#Laura Baile

[guy60660]

Nicolas Audebert | Porquerolles | © Laura Baile | Financial Times

[meiloorunsmoothie]

remember that time jeremy couldn't get rid of his crown? because i think about it...a lot (probably too much)

hey @bwaygatsby, when are we getting our long overdue jeremy takeover?

[blush-and-books]

donna and harvey's perceived power dynamic vs their actual power dynamic is very special to me. harvey's desk and donna's desk are specifically configured so that he can look out of his office and see her in full view whenever he wants, having the masculine power of "the look" over his beautiful secretary. people perceive this as him having power over her; he looks upon her and she faces away, complicit to it. HOWEVER. if he has the power to look, then she has the power to listen. not only does donna know every person who is in and out of that office, but she canonically hears every single conversation in intimate detail. her power over him is through knowledge and transparency.

[xombigirl]

I just think they're all Neat. holds them gently in my hands

[pavedinashes-if]

How does L's skate look like?

the deck, the grip (the top?) do they have anything written on it, any cutouts, is it color or classic?, the wheels? 🛹

L's skate style is chaotic aggressive. Risky tricks and ugly bails. Reckless speed and creative spots.

The wheels are simple whites, no special graphic or colour, depends on what the store gives them for free.

The trucks are mostly black, polished or matte. Sometimes with a logo on it.

The grip tape is plain black with a graffiti style cutout of boobs (both f! & m!L), the colour according to the colour of the wood - but if they can choose then red, green or purple. Also some hand written remarks by their friends and crew.

Bottom layer is mostly black designs, fitting to the shop's style, with some darker graphics. Single stickers spread across the bottom which survive the first grind and are gone for good immediately.

Board is a 8.25", classic popsicle shape, high concave for better flip tricks.

[thatgayb1tchwhosimps4her]

I'm actually so in love w/ these little fuckers, you have no idea (even Ben, which I won't ever be saying again).

[evilhorse]

Until next time, detectives.

(Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica #4)

[giantkillerjack]

Today I was reminded of the movie Baby's Day Out (AKA Home Alone but it's a baby), which I loved as a kid and haven't thought about in years.

And I had the thought, "if I watch this movie with the presupposition that this baby is a divine entity of chaos, will that make this movie more enjoyable to rewatch?

The answer to this question is obviously yes without even having to test it out, so I decided to make it a little more interesting and update my very scientific hypothesis:

If I watch this movie with the aforementioned assumption, then will that in fact make Baby's Day Out into the best version of The Omen??

I'm testing my hypothesis now. I don't think I've seen this movie in like 20 years. Man. It's hard being a scientist doing important science work sometimes.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Someday, we’ll all take comfort in the internet’s “dark corners”

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me on SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and beyond!

Platforms decay. Tech bosses, unconstrained by competition; regulation; ad blockers and other adversarial interoperability; and their own workers, will inevitably hollow out their platforms, using ultraflexible digital technology to siphon value away from end users and business customers, leaving behind the bare minimum of value to keep all those users locked in:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

Enshittification is the inevitable result of high switching costs. Tech bosses are keenly attuned to opportunities to lock in their customers and users, because the harder is to leave a platform, the worse the platform can treat you – the more value it can rob you of – without risking your departure.

But platform users are a heterogeneous, lumpy mass. Different groups of users have different switching costs. An adult Facebook user of long tenure has more reasons to stay than a younger user: they have more complex social lives, with nonoverlapping social circles from high school, college, various jobs, affinity groups, and family. They are more likely to have a chronic illness, or to be caring for someone with chronic illness, and to be a member of a social media support group they value highly. They are more likely to be connected to practical communities, like little league carpool rotas.

That's the terrible irony of platform decay: the more value you get from a platform, the more cost that platform can extract, a cost denominated in your wellbeing, enjoyment and dignity.

