#He’s about to kill someone but the first step in effective crime fighting is making sure you are nice and warm

[betterthanbatman1]

Brrrr

[leverage-ot3]

time for the obligatory post about what episodes I want to see in the upcoming leverage season(s)

(for reference, I made this similar post in 2020 after the reboot was announced. I'm pasting some from that post bc I still want them to happen lol)

new ideas:

I mentioned a date night episode in the last post (apollo really did bless me with foresight for the date night job on that one) but for considerment: ot3 date night. possibly their first date night after they all get together. breanna and sophie know it's happening (harry is, like, peripherally aware) and some crime hijinks are going down and the three of them are frantically trying to stop bad things from happening that are going to interfere with the date. I want to see them going through it behind the metaphorical curtain. I want to see breanna fighting for her life trying to out-hack the hacker that is going to ruin their ten-part itineraried date. harry has to get in a fistfight and eliot is so proud about it when he finds out after everything is over

tree law episode. harry has been frothing at the mouth about it since it was made. his life has been moving him towards this penultimate moment. breanna thinks it's HILARIOUS and cheers him on 100% of the way. she is VERY enthusiastic about this con

I'm not going to mention certain things because I've seen jrogers posting on bluesky social and I know he might be already writing some of those plots

con that the food trucks have plot-relevance. like, one of his food truck stations is being harassed /victimized by, like, a local gang or something that takes advantage of food truck/cart workers and the team steps in. the actual (veteran) food truck workers get involved in the con. leverage international might just have gained a few retainer members

quinn should come back for an episode. I know the actor is friends with ckane. they should make it happen because it would be iconic and I said so

on a similar note, ckane is friends with jensen ackles and. guys. wouldn't it- wouldn't it be extremely funny if a flame from eliot's past named sean sylvester who is a rugged drifter with a questionable past

episode where tara or maggie (or BOTH, can you imagine how powerful that would be???) come back and there is slight flirting with sophie possibly??? that or very obvious chemistry from a past tryst. sophie has slept with both of them, I know it in my heart of hearts. bonus points if tara and maggie fall in love (I think it would be funny. maggie's taste in men is canonically atrocious, I think she deserves someone like tara at this point)

I just want a lot of side characters to come back, okay? sue me I miss them

gonna put the rest under the cut since this post has become obscenely long

not episode-specific, but I want more mentions of the korean leverage team. and all the other teams too! we know that in canon there is the south korean one, the nigerian one, and one in london (I think that's it for mentions so far, but correct me if I'm wrong!)

episodes addressing issues with american imperialism and its effects on minorities and marginalized communities, specifically within this country (there aren't a lot of episodes where they are actively out of country)

dear fucking god take a more abolitionist stance on policing I'm begging. would it KILL you to not be weird about cops? pls just punch some more cops. take down white supremacist cops, I'm sure you can scrounge something up bffrrn

women's rights episodes. I know it's kind of recent, but episodes about accessibility of stuff like birth control, abortion access, etc. y'all are capable of making excellent episodes on that I know it

more climate crisis-related episodes. god knows you're feeling it in the deep south

taking down a corrupt megachurch pastor (although lbr, there is no ethical megachurch anything and you can fight me on this)

something to do with ace rights bc I think it would be really cool to see the team advocate for that stuff, especially since breanna is canon ace

helping a polycule that is being victimized by X organization/entity (maybe a housing association or medical or something???). breanna is bombastic side-eyeing the ot3 the entire time. it is making hardison sweat. sophie thinks it's hilarious

taking down 'writers' that use ai and self-publish AND/OR people that take original/fan works off of like ao3 and wattpad and publish them for personal profits without the author's consent. breanna would have a field day with this (god herself could try to convince me that girl does not read/write fanfic and I wouldn't believe it)

episode about underfunded public schools. we saw corrupt private schools in the fairy godparents job but I want an episode that would make abbot elementary writers proud

episode addressing native/indigenous. eliot is from oklahoma, I'm sure he is well aware of the health/job/economic/etc disparities on reservations. I will email jrogers about it myself if I have to- it anyone can get people going about native rights through a tv show it would be leverage.

I sent an ask to wil wheaton once asking if he was open to returning to leverage and I think he said he would be down for it. but chaos either has to be a reluctant ally to leverage international and is being handled by quinn as a hitter OR he is just. in jail. bc he sucks.

bpas and/or pfas episode. breanna has mentioned microplastics before but I want more

the team tears the shit out of conversion therapy camp owners and plants the seeds for legislation that will punish parents that try to send their kids to those hellscapes

while we're at it, I'd love to see an ep where they tackle the trans bathroom issue. god knows the news doesn't talk about it nearly enough

something to do with foster care. they end up starting some sort of foster care network that past clients/allies can take part in. maybe a mentorship program for kids that want to do what they do one day (they are very reluctant to encourage kids to participate in crime BUT if that is the avenue that they are going to inevitably go towards, they guide them in the right direction). nana makes an appearance (*insert 'everybody liked that' meme*)

prison industrial complex episode. I KNOW we had the jailhouse job BUT we really need this in our year of 2024

another episode on corrupt influencers. maybe influencer parents? dear god pls take them down a notch

ep where there is an underlying message that tells you how to avoid becoming victim to scams or something, or like is a tutorial for how to identify scams you might fall victim to (sorry, I just have to say this after two separate people tried to pig butcher me in less than two (2) weeks))

not to say I want them to do an ep calling out cop city, but it would feel really good to watch the leverage team rip that concept to SHREDS

the minimum wage job. need I say more? we deserve the catharsis

pls go after goodwill execs, esp the ones in the pnw that have their sector as for-profit and have become millionaires+ because of it while paying their staff (especially disabled staff) fucking pennies

while we're on the topic, pls call out salvation army (the corporation)

I can probably go on for like five hours so I'll stop here

ep that we get to see harry and his daughter bond :)

job where they get to lower the price of insulin (and other drugs)

actually, you know what? an episode where the crew annihilates big pharma and terrible insurance companies

I think that breanna should be able to go off about mass/over consumption as a treat. I 100% believe she has Thoughts about it. like, she will absolutely call out the corporations that are responsible for these trends, but also she should be allowed to mention our tendency for overconsumption as a society. obviously there are a few corporations that are doing most of the world's pollution/ecological damage, but we should be doing our part too and I KNOW it would be in-character for her to go off on it

I bet she has a LOT to say about influencers, tbh. obviously not all influencers are bad, but there are sooooo many problematic ones and problems within the influencer industry

sizing discrimination in the modeling/clothing industry. let eliot talk about how there are no perfect bodies. also while I'm on the subject, can we PLS have more body-diverse background actors on the show? I know this is nitpicky but I'd really love to see some more people that look like me, even if they are just in the background

a thinly veiled writers' rights episode (I'm looking at you media execs and the stupid amount of time it took for you to comply to the WGA demands)

something to do with media companies making entire movies/tv shows and then fucking cancelling them/not releasing them and using them as tax write-offs. every time it happens it baffles me. that is cartoonishly stupid villain shit. I can't imagine lovingly working on a project for a year plus and then the company just going, nah, we aren't going to release it because you suck and it's a good business move

ai art and ai in general. please. let it BURN

okay now I'm done

ideas from the previous post that I still want:

comicon job. I said it before and I will say it again- we deserve it!!! come on, it's the age of the geek after all!!! (in the last post I also said a ren faire ep, but I will let the card game job count for that)

summer camp ep? I saw a tumblr fic about it and I think it could be cute. it could kinda be like the fairy godparents job- eliot in charge of some type of sports (archery, fencing, etc), hardison would be in charge of arts and crafts (this boy might be a genius with tech and in general tbh, but the show did such a good job of showing that he’s also very talented with the arts- sculpting the statue for the miracle job, forging the old diary in the king george job, etc), parker would LOVE to be in charge of a high ropes course. breanna would totally be down for some sort of nerdy kid robotics or simple, traditional camp games (can't go wrong with the classics. everyone loves making bracelets!) I feel like it's too stereotypical to have sophie have kids put on a play but we all know that's exactly what she would do. idk for harry? I think he has the same traditional camp activities vibe as breanna. he's in it for the nostalgia. OR something to do with videogames

please, please, please, please, please make an episode where they take down a cult, im begging. that would be such a good episode. definitely a mindfuck episode like the experimental job (4x11). I’ve seen a few posts about a job dealing with a cult (here’s one) and I think it would be really interesting 

MORE STERLING being DONE with leverage shenanigans!!! give me feral!sterling like in the frame-up job (5x10)!!! give me sterling that protests every step of the way but conveniently looks away and “whoops, the team just disappeared, I have no idea how that happened!!! diddly dang darn it, they got away again!!! sorry guys!!!” bonus points if mcsweeten is there too and also participates in intervening hijinks

the team takes down a circus that is still using and abusing wild animals!!! because first I’d LOVE to see acrobat!parker swinging up in the air like a pro and being in her element, but also because those places are the fucking worst and need to Go Down. give me eliot having to pose as an animal trainer with deep sympathy for the animals being abused, quietly talking soothing words to them when he thinks no one is around (correction: hardison is, in fact, around, and filming his boyfriend’s softness to save for later). give me charismatic hardison playing the role of ringmaster, running and flaunting about and being passive-aggressive to the circus master. give me eliot freeing the animals from their chains when they are finally able to shut the place down and relocate the animals to sanctuaries (his hands shaking just a little as twists the key in the lock, because he too was once an abused, caged animal in his own right and he knows how liberating it is to finally be free). 

[satureja13]

Tiny Can gathered the Boys for the first meeting to solve the case of Jack's death. They need to figure out who's going to log in first to not destroy valuable evidence and loose crucial hints. Possible starting points:

Investigating the crime scene. To do this, Jeb needs to log in for the first time since his NPC version seems to be Lou's friend and lives nearby (Saiwa and Ji Ho are too far away/have no access to the location where Jack got killed and Jack gets kicked out because he's dead.)

Ji Ho has to find out what Greg's crossroads wish has to do with Jack's murder as long as he's still in Saarburg with the Queen

They discussed this back and forth. Time only passes when one of them is logged in, but it will pass for all of them. So if Ji Ho logs in too late and his NPC version already left Saarburg, they'll maybe never find out what happened at the crossroads. And if they leave the crime scene unguarded, someone might find Jack's corpse and destroys possible evidence. A dilemma - and a race against time. Since Ji Ho is only a few steps away from the crossroads and Jeb is going to need some time to find his way around in the unknown game/world - and Jack's corpse - they came to the decision that Ji Ho will quickly log in and search for evidence in Saarburg.

Jack already stuffed his beloved whiteboard with all kind of (useless) information about what effects his death has on them.

Evidence 1: A clueless person Evidence 2: The good looking and beloved victim (and 'a friend') Evidence 3: How angry we are about his murder Evidence 4: How determined we are to find the murderer Evidence 5: How shocked we are about his murder Evidence 6: How confused we are about what had happened...

Saiwa: "Ehm - first, I don't know if I'm still 'a friend' of yours - and what kind of evidence is this supposed to be?" Jack: "What evidence this is supposed to be? The murderer is in one of these photos! It's Greg - obviously! The Queen and him are not together ingame. She surely does not want him after she'd seen me fighting and being all strong, handsome and cool. So he wanted me out of the way. I can think of no one else. Then he made a deal with a crossroads demon to get me out of the way. Case closed. Let's throw him into the dungeons of the Castle so he never sees the light of the fullmoon again." Saiwa: "Just because you hate Greg and you're jealous he's with Noxee and not you doesn't mean he's your murderer. I bet there are a lot more people who want you dead ;) " Jack: "Tch."

The 'detectives' ended the meeting for today. They'd already been down here for hours. Saiwa and Tiny Can went to the new room for the Therapy Game devices to set everything up for the next sessions and to make a few improvements. The corner store was just an interim solution.

Ji Ho and Kiyoshi planned the next sessions. They tried to remember every police series they'd ever watched (not many) to not make any mistakes. They still have no internet here in the Otherworld. Maybe Noxee can send them some books or an USB stick about proper police work, crime investigations and securing a crime scene and evidence...

And while the others are busy, Vlad and Jack sneaked out to prepare another surprise.

Poor Jeb needs some comfort food ^^' It's stressing him a lot that Jack got killed ingame. And imagining that it could have happened to Saiwa is killing Jeb. At least he has his appetite back since Saiwa is back home again.

Half an hour later, they called Saiwa and urged him upstairs to his room. Saiwa is always wary when Jack is involved: "What have you two been up to again?" Jack: "Just you wait and see, 'my friend' ;) "

Oh! They made him a balcony beach! Saiwa is speechless. Jack not: "Since you can't log in for a while to heal on your island, we thought we'd build you one here ^^' "

Saiwa was glad his tears are hidden behind the dark sunglasses: "I love you, 'my friend'. And you too, Vlad." Jack: "We know." Haha such expressions of affection embarass Vlad ^^' He's the tsundere kind of guy.

Jack: "We are going to solve the case in no time and you can go back to Flamingo Island and heal. You'll see. And until then you can heal here. We won't disturb you, promised."

And then they left Saiwa on his island. He really hopes they will solve this soon and that they can go back ingame - safely. Poor Jack and Ji Ho need their therapy the most. Jack had been so close being painless...

Saiwa is happy that they are back together again, even it had such a severe cause. Who knows how long they would have been hiding at the beach house. Delaying their return because they'd been afraid of the confrontation. They will solve this together and find back together again.

'One love (hear my plea) One heart (whoa) Let's join together and I'll feel alright One love (oh, Lord, have mercy) One heart I tell you, let's just salsabrate (let's join together) And I will feel alright (and I'll feel alright) Let's join together and I'll feel alright'

One Love - Bob Marley (TMI: After I posted 'Killing me softly' from the Fugees in one of the last posts, I researched a bit, as always, and did you know that Lauryn Hill, their singer, was together with Rohan Marley, Bob Marley's son? They have 5 children together.)

The Therapy Game Master Post with the sessions and places so far is -> here

From the Beginning  ~  Underwater Love ~  Latest Current Chapter: 'Who killed Jack?' from the beginning ▶️ here Last Chapter: 🕹️ 'The One' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28

[miwhotep]

I wandered a lot about William and Milverton's possible relations and that was when I also realized that while the Moriarties had agents at the police (Patterson) or at the MI6 (Albert, Bond, Herder, Moneypenny), they didn't have an agent at the media world. Ruling the news would've also been an effective way to guide/manipulate the people, so it would've made sense to have an agent in a powerful media position, too. In my headcanon, William even had someone in mind... the pre-villain arc Milverton.

