, give rewards, do all the publicizing, realistic workmanship, official statements, and so forth It was an invigorating encounter. It was enjoyable to cooperate with professionals and fans. I parted with a ton of free promotion stuff.

10th Nebula's first signature party was held with Stan Lee, distributer of Marvel Comics. For a considerable length of time my shop suffered in North Hollywood, CA nearby to the world's most seasoned Science Fiction Club (an inherent crowd of companions and fans and PC monsters).

The Stan Lee occasion evoked long queues of Comic Book devotees of any age slobbering for Stan's mark on the sprinkle page of their old and new funnies. These days experts sign funnies on the front of their title en mass which I don't support. (Yet, who pays attention to me).

Funnies structures are frequently manhandled by hopeful youthful distributers who utilize a few pointless full page sprinkles when the impact could be accomplished in a minuscule board - misuse of cash, ink and paper if you were to ask me. Not at all like bygone times when Steve Ditko gave us our best possible value as around 6 boards for each page - he in his manner resembled a Zen Master - the accuracy of his work matched the craft of Chinese Calligraphy (see his one of a kind style in old Atlas Comics from the 1950's). A portion of the new experimentation's by Frank Miller and different gifts have all accomplished outstandingly imaginative work as well.

[spiltscribbles]

Metamorphosis

Notes: This was written for the most wonderful, gorgeous and sweetheart babe in the history of ever!!! @omgcmere for her birthday! ILYSM sweetheart! Huge thanks to my babes @pastelle-pvnk and @bibliothesophfor reading over this for me!<3<3

.-

~A reblog is worth a thousand stars~

.-

I am free and that is why I am lost

-Franz Kafka

.-

Henry wakes up the day before classes of his junior year exhausted, hung over, and to a positively shit-eating grin that Pez is boasting while he gleefully pushes open the blinds like the sadistic fuck that he is.

“You’ve become a real tosser ever since making out with my sister last Christmas,” Henry informs him bluntly, stretching out slowly while looking around for his shirt until coming to the realization that the bloke from last night must’ve taken it while on the walk of shame.

Henry really tries his damndest not to think of his ass taking that walk.

“Ah Beatrice, my sun and stars.” Pez magnanimously throws Henry an old henley from his still unpacked suitcase. Tosser status withstanding, He’s still Henry’s best friend, has been ever since freshman year when they found solace in each other being the only two Brits in this entire university— well the only ones that matter, anyhow.

“Oy, did you wake me up at this godforsaken hour just to wax poetic about my sister of all people?” Henry grouses, padding over to their joint bathroom to brush his teeth, wincing only slightly at the already raucous chatter going on in the downstairs of their frat house.

“Believe it or not Haz, dealing with your temperamental arse actually wasn’t on my list to do today,” Pez crows, standing there all put together and fresh and well-rested. Like a fucking monster. “But we’ve got that meeting with the Dean of Student Affairs about the room situation for rush week, and we’re still in that debate with Chi Phi’s president over it.”

Henry glares  at the reminder, a spark of fury running down his spine, and perhaps an extra thudding to his heart, but Henry’ll studiously ignore that.

“God damn Alex Claremont-Diaz.”

“Only took you around three minutes to mention him today,” Pez perks with a knowing leer. “I reckon that’s a new record..”

“Get the fuck out, Pez.”

.-

Henry was seven years old when he realized that his family were the sort of folks that end up on magazine covers and the headlines of salacious talk shows— that his dad was a renowned movie star and his ma’s the cousin of the queen of England. Henry was fifteen years old when he first started to hate as much.  When a nurse assigned to his father's hospital room leaked his death before the doctor even had time to tell them, his damn wife and kids.

Henry was sixteen and lost at sea when Philip and the bloody queen herself sat down with him to tell him that his public presence required a certain sort of image, a  discrete sort of image. An image that didn’t condone printed scarves and lingering hands with the son of a Lord who was two years ahead of him in Eton. Henry was eighteen years old when he ran off to America and learned how to keep everything hush, hush,  becoming untethered to all the bull shit surrounding him.  When he was accepted to Yale, and joined a fraternity and tried his damndest to emulate some douchebag wanker in the likeness of Philip.

