#I like Fitz too but just imagine THE COMPETITION

[becca-e-barnes]

I need more of needy Bucky who loses control from the feeling of being inside your pussy. I need him to fuck me like a rag doll and to carry me over his shoulder around the house like his personal flesh light.

Fuck, this has always been one of my very favourites to write. I really like to imagine that he struggles to last but he can keep going after he finishes 🙈 it's my lil filthy fantasy

But imagine spending the morning in bed with him. You both wake up around 6am and you spend the first little while just touching and chatting before a couple of hours of sex. Now it's maybe around 11am and after lying there together for a while, you're both in the mood for something to eat.

You pull a robe around you and that's just about as much as you manage before Bucky's scooped you up, carrying you to the kitchen.

"You don't need to carry me everywhere!" You tease, remembering that he'd carried you up the stairs to bed last night too.

"I know. But. Carrying you means. I. Can put you. Exactly. Where. I want you." He peppers kisses over your face and neck, tenderly capturing your bottom lip between his before he sets you up on the kitchen countertop.

There's no point arguing with him so you sit there quite happily. He makes up a quick pancake mix, washes some berries from the fridge, preps the coffee machine and sets the little dining table for the two of you.

Somewhere in between, you got a little distracted, perched on the counter scrolling on your phone. You hadn't noticed the way he's looking at you.

He's so caught up in the little things; the way the light hits your shoulder, the curve of your hips, the way the silhouette of your nipples are visible against the satin robe.

"Look at you, sitting there all sweet like your cunt isn't so fucking full of me."

That's got your attention.

You squirm a little, your body fluttering at how shamelessly vulgar he's being but nothing's stopping you from doing the same.

You spread your legs, exposing the slick mess coating your inner thighs. It's a mixture of your own arousal and Bucky's cum, dripping out of your sensitive cunt.

Your fingertips trail lazily over your exposed sex, your skin glistening in the natural light before you bring your fingers to your own lips, sucking them clean, giving him a little bit of a show.

"Tastes amazing, sweetheart." You groan, noticing the growing bulge in his thin pyjama bottoms. "But I lost track of how many times you came inside me this morning. You came so deep, most of your cum won't have dripped out yet. Bet I'm still totally stuffed full."

He sinks to his knees in no time, settling his head between your thighs, breathing in the faint smell of your arousal. His tongue presses flat to your sex, trailing from your hole to your clit and back, gathering as much of your combined release as possible.

He groans, low and pathetic, allowing his tongue to dip inside you as deep as he can bury it. He savours every drop of cum he earns back from your body.

When his tongue alone isn't enough, he slips a finger into you, followed quickly by a second, curling them against your sensitive inner wall.

"Bucky baby, please don't make me cum again." You groan, your fingers tangled in his dark hair but you know he's not giving you that choice. Not when his free hand is furiously stroking his own cock, desperate to ensure that when he's finished licking his cum out of you, he can flood your cunt with another load.

[literaturewithliz]

hi! this will perhaps seem controversial, but could you do an enemies to lovers headcanons with dex? for example, the reader could be a neverseen member who has a similar personality to keefe, who was forced to come along to terrorize sophie, and them and dex start off hating eachother but one day one saves the other, earning mutual respect, and after that they don’t try to purposely hurt eachother in fights, and then the reader joins the black swan after being betrayed, and eventually becoming dex’s s/o if it’s not too much? thanks.

-d.dizznee anon

Hello! Thanks for requesting again! You keep my mind active and I love you for it. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about doing the Neverseen idea involving the battle, because: 1. I suck as writing battle scenes and 2. Violence irl and in fiction kind of makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I can still write enemies to lovers headcanons! I hope you like them!

I think it’s a classic academic rivals to lovers

I get the feeling that for this scenario, the s/o is Talentless.

But they don’t know for sure, cause it’s level two/one.

Now, they meet before Dex realizes that he’s a Technopath.

So at this point, they both think they’re going to end up Talentless.

But the one thing they are good at is school. Save for ability detecting, obvi.

They both have a rep for coming from “odd” families, but also for being good at school.

And neither of them like that the other is threatening their spot as “best Talentless kid”

Cause they both think that the only worth they have comes from their intelligence, so anyone who threatens that is immediately on their bad side.

When results are posted for tests, they’ll act cocky towards each other and smug if they get the better grade.

They squabble a lot, and earn a bunch of detentions

But one day, Stina Heks decides to make the reader her next target

And they try to keep a calm and collected front, but Dex can tell that they are hurting, because he knows what it’s like.

Dex is kinda livid, ngl.

Only HE gets to make fun of them, what was Stina thinking?

He pranks her by putting the balding serum in her lushberry juice.

The next day, Sophie Foster turns up Slurps and Burps, which is where reader and their parents happen to be shopping, too.

And while Soph and Edaline are speaking to Dex and Kesler, Stina and Vika storm into the shop, and Stina is bald.

Can you tell this is the scene from book one?

And Dex is there all smug cause his prank worked, and the reader notices the commotion, and sees the girl who was just calling her a freak yesterday, shriek her head off at her academic enemy.

Dex sneaks a glance at the reader, and they instantly know he did it for them.

The reader is very confused, but also very appreciative.

Why was Dexter Dizznee defending them?

Nevertheless, they hold in the giggle from watching Stina LOSE it.

And they leaves the store, with a small smile on their face.

After that, things kinda change.

They’re both very competitive still, but instead of being salty when one of them gets a lower grade than the other, they congratulate them.

They sit next to each other at lunch sometimes, with Jensi, Marella, and Sophie. And later, Keefe, Biana, and Fitz join them.

Both Dex and reader are very skeptical about those last two.

They back each other up when Sophie defends the Vackers.

But they never push it, because they’re grateful to even have friends.

Months pass, and Dex and Soph are kidnapped.

Reader is inconsolable.

They never knew how much they cared about Dex till he was gone.

Then his funeral comes around, and reader doesn’t think they’ll ever be happy again, having lost their friends.

Needless to say, they’re so overjoyed and relieved to know that they’re okay.

And Dex sees them a bit differently, having just spent weeks away from them in pain, and being confused as to why the only person he really wanted to see other than Sophie while he was barely alive was the reader.

He decides that he likes these newfound feelings.

I imagine he and the reader get together around the same time Sophie and Fitz do, ironically.

I’m sorry, I just can’t think of more ways to take this further, but let me know if you have any ideas!

[novafire-is-thinking]

Behind the Playlist - Transformers: Prime Edition (Part 18 of 22: Smokescreen)

Link to the other posts in my Behind the Playlist series

✧ ✧ ✧

I have my issues with Smokescreen, but I think it’s fitting that he was Team Prime’s final recruit before the end of The War. He came at the right time. Somehow, the kid knew he was made for something pretty magnificent. Imagine that—being sent to your destiny across galaxies by the very bot you thought was the most boring hermit in existence. lol

Intended overarching themes and/or qualities: Adventurous Dreamer, Competitive Ambition, The Eager Hero

My personal favorite(s) from this playlist: Thunder, Superhero, Wake Me Up, Immortals, Rise, Livin Right, and Smoke

✧ ✧ ✧

Full song list and explanations under the cut:

Thunder by Imagine Dragons

“Just a young gun with a quick fuse / I was uptight, wanna let loose / I was dreaming of bigger things and / Wanna leave my own life behind / Not a "Yes sir", not a follower / Fit the box, fit the mold / Have a seat in the foyer, take a number / I was lightning before the thunder”

Zero by Imagine Dragons

“Hello, hello / Let me tell you what it's like to be a zero, zero / Let me show you what it's like to always feel, feel / Like I'm empty and there's nothing really real, real / I'm looking for a way out”

As Alpha Trion’s very bored personal bodyguard, Smokescreen waited not so patiently for his time to get out and take part in the fight for Cybertron. He felt like a zero compared to his peers, I’m sure.

Superhero by Simon Curtis

Smokescreen emerged from the Decepticon escape pod with a dream he’d carried for a long time—to be a hero in some way. I’d say he fulfilled that.

Wake Me Up by Avicii

“Feeling my way through the darkness / Guided by a beating heart / I can't tell where the journey will end / But I know where to start / They tell me I'm too young to understand / They say I'm caught up in a dream / Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes / Well that's fine by me

So wake me up when it's all over / When I'm wiser and I'm older / All this time I was finding myself, and I / Didn't know I was lost”

Immortals by Fall Out Boy

I will forever associate this song with team work and found family thanks to Big Hero 6. Of all the members of Team Prime, I think it fits Smokescreen best.

Unstoppable by The Score

“We can be heroes everywhere we go / We can have all that we ever want / Swinging like Ali, knocking out bodies / Standing on top like a champion / Keep your silver, give me that gold / You will remember when I say / We can be heroes everywhere we go / Keeping us down is impossible / 'Cause we're unstoppable”

No Limits by Zayde Wølf

“I've been walking tall lately, nobody can hold me down / Things are moving like crazy, no, nothing can stop me now / I'm dreaming it, I'm dreaming it / I'm living big, I'm living big”

Rise by Will Shepard

This one captures Smokescreen’s enthusiastic ambition sprinkled with a little bit of a carefree attitude.

Livin Right by The Score

“This gotta be livin' right / The rhythm is so in time / Sparks ignite like kerosene / Writing out our history / This gotta be livin' right, yeah”

Don’t Wanna Be by The Score

“I don't ever wanna be someone who follows everybody else / When everyone is busy out chasing, I'll make another road myself / 'Cause I know I was meant for something more / There's gotta be something here worth fighting for”

Smokescreen certainly made another road for himself and found something worth fighting for (with a little help from Alpha Trion, of course).

Big Dreams by The Score, FITZ

This is the kind of song I’d imagine Smokescreen listening to during his time with Alpha Trion, especially if he was often put down by his comrades for not being in the “real fight.”

Here We Go by Clear Blue Fire

“Born ready, I was made to run / Won’t stop, I got what it takes / I won’t back down, now I’m rising up / I’m going all the way

Watch me now, I’m writing my name / I’m writing my name in the stars / Here we go, here we go / Let’s fly, I can feel it comin’ / Here we go, here we go / To the sky, now watch me runnin’ ”

Sky by Altrøx, Frosty

For whatever reason, this song gives me Smokescreen vibes.

Smoke by Hidden Citizens, HAYASA G, Kazu, Bryce Fox

“When you see smoke, what you gonna do? / Don't you wanna light that fuse? / Where you gon' go? When you see it in the sky? / Don't you wanna ride in the hype? / What you got to lose? Who you fighting for? / What will you do when you see smoke?”

For this song, I’ve decided on two interpretations: (1) Smokescreen being questioned by those who doubt his battle competence; (2) Smokescreen taunting his enemies.

The Future Is Golden by Oh The Larceny

“Slip into the moment / Yeah, I'm facing that mystery / It's my time to hold it / Can I make history? Yeah”

This entire song lines up perfectly with Smokescreen’s slight overconfidence, naïveté and youthful eagerness to make history in his own way. At least it paid off for him in the end.

Born to Live by About A Mile

Wake up! What are we waiting for? / We know that we were made for more / We're not living just 'cause we were born / There's no doubt about it / We were born to live / Born to live

✧ ✧ ✧

Notes:

This post series is in alphabetical order. Next up are Soundwave and Starscream.

As I add more songs to the playlist, I’ll update this post.

[cmagines]

What We Become: Prologue

Fandoms: Criminal Minds, Agents of SHIELD

Summary: In the aftermath of Afterlife, Y/N decides to leave SHIELD and aim for a job opening in the FBI.

Word Count: 1,278

           Nightmares were to be expected before starting a new job. That’s what you told yourself, repeatedly, until you halfway believed it. Never mind that your new job was likely to be a cake walk considering the last year you’d been through. Rapists? Murderers? Dark stuff, but nothing compared to the webs of violence and espionage you’d finally left.

           It was too early to be awake. It was too pointless to go back to sleep. The treadmill took a pounding from your feet, and then your shower ran as hot as you could bear. When you had first joined SHIELD, you had hated training, but now exercise was such a part of your routine that you struggled to rest without burning out the energy in your muscles. The shower that followed was even better. You could imagine that the water washed away more than just sweat and shampoo. On bad days, you unwillingly imagined tiny specks of stone being carried down the drain.

            The clock read almost six once you were dressed in your robe, so you took your time making breakfast, hoping that some food would calm your stomach. After all, you had no idea what exactly you were walking into and being prepared could only serve you well. Coulson had said you were a shoo-in, but it was a competitive position and you still had to get the other foot through the door. That in mind, you had a sizeable meal and packed an equally sizable lunch.

           Though there was enough time to fuss about your outfit, you didn’t see the need to bother. SHIELD agents dressed just like FBI agents. At the end of the day, a fed was a fed, and to make a good impression, you needed to show that you could fit in, play ball. You spent the rest of your extra time skimming recent news on your phone before heading out early in case of traffic. Driving was another thing you’d have to quickly get used to, right up there with staying in one place and cooking only for yourself.