In my Milverton origin story headcanon, I mentioned that after the young Milverton's family got killed by a noble (when he as a lower-class, idealistic journalist tried to reveal the truth in a murder case what got commited by a noble, but a commoner got framed for it), he met with the child Liam on the street who suggested him to blackmail nobles into letting him make a newspaper for commoners, and fight for the good cause through corrupted methods like they do. While Liam truly wanted to help the lost and hopeless young Milverton, he also had it in mind to make him his agent in the future. But later, he realized that he made a great mistake: Milverton was emotionally unstable, who didn't just hate nobles, but started loathing commoners, too, for turning their back on him, when his family needed help, so the pain, the blackmails and manipulations he tried to make the country a better place with, slowly corrupted his soul and gaining more and more power, he turned fully evil. When Liam gathered Moran and Fred to finally start with their plan, he already knew that he lost Milverton as a possible agent.

William partly blamed himself for Milverton turning into a villain and for a while, he was unable to face with this mistake and destroy him - that's why while he knew about Milverton's evil ways, he didn't plan on staging his downfall, like he did with nobles. Only when Milverton started targeting William and later when the Whiteley case happened, decided to act. The night when he went to kill him was painful to William and he even backed up for a moment - that's why when Sherlock arrived to the scene, Milverton was still alive.

Due to seeing one of his possible agents fall that way, he was afraid that it can happen to the others, they can cross the line, too, if they are using evil as a way to fight for the right for too long. That's why he made sure with Louis, that after succeeding with the Moriarty Plan, they will act on the side of the law, too (the promise what Moran broke when he went rogue for the years of the Great Hiatus).

When it comes to Milverton, when he read about child Liam's court case in the Merchant of London Arc, he realized that it was indeed William who suggested blackmail to him as a method to deal with injustice back then when Milverton was still on the good side. He found it really ironic that they are now enemies - at the same time, he felt betrayed, too, because he was always grateful to child Liam whose advice he viewed as the first stepping stone for his current position. That's why while he wanted Liam to get arrested, he also wanted to make sure he gets a comfortable prison - as a form of thanks. The night when William went to kill him, before Sherlock appeared, William and Milverton finally faced each other again. William confronted him and listed his crimes, asking why he turned his back on justice and became the person he despised when he was young, while Milverton just laughed and replied this:

"That's just the way of this society. The ones with power can always use the people as their toys, as they please, you know this well - you play this game, too. But unlike you, I'm not doing this for personal reasons, oh no. You ruin nobles for your so-called good cause, I ruin everyone no matter what their status is - in the end, isn't that me who is on the side of equality?"

This is one of my favourite headcanons I came up with, because it makes the face-off between the William and Milverton so heartbreaking. I really want an AU where Milverton stays on the side of the good and work together with the Moriarty group.

[jumpywhumpywriter]

Experienced Hero vs Inexperienced Villain part 1

Warnings: attempted murder of Hero (that fails rather spectacularly), questionably un-moral Hero toying with inexperienced Villain, hostage situation

Villain had thought of everything. He was sure of it. He'd spent months planning, plotting a trap for the infamous Hero. A person strong and proud that even the greatest supervillains often hesitated to engage. He'd heard many rumors about her, about how she wasn't like other heroes. How she would fight dirty when necessary. She was more of a morally-gray type character, apparently. And one of the most dangerous heroes around.

Villain was only 20, but he longed for the respect and acknowledgment greater villains had. How they were feared, and got what they wanted on a whim. Everyone always looked down on him because he was young and inexperienced, but he was about to prove them all wrong. He'd prove his worth, prove he was capable of fighting.

It's why he went to all the effort of targeting Hero in the first place. After all, supervillains and crime lords couldn't possibly ignore him if he successfully trapped and killed the most dangerous Hero alive.

He was determined to succeed where so many other villains had failed. If they refused to recognize his potential, he'd make them see it. And so Villain had meticulously crafted the perfect, foolproof plan. He was pretty proud of his technique, a simple but effective tactic he was to carry out.

Villain was in a bank, and had taken a hostage -- an older lady -- before ordering all other citizens to evacuate the building. He didn't try to steal anything, or even break into the vault. He just kept his hostage at gunpoint and patiently waited behind the front desk for the civilians he'd let escape to call up Hero to the scene. And he didn't have to wait long.

There was a flash of blue-and-red leather outside the front door, before Hero herself came skidding inside, in all her glory. It was the first time Villain had actually seen her up close -- he'd always studied his enemy through the screen of a TV or in newspapers. She was tall and imposing in real life, posture stiff and straight like a trained fighter. The media wasn't able to quite catch her regal grace on screen.

"Hero! Thank goodness, please help me--" the old woman in Villain's arms started crying hysterically, and Villain pressed the barrel of the gun harder into her temple.

"Quiet," he hissed harshly, and the woman stopped pleading, though the sobs didn't stop.

"Let the hostage go," Hero growled flatly. She only looked half-focused on the villain -- her gaze kept wandering around the room like she was looking for something in particular.

"Make me," Villain challenged with an audible sneer in his voice. Hero's face darkened, and she took a step forward. Villain's eyes excitedly tracked the movement. She just had to be a little closer...

Hero stopped a few inches shy of the trap Villain had set, and Villain scowled in frustration.

"Let your hostage go first, and then we can fight," Hero bargained -- why did it sound like a bargain!?

"No," Villain pouted. "You're not winning that easily. This hostage isn't going anywhere. I'm going to kill her in ten seconds if you don't find a way to stop me first."

"Are you?" The simple question caught Villain off-guard.

"Do you think I'm bluffing?!" Villain snarled loudly. But the hand holding the gun was subtly trembling. He'd never actually killed someone before. Someone innocent, that is. Killing Hero was a necessity, but to involve an elderly civilian...

No. He needed to stay focused. No distractions. "I'm not playing around!" He barked angrily. "I will unload this magazine into this lady's head without a second thought!"

"Really? Sure looks like you're having thoughts right now." Hero inched closer -- almost close enough to spring the trap. But her confidence was unnerving, how she so easily called Villain out on his lies.

Next ⏩️

Masterlist

@scoundrelwithboba @lumpofsand @isikedmyself878 @iamheretohurt @fleur-a-whump

@ay5ksal @otterfrost @sausages-things @togzy

@whump-till-ya-jump @cravesunconditionallove @whumpwritinglover222

[thekidthesuperkid]

This is actually a good explanation of why Batman and Co. can't allow themselves to kill people. Iirc this writer really loved the military and was very enthusiastic about the idea of Badass American Heroes being able to go to SWANA countries and blow up DegENeRaTe teRRorIsTs, so maybe he was trying to say that the only problem with the bats operating outside the law is that they should be allowed to kill people if they want but they can't because if they get caught they can't defend themselves in court and get off scot-free like cops can. But he still (maybe inadvertently) touched on an important point. These vigilantes don't have any oversight. They have no one holding them accountable for their actions.

With cops, there is (supposed to be) a system of oversight, and if they use excessive force theyre accountable to Internal Affairs and their bosses and they can be brought to court and punished or fired. Now this system doesn't actually work effectively for many reasons, one of them being that cops band together and shield each other from scrutiny and consequences, which creates a system where there is practically no supervision or accountability. And the situation that the bats and other crime-fighting vigilantes are in is even worse in that area. If they lose objectivity (which they often never have in the first place), there is no one to hold them in check. (A fifth grader in traffic light colours doesn't count.) They are putting themselves in situations where they need to protect themselves and others, and often need to use violence to do this. If they decide that they need to kill someone to acheive their objectives, there is no one that can be an impartial judge to ensure they did actually make the right decision. They can't be held accountable if it was the wrong decision. Bruce, by having his no kill rule and his no gun rule, is deciding that he has no right to take someone's life as a person who cannot reliably be controlled if he isn't making the right decision. And he is also taking steps to minimize the chance of accidentally being in that situation, through refusing to use lethal weapons and heavy training in non-lethal combat.

So really, it's not "we don't want the Feds after us," it's "we don't have the Feds or anyone else to make sure we aren't causing serious harm and being unethical so let's minimize the more extreme situations where permanently harmful behaviour might happen."

Bruce: We don't kill because murder is intrinsically wrong. It's important we hold ourselves to a higher standard than the people we fight

Tim: We don't kill because it keeps the feds off our asses

[earthtooz]

𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗢𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗣

in which: there always seems to be a mistletoe above your head whenever todoroki's around...

warnings: 4k+ words, fluff, swearing, kissing, jokes of k*lling someone bc bakugou is there, bad writing :/

a/n: welcome to the first day of my xmas event! ofc bc todoroki is my ULTIMATE bias ☝️ i just needed to start off with him. enjoy!

˗ˏˋ XMAS MASTERLIST ´ˎ˗

“You idiot! I’ll kill you!” 

You stand idly by on the porch of Class A’s dorms, pitifully watching Kaminari getting chased by Bakugou, who has clear murderous intent for the electric boy as sparks erupt threateningly from his palms. The squeals and screams from both blonds have attracted a crowd of students, noting the way that Jirou and Sero both cackle with delight, their laughter from inside the dorm audible where they watch from the window, and Mina looks proud of herself standing beside you.

As the snow fell and temperatures began to drop, it indicated the beginning of the Christmas season. Meaning, Mina thought it would be a good idea to put up mistletoes where people least expect it around the dorms, and poor Kaminari was stuck with kissing Bakugou as his first victim. You watched in amusement and horror as the yellow-haired swiftly pecked Bakugou’s cheek before running away, and now, he was stuck in a never-ending chase until his head is blown off. 

“Is this a good idea?” You ask the acid user, concern lacing your expression.

“Oh absolutely! It’ll bring some excitement to our holiday season!” She responds. “Kaminari just got the short straw having to kiss Bakugou first! He won’t be the only one though, I guarantee it.”

You huff. “This is cruel.”

“I don’t think you’ll feel that way when I set you up with a certain boy,” she winks, causing you to choke on nothing, sputtering at her antics as you try to rack some sort of reply in your mind.

You regretted telling Mina about your crush on a certain classmate, and before you could stop her, her expression shows that she’s already setting something up, calculating a plan in that mind of hers

“C’mon, don’t do that to him, Mina. He wouldn’t want to kiss me,” you mutter, crossing your arms in defeat, a frown gracing your lips at your own misfortune. Just as Mina opens her mouth to deny your claim, a voice pops up behind you that almost sent you into cardiac arrest.

“Who wouldn’t want to kiss you?” 

“Hey Todoroki,” Mina greets, poking you in your ribs. “What’s up?”

“Hey Todoroki,” Mina greets, poking you in your ribs. “What’s up?”

“Hey Todoroki,” Mina greets, poking you in your ribs. “What’s up?”

“Dinner’s ready, I came to get you guys but it looks like Bakugou and Kaminari are busy, huh?”

“Busy trying to make a crime scene? Yeah, you could say that,” you quip sarcastically, trying to recover from your embarrassment of Todoroki almost discovering that you’d like to kiss him. On queue, Bakugou yells out a ferocious ‘die!’, paired with an explosion and Kaminari screaming. “We were waiting for Bakugou to calm down but I don’t think he will any time soon.”

Todoroki chuckles at your statement. “You’re right. What are they fighting about?”

“I hung up some mistletoes around the dorms and Denki had to kiss Bakugou. You can imagine how that went,” Mina looks proud of herself, despite the chaos that she’s responsible for. Kaminari has probably fit in a weeks worth of cardio training at this point, Bakugou too.

“Like, on the lips?” 

“No, just on the cheek.”

“And he got that mad?”

“Well, he’s always that mad,” you retort. Both your classmates agree with you. You finally step in when the explosive blond grabs Denki by the collar, effectively giving him whiplash before raising his heated palms to his friend’s face. “Bakugou, let Kaminari go already!”

“Hah?” Bakugou exclaims, his raspy voice echoing throughout the open space of your dorm’s garden as he lowers Denki to sag on the floor. “You wanna die?”

“It’s dinner time, twat,” you retort. “Can you continue your plans of murdering Denki after dinner?”

He growls, dropping your classmate into the snow before stomping over to the dorm entrance but not without sending you the stink eye. 

As he pushes past, Kaminari stumbles into your arms, sagging in relief as you struggle to hold up all of his body weight. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he cries repetitively. Were those tears in his eyes?

“You’re welcome… everything okay?” 

“I thought I was about to be sent 6 feet underground.” 

Todoroki grabs the electric hero by both his arms and helps him stand upright from where you were struggling to hold him. There’s a little more force required in the way that he picks up Kaminari, and you’re almost shocked by how smoothly he does so. “It’s dinner time, you should go get some food.” 

If you looked a little closer, you would be able to see the presence of jealousy lingering in his eyes.

“You’re the man, Todoroki!” Your classmate sobs before leaning on Mina’s shoulder, actually breaking into tears this time. He’s chanting things that you can’t decipher, the pair leaving you and Todoroki alone outside.

The wind picks up, sending a chill down your spine as you tug on the sleeves of your sweater. “Let’s go inside too, I’m freezing.”

A hand on your wrist stops your advances and you turn around to meet Todoroki’s eyes, immediately becoming entranced in the grey and blue of his irises. The heat from his hand is enough to wither the cold that seeped into your bones. “What does Mina mean that she put mistletoes around the dorms?”

“Oh, she’s just hung them around the place. I don’t necessarily know why but I guess it’s a part of the festive spirit?”

“How many of them?” 

“Well, it is Mina so my guess could be twenty to a thousand,” you murmur. “I don’t care to find out.”

Todoroki’s face is unchanging, but you feel like he’s scheming something. He always is in that brilliant mind of his, but you don’t enjoy the churning of your gut that tells you you’re going to be involved somehow. What business could he have with a mistletoe? Is he planning something on a classmate? Someone he’s interested in perhaps?

Thinking about it brings a frown to your face so you pull your hand out of Todoroki’s grasp and head back inside for a little relief from an unpleasant feeling that plagued your body; a sensation that didn’t exist solely because of the cold.

