#Peter H. Wong

[demospectator]

The then newly-restored plaque in St. Mary’s Square honoring the “Americans of Chinese Ancestry” who gave their lives for America in its world wars, November 10, 2018. Photograph by Doug Chan.

The Last Full Measure: St. Mary’s Square Monument to the Fallen of Chinese America

In his book San Francisco Chinatown: A Guide to its History & Architecture, historian Philip P. Choy, shared his observations about the monuments in St. Mary’s Square as follows:

“Across from the statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen is a less imposing but more significant monument, with 97 names of Chinese American soldiers of our community, who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I and II. Every year on Veterans Day, the Cathay Post No. 384 and the VFW Chinatown Post march to the square to honor those who died for us, that they never be forgotten. This commemorative plaque and day of remembrance are more symbolic of Chinese America than Sun Yat-sen’s statue and the “Ten Ten” celebration.”

During the Second World War, thousands of young men and women enlisted or were drafted from Chinatowns, Japantowns (and concentration camps), Manilatowns, and other small communities across the country.

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and researchers at the Oakland Museum, 13,499 Chinese American men fought in the armed forces. (Community estimates range as high as 20,000.) Approximately 75 percent served in the US Army, with ground units such as the 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions in Europe and the 6th, 32nd and 77th Infantry Divisions in the Pacific. A quarter of the total Chinese American personnel under arms served in the Navy. Still others served in specialized units, such as the all-Chinese American 1157th Signal Corps -- part of 14th Air Service Group that would join the fight against Imperial Japan in the China Burma India theatre of operations.

Group of Chinese recruits for the U. S. Navy taking their oath on top of a captured Japanese submarine, on Navy Day in San Francisco Chinatown, October 27, 1942. Associated Press photographer unknown (from the collection of the San Francisco Public Library). As written on the verso: ""A two-man Jap submarine, captured after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, T.H. [Territory of Hawaii], began its nation-wide tour in San Francisco Oct. 27. In Chinatown, Chinese recruits for the U.S. Navy lined up on the vessel and took their oath. It was part of Navy Day ceremonies."

The Chinese American men who served in the armed forces during WW II comprised 20 percent of all such men in the continental U.S. As historian Iris Chang would write decades later, “ethnic Chinese men gave their lives disproportionate to their presence in the country.”

As in many cities, the public spaces in San Francisco had included memorials to the fallen in America’s wars. On Memorial Day on May 30, 1919, city officials and thousands of spectators dedicated a 15-acre plot as the “Grove of Heroes,” in remembrance of the US dead and wounded in the First World War. In 1930, a sculpture originally created by M. Earl Cummings for the Pan Pacific International Exposition was acquired and installed in the meadow adjacent to the grove. The bronze figure holding a laurel wreath became known as the “Doughboy Statue,” and it is readily noticeable from the park’s John F. Kennedy drive and promenade. On Armistice Day (now known as Veterans Day), November 13, 1932, public officials assembled again to dedicate an 18-ton granite boulder (reportedly quarried from Twin Peaks) to commemorate US war dead. The monument, which was sponsored by the Native Sons of the Golden West, was inscribed with the names of 748 men and 13 women, all local soldiers and volunteers who died during the Great War.

The Doughboy Statue in the “Grove of Heroes” in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The plaque, sponsored by the Native Sons of the Golden West and inscribed with the names of US dead in two world wars, omits the names of non-white military personnel killed in the line of duty.

Although Chinese Americans had served and died in WW I, no Chinese names had ever been inscribed in any of San Francisco’s war memorial monuments from that era. Their omission was hardly surprising. The Native Sons of the Golden West had been founded in July 1875 as a fraternal organization "embracing only the sons of those sturdy pioneers who arrived on this coast prior to the admission of California as a state." In the 1920s, the Native Sons adopted a white nativist stance on public policy issues. President William P. Canbu of the Native Sons wrote that “California was given by God to a white people, and with God’s strength we want to keep it as He gave it to us.” The Native Sons openly opposed Chinese, Mexican, and Japanese immigration. At the outset of the Second World War, the organization waged an unsuccessful legal battle for Japanese Americans to be disenfranchised.

The size of the returning cohort of Chinese American men (and the few women) from the Second World War had been unprecedented, and they produced a transformative generation of determined civic activists in the postwar era. As was the case with many other communities of color in the country, Chinese Americans had to struggle for acceptance and civil rights. Community activists such as John C. Young, a retired colonel from the United States Army and World War II veteran, made it their mission to join the struggle for Chinese Americans’ civil rights and participation in mainstream society. Young’s family led that effort by example as one of the first Chinese families to buy a home in defiance of racially-restrictive covenants against homeownership in San Francisco’s Richmond District (See the story here: https://www.outsidelands.org/chinese-in-the-richmond-alfred-john-young-and-connie-young-yu.php)

Left to right: Janey Young Cheu, Connie Young Yu, Mary Lee Young, Lt. Col. John C. Young, and Alfred John Young in the Young family house at 674 37th Avenue, circa 1952. (Courtesy of Al Young)

With the onset of the Cold War and actual armed conflict on the Korean peninsula, Chinese American leaders sensed that the path toward progress and acceptance of Chinese Americans had been jeopardized by the People’s Republic of China’s deploying troops to support North Korea’s military against UN forces.