           The FBI had a parking garage that connected to their two buildings. One was their training center, while the other was headquarters. Both were heavily secured – not to the point that you didn’t think a sufficiently motivated terrorist could get in, but enough so that you felt fine leaving your emergency stash of cash in the glove compartment before taking out your gloves.

           It was the first time you had opened the box, and you let out a deep breath as you saw them. Fitzsimmons had come through, as always. They were almost identical to the pair they had made for Skye – well, she went by Daisy now – except for that there was less texturing on the outside. Jemma had designed them that way to be less conspicuous. The gloves fit like gloves, to borrow a satisfyingly accurate phrase, but they felt airy enough to be comfortable.

           After you had landed in her shoes, Daisy had been able to help you in a more efficient way than Lincoln had been able to help her, simply because she knew exactly how to train you. Once you had a handle on exercising your powers, targeting your abilities came more easily. The gauntlets weren’t supposed to be as necessary as they had been in the beginning for Daisy, but it was better to be safe than sorry – especially among people who knew the bare minimum about how the world was beginning to change. You curled your fingers into fists and inhaled deeply, practicing the mindful breathing that Dr. Garner preached to you. Between Fitz’s genius engineering and Dr. Garner’s coaching, you felt confident that you could control yourself enough to blend in and leave your strange “heritage” in the past.

           Daisy ached to see you go and it pulled at your heart to leave her behind. She had become such an essential part of your life that it felt like betraying a sister, especially now that she could use your support more than ever. Her Secret Warriors project was on thin ice from the start, and a trusted right hand would go a long way to solidifying the tentative ground she rested on. But, as you looked down at your gloved hands, the power in them still made you wish you’d never set foot in Afterlife, and that was how you knew it was the right call to walk away.

           The question that remained was whether you had walked to the right place in the aftermath. Leaving your lunch and your go-bag – which you had packed in the spirit of optimism – in your car, you headed for the doors to headquarters and fastened your new ID to your belt where you could easily reach it. Bobbi would have had a fit if she’d seen, scolding you about how easily a thief could steal it. Right now, a thief was the last thing on your mind. You had an interview to ace, and hopefully a new team to impress.

           The directory told you where to go. There were two other people on the elevator when you entered, but only one of them got off with you on your floor. The big glass doors in front of the bullpen office space were more nerve-wracking than exciting, especially when you realized that if you failed to impress, the odds were slim that you would ever walk through them again.

           You weren’t certain where to go but hoped that if you walked with confidence, no one would think you looked pathetic or suspicious. Your gut told you that the man in charge would have an office to himself, so you picked a path that went along the left side of the room towards the mezzanine stairs. You caught the attention of a brown-haired man at a desk facing the wall you walked past, and to pretend not to notice, you looked at the wall instead and realized it was a memorial to agents who had died in the line of service. It was sobering.

           Maybe this wouldn’t be such a cake walk. SHIELD had put you through loads of convoluted worst-case-scenarios, some of them even involving aliens, but that didn’t mean that danger began and ended with what could be classed as science-fiction. Even with your added advantage – which you were determined to keep under wraps for as long as possible – you were fallible, just like Daisy, Sif, and SHIELD itself. Thinking otherwise would get you killed, and possibly some others alongside.

           Breathe. You were perfectly qualified. This was still bound to be safer than your former position. And as a bonus, no one was going to know what your former position actually was. An old friend at the Triskelion had helped you make sure of that. The last thing you wanted was to quit before you even began, beaten to the punch by breaking news or bureaucratic red tape. You were even outsmarting the newborn Index by legally taking a new surname. Just so you didn’t forget all you were capable of, all you had survived, and all you could still lose, you picked one that reminded you of family.

           The agent’s name was on a plaque centered on his ajar office door. You raised your left hand and knocked with your knuckles.

           “Come in,” the man’s voice called, sounding busy but almost friendly.

           With your wrist, you pushed the door open wider to step into the organized office and introduced yourself, politely but confidently. “Good morning, Agent Hotchner. My name is Y/N Johnson, and I’m here to interview for the open position in the Behavioral Analysis Unit.”

A/N: This crossover idea has been floating around in my head for a couple of weeks. I’m curious if anyone is interested, so I decided to write a quick little introduction. What do you guys think?

[jazzanddaydreams]

Evidence and reasons to ship Sophiana that literally no one asked for

Disclaimer: I myself am a multi-shipper, so I ship both Sophiana AND Dexiana (and sokeefe of course), but anyway here's my reasoning for Sophiana (no hate to the other ships). This is WAYYYYY overly long and my adhd brain is crying trying to proof-read it so fair warning

1. Representation in this series. Even though I know it probably won't happen with these two, I can still dream. 

2. Both Sophie and Biana are strong independent females who have been sucked (mainly unknowingly) into love triangles in the midst of whatever mess is going on with the Neverseen. 

3. In the beginning of the series, Biana seemed to hate Sophie, but after persuasion from Alden, became friends with Sophie. From there, the two of them have had a couple of rocky moments (Alden's memory break, where she didn't hate Sophie, she just wouldn't talk to her or anyone, which is less harmful of a reaction that Fitz's. Also when Stina reveals that Biana became friends with Sophie initially because of her dad) but overall have been growing into good friends. 

Now for my evidence (be forewarned there's a LOT, but still not all my evidence bc I mainly skimmed through my books I had on hand): 

Book 1: 

Fitz in the first book is shocked when Sophie says she thinks Biana hates her, stating that they're  pretty similar (first book, I don't remember the page number or exact quote). 

 Page 272, in general, when Sophie hands Biana her midterms present, and Biana asks if she's coming over for dinner. After that interaction, both Dex and Maruca (Biana's best friend at the time) are glaring at Sophie. Maruca's reaction can be explained by being best friends and feeling like she's losing Biana (though hmm....), but Dex's reaction is a bit harder to explain, thus my reasoning. Dex at this time has a major crush on Sophie, and yes he hates the Vackers, but that doesn't explain why he's mad at Sophie, unless he feels like he has competition from Biana for Sophie's affections, and is glaring to try and stop her from forgetting he's an option (oh boy my poor child). 

Also just through the rest of this book, when Sophie is having troubles or avoiding her, Biana is actually worried, and cares about her friend, not lashing out at her, just wondering if she's going to come over, and being obviously disappointed when Sophie declines her invitations. "She's right though. Red is definitely your color." 

Book 2: 

Page 567. "'Uh, I've always known that,' Dex said, sitting on her other side. 'But remember? I like weird.' 'Me too,' Biana chimed in." We know later that this statement from Dex was him literally saying that he liked Sophie, but the big thing about this is that Biana agrees immediately after. Before Fitz agrees. This could be read as just friends, but I read it otherwise. 

Book 3: Page 590. Biana is fighting Gisela on Mount Everest, in extreme conditions. Sophie looks at her and is like "Did you know Biana could fight like that?" like she's impressed, and I mean it's very impressive because she's taking down an adult in extreme conditions, but they're in the middle of a fight, and Sophie takes the time to notice and point out Biana's fighting skills. Which seems a little bit ship-y. Later on this page she is written as smiling at imagining Biana fighting Fitz and Keefe and smiling, and then screaming when Biana almost dies, along with Biana's former crush (Keefe) and her brother (Fitz). 

Page 511. Biana literally hides in Magnate Leto's office when Sophie was getting her ability restricting circlet (HIGHLY FORBIDDEN AND DANGEROUS) and watches in silent support. She breaks so many rules doing that, and then to top it off, on this page she says she doesn't "think I could've been that brave." Which is extremely sweet given the circumstances, and knowing just how much she risked going in with Sophie and yet calling Sophie the brave one, it's just very sweet. 

Book 4: 

(Oh boy I love this one there's so much fuel here.) 

 Page 9. "Dex pretended to gag, while Biana stared at Keefe's arm around Sophie." This is generally read as Biana being jealous of Sophie getting Keefe's attention, but it can also be read as Biana being jealous of Keefe being able to get that close to Sophie in that way (and that is how I am choosing to interpret it). 

I would also like to point out that Biana chooses to run away with Sophie to be with the Black Swan. She doesn't have to. She could stay in the Lost Cities and serve her minimal punishment, then get back to her life. But she chooses the dangerous option to BE WITH SOPHIE, which speaks a lot about these two and how their relationship has grown from mutual animosity to ride-or-die friendship. 

Page 31. "'But we're in costume!' Biana argued. 'Yeah, but you guys will stand out. I mean...look at you. You look like models.'" Sophie literally says Biana looks like a model (along with the boys of course, but she's including EVERYONE in her group) (plus she also comments in her head NUMEROUS times that Biana is gorgeous, or pretty, or looks like a princess, and I don't know about you but I don't go around thinking about how gorgeous all my friends look, I mean they're all amazing people but I don't go around thinking "oh wow [friend] looks like a fabulous princess with their on point makeup and effortless looking outfit." It's just a little bit indicative  that Sophie might like Biana as more than just a friend, hidden in the deep reaches of her oblivion at least). 

Also I would just like to point out that on page 38, when the group sees the statue of David, Keefe immediately reacts to it, and Sophie has no immediate gross out factor, she's just like yeah it's art and this dude is naked so what, which I find a bit telling but idk. 

Bonus: Biana finds the fact that the statue is naked a bit disgusting, and is terrified at the thought of running into it, which also seems a bit telling. 

Page 77. aka the page where Biana compliments Sophie's eyes and calls them "striking and unique." 

Page 167, 168, 169. THEY LITERALLY SLEEP IN THE SAME BED TOGETHER TO COMFORT EACH OTHER. BIANA WENT TO SOPHIE'S ROOM FIRST WHEN SHE COULDN'T SLEEP AND IS IN NEED OF COMFORT, EVEN THOUGH HER MOM IS literally within walking distance away. 

Page 168 "The soft sound of Biana's breathing made the room feel warmer"

Page 615 "...especially when she realized Biana was there too. She pulled her soggy hair forward to cover her face. 'It's cold here.' 'It is,' Biana agreed. Sophie couldn't tell if the strain in Biana's voice was exhaustion or something else." This is after Biana and Alvar interrupt Sophie and Keefe basically cuddling in the cold after almost dying. This could be interpreted as Biana being sad that Sophie seems to be choosing Keefe over her, and she's struggling to deal with that. 

*~*

After these moments, Biana kind of fades into the background, along with Dex, until around book 8 (and even then....yes I'm a bit bitter that my girl doesn't get page time), so I'm going to skip ahead. 

Book 8: 

page 135. "...next to her daughter wearing a peacock blue gown with shimmering gold beading that was almost as stunningly beautiful as she was." Reminding you of her constant appeal to Biana's appearance, and also this is after Biana has been MAJORLY scarred, yet Sophie still finds her beautiful and oh look I'm crying now (onto the next!) 

Page 256: "'You okay?' Biana asked, plopping down beside Sophie on the grass and reaching out to brush some of the fallen pinkish, purplish, bluish petals out of Sophie's hair." this kind of thing is generally reserved for Fitz or Keefe, so I was SHOCKED when I read this. She's pulling the 'brushing the person's hair out of their face' ploy and I'm so here for it. 

Also, just Biana's reactions to Sophie dating her brother are a bit odd, as if she is only reluctantly okay with them being together. 

Unlocked (8.5): 

Biana's file: page 76. "Ultimately, though, Biana and Sophie have grown to genuinely respect and admire each other, and are now well and truly friends." This is under the heading explaining that Biana has trouble making friends because of complications with her brother,  and then goes on to mainly explain Biana's friendship with Sophie, which just...points toward the slim possibility of Sophiana. 

I'm not holding out a lot of hope, because I know it's probably not going to become reality, but I do have my reasoning and a decent amount of evidence, and I still can enjoy my ship from afar as the ship wars rage on. Because with these two gals, we could: 

1. Have the possibility of a healthy relationship where neither party is afraid to tell the other something

2. both balance each other out personality-wise

3. they've also gone through some rough spots but in all have retained a steady friendship in which Sophie isn't afraid Biana will betray her or hate her for anything (unlike SOME boys (I'm sorry, I love Keefe it’s just his decisions haven’t been all that great lately)) 

So yeah, tl;dr Biana and Sophie have the possibility of being in a great relationship built on support and trust and I put way too much effort into this

(Part 1 bc I’ll have more evidence eventually)

[ladyespera]

for the ask game--the Delgado!Master, C'rizz, and Fitz Kreiner

watch me overthinking these like 

anyways, easy one first:

get as my employee trainer for my new job at McDonalds: ABSOLUTELY  Delgado!Master. I feel like I don’t even need to explain this. Like. Can you even imagine any Master trying to be an employee trainer anywhere, probably posing as part of their next big scheme and doing a terrible job of it? Now I probably wouldn’t learn much and true I am probably putting all the staff and/or myself in terrible danger, but, well....it’d be entertainment value for sure.

get randomly assigned as your lab partner for a whole semester: okay this one was more difficult because my mind on first instinct immediately went “fitz” probably because (this will sound terrible) internally i somehow was like, well, i might know more than him in it (depending on the lab) and also keep him relatively safe hopefully. but. we’re supposed to be partners and idk it just seemed arrogant to me to think that way so actually i’d go with C’rizz. yes, we might end up sniping at each other and/or he might hate lab work, but on the other hand, he seems focused and precise so i wouldn’t worry about the quality of the work, he’d probably be better than i so i could learn something new, he has an exoskeleton so that’s great for keeping a little safer, and all together that might make us very successful in the lab class. (maybe i shouldn’t turn lab into a competition...😬)

get trapped with on a broken elevator for ten hours: Fitz. I would have been fine with C’rizz too but Fitz is probably the safest option out of all 3, actually. We could have a nice chat and I’m sure he’d have lots of interesting stories. Unfortunately I’m not a licensed therapist so I can’t help him much, but I’m at least confident in my ability to squash any romantic proposals/attractions.