A few days later, Mina would strike, starting a series of fortunate, but also, very embarrassing events.

“Morning, Y/N!” Uraraka greets when you appear in the common area. Having just brushed your teeth and done your morning routine, you feel rejuvenated when greeting your friends. Asui pops her head over the couch at your entrance and waves.

“Good morning. How did you both sleep?” You ask, walking over to where she was sitting on the couches and jumping over the back to sit down. 

“Great! Tsuyu and I are planning some things for the Christmas dorm party. Care to join us?”

“I’d love to, what’re you doing?”

The amphibian-like hero turns her laptop around so its screen was displayed at you. You take note of the decoration site that she was currently scrolling through. More specifically, the seemingly endless flow of plastic Christmas trees that this website provided.

“I thought we already had one?”

“We don’t, not until the boys broke and it ended up in flames,” Asui reminds you and you laugh at the memory of the poor Christmas tree you had last year. Somehow, Kirishima managed to push Denki to crash into it and then all the lights malfunctioned, burning the branches a little, but since the tree was near a lit fireplace, one thing turned into another and marked the end of Class A’s Christmas Party for second year. It definitely wasn’t funny at the time when Aizawa had to reprimand the lot of them, but it definitely is something to chuckle at now.

Core memories with Class A.

“I guess they did, huh?” You sigh. “To be fair, they can break the one this year because it’s our last Christmas celebration at U.A.”

“Don’t remind us!” Ochako slaps your shoulder quite firmly and you slip out a little ‘ouch’ from the impact. “I’m gonna cry again!”

“Please don’t cry,” the green-haired commands.

“Hey, I have an idea that we can do for the Christmas tree!” You pipe up, raising your pointer finger to the ceiling, mimicking an ‘eureka’ position. “We should order some Christmas balls and get art supplies so everyone in the class can customise one and put it on the tree!”

Both of them light up at your suggestion, nodding in agreement.

After a few more discussions over the logistics and decorations of the party, your stomach grumbles in protest, reminding you that you hadn’t eaten breakfast since getting up. Asui about sends you off to the kitchen, banning you from contributing any more until you’ve had food.

As you’re halfway through cutting some fruit for a bowl of cereal when a familiar, deep voice breaks the silence of the kitchen.

“Good morning, L/N.”

You almost jump from shock, tightening your grip on the knife before turning around to see who the perpetrator was.

“Oh, hello Todoroki! Did you just wake up?”

“Yeah, slept in a little longer than I would have liked. Midoriya and Iida were supposed to wake me up to go for a run but they didn’t follow through with their promise,” he complains.

“To be fair, you sleep like a log,” you comment, turning around to resume cutting the fruits. The half-and-half takes his place by your side, watching you. Suddenly the knife handle feels slippery.

“I do not.”

“You do! We literally had a competition at training camp to see who could wake you up and it took seven people!”

He grunts, rubbing his eye. “No one comes between me and my slumber.”

You chuckle, letting silence engulf the atmosphere momentarily as you walk over to the pantry. You pretend to not see him snag a slice of banana, popping it in his mouth before you can miss it too much.

“What’re you gonna make for breakfast?”

“I might just boil some eggs and have miso soup.”

“That sounds good. Nice and warm for the morning.”

“I’m happy to share.”

You shake your head, rejecting his offer. “No, it’s okay thank you. I am going to make some barley tea though, would you like some of that?”

He nods and for the next few minutes, you both operate in silence, nothing but the sound of kitchen appliances operating filling the air. You pour four cups of tea, two for you and Todoroki, and two for the two classmates you were just talking to.

You leave the kettle out for everyone though and by the time you were done plating the add-ons to your cereal, Todoroki had heated up his miso soup and finished boiling his eggs.

“Would you like to eat together?” He asks, gesturing to the dining table near the kitchen counter.

Your heart flutters, flattered that Todoroki didn’t mind spending time with you one-on-one. It’s uncommon for him to spend time with another alone; whenever you see him he was always in at least a group of three or by himself in content solitude. Settling in seats beside each other, you both discuss weightless conversations with no depth behind them, but you adore his presence regardless, satisfied with any chance to spend some time with him.

As the food in your plates lessens to zero, you begrudgingly rise to end your conversation and put the dishes in the sink. After breakfast was when you had your morning stretching session before going into quirk and strength training, then you had to finish off your assignments because even though homework was the last thing you want to do, Present Mic is quite terrifying when he puts you on the spot during English lessons.

But, before you could walk away, a hand pulls at your shirt, capturing your attention.

Glancing at your classmate in confusion, he answers any questions you had by pointing to the ceiling, where, to your horror, hangs a beautifully innocent mistletoe that you know was not there before. Judging by the ripped edge of the tape- Sero’s tape- that held the mistletoe to the ceiling, you could tell that this was a recent scheme.

Todoroki then stands up assertively, pushing his chair out as he faces you and you find it hard to meet his gaze.

“I- We don’t have to if you’re uncomfortable with it!” You exclaim, the words coming out as a jumble of nothing that he was somehow able to decipher.

He shakes his head in reassurance. “No, I’m okay with it. So, should I be expecting a kiss?”

You can’t think straight, you think you’re dreaming, is this a hallucination? Has your feelings finally gone off the rails that you’re imagining the way that Todoroki was ever-so-softly smiling down at you? He looks so joyful for the predicament that he’s stuck in. What if you ruin his plans? You thought he was scheming something with the mistletoes so someone in your class could kiss him, and said person was probably not you.

“We never speak of this again.”

Something within you whispers ‘fuck it’ before leaning in, cupping the left side of his jjaw to place a gentle and quick peck on his right cheek. If you were a little more aware, you would’ve seen the way he gleefully shut his eyes as a reflex to your close proximity.

When you part, you quickly swipe the dirty dishes before scrambling away, mind in scrambles.

His skin was so soft that you almost feel horrible for tarnishing it, but the memory was so euphoric that as you continued along with your day, it only got sweeter each time you replayed the moment. You just hope Todoroki forgets about what happened because you sure as hell can’t, the scribbles on your homework lay testament to that claim.

When you finally emerge from your room after slouching over your homework for five hours, it seems like whatever happened in the morning between you and Todoroki was out of mind, out of sight; the best option for your psyche.

Regardless, the memory keeps you up at night, often making you cringe as you bury your head into the pillow as if you were sealing the moment away into a coffin, locking it up and throwing it in the ocean of your forgotten, ‘here lies…’ recollections. The worst part is that your classmate doesn’t realise the inner turmoil he throws you in, acting as if nothing happened between the two of you whenever he smiles at you, or comes a little too close into your personal space, whispering jokes lowly into your ear. It’s outrageous how you have to sit there and pretend like everything is okay. 

Eventually comes the time when all of the blank, white Christmas balls you ordered arrive at the door of Class A’s dorm, and no one in the class can contain their enthusiasm when ripping apart the package. Aizawa stands to the side, untroubled so long as the mess is cleaned up. 

The art and craft materials are spread out along the clothed dining table, some glitter has already been spilled, there’s paint everywhere, and Jirou’s playlist pleasantly occupies the space alongside the excited chatter of your classmates. As you converse with Kirishima and Midoriya, often letting them get a glimpse of your artwork whilst enjoying the cookies that Sero baked for this occasion, you realise that everyone’s Christmas ball reflects a little of who they are.

Kirishima’s is red and beautifully glittery despite all the ferocious, strong idioms he’s written on the surface. Midoriya’s resembles the colour of All Might’s hero costume. If you look down the table, Mina’s has pink snowflakes, Aoyama has stars upon stars, and Hagakure’s has little drawings of her friends- their designs were just to name a few. 

Those who finish immediately go to put up their decorations on the Christmas tree. With Bakugou going first and despite the speed that he finished his ball with, you cannot deny that it is intricate and well-crafted. Then, others start to follow him, and somehow, it’s just you and Todoroki left behind to finish up.

“Yours is nice,” he compliments, suddenly materialising in the seat beside you.

“Thank you!” You exclaim. “I’m really trying.”

“I can see.”

Glancing over to his work, you notice that it’s also split in a half-and-half, with white glitter on one side and red on the other. “Yours is really pretty,” you comment, reaching over the table to grab a gold star to put on your ball.

“Thank you. How much longer til you’ll be done?”

“I’m done now! Were you waiting for me?”

“Yeah, I would like to put our decorations on the tree together, is that okay?”

He’s so cute you want to squish his cheeks. As always, you find yourself easily complying with his demands as he leads the way toward the Christmas tree that was already occupied with various Christmas balls and tinsel, topped with a gold star. You take the time to find a good place the last two decorations and despite how full it is, you find places right next each other. 

“We look good beside each other,” Todoroki mindlessly comments and you splutter at his choice of words. Did he have to be that shameless? The clueless boy he act going on only made you more flustered at your own embarrassment.

“Y-Yeah, we do,” you mutter, rubbing your neck. 

Glancing up at the gold star, the corner of your eye catches onto a suspicious red and green thing. A part of your stomach churns in knowing before you can fully process what it is and when you do, a part of you wants to curse Mina for setting this up. She purposefully put it in a place that wasn’t visible from the doorway and would be slightly hidden so unsuspecting victims would fall into her trap.

What do you do? Do you point it out for your own selfish reason or do you avoid telling Todoroki? That’s not very festive of you but you couldn’t find it in you to care about tradition when-

A pair of soft lips meet your forehead, effectively shutting down your brain. 

When Todoroki pulls away, cheeks slightly tinted pink, you are literally frozen to your spot. Pressing the off and on switch multiple times would not work, this time you needed rewiring and a new pair of batteries.

“I- uh, yeah- cool, thanks, uh, for that,” you fumble, letting the lingering touches of your classmate sink into your skin. You were fine, everything is fine, there is nothing to worry about. “Wow, you are beautiful- okay excuse me now, I will be going to my room and I will be staying there for the next three business days.”

Without giving him a chance to respond to your strange reaction, you turn on your feet and mechanically walk away. If you had paid a little more attention to your movements, you would have realised that you were walking same arm and leg, but it didn’t matter much because Todoroki just kissed your forehead and in the same moment, embedded himself into your system.

Then you made a fool out of yourself because you don’t know how to act around Todoroki. 

The paint on your fingers linger mockingly, especially the red and white coating your skin because days later,you’re reminded of how quickly life can change, and similar to that a cruel joke; how quick your life changes because of some stupid plant that people attached a stupid tradition to. 

It’s 6 pm or so and the Class A Christmas party is occurring in less than two hours. With all the decorations hung up and almost all the food ready, you found yourself sitting around the dining table with a bunch of classmates, playing several rounds of card games to kill time. There’s a teapot of steaming tea that Yaomomo made to the side, one that you reach over to occasionally to fill your cup again.

Everyone is laughing at Denki’s misfortune of drawing 16 the third time this round, adding to the unreasonable amount of cards in his hand, laughing even harder when he struggles to hold it all. Although some part of you should feel sympathy for him, there’s just something hilarious about the sight of poor Kaminari always drawing the short stick. You’ll apologise to him after the game.

Although, you don’t think that apology is going to happen, not when Todoroki calls out your name from where he was in the kitchen. Without even asking what he needed, you immediately jolt out of your chair and walk over, leaving your cards behind despite your close Uno win. 

Uno was temporary, whatever Todoroki wanted was forever.

“You called?” You asked upon entering and the first thing that hit you was a delicious aroma that floated around the room. Then, the telltale sound of sizzling follows.

Glancing to the stovetop, there was a pan full of oil and the half-and-half hero stood in front of it, adorning an apron whilst holding an oil strainer. He brightens upon your entrance, fishing out three pieces of what looked like chicken karaage and your mouth waters at the sight alone.

“I did, I would like your opinion,” he informs, reaching over to his plate full of fried chicken whilst you close the distance between you, eyeing his dish curiously. He eagerly gestures it towards you.

Looking at him for his confirmation, you take a piece, blowing on it to cool it down before taking a bite with little hesitation, letting the pleasant mixture of salt and spices mix whilst the enjoying the crunch of the chicken. Wow, this was good.

“This is amazing!” You exclaim, mouth half-full with chicken and fried batter. 

He seems relieved at your approval, and judging by the mess he made on the countertops, you’d say that Todoroki put quite a lot of effort in this dish for it to be bad. “This is my sister’s recipe; I tried my best to replicate it, but I wanted to make something for everyone tonight.”

“I had no idea you could cook! I’m genuinely stunned, I’m sure everyone will love it as well.”

“Thank you,” he offers you a gentle, but heartwarming smile that causes your stomach to flutter and your heart to sigh in content. Your tastebuds are in love too. “You should come over sometime to try the real thing. I’d love for you to meet my sister and brother.”

Your first instinct is to accept, as one does when going over to one’s house, but when you process the weight of his words, your mind erupts into a mash of concerns and delighted squeals. All that comes out of you is a muffled ‘I’d love to’- one of the better responses your mind could make up.

You note the way that his gaze flicker to your lips before quickly venturing back up to make eye contact once more. Suddenly, it’s getting harder to breathe, the atmosphere is heavy with intimate tension, and your heart is racing in anticipation because you’re certain he’s about to say something before-

“Hey guys! Something smells good in here, what’s-” Midoriya’s voice slices the air in half with an entrance that you don’t know whether to be grateful for or if you should strangle him. He then cuts himself off when he realises that he probably interrupted something, looking especially suspicious when his eyes gravitate towards the ceiling. “My bad! Sorry guys! I’ll take my leave now!” He squeaks before disappearing just as quickly as he came in.

“That’s weird, I wonder what he was talking about,” you begin, turning your head to look back at Todoroki before you find the air being sucked out of your lungs, being replaced by a pair of soft lips over your slightly dry ones.

Oh- wait, Todoroki was currently kissing you. This was nice. You feel like you’re floating despite how short-lived it is, because just as you melt into his warmth, he pulls away, hovering away slightly from your face, creating enough distance so he can scan your expression for any discomfort.

But your body moves on its own, causing you to jerk back from the half-and-half, brain racking to find something to say. ‘Thanks for the kiss. It was great but I’m not too sure if that was real or not’ or ‘I’m sorry you had to go through that’ are not appropriate options to say to someone after single-handedly creating the best moment of your life, so you choose an even better option; run.