And you know what, it was all going as planned until Henry met the infuriatingly arrogant, and downright mesmerizing boy in the rival fraternity. The one with an upturned nose and such big brown eyes and a delicious sort of half grin when Henry challenges him on something, or keeps him on his toes. Though if Henry’s being frank, he likes it most when Alex is keeping him on his knees, when Henry’s mouth is full and Alex’s lips are preening and he’s spouting out a sort of cursed poetry with every flick of Henry’s tongue and bobbing of his head.

Though that’s irrelevant now in the light of day when they’re on opposing sides and Alex is smirking at him from across the way with such irresistible swagger, sporting Henry’s red t-shirt that brings out the specs of golden in his almost molten eyes.

Henry hates him.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” he calls out, just because he knows it makes Henry flush.

“The room’s ours, you prick,” Henry retorts, beyond mulish.

“It’s so cute when you get all flustered, Fox.”

“I’m not joking around, Alexander! That room’s been Alpha Delta Phi’s every opening week since the bloody eighties.”

“Don’t you think it’s time for a change in venue then?” Alex asks with an owlish blink, sliding lower in his seat so that his legs spread even further.

Oh fuck him. Fuck Alex Claremont-Diaz’s stupid cocky attitude and his stupid fucking face and so what if Henry just wants to just fuck him stupid. He can’t win just because Henry’s a weak, weak man.

“The room’s ours, Alex,” he warns lowly.

“You wanna prove it, pretty boy?”

Henry’s eyes flicker to the clock over the office door. It doesn’t technically open for another quarter of an hour, and they’ve worked with less time in even more compromising positions, so Henry doesn’t think twice when he tugs a very caught off-guard Alex into the bathroom down the hall, praying to God that there are no cameras around here.

“Woah there cowboy, didn’t get enough last night?” Alex grins, hands already down to unbutton Henry’s jeans.

“You’re fucking infuriating,” is all Henry says in answer, swatting Alex’s hands away before going down on his knees and tugging down the abhorrently orange basketball shorts Alex has on. God, if Henry actually cared he’d pull Alex aside and give him a lesson on what’s actually excusable to wear in public.

“Now why don’t you try to stay quiet for once,” Henry tells him in a hush, biting lightly on the skin of Alex’s inner thigh before kissing the spot in penance.

“Psha, you — erm, you like it when I’m loud.”

Henry doesn’t argue, isn’t in the mood to lie. Instead he takes him in slowly, tongue lapping around Alex’s tip and pushing down with precision.

“Ah, yeah H,” Alex blurts, about two octaves higher than his normal speaking voice, as his head hits the stall, a shaking hand curled in Henry’s hair while the other one is clenched tight around his shoulder.

Henry lets one of his hands wrap around the base of Alex’s cock as the other inches to Alex’s admittedly fantastic ass, wants this done quick and sloppy and to teach Alex a lesson that he can’t just win every argument by sitting around looking like some sort of brought to life Grecian statue.

“Henry— H,” Alex comes too close to whining, tugs harder on his hair and cants his hips forward. He at least has the decency to look sheepish. “You really need to calm down or I’m,” Alex falters right then, eyes going blown when Henry’s first finger dips into his asshole, hooking in deep before Henry takes a mouth full of him again. He repeats the action another two and a half times before Alex has to frantically tap on his head in warning, and Henry gets to stand up — more than a bit smug — smirking down at a boneless Alex who’s using the stall as his only support.

“I reckon while you clean up here, I’ll go speak with the dean on the behalf of Alpha Delta Phi,” Henry tells him, swiping his mouth with the back of his hand to get rid of the pre-cum still found there.

Alex’s brows hike up as he slowly realizes what Henry has done, breathless while he spews out a fuming, “Bastard.”

“Least you got a consolation prize love,” Henry goads, kissing him full on the mouth before adjusting himself and walking back out to the office.

Alpha Delta Phi gets the room just like they have for the past half century, and Alex fucks Henry senseless for the next week. Balance is restored.

.-

Henry thinks it’s important to note that this thing he has with Alex — well, it’s not even a thing, really. They’re fuck buddies, but no. That would imply that there is some sort of camaraderie found between them, when simply there just is not. It’s a thing of convenience, truly.