[westannatasharomanoff]

THG AU Chapter 26

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3     Chapter 4    Chapter 5    Chapter 6 Chapter 7   Chapter 8   Chapter 9  Chapter 10   Chapter 11 Chapter 12  Chapter 13 Chapter 14  Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17  Chapter 18 Chapter 19   Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22  Chapter 23   Chapter 24  Chapter 25

A reminder before we begin that this is an AU and not everything needs to be possible in original canon.

*Once Bruce and Natasha got back to the house and unpacked Bruce’s bags, they decided to sit together in the living room for a bit before dinner. Natasha lasted about two minutes before she fell asleep on his lap. About ten minutes later, he heard a knock at the door.*

Bruce: Who is it?

Wanda: It’s me, Wanda.

Bruce: Oh, come in. *points to Natasha* Just be quiet.

Wanda: *enters* I need to talk to you.

Bruce: What’s wrong?

Wanda: I need to know who’s okay.  What happened to everyone in District 3?

Bruce: *sigh* Oh, that. Tony was with me and he’s okay. His daughter, Morgan, was found in an old storm cellar, so she’s alive. They never found his wife, Pepper, and Vision’s definitely dead. That’s everyone you know. 

Wanda: *tears in her eyes* Oh.

Bruce: Are you all right? 

Wanda: No, this is all my fault! I shouldn’t have- I’m so sorry! *runs to the door*

Bruce: It’s not your- *door shuts behind Wanda*

*Bruce sighed and looked down at Natasha. He kissed her on the forehead and stood up to make dinner. He woke her up to eat and they went to bed early. The next day, a hovercraft arrived with all of Bruce’s lab equipment and a spare bedroom was turned into a lab. They got settled pretty quickly, and after a week they couldn’t imagine things any other way. Two weeks after the wedding, the victory tour took place. The winner of the 90th Hunger Games was a boy from District 4 and his tour went pretty well. Two weeks after the tour, they got a visit from a man that looked strikingly similar to President Snow.*

Natasha: *opens the door* (shocked) President Snow! To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?

Ego: I’m not President Snow. I’m his brother, Ego. Although, I do bring a message from him. Can I come in?

Natasha: Of course! We were just about to eat breakfast. Bruce! The president’s brother came to see us. 

Bruce: What? Oh! Hello sir. Please, sit down! Would you like some raisin nut bread? 

Ego: Sure. Thank you. 

Natasha: You said you had a message from the president? 

Ego: Yes. I do. You see, there’s a rumor of a secret organization being started to rebel against The Capitol. We need you to give the districts something to talk about other than the accidental bombing of 3 so that this movement doesn’t take off.

Bruce: What do you want us to do?

Ego: Nothing too big, we just want you to have a baby.

Natasha: *dropping her plate* A baby?! Now what gave you that idea? I’m not- I mean- are you sure you meant to say baby? I never said we were having a baby! 

Ego: Yes, a baby. That’ll distract the people. We’ll even send the best interior designer in The Capitol to build your nursery. 

Natasha: We can’t just decide exactly if and when that happens! Like, what, you think we can just have one right now? 

Ego: Both of my children were fairly easy. Make it happen. Anyway, where did you get this raisin nut bread? It is absolutely delicious and I want to bring some home to my daughter and son. 

Bruce: Our friend Wanda made it. She won the 88th games and cooking is her hobby. She made several loaves yesterday. 

Ego: I’ll have to ask her for one. 

Natasha: Wait, so you're just going to force us to have a child? Shouldn’t that be our decision? 

Bruce: Nat, calm down. We wouldn’t want to upset our guest. 

Ego: Listen to your husband. Bruce, thank you for controlling your wife.

Bruce: She doesn’t need to be controlled, we just wouldn’t want to be rude to our special surprise visitor. 

Natasha: Right, I’m sorry. 

Ego: I’ll be back in a month to see how things are going. 

Natasha: Okay. *under her breath* This is awkward.

Bruce: *after he leaves* What’s awkward? Why did you get so defensive? What’s gotten into you? Are you pregnant or something?

Natasha: *slightly annoyed* Surprise! 

Bruce: Wait, what? Seriously? 

Natasha: Yep.  I wasn’t going to tell you quite yet, but...

Bruce: This is so exciting! I can’t believe this! You should tell Ego right now so he doesn’t have to come back!

Natasha: Uggh, fine. 

*Natasha catches up to Ego and explains the situation. Two weeks later, The Capitol aired a news story announcing a baby naming competition.*

Natasha: Unbelievable! We don’t even get to name our own baby! 

Bruce: I know you’re upset, but we have to play by their rules. Besides, not all of their name ideas are bad. I kind of like Carson for a boy. 

Natasha: Well then I guess it’s a real shame we’re the only people in Panem who don’t get to vote. 

Bruce: It’ll be fine. We still have each other and soon we’ll have- *hears tapping at back window* what is that sound?

Natasha: Nick Fury? Why is he tapping on our window? Who’s that guy with him?

Bruce: *opening the window* I have no idea. 

Fury: I need to talk to you two. Natasha, is your friend Maria busy today? You know, the one from the wedding? 

Natasha: She’s in the coal mines right now, but she’ll be home in a couple hours. 

Fury: Perfect. Until then, Coulson, if you will. 

* The mysterious man pushes a button, trapping Natasha, Bruce, Fury, and himself in a clear bubble.*

Fury: This thing is soundproof and we can see what’s outside of it without being seen. I can hear hear anyone who is outside of the bubble using this earpiece. We’ll know if someone enters. 

Bruce: This is amazing! How did you make it?

Phil: Have you met a man name Leo Fitz? He’s about your age and he’s also from 3. He built this. 

Bruce: How do you know Leo?

Natasha: More importantly, who are you and why are you here? 

Phil: My name is Phil Coulson, District 9.

Fury: He’s here because we need to talk to you about S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Natasha: What?

Fury: It’s an organization put together by a woman from District 4. Her name is Margaret “Peggy” Carter and her goal is to overthrow President Snow and the other hooligans he has running our government. I’m her second in command. 

Coulson: Basically, S.H.I.E.L.D. is here to help protect the citizens of Panem from an oppressive government. Eventually, we’ll liberate them. 

Bruce: How long has this been a thing? 

Fury: It all started about sixteen years ago. Peggy and I as well as a few others were working with District 13 to try to start a rebellion.

Natasha: District 13 was completely obliterated almost 100 years ago! Are you saying it survived?

Fury: The Capitol mostly let it be. They were smallpox bombed once a few decades ago and it wiped out like half of the population, but they survived that. Unfortunately, they were smallpox bombed again after the berry incident and they all died off due to disease and a lack of resources. It looked like the revolution was over for good, but Peggy wouldn’t accept that. She founded S.H.I.E.L.D. as an initiative to save Panem, and now she wants you two in on it. She wanted Clint too, but... 

Natasha: We’re in. 

Bruce: What? Natasha, I can’t let you do this. We can’t do this. 

Natasha: We have to! We can’t just sit here while the government does terrible things! That makes us no better than them. 

Bruce: I am not letting my pregnant wife join a secret organization and attempt to overthrow the government! Keeping you safe will always be my number one priority. 

Natasha: We have to do this. For Clint, for Yelena, for Vision, for Pepper, for Wanda and Pietro’s parents, and for anyone else that is defenseless against the might of The Capitol. Besides, if we’re having a child, isn’t it kind of our duty to create a better tomorrow? A world where they won’t have to worry about being reaped for the games and everyone has a fair chance at survival.

Bruce: That sounds amazing, but losing you is not a risk I am willing to take. 

Natasha: That’s my decision, not yours. *turns to Fury* I’m in.

Bruce: I’m sticking with her, so I’m in too. I just have one question. How did Coulson manage to get here from 9 without The Capitol knowing? 

Phil: We have someone in District 6. Alphonso Mackenzie, he fixes hovercrafts. We actually cloak hovercrafts and have important meetings midair. The Capitol hasn’t detected us yet. 

*Later that night, Maria Hill was recruited.*

Fury: Welcome aboard!

Maria: Thanks, I’m glad to be a part of this.

Fury: Ever since the wedding I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that I know you from somewhere. 

Maria: You know, it’s funny you should say that, because you do look familiar.

Fury: That is odd.

thank you to @fictionalfangirlsworld for helping me place characters in districts.

[everythingirl44]

For trope mashup: neighbor AU + flirting under fire with StaticQuake please! :)

11 = Neighbor AU, 69 = Flirting Under Fire

Oh, oh this is fun. I took a bit of a twist with the neighbor part, but I thought it was a good way to incorporate the flirting under fire. Imagine that Shield is pretty much the FBI and this doesn’t take place in the Marvel Universe. Thank you tomatobookworm for the prompt, I hope you like it.  

Daisy never knew what she wanted to do with her life. Let alone get on a plane to go to Newark, New Jersey. She didn’t have anything growing up in the foster system. Now she was living out of her van. She had run into the law a lot growing up, they were the ones dragging her back to foster homes and the orphanage. Daisy was incredibly good with computers. She wanted to do something with her life, applying to the Shield Academy was a very rash decision she made. She didn’t love the idea of flying to New Jersey. Selling her van to get enough money for a plane ticket. She had two bags and a plane ticket, leaving nothing behind. 

“Excuse me, that's my seat.” She said to the man blocking her way. He was shoving a bag in the overhead compartment.

“Oh sorry, I’m right next to you. Here let me get your bag.” Oh, he was nice and cute. She handed him her bag and slid into her seat. 

“First time flying?” He asked, observing her awkwardness and twitching. Was it that obvious? Was her reply. They started conversation quickly, he was a good distraction from the plane getting ready to take off. Once the plane got to the runway her fear came creeping back in. 

“Take my hand. I know it’s weird and totally awkward, but it might help.” Daisy didn’t have to be told twice. The take-off wasn’t as bad as the turbulence and the landing. Neither of them asked why they were going to Newark or the others name. Daisy caught a cab to the academy, part of her was wondering if she made the right choice. There was no turning back once she entered that building. Daisy and many other recruits entered a room to meet their advisers. Scanning the room she saw the guy from the plane. He flashed her a smile and went to find a seat. They were shown around the school by May and Coulson, their teacher and head adviser.

“Hi, I’m Bobbi Morse.” Daisy’s bunkmate was a tall blond.  

“Daisy Johnson.” She said reaching out to shake her hand. She looked across the Jack and Jill bathroom.

“Looks like we’re neighbors then.” The guy from the plane, she found out his name was Lincoln, said to her. 

“Guess so. Hey, um, I never said thank you for what you did on the plane. I didn’t think I would make it this far. My past isn’t exactly something I thought would clear with the Shield.” Daisy admitted, Lincoln could say the same thing about him. They clicked immediately, and Daisy found a friend in Bobbi and Hunter. 

It was later in the game that they met the scientist. Daisy really enjoyed being around Jemma and Fitz. Bobbi introduced them to her friend Mack and Elena during training. Growing up in the foster system Daisy didn’t make a lot of friends and she never felt like she had a family. Here she was surprised she got both so quickly. Daisy had to admit Lincoln was the person she was closeted too. She loved every one, but Lincoln was different. Talking to him was effortless, even during training. 

“Stop going easy on me, I know you have more in you.” Daisy was practically on top of him, keeping him pinned to the mat. He would have replied back, but everyone’s attention was turned to the group walking in. Daisy quickly got off of Lincoln, helping him up. 

“Listen up! These are the upperclassmen, they are your competition today. We are going to a facility to practice a hostage situation. They will play the terrorist, your job is to save the hostages. You all have twenty minutes to get ready and to the parking lot.” May walked out of the room as quickly as she walked in. Both groups quickly went back to the locker rooms to change. Once in the parking lot, they were driven to a Shield owned building. They weren’t given real bullets considering this was just an exercise. Instead, it was more like they were playing paintball. Daisy assisted Hunter in taking out the snipper before the group entered the building. Daisy got separated from Hunter once they entered the building. Now she was wandering around with no backup or support. She was trying to make her way down from the roof. Instead, they meet her halfway. 

“Daisy look out!” The voice rang out from behind her before she was tackled to the ground. The rest of the group entered the floor as Daisy was ducked behind a wall. 