You scramble out of the kitchen quickly enough, ignoring the surprise of your classmates that you run past at the dining table and trying even harder to ignore the footsteps that follow you from the kitchen to dorm’s entrance. Going outside into the expanse of endless snow and cold was your first option because you needed some remedy for what you were suffering through. Fresh, crisp air would aid the light-headedness you felt, and the frost could freeze the fire that was your face.  

Although you were quick to escape, Todoroki is quicker in his chase, grabbing the door before you could close it, slipping outside into the cold with you before shutting the door close with a little more force than necessary.

“Why do you keep running away from me?” He asks, a hint of hurt in his otherwise steady tone. The only light source is from within the dorm, illuminating him in a deliciously warm glow that replicated that of an angel, making him appear even more out-of-reach than he already was. 

Freaking out, you blurb out a: “Would you like the truth or would you like me to lie?”

In truth, your question was to stall the inevitable conversation you were going to have because you can’t find a way to lie from this. It was either the cold hard truth or… you run from Todoroki again but if there’s one thing to know about the half-and-half is that he’s persistent. Even if you flee from the face of the Earth, he’d venture into the solar system to find his answers.

Todoroki’s dual-coloured eyebrows furrow in confusion, looking at you inquisitively. He must think you’re the biggest fool on Earth- which, you are. “I would like the truth,” he answers slowly but surely.

You unknowingly inhale before confessing. “Please don’t hate me for this, but it’s cause I kinda like you a little too much?” You don’t look at him before continuing because if there’s one thing you aren’t brave against, it’s pretty boys with extraordinary pouts and puppy dog eyes. “This is literally so humiliating, but uh, you kinda like… intimidate me, and I don’t think you actually want to kiss me so I save myself the embarrassment and-” 

“-You like me?” 

“Well, obviously. You’re kinda perfect and it’s so unfair, I’ve never seen you with eyebags, or a single pimple, do you even have bad hair days? Plus you’re so talented and-”

“Perfect, you say?”

“Even the way you speak is per-” you cut yourself off before shifting your gaze upwards to look Todoroki in the eye. There’s mirth in his eyes, enhanced by the slight smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. You want to throttle him because of course, out of all the things you just confessed, he’d hang on to your admission of his perfection. “Don’t look at me like that, I actually hate you.”

“No you don’t, you like me a little too much,” he parrots.

You were actually going to lock him outside in the snow where little shits belong. Here you stand, pouring your heart out to him and he capitalises on your moment of weakness! Unbelievable.

Just as you turn around, Todoroki tugs on your sleeve, pulling you back. “Wait, don’t go,” he pleads. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist myself from having a little fun messing with you. I don’t mean to be cruel.”

“Well, you are, and I really don’t appreciate it,” you counter jokingly, huffing, watching the way your breath condenses before fading again. Now that the heat from your face had dissipated, the chill was getting to you and you’d really like to get back inside and hide from Todoroki for the rest of your life.

“I apologise sincerely,” his hand fishes through his pocket to look for something, pulling out something that you recognise all too well. “Will this make up for it?”

The half-and-half smiles at you shyly, unravelling the mistletoe he stuffed to become its true, expansive form. A part of you dies inside, the other cheers in victory as he raises it above your heads, the internal whoops and exclamations audible in your ear, but when you realise that there are a little too many voices, it causes you to turn around- only to see your friends gathered around a window, all looking at the two of you in excitement. 

You laugh and Todoroki groans, and in the blink of an eye, a wall of ice materialises in front of your eyes, blocking you from the prying snoops that are your friends.

“It will absolutely make up for it,” you murmur, grabbing both of his cheeks to pull him in.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

Sorry I was asking what you thought about the skip westcott storyline in the comics. But he’s you answered it beautifully and I agree with you about fearing the MCU would try to tackle CSA because they don’t have a good track record on how they tackle assault and all I could think about was one my favorite exploration on Skip Westcott and what would happen if his assault was revealed to the general population that storyline was that the author made a point to say

“One that Peter put on everyday, along with a red and blue suit and the memory of an uncle he had lost to petty crime. And to make this all about Skip, to claim it was just his way of coping - like every single psychologist that had gone on the news with insight into the psyche of Spider-Man - would debase all that. Yes, Peter was still affected by what had happened. Yes, when he hit sexual predators the hardest, it was personal. But Peter was still Ben’s nephew, and he was so much more than what Skip had made him”

I don’t know a comment in your story First Step of Kintsugi wrote about a possible reference to Skip and all I could think about was Peter goes through so much but fundamentally he is a child trying to survive and trying to live up impossible standards he set before him as a tribute to his Uncle and if Skip was a part of his backstory then it’s does not define him but would still affect him and his aunt. Also Frank would absolutely murder Skip if he ever found out.

Same deal as before, this post discusses skip westcott so everything is below the line. 

Oh, he would. It’s probably why I’ll never write a story about Frank finding out about Skip.

Like, Frank Castle is the guy in the Marvel Universe who fucks up child predators. He pretends to be a 12 year old little girl on the internet and tells the creep to meet him in the park, and carry peonies so little susie can find him. NMCU had multiple scenes of him fucking up pedophiles.

And Frank’s someone who, time and time again, is shown to just kind of—I don’t want to say lose it, but kind of run rampant when the people he loves are involved. A very controlled brand of crazy. He will run roughshod over all other considerations when it comes down to the people he cares about, and it’s fully in character for him and his backstory, and it can usually make for some pretty interesting character dynamics and interactions. Like, Karen’s in danger (because she called a serial bomber a little bitch boy while speaking to him directly and broadcast it for the entire world to hear) and Karen will be saying “frank no” and micro will be saying “frank no” and getting involved will endanger franks entire shit and frank will be saying “fuck off frank yes” and he’ll do it anyway.

And that can make for interesting conflict and cool fight scenes. Except this is one of those times where I don’t think it works for the underlying story.

Because the person he’s killing is Peter’s abuser. And like—I don’t think there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind that if you abuse the punishers kid, you die. But it does kind of require discounting peters own mindset on the matter, because Peter is very anti-killing and would almost definitely be opposed to frank’s solution. killing skip would be about frank and he felt, not Peter. 

I just don’t see how it would help Peter himself. Like, franks not gonna fix him by giving him a hug or being a somewhat trustworthy adult or something. There’s nothing to fix. He’s not broken. No magic healing adult is going to change what happened or undo the effects with one soulful conversation. like, to me, Frank exact revenge on his behalf mostly just services frank’s own emotional reaction rather than helping Peter in any real way.

Which I why i don’t engage with the majority of the Skip Westcott stories on AO3. A lot of the ones I’ve seen are usually like--the avengers or tony or someone finding out and the emotional effects on them. Or them getting revenge for Peter or like, healing him emotionally or whatever. It often just ends up about the pain of the people who find out rather than like, Peter himself, if that makes sense. Or it just becomes trauma porn. 

And, to be clear, I am casting no moral judgment or whatever on those fics or people who like or read them. Revenge stories aren’t inherently bad or whatever.  Like, the Equalizer was a cool, fun, engaging movie that can be pretty adequately summarized as a revenge movie. Frank Castle fucks up a lot of child molesters because hey--that’s a pretty satisfying group of people to see fucked up. Good fodder for revenge stories. 

I find a lot of literary analysis on tumblr and on most social media platforms that I’ve seen tends to engage with content in overwhelmingly moralistic terms, which i just don’t find very helpful. Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely moralistic discussions to be had when it comes to writing decisions, I just don’t think it’s nearly to the degree that it’s been proliferated. Moralistic terms in the analysis of art ends up being used as a sort of sledgehammer that misses a lot of the point of analysis entirely. I feel like a lot of the literary analysis that I see popularized nowadays ends with “and that’s why this writing decision is morally wrong” which, again, absolutely can be the case and are conversations to be had, it’s just that it’s used as a trump card a lot of the time instead of engaging in real analysis. But that’s also not all literary analysis on modern social media platforms. I may just be jaded from TikTok. 

I could probably write a pretty convincing analysis of the Equalizer about how it reflects on women and sex workers and power fantasies, etc, etc, that I don’t actually agree with. I dunno, I think I’m good at arguing and hyperaware of how easy it is to convincingly frame literary analysis in moralistic terms and lead the audience to conclusions that I don’t even agree with. This is a very long winded way of saying that this analysis of Skip Westcott’s use on AO3 is not me saying that I think people who write stories like that or enjoy stories like that are bad or wrong, it’s just not the kind of story that I enjoy reading, and not a story that I’m all that interested in writing. I’m not shitting on people who write revenge fics. It’s just not my cup of tea. I think a lot of using AO3--and reading in general--comes down to curating your experience, and I just tend to curate away from most Skip Westcott stories.

I also do want to make a point of saying that like, you did not imply or suggest what the rant above was about, I am just very good at seeing balls buried under ten feet of mud, digging them out, and running with them. I just go on tangents. I’m not arguing against anything you said. 

I have also seen the discussion of Skip Westcott in the comments. I’m not going to like, confirm or deny anything because I feel like saying anything about the content appearing in the future of this series risks spoiling it for some people? Like, even if it’s just saying “yeah that’s not happening,” I feel like it may spoil things for people who like to figure it out along the way. But I do want to say that if anyone’s ever worried about triggering subject matter appearing in one of my fics, they can DM me directly and I’ll tell them if it shows up, the extent of it, etc. I try to keep up with content warnings, especially in individual chapter titles, but sometimes I slip up and sometimes stories develop after I make the original tags that have triggers I didn’t anticipate. I probably need to update the main tags on Kintsugi anyway, because I ended up talking more about the details of the human trafficking ring and MJ’s comic backstory a little bit more than I planned on when I first started it. 

I know the story you’re referring to, and the point being made is the same. It’s probably because I wrote it. 

I don’t regret writing that story, but I have regrets about it, if that makes sense? I guess a part of me wishes that I had been a bit older and a bit more skilled at the time. I was in like, high school. I was a literal child whose brain hadn’t finished developing yet. Technically my brain still hasn’t finished developing but at least it’s been cooking for a lot longer than when I was in fucking high school. I can’t remember if I even had a year of writing experience at the time, I had barely any experience in fandom, and writing it probably wasn't the best mental health decision I could have made. Skip Westcott was also borderline unknown, at least on AO3, at the time I wrote it? Like, organize Skip Westcott tags by date posted, and i think that’s like the first english language mention of him. So I’m like, weirdly aware that that original mention potentially spurred a lot of stories I don’t personally vibe with. Life’s a comedy. 

I know it ended up meaning a lot to a lot of people, so I leave it up, but it’s not exactly something I go back to reread. I just seems sloppy to me now. My writing’s changed a lot since then and there’s a lot of topics I discussed there that I wish I had handled with more nuance than I did. Which, again, I was a teenager with very little writing or fandom experience, so like, I understand why it happened the way it did. There’s stuff that I look at on my current AO3 account where I think the writing’s amateur hour. Hating your old shit is part of getting better as a writer. I’m glad you liked it.

[tokoyamisstuff]

Scandal Ch. 5 - Loki x Reader

Summary: Loki returns to claim what is his - willing to kill everyone in his way.

Warnings: Angst.

Words: ~1800

I Story Masterlist I General Masterlist I

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A/N: Sweet little Feedback Anon, I took your suggestion. You know which one I mean if you see it. (:

Btw guys I have like 60+ Drafts I need to finish so pls be patient with me.

Word sure spreads fast among the folk of Asgard, about Odin’s shame and your innocence.

Since his lies had weakened the favor among his subjects, the Allfather was desperate to clean his name and reputation, ultimatively inviting you to come back.

But you declined, stating that this wasn’t your homeland anymore ever since they betrayed you to fullfill their selfish ambitions.

However, Asgard’s hypocrisy wasn’t the only reason you chose to stay on Midgard - you just knew that it would break your heart every day you’d spend on a place with so many memories connected to your deceased husband.

Earthlings, the people of S.H.I.E.L.D and especially Thor’s friends Jane and Erik Selvic had basically become like family to you. Even though they could never fill the void Loki had left in your heart, things being like this was more than you could wish for.

“Lady Y/N!” a familiar voice greeted you, yet his worried tone startled you. Thor was already standing in your room, practically kicking in your door as he was visibly upset.

Immediately, you put Liam into his crib and rushed to his side. “What’s the matter?!”

A strange mix of horror and excitement was stretched across his face, making your heart sink to your stomach.

Actually, you didn’t want to involve yourself with the Asgardians any further. All you ever wanted was for your child to be healthy and happy, no matter where this was possible.

But Thor was still your cherished brother-in-law, as well as a wonderful uncle, never ceasing to provide for you and Liam, even when everyone else had forsaken you.

Yet what he was about to tell you let your blood run cold: 

“Loki is back.”

Immediately, all the walls you had built up over those past months were crumbling as you collapsed to the floor, crying out of anger and relief.

“H-How? How is this even possible?! He’s dead! Loki died!”

“Pull yourself together, Lady Y/N!” Thor has always been a rather touchy-feely kind of person, in opposite to his raw and bulky appearance.

But right now, he wouldn’t dare to hug or console you, like he’d usually do. Instead, he was offering you a hand to help you get back up - which you wouldn’t be able to take just yet. “There’s no use in overthinking this! We need to hurry!”

“What do you even want me to do?” you wondered, because if your husband was really alive, you’d doubt him wanting to see you. “He’s changed...killed a lot of people before he disappeared. And still, I don’t wanna fight him. How can I be of any help at all?!?”

“We know he’s probably after you and the child” the God of Thunder stated coldly. “So you need to be transferred to a safe location.”

What can be more safe than a base of S.H.I.E.L.D? If only you knew he had already demolished a whole, giant outpost of them with ease...

“I’ll explain everything to you on the way.” “Let me quickly get the baby.”

“What, did you forget the name of your nephew already?” you chuckled awkwardly, but seeming to have struck a nerve.

Thor was only slowly approaching the crib in which your lovely baby was resting, staring at it with awe while his trembling hand caressed Liam’s cheek.

“Incredible...” he whispered mainly to himself,  as if this wasn’t the thousandth time he would lay eyes upon him. “He’s just like I remember him.”

Something was off.

Of course Thor had a spare key to your flat, but you had never heared him unlock it - he had just kind of appeared in the middle of the room. Could as well be that you had been to invested with something, or buried in thought to notice him, and yet...