(At this point, someone will pipe up and say, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." It's nonsense. Dignity, respect and fairness aren't frequent flier program perks that tech companies dribble out to their best customers. Companies will happily treat their paying customers as "products" if they think those customers can't avoid other forms of rent-extraction, such as "attention rents")

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Now, consider the converse proposition: for younger users, platforms deliver less value. Younger users have less complex social lives on average relative to their parents and grandparents, which means that platforms have fewer ways to sink their hooks into those young users. Further: young users tend to want things that the platforms don't want them to have, right from the first day they sign up. In particular, young users often want to conduct their socializing out of eyesight and earshot of adults, especially parents, teachers, and other authority figures. This means that a typical younger user has both more reasons to leave a platform as well as fewer reasons to stay there.

Younger people have an additional reason to bail on platforms early and often: if your online and offline social circles strongly overlap – if you see the same people at school as you do in your feed, it's much easier to reassemble your (smaller, less complex) social circle on a new platform.

And so: on average, young people like platforms less, hate them more, and have both less to lose and more to gain by leaving one platform for another. Sure, some young people are also burning with youth's neophilia. But even without that neophilia, young people are among the first to go when tech bosses start to ratchet up the enshittification.

Beyond young people, there are others who tend to jump ship early, like sex-workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Sex-workers' technology changes are only incidentally the result of some novelty-seeking impulse. The real reason to change platforms if you're a sex-worker is that the platforms are either absolutely hostile to sex-workers, or profoundly indifferent to the suffering their policy changes rain down upon them.

The same is broadly true of other disfavored groups, including those with out-of-mainstream political ideologies. Some of these groups hold progressive views, others are out-and-out Nazis, but all of them chafe at the platforms' policies at the best of times, and are far more ready to jump ship when the platforms tighten the noose on all their users.

This is where "dark corners" come in. The worst people on the internet have relocated to its so-called dark corners – privately hosted servers, groupchats, message-boards, etc. Some of these are notorious: Kiwi Farms, 4chan, 8kun, sprawling Telegram groupchats. Others only breach when they are implicated in waves of unthinkably cruel and grotesque crimes:

https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/

The answer to crimes committed in the internet's dark corners is the same as for crimes committed anywhere: catch the criminals, prosecute the crimes. But a distressing number of well-meaning people observe the nexus between dark corners and the crimes that fester there, and conclude that the problem is with the dark corners, themselves.

These people observe that social media platforms like Facebook, and intermediaries like Cloudflare, DNS providers, and domain registrars constitute a "nexus of control" – chokepoints that trap the online lives of billions of people – and conclude that these gigantic corporations can and should be made "responsible" for their users:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

From there, it's a short leap to conclude that anyone who isn't in a position to be controlled by these too big to jail, too big to fail, relentlessly enshittifying corporations must be pushed into their demesne.

This is a deal with the devil. In the name of preventing small groups of terrible people from gathering in private, beyond the control of the world's insufferable and cruel tech barons, we risk dooming everyone else to being permanently within those unworthy billionaires' thumbs.

This is why people like Mark Zuckerberg are so eager to see an increase in "intermediary liability" rules like Section 230. Zuckerberg's greatest fear isn't having to spend more on moderators or algorithms that suppress controversial subjects:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/instagram-users-outraged-by-app-limiting-political-content-ahead-of-elections/

The thing he fears the most is losing control over his users. That's why he bought Instagram: to recapture the young users who were fleeing his mismanaged, enshittified platform in droves:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

A legal mandate for Zuckerberg to police his users is a legal requirement that he surveil and control those users. It's fundamentally incompatible with the new drive in competition circles to force Zuckerberg and his fellow tech barons to offer gateways that make it easier to escape their grasp, by allowing users to depart Facebook and continue to socialize with the users who stay behind:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

Remember: the more locked-in a platform user is, the harder that platform will squeeze that user, safe in the knowledge that the cost of leaving is higher than the cost of staying and tolerating the platform's abuse.