As a commander of the American Legion Post #384 (Cathay Post), John Young and his fellow veterans spearheaded a proposal to erect a war memorial to the fallen Chinese American Veterans of World War I and World War II.

In 1951, the same year in which the Native Sons added the names of 16 white members who had died in World War II to the plaque on the rock pedestal of the Doughboy Statue, Chinese American veterans’ proposal to honor their fallen comrades in Chinatown gained acceptance.

Members of the VFW Chinatown post and Cathay Post no. 384 of the American Legion huddle and review conceptual drawings for a St. Mary’s Square monument with San Francisco Mayor Elmer Robinson in the Mayor’s office in City Hall, c. 1951. Standing (left to right): Lim P. Lee, Peter H. Wong (unidentified veteran), Shaw Pange, Charles Leong, and Joseph Quan. Sitting: John C. Young, Mayor Elmer Robinson, and James Hall. Photographer unknown (from the collection of the late Col. John C. Young and his daughter Connie Young Yu).

Before 1951, a large and dramatic stainless steel statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, designed local sculptor Benny Bufano, represented the principal statuary in St. Mary's Square.

St. Mary's Square Nov 12, 1943. In this view of St. Mary's Square, looking north toward Old St. Mary's Church, members of San Francisco’s Chinese community bow before the statue of Sun Yat Sen on the occasion of Dr. Sun’s birthday. Among those attending the ceremony was Tse Kiong Sun, grandson of Sun Yat Sen. Photographer unknown (Courtesy of a private collector).

According to historian Phil Choy, the statue had been commissioned by the Chinese Six Companies to commemorate October 10, 1911, the day Dr. Sun's revolutionary party overthrew the Manchu government and established the Republic of China. As Choy wrote in 2012:

“For almost a century, October 10th, known by the Chinese as “Ten Ten,” was a major day of celebration in the community. Banners stretched across Grant Avenue. Organized by the Chinese Six Companies, drum & bugle corps and pupils from every Chinese language school dutifully paraded through the streets. Today the celebration no longer has 100% community support. Members of the Chinese Six Companies are divided; some still embrace the Kuomintang (KMT) Party of the former Republic of China (now the Taiwanese Government), while others support the People’s Republic of China.”

The efforts by the Chinese community’s veterans and supporters to honor the fallen of two world wars culminated in 1951 with the installation of the memorial plaque still seen today in St. Mary's Square. (A recounting of the memorial's dedication and other recollections by the daughter of one of the leaders in the effort to establish the monument, historian Connie Young Yu, may be heard here. (https://chiamgi.substack.com/p/col-john-c-young-profile?triedRedirect=true)

“Soldiers firing salute at dedication of memorial to deceased Chinese-American veterans at St. Mary's Square,” May 28, 1951. Mayor Elmer Robinson stands at center in dark suit. Photographer Unknown (Examiner Negative Collection / courtesy of a private collector)

A large crowd attended the dedication ceremonies for the Chinese veterans memorial at St Mary’s Square on May 28, 1951. An Army band is seated with musical instruments, and members of the Chinatown Boy Scouts troop appear in the right foreground. Photographer unknown (form a private collection).

Civic leader and president of the Wing Nien Soy Sauce Co. Col. John C. Young (ret.) speaks to the crowd assembled on May 28, 1951, for the dedication of the memorial to Chinese American service personnel killed during the First and Second World Wars. His speech to the crowd occurred in the presence of his former commanding officer, General Albert Wedemeyer, under whom Young served as a heavy weapons officer in the China-Burma-India theater of operations.

If the irony of Chinese Americans' entering the US armed forces during wartime was apparent, it was never expressed publicly by those who had served honorably. Native-born, as well immigrants ineligible to naturalize as citizens by punitive immigration laws, had answered the call to service for an America that had, for most of the previous century, robbed, murdered, burned, lynched, taxed, and excluded the pioneer generations, while building much of the political economy of the American West on the strength of Asian labor.

Veterans from Chinatown's American Legion Cathay Post 384 and VFW Chinatown Post 4618 assembled on Memorial Day 2016 in front of the WW I and II memorial plaque in St. Mary’s Square to commemorate the Chinese American fallen in all the nation’s conflicts and wars. Photograph by Doug Chan.