“Wait” you stated, making him flinch away from the child and turn around. “My knees are still weak. Help me up first.”

With heavy steps, Thor would force himself away from the crib and towards you again, lending you another hand and easily pulling you up - just for you to point a sharp dagger to his throat.

“Lady Y/N, when did you summo-”

“Shut up!” you hissed, and the god held his hands into the air to assure his goodwill. "Drop the disguse. Now!”

The man let out an amused huff, a taint of green covering his body to revert it back to normal - revealing your husband.

His hair had become longer, and dark rings showed how devastating those past months went by for him. Yet still, he was unmistakingly your husband.

Yet a faint, mad spark in his eyes was what worried you the most.

Now he was holding a knife as well, both circling around the crib with a knife at each other’s throat, as if to dance with each other.

“So it’s really you, Loki?”

“The one and only” he declared, chest swelling with pride at his performance and completely ignoring your hostile undertone. “I missed you painfully, my sweetling.”

He looked to the side where your son was still sleeping soundly, regret clearly visible on his face. “Wha- what name did you give our child?”

“Liam it is.”

The smallest of smiles tugged on his lips, swallowing harshly to surpress the sobs wanting to break free. “Beautiful name. Very well chosen.”

Pain was stretching across your features, desperately trying for the dam of emotions to not break. The dagger in your hand vanished, rather choosing to reluctantly caress his cheek - to make sure this was really him, and not one of his illusions.

And it was really him, leaning into your touch with a content purr. “Yes, my love, just like tha-”

A loud noise drang to his ear, effectively cutting him off. He needed a second to understand that it was in fact you slapping him what caused the interruption.

“Dear, wait, I-” Another hit, this time it was your knee digging into his groin, making him gasp in pain.

With his current power, it would be a piece of cake to block you - yet he knew that after everything that had happened to you, and everything he had done...

...it was what he deserved. So he would allow you to let off some steam.

Yet much to his surprise, you were done already - now grabbing desperately on his cloak and pulling him in for a passionate kiss.

He immediately reciprocated, dropping his weapon as well to embrace you fully, lips mingling with each other over and over again.

Oh, how long had both of you craved for each other?

“Sorry” you panted as your lips finally parted, “Just needed to get that off my chest.”

“Do not apologize, my love” Loki declared, chin resting atop of your head, still no intention to let go off of you. “I deserve far worse than that.”

You looked up to him, the kiss having made something surface in his eyes: So solemn, and incredibly fragile, it made your heart ache.

“Wha- what happened to you? Where have you been all this time?”

Loki’s face contorted at the question, as if the thoughts in his mind were physically painful. But his mind was clouded, unable to make his proper memory resurfacing. “Places far beyond your imagination, dear. And I have learned many things.”

“I-I thought I had lost you...” you ultimatively began to sob, face dug into his chest.

“No” the god whispered softly, his gaze still unwavering. “You always have me. I promise.”

“What now?” you sniveled as he gently pet your head, just as back in good old times. “Where do we go?”

“What do you mean?” Loki’s features creased into a slight frown, “We stay here. There’s no need to leave or flee.”

“Bu-” you hesistantly took a few steps back, to take in his full reaction. “But you’re a wanted criminal, Loki! On Asgard as well as Midgard!”

His manner became more defensive again, glee radiating off of him. “Oh, my sweet, innocent Y/N...still the idealist, I see.”

“And you are still insufferable” you scoffed back, crossing your arms. “What do you mean?”

Actually, you dreaded the answer.

The man seemed to be thinking about many things at once, eyes narrowing before he finally took a hold of your hand, squeezing it ever so slightly when he saw that you were still wearing his ring - even after everything that had happened.

“Y/N, my love, those deaths were a necessary evil.” He tried to peck a quick kiss on your hand, but you pulled away at those words. “The only crime I feel guilty for is having left the love of my life. But don’t you worry, I’ll make up for it.”

He summoned a staff, glowing in the same blue as the tesseract - and much to your terror, his eyes started to adapt to them as well.

“I will create my own kingdom, Y/N! Here on Midgard, with you as my queen! This is what you deserve, my love! You and our child will have everything you desire and more!”

“This is madness, Loki!” It wasn’t the first time he had heared that.

People always treated him wrongly, afterwards wondering why he was trying to create felicity on his own. “Is it?” he croaked, “Is it madness for a person born to rule two kingdoms to create a home he never had?”

His plan did not merit awe or any such feelings he hoped you to have - the only person in the world he thought would understand him.

“Loki, what your parents have done to you is inexcusable, yet-”

“They’re not my parents!” he screamed enraged, eyes then widened in shock that he had raised his voice at you. “My apologies, I...”

“They have kept the truth from you so that you’d never feel different. You know you’re their son, and the Asgardians are your family. You must know that!”

“You speak like mother” he spat, and still Frigga’s words he could not shake off as easily as Odin’s. “There is no going back to that place, and Jotunheim I never had a connection with. You most likely heared that I tried to kill Laufey, yes?”

Nodding in silence, you nervously bit your lip. “Please...” Wrapping your arms around him and placing one ear at his sternum, you could clearly hear how his heart was fighting a war, struggling to decide.

“You can still stop whatever you were gonna do. We can start anew somewhere, lead a peaceful life with Liam. I don’t need wealth or power, and you clearly know any of this wouldn’t give you the satisfaction you’re searching for!”

“As always, you’re right” he grumbled deeply, already regretting what he was about to do. “But it’s not that easy, my naive little dove.”

“No~” With his hand on the back of your neck, he infused a powerful magic inside your body, slowly shutting down your nervous system completely. As careful as possible, he cradled you in his arms and slowly led you to the floor, then proceeding to take his heir.

“The only thing I need for myself is our little family - and I will avenge you by murdering anyone that did you wrong, or tries to separate us again.”

[zaunbinary]

jinx told smeech she killed silco so if smeech managed to survive that encounter or pass on that information it could’ve been used to the advantage of literally any of the other chem barons or whoever else wanted to take over. a zaunite turning jinx in would be a crazy power move, earning the favor of some* of piltover while effectively eliminating the closest thing to silcos kin. it would wipe the slate clean and give someone a chance to step in. they make a point to show the chem barons fighting over who will be the next Silco(tm) but silco was more than just a crime boss of the undercity he was involved in the politics between the cities.

*some of piltover in the way that some enforcers would work with silco and others wouldn’t. no matter what zaunites do they’ll always be seen as lesser by the people of piltovers unless they do something to directly benefit the topsider and then they’ll be considered “one of the good ones” while the rest of the nation is still seen as dangerous and animalistic. piltover doesn’t care about zaun as a whole. when individuals like vi and viktor “prove” themselves then they are offered a chance to live and serve in the topside. no work is done to help their former homes or even give zaunites the chance to prove themselves, which they shouldn’t have to do in the first place since they’re just people. being sent to live in zaun is punishment for topsiders like how singed was cast out, while getting to live in piltover is a reward but only for the ones who “deserve” it

silco dying coincidentally the same time negotiations were being planned should’ve been something in season 2 i think. of course we know how he was killed but everyone else doesn’t (WE don’t even know who knows he was killed by jinx or not) the coincidental timing paired with piltovers excessive use of police force should’ve motivated zaunites still loyal to him because there WERE people still loyal to him it was one of caitlyn’s goals to specifically target them. in a decades long conflict on the brink of war, paranoia and anger would cause at least one person to theorize that silcos death was a purposeful and planned attack by piltover. adding in jinx becoming a symbol for zaun too like that could. be something idc. dramatic irony was used in an excellent way throughout season 1 and it could’ve been used in season 2 as well

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Nightwing #80 Review

woot woot i’ve kept it up for three issues lets gooo. i liked this issue more than the last one. there’s a lot of fanon dick characterization peppered in, but not so much that it puts me off entirely. also, i’m getting increasingly concerned about bitewing. but i did like tim in this one, very nice

look at all the blue and purple and pink. honestly at this point, i’m a broken record but come on come on come onnnnnnn. the blue and pink is very pretty though. this cover’s a bit offputting at first, and a bit spiraly, which i’m sure was the intended effect.

this is a genuine concern of mine. dick’s a vigilante, and he doesn’t have the same sprawling network and resources that bruce does. (even if he is a billionaire now, he hasn’t amassed the same collection of crime-fighting equipment that bruce has.) 

i’m not sure if he’ll be able to take care of bitewing. damian’s got plenty of pets, but alfred used to take care of them, and now bruce plus the rest of the batfam is taking care of them. as far as we know, babs only drops by occasionally, and the same goes for dick’s family and friends. will dick be able to give bitewing the love and time and affection that a traumatized puppy like her needs? i really hope so.

she does look adorable in this panel tho.

dick. richard. richie. baby. why are you shirtless.

you have scars upon scars. probably chemical burns. bullet wounds. weird fucking squiggly lines from knives that only psychos with blade fetishes use. no normal person has the body that you do. and you don’t think that showing up shirtless in front of the police is going to raise suspicion? you don’t think that the people accusing you of murder are going to look at someone who looks like they’re a fucking mob enforcer and go hmm that’s a bit suspicious?

put on a SHIRT jesus CHRIST it’s like you’re not even trying to hide your identity.

look at this pompous little princess demanding only the highest quality head pets i’d burn down latvia for her. (no offense latvians it was the first country that popped into my head.)

pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy-

no seriously kudos to the artist here. his expression is so human i wanna cry. dick, right now, is sheepishly asking a question. he knows he’s not going to get into any real trouble, he knows that he’ll be able to talk his way out of or somehow maneuver his way off this mess. but he’ll play nice for the police, so he’s asking a friend for a favour, part self-condescendingly and part oh-well-what-can-you-do.

and his expression reflects that. rather than a stoic expressionless face most male comic characters have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), rather than the weird desperate supposedly “seductive” face that most female comic characters plus dick grayson have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), he’s making a face that i pulled like yesterday. or the day before that. it’s kind of silly, kind of casual, very much human. i like it.

thank god. proper (in character) acknowledgement for officer grayson. yea, fuck cops in general, but i like that they included this line.

obviously, he’s not talking about the actual criminals, he’s talking about the police force itself. the bpd was too corrupt, and dick realized that he wasn’t helping. not only does one clean cop not make a dent in an overall dirty force, but dick was putting his allies in danger too. not only that, but it wasn’t good for dick’s mental health either. he was spreading himself too thin, and surrounding himself with some of the worst of crime 24/7 did a number on him. dick’s got a history of self-sacrificing tendencies, and i’m just glad he’s not a cop anymore.

dick has a gotham rogues mug. they make gotham rogue mugs, and dick has one.

what kinda city looks at it’s frankly horrible crime history and long list of certifiably insane serial killers who are all still alive and actively committing war crimes and goes “oooooh yea imma put that on a coffee mug!” gotham, that’s who.

this isn’t important i just like how all of bitewing’s barks are blue

back straight, hand on his hip, cheerful smile on his face as he says he’s being accused for murder. love that for him.

they couldn’t have said “yea it’s complicated” in a better way even if they put the words “yea it’s complicated” right there on the page in bold red letters. literally all the love to the artists.

dick please. you’re KILLING ME what the actual fuck IS THAT???? WHY DO YOU HAVE A MUG OF THAT???

anyway nightwing collects novelty mugs confirmed.

this paneling is so beautiful. 

tim’s the focus, but he’s not the first thing you see. he’s placed in a way that forces the reader to drag their eyes all the way up the page in order to reach him. it us know just how high up tim is carelessly crouching, especially close to the ledge of the building too. i cannot think of a single better way to introduce a character, and this character in particular: you instantly know this is a version of tim with plenty of experience and training, is comfortable in his body and knows his limits, but still hangs onto that civilian awe of being in a high place and overlooking a brightly lit city.

absolute classic robin. i love it. 

this isn’t even that important but it made me happy. this is how you train surf.

you don’t crouch or bend over when you get to a tunnel, which is oddly enough what most people think (at least from my experience). you bend backward. that not only 100% ensures that you’ll make sure you’re low enough to make it through the tunnel (because you can see the top of the tunnel, unlike when you crouch or bend), but it also makes it easier to get up: all you have to do is push up with your arms into a bent stance, and you’ll be in a ready, moving position. from a bend or a crouch, getting up is more awkward and more slow.

on a meta level, i like that this creative team knows what they’re doing when it comes to the small, almost unimportant stuff like that, because it makes the action more real. (as real as you can get with a guy running around stealing hearts.)

on a in-universe level, it once again drives home both dick and tim’s experience and professional level skill.

regardless of who you side with in the “should tim drake be robin again?” debate, you gotta admit that tim’s rebirth robin suit is r a d as fuck. if i’m not mistaken, this is the same one he was wearing in 2019 young justice for a little bit? it’s cute and hella cool i like it.

remember what i said about human expressions? doesn’t happen as often to tim bc he’s a Child, but it’s still nice to note when someone humanizes him, too. (that’s why i love the duckboy panel so much lol.)

me, at first: that’s not a “good call” dick that’s just common sense

me, now: sprinkled throughout the entire comic we can see dick bending to tim’s instructions if only briefly, joking with him to keep the mood light while still maintaining a serious mood and retaining control over this particular outing. this implies that dick’s doing it intentionally, purposefully leaving places in his sentences blank and offering affirmations, in order to encourage tim and train him in things bruce might not necessarily touch on, such as social chameleoning and misdirection techniques and love/affirmation from a family member. dick is not only a loving and supportive big brother, but he never stops training his younger brother in better vigilante tecnhiques because he wants tim to be better than him. in this essay i will-

d o g g o

also bitewing is getting so many head pats today i’m living for it

look at him, standing on a telephone wire with ease. nice flex, dick.

also look at how he’s silhouetted. the moon’s full bright, bright enough that the sky around dick is light, too. (at least. i’m like 99% sure that’s the moon.) not like most batman comics, where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish bruce from the background, which is entirely on purpose.

gotham is a dark gritty city, and so is bruce. the two of them are one. bludhaven may be a bit of a mess, but it’s being portrayed in all these different shades of blue and purple and pink, that are all light enough that dick stands out from the background. he hasn’t been swallowed up by the city, and chances are that he won’t ever be. also, the colouring helps establish bludhaven as a city too. there’s still hope for it. the light colouring means that it’s not going to sink into a pit as deep as the one bruce wove gotham into. the whole point of this nightwing arc in particular is to turn bludhaven into a better place, and it’s (most likely) letting us know early on that dick is going to accomplish that. he’ll struggle, but he’ll do it.

so dick??? dick designed his escrima sticks with a situation like this in mind? he created his signature and most iconic weapon (other than his chatty mouth), with a built in feature that turns his escrima sticks into tim’s signature and most iconic weapon???? just so that if he and tim ever got into a situation where tim didn’t have his staff, dick could make sure tim had the thing that would give him an edge over anyone he was fighting??? he’s such a big brother oh my goddd.

also tim’s smirk in this is just *chef kiss.* a staff is something he can work with, a staff is something he wields like an extension of his arm, a staff is means that someone’s about to get their ass kicked because tim’s about to beat the shit outta them.

this is my new phone background.

they really made sure we remembered that hey, those first few months when bruce was grieving too much to be any sort of a mentor to tim and was still unwilling to properly train him to be robin out of fear that he would end up like jason, dick was the one who stepped up (once he got over himself and his own fears and hangups with bruce) and trained tim to be robin, trained him how to fight and flip and fuckin fly out there, all while changing his own style a bit to be the more experienced one in the partnership while still trusting said partner to hold their own, so dick and tim have a very unique and cohesive fighting style that makes it hell for anyone who fights them together, didn’t they?