The fact of the matter is that they find one another ridiculously hot, but also can’t stand a prolonged conversation without feeling the burning need to wring the others neck by the end of it. They realized as much halfway through freshman year when they had the same English lit class and Henry had to be physically restrained by Pez when Alex was arguing against Henry’s point about Hemingway being oversaturated and a blowhard.

“He’s a classic,” Alex had charged, the snow of early February in New England cascading in his dark curls and catching in his long lashes.

“He’s only adored because he’s got a dick! Why don’t you read Austen or at least a man who has something to say!” Henry had fumed.

“Let me guess, you like Metamorphosis?”

“What do you have against Kafka?” Henry gaped, only just beginning to notice the others eyeing the pair of them. And yeah, it might’ve been bewildering how they’re arguing about literaries from centuries passed in the middle of a bonfire party, but people need to learn how to mind their own fucking business.

“Well dude, if we’re speaking about blowhards, he’s definitely the king of them,” Alex had snorted loftily, taking a swig of his spiked hot chocolate.

“Don’t call me dude,” Henry had sniffed, which made Alex squint at him, more than a bit amused.

“Okay, tell me, does Prince Douche do anything for ya, pretty boy?”

That was the first night Henry grabbed Alex by the collar and showed him what it meant to be an actual blow hard. And well….they never stopped. They didn’t stop the sniping at each other or the razor-tipped barbs being volleyed around, and especially not the fucking. Never the fucking.

But yeah, it’s not really anything, especially not the best thing. It could never be that. And not even just because his shitty family basically told him straight up that Henry could never actually come out in the public eye, Henry’s accepted that, has learned how to slink around those rules to live in some sort of happy purgatory. But the thing is, Henry’s just not a good boyfriend. He’s always too in his own head and he’s not really that attentive, and besides all that, Henry didn’t come to university to meet some bloke and live some gay romance story from the 1900s.

Henry’s here at university to get a degree, to become someone. He’s here because his father always told him to reach for the heavens, to do something beyond himself. Henry wants to be the next great literary, wants to write something that matters, that makes a difference. Something that’ll make Beatrice laugh with no more worry eclipsing the sound, and maybe even something that’ll bring the stars back in his mother’s eyes. Henry wants to say something that’s worth being said.

Henry doesn’t want to have anything getting in the way of that, preventing him from becoming someone important. But regardless, it’s not as if Alex has ever seen Henry as more than a good lay, has made it abundantly obvious throughout the year and a half  of their sleeping around. Most notably, that three month interlude when Alex began dating that boy from the student government, Liam whoever, at the end of last term. Though to be frank, Alex was always far out of Liam’s league, and the week that followed their breakup included some of the most dynamic and mind-blowing sex Henry’s ever experienced.

But that’s irrelevant.

Alex and Henry are only a last resort to one another, and it doesn’t have to mean anything more, it doesn’t have to be complicated, Henry hates it when things get complicated.

.-

Henry’s in the midst of editing his term paper on the impact that Woolf created in the discussion of gender in Orlando when he gets a text from Pez telling him to “stop being a robot.”  

Glaring, Henry ignores the text from Beatrice about David, and the email regarding alpha Delta Phi’s first charity function for this term, and the half dozen snapchat notifications from Alex alone. He instead moves to reply to Pez with a middle finger emoji before he’s accosted by a pair of hands wrapping around his eyes.

“Guess who?” an ever-amused and incredibly buoyant  voice asks.

“A prick?” Henry replies in a deadpan, making it so Alex cuffs him on the back of the head.

“Say dick you douche, you’re in America now,” he commands, taking a seat besides him in the almost empty top floor of the silent library.

“Fuck off,” Henry hisses, rubbing the tender spot. “And since when are you in the library this late?”

“You mean at three in the morning?” Alex says pointedly. “Never, because I’m normal and not a school-obsessed freakazoid like you.”

Henry sticks out his tongue in retaliation because he’s too groggy to come up with anything clever.

“And yet?”

“I’m a good person and dropped off a spare key to a brother who’s wigging out about a midterm,” Alex says, studying Henry with a peculiar amount of intensity. “Saw your pale ass haunting this place like a ghost and thought I’d bug you a little.”