“See I knew you had it in you.” Lincoln had seriously knocked the hair out of her lung. In more ways than one. One, he did just full-on body slam her to the floor in full tactical gear. Two, on more than one occasion Lincoln forgot to lock the other side of the bathroom door. Daisy had walked in after she thought he was done showering. So she knew he was pretty fit. Now she really got to feel and see how fit. 

“I just didn’t want to mess up your pretty face.” Daisy couldn’t contain her eye roll. Nor could she contain her smile, but this really wasn’t the time. 

“You know you’re not too bad yourself. Training would be more fun this way around.” Daisy gave herself an internal reprimand. This really, REALLY wasn’t the time.

“Maybe it can be our new thing.” He was smirking at her now and Daisy swore she could see a glimmer in his eyes. 

“Daisy! Lincoln! If neither of you are hit, then I suggest getting your asses over here!” Hunter was the one to ruin the moment by reminding the two that they were still under fire. Lincoln quickly got off of Daisy helping her up. The two went around the corner assisting in the paintball assault. They ducked behind a desk to reload when Lincoln spoke up. 

“So, I was thinking.” Daisy snorted at the beginning of his statement. 

“That’s dangerous.” She quickly moved across the room with him hot on her trails. 

“I was thinking that we could go somewhere outside of the Academy.” He finished once they were ducked behind another desk. Daisy glanced up and shot the man coming around the corner. 

“Tell you what. We win this and it’s a date.” She couldn’t hold back a smile saying that. Daisy didn’t give him a second to reply before she joined Bobbi near the front. That only gave him more motivation to win this competition.

[agentofship]

My rewatch AoS 1x11 to 1X15

I am very late for the rewatch so I thought I’d keep doing my rewatch review in blocks of five episodes (or whatever seems relevant). So here we go. With TAHITI, we're starting to get a glimpse of what the rest show is going to be since from that moment on. Except for Yes Men (who still gives an important moment information about May at the end) who really should have been in the first part of the season, every episode will be connected in a more or less big way to the main plot of the season. Like Yes Men who's completely independent or Seeds whose main plot doesn't seem linked until the end when we learn that Iain Quinn was linked to it, this first part of 1B makes the transition between the happy Bus days and the darker tone of the last seven episodes that will continue on in season two. So here's a few thoughts about separate episode: The Magical Place I absolutely love that first scene with the team working together perfectly, each using their own talent, it was perfect. Still love it when people call Fitz "sir" in season one, it's just so funny since he's so tiny 😄 May is really smart in that episode. Everyone did exactly as she had planned without even having to tell them (because she knew FitzSimmons and Ward would help Skye escape) and thus also remaining in Hand's good graces. Agent Skye mini May is adorable! But she really is as smart and ressourceful as May, she just needs to be trained in combat and badassness now! I know it's a very unpopular opinion but Raina annoys the crap out of me with her too sweet smiles and exaggeratedly sexy voice. I mean she's obviously really at getting in men's heads, including Coulson but I just find her… annoying. She gets more interesting after she turns, too bad she didn't last longer after that. Love the Coulson rescue mission, again that was some very good team work. And love the reunion scene, although I know at least Skye wanted a group hug. Love May's side smile and "Nice Jacket". "Bet there's no flower dresses where she's going!" "Amen to that, sister." Love that :D "Disengage bracelet" Coulson's dorkiness really is one of his most endearing traits. Seeds First of all, a big thank you for giving us enough FitzSimmons content for hundreds of FitzSimmons Academy Era fics. Love that FitzSimmons scene where they present each other's work mirroring the scene in the Pilot when they introduce each other, it's adorable. Also love the way their speech is so well rehearsed, it's perfectly flawing between them and I bet even that joke Fitz does was written on paper. "Potential can sometimes be dangerous…" Oh Fitz, you're going to remember that one quite bitterly in a few years. FitzSimmons are so proud of their Academy and being such stars there. I love their competition with Ward and Simmons' "Did you have one of these in ops? Did not think so." Yep, cannot imagine Ops having something so fun! SciTech would have definitely been more my kind of place (except for the fact that I didn't study science at all :p) "My room was just like that." We know it's a lie but it's cute, it's Fitz's slightly awkward way of trying to connect. We know he has trouble making first contact and it looks like he's also kind of thrilled of being someone's hero or even a father figure of sorts. Coulson saying "You're talking, it's weird" is the best. That's some pretty dangerous info we're getting on Skye. They really took their time giving us bits of information all through the first season to focus on it in season two. Love the little robot on the bar at the boiler room, never noticed that before, need to include it in a future fic, it's adorable! Too bad Donnie ended up as he did, he really wasn't a bad person and deserved a redemption arc. Again, May is such a freaking badass. And all this without a single superpower! T.R.A.C.K.S Although there will be some criticizing, keep in mind that this episode still remains one of my favorite episodes of the season and the show as a whole. Love the plot, the humor, the action, the different POVs and that's also some top notch drama at the end. So, first of all, the accents. Even I, a person who only some distant italian relatives, can tell that Ward's one is awful. But at least, he's not supposed to be Italian so that's understandable. But that conductor sounds like a mix between Mario and Jen speaking pretend Italian in IT Crowd (hilarious episode by the way, you should look it up if you haven't :D) Then, that train. You should read @valentinaonthemoon‘s post here about it if you haven't because she points out all that is wrong with the train and its route. But seriously, it's so weird. It's all too big and pretty. I have never seen a restaurant carriage with actual cute little wooden tables and chairs and actual room to walk between the table. And what the hell about the actual bed? I've taken a night train to Venice once, even first class wasn't close to looking like that! Anyway, now moving on to all the good parts. May is the definition of badass in this episode. First casually walking on a moving train and then taking of all the bad guys with the knife they stabbed her in the shoulder with. And I also love the little Philinda moment where she lets him help her but didn't let Ward. Love Fitz summing up every cliche Europeans have about Americans "They have some good shows. Lots of nice teeth." and "Someplace affordable with big portions." His pretend relationship and real friendship with Skye is very very sweet in this. I love all the teasing but also the way he insists she takes the gun and tells her to be careful. Jemma is, once again, very heroic in this. Once more, she takes the conscious decision to sacrifice herself for his friends and Fitz in particular. Of course, that grenade wouldn't have killed them but she didn't know that. So really, during the pod scene, when Fitz is faced with the reality that only one can hope to make it to the surface, his decision is easy. And I think it's not only because he loves her and couldn't bear to live without her anyway, but also because she did twice already and he thinks that's it's his turn now. He's just less lucky about the consequences it has on him. (And ironically, Ward provoked it instead of being here to save the day… but I digress). I love Fitz's reaction after Jemma falls. He doesn't run to her because he's stunned and frozen at the idea that she might be dead. His sigh of relief when Skye tells him she's alive is everything. And also the line about her little face is adorable, especially since I only learned recently that it was ad libed by Iain! I didn't remember how heartbreaking Skye was when she tries to call for help and has no voice left at all. For a moment, she must have thought she was going to die all alone in that scary dark room. I mean, I never was really worried because they weren't going to kill her off but still, that's gut wrenching :s But Jemma for the win though! She's not even a medical doctor and so many people are alive thanks to her! And well, of course, THAT HUG! I mean all of FitzSimmons hugs are wonderful but this one is just… I love how it parallels the one from 4x21 where they don't talk and he just has to reach for her shoulder for her to finally let go and cry in his arms. At first, she doesn't fully hug him because she's afraid of putting blood on him (which is very Jemma-like of her) but then she lets go and he doesn't need to say a thing because it's his presence that comforts her the most. Also, FZZT was the moment he realized his feelings had changed for the first time but this feels important too. This is the first of many hugs and the moment their relationship becomes more physical (not in the sexual sense of the word, just physical). As much as I like to imagine they spent their Academy days falling asleep in the same bed every week, I feel like until now, their friendship was very intellectual with only quick very tame physical displays of affection like the touch of a hand or shoulder. Even that kiss on the cheek seemed something wild in the way he reacted and she hesitated before doing it. After that, we'll see more hugs and more daring touches, culminating into the pod scene. (and then regressing and slowly progressing again in season two B and and three) Because being on the field had taught them how hard things could be and they're like each other comfort blanket for a time, thus the need to be physically closer. T.A.H.I.T.I I love how FitzSimmons are sitting so close together on that couch. I think they both need the comfort of each other's presence because they are the only constant in their ever changing world. They really should have let Ward blame himself here. The way May beat the crap out of Iain Quinn was very satisfying. Love Coulson's progression about Tahiti. "Turned out not so magical" and in the next episode it'll be "It sucked". Well, at least he got to see the real, beautiful Tahiti 😞 Awww Trip. I didn't like him all that much the first time. I mean I found him okay and all but only on the second rewatch that I grew to like him. Other than the fact that he could actually get "Witches weekly's most charming award", he really is just a genuine nice, easy going, good guy. Too bad it made him the perfect candidate for shock value death 😞 Love, love, love that scene with FitzSimmons looking through the files. It's stunning and blue light definitely suits Fitz. I also love him during the mission. We know he's kind of scared and he still doesn't like being on the field but he's brave and funny and adorable. "Not afraid, not yet…" "To certain horrible death? Absolutely" Classical sassy Fitz! One thing that had always bothered me during this mission: Couldn't they use non lethal weaponry to "attack" the base. I mean they're protecting a shady secret but they're still (mostly) agents of SHIELD. And they'd been left to die and be buried under all that rock. I get that Coulson wanted the truth and to save Skye but still … I absolutely love the way they decided to handle the Kree reveal. Make Coulson look terrified and let us imagine all the most horrible things and then only in the end the horrible mutilated corpse. Feels a lot like what Hydra did to Skye's mother by the way and very, very evil :s Yes Men I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would despite it not being the strongest episode and it has a lot to do with Sif being a badass. So, first of all, with all the super advanced technology they have, would an Asgardian really be impressed by a bike?!! Skye saying: "I must look awful". Honestly, makeup department guys? They did a really good job when she was close to death but now she doesn't even look a little pale. She doesn't a little circle under eyes and doesn't even look tired at all. And look at her hair! That's not the hair of someone who had been forbidden to leave her bed for days! Fury is already missing, it's getting serious! Sif is so freaking badass and really aces the super hero landing! Also, she's so extra, like she casually throws a car to provide cover. I love her connection with May and I would totally watch a spin off of them kicking ass together. I like the phrase about people being dangerous when they are controlled and how it's another hint at May's backstory. Okay, so I love Sif throwing a car during the fight scene and I love Coulson calling Sif "your ladyship" but seriously, didn't SHIELD have enough women fighters? Honestly! Jemma is totally right about being mad at Coulson about wanting to know more about GH325. Coulson has a good reason for keeping it in house but he should just tell them for god's sake! At this point, we can see that he's still struggling between the whole following the rules and doing things his way because he no longer trusts SHIELD completely. "Ward is not the man you knew. He will not hesitate to kill you." "He might try but he wont." Yep, yep, yep, you don't know how right you were, May! "Because yes, I am that good!" Fitz was cocky and cute there but really not that wasn't a smart move telling Coulson about Lorelei without knowing if he'd been swayed as well. Libido does take a bit of his genius away :p "He's always getting knocked out, isn't he?" Mmmhhh … okay but how freakishly strong is Coulson if he can knock him out with only one punch? "You were saying?" Honestly, they should have copied that collar to use for all the villains and their long boring speeches. And finally dun, dun, dun! They really did a good job making us paranoid and making us think May could be the villain.

[probably-writing-x]

High Society (Chapter 2)

~A Tom Holland AU Series~

Tags: @imarypayne @sunshine112 @sleepwalkingdragon @supernatural-girl97 @vibhati123 @butithasntkilledyouyet @faefictions @carisi-sonny @trap-house-homiecide @shamelessbookaddict

Inspiration: It's interesting to see how the other half live, how their perfect lives are pieced together by secret scandals. It's beyond anything you can imagine until you're a part of it. It's High Society. (Based on the Netflix series 'Elite')

Warnings: Mentions of murder, language warning

Notes: Wow! The love for chapter 1 has been insane, thank you so much. If you'd like to be part of the tags or ask any questions about this series, please send them through

~~~Wednesday 30th January 2019~~~

"And were you good friends?" The interviewer asks from across the wooden table. The low lumination of the interview room cast an intimidating shadow across her stern expression. You were thankful she couldn't hear how your heart was racing.

"Well, I'd only been at the school since September. I knew her in school but I don't think I knew her well enough to deem us friends," You admit, hands clasped tightly to stop them shaking, "I think there was a lot that we didn't know about her,"

"So, she had a lot of secrets," The woman confirms, not once breaking her focus on you, "Do you think they would give someone enough motive to kill her?"

"I don't think we can ever be truly sure of a murderers motives unless we're the murderer, Miss," You state, taking a moment to make certain eye contact with the woman opposite you.

"And how can I be sure I'm not talking to that person now?"

~~~Friday 7th September 2018~~~

"Oh come on, you're telling me there's nobody here you think is fit?" Noah groans, flopping down into the chair beside you.