The numbers of Chinese Americans KIA and MIA from the world wars remain imprecise. The honored dead, including Medal of Honor recipient Capt. Francis B. Wai are, and will be, remembered in perpetuity for their extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty. For others, such as Lt. Kenneth Kai-Kee, the memories, grief and loss of those he left behind have already faded with the passing of family, friends, and loved ones.

The passage of time confers on community historians the duty to impart to each new generation the mission to remember the wartime sacrifices of Chinese America's sons and daughters. The debt to those who gave the last full measure of devotion must be honored in perpetuity.

Photograph by Doug Chan.

[missr3n3]

im almost done with the rough draft of rotten roots chapter 3, but at what cost?

[httpscomexe]

No Way Home

Summary: After a stressful meeting with Peter Parker, you try to help Stephen Strange unwind a little.

Parings: Stephen Strange x Reader

Warnings: Spell use, language, No Way Home scenes (Actual Dialogue), Smut (Oral, p in v, unprotected, f on birth control), fingering, wound (no description), self deprecating jokes, choking, safe word, some aftercare, little fluff.

Word Count: 3989

“I’ve been practising magic for years, teaching you everything I know, and here we are.” you chuckle a little as Stephen sighs at your every comment.

“I asked Wong to cast the maintenance spell, he’s not the best listener.”

“Well Wong has more important duties as the sorcerer supreme.”

“He wouldn’t be the sorcerer supreme if I hadn’t blipped for 5 years.” The coffee machine made a bubbling sound as it filled the rest of his cup and he walked towards you. “I don’t really understand why they didn’t make you the sorcerer supreme.” He takes a sip of his coffee as he stares down at you,

“Because she tries escaping the sanctum. We all know she has very powerful that she can’t quite control yet and we need to keep her here until we know we can trust her.” Wong walks out of the kitchen, casting a portal and walking into it. “While I’m gone, you get babysitting duties.” You scoff, you know how to control your powers, you just choose not to listen to them.

“I don’t think she needs babysitting Wong.”

“Even if she doesn’t need it, she already follows you around like a puppy already anyways.”

“Yea I’ve noticed that…” He turns to look at you with his head tilted. “You have been clinging onto me like your life depends on it haven't you? Always by my side.” He smiles a little. You were surprised he’s only just now realizing it.

I only shrug.

“Well it’s cold down here, while you’re going back and forth between portals, Y/N and I are going upstairs where it's a little warmer.” He opens a portal to the upstairs, not wanting you to slip on the stairs… again…

“Alright. You keep an eye on that girl, she’s trouble.” Wong waves a finger and you smirk so he knows you’re already up to something as you all go through a portal. 

“We are all in shock at this news today!” The lady on the TV talks and talks about everything boring as Stephen goes through some papers of research. “After this video was released from the now deceased Quentin Beck, also known as ‘Mysterio’ the entire world is shocked to see a teenage face under the famous ‘spiderman’ mask, a 17 year old Midtown high student named Peter Parker.” That’s not good.

“Oh boy.” You hear Stephen mumble behind you.

“How do you think he’s feeling about all of it” you stand up from the couch and walk towards Stephen who’s now looking at the TV as a clip from the video Mysterio recorded plays behind you.

“Well I’m sure he’s gonna find a way to make things worse. He’s on his way here right now actually.” He reaches to his right and his cape flies onto his back.

“How would you know that?”

“Y/N sweetie, I know everything.” He whispers softly into your ear, sending small butterflies through your belly as he walks past you and begins down the stairs. As you always do, you begin to follow behind him.

At the bottom of the stairs you hear a high pitched voice and Wong speaking back, and you see Stephen speaking as well. As you get halfway down the stairs, you see Peter Parker.

“The most famous person in the world, I know.” Wong enters through a portal, setting down several suitcases. “Wong.” He introduces himself quickly. “Try not to slip, we don’t have liability insurance.”

“Is all this for a holiday party?” You see Peter take a few steps forward, examining the sanctorum filled with snow and ice.

“No, one of the Rotunda gateways connects to Siberia. A blizzard blasted through.” Stephen leaves your side at the center of the staircase and floats down the steps with a coffee mug in his hands, slipping a little when he lands.

“Because someone forgot to cast the monthly maintenance spell to keep the seals tight.” He speaks as he reaches the last step.

“That’s right, he did, because he forgot I now have higher duties-”

“Higher duties?”

“The sorcerer supreme has higher duties, yes.”

“Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme-” Peter breaks their conversation and Stephen looks back at him.

“No, he got it on a technicality cause I blipped for five years.”

“Oh.” He looks at Wong. “Well, congratulations.”

Stephen starts back up. “If I’d been here, then I would have-”

“Burned the whole place down.” Wong walks in front of Stephen. “You two! No one said ‘stop shoveling’”

“So, Peter. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Stephen begins to walk to the fireplace.