“What is it?” Henry asks moodily, surprised at the lapse of silence that follows before Alex shrugs in answer.

“You’ve got some nasty circles under your eyes, white boy,” he says, not quite as crude as usual but Henry still glares in exasperation.

“So what? You got up in the middle of the night just to help a friend and criticize my looks?” Henry says with a huff, rubbing his strained eyes, only just starting to feel the exhaustion weighing heavy on his shoulders.

“I was at Nora’s place, so I was already up,” Alex says, unwittingly making it so Henry stiffens.

It’s not unusual for them to discuss each other's conquests, but it’s different when it comes to Nora. Henry knows that she and Alex had dated for a stint freshman year before the two of them  crossed paths. She’s a gorgeous and fierce computer sciences major with a minor in mathematics. There’s no way in hell that Alex isn’t still carrying a torch for her, which is fine and all, it’s not like Henry and Alex are anything beyond occasional hookups, but yeah— it still makes it so something uncomfortable is squirming right beneath the surface of his skin. And God does Henry hate it.

“How is she?” Henry asks evenly, ignores the way Alex is searing a hole into the side of his head while Henry adjusts the syntax of one of his topic sentences.

“Fine,” he says in the same detached sort of inflection. “You’re working on that paper for your gender lit class?”

“It’s due tomorrow morning,” Henry answers.

“Haven’t you been done with it for, like, a week?” Alex asks.

“Haven’t you heard that revising is the only way to get a decent paper?” Henry sniffs.

“Dude, I think you’ve edited enough,” Alex snorts. Everything always coming so fucking easy to him, it’s maddening. He’s gorgeous and charming and brilliant and he doesn’t even have to try. But worst yet, it’s not even a big deal to him. Even if he weren’t all those things he never had a family name to live up to, was never expected to be something he was not. Henry’s so fumingly envious but also so goddamn lost on him and  how it is he’s come to be.

“Alexander, is there a purpose for this ridiculous conversation?” Henry lets out a long-suffering sigh. “I really need to get back at this.”

“And what? Not sleep till tomorrow?” Alex snipes.

“If you don’t say anything worth my while in the next five seconds, I'm putting my earbuds back in and ignoring you,” Henry tells him point blank. “Five, four, three—“

Alex’s face goes a furious scarlet, jaw set, before he gets close enough that his breath skirts against Henry’s lips, and his hand finds its way to the front of his trousers.

“I’d really like it if you’d let me jerk you off right now.”

It's Henry’s turn to burn red.

“What?”

“Do I need to repeat myself?”

“We’re in public.”

“We’re in a dark library in the middle of the night and your weird ass always picks the corner surrounded by the shelves.”

“It’s always quietest,” Henry argues weakly.

“Bet we can change that,” Alex counters smugly.

Henry has already admitted that he’s a weak man, so he’s not surprised when Alex’s challenge actually works and he’s led to the most concealed corner with heated kisses and impatient grappling tugging him closer.

“You’re unruly,” Henry whines when Alex bites down at the hinge where the column of his neck meets his shoulder.

“And you’re really sexy when you’re all focused and nibbling down on that pen,” Alex leers, pulling himself and Henry out of their pants. “Really gets a guy imagining things.”

Henry swallows down, hard.

“What sorts of things?” He asks lightly.  

“You know H,” Alex croons,  gets a hand locked around each of them, knocking the breath out of Henry and making it so he’s gripping at the shelves, bracketing Alex on either side. “You get this little dent between your brows,” he leans forwards and nibbles against Henry’s neck once more. “’S the same one you get right before you cum.”

“Oh yeah?” Henry asks, pleads as he jerks into Alex’s hand, watching the moonlight dancing in his hair and tracing his strong features with a romantic sort of gentleness. Holy fuck, is he beautiful.

Okay, so Henry might’ve said that last part out loud, but he doesn’t even care because Alex’s grin goes lopsided, and he kisses the corner of Henry’s mouth and everything goes a blinding white when Alex strokes him over the edge.