[mystrangeaddiction-petra-venj]

Petra and Crow

So, I’ve seen a few posts now talking about how people are upset about how Petra is treating Crow. I understand why these people are upset, so I’m making this in hopes of rationalizing why Petra might be acting the way she is. I would also like to preface this by saying that I do no think that 100% of Petra’s anger towards Crow is justified and that I actually really like Crow as a character. I don’t want to make anyone mad or upset, I just want to share what I personally think might be the cause of Petra’s behavior towards Crow this season. 

My first point is that she doesn’t know Crow like we do. She hasn’t seen the changes he’s made and how he’s grown as a person. Most likely, all she sees when she looks at him is the man who had brought on a lot of pain and suffering to not only her, but to her people as well. She probably feels bitter because here he is with a second chance at life, no recollection of his crimes, and being treated like a friend while she’s stuck cleaning up the mess Uldren left. 

The treatment of Crow by the guardians is probably something else that is upsetting her because, ever since Petra has taken the regency, she’s been at odds with much of the Reef’s High Command. The Techuns don’t believe in her, the paladins think she isn’t worthy to lead, and enough assassination attempts that warranted the Crows to open a file on them. Additionally, if you remember her in D1, she used to be the emissary for the Queen. A position that was forced to serve in for many years because of her crimes against the Guardians and the Tower. She’s probably furious that he doesn’t have to serve any type of punishment, gets a second chance, and, from what she believes, to be welcomed with open arms into a place where he caused so many to hurt. She’s most likely extremely bitter and angry because she has to suffer alone, while he gets to live a second life without having to atone for his crimes. Though I personally believe that Uldren’s death was penance enough. 

Petra only treats Uldren badly for his crimes because, if you put it in perspective, he’s the only guardian who’s past she actually knows. And his past is one that again, caused her and her people copious amounts of pain. Guardians don’t know their pasts and for good reasons, but I don’t think it’s completely unreasonable for people who knew them in their past lives to be somewhat resentful, especially considering all that Uldren inflicted on the Awoken. As far as I know, the biggest slight that he committed against the guardians was the death of Cayde, but in the Reef, he did so much more. He effectively abandoned the Reef and left Petra alone to hold the regency. He created an alliance with the fallen House of Kings and led a campaign against the Reef where he killed his own people, stole from them, and caused further destruction to the Reef. Uldren figured out the Red Legion was going to invade and instead of telling Petra, he allowed the Legion in, which caused the asteroid belt that the Reef sits in to destabilize further. He also used his Fallen alliance to prevent Petra from reaching out to the city for help and the ability to perhaps collaborate together to beat back the Ghaul and the Red Legion. And, to top it all off, he released the Scorn and the Barons into the Reef allowing them to get into the already Taken infested Dreaming City and giving them the ability to slaughter their people. All of these things added an additional burden to Petra’s already heavy shoulders, so I don’t think her resentment is unfounded. 

Another reason I think Petra is probably so snappy with Crow, especially when he tries to be friendly with her, is because I think she’s protecting herself from the possibility of being betrayed by her friend again. Petra feels betrayed by Uldren actions in Forsaken because not only was he the Prince of the Reef, but because he was also her friend who she greatly admired and respected. Uldren’s betrayal threw her for a loop because she believed he would help her and their people only for him to turn around, release the Scorn into the Reef, and slaughter their people. I’m guessing here, but I’m thinking that Petra was so hurt by the actions of Uldren, that seeing his face again, claiming to be someone else, and trying to befriend her is just angering to her because in her mind, that’s Uldren, the one who caused our people and me so much pain. She can’t see Crow because of all the hurt Uldren caused her, so she’s snappy and terse with him because she doesn’t want to open herself up to the possibility of being betrayed by him again. In her mind, that face has already betrayed her once, so who’s to say that he won’t do it again.

Additionally, us, who she considered to be a good friend, lying to her face when she asked if Uldren was revived I don’t think helped Crows case in the slightest. In fact, it is my belief, that if we told her the truth, she probably would have had time to come to terms with his revival. The problem is that up until know, she has only really known Uldren’s revival to be a rumor that could neither be confirmed nor denied. In Season of the Lost, she has essentially been slapped in the face with his return without any prep or planning, so she gets lost in her emotions. If we would have been honest with her, I think Petra would have at least been civil with Crow because she would have had some time to come to terms with his revival.

Uldren caused Petra and the Awoken people an overwhelming amount of pain and grief with his actions, so I think Petra being angry and bitter towards Crow not only makes sense to her character, but to the story as well. Greif takes time and Petra still hasn’t healed from the events of the following the Taken King and Forsaken. I think Crow deserves his redemption, but it’s an unrealistic belief to think that the actions of his past life won’t have some sort of lasting effect on the people he hurt and in turn cause them to hold some resentment towards him. (And listen, I’m all for Crow finally stepping out of his shell and speaking up for himself, but his dig at Petra’s devotion to the Reef was a jerk move considering she’s been fighting an essentially unwinnable war with little help for the last 5 years, so I’m a little annoyed with him right now.) But, as this season progresses, I hope that Petra can learn to separate Crow from Uldren (maybe even learn to forgive him) and see him in a new light so that they can work towards becoming allies and maybe even friends later on.

Feel free to add on to this post with your own thoughts, I just ask that you follow my rules in the tags and be respectful. 

[anxiousstark]

The Name of the Game | Mitch Rapp

Warnings: Vulgar vocabulary, public sex (if you squint), unprotected sex (this is a fic, be safe), teasing, foreplaying, etc. Porn with some plot.

Word Count: 3280

A/N: First time writing smut so, please don’t kill me. This CAN’T be considered flithy after the 11k I wrote for the Dylan fic.

All Rights Reserved. The author, me, don’t allow any type of copy or adaption.

BIG MASTERLIST  | MIATCHEMBER |  KO-FI

A long dark green silky dress hugged the shape of your body, accentuating the most appealing parts of your physique. Your bareback was full of goosebumps as your hair caressed the uncovered skin. Besides, your makeup was done flawlessly, emphasising the most attractive features you had.

Your walk was confident, the clicking of your heels turning heads towards you. Your presence too big for the room. However, you ignored the desiring gazes that you received from both men and women, focusing on your mission.

Liam Zajicek was your objective. A young and attractive man who was being searched by almost every CIA agent. At the young age of 22 years old, he was probably the most searched and wanted hacker. The CIA had been searching for him since last year when he successfully altered the votes in the elections of the new president of America. However, Zajicek was stealthy, not leaving any hint that could implicate him in such a grave crime.

But the man you worked for was even more stealthy, preparing his next moves before Liam Zajicek had the opportunity to do anything. And his next move was you.

The mission was easy, too easy for you. You would be lying if you denied feeling offended for receiving such a simplistic mission. It was as lightly as seducing Liam. Even if he was a talented hacker, he was still a young man who would be sex-driven.

A man in a tuxedo walked closer to you, a tray on his right hand, lowering it so you could grab the drink you craved. Nodding while offering him a charming smile, your eyes gazed around, trying to find the man whose pictures you had studied closely.

The ballroom was full of people. Elegant dresses and tuxedos, expensive drinks, and perfumes. It was the perfect environment to seduce someone, leading them out of the public eye to kill them. However, Liam was going to be luckier as your boss wanted to be the one taking care of him.

The golden light appeared to illuminate your beauty as you wandered closer to the bar, discerning your target talking to a considerably alluring woman. Sitting in a luxurious barstool, you crossed your right leg on top of your left one, causing the cut of the dress to expose your glowing skin.

Setting your intense gaze on him, waiting for his eyes to meet yours. Your tongue wetted your lip, exaggerating the action a little more as Liam Zajicek noticed you. His mouth turned into a smirk, eyes focused on you as he ignored whatever the red-haired girl was telling him.

The music turned into a ballad. Getting up from the barstool, you walked to the floor where some couples were already slow dancing, enjoying the closeness, and hoping to bring a nice one-night stand to their hotel room. As you walked to the floor, your gaze was focused on Liam. He completely ignored the red-haired woman, walking to where you were standing.

"Are you maybe waiting for someone who will have the chance to slow dance with you?" His voice was husky, and you weren't sure if it was due to the desperation he was radiating, or if it was his usual tone.

Your left hand grabbed his right hand, placing it on your waist. "I was hoping you would be that lucky someone." Your white teeth accentuated the red rich, rosewood lipstick.

His other hand instantly grabbed your other side, dragging you closer to him while your hands rested on his shoulders. "May I get your name?"

You wanted to groan, feeling a little overthrown. You expected to have fun during this mission, have some sexual tension yourself. But the way his hands only pulled you closer, without teasing you in some way was telling you that Liam Zajicek didn't have as much experience with women as he did with hacking.

"Holland," You lied, not displaying such valuable information to someone who was a mere target. "May I get yours?" This time it was you pulling him closer, biting your lower lip.

His eyes sparkled, and if you had gotten a little closer, he would have thrust against you, rutting just there. "I'm Adrian." You tried not to scoff, knowing that he was also lying.

His hands went lower, moving towards your back. He bit his lower lip too excessively, and you tried to contain a roll of your eyes. His hips got closer to yours, letting you know that there was a bulge growing, although nothing prominent.

"So," His fingers relocated, grazing your back. "Such a pretty lady coming to a party like this one on your own?" The knife being held by your garter ached to be grabbed. "Is your dad one of those rich men?" He smirked. "Because that means it will be difficult to impress you, baby." The pet name sounded lame coming from him.

Before you could answer, the music switched. The melody was still slow, a little more sensual, and you saw people wandering around to dance with other people, bodies even closer than before.

"May I take her from you now?" A deeper voice interrupted your words. Looking beside you, a man's gaze was focused on you. The other men preferred to look at your cleavage while this one preferred to gaze into your eyes, at least for now.

Before you could answer, the black-haired man had glared at Liam, making him walk away, whispering that he would try and find you later.

"Do I know you?" You did. You knew him, and he knew you. However, you both wanted to have a little fun, ignoring the detail of recognising each other.

Mitch Rapp innocently smiled at you. "I don't believe so." You had seen pictures of him that your boss had shown you, and this wouldn't be the first time Mitch Rapp had the same purpose as you. He had shaved his beard and styled his quite long dark hair. "But I wouldn't mind getting to know such a good-looking lady."

You grinned. Your hands dropped from his shoulders to run down his chest, pressing against firm muscles. Not caring about your long dress, his left leg parted yours, resting in the middle, grazing the sides of your inner thighs. His left hand slid from your back, resting upon your butt, pulling you even closer. His face near yours, warm breath hitting your top lip while his lightly upturned nose rested against the tip of yours.

"You told him your name is Holland, uh." He smirked. His right hand was on the right side of your waist, pulling you even closer to the point where your core was placed directly on top of his thigh. "I thought I told you this type of dudes are the CIA's business, Y/N."

You smirked, tongue leaping out to wet your lower lip, accidentally grazing his bottom lip, which made him try and hide a grunt. "You know I like the excitement of ruining your plans. And if Stan gets mad, it's a plus." You grinned. "Plus my boss wants him."

"I'm going to have to teach you a lesson." He scoffed. "So disobedient, always making my job harder." You suggestively glanced at him, noticing that wasn't the only hard thing you provoked as his bulge was pressed against your core. He understood what you were implying, shaking his head. The hand that was resting on your butt went to the front, brushing your tummy while going down. Disappointment overflowed you as his fingers skipped the part you desired he would graze, going directly under your dress, grabbing the knife that was being held by your garter. "You changed the place of the knife."

"Couldn't have you finding it again." You whined as his cold fingers left your thigh, not taking the blade as he was confident you wouldn't use it against him. "But seems like you did."

"Leave this one for me, baby girl." He referred to Zajicek, knowing he will have to fight you to take you away from whatever your boss had ordered you to do.

"Do you know how much I will get paid for this, Rapp?" Your hands went up again, circling his neck to bring him closer. Your next words made your lips brush against his. "A lot of money, Rapp. More than you can imagine." Your gaze moved around, remembering what you were there for. Mitch Rapp had distracted you from your objective. "Shit."

The man that was keeping you close to him turned around, following your gaze until he saw Liam speaking to a man while glancing at you two. He had discovered that you both were there to get him. He swiftly pushed through people, trying to escape both of you. "Fuck." Mitch's hands left your body, stepping as quickly as possible, following Zajicek. You did the same, trying to ignore the fabric stuck to your lower lips, confirming the effect Mitch Rapp had on you.

You lost both of them, finding yourself in an empty hall, glancing around. It wasn't until you heard a thump that you knew where both men were. Rushing to a white and golden door, you were met with Mitch as he dodged a chair that was thrown to his head by Liam.

You quickly walked closer, jumping on Zajicek's back, arms tightly around his neck, trying to choke him. "Mitch, he is mine." Your legs around his waist, pressing your thighs against him, trying to weaken the lower part of his body. Nonetheless, Liam Zajicek used his elbows to hit your stomach, causing you to fall on your butt and back, your breath being kicked out of you.