“Right umm… I’m really sorry to bother you, sir, but-”

“Please, we saved half the universe together, I think we’re beyond you calling me sir.” You started to walk down the stairs to them, smiling softly at Wong as he helped the two people shovel snow.

When you enter the room, you see Stephen lighting the fireplace with some magic.

“Okay, uh, Stephen-”

“That feels weird. But I’ll allow it.”

“Uh, when, um… when Mysterio revealed my identity, my entire life got screwed up.” You stood at the entrance, staring at the fireplace with Peters back to you as he spoke. “And, I was wondering… I mean, I don’t really know if this would actually work, but I was wondering if… maybe you could go back in time and make it so that he never did?”

“Peter, we tampered with the stability of spacetime to resurrect countless lives. You want to do it again now just cause yours got messy?”

“This isn’t- It’s not about me. I mean, this is really hurting a lot of people. My uh… my Aunt May. Happy. My best friend, my girlfriend… their futures are ruined. Just because they know me and they’ve… done… nothing… wrong…?” Peter pauses randomly as he finishes his sentence, you assume his spider sense is catching onto something so you use your own magic to summon some knives.

Suddenly, he quickly turns around and a string of white liquid shoots out at your left hand, sticking it to the table next to you.

“Y/N?!” Peter walks towards you when he realizes who it is. “Oh my God, I thought you were dead!” He gets closer and wraps his arms around you, pulling you into a tight hug.

“Yea, hey Pete.” He hugs you tighter and you use your free hand so gently hug him back.

“Have you been here the whole time?” He finally pulls away from you, both of his hands gently rest on your shoulders. “Sorry I shot a web at your hand, I guess my spider sense still recognizes you as Black Bee.” (Your villain name) You took a deep breath when he said that name. You haven’t been Martyr for a long time. Just as Bucky hasn’t been The Winter Soldier for a long time, but yet you both still have to be locked up in separate places.

“Well that’s unfortunate isn’t it Peter?” you mumble and Peter lets go of you, easily ripping the web fluid off my hand. “Good thing I’m not anymore, or I swear I wouldn’t be stuck in the sanctum right now.” Peter looks down at you confused. Then he looks up at Stephen.

“Why isn’t she allowed to leave?”

“Because she’s not completely safe yet. Last time we tried bringing her to the store so she could get something for her drawings, she lashed out on a random civilian because they accidentally ran into her backside with their shopping cart.” He sighs and looks at you. You were smiling, clearly proud of yourself. “You should’ve seen the look of fear on that poor womans face as Y/n-”

“Okay, I think you and Peter were talking about something more important before he almost attacked me, Strange.” you cut him off, not wanting to relive the embarrassing memory.

“Right, I am so sorry Peter, but even if I wanted to… I don’t have the Time Stone Anymore.” Strange drops the subject quickly and refocuses on Peter.

“That’s right.” He groans a little. “I’m really sorry if I wasted your time.”

“No, you didn’t-”

“Forget about it.” Behind you, Wong picks up his suitcases and joins the conversation again.

“Oh, he will. He’s very good at forgetting things.”

“Wong, you've actually generated a good idea…”

“What?”

“The Runes of Kof-Kol?” Peter looked at Strange questionably.

“The Runes of Kof-Kol?”

“Oh, it’s just a standard spell of forgetting. It won’t turn back time, but at least people will forget that you were ever Spider-Man.”

“Seriously? That would be-” Your heart beated quickly when Peter's interest rose in Kof-Kol. You and Wong both spoke at the same time.

“No, not seriously!” Wong turns from you to Strange. “That spell travels the dark borders between known and unknown reality. It’s too dangerous.”

“We’ve used it for a lot less. Do you remember the full moon party at Kamar-Taj?”

“No…?”

“Exactly.” Strange waits for a moment before speaking again. He doesn’t even bother addressing you since you weren’t anywhere near being allowed to tell him no. “Come on. Wong… hasn’t he been through enough?”

You watch as Wong's face softens, behind him, another portal opens to Kamar-Taj. “Just leave me out of this.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” Wong enters the portal and it closes quickly behind him. Then Strange turns to Peter and has a friendly grin on his face.

The scene in the ancient chamber plays. Strange attempts to cast the spell, Peter keeps changing it mid spell, Strange gets mad at Peter.

Upstairs, everything starts shaking and you look over as a relic falls apart when one of the apprentices tries to hold onto it for support. You quickly make your way down to make sure everything is alright.

“Did it work?” Your voice shook as you looked around and saw Strange visibly angered.

“No. He changed my spell six times-”

“Five times.” You both looked over at Peter who now looked nervous again.