“You are really something, Henry Fox,” Alex says in a voice that’s caught between befuddlement and a sort of wondrous intrigue. Henry can’t really reply though, feels heavy and sated and like he really wants to curl up with Alex. But that’s a ridiculous notion and Henry needs to get those thoughts out his mind or else this’ll all be ruined.

“You’re like an orgasm fairy,” Henry tells him in a yawn.

“I want that for my epithet,” Alex winks, gently pushing Henry’s overstimulated cock back into his briefs and zipping him back up. “I’m calling one of the vans if you want to join, our houses are the same way,”

Henry blinks, confused. “I can’t,” He tells him with a hint of irritation. “I’ve got to finish that paper.”

Alex frowns fully now, pinning him with a one-eyed squint.

“You look like you’re about to drop dead.”

“This’s how I always look after sex,” Henry contends, unconvincing to his own ears.

“You’re gonna run yourself into your own grave if you don’t give yourself a break,” Alex tells him, near fuming.

“Then that’ll be my own doing,” Henry says, steadfast.

“That’s fucking psychotic,” Alex hisses and Henry hates how he can’t understand why this, being here, being worth something greater than just a jumble of letters and familial connection, is so important to Henry.

“’S not your life to live,”  he shrugs, turning away from Alex.

“You don’t have to be the best to be worth anything, Henry,” he calls after him, cutting and cruel and careless.

Henry feels like he’s been caught out, like he can’t breathe. And how dare Alex, how dare he pretend that their situations are at all similar. Like there aren’t chasms separating them.

“Fuck you, Alexander.”

“I mean that’s all you ever want, isn’t it?”

There’s a sound like Alex kicking a chair but Henry doesn’t know for sure, refuses to turn around and check.

.-

It’s been two weeks since the library incident.

Neither of them has texted first, not even glancing in the other’s direction in the one class they share. And it’s good, it’s fine, it’s whatever. Henry’s never wanted anything more than a consistent fuck, and Alex has got dozens of options of incredibly pretty and incredibly smart and incredibly affable people just like him. He doesn’t need Henry and Henry doesn’t need him.

It’s fine.

“It doesn’t look fine, mate,” Pez tells Henry that Friday night with knit brows and a worried expression splayed out all over his face. Henry doesn’t answer in so many words, just tosses him the bird instead. “Right, good talk.”

“It’s nothing, Pez,” Henry insists, taking a drag of his joint and pretending that it helps.

“Then come to the party with us tonight, yeah? It’s Spencer’s birthday and I know he’d be a total mess if you actually tagged along to get drunk with us commoners.”

Henry glares with feeling but accepts the offer merely to prove his point that whatever happened between him and Alex means nothing.

Admittedly, that notion might’ve been thrown out the godforsaken window when the party goes into full swing and Henry finally catches sight of Alex near the beer pong table, laughing with Liam of all fucking people.

They look happy, happier than Henry’s ever seen him.

Henry feels cold all over.

He doesn’t know why he’s acting like this, doesn’t understand the reason why his stomach’s twisting into knots and his veins are spiking with a truly awful emotion and why his ribcage has cracked open, screaming at Alex, telling him to notice, to look at Henry, to see that he’s here, dammit. To see that Henry’s here and whole and has so much to give him even if it looks like the contrary.

Henry doesn’t understand any of it, so he ignores the feelings and races up stairs to his room, crossly slamming his door shut and cursing at his own stupidity.

Like he does whenever he’s overwhelmed, Henry grabs for one of the novels lining his shelf and gets lost in the fictitious lives penned in black and white, lives far away from his reach, lives that Henry could get lost in studying and forget his own for only a little while. It’s what he did when Bea and Philip were doing grown up things and he was stuck at home all alone. What he did for days on end in the hospital room, reading to his father while he faded away bit by bit. It’s what he did to forget the fact that his own brother wants him to hide himself in all his varieties of light.

It’s the one constant in Henry’s life and he does it now, gets lost in the words and tries to forget the throbbing to his own heart.

It’s the first time it doesn’t work.

.-

Henry doesn’t know how much time passes when his door creaks open and he looks up to a face he put to memory long ago, even if he pretended otherwise.

“Alexander?”

