#Medium-Ch

[hephaestn]

It’s been a long time since Steve left Hawkins behind, since he left the summer of 1985 tightly locked in a corner of his mind.

He was happy in New York City, loved his apartment with Robin, loved the friends he had made here, breathed and exhaled warmth for this city which had so caringly taken him in. But, he felt hollow some days, especially the days where that lock would loosen and the memories would come back.

They were happy memories, for the most part. He cherished those ones, the ones which still made him smile to himself in the middle of the street. Though, when the bad ones hit, it was still unbearable.

He couldn’t think of Billy, of the way he could still remember the taste of his lips, the shape of his waist underneath his hand. He couldn’t think of how Billy left him one night with only a note to remember him by.

I had to. I’m sorry.

Those five words were still imprinted in Steve’s mind, forever echoing even after being torn apart and thrown into the trash that very morning.

Steve doesn’t really know why today his thoughts have traveled back in time to sunny days and endless love making nights. He needs a distraction, whichever it might be.

That’s why he accepts to join Robin and her coworkers for dinner. They’ve chosen a tiny place which had just recently opened in Greenwich Village. It’s cozy; wooden furniture and fairy lights, black leather chairs and artsy painted walls. Steve likes it, feels calm in it.

All of Robin’s coworkers are nice, they keep up the conversation, always making sure Steve feels included, which he greatly appreciates. Dinner is incredible, probably one of the most tasteful meals he’s had in… years.

As a starter the waiter brings out an assortment of bruchette, each one topped by ingredients from all the parts of the world; Italy, Greece, Mexico, Thailand, Morocco. Steve can’t help but lick his fingers after each bite.

Main course is hearty; a fresh sea urchin pasta. It tastes like the sea, like the infinite summers he’d spend as a child in Positano with his parents.

They get asked if they’d like a second course which everyone at the table is quick to deny since they’re all full and ready to leave some room for dessert. The waiter tells them the last course and liquors will be presented to them by the chef which lifts whispers of curiosity amongst them all.

Steve is enjoying himself, laughing with Robin as she goes into extreme detail about her last failed date night. The thoughts have gone away, he’s free of them again, for a while at least. Until he sees him—white chef jacket, tight around his arms, his hair is tightly pulled back, leaving his face to shine under the warm light of the restaurant.

Steve’s vision goes blurry for a second, disconcerted by the shock, by the confusion of if this is really happening or not.

“Robin,” Billy says, and there’s a long pause. “Steve.”

He can feel Robin’s eyes on him, Billy’s eyes on him, but he can’t look at either of them, instead he buries his face in the glass of wine in front of him. The world seems to be crumbling around him, every person becoming faceless, every light in the room becoming distorted. His heart is pounding incessantly, looking for a way out of his chest.

Steve doesn’t really know how or why he does it but he looks up and meets Billy’s gaze. And, there’s something in his eyes, a mix of sorrow and longing Steve wasn’t prepared to face.

“So, uh.” Billy clears his throat. “Here we have, the Sailing Lovers. Eclair filled with a rose and elderberry crème pat with a glaze of Madagascar vanilla bean, accompanied by an Amaretto liqueur.”

Steve is entranced as Billy explains dessert, too in his own mind to notice the glisten in Billy’s eyes as he makes his way back into the kitchen.

[galedekarios]

the absolutely wonderful and incredibly skilled @sellisternian created this beautiful, beautiful portrait of altonaufein 🖤

[tyrannuspitch]

it also really frustrates me sometimes when i want to talk about One Specific Aspect of loki's whole deal but i can't find a more specific word for it than "power" or "hierarchy".

like, it *is* about space racism, but for the vast majority of his life he and most of the people around him didn't *know* that. and it *is* about class/rank... kind of...? but in a weird paradoxical way where he's still nominally a prince, and maybe he's arguably being treated like a servant but even if he is he's a pretty high-ranking servant, used for politics rather than manual labour... but also at the same time, as a jotun he's lowlier than anyone on asgard and the only one (that we know of) who might actually be better described as a slave than a servant, because if he was "stolen" then he is property... and none of it's really summarisable in any particular way because this has always just expressed itself as people being Weird About Loki in particular. like there is SO much secrecy and hypocrisy surrounding this power dynamic that odin has had to make loki into his own unique personal category of disempowered outsider. but also. maybe that's just what a combination of domestic and peer abuse looks like. but it's still hardly a typical relationship when your household and its power dynamics envelop the whole kingdom because your father is THE ALLFATHER. hhhhhhhhhh

[danzafila]

Choose a Woman

Tagged by @simonetheestan, thank you!