“You changed my spell! You don’t do that! I told you-” He looks at the trapped spell in the centre of the room. “And that is why!” You all look towards the orb with the tiny spell inside. “That spell was completely out of control. If I hadn’t shut it down, something catastrophic could have happened!”

“Stephen, listen, I am so sorry-”

“Call me sir”

Everything is quiet for a moment as you watch the exchange, already developing a way to talk to Strange who you felt was being way too hard on Peter.

“Sorry, sir…” Peter mumbled.

“You know, after everything we’ve been through together, somehow I always forget you’re… you’re just a kid.” You watch as Peter looks down, clearly feeling ashamed of himself. “Look, Parker.” His tone softens. “The problem is not Mysterio. It’s you.” You shoot Strange a daring look, he knows he’s already pressing too far on Peter. “Trying to live two different lives, and the longer you do that the more dangerous it becomes, believe me.” He pauses for a moment. “I’m so sorry about you and your friends not getting into college. But if they rejected you, and you tried to convince them to reconsider, there’s nothing else you can do.” We all stand in silence for a moment and we watch as Peter's face changes slightly.

“When you say “Convince them” you mean like I could have called them?”

“Yea.”

“I can do that?”

“You haven’t called the-”

“Well I mean, I got their letter and I assumed that that was-” You finally cut in.

“I’m sorry, are you telling us that you didn’t think to call and plead your case with them first before you asked Strange to brainwash the entire world?” you asked him more calmly than Strange would have.

“Well, I mean, when you put it like that, then-”

“I can’t believe that kid. He’s fought a giant purple goblin and he can’t think of calling a college and talking to them for reconsideration?” He speaks angrily and you follow him into his room.

“You know, I think I might be able to get into the college if I applied.” You watch as he sits on the edge of his bed. “I mean, I’m basically also twenty-three just like Peter, just a bit more complicated.”

“Complicated because you were frozen in ice at 12, then blipped at 17?”

“Yea complicated because of that.” You put your knees on his bed and make your way behind him. “But you’re way too hard on him, you’re hard on me too.”

“Not as hard on you as I am on him though, I could never yell at you.” You sit up on your knees and place both of your hands on his shoulders, starting to gently massage his muscles.

“You’ve yelled at me plenty of times before Mr. Strange.” you whisper close to his ear and continue to massage him.

“Yes but that was before we all fought a giant grape.” He sighs a little and tilts his head slightly to the side, taking a deep breath as your hands begin to relax his muscles. “And if I can remember clearly, you used your powers to heal Stark. And you also used your powers to find Thanos.” He leans back a little against your front. “Tell me, if it wasn’t your dad who used the glove, if it was someone else like Clint or Scott, would you still have used your powers to save them?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well because when you use your Saint, you're taking the pain out of their body and putting it into your own body, and you also move their wounds from theirs to yours.”

“Well, I still would’ve Sainted them. Maybe not you though.” You giggle a little as he turns around and grabs you by the waist.

“Oh really?” You reach down to try pulling his hands off of your waist, laying back as he presses forward on top of you.

“No of course not really.” You laugh as he lays on top of you with one of his knees between your thighs. “You should consider telling Fury that it’s safe for me to leave. I know how to control my powers…”

“Yea, you do, but the second you leave the Sanctum I won’t be able to find you again unless you come to find me for something.” He moves until he's stradling your legs, one of his hands is pressed onto your lower abdomen, and his other hand rests on his thigh as he sits back on his heels.

“Well yea, I like to have my freedom.” You sigh a little as he leans down slowly and presses a gentle kiss to your forehead, making you smile softly.

“You have your freedom as long as you’re by my side.” He gently moves his hand down to the end of your shirt and slowly glides his hand carefully over your stomach. “You know.” His voice drops to a whisper as he pauses for a moment and runs his hand over your smooth skin. “You were 17 during the blip… does that make it still wrong for me to touch you? Or will you consider yourself to be twenty three for me?” He grins as he leans down again, his lips gently brushing against your cheek and gently trailing along your jaw and neck.

“I can be twenty three for now… If you want.” You feel your body heating up and you’re sure he could smell you.

“You smell so sweet…” He mumbles as he leans back to press kisses to your stomach and thighs.

Thanks to your powers and the way you were built, when you're turned on, people can smell your arousal no matter how heightened their senses are.

you could feel his tongue slowly trail wet licks between your thighs. His large hands caressing your thighs and gently moving up to grab your hips.

“You look so beautiful…” He lays one more kiss to your stomach as he leans back up and connects his lips to yours in a long kiss. You reach up to wrap your arms around the back of his neck, keeping him close as he wraps one of his arms around the back of your waist to lift your body against his.