“Cinderella,” he grins, slow and warm like molasses. “‘How cruel, your veins are made of ice water, and mine are boiling.’”

Henry’s heart feels like it’s just lodged into his throat, his eyes never leaving Alex’s own.

“Excuse me?”

“Wuthering Heights,” he says nonchalantly with a one-armed shrug while stepping closer into the room and pushing the door shut. “It’s your favorite book to read when you’re overwhelmed.”

Henry’s lips pinch, sitting up completely now, regarding Alex fully. “Is that right?”

“Mhmm. You like Sense and Sensibility when you’ve done well on a paper. And you have a secret copy of Little Women stuffed under your bed for whenever Bea messages you and you begin to miss her.”

“Don’t tell me you’re a stalker, Alexander,” Henry says, pretending that the butterflies swarming in his belly are just from nerves of speaking to him after so long and not from the pleasure of him knowing Henry without his evening realizing it.

“You’re not that difficult to figure out, Fox. I’ve told you: you’re just a bimbo with great legs and an accent that makes people think you know two shits about anything.” Alex flops stomach first on Henry’s bed, his head resting up against Henry’s thigh. It’s against Henry’s will when his hand moves forwards to card through Alex’s mussed curls.

“Charming, you’re truly so charming, Alexander. Do you know that?” Henry says blithely.

“The newspapers call me charismatic,” he smirks airily, making it so Henry can’t help but snort.

“Prick.”

“Says the guy who ghosted me,” Alex counters.

“The phone works both ways, love,” he says condescendingly, hating how something golden and splendid is coiling somewhere deep inside of him, merely to due with Alex’s presence.

“Pfft.” Alex gets up now so that they’re face to face, brown eyes boring into blue. “Do you know what you told me after the first night we slept together?”

Henry doesn’t have the slightest clue, so he just shrugs helplessly. “You’ve got a good mouth?”

“Shut the fuck up, you ass. I’m being serious.”

“So am I?”

“You called me a fucking distraction,” Alex hurls, like it’s been something that’s been clawing against him for a while now, itching to be spoken, clacking against his teeth and finally pouring out with vengeance. “You said you had to do well in your studies and you didn’t need a distraction.”

Henry furrows his brows, confused to the point he’s trying to make.

“And you agreed, if memory serves me well,” He says defensively.

“Yeah, because I wasn’t about to be rejected by some rich, pretty boy.”

“I hope you thought a bit more of me than that,” Henry teases, inches closer to him so that the tips of their fingers touch on the bedding.

“You also have a truly remarkable shoulder-to-waist ratio.” Alex shrugs, and Henry knows he’s trying to be a shit, but he still preens. Likes the reminder that Alex is just as much into him as he is Alex.

“I don’t see what’s wrong here.”

Alex shoves at Henry’s forearm, hard.

“The problem, you prick, is that for some fucked-up reason I was actually into you, like a lot.”

Henry’s head swings up from where it was lazily gazing at Alex’s lips, waiting for a chance to kiss them.

“Like truly into me? Like you want to go steady and out on dates and spend the night in my bed?”

“I mean, whatever the non-old man sounding equivalent of that is,” Alex tacitly agrees, head cocked like he’s trying to parse out Henry’s own feelings.

And for his part, Henry can’t believe what he’s hearing, what Alex’s saying, what he’s confirming. This must be a dream, a figment of Henry’s imagination. Stuff like this doesn’t happen to him, they happen to the protagonists of his favorite stories, not real life.

“Wh—What? Why?”

“Dude, that’s what I’ve been asking myself for the past year and a half,” Alex gripes, rocking back; Jesus fuck, he’s nervous. He’s just admitted all his feelings like that and he’s waiting for Henry to either confirm or shoot him down. Henry’s the one with the upper hand here, and it’s awful.

Holy fuck.

“You—you said you liked me,” Henry says tentatively. “But now, do you—erm, ahem,” Henry coughs awkwardly, and Alex is gracious enough to answer the unspoken query.

“I didn’t break up with Liam last semester because he didn’t root for the Cowboys, dumbass.”

“Oh,” Henry blinks, befuddled, which makes Alex roll his head back so fiercely that Henry’s afraid he might strain something.