This is the problem with "feudal security" – the warlord who lures you into his castle fortress with the promise of protection from external threats is, in reality, operating a prison where no one can protect you from him:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#manorialism

Rather than fighting to abolish dark corners because only the worst people on the internet use them today, we should be normalizing dark corners, making it easier for every kind of user to find a cozy nook that is shaded from the baleful glare of Zuck and his fellow, eminently guillotineable tech warlords:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/15/normalize-dark-corners/

Enshittification is relentless. The collapse of the restraints that penalized tech companies who abused their users – competition, regulation, interoperability and their own workers' consciences – has inculcated every tech boss with an incurable enshittification imperative.

Efforts to make the platforms safer for their users can only take us so far. Fundamentally, these vast, centralized systems that vest authority with flawed and mediocre and frail human dictators (who fancy themselves noble, brilliant and infallible) will never be safe for human habitation. Rather than focusing on improving the platforms, we should be evacuating them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/09/let-the-platforms-burn/

Online communities that control their own moderation policies won't always get it right. But there is a whole host of difficult moderation calls that can never be adequately handled by outsiders overseeing vast, sprawling platforms. Distinguishing friendly banter from harassment requires the context that only an insider can hope to possess.

We all deserve dark corners where we stand a chance of finding well-managed communities that can deliver the value that keeps us stuck to our decaying giant platforms. Eventually, the enshittification will chase every user off these platforms – not just kids or sex-workers or political radicals. When that happens, it sure would be nice if everyone could set up in a dark corner of their own.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

I visited the WGA library to read Yellowjackets scripts and wanted to share some of my findings! (Pt. 2)

Here are my notes for 1x03! Quotation marks indicate direct lines from the script, whereas everything else is me paraphrasing.

1x03 “The Dollhouse”

•The script starts with a scene of a panicked adult Travis bursting out of his secluded house (shack?) with a “wild glint in his eyes” “as if desperate to find the source of something and also terrfied he will find it.”

•Then it flashes back to the 1996 teen timeline and Travis hears a whisper late at night in the woods. He is “inexplicably drawn” to the plane wreckage. “The breeze rustles the tree branches, and again he hears a soft, hushed sound, as if the wilderness is calling his name.”

Travis is interrupted by Javi, who approaches him saying he had a bad dream.

As Travis is walking back to their camp with Javi, “The breeze picks back up. We hear a low and sinister exhalation, as if the woods are whispering for Travis to stay and preparing to make him stay.”

Both of these scenes were obviously cut, but I do think it’s really interesting that Travis was originally made out to be, arguably, just as connected to the Wilderness entity as Lottie is. Travis is one of the first people to be “contacted” by the Wilderness and it seems to take a particular interest in him. Also that line about making him stay is eery as hell.

•When the group is voting on whether to go to the lake or stay at the plane wreckage, the script makes sure to point out how hesitant some of the girls are to go against Jackie. Some of them even vote to stay at the wreckage just to avoid pissing her off. This shows her influence over the girls at the time, even though it eventually fades as they become more adapted to their new way of life.

•While the group is hiking to the lake, Taissa sees the man with no eyes for the first time, crouching in the bushes staring at her blankly. It understandably freaks her the fuck out and she’s shaken by it for the rest of the episode.

In the final product Tai doesn’t see the man with no eyes until later on, but this scene sounds creepy as fuck in the script.

•When Nat is looking through Travis’s house and finds the photo of the two of them together on his dresser, we get this line:

“We realize Natalie’s not only seen Travis recently, but they were close. Intimate. Natalie glances up from the photo, and suddenly sees adult Travis in the mirror. He’s standing behind Natalie, and his eyes seem to be judging her.”

Just thought it was interesting, particularly the “judging her” line. Judging her for what? Maybe judging her for looking for him? For not keeping herself safely away from all this?