Here's the rules: Once you've been tagged, make a poll of your favorite female characters (no limits--as many or as few as you like*) to see who your followers like the most. Then, spread the fun and tag however many more people you want!

I tag: @breadedsinner, @farsight-the-char, @mneiai, @orangedodge, and @usaigi (as always, please feel free to ignore if you don't want to do it! and apologies if anyone's already been tagged--I tried to only pick people I hadn't seen do it yet, but I also haven't been online much lately lol)

[kyouka-supremacy]

People in the notes of my last post being worried about how they'll react when chapters 84-88 get animated. It's okay guys worst case scenario Atsushi is going to scream Akutagawa's name at the end of chapter 87 and we all collectively die

[ichihime]

IH WEEK 2023 ➞ DAY 01. TANABATA/PAST LIVES (insp)

"The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it."

[kenneth-carson]

A Medium, A Demonologist, And Some Guy Walk Into A Bar || Kellioo

@boointhenight @elliot-morey

"Okay! What do we think?" Ken stood up straight, something in his back going pop! from having been bent for prolonged period of time. "Is that enough candles?"

He gestured to the dozens he had been going around lighting. They were in various shapes and heights, as he hadn't known which ones would work best. Only 6 were scented and of those 6 only 1 was new and not from the ones he'd had in his room already. They were positioned in rows at the border of a larger circular shape, leaving the middle of said circle open. Like the opposite of a camp fire where it was the thing to be sat around, instead the fire here was sitting around its subjects.

Except in the very middle he'd set out a picnic blanket and on top of that was a loaf of Challah bread he'd gotten from the bakery, a smoothie he'd made, and a rotisserie chicken from the market. He figured that would cover everything, right?

It was well into the night but the light of the sheer amount of candles was starving off the dark, the slight breeze making them bend and flicker. A nice night, to be sure, the sky clear and air cooled, but the quiet of it could have been considered unsettling.

Not for Ken, though, if only because he didn't think to notice it.

[msommers]

AM I WALKING TOWARDS SOMETHING I SHOULD BE RUNNING AWAY FROM?

LUCINDA "LUCE" ARMITAGE ↳ MC for The Fernweh Saga by @lacunafiction

[4giorno]

he found god, what a beautiful moment

also found the newest addition to my fave clips of him

[seventh-district]

.

[ragtimeunder]

VERY VERY far-off concept themes for the antagonists of the chapter 4 au when I finish chapter 3

[inmydrcams]

I feel like the problem with the atla fandom is that they were young enough when watching the show that they forget the ~amazing character development is mostly fanon and seems great cause of nostalgia googles cause the og cartoon is not that omg groundbreaking

[infini-tree]

i am once again thinking about captain and that Thing i do in art/fics where Panels Are A Constraint (mostly a barrier, on occasion a unit of time, etc.)

[tyrannuspitch]

also slightly maddening to deal with early mcu loki's queercoding in this day and age because it's NOT actually overt or shocking in any way. it's ambient and mostly intangible and you feel like a conspiracy theorist trying to pin down any single instance of it. but it's there and it didn't HAVE to be any more overt because audiences were so used to the underlying archetypes that they could just fill in the numerous blanks!!!

like no loki's body language and speech patterns don't quite cross the line into something you can stereotype, and no he doesn't have any homoerotic subtext or even an obvious candidate to have it with, and no nobody ever actually alludes to his sexuality in any way.

but we all heard tony call loki a diva (derogatory) didn't we. in 2012. we saw that happen. and we knew they knew tony knew exactly what he was saying

[verytendou]

Coming out of my jjk hole to remind mappa i carry a big hammer and i NEVER FORGET