“I broke up with him because I’ve got this massive, irrecoverable, disgusting thing for this blonde prick. A douche who puts too much on his shoulders and tries to prove something to someone who isn’t even here, and who is so goddamn dense that I have to spell my feelings out to him like he’s actually a frat bro instead of just pretending to be.”

Henry feels himself going scarlet, feels it how his heart blossoms with wanting, unrestrained and painful in its ferocity.

“But Nora?”

Alex’s face goes blank, and then a sickly green color. “Dude, why are you bringing my sister’s girlfriend into this?”

“Wait—You’re not? I thought you still had a, erm—a thing for her?”

“She’s not the one I just gave a Twilight-level cringe speech to, is she?” Alex harrumphs, crossing his arms and scowling at a point over Henry’s shoulder.

“So, you really like me?” Henry asks hopefully.

“I swear to God, Fox: if you don’t tell me how you feel in the next five seconds I’m going to—“

Alex stops speaking right then, is interrupted by Henry’s slamming lips and desperate palming and long limbs tangling into one another.

“You’re a monster,” Alex pants once Henry’s lips finally unlatch from his and Henry’s almost tearing off his shirt.

“I can’t believe you actually want this,” Henry says in contrary. “I’m a mess, you do realize as much, don’t you?”

Alex looks endeared when he smiles, shrugging helplessly. “I like messes.”

Henry can’t help the laugh he lets out, relishes when Alex finally gets a good hold of him and lays him back so that they’re pressed skin to skin and he’s spouting out nonsense about Henry’s eyes and mouth and dick, each point punctuated  with a kiss across Henry’s protruding collarbone, helps him shed off the last of his clothing.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,”Alex marvels, making Henry’s cheeks redden and causing him to hide it by kissing along Alex’s jaw.

“I’ve liked you for so long,” Henry can admit in the blanket of night, is soft when he slants their lips back up against each other, back arching when he feels Alex pressing inside of him, stretching him out. He’s always so gentle with Henry, even before this was supposed to mean anything. But, holy fuck, who’s he kidding––this has always meant something, even when Henry pretended otherwise.

“You’re the most stubborn fuck I’ve ever met,” Alex tells him, making it sound like an exaltation. “You always had your mind set, know exactly where you’re gonna go.”

Henry groans when Alex puts in the second slicked up finger, followed quickly by the third.

“Ah-Alex, ‘Lex, please.”

“You’re so smart and beautiful, and you have such a good heart.” Alex just keeps on talking, only stopping occasionally to pepper a kiss on a spot around Henry’s face.

Henry feels his eyes prickle with wetness, knows that it’s a combination of feeling so much and feeling so exposed, so open in Alex’s eyes.

“You’re amazing, sweetheart,” Alex whispers, kisses the tears away before he lines up and thrusts into him, something this side of painful with the first couple canting of the hips, until he hits that miraculous point that makes Henry’s insides go feral and something ferocious unfurl within him.

“Alexander, please. Please, love, please,” Henry pleads, hands scratching against Alex’s back and head tossed with yearning.

“You’re so good, so perfect, Henry,” Alex says like an oath, pushing deeper and harder into him, biting down on Henry and making him shout as he cants his hips up to meet each of Alex’s own.

Alex is spouting out a new round of praises towards Henry’s brilliance and butt and beauty and Henry can hardly handle it, feels the white streaks landing on his belly right before Alex begins speeding up in a graceless round of thrusts, finishing  with a blown out expression, slowly pulling out and tossing the condom to the trash bin beside the bed.

He collapses half on top of Henry but he doesn’t mind, moves slightly so that the blanket is covering the both of them and kisses Alex’s shoulder tenderly.

“I think I might love you,” he whispers, snuggling closer to Alex.

“Good,” he yawns, slings an arm around Henry’s torso and curves against him. “Makes us even.”

.-

Next week Henry calls Philip and tells him to kiss his ass, and that he doesn’t have to prove shit to anyone.

“You’re sexy when you’re mad,” Alex tells Henry when he hangs up.

“You always think I’m sexy,” Henry sniffs loftily.

“Guilty as charged.” Alex shrugs, pulls up to kiss him senseless once more, making everything go delirious.