"It's not really at the top of my priorities if I'm honest," You roll your eyes, taking a moment to look up from the book in your hands, "Are you saying it's in yours?"

"Well, I don't know," He shrugs exaggeratively, his eyes diverting to where Sam and Harry were huddled around a laptop. He hoped you hadn't seen him.

"The twins?" You raise a brow, watching him blush slightly.

"Not both of them," He hisses, jabbing you in the side, "And please don't tell anyone, I haven't told anyone here that I'm gay,"

"Well, that's understandable. You've only been here for a week," You point out, pressing the bookmark into your book and pushing it to the side of the desk you shared with Noah.

"I'm not sure I'm going to say anything, like ever," He mumbles, shuffling his chair closer to the table as if he wanted to enclose your conversation.

You don't respond, knowing that it would be better for him if you let him talk about it on his own accord.

"At our old school, that's all everyone labelled me as. That was like my definition. And I had to constantly remind people to keep it quiet from my parents who could be very easy to judge about something like that," He explains, "But, here, I don't have to be that. I can come out on my own terms, and not constantly be awaiting the day when I go home to my parents questioning me about it,"

"If that's what you think will make you happier and more comfortable, then I say go for it," You assure him, "Just, don't feel like you can't be yourself because of that,"

He smiles and squeezes your shoulder in a symbol of compassion, turning back to the desk in front of him.

"Is this what you're using for wider reading?" Lily's voice sounds from in front of you, picking up the worn book from the table and flicking her fingers through the aged pages.

"It's just a book," You grumble, feeling a sting of pain in your heart at the sight of her touch on one of your most prized possessions.

"It's not even a classic," She scoffs, tossing it aside and allowing the marker to fall along the tiled floor. Don't react. Don't react.

She takes her seat near Imogen and Harrison, a spare seat beside her as she awaited Tom's arrival.

He walked in shortly after and you made every effort to stop yourself from looking at him. You even avoided it as he shuffled past your desk, leaning down right in front of you.

"This is yours?" He tilts his head, looking at the childlike bookmark that he'd picked up from the floor.

You take it from his hands and don't manage to hide the furious blush burning up your cheeks, "Thank you,"

"It's endearing, I like it," He smiles, taking a seat beside Lily and already being greeted by her monsoon of affection.

"Alright guys settle down please," Mr Fitz, as you had learnt to call him, sounds from the front of the class, "I have a project for you today, it's going to develop over the course of the next term,"

"God please don't tell me it's a group project," Z groans, dropping her head into her hands.

"And, much to your excitement, you're going to be working mostly alone," Mr Fitz grins, flicking onto the next side of his PowerPoint presentation, "Before you complain, do take note that these grades are going to count towards the points for the Jordan Cup that will be presented to our highest achieving student at the end of this year,"

"The Jordan Cup? What the fuck is that?" Noah laughs, dropping back in his seat so he was now barely even sitting up.

Lily's head snaps around, "It's the most prestigious award you can achieve at this school. Named, quite rightly, after my father because of his extensive donation toward the upkeep of this school,"

"Thank you Lily," Mr Fitz nods, "It is awarded to one of our seniors at the Winter Ball, based on the amount of points accumulated throughout the year so far."

"And how do we get such points?" You question with genuine curiosity.

"It's based on your academic attainment, attendance and extra curriculars," He explains, "Every time you attend a sports session or take a visit to one of our facilities, it is noted and then totalled at the end of the competition."

"And who knows, you might even get a thanks for taking part award," Lily smiles at you with enough of a patronising tone in her voice to make you want to rip those dyed curls from her head.

"Anyway," Mr Fitz attempts to regain control, "The main idea of this project is discovery. I want you to come back at the end of term telling us something about yourself that people don't know. And I want you to tell me something about someone else here that we don't know. You could take part in learning a new skill, understanding your family history or even developing new friendships but I want this to be something about you that makes us see you in a different light,"

"A journey of self discovery, I'm inspired," Harrison announces sarcastically with a faked applause.

"Take it seriously, I'll be placing a heavy amount of thought into where points will be awarded," Mr Fitz warns, "Uncover some secrets,"

Everyone sits in an awkward silence for just a moment, all questioning what on earth they would do for such a silly project idea. They only erupted into chatter when Mr Fitz exited.

"So, (Y/N), what skeletons are in your closet?" Imogen wiggles her brows, all of their eyes focused on you.

"Nothing you'll ever need to know about," You mutter under your breath, trying with every part of you to not feel intimidated by them.

You could hear some muttering from that direction before you watched Tom shove Harrison in the direction of you and Noah.

"I'm having a party at my place tonight and there's an invite for both of you if you want to come," Harrison sighs, clearly not the one to actually want to give this invitation.

"I'll pass," You smile fakely, turning back to the work in front of you. Why did part of you want to go?

~~~Wednesday 30th January 2019~~~

"It seems you became quite a part of their society?" The investigator continues, her pen tapping in an uncomforting rhythm against the table.

"I was nothing like them," You are quick to answer, "But it's easy to get sucked into it when you're surrounded by that. And they weren't bad people,"

"Though bad enough to kill someone?" She frowns, "One of their classmates, in fact."

"I-"

"Tell me what happened at this party, (Y/N)," She encourages, "Harrison Osterfield hosted a party on the seventh of September and you were in attendance,"

"I didn't even want to go," You shake your head, looking down to your hands, "Z kept telling me I should and I gave in, I went,"

"And it was at this party that you found yourself in an argument with none other than Lily Jordan, what was that about?" She tilts her head, taking you right back to that stupid night.

~~~Friday 7th September 2018~~~

"Seriously this isn't my thing at all," You groan, wanting nothing more than to release yourself from Zendaya's grip as she pulled you towards the door to the grand house.

"Well, you've made a goddamn effort and we're not letting it go to waste," She laughs, swinging open the door and entering the party that already appeared to be in full swing.

This house was ridiculously grand. It was filled with items you didn't even want to know the price of and furniture that looked too good to be destroyed by cheap beer. It felt so strange to see students chattering around the house with actual glasses in hand rather than red plastic cups. With actual alcohol that people would buy from a menu instead of anything available on the shelves of a supermarket.

"Z! Let me get you a drink!" Imogen grins, dragging her over to the table.

Harrison was stood near there too and he noticed you as you walked in.

"You made it," He states, matter of factly.

"You can complain to Z about that," You point out, already feeling uncomfortable and regretting your outfit choice.

"Maybe I should thank her," He raises a brow, a smirk dancing over his pursed lips, "Looking like that, you'd be wasted at any other party,"

"Would Mrs Osterfield be impressed about those comments towards the new girl?" You try to divert the slightly mysoginistic comments, "Don't act like she's not the only reason you had to invite me and Noah,"

"She's letting me throw a party full of underage drinking," He comments, leaning down to you slightly, "She wouldn't dare say no to anything I said,"

"Well, I would, so if you'll excuse me," You give him a tight smile, gripping onto the material of your pastel blue jacket just a little tighter around you.

"(Y/N)," Tom's voice calls out and you instantly relax slightly, "I didn't think you were coming,"

"Well, I guess you don't know me as well as you think," You joke, "I'm very easily persuaded,"

"I'll take note of that," He laughs, "Can I get you a drink?"

You can't help but frown slightly, "Why are you being nice to me? From what I've heard you're a bit of a King at this school,"

"I'm not saying you're wrong, but I guess you might not know me as well as you think," He copies your line but he sounds so much more sure of himself than you ever did.

"Tommy!" Lily's voice rings out, hopping over to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, "Baby can you get me a drink please?" She asks, her eyes looking up at him through her long fake lashes.

He nods and leaves you two alone. It is only then that her demeanour changes and she swivels round to face you with a harsh expression on her face.

"I don't know who the fuck you think you are," She starts, "You seem to have made quite the impression on Tom and I'm really not here for it,"

"For someone who acts like a princess around here, you're really having trouble trusting your prince aren't you?" You smirk. Somehow, she didn't faze you. Her intimidation was all an act.

She scoffs, bringing her face closer to yours, "Don't fucking talk to me like that. My Dad is paying for your scholarship to school, my boyfriend is best friends with the Principal's son, oh, and Tommy is my boyfriend."

"Back off Lily, you're making yourself look ridiculous," Z breaks a space between the two of you, "(Y/N)'s done nothing wrong. Don't be so pathetic,"

You were thankful she was there. It felt easier than dealing with Lily alone. Everyone was circling the pair now with you simply becoming one to watch now. Your eyes latched on to Tom's. His girlfriend was in the middle of an argument with another girl and he wasn't even looking; he was looking at you.

"Get out of my way!" Lily screeches, trying to get through the group that had formed so she could exit.

"Lily wait-" Imogen began, loyal enough to try to follow her.

"Fuck off Imogen!" Lily snaps, "You just stood there with the rest of them!"