“You know you’re really pretty too…?” You whisper softly with a quiet laugh as he chuckles and lays more kisses to your neck, making you involuntarily arch your back up to get closer to him. Now you could really feel your body heating up. Your lips part slightly as you start to breathe more heavily, and he admired your breasts move slightly as your chest moved up and down. You blush when you see him lick his bottom lip like a starved lion and you were his prey.

“Are you feeling any better? Or do I still have to wait…” You look down a little as you watch him run his hand down to where you were stabbed while fighting Thanos.

“I think I’ll be fine, just be careful if you grab my waist.” With that, he wraps both arms behind your back and moves you until we’re both lying on the bed.

“Remind me of our safeword, my rose…” He speaks softly as he begins to unbutton your blouse and skirt.

“Jumanji.”

“We really need to work on your safeword…” As soon as he finishes speaking, you feel something wrap around your wrists and you look up to see a string of his orange magic attach both of your wrists to the bed.

Fuck

He admired how you looked. Strapped down on his bed as he towered over you.

“You are so fucking perfect you know that?” He growls a little as he grinds against your thigh, his hard length making you whimper a little. 

“You don’t have to sweet talk me to turn me on you know…”

“I’m just speaking the truth.”

“That’s not the truth.” He reaches up and grabs onto your chin almost painfully and forces you to look into his eyes.

“Y/N.” His voice was daring. “You’re beautiful and if you ever start to think otherwise, I swear I’ll fuck you until you can’t even comprehend what the word ugly even means. I’ll have you screaming my name and telling you how beautiful you are then when you finally believe I’ll bend you over until you apologise for ever believing you’re not.” He stares into your eyes a moment longer before pressing a rough kiss to your lips.

You kissed for what felt like hours, and honestly you wished it had never stopped.

When he felt your legs open from under him, he couldn’t resist touching you. His hand slid down until he could feel your sensitive skin. “Fuck” He mumbled as he began to rub over your clit with his fingers, making your hips buck up in response.

“Please…” She breathes quietly as his fingers spread her lips, playing with your clit as you continue to buck against his hand, a quiet moan escaping your lips as he leans down, removes your panties, and roughly brings his tongue down to lick you from your opening to your clit. Repeating the movement two more times before diving his tongue into you, tasting your sweet hole.

“You always taste so fucking good…” He begins to lean back up your body, rubbing the bulge in his pants against your thigh before running his hand down and rubbing your clit again, teasing your entrance with one of his fingers before pushing two of his fingers into your hole. “Fucking perfect…” He curls his fingers to perfectly hit that spot inside of you that drives you wild while his thumb runs rough circles over your clit.

He began to plunge his two fingers in and out of you, causing you to moan in pleasure.

You began to moan more wildly as his movements became more urgent and you felt a familiar heat rise inside of your lower stomach.

The more you moved, the more he struggled to keep you still. He leans up a little, placing his free hand on your hip to hold you down as he adds a finger to your tight hole. “Cum for me little rose… cum on my fingers like a good girl…” His voice makes your head go foggy and your eyes flutter. You throbbed as you felt the pleasure course through you, rushing through you like a waterfall, and you whined at the feeling of his fingers leaving your hole. Making you lay there in breathy moans.

You watch as he brings his finger up to his lips and licks your arousal off his fingers, then he leans his face over yours, pressing a gently kiss to your temple, then pulling back and resting his hand over your throat before pressing down with his weight onto your throat, making you gasp. “Open.” He demands.

As you open your mouth, he leans down and presses a gentle kiss to your bottom lip, then leans back to spit into your mouth, moving a little with one of his hands still circling your throat and his other hand gently resting on your waist. “Swallow.”

And you did.

As much as you hated it when people saw you as vulnerable and weak, you swallow his spit. “Good girl..” He growls as he finally positions himself between your legs and you whine as you feel the tip of his cock against your hole, before slowly pushing himself inside of you. Stay quiet, he doesn’t like it when you’re loud during the day.

“Stay quiet…” He growls quietly into your ear before beginning to slowly move inside of you, easily brushing himself against your G-spot everytime he moves, making you arch your back off the bed, begging for more movement as you moan quietly.

“Shhh… M’not goin n’y faster n’til I know y’can take me slow…” He mumbles, continuing to move slowly inside of you, being careful not to grip your waist where you had been hurt.

After you stayed quiet for a few moments, he began to move more quickly, pulling out before slamming back into you.

“Fuck you’re so perfect…” He gently grabbed onto your hip with one hand, and squeezed your throat tighten with his other hand, making your moans become more desperate.

Suddenly you feel warm, and your body starts to shake as you feel yourself come close to another orgasm.

“Fuck, rosey, you feel so good… cum on my cock…” He squeezes your throat tighter, making you gasp a little for air. “Fuck, please tell me you’re still on birth control…” He leans up a little, releasing your throat and pressing both of his hands flat onto your waist, causing a wave of pain to shoot through your body as he accidentally presses his palm onto your wound, but it quickly numbs as it’s mixed with the next orgasm that tears through your body and you feel a warm liquid fill your hole as he carefully pulls out.