"No way, baby girl." He grunted as he ran after Liam again. As soon as you were able to get up, you ran behind them, seeing them going inside another room, which seemed to be an office. Liam tried to kick a shelf. Mitch was strong enough to stop the entire shelf from falling on top of him, although he would have a big bruise on the back of his arm.

Liam's eyes widened as he understood how tough, and trained Mitch Rapp was, running to a door that was inside the office. Pulling it open, he was met with no exit. Mitch and you ran to the other chamber, which was a bathroom.

You quickly kicked Liam's chest with your heels, making him wail in pain, collapsing on his bottom. Mitch gripped the boy's hair, dragging him over the white porcelain bath, turning the water on, and splashing his face with the head of the shower until he was turning purple as he couldn't breathe.

"Where's the SD?" You asked Zajicek. When he didn't answer you, Mitch turned the water on again. But the boy resisted, not wanting to reveal his secrets.

Your hands rapidly moved around Liam's body, going inside his pockets until your fingers found a hard object. Mitch Rapp was too distracted threatening the hacker. It was your opportunity to flew from the room with the SD you needed. Proof enough for your boss to get the money from finding and discovering the ways of Liam Zajicek.

You rushed out of the bathroom, not getting too far as a hand grabbed your right elbow. You didn't have time to turn around as a rough body pushed you against the desk placed on the middle of the office. Your chest was tightly squeezed against the hard wooden surface, while a body was pressed to the lower part of your body. A hand around the back of your neck, keeping you in place. A veiny hand came to view, grasping the SD card from your grip. "Such a snake, baby girl."

"I repeat," You tried to get away from his grasp, unsuccessfully. "I like ruining your plans."

"Good," You heard him shuffle behind you, probably hiding the SD in one of his pockets. "It's my turn to ruin you." There was no time to proceed his words as both of his hands went to the cut on your leg, ripping the dress so he could see what was underneath. His cold fingers grabbed the knife, throwing it somewhere in the room. "No underwear." He grunted, hips colliding with yours, showing how desperate he was.

You moaned, using your elbows to hold yourself up. You turned your head to look at him, his eyes already on you. "Underwear looks horrible with such a delightful dress." His eyes slipped from you to look down at your folds. Seeing the satisfaction in his eyes, you decided to move your hips back, hitting his hips again, leaving a little damp mark on the front of his pants due to your wetness. His eyes went back to yours, holding your gaze as the fingers of his right hand teased your folds, not touching them completely, just grazing them. "Mitch, you better touch me right now. I swear to g-." Your words were interrupted as he conducted your wish. Two of his fingers rubbing the wetness of your pussy all over your folds, making you gasp and hold his gaze.

"So wet." His fingers left your core, making you whine. He placed his hand between your centre and the desk, his fingers going back to the sought place. This time, toying with your clit as the other hand ran up, grabbing your boob through the dress, squeezing, and pinching. "Fuck. How can you be so wet even before I started touching you."

"You always do the same." Your hips trapped his hand against the desk, riding his hand as he played with your clit. "You always get me all turned on, and then, you leave." Your right hand stopped supporting your weight, blindly going behind your body until it was wrapping Mitch's bulge. "How can you be so hard even before I touched you."

"Shut up," He groaned, a little smirk decorating his face. His hand left your clit as he felt how you fere fastening your peace against him. His other hand removing yours off his bulge. He rapidly unzipped his jeans, and after thrusting his hips a couple of times against yours, he lowered his boxers. His left hand pushed your face against the desk, keeping you there as the head of his dick caressed your wet folds. "We have no time, baby girl. We have to be quick." He pushed the head between your folds, teasing. "No time to eat you out, no time to have my dick deep down your throat, and no time to finger you." You could notice that he was talking with a pout on his lips. He finally decided to shove himself fully in you.

"Mitch," You whined. "Don't go all soft on me, please." The grip he had around your neck tightened while his dick went out of your pussy, just to go back inside at a slow pace. You were going to beg him to do you harder, and faster, but the ringing of your phone interrupted you.

"Who's it?" Mitch mumbled. As you wanted to ignore the call, you didn't answer, which made Rapp stop his slow thrusts. When you complained, turning around to peer at him, he had an earnest expression. "I asked you a question, kitten." Your legs trembled, and you were grateful that Mitch and the desk retained your entire body.

With shaky fingers, you clutched your phone. Hazy vision trying to guess the ID of the caller. "Stan," You answered. Mitch couldn't help but smirk at the chance of fucking you while your boss was on call.

"Well, kitten." His hips went back, going forward, roughly, fastening the pace. "No more foreplay for us." Mitch and you did this in every mission that Stan sent the both of you to. You both acted as if you were each other's competition, ending up fucking somewhere after capturing or killing your target. "Answer him, baby." Your eyes widened, and before you could talk, Mitch thrust a couple of times into you, fast.

"Y-yes?" You replied after sliding your finger on the screen of the phone to accept the call.

"You guys are taking more time than normal. Was there any problem?" His annoyed voice sounded over the line, making you both roll your eyes.

Your hand went to your mouth, keeping yourself from moaning while being on the phone. Mitch was going harder and deeper as possible. His balls hitting your clit every time he thrust. "W-we already have him, Stan. We will be back soon." Soon, you were going to cum soon, not being able to hold back from how quick Mitch was doing you. "We are taking more time as I lost my knife," You plainly lied. "You know how much I love that kn-." A loud moan interrupted your sentence, followed by a couple of more.

"Oh my god, you horny rabbits." Stan realised what both of you were up to. "Finish quickly, and come back with Zajicek." He hung up.

"You heard him, kitten." He pushed you even farther into the desk, ordering you to stay there. His left hand went to your waist, moving your body to meets his thrusts. His right hand found its place on your clit, expertly moving in circles until your knees were buckling. "Come on, baby. Come on." He groaned, knowing you were so close to your high.

He pressed his chest against your back, his teeth biting your ear, not scared to moan loudly, letting you know that you had the same power on him that he had on you. "I'm so close baby." You could feel his dick grazing places that could make any woman pass out from pleasure. His member pulsating in you, letting you grasp that he was close.

A couple more of thrusts and he was cumming inside you, the movement of his hips still hitting you, perceiving you were close. "Mitch!" Your mouth was open, and a trail of drool running down your chin as your body shook from how hard you were cumming. His load filled you up, and even after both of you had reached your highs, Mitch was still inside you, pressed against you while breathing hard.

"Fuck, even quickies with you left me all satisfied." He groaned, deciding to slip his dick from you, which made you whine as you loved being filled up by him. Now, you moaned, the mix of your juices falling down your thighs. "Let me go grab you a towel." He moved to the bathroom, to come back a couple of minutes later with a warm wet towel on his hands, not hesitating to gently clean you up, knowing you were quite sensitive after sex.

"Hey," Your eyes widened. "What about Zajicek?"

"He was unconscious when I came here as you tried to escape." He hummed, concentrating on cleaning you up. "But when I went back inside to get the towel, he was conscious, tied to the bath. He probably enjoyed you moaning loudly." He winked, making you feel flustered.

"Mitch Rapp," You groaned. "My dress it's all ripped. How am I supposed to get out of this party like this?" You pointed at the ripped dress he was guilty of as he couldn't wait until you unzipped it to be inside you.

"You will have to keep closer to me, baby girl." He grabbed you, dragging you closer to his body. Your hands ended up against his firm chest. "Hard again?" You chuckled, feeling his bulge on the lower part of your tummy.

"Wait until we get home, Y/N Rapp." He winked. "I'm going to fuck you so hard, Ms. Rapp."

.

.

Taglist: @og-baby-ob14​ - @siwiecola - @linkpk88​ -

People in bold means I can’t tag them.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Okay listen,

No.

Charles you egotistical fucking dumbass.

I got so mad I didn't finish the episode for 24 hours. I went to watch it twice, remembered why it made me angry and noped back out.

So let's talk about this from an audience perspective, and -maybe- a perspective that's lacking in the text of the shows and movies.

So you have a member of your team who has a violent stalker. Let's start with that.

Let's review here for a second, the crimes of Sabertooth/Creed. Just the ones I remember from various versions of events as they bothered to be presented to us as an audience as it was relevant to the plot. This isn't about only judging one cohesive universe, this is about how the characters exist in the fan's psyche, so don't fucking nitpick me about "Uhm actually in -this- universe it was never confirmed he also did that"... Just listen.

Among the first disagreements they have even functioning as brothers and allies is that Logan keeps having to stop Creed from doing things like unnecessary murder and also rapes.

So naturally they end up disagreeing and eventually Logan leaves. People have every right to step away from their families when their families are toxic or abusive to them or other people. I don't think that "blood is blood" shit flies with any of us here anymore on tumbles dot com... And then the real bullshit starts.

Because in every universe Creed ends up part of plots -often knowingly and willingly- to brainwash or manipulate his brother into joining government programs and the weapon x project and various versions of that. Often working alongside other people who are manipulating someone Logan is close to, violating the consent of his relationships from the outside, and people Creed should absolutely know are sadists doing medical rape. All in the name of trying to force or trick his brother into coming back to the team.

And then, once Logan really manages, past trauma and manipulation and memory loss and memory wipes and psychological torture, to get the fuck away from them and join a team... What Sabertooth does is fucking stalk him all over the planet trying to murder him for the crime of uh... Yeah, leaving and refusing to come back, thus making him feel abandoned.

He had been shown to not just be an active threat to Logan, but also anyone he is close to or even lives around... Which now includes a school of kids and teens.

And everyone goes along with Logan's insistence that this is his fight and he can handle it... Except it shouldn't be his fight and he shouldn't have to handle it alone and really, -can- he? Or does he keep getting kidnapped and brainwashed or experimented on or both or brain damaged so badly that he's effectively died and come back a different person?

The narrative and the characters keep treating it like so long as his body is alive and his rough personality traits stay consistent, it's not really like him being killed because we the audience still get to have him, and his team still gets to have him, and people still get to make use of him in various ways -voluntarily or not- so he isn't really gone... But what the fuck about HIS experience of it? Why is it that even when his mind is completely destroyed in some continuities, people still act like it isn't actually murder?

I can tell you that the internal experience of something like that is very much being a ghost or another person piloting around a body that used to belong to someone else... But the writers don't seem to want to write it that way. They want to keep their main guy and keep putting him in situations.

And so textually and in the narrative, people keep acting like Logan can just handle this and it's his fight, but ALSO acting like every time he gets angry about Sabertooth being around he's just being aggressive for no good reason or isn't being rational, or like he should somehow handle the situation without killing Creed... And like he's being extreme or a bad person if he just offs the guy...

Who again, will not stop stalking him and trying to murder him, or get him tortured and medical raped, and do whatever else to everyone around him all over the damn planet.

And maybe you think I am being a bit sensitive about this, and maybe if you have watched me for a little while you might understand why, but I feel like MAYBE sometimes show runners and writers need it spelled out for them that they will have audience members who have had violent stalkers, who have had manipulative and obsessive family members or ex's, who have had friends and family who refused to have their backs and just keep acting like they should absorb abuse and stay calm and rational about it...

You, writing the x-men of all things, will have audience members who are disabled and have been subjected to things like doctors violating informed consent, being manipulated or forced into or out of reproducing, have been subjected to medical rape or to experiments they didn't agree to because those are things that happen to real people.

You will have audience members who have experienced memory loss and trauma so severe it has changed them fundamentally as people, or caused amnesia. These are not just abstract things that exist only in dramatic fiction. And you will have audience members that for reasons of being men, or being read unconsciously as more masculine, or nothing more elaborate than being older siblings or quieter siblings, or because women/girls are supposed to be more 'emotionally mature', already get the constant messaging that when people are abusive to them, it is their job to shut up and quietly take it without raising a fuss. Or to only respond to it in ways deemed appropriate/rational enough by other people.

It very quickly has gotten to the point where every time I see Sabertooth I want to murder him myself because Logan shouldn't have to. I know I am not alone. It's probably such a pervasive attitude by now that we all realize that scene in the deadpoolXwolverine movie was pure revenge fantasy for the audience, thank you Mr. Reynolds. I'm not a murder fantasy kind of person, or I never was before. Before this year I never got anything out of imagining murdering someone.

And I do agree that Charles should step in and fucking do something about this instead of leaving Logan to defend himself, especially after everyone repeatedly guilts him for ever trying to take time away from the team to himself... [constantly framing it as "abandoning" the team any time he tries to get away for a bit] Because it's a public facing team and it's a pretty good guarantee it means all his enemies and his fucking stalker know where to find him. And sure, you don't have to tell Logan until it's done so it's morally uncomplicated for him, fine.

But -the fuck- Charles, you do that by taking Sabertooth away to some separate-ass location to work with him, or by just fucking killing him. You DO NOT do that by kidnapping Logan's stalker, drugging him and assuming it will be effective past an unknown healing factor, and then bringing him into Logan's home, all without fucking telling him about it, and then try to keep it a fucking secret from him. WHAT THE FUCK CHARLES?!

AND THEN!

Then, the fuck, Logan finds out, and you *hears the dial up rage noises again* the fuck, when he's like "welp, I'm going to do the very reasonable thing of killing my stalker who has been brought into my fucking home by my idiot friends" YOU FUCKING, Charles tells him that if he wants to hurt Sabertooth he's going to have to go -through- him??? Sides with defending his fucking stalker in his own home? I don't care how responsible you'd feel Charles, should have fucking thought of that before bringing him there.

You people are very lucky you are dealing with Logan, and his temper, and not me and mine.

HE can be convinced his anger isn't appropriate no matter how called for it is. HE can be convinced he might not have the best judgement in the situation even though he knows Creed better than anyone, because he trusts you Charles. Logan can be fucking guilted into thinking his rage at the situation makes him animal-like or worse.

And

How fucking dare you perpetuate these ideas to manage him

2. I do not have these problems :)

The fact that it turned out to not be Sabertooth is both immaterial and illustrates another problem. No one thought it was suspicious that Logan didn't immediately smell Sabertooth being in his fucking house. Everyone thought they could sneak one past him and were all in on it.

All of humanity almost died because Charles had the fucking ego to think he could and should just deal with this -in Logan's home- without consulting or involving him, and because all of Logan's friends and found family went along with it and thought they could just hide it from him because they are ALL acting like it's Logan's temper that needs to be kept in check somehow, instead of trusting HIS fucking judgement about HIS fucking violent stalker.