•When the girls are swimming at the lake and Jackie is sitting with Mari trying to make Shauna jealous, there’s a line about Jackie being “clearly tired of Mari’s yapping” but trying to hide it, which I found funny. Mari is a canonical yapper.

•The girls also play chicken at the lake, with Nat on Van’s shoulders and Laura Lee on Shauna’s shoulders. This is so cute and I’ll take whatever scraps of VanNat friendship I can get. I wish they kept it in the episode.

•And another deleted part from the lake scene, Lottie is standing on top of a rock above the lake preparing to jump in and she does the cabbage patch dance on top of it while everyone cheers her on (if you don’t know what the cabbage patch dance is you should definitely look it up). Then she sees the cabin in the distance and stops.

But I love a little hint at silly goofy Lottie! Before all of the visions, just a silly goose.

•While Nat and Misty are in the jail cell and Nat asks Misty about her messing with her Porsche, Nat and Misty stare each other down and the script then says this:

“So much history between these two.”

A little sneak peek at a lot more happening between these two in the Wilderness that we don’t know about yet.

•While Nat is on the phone with Tai trying to get her to bail her out of jail, this line:

“We realize these two are closer than we thought.”

Tainat friendship acknowledged!🙏

•Also on that phone call with Tai, the script says that “Natalie is struggling to even speak his name,” referring to Travis. This again shows just how painful and complicated Nat’s feelings are towards Travis.

•When Nat and Misty are bailed out, there’s a cut scene of Misty going through a plastic bag full of all of the things that were in her purse at the time of her arrest. Here are the items in Misty’s purse: peanut butter, condoms, Travis’s notebook that she stole, and a small plastic toy cat.

God, I love that woman.

•After Jackie spills the nasty canned food all over the floor and complains that they should have stayed at the wreckage, Van snaps at her “How is this helping?”, and the rest of the girls roll their eyes at Jackie. Jackie storms outside and we get this line:

“Suddenly, she stops, overwhelmed by her emotions—how scared she is, how alone she feels, how much she hates the wilderness, and the shame she feels for showing it.”

A great look into Jackie’s mental state and very representative of Jackie’s gradual loss of influence and power in this new environment. She’s used to being sure of herself and having this magnetism that everyone naturally follows. In society, Jackie is influential and powerful. But here in the wilderness, she cannot adapt and cannot lead the group like she once did. And the other girls can see that, hence the rolling eyes and snapping at her.

•After Nat and Misty find Travis’s body and they are driving away, there is a line that was cut from the final product in which Nat admits to Misty:

“We were together, on and off. We started up again about ten years ago.”

So this would mean that Nat and Travis started up their relationship again around 2011 and have been on and off for ten years. Does this mean they were not together after they got rescued but rekindled things about 12 years later? Or did they stay together for a little while after the rescue, broke up for years, and then got back together and that’s what Nat is referring to? I don’t know, maybe this line was cut for a reason and it’s definitely not canon yet so we’ll see. But the timeline of Nat and Travis’s relationship is confusing to me and I want to know more.

My theory is that Nat and Travis have broken up after Javi’s death and don’t get back together in a romantic capacity until 2011.

[lesbianmarrow]

please feel free to ignore this, but i was wondering if you have any recs for where to start with comics for laura/x-23? i've been an x men cartoon fan since like birth and i've never ventured into comics but i wanna do it for her since she's my favourite character and she's in so little of the screen adaptations. i've looked up reading lists for her appearances but i wanna know from someone with certified good taste if there's anything i should read first (or avoid entirely). thank you!! i hope you're having a good day <3

ahhh i'm so glad you came to me with this question! i love laura kinney and if you've never really read comics she's a good character to follow because a lot of her comics are really her solo adventures and you don't need to know too much about the wider marvel universe to understand.

here's the reading list i would recommend:

x-23: innocence lost (2005) - this is a 6 issue miniseries exploring laura's backstory and traumatic childhood in the facility. it's a grim read but one of my all time favorite marvel comics stories and absolutely fundamental to understanding laura's character. it's written by craig kyle and christopher yost, who were writers on xmen evolution and co-created laura for the cartoon. they were defining writers for her in the comics too.