The atmosphere dropped. Everyone went back to enjoying the party but the rest of you just stood there, exchanging awkward glances and becoming fearful of the tension on Monday morning.

~~~Wednesday 30th January 2019~~~

"Yeah, Zendaya stood up for me that night," You sigh, "Her and Lily clearly had problems between them but the argument was nothing serious,"

"I care more about Imogen. She was invited and didn't get involved in that,"

"No, she was there but she didn't say anything. But nobody really said anything," You shake your head. Damnit, your words were shaking now. She'd mentioned her name.

"And Lily was annoyed about that," The investigator confirms, "Do you think that started a tension between them?"

"Mayb-"

"Enough of a tension to justify killing her so-called best friend?" She tilts her head to the side, clearly thinking she'd made a breakthrough.

"From what I know, Imogen hadn't done enough wrong to justify what happened to her," You shake, feeling tears trembling in your eyes, "She was one of the good ones,"

[ilosttrackofthings]

Is there a fic you want written but don't want to write? What is it?

I got this ask last weekend and I was all set to say which fic because I’d just come up with one that was too much work, but then I ended up writing it. Whoops. So it took me a while to really think about this and think back to all the old, abandoned fic ideas I really loved but couldn’t manage. 

I actually do wish I could write this one - I’ve even made a few goes at it in the past - but I can never seem to get it to work. Since I have ALL THE THOUGHTS though, here is a really long post about it:

it’s a names-soulmates AU, the kind where you’re born with it or it comes in during childhood, and naturally Grant and Jemma are matched

they meet first thing on the Bus. there is much cuteness. they are both very very in love

Grant is not Hydra but he’s still a damaged bb and is just in awe that he has this wonderful, genius soulmate. he loves her SO MUCH. he is SO BLESSED

which makes it all the worse when the uprising comes and it turns out Jemma’s always been Hydra. she betrays the team, tries to get Grant to switch sides with her, but isn’t all that fussed when he won’t

there is much sadness and guilt and everyone is blaming themselves for not seeing it, it’s the WORST. more so because things are a lot messier for the team following the uprising as a result of all these changes. they do manage to defeat their personal villain of the season and even capture Jemma, but she suffers a serious injury in the process

she lives, of course, but the injury cuts right through her soulmark and, once it’s healed, the mark is almost unreadable. which is NOT how soulmarks work. the skin might be damaged but the mark should have healed back to normal. this means that the mark Jemma has is a fake

there’s lots of anger and questions. Grant wants to know what Hydra did with the real Jemma. meanwhile Jemma insists she is the real Jemma and it doesn’t mean anything that the mark was a fake. sure, she got it for the sole purpose of manipulating him, but what does that matter? if they love each other, who cares if she doesn’t have his name? especially when he has hers

(Jemma does not have any name at all)

there’s handwavy plot stuff. Jemma escapes eventually. she still insists that she and Grant can be together but she isn’t as focused on him as canon!Grant was on Skye after his escape. she’s got science and evil to do and it’s not like she puts much stock in soulmates or human companionship anyway

then one day, a couple years later, the team is investigating some odd occurrences, when suddenly Jemma appears from nowhere. she’s obviously in pain, outright screaming at one point, and has to be ICER’d. a medical examination reveals no signs of distress other than a reddening around her soulmark

her very whole, very not-scarred soulmark

she’s got plenty of scars too, but none of the ones they have on record for her

she’s locked in Vault D again and the team doesn’t really know what to make of the play she comes up with. she keeps talking to them like they should be friends and, for some reason, she keeps calling Skye “Daisy” which is weird. 

weirdest of all is how she treats Grant. she always used to treat him special of course - flirting or yelling or crying, whatever she felt would get a reaction out of him - but when he goes down to demand intel from her, she reels back like she’s afraid of him. then she babbles a little, like she’s working through something, and asks - slowly and carefully - if she can talk to Fitz. or, if not him, really anyone who is not Grant

she theorizes that she’s somehow entered another universe. they - her SHIELD team and her, she says - were fighting a man who was able to breach the walls between dimensions - he was only siphoning off base elements though, although he did make half her team invisible/intangible that one time by disrupting their connection with their home dimension

at first the team thinks this is crap but then they encounter their Jemma in the field and it becomes a whole lot more likely that the one they have locked up is someone else

Grant of course has lots of conflicting emotions about this new Jemma and makes the truly fantastic decision to go into Vault D and answer her questions about the mark on her chest (which only appeared after she slipped into this dimension) by cutting shallow lines through both her and his soulmarks before planting himself in a corner so they can both watch to see how the healing goes

the team judges his plan so. hard. in no small part because Jemma is clearly terrified when he comes at her with a knife. more so than she would normally be. during the days they spend locked up together, she reveals that her version of Grant is the cause of most of her scars and he feels, rightly, like a heel for making her relive that

and then … I don’t … really know where it’d go

I imagine the team would let Jemma out once they know she’s not the evil Jemma - though they’d still be watching her because who’s to say she’s not evil too, but given she’s likely Grant’s real soulmate they think it’s unlikely

and they don’t really have a way of getting her home - it’s not like she can justify exposing anyone to the Darkhold (even if they could find it) just for that - so she’s stuck with them unless her team finds a way

which means lots of time with Grant (most of it due to the team arranging for them to be alone together) and lots of questions about soulmates and then … feelings or whatever? maybe a big confrontation with the evil Jemma because, now she has competition, all of a sudden she cares about Grant not loving her anymore?

you can see why it never worked out as a fic. I did however manage to write a role reversal of this idea a couple months back with tipping scales, but I like the messiness of the original idea more

[grapehyasynth]

Summer Secret, Chapter 4

“Stop looking at me like that,” Jemma whispered.

“Like what?” Fitz asked innocently, though his hand slipped a bit on his pool cue as Jemma bent over the table, the neck of her shirt draping obligingly open.

Her strike was true, sending two of the striped balls into a pocket, bringing her tied with Fitz. She smiled in satisfaction – people always forgot that thought Fitz was an engineer, she herself had on occasion out-performed him in physics seminars and examinations – and sidled over to him, accepting the glass he’d been holding for her. “Like you want to ravish me on the felt.”

She gave him credit – he didn’t choke on his beer, though his cheeks flushed prettily. “Is it that obvious?”

“Well, probably only to me. And probably only because I was projecting.”

Fitz shook his head, not following.

“I was thinking about ravishing you,” Jemma explained patiently. “Go on, then, your turn.”

As she’d expected, he missed his next shot, rather badly.

“I should know better than to play with you,” he muttered.

“All’s fair in foreplay,” she said cheerily.

\\“Jemma,” he groaned, for well on the sixth time that weekend, as she sauntered over to make her next move.

It was her extended family’s last night in Perthshire, so everyone of legal age had gathered at the nearby pub – nearby being a half hour drive, in this case; it was the countryside – for a last hurrah. The adults were at a table in the corner, snorting into their drinks at Uncle Robbie’s pantomimes, which were even more elaborate and absurd than normal, even though he as designated driver was drinking only soda water.

Jemma’d promised herself she’d be good, sitting on the other side of the table from Fitz, tucking her feet under the seat so she couldn’t find his to play footsie, focusing on speaking with her aunt rather than becoming hypnotized by the way Fitz’s jawline stood out sharper as he chewed on the free corn nuts. But the tight, loud, raucous, friendly atmosphere of the bar and the heady warmth of the ale she was drinking quickly put her inhibitions at risk. She couldn’t stop glancing at Fitz, her eyes drawn to him even amidst the ample goings-on around them. Her fingers tingled, wanting to spider across the table to him; she kept licking her lips, wondering what he’d taste like tonight, maybe of wheat and hops with an undertone of lime and salt.

Eventually, it’d been nearly too much, and she’d needed to distract herself from drinking and from her failing efforts to play it cool. She’d put the notion of billiards out to the table at large, to maintain appearances, but the adults waved them off.

Now, with them both well towards tipsy and prowling around the pool table, brimming with competitiveness and denied desire and the strain of the clandestine, the tiny bit of Jemma still capable of worry wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to remain at the table with the others, or perhaps to have taken a walk to clear their heads.

Mostly, though, she was alight with the reality of playing and flirting and drinking with her gorgeous, brilliant, cocky, easily-embarrassed, secret boyfriend.

Jemma eked out the win in the end, only using her breasts and sticking out her bum to distract Fitz a few times. She’d never have done it with anyone else, having too much pride in her abilities and a need to prove herself, but Fitz already knew she was damn intelligent and manipulating him a bit wouldn’t change that. Besides, she thought, as she brushed behind him as he set up a shot and saw the back of his neck redden, she didn’t think he minded that much.

As agreed before the start of the game, Fitz, as the loser, bought them both shots. They linked elbows and threw back the gin, which they chased with a local, fruity soda.

“Wish we could go to a movie theater or something,” Fitz sighed as they lounged at the bar, letting other patrons use the pool table for a bit.

“Mmm?” Jemma traced the condensation on the wood of the bar, pretending to be watching the game but really studying the curve from his forehead to his eyebrow, down his cheek, into his lips— “Is there something good out? One of those superhero summer hits?”

“What? Oh—” Fitz blushed again; she really enjoyed making that happen. Her loosened animal brain wondered if his cock and balls would show the same rapidity of blood flow. “I didn’t actually mean – I just thought, where do kids go when they’re trying to snog but can’t do it in front of their parents? And that’d be the movies.”

“There really is nothing out here,” Jemma agreed grimly. “I love it, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always thought you and I could—” Now it was her turn to blush, and she quickly shook her head and avoided Fitz’s searching gaze. “Point is, it’s lovely here, wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but it’s all fields and trees and wide open spaces with nowhere to be alone.”

Fitz glanced towards the corner, checking that the adults were still fully involved in their conversation, and shifted on the bar stool so his body was mostly obscuring Jemma’s. He slipped his hand over the surface of the bar and under hers, stroking her palm with his fingertips.

“Just another week,” he murmured, eyes focused on the billiards game, though they didn’t move to follow the action, just sort of rested there abstractly. “In another week we’ll be back at Sci-Ops.”

“Alone at last,” Jemma concurred. Following his lead, she slid her free hand into her lap, then over onto his knee and up his thigh. The hand on hers on the bar convulsed at the tracing touches. “One more week.”

Jemma’d been trying to get a rise out of him, letting her fingers drift closer over his jeans towards the crotch, making his leg twitch, but despite the inebriation his gaze was steady, soulful, hungry but controlled. If she was getting a rise out of anyone, touching him like this, it was herself – her chest was getting strangely tight and there was an insistent narrowing of her thoughts and sensations.

“Excuse me, I have to use the loo,” she squeaked suddenly, not trusting herself to stay there a moment longer, and she hopped off the stool and dove through the crowd to the washroom in the corner, hoping Fitz wouldn’t be too put out.

The ladies’ was blessedly empty, so she sat for a moment on a closed toilet, practicing the meditation techniques she’d never really mastered as she stared at the faded red stall door, before she got up and wiped her face down with a wet paper towel. She was as bad as a stereotypical horny teenage boy, for goodness’s sake. She’d always needed porn of some sort, before, to get her going, but now just being near Fitz seemed to be enough. She wondered if she’d be able, from now on, to get herself off just by closing her eyes and imagining his touch—

She glanced at the empty stalls again, considering. It certainly wasn’t the most sanitary of places to masturbate, and she’d have to be quiet in case anyone came in, but she couldn’t very well do it back at the cottage, and it was becoming a rather pressing issue. (Not for the first time, she was glad female arousal didn’t reveal itself quite so… prominently.)

The main door swung open, but Jemma’s initial frustrated disappointment was swept aside as Fitz strode in, as if drawn by her long-distance pheromone call for relief.

“Fitz!” she hissed, suppressing her spike in arousal as he entered in favor of focusing on what was clearly the more important question at hand, “what the hell, this is the ladies’!”

He didn’t answer, but rather strode to her in a few steps, grasped her about the waist, and spun her up against the door, lining their bodies up completely. He flipped the latch next to her hip, locking the door, and brushed her hair from her shoulder so he could mouth at her collarbone. “You were saying?”

She gasped, pure heat rushing from his lips on her skin to her lower abdomen. Satisfied at their privacy, and frankly unable to care about anything but the man against her, she grabbed his face in both hands and dragged him to her, desperate for his kisses.

He did taste of lime, and salt, and gin, now, and Jemma lapped into his mouth a bit messily, chasing the flavors of Fitz. Perhaps it really was best for everyone if they kept their relationship private; this sort of kissing wouldn’t ever be appropriate in public, and she couldn’t imagine kissing him in any other way, she wanted him so badly. Kissing him was just like teasing him at billiards, or their never-ending academic rivalry, or arguments over favorites from their various television obsessions: heated, affectionate, all-in; the moment one of them gained the upper hand, the other would come up with some new, nibbling at the inside of lips or licking the roof of a mouth or drawing away so the other had to chase.

“You know,” Jemma panted, on one such of the latter occasions, dipping her head out of the way so Fitz ended up moaning against her ear in frustration, “this puts me in mind of something I saw on a show once—“

“This is what you want to talk about now?” he growled, stepping his feet outward so his legs bracketed hers.

“I think you’ll find it informative,” she promised, pressing her hips forward so she could feel his erection. Her breath hitched, and she heard Fitz inhale as well; they both glanced down, mesmerized by the contact. Jemma began to swivel her hips, almost imperceptibly, as she went on. “As I was saying, in this show, this man and this woman were engaging in a compelling flirtation, and they were at a bar, separately, and the woman went to the bathroom and the man came in, dropped to his knees, and went down on her, just like that.”

“Went down, as in—”

“Ate her out,” Jemma murmured, letting her hips fall back against the door so Fitz’s stuttered forward in loss. “Licked her until she came. Just like that. Right there in the bathroom.”

Fitz mumbled something hoarsely and dove back in to kiss her. “Do you want me to do that, Jemma?” he whispered, pupils blown wide, obviously getting hard from the idea of licking her pussy. “The door’s locked, after all.”

There was nothing Jemma could imagine wanting – needing – more, at that moment, but someone banged against the door, calling drunkenly for them to open it.