As someone who has had more than one stalker by now, and has had to cut my family out of my life for not keeping my location out of their mouths, and who doesn't have offline friends anymore because I can't trust anyone to respect my boundaries, and who's constantly being treated like my irrationality is the problem and not the people staling or harassing or abusing me... Ask me how that makes me feel.

I mean you probably know the answer, but go on and fucking ask if you need clarification.

The only fucking reason I made it through that fucking episode is because it very quickly became completely not about Sabertooth or whether they should let Logan kill him.

Nevermind that if I was there I would sneak out while they were all arguing about it and kill him myself.

But in the end none of these issues were even resolved or addressed because the episode just took a hard swing into left field. So we just never addressed the completely inappropriate way everyone is acting about this. I did not hear a fucking apology.

I want writers to think harder about what they put male characters through and the messaging they enforce and encourage around it. If you gender swapped the characters, would it still feel okay? You don't have to stop Putting Logan in situations, I couldn't stop you if I wanted to, but consider the message to your audience of how everyone around him treats him about it.

I don't actually care how much of this character dynamic in media pre or post dates the old cartoon, I don't. We could be having these discussions about just the movies he was in or just the comic books, etc... It doesn't actually matter because you are constantly putting that guy through literal hell on repeat and then telling him his anger is inappropriate and that he has no right to take time to himself.

And my point is that you should probably at least be aware that some of your audience is going to find that highly fucking triggering.

Also if anyone touches a hair on Logan's head again I will do something to get on the news and make my mother's statements about me being "a quiet pacifist who wouldn't hurt a fly" seem like horrible and ironic foreshadowing of the worst kind.

Don't look at the timestamps and judge how long it took me to process this enough to be able to articulate it.

And that's not even getting into the other fucking bullshit that's put his way by friends alike that gets a pass because he's seen as a big man who can take it or as the assumed aggressor even when he isn't do not get me fukcing...

I have gotten to episode 67 and I am going to bite everyone's faces off, specifically Charles. I am going to physically fight Charles and then murder Sabertooth, my fucking gods, I'm hearing the dail-up rage noises and I need to go to bed now.

[zukkababey]

kyoshi warrior sokka and blue spirit zuko having like a Thing and not knowing who the other person is until later when zuko joins the gaang

oooof anon i have thoughts about this one

sokka, dressing up like a kyoshi warrior throughout the gaang’s travels to be a badass vigilante - aang and katara and eventually toph all have their bending and whatnot, but sokka just wants to help the towns that they stay in (à la katara and the painted lady)

it starts off irregularly, but then sokka realizes how much what he does actually helps the community (like incapacitating a petty criminal that’s been terrorizing the town, stuff like that) and he starts doing it in every town they come across

one day, there’s been whispers of someone who wanders the streets at night and jumps unsuspecting citizens, someone in all in black, someone called the blue spirit. sokka asks the shop vendors what they know, but no one knows anything, except the name and its proclivity for dual swords.

sokka finds this information very intriguing - that night, he puts on the kyoshi outfit and goes to investigate.

he’s actually expecting some kind of evil spirit, based on the way that everyone talked about the vigilante; imagine his surprise when it’s an actual person holding this unsuspecting citizen at swordpoint, demanding gold pieces. and the spirit is kind of small, too, whoever is behind the mask can’t be much older than him.

sokka steps in to rescue the person being robbed, and as the person runs off down the alleyway, the blue spirit turns to sokka. while the mask covers the person’s face, sokka can tell they’re not impressed.

they fight. zuko wins. sokka is reluctantly very impressed with this kid’s fighting skills. sokka was able to hold his own for the majority of the fight - he’s getting pretty good at being a vigilante! - but the blue spirit eventually gained the upper hand. two blades are crisscrossed over sokka’s throat, and as he’s pressed up against the wall, sokka says, “who are you?”

the blue spirit doesn’t stick around to answer that question. instead, they make a run for it, leaving sokka to stare after them in fascination.

the blue spirit keeps on showing up in the same towns as sokka, and so they keep meeting. after their first few encounters, sokka realizes that even though they fight, the blue spirit never really tries to kill him, which sokka finds very intriguing. and jeez, whenever they fight, sokka can’t help but notice the easy grace the spirit moves with, the lines of their body. it’s so frustrating that no matter how hard he flirts, the blue spirit will just NOT talk back.

there’s one time when they’re fighting each other (sokka would call it flirtily sparring) and there’s a scream from down the road. they don’t even discuss it before they race off to the sound. turns out it’s this gross man trying to get with some girl who’s not into it, and sokka and zuko effectively fight the dude together.

it becomes a beautiful partnership. just two masked vigilantes fighting crime, three feet apart because the blue spirit’s swords are very sharp.

but then the blue spirit stops showing up. sokka travels to ba sing se with the gaang, thinking his time with the blue spirit has come to an end. he pretends that he’s not disappointed.

but then sokka is walking down the street when jet attacks zuko, when zuko fights jet with nothing but his dual swords. sokka is caught behind a crowd of people, so he doesn’t recognize either zuko or jet, but he does recognize that fighting style. what the hell is the goddamn blue spirit doing fighting in the middle of the streets of ba sing se with no mask on?

sokka now knows that the blue spirit is a teenage boy with short black hair, and what the hell is he supposed to do with that information? he tries to push through the hordes of people, talk to the guy, but then the police are showing up and everyone’s scattering and sokka has no choice but to do the same.

he wouldn’t have time to investigate further - things get messy and then ba sing se falls and the gaang has to leave.

the blue spirit is the one who inspires sokka to learn sword fighting. sokka would never admit it, but it’s a way to feel closer to him now that they no longer see each other. he doesn’t tell anyone this.

fast forward to zuko joining the gang and sokka pulls the classic “hey jerks, can i watch you two do your jerkbending” and even though zuko says no, sokka still watches from afar. and damn... the way zuko moves seems somehow familiar to him... but he can’t quite place it.

it’s not until the boiling rock, when they’re fighting together on the gondola, that sokka finally realizes that zuko is the blue spirit. and by the way that zuko is looking back at him, sokka is pretty sure that zuko just figured it out too.

after a mental 180 where sokka realizes it was zuko who he was flirting with, he’s like “.....do you wanna do an activity together?” and zuko is like “.... but we just did an activity together” and sokka responds with “haha oh yeah”

anyways he tells anyone who asks that zuko took him to a high security prison for their first date and zuko is just in the background like “stop telling people that!”

(zuko secretly thinks their first date was when they fought that guy off in an alleyway, but he’s not going to tell sokka that, no way.)

[the-badger-mole]

Let's say you're on the writing team for Avatar when it was just an idea Bryke had. They've stepped back, letting the writers do what they do best. While Bryke certainly offer suggestions, they don't try shoehorning in their ideas.

What aspects of canon would you change and keep the same??

Would you have elements of a one-sided Kat@@ng, with Aang learning to let Katara go, or not have it at all??

If you were to write Aang as a character you actually liked, how would you do it??

Oh! I like this ask. Bet! Get a snack, because this is a long one.

In Book 1, I would keep Aang pretty much the same, but I would frame certain things he did the way they should have been framed. Like his whole deal on Kyoshi, leaving Katara to do all the work so he could flirt. That would have much more of an impact on his friendship with her. Subtle at first, but it would be the first blow against Kataang. Katara would gradually over the course of that first season have to confront the fact that she's pinned all her hopes of ending the war on a child. I think that making her face that reality would open the door to more conversations about how he felt about what the world expected him to do, and that would in turn lead to Katara helping Aang to face what happened at the siege on the NWT, and what he was being trained to do honestly.

Book 2 would be where Aang is confronted with his duty as the Avatar and what "ending the war" would mean. By this point, he knows in no uncertain terms that he's expected to kill Ozai at the very least, and his crisis of conscience happens here, and this is where he would start trying to figure out alternatives. At the same time, the people he's meeting talk to Aang and his friends honestly about what they've experienced in the war- famine; disease; loss of homes; seeing loved ones suffer and die brutally.

It all has an effect on Aang, and makes him cling tighter to Katara. Katara interprets it as platonic and doubles down on mothering Aang, even trying to shield him from the worst of the realities of the war as much as she can. When Aang tells his friends once again that he isn't sure if he can kill Ozai, someone snaps at him- Sokka I think- and tells him how the war has affected all of his friends personally, and that they don't have the luxury of feeling bad about Ozai dying, and what did Aang really think the army they were trying to gather was going to do on the battlefield, have a tickle fight (yeah...this feels like a Sokka moment). Here is where Aang finds out about Kya, I think.

Aang still goes to (the much less racist version of) Guru Pathik, and still fails to let go of his attachment to Katara. Zuko and Katara still have that moment in the caves. I haven't decided if Zuko still turns on them- on the one hand, I do think him joining the Gaang here could work. on the other hand, I think he needed to go home and see how much it doesn't fit him anymore. I could go either way. Aang still gets shot by the lightning and Katara still saves him.

As Aang and his friends travel through the Fire Nation, they spend more time with the poorest citizens. They find out how much they've suffered because of the war, and how much they also want it to end. Katara's stint as the Painted Lady lasts much longer, and she becomes a sort of urban legend, which may or may not get back to Caldera. If Zuko is on their side at this point, they start planting the seeds of rebellion on the promise of ending the war (none of the FN citizens know who he is of course). The Footloose episode doesn't happen. It's stupid and adds nothing. Instead, there's more focus on the propaganda and fear the FN leaders are spreading and finding out that there's already a rebellion brewing among certain pockets of the people. Piando plays a much bigger role in this season. He knows who they are, and helps connect them with a growing resistance movement.

Aang is still hung up on Katara, and still hasn't told them that he can't enter the AS or why. On the DoBS, he figures it won't matter since neither he nor Ozai can use firebending anyway. He keeps it too himself, and lies to his friends about being prepared to kill Ozai (well...not so much lying as telling them he's going to do what he has to and letting them assume). He still kisses Katara. They still lose this battle. The adults still sacrifice themselves for the kids to getaway.

When they get to the Air Temple, things get heated with Aang and Katara. Aang tries to run off and go play immediately, but this time, Katara lets him have it. She reminds him that she just lost her father again because he and so many other people surrendered to give them the chance to escape. She lays into him about his laziness and disregard for the people around him and tells him that he needs to shape up, or he'd get everyone killed. She becomes a lot stricter with his training at this point. Not cruel, but she's a lot less likely to tell Toph or Zuko to go easy on him, and she raises her expectations for his waterbending.

Aang gets his feelings hurt and he goes off by himself deep into the temple. He finds writings on AN culture and philosophy and actually begins learning about his people. He learns about airbending techniques he never learned. Some of it is clearly meant for battle. Aang learns that his people's views on the sanctity of life and killing aren't as black and white as he'd believed. This is also where he gets a hint of energy bending.

The Firebending Masters, Boiling Rock, and TSR still happen. Mai does not rescue Zuko and Co- that was something that never made sense to me. But then, most of Mai's characterization after CoD makes no sense to me. She's a character that needs a redo, too.

Katara and Zuko get closer during this time. Same as they do in the show. It's not quite yet a crush on either of their sides, but a lot more focus is given to the development of their friendship. They quickly become each other's go-to person in the group for support and to just hang out. Aang sees this and does not like it. It also makes his reaction to the play make a lot more sense, because he's already starting to suspect there's something between them. He confronts Katara about his feelings for her, her feelings for Zuko, and the kiss they never talk about. Katara says she doesn't really know how she feels about any of it, and she doesn't think this is the time or place to talk about it. Aang kisses her again. It's bad. Katara probably hit him this time. They don't talk alone again.

Aang is once again confronted with the expectation that he's going to kill Ozai. He has to this time, because Ozai is going to be at the height of his power, and won't hesitate to cancel Aang's subscription to Life. His friends finally realize he never actually intended to kill Ozai on DoBS, and demand to know what his plan is now. He still hasn't got one. He still hasn't told his friends about the AN philosophy scrolls he found at the air temple. He still insists that he can't in good conscience kill Ozai. Then his friends point out that millions more people will die if he doesn't. Aang goes off, gets kidnapped by the lionturtle and has the conversation with the past Avatars. They tell him he not only should kill Ozai, but he also has to let Katara go so he can use the Avatar State. Aang doesn't want to do either. Then the lionturtle gives him another way. Energy bending

The lionturle's way has consequences, though, and Aang is informed upfront that energy bending would bind him to whoever he used it on, and that it's influence was corrupting. If Aang wasn't careful, he could become as big a threat to the balance of the world as any Fire Lord had ever been. Aang doesn't understand that warning. He chooses energy bending and goes off to face Ozai.

It does not go well. There is no Rock of Destiny to magically give Aang access to the AS. There is just hyperpowered Ozai- with his decades of experience bending, and Aang, whose firebending is also strengthened, but who can't control his power as well as his opponent. He tries some of the battle techniques he read about in his scrolls. He hasn't got them down either, and some of them just feed Ozai's flames, but he manages to trap Ozai in a ball of air and suffocate him and the fire. He doesn't kill Ozai. He just leaves him disoriented long enough to energy bend him. Battle's over.

Aang brings Ozai back to Caldera, expecting to be hailed as a hero. He isn't at first, but then Iroh, Hakoda and other older and wiser people agree that it's better that Ozai gets to stand trial for his crimes. He ends up being sentenced to die anyway. Aang is furious, and then he discovers that some of his anger is Ozai's. He's bound to Ozai and now Aang has to work really hard not to let that bit of Ozai influence his personality. It's difficult, because Aang is genuinely angry enough that he can't tell what's his feelings and what is Ozai. Aang is now dealing with the fact that despite being the Avatar, people aren't willing to take him seriously, and won't not kill Ozai. He also has still not gotten over his crush on Katara and can't control the AS. On top of that Katara tells him that she doesn't feel the same way about him, and later he finds out that she's fallen for Zuko. Hard. Stupid hard. Like, they've already decided to get married in a few years, hard.

It's a bad time to be Aang. Book 3 would end with him being overwhelmed by his hurt, disappointment, and anger. Roku comes to him and suggests that he go back to Guru Pathik and learn from him. And so the last scene is Aang slipping away without telling anyone he's leaving. Toph may or may not join him. IDK.