x-23: target x (2007) - a 6 issue miniseries that is a sequel to innocence lost. it shows what laura gets up to after escaping the facility. not as good as x-23: innocence lost but also very important for defining laura's character. also by kyle & yost.

captain universe/x-23 (2006) - kind of an odd little one-shot in which laura gets possessed by a cosmic force, but it gets called back to in marjorie liu's x-23 run in a lovely way, so it's worth reading!

new x-men: academy x - this was a series about the teen students at the xmen academy. it wasn't doing so well so marvel brought kyle & yost on as writers to give the series a new direction, and they introduced laura into the cast and made her the central character. their run starts with issue #20, and you can pretty easily jump into it there without having read the previous issues. this series shows how laura relates to other mutant kids her age and sees her struggling to fit in. if you liked xmen evolution, you'll probably enjoy this series (though it can get grimdark at times).

x-force (2008) - another kyle & yost production! this is the ultra grimdark xmen murder squad. it's a team book, so it's not all about laura, but this series is really important to understanding how laura views herself and how the adults in her life have often failed her. still, if you're not enjoying it, you can probably bail after the first 6 or so issues. kyle & yost can have a problem of constantly putting female characters through gratuitous violence and suffering, and that's turned up to the max here.

x-23 (2010) one-shot - this is a one-shot written by marjorie liu that serves as a prologue to her x-23 solo series. it's beautiful and horrifying and is a great introduction to the work liu will continue to do with laura.

x-23 (2010) series - finally, laura gets a solo series written by a woman! this series by marjorie liu is a must-read. the character work is absolutely incredible, and there are plenty of wacky adventures. includes some of my favorite comic book scenes of all time. i should note that there's a crossover partway through with the series dark wolverine, which liu was also working on at the time.

.......and then comes the dark ages. laura is in a number of other comics in the 2010s - avengers academy, avengers arena, all-new xmen, wolverines - but i would say they're not really worth reading if you're approaching them for laura content. you can check them out if you're interested, but don't expect too much.

all-new wolverine (2016) - laura takes up the mantle of wolverine after logan's death! there's a lot in this series i feel iffy about, but for better or for worse, this version of laura has really stuck. it's a pretty readable series, but if you find yourself not enjoying it, i would say just read the first arc (issues #1-6) and the third arc (issues #13-18). in the first arc she meets her clone sister gabby, and in the third arc she has to deal with an old enemy.

x-23 (2018) - this is mariko tamaki's run! another woman writer yay :) this series is way underrated and i love it, especially the first 5 issues. it's a follow up to all-new wolverine, and it builds on the aspects of that series that i really enjoyed while avoiding the problems it had that irritated me about it. if you care at all about sibling relationships, this one will get you right in the heart.

and then comes the krakoa era! laura has a story in x-men (2019) #5 and then #18-19 that's pretty cool albeit kind of confusing in a sci-fi way. i know laura is a member of the xmen in x-men (2021) but i haven't read it so i can't tell you much about it! i looooove the miniseries x-terminators (2022) which she stars in but it's pretty inconsequential, it's just her and her gal pals having a wacky vampire adventure, so up to you if you wanna read it!

stories to avoid:

nyx (2004) - okay so really there's just one story you MUST avoid and that story is nyx. this story is technically laura's first comic book appearance but it sucks so much. all you need to know is that it establishes that laura was manipulated into underage sex work sometime after the events of x-23: target x and then escaped. while this aspect of her past is relevant to her character and gets alluded to in liu's run, the depiction of it here is horrible and you absolutely do not need to subject yourself to it!

uncanny x-men #450-460 - this series sees laura briefly join the x-men and i'm not really sure where it's supposed to fit in continuity? plus she's kind of out of character? it's confusing and not really important so i would recommend skipping it.