“Fuck I’m sorry if that hurt…” He gently runs his hand over the large bandage covering your wound.

“M’ okay…” You mumble. “M’ okay…”

“Okay.” He leans forward and presses a gentle kiss to your forehead, then he stands up off the bed and walks into the bathroom, coming back out with a warm towel.

With the wave of his hand, the magic that was restraining your wrists disappears and he kneels next to you on the bed, gently cleaning both of your liquids off your thighs.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let you go Y/N” He finishes cleaning the mess and watches as you sit up.

“I don’t mind never leaving…” You mumble. He leans forward and presses a gentle kiss on your lips, you smile and kiss him back.

“I love you, rose bud…”

“Love you too…”

[dalekofchaos]

Mortal Kombat fancast(new)

Simu Liu as Liu Kang

Glenn Powell as Johnny Cage

Charlize Theron as Sonya Blade

Ken Watanabe as Raiden

Henry Golding as Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot/Bi-Han

Andrew Koji as Scorpion

Manu Benett as Kano

Rory McCann as Goro

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as SHang Tsung(Old, WHO ELSE???)

Tony Leung as Shang Tsung(Young)

Bill Skarsgard as Reptile

Iko Uwais as Kung Lao

Aldis Hodge as Jackson "Jax" Briggs

Elodie Yung as Kitana/Milenena

Zoe Saldana as Jade

Harry Shum Jr. as Sub-Zero/Kuai-Liang

Justin H. Min as Smoke

Brian Tee as Sektor

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Cyrax

Scott Adkins as Baraka

Conan Stevens as Kintaro

Dave Bautista as Shao Kahn

Eugene Brave Rock as Nightwolf

John Cena as Stryker

Jon Bernthal as Kabal

Michelle Yeoh as Sindel

Jade Cargill as Sheeva

Nathan Jones as Motaro

Doug Jones as Ermac

Because of Tumblr's stupid 30 picture limit, I cannot add more pictures, so here’s the rest.

Larry Lam as Rain

Jonathan Patrick Foo as Chameleon

Karen Fukuhara as Khameleon

Jet Li as Fujin

Sonoya Mizuno as Sareena

Brenda Song as Kia

Javicia Leslie as Jataaka

Anna Diop as Tanya

Jai Courtney as Jarek

Karl Urban as Reiko

Mads Mikkelsen as Shinnok

Hoon Lee as Quan Chi

Benedict Wong as Bo Rai Cho

Lewis Tan as Kenshi

Yvonne Chapman as Li Mei

Emma Myers as Frost

Peter Mensah as Drahmin

Derek Mears as Moloch

Charles Melton as Mavado

Ron Yuan as Hsu Hao

Alexandra Daddario as Nitara

Gordon Liu as Shujinko

Constance Wu as Ashrah

Donnie Yen as Hotaru

Daniel Wu as Dairou

Mahershala Ali as Darrius

Matt Smith as Havik

Dominic Sherwood as Kobra

Kristen Stewart as Kira

Keith David as Onaga

Ian McKellen as Argus

Eva Green as Delia

Tom Hardy as Taven

Mark Strong as Daegon

Ron Pearlman as Blaze

Jessica Henwick as Skarlet

Milly Alcock as Cassie Cage

Delainey Hayles as Jacqui Briggs

Mackenyu as Takeda Takahashi

Ludi Lin as Kung Jin

Winston Duke as Kotal Kahn

Tao Okamoto as D’Vorah

Jensen Ackles as Erron Black

Dafne Keen and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ferra/Torr

Tony Jaa as Tremor

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Geras

Emily Blunt as Cetrion

Tilda Swinton as Kronika

[songofwizardry]

i'm going to be attempting @batmanisagatewaydrug's 2025 book bingo! full details of the books i've chosen (and options where i've got multiple) under the cut. it is, as most things i read are, sff heavy, but i have really tried to include other genres too!

literary fiction: detransition, baby by torrey peters. a book that i somehow still have not read, in spite of everyone reading it and talking about it. 2025 is gonna be the year i feel it.

short story collection: lesser known monsters of the 21st century by kim fu. this one came from the recommendations in the challenge post!

a sequel: the stone sky by n. k. jemisin is the last book in the broken earth trilogy. for some reason this is a trilogy i can only read in hard copy (possibly because i started reading the first book in hard copy?) and so while i adored the first two books (incredible worldbuilding, absolutely devastating), i was not able to get into the third one that i had as an ebook. so i'm gonna get a hard copy and finally read it.

childhood favourite: oranges are not the only fruit by jeanette winterson. stretching the definition of 'childhood' a bit here as i first read it when i was 15 (the summer i started coming out!) and also i clearly just want devastating books, but this is my choice. i'm interested to see how it holds up as an adult.