“You’re sweet,” she sighed, kissing Fitz hard, three times quickly. “But we’ve already been in here too long. You run along and I’ll just… take care of things myself. But I’ll hope you’ll keep it in \\mind,” she added, and she slid her hand between his legs and palmed him through his jeans. “For next time.”

“I’ll keep it in mind alright,” Fitz said faintly, stepping back to let her out as he unlocked the door. A woman pushed in, not even noting the presence of a man in the ladies’ as she hurried to urinate. “I’ll keep it in mind tonight, as I’m wanking in the shower. Bloody hell.”

“Good.” Jemma glanced through the open door, but the Simmons party wasn’t in view. She snuck a last bite at his earlobe. “Give you some time to brainstorm. I’ll do the same.”

Fitz grinned at her like a dopey, lovesick dog in heat and backed out of the restroom, tugging his t-shirt down over his crotch.

[theartofbeinganerd]

You Fund-Raise Me Up: Chapter Four - December, Part One

This chapter was actually supposed to have two fundraisers, but since this one took longer than I'd expected, I've separated December into two parts. The next one should be posted next week, though!

And, fun facts: I actually have a Batman piggy bank (my sister gave it to me for Christmas a couple of years ago), and my high school actually had both dodgeball and musical chairs tournaments, which were a lot of fun (as a spectator, of course).

(Ao3)

-

“Fitz!”

Startled at the sound of his name coming from behind him, Fitz paused with his hand on the front door of the school, glancing over his shoulder to find Jemma hurrying towards him, waving a hand above her head. “Oh, hey Jemma,” he greeted, smiling warmly as he opened the door and held it so that she could pass through ahead of him.

“Good morning, Fitz,” she replied, throwing a smile at him over her shoulder as she waited for him to follow her inside. “Cold today, isn’t it?”

“This is nothing,” he insisted, shaking his head as they both knocked the snow clinging to their shoes onto the already soaked-through mat just inside the building. “You should try spending a winter night in Glasgow.”

Jemma rolled her eyes at him as she unwound her lilac-colored scarf from around her neck. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Fitz. It’s not as though England’s in the tropics, you know.” Nodding her head to the table set up near the stairs leading to the second floor, she asked, “Did you bring anything?”

“Yep,” he replied, following her as she began to lead the way over to the table, which had a big, hand-painted sign that read ‘Penny Wars’ taped to the front of it.

“Hello Autumn,” Jemma greeted the young girl sitting behind the table. Fitz knew that she was not only in Jemma’s homeroom, but also that she was the student council president, and had volunteered to sit at the Penny Wars table for a couple of days during the week that the fundraiser was going on. “How’s it been so far?”

“Good,” Autumn answered, grinning as she tapped the large plastic jar that read ‘Eighth Grade’, “we’re ahead.”

Jemma offered her an answering grin as she removed her gloves and dug into the purse slung over her shoulder. “Well, let me just help with keeping that lead, then.” With that, she dropped a handful of pennies into the jar, the coins clinking against the nice little pile of them already waiting inside. Then, she turned to Fitz and arched an eyebrow. “Mr. Fitz?”

“Ah, yes, it does look as though my team could use some help,” Fitz pointed out, tipping the ‘Seventh Grade’ jar toward him so that he could see the small pile of change inside of it. “Though, it would take a lot to catch up with yours, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, I imagine that it would,” she replied with a little smirk.

Fitz gave a nod of agreement at that, then reached into his messenger bag, passing the stack of graded papers inside of it to grasp a good-sized plastic bag – one that was nearly filled to the top with pennies. He watched as both Autumn and Jemma’s mouths dropped open at the sight of it, and he wordlessly (and rather smugly) opened the bag, then began to pour its contents into his class’s jar.

When he was finished, and the echoed sound of clanging change had faded from the school hallway, he folded up the now empty bag and put it back into his messenger bag. Then, he gestured to the jars and observed, “Ah, looks as though we’ve managed to snag that lead from you.”

Jemma’s obvious shock only lasted another moment before she folded her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes as she asked, “Broke into the Batman piggy bank, did you, Mr. Fitz?”

Immediately, Fitz felt his cheeks flushing at the mention of the piggy bank that Jemma only knew about because she’d been to his flat so many times (and had a habit of making herself at home there, whether he liked it or not – not that he didn’t, of course). He could hear Autumn’s muffled giggles as Jemma smirked at him, but despite his reddened cheeks, he replied simply, “Indeed I did, Ms. Simmons.” Then, he turned to Autumn and said, “Have a good day,” and began to head up the stairs to his classroom.

As he had expected, Jemma was hot on his heels, and caught up with him as he was reaching the second floor. “What do you think you’re doing, Fitz?” she asked, shooting him a suspicious glance.

“Helping with the fundraiser, of course,” he answered innocently, giving a little shrug as he turned left to head down the seventh grade hallway. “Aren’t you always telling me to get more involved in things?”

“I…” She trailed off, then pursed her lips, once more narrowing her eyes at him. “You’re not fooling me, you know. If you want a competition, I’ll give you a competition, Fitz.”

“I thought it was the kids that were supposed to be competing,” he pointed out as he unlocked the door to his classroom. When he entered it, Jemma followed him, and she hovered by his desk with her arms crossed as he began to unpack the papers that he’d brought home to grade last night.

“You just watch your back, Leopold Fitz,” she told him, unfolding her arms to poke him pointedly in the chest. “My kids are going to win this competition, you’ll see.”

As she turned on her heel and began striding toward the door, he called after her amusedly, “What, you aren’t going to tell me that I’ve made a very powerful enemy or something?”

Upon reaching the door, Jemma threw a glare at him over her shoulder, then left the classroom, and Fitz finally gave into the laughter that had been building up inside of him, utterly entertained by Jemma’s incredibly predictable need to win everything.

-

“We’ve got to beat them.”

Both Elena and Bobbi glanced up at Jemma’s abrupt arrival in the teacher’s lounge during recess, exchanging a confused glance before Bobbi asked, “Uh, beat who?”

Jemma pulled out a chair at the little table they were sitting at, arching her eyebrows as she explained, “The guys. Fitz brought a whole bag filled with pennies today for the seventh graders’ jar, and I’m sure Hunter and Mack are in on it too.”

“I don’t know about that,” Elena replied carefully, no doubt afraid of incurring her wrath as well.

After all, Jemma was well aware that they all knew how seriously she tended to take competition of any sort. Though, she did have to admit that the supposedly lighthearted dodgeball competition that they’d had last year, during which Jemma had coached her team to victory, despite knowing nothing about dodgeball the week before, did give them a pretty good reason to believe that.

“Oh come on,” she replied, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling, “do you really think that they would miss an opportunity to get one over on us?”

Plus, they hadn’t seen Fitz’s smug smirk or that giant bag of pennies, and they hadn’t heard his laughter echoing down the hall. She just knew that he was up to something, and, well, Fitz was horrible at hiding things like this from her.

Bobbi scoffed, curling a hand around the coffee mug in front of her as she said, “Well, I know Hunter would, but I’m not sure about Mack.”

“Trust me on this,” Jemma insisted, shaking her head. “We’ve got to bring in as much change as we can, and get the kids to do the same. Not that they’ll be hard to convince; I know they’re already excited about winning that movie day.”

She watched as Elena met Bobbi’s eyes once more, and after a moment, Bobbi smiled and shrugged. Then, Elena grinned and turned back to Jemma, telling her, “Oh, alright. It will be fun to beat them, after all.”

“I can already see Hunter’s face,” Bobbi added, a faraway look in her eyes as the smile on her lips grew. “And, this will be a much more satisfying revenge than getting him to pay me back for that stapler he broke.”

There was a beat of silence, then Elena asked in confusion, “How did he break your stapler?”

Bobbi groaned, briefly closing her eyes and shaking her head, before explaining simply, “He thought he saw a spider. Just…just don’t ask, okay?”

Startled, Jemma glanced at Elena, who also looked quite alarmed by the story. Lightly clearing her throat, Jemma then not-so-subtly changed the subject, asking, “So…we’re going to war, then?”

“Yes, we are,” Bobbi answered, nodding firmly.

“Definitely,” Elena added, a little smirk beginning to play on her lips.

-

“You should’ve seen her face,” Fitz told Mack, a chuckle leaving his lips as he followed him down the stairs at the end of the day. “She was so shocked – in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so caught off-guard.”

“It does take a lot to get one over on her,” Mack agreed, “but…aren’t you afraid she’s gonna retaliate somehow? I mean, you know how Jemma can be; remember the musical chairs incident?”

Immediately, Fitz grimaced, no doubt going back to a couple of years ago, when they’d had a fun little ‘Musical Chairs Tournament’ for the students. For fun, they’d even had a little game with the teachers, which the kids had absolutely loved. However, Jemma had (rather violently, in Mack’s opinion) hip-checked Fitz out of the way to get the last seat that he’d been going for. He’d been knocked to the floor, and the students had roared with laughter as a red-faced had Jemma apologized to him.

“Yeah, okay, so she can get a bit…intense,” Fitz conceded, “but come on, she knows I was just giving her a hard time.”

As they reached the first floor, Mack noticed Elena standing by the Penny Wars table, and he was about to call a good night to her when she threw a rather devious smirk right at them. And, then she proceeded to slip a crisp five dollar bill into the seventh grade jar, subtracting five hundred points from their total.

“Have a good evening, boys,” she called, waving at them as she then turned on her heel and strode out the front door.

For a moment, Mack and Fitz just stood there in shocked silence. Then, Fitz turned to him and asked in a horrified whisper, “What just happened?”

Mack glanced down at him, still stunned speechless for another handful of seconds. Then, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, “Damn it Fitz, this is your fault.”

“My fault?” he repeated, his eyebrows darting up his forehead. “How is it my fault?!”

“You know this was all Jemma’s doing,” Mack pointed out, gesturing to the table nearby (but making sure to keep his voice low enough that the student manning it couldn’t overhear their conversation, of course). “She’s convinced Yo-Yo, and Bobbi too, no doubt, to help their class win, all because you had to go and rile her up!”

“I wasn’t trying to ‘rile her up’,” Fitz argued, folding his arms over his chest, “I was just teasing her!”

Mack groaned, rolling his eyes and shaking his head, but he didn’t bother to call Fitz out on his absurd way of flirting with Jemma, or his absolute denial about it. Instead, he walked over to the table, and found exactly what he’d thought that he might: the eighth grade jar more than halfway filled with a sea of copper.

And, of course, their own jar was awash with bills and silver coins, no doubt putting their total far into the negative.

“Yeah, you guys aren’t looking so good, are you?” Jacob, the eighth grade boy currently running the table, commented.

“No, we aren’t,” Mack replied flatly.

Fitz stepped up beside him then, groaning at the sight of their jar. “This was all because of Ms. Simmons, wasn’t it?”

Though Jacob grinned at the question, he simply shrugged in response. “I can’t say who’s added what, sorry Mr. Fitz.”

Fitz grabbed Mack’s arm, tugging on it until Mack had allowed him to lead them toward the front door and away from Jacob. Under his breath, he told him urgently, “We’ve got to talk to Hunter.”

-

“Worried?”

Elena watched as Mack whirled around in surprise at her question, biting her lip to hide her smirk as he briefly held a hand to his heart. “Don’t do that,” he told her, blowing out a heavy breath and leaning back in his desk chair. “And no, I’m not worried.”

Arching an eyebrow at that, Elena perched on the edge of his desk, inquiring, “Oh?”

Over the past few days, she, Bobbi, and Jemma had been going head-to-head with Mack, Fitz, and Hunter, all of the kids in their homerooms gleefully joining the competition (and, though she knew that the sixth grade was working just as hard, Daisy was also rooting for them, and had slipped a few dollars in the eighth grade jar here and there). Now, though, it was Friday, and Coulson was due to announce the winner as soon as classes officially began.

“Yeah,” he replied simply, his tone confident as he shot her a little grin before returning to the pile of paintings that he was sifting through.

Idly picking up the painting on the top of the pile, what she imagined had to be a horse done by one of the sixth graders, she pointed out, “I saw quite a bit of green in your jar.”

“Could say the same to you,” Mack shot back without missing a beat. Then, nodding to the painting, he asked, “What do you think I should give him?”

Elena studied the painting for another moment, then handed it back to him, answering, “You should give him an ‘A’. Painting is hard, you know.”

Chuckling, he asked her, “Ah, you weren’t a big fan of art class, were you?”

She shrugged, reaching back down to his desk to pick up a little ceramic dog that had been sitting there. The ears were lopsided and the legs were all different lengths, while the uneven layers of paint didn’t quite cover the whole dog. “My teacher always told me that I got frustrated and gave up too quickly,” she explained. Then, waving the dog at him, she asked, “What did you give this?”

Mack took the dog from her, looking down at it himself for a moment, then setting it back down before replying, “It got a C+, actually. But, my middle school art teacher wasn’t as generous as I am.”

Elena’s eyebrows darted up her forehead, and she glanced back down at the dog. “You made that?”

“Yep,” he replied, giving another chuckle at her expression, which was no doubt displaying her surprise at the revelation. “Wasn’t very good with clay back then – I got better in high school. See, all it takes is the right teacher.”

“Ah, so what you’re saying is that I need a better teacher?” she asked, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow. When he nodded, she went on, “Well, are you available?”

When the door to the classroom was thrown open at that moment, they both glanced up hurriedly to find a handful of his students walking inside. “’Morning Mr. Mackenzie, Ms. Rodriguez!” they greeted, giggling with each other as they went to their desks.

“Good morning,” Elena told them, clearing her throat as she stood from Mack’s desk. “I should get back to my classroom.”

“Yeah, probably,” Mack agreed, looking just as flustered as she felt at that moment.

As she began to move toward the door, however, she paused and turned back to him, calling teasingly, “Oh, did you want to congratulate me now, or later?”

Mack rolled his eyes even as he gave a little chuckle of amusement. Waving her toward the door, he replied, “Get back to your classroom, Yo-Yo.”

Though Elena did leave then without another word, she did throw a little wink back at him.

(And, when the results were announced twenty minutes later, proving the eighth graders to be the winners of the very close competition, she received a phone call from him saying, “Guess I owe you a congratulations”.)

[plinys]

okay but leopold and hive chaperoning an elementary school trip to out-dad each other and a fight inevitably breaks out in front of a bus of like 10 year old kids consider

It had been bad enough at the time. There in front of everyone. He didn’t even remember how it had started, though he’d known how it had ended. 

With Lyra asking him never to chaperone one of her field trips again, and Ophelia giving him a look that just said really, while school teachers tried to gently broach the subject without getting themselves shot.

That had been last Wednesday. 

An incident Leopold had put behind himself.

Until, now.

Until, the council meeting, and the comment of conduct unbecoming Hydra, and the video playing for everyone in the room to see.

He hadn’t felt this embarrassed since the Academy... Since training in the summer, and Garrett pushing him back down into the dirt and telling him he was never going to amount to anything with boys like Von Strucker had laughed at him while he was down.