fallen angels (2019) - this miniseries was the first place laura showed up during the krakoa era and it just isn't very good so you don't have to read it!

i haven't said much about the art but i also should mention that some of the art in stories where she's a teen can be kind of sexualizing and uncomfortable to see - x-23: target x puts her in risque goth outfits and new x-men: academy x often has artists who like drawing teen girl characters with ridiculous balloon boobs. but once you get to 2010 or so the artists mostly stop doing that thankfully. i also ought to warn you that laura's stories tend to deal with heavy themes, such as abuse, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and human trafficking. loss of agency is a big theme for laura and with that comes some heavy stuff! but i still think most of her stories are worth reading. she's a compelling hero and i love her <3 <3 <3

i hope this is helpful! let me know if you need any help or clarification :) have fun reading about laura!!!!!!

[ghostradiodylan]

Happy Teens Acquitted Day my beloved Hacketteers! Get your vodkamelons ready, dust off your beerdar, and raise a pint of Savini’s to our favorite meddling kids! Laura, Ryan (determinant), and Kaitlyn (determinant) have been free for two years today, assuming you kept them alive and found enough evidence to save their asses.

But maybe keep the party inside the lodge tonight because it’s a full beaver moon (heh) and who knows what’s out there. Probably nothing, but could be bears.

Contribute to your local bail funds and fuck the police (but not like that you sickos)!

☮️ & ❤️

[PS I’m furiously rewriting and editing today and hoping to finally post a new chapter tonight when I get done fighting with Travis Hackett’s police interview!]

[togrowoldinv]

Golden Egg

Natasha Romanoff x Female Reader

Clint invites your family to the farm for an Easter celebration and egg hunt

Note: Happy Easter to all of those who celebrate! I spent my day with family, so this is coming out a little later than I planned but I still wanted to post it today. Enjoy!

Natasha Romanoff Masterlist 1, Natasha Romanoff Masterlist 2, Main Masterlist

Holidays with Natasha are always your favorite. Despite not having much of a childhood, the woman makes your children’s day the best it can possibly be.

This morning you got the kids dressed nicely and took photos before you let them change and run around the farm with worries.

Natasha stands by your side now as you wait for the egg hunt, or as the kids think of it, the highlight of the day.

“Are you excited?” You ask her. Every year she gets really into it.

“Very,” she says. A smirk rests on her perfect lips. “I think I know which egg has the money in it.”

“Natasha! You’re not supposed to know,” you scold her. She just chuckles. “You better not cheat and tell one of our kids.”

She wraps an arm around your waist and leads you to the trailer Clint has set up to drive to the egg hunt.

“A hayride!” Belle shouts as she waits for her turn to hop on.

“Yeah, baby. We’re going to the egg hunt,” you explain.

“Yay!” Nate yells from beside her.

You and Nat take turns lifting the kids onto the trailer and sitting them on the hay. They listen to your instructions to stay seated as the Laura joins Clint on the front of the tractor.

He takes off and drives you all to a field where the older kids just finished hiding the eggs. The kids are bouncing on the hay bails they’re so excited to hunt for the eggs.

“Okay, everyone when we get off y’all need to line up at the starting point,” you explain. They nod their heads and you begin helping them off. Soon enough, it’s time for the hunt to begin.

“Give us a countdown, Coop,” Clint says.

The boy counts to three and the kids take off. You and Nat try to keep up with Belle while also watching Taylor do her best at it.

“She’s missing her basket,” Natasha says, chuckling at the way the littlest girl is picking up eggs but not putting them in her basket successfully.

“Poor baby. Go help her Nat,” you tell her.

“But the golden egg,” she says. “Belle has the best chance at finding it.”

“Natasha,” you scold her softly. She gives you a sweet look that border lines puppy dog eyes. “Fine. I’ll help her.”

“You’re the best!” Natasha says as she runs after Belle to help her.

You help Taylor figure out how to use her basket and it goes much better for her. At some point, she just plops down on the grass and starts opening her eggs.

“I found it! I found it!” You hear Belle yelling as she runs back towards you.

“Whatcha got there, sweetheart?” You squat down to her level.

“It’s the golden egg!”

“Oh, wow! Great find, kiddo,” you say.

Natasha comes up behind the girl with a beaming smile on her face. “Do you want me to hold it to keep it safe?” She asks.

“Please!” Belle hands it to Nat and runs off to keep hunting.

“Why were you so dead set on her getting this egg? What is it, like five dollars?” You ask her.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?”

She hands you the plastic egg and you raise a brow at her.

Still, you open the egg and inside there’s a ring.

“We’re already married, babe,” you tease, but you look at the ring further to see that it’s the birthstones of all your children plus your’s and Natasha’s. “Nat, this is-“

“The Easter bunny wanted to surprise you a little differently this year,” Natasha says. She takes the ring and places it on your hand. “Perfect.”

You pull her in for a kiss, ignoring your big kids’ response to the pda.

“I love you,” you tell her.

“I love you too, detka.”

You stay in her arms as you watch the kids continue to run around and find eggs.

“Baby, you do realize that Belle expects some kind of prize in this egg,” you say and Natasha shakes her head.

“I did not think about that,” she admits. “Hey Clint, you got 5 dollars?”

He gives her the cash and seems pretty oblivious to why she needs it, but Belle is very excited to come back to her egg.

You all load up to go back to the house and the kids empty their eggs to see what all they got.

The smiles on everyone’s faces shows just how happy the day was. And Natasha wears the biggest one.

[themculibrary]

Bruce And Natasha (Brutasha) Masterlist 2

part one

and you were my eyes (how could I see again) (ao3) - spidey_taurie (onecentwriter), the_cat_in_the_void T, 5k

Summary: He’s a mess. He’s such a mess. He loves being happy and having friends and he hates himself for loving and for breaking his rule and putting other people in danger, god, don’t you care? He’s a monster, true, but for a long time he’d hoped to keep that term on the greener side of him. But it’s not wrong—he’s risking the safety of his fr–teammates just so he can have a bit of fun, a bit of joy.

And then there’s Natasha.

God, it’s always Natasha, isn’t it?

Or; love is not something Bruce Banner ever thought he could have again.

A Simple Little Dare (ao3) - DutchRenegade G, 1k

Summary: When Nat turns out to have the lowest average that semester, her friends come up with a dare. Will she kiss the stranger in the corner of the bar reading by himself?

Beauty and the Beast (ao3) - Panda365 bruce/natasha, pepper/tony T, 47k

Summary: A few weeks after the battle of NY, the original 6 are adjusting to life at Avengers tower.

Through various missions and time off the clock, the team must put aside their differences to save others and each other from their own demons.

(This is a Bruce/Natasha centered story full of angst, comedy, and friendship. Be warned of potentially triggering topics of suicide, anxiety, and depression.)

chaos runs in the family (ao3) - magecraft G, 1k

Summary: Alexei doesn't think Bruce is worthy of dating Natasha. By his own standards he is proven very wrong.

Dancing With A Stranger (ao3) - Panda365 T, 5k

Summary: Bruce is back after the events of Ultron. Natasha has moved on...or so she thought.

flirting for geniuses (ao3) - screamlet G, 5k

Summary: Inspired by this tumblr post about Bruce and Natasha and how much more fun their dynamic could have been if the writing gave them a chance to be their horrible awkward selves.

In the Heat of the Moment (ao3) - onward_came_themeteors T, 4k

Summary: If Natasha had joined Bruce in the shower during Age of Ultron.

like there's no goodbyes (ao3) - natashasbanner M, 9k

Summary: Sometimes saying goodbye and moving on are the right thing to do. But it can also be the hardest. Bruce couldn't keep living like a ghost in the halls of the compound, but that meant leaving behind Natasha. She wasn't ready yet.