Von Strucker is laughing again. This time from a high council seat. He’s not the only one tittering in his seat, as the blurry cell phone footage shot by a student plays on.

Hive’s voice cuts across the speakers, “Did you just bitch slap me?”

And Leopold braces himself, staring down at the table to avoid the footage of himself wiping his hand off on his handkerchief as though he’d just touched something dirty (he had!) before speaking with a tone that increases with pitch at the words go on, “Why don’t you show this bus full of ten year olds when you really look like, William!” 

“I could kill you where you stand but I don’t want to scare the children.”

“I’d like to see you try!” 

He knows what comes next, because his black eye hasn’t fully gone away.

Though the sound of it again, does not help, the children gasping out in panic, and second  later when he pulls his gun from his jacket. 

Only stopping at the voice of two young girls, their daughters, yelling at them to stop, and armed guards that had been hired to protect them pulling him away from Hive. 

It wasn’t his best moment. 

Not one he wanted to relieve, not here in front of -

“That’s enough of that,” Ophelia says, the head of the table, high enough to lay down the law. 

Enough to get whoever had brought the video up to turn it off, just as the little squid girl was on screen yelling at him to leave her father alone. 

Someone, Leopold refuses to look up from the table to see who, speaks finally ending the resulting silence. “I believe a temporary suspension of both Dr. Fitz and Mr. Daniels until their conduct reflects the values of Hydra would not be an over reaction.” 

A suspension. 

His hands shake beneath the table and he clenches them into fists.

He’s embarrassed himself.

He’s embarrassed Hydra.

He casts a glance at Ophelia, knowing her expressions better than anyone else. The spot of color high up on her cheeks.

He’s even embarrassed her. 

He can only imagine what his father will say, even years now, years of being a father on his own, he cannot help but fear that wrath. Fear that disappointment that has been his constant companion.

And for what.

Because he got into a school yard brawl with that thing. 

He’s nearly forty. 

He shouldn’t have - 

“That wont-” Ophelia starts to say.

But he cuts her off, looking away from her, and across the table at where Hive sits. His voice does not shake, it has not shaken in years, when he says, “I agree.”

He can see the brief look of surprise in his companions face. 

“Leopold-”

They do not fight.

Not here in front of the council, that is one of their oldest rules. To hear her try to do so now hurts, hurts more than the shame of watching himself fight Hive. 

“I believe a break from my duties will allow me to better assess myself. I will have a medical professional clear me before I return to duty,and I believe Mr. Daniels will not find the assessment of a psychologist before returning to council duties too outlandish.”

He can see it.

The look in the other man’s eyes.

This is another competition between them. A delicate chess match. 

“If that is the will of the council,” he says, delicately, eyes meeting Leopold’s. 

A pawn moved into position, unaware of what the other player has planned, buying time. 

But Leopold knows his Queen. Knows she will take his side, make the decision that only the true Head of Hydra can. 

She nods briefly at him, the color thankfully gone from her cheeks, “It is.” 

[whydoyouthinkileft]

@lovelornrocketscientist replied to your post: @lovelornrocketscientist replied to your post ...

I’m not sure I think Jemma is energized by talking to people, I think she’s energized by the IDEAS that she talks to them about. And when you consider her social awkwardness, that screams introvert to me. But I don’t know that I disagree she’s more balanced in that area than most. She may well be. But I think inherently, she’s an introvert because she really had to learn those behaviors. Fitz isn’t a typical introvert either but he absolutely is one.

I actually agree with this too. It's just that she's not like... as introverted as I am, she's more balanced, she's clearly not as drained as I am from interaction. (and hey, I'm not awkward at all on the world outside, I made an art of interacting with people, strangers and non, and yet here I am lol). So yeah, I guess it's also depends on people's definition of Introverted/extroverted. I also thinks it depends a lot on the fact that when we discuss words or definitions, we can read the same thing and give the thing a different emotional connotation, or imagine different scenarios, maybe? And that's why I have a hard time deciding?

 What you said about your hubby seeing the family as a unit is a big YES, there is the unit and everybody else. And it's not just the unit Jemma-Fitz that my Jemma sees, there is also a second bigger unit The Team that is less tight, obviously, than FS, but still seen as more intensely and it's an extension of her too.  In the website it made it sound like she'd be controlling their kids to make them achieve things and it had to specify 'this is not to say that they are bad parents' because, well, it did sound that way, like they were managing kids with the expectations she'd have for an assistant at work, he has to do what she says, keep her happy. I can't see Jemma forcing a kid to basically 'bring honor' to the family, she's a pretty understanding person when she cares for people (Daisy couldn't have been any more different and she adores her, didn't look down on her for her disinterest in science etc, and even if her kids are also 'her kids' and therefore she'd like them to be interested in it, smart, be part of the family, 'follow the family', if her kids want to do sports or aren't competitive she's not kicking them out of the house.) (also I love that your hubby's job lol I could SO see Jemma do that too, see XD). One more thing is that while I can see extroverted traits in Jemma (but introverted ones too) or see her as very feelsy, compared to people like Fitz she's always more on the classical INTJ side and she knows it. Fitz knows how to social better lol but Jemma will survive interacting with people for days constantly while solving problems at work, while I cannot. And she isn't very good at analyzing things, if you focus on that trait too, compared to how she is at trying to fix them (I am the analyzer instead). She’s obviously a thinker next to Fitz, Daisy, Coulson. But not the chill kind.  I see her a lot like May in ‘follow the brain, make tough calls, try to do what’s right/rational’, I brought the example of Jemma saying that saving Will isn’t okay if the world is at risk (May agreeing to blow up Lincoln if she has to even if she hates it) compared to more ‘follow feelings’ people, and they do pass for ‘colder’ over that. But, again, when it comes to people they have any sort of feelings for, bye rationality. She won’t risk Fitz’s life, May won’t risk Coulson’s.

so it’s a non-extreme type of introverted or extroverted, it depends on what you are counting as deciding factors, if it’s being drained by social interactions, or preferring smaller groups, or focusing on problem solving instead of analyzing, and she’s a hot-headed kind of thinker (again, I think of me and my best friend, how we reason about things, but the difference in... feelsy-ness and intensity is ridiculous, just like some Feelings people are more cautious about the way they behave, they let feelings lead more but keep their chill, or can be a human explosion)

[pogueman]

Inside the World's Greatest Scavenger Hunt: The Finale

GISHWHES stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. Teams of 15 have one week to complete a list of 200 difficult, charitable, or hilarious tasks. They prove they’ve completed each item by submitting a photo or video of it; their $20 entry fees go to a charity, and the winning team gets a trip to an exotic location.

This is the final part of our series!

Part 1    •  Part 2   •   Part 3  •  Part 4  •  Part 5

Part 5: The Hunt is Over

It’s been an exhausting week for the 15 members of Team Raised from Perdition. In their fourth annual attempt to win the world’s largest scavenger hunt, they’ve taken the week off from work, palmed off children to relatives, and tested the limits of society’s tolerance for disruption.

They’ve also made personal sacrifices. “Sleep deprivation. Junk food all the time,” says co-captain Nina Mostepan. “Working out? I don’t know what that is right now.”

“We eat a lot of pickled eggs and chili in a jar while we’re driving,” adds Shiane Gaylie.

During the heat of the hunt week, “we get short with each other,” admits co-captain Geoff MacAnally. “Nina and I bicker about, like, how things should be running. And then we’re like, ‘I need to breathe.’”

As the deadline approaches—Saturday midnight—it’s clear the team won’t complete all 176 items on the GISHWHES list. (In the six-year history of the hunt, no team ever has.)

In the end, though, the team managed all but three tasks. They’ve pampered a cow in Vermont, played badminton in a food court, persuaded two old men to play chess in a movie theater, sold bottled air on the street, registered 10 people to vote, built a spa for a mouse, panned for gold in a public fountain, sculpted a life-size dictator out of maxipads, built a working rowing scull out of trash, wrote a phone app for dialing a rotary phone, and played a human piano.

The judging process

“Months pass between the end of the hunt and the actual winner’s announcement,” Christine says. “We spend that time obsessively combing over all the other teams’ entries and beating ourselves up for what we could have done better.”

In general, though, Raised from Perdition was feeing confident. “We figured there was pretty much no way we wouldn’t at least be a runner-up,” says Rob Fitz-James.

“Because we were runners-up the year before, and we did even better this year,” Shiane adds.

Rob agrees. “Better video quality, better photo quality. And submitting items before the deadline problem helped.”

According to hunt creator Misha Collins, the judging takes so long because, well, there’s a lot to go through.

“We take it very seriously. We have stages. We have lots of people that help judge in the first round, and then we narrow it down to the top 50 teams, and then down to the top 10 teams, and then down to the top three.”

Every year, some teams try to get by with “interpretive” items. “Sometimes, people will come up with a creative interpretation; they’ll do a cardboard cutout version of the real thing, or something like that. 19 times out of 20, they don’t get points for that, even if they put a fair amount of creative work into it. Our directive is very specific: you have to do the item as it is stipulated, and not some creative re-imagining to make it easier.”

Nowadays, his team actually employs Photoshop experts. “Because people cheat! One year, there was a team that would have won, but they’d Photoshopped a really big-ticket item. It was very convincing, and we were like, ‘Wow, they did it!’ But they didn’t. They had cheated, and we caught them.”

The GISHWHES judging process isn’t just long; it’s also opaque. Each item on the list carries a certain point value, but “there’s a high degree of subjectivity in the judging,” Collins says. “Like, we give bonus points.”

But the teams themselves will never know.

“GISHWHES never tells the competitors what their point total is,” Christine points out. “We don’t even get a cumulative point total, and we’re never told what the individual items are awarded. And it drives us crazy. Because it’s difficult to know how to improve from year to year if you don’t have a metric for what the judges are looking for.”

“That’s by design,” Collins says. “We don’t want people to get involved in petty arguments. So we don’t give them enough information to fight.”

The big moment

The contest wrapped up on August 6, but weeks—months—went by without any word as to when the winners would be announced.

“Sometimes GISHWHES can be a little disorganized, I find,” says Shiane. “They just kind of surprise you a lot. You don’t know when the winner will be announced, for example. You don’t know when anything will be announced, until it’s there.”

But then, one day in October, there it was: a tweet that Misha Collins would be making an announcement on Facebook Live.

Christine: “I’m sitting in my dark hole of a basement. We gathered over Google Hangouts and held our breath.”

Shiane: “He did the runners up first, and he did it alphabetically. As soon as he skipped R, which our team name starts with, we knew that we’d won. We were all freaking out before he even announced it.”

Geoff: “And then the moment: ‘And the winning teammmm is…’ That’s exactly how he does it.”

In fact, that is how Misha Collins said it. “And the GISHWHES 2016 winning teammmm… is… Raised from Perdition!”

Christine: “Everyone erupted.”

Kira Sullivan: “We were all freaking out. It was pure joy. I screamed. My roommates thought something really bad happened to me!”

Shiane: “I hit my head on the ceiling. I pushed Rob over a table. We yelled and screamed for, like, 20 minutes.”

Geoff: “I cried.”

Nina “Ugly crying! You can see it in the video. I’m like, ‘Waauuuugh!’”

Kira: “In that moment, we really felt like a team. We didn’t know each other beforehand, but we came together and we won.”

Suzanne Simpson: “It was the most surreal experience of my life.”

Geoff: “After three years of working hard, it was a euphoric feeling.”

The prize for winning GISHWHES is a trip to some exotic spot. This year, it’s Iceland. (For the 2017 hunt, which begins in August, the trip will be to Hawaii.)

Raised from Perdition arrived in Iceland today, in fact, to begin their five-day adventure, orchestrated by the GISHWHES staff and attended (at least for one day) by Misha Collins.

“Well, Misha’s pretty cool,” says Nat. “But the best part of the trip is meeting our teammates! We don’t know the people in San Fran, or South America, or Chicago, or Tennessee, or Connecticut, so we’ll get to meet them all! It’s all going to be great.”

Why GISHWHES

For many GISHWHES players, the greatest reward isn’t the trip.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say things like, ‘I was suffering from agoraphobia. I hadn’t left my house to do more than go to the grocery store in two years. My friend coerced me into participating in GISHWHES, and it somehow broke things through for me,” recounts Collins. “Or, ‘I did GISHWHES and I changed my major in school to art,’ or, ‘I did GISHWHES and I decided to go back to school because of it.

“I mean, I don’t want to be too grandiose about it,” he adds. “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s all about that touchy-feely stuff. It is just a scavenger hunt. But people do have some remarkable experiences.”

Of course, there’s something in it for Collins, too. He’s proud of his seven Guinness World Records. The million-plus dollars raised for charity. The five Syrian refugee families housed and fed. The lives saved from bone-marrow donations. The mountain on Mars that NASA named after GISHWHES.

And he’s especially proud of the 2011 hunt item that required launching a fully decorated Christmas tree into the air with helium balloons.

“There was something just magical about that image, of watching Christmas trees float away. It was one of those ephemeral, magical moments,” Collins says.

“But we didn’t really think it through all the way. Because what happens if untethered is, the Christmas tree just floats away! And there were some regional airports that were closed due to, ‘Christmas trees in the airspace!’ I love that item, even though people’s flights were delayed because of it.”

Over the years, GISHWHES has grown from an impromptu game that Collins ran on Twitter for 300 fans to a truly international competition with 55,000 participants. And in that time, he’s had to add lawyers, and insurance, and a staff, and a website. Is there a danger that GISHWHES might become so Real and Official and Regulated that it loses its sense of chaotic, spontaneous, hilarious fun?

“We want the tone of GISHWHES to remain irreverent and free spirited and kindhearted and challenging and humiliating,” he says. “But at the same time, we want it to grow to something that more people participate in. In my grandiose scheme, people all over the world dread the first week in August, because that’s when GISHWHES happens. That’s my ambition for our enterprise. And you know, we’ll see. If it keeps growing at this rate, by the year 2300, we might be a well-known outfit.”

More from David Pogue:

  Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I

Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2

Insider the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 3

How to win the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt

The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update

Now I get it: Bitcoin

David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one

David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app

The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email.