It broke his heart but it had to be done. He focused on helping people again and the last person he expected to encounter was Natasha herself.

Goodbyes were hard but for one night, they didn't have to be.

Massage Time (ao3) - Hawkeye_Beauty M, 2k

Summary: Natasha Romanov needs a massage to get all the kinks and knots out. So Clint recommends Banner. Banner is great at massages……And other things.

Mistletoe (ao3) - Panda365 T, 1k

Summary: Natasha hates raw conversations. And Bruce isn’t a mind reader.

Red For Forgiveness (ao3) - alinalotus T, 3k

Summary: When Natasha bails, Fury sends the only person capable of saving her to bring her back. "...only she doesn't hate him, not even a little bit..."

Running With It (ao3) - blue_the_unruly T, 1k

Summary: At Clint and Laura's farmhouse, Natasha opens up to Bruce about her past, and the two are finally able to find healing in each other's arms.

secret moments in a crowded room (ao3) - natashasbanner T, 1k

Summary: Natasha let Tony talk her into attending a Stark Industries fundraiser. But she didn't have to suffer alone.

Starved (ao3) - hulucthulhu E, 3k

Summary: Bruce is sure his window with Natasha has closed, but they're alone, and lonely. Maybe they can help each other though, after all, what else are friends for? Everyone needs a hug sometimes, right?

such a dork (ao3) - NumberFivesBottom T, 1k

Summary: Bruce overhears Natasha talking to Wanda about him. Their relationship blossoms through one act.

Unspoken Promises (ao3) - ourendlessaffair T, 3k

Summary: Bruce and Natasha share a bed at Clint's farmhouse and they face their feelings for each other.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Edit: Title might be too restrictive. Feel free to also read it as “jaded, complex man watches over a young woman and becomes her father figure”

Honorable mentions (vote for “something not listed here” if these are your answers):

* Obi-Wan show (Obi-Wan and Leia). I removed this due to Bail.

* The Man from Nowhere (Tae-sik and So-Mi). No space left.

* Agents of SHIELD (Coulson and Daisy). No space left.

[allhalesterekstilinski]

I'm not done talking about Derek as a brother. Things Derek does for Cora and Laura part 1

Plays Barbies with Cora. They had the cars and horse carriage, but before that they used My Little Ponies

He would brush her hair after she got out of the bath and got into her jammies

Knew the names of every kid who was nice to his sisters and would find some way to secretly thank them. Veronica, who stood up for Cora and whose bike has a flat? He'd fill it with air in the middle of the night. Isaiah gives Laura a snack and some water after gym? Mysteriously finds a bag of hot cheetos and $10 in his locker

Lets them paint his nails. Silly colors, silly designs, he doesn't care. And he won a bet against his friends that he could play basketball with acrylic nails and not pop the ball

He would take Cora to the movies when their mom had werewolf stuff and Laura was helping out and their dad was bailing Peter out of jail

Since werewolves are a little socially awkward, their parents thought they might want to enroll in after school classes to make friends. When Laura was little, she wanted to take ballet. Derek wasn't really interested in that stuff, but he chose ballet too so he would know Laura. And by the time Cora joined, he stayed to keep her company after Laura left. Even after Derek aged out of the program, he went to every recital and brought Cora flowers (even though it embarrassed her)

Derek has been known to fake being a crazy ex to get Laura out of bad dates

Derek has always supported his sisters' hobbies. He learned to read music to help Laura play the guitar, he bought Cora her first set of tarot cards, he studied cheer routines to practice with Laura

Whenever their parents were on a date or doing something important, Derek would take his sisters roller skating. He was never great at it, but he saw how much fun they had

Sometimes Cora would draw pictures for Derek and he kept a folder of them under his bed. There was so much stuff he collected, he put it in the vault. Now he has something that was saved from the fire