20th century speculative fiction: snow crash by neal stephenson (1992) or kindred by octavia butler (1979). both have been on my tbr for ages, but i'm leaning towards snow crash.

fantasy: jade city by fonda lee. i bought a copy of it ages ago and it sounds exactly like the kinda thing i'd like

published before 1950: dracula by bram stoker. maybe this is the year i read this book and/or keep up with dracula daily!

independent publisher: time to orbit: unknown by @derinthescarletpescatarian. stretching the definition of independent publisher here a bit, but i've wanted to read TTO:U for ages, and now it is in an ebook format, so i have no more excuses!

graphic novel/comic book/manga: this one was really hard for me, bc there's so manyyyy i want to read. i have narrowed it down to alone in space by tillie walden, lights, planets, people! by molly naylor, the fade by aabria iyengar and mari costa, and nimona by nd stevenson.

animal on the cover: while filling this out i realised so many of t kingfisher's books have animals on the cover, so this could have been what moves the dead, but in the interest of picking a new author, i went with weyward by emilia hart.

set in a country you've never visited: also lots of options here. i went with the weight of our sky by hanna alkaf (set in Malaysia), which i started when it released but never finished, but i am also looking at kiffe kiffe tomorrow by faiza guene (focused on a Moroccan family in France) and aluta by adwoa badoe (set in Ghana). i wanted some more ya on this list, so this list of ya books set in different countries was helpful!

science fiction: man, so much of this list is sci-fi already. but i went with the school for good mothers by jessamine chan. or alternatively i might read the long earth by terry pratchett and stephen baxter.

2025 debut author: i stumbled across an excerpt from motheater by linda h coega on the stone soup newsletter, and it sounds so good! my other option is anji kills a king by evan leikamp

memoir: again, i have picked two books that will probably hit pretty hard because i am making things difficult for myself. the year of the tiger: an activist's life by alice wong or alternatively i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy.

read a zine, make a zine: i'm going to be browsing the queer zine library, which is a mobile zine library based in the UK (i went to a zine fair they hosted several years ago!) for inspiration.

essay collection: the book of queer prophets: 24 writers on sexuality and religion, edited by ruth hunt. another book i've owned for ages and never read!

2024 award winner: some desperate glory by emily tesh, which won the 2024 hugo award for best novel.

nonfiction - learn something new: the age of surveillance capitalism by shoshana zuboff. of all the books on this list, this is the one i'm least confident about my ability to actually finish. it's a hefty book. but i'm gonna give it another shot!

social justice and activism: there were a lot of books on my tbr that could've fit this. i went with saving our own lives: a liberatory practice of harm reduction by shira hassan, which i got as a present last year. the other option is care work: dreaming disability justice.

romance novel: i'm quite proud of finding a romance novel my partner didn't rec for me for once. make room for love by darcy liao.

read and make a recipe: i love ruby tandoh, so i am going to read her cookbook, cook as you are! i also considered london feeds itself by the vittles team, but i don't think that counts as a cookbook.

horror: coup de grace by sofia ajram. i didn't know much recent horror, so this list of 2024 horror releases was helpful!

published in the aughts: white teeth by zadie smith. apparently it's very 2000s london, so i'm intrigued!

historical fiction: gods of jade and shadow by silvia moreno-garcia, which is a historical fantasy set in mexico. my other option is plain bad heroines by emily m danforth, who wrote one of my favourite books of all time (the miseducation of cameron post).

bookseller recommendation: thank you to the bookseller who recommended brandon sanderson's tress of the emerald sea when i was checking out the adventures of amina al-sirafi! apparently it also has ocean vibes, and maybe this is the year i finally read a brandon sanderson novel.

there's some other books i'm really looking forward to reading that didn't fit on my bingo list, which are: the river has roots by amal el-mohtar, the lighthouse at the edge of the world by j.r. dawson, death of the author by nnedi okorafor, and exordia by seth dickinson. i'm including them here so everything is in one place. i'm super excited to get a start on this challenge!

[theficdealer]

While Peter, MJ, and Ned are saying their goodbyes as Dr. Strange is completing his spell, a final rift opens up right in front of them. To their shock, they are hit by a small, green meteor that immediately sucks them into a vortex.

Unable to control their wild ride through history, the vortex collapses, violently expelling them into the unknown. The trio finds themselves in New York City, 2009 and learn their original future is gone.

Choosing to change this new reality for the better, they turn to an unlikely ally - Jarvis, Tony Stark's highly advanced AI assistant. Peter, MJ, Ned and their artificial allies must confront not just the threats of this altered present, but the rippling consequences their actions could have across the multiverse itself.

In an epic adventure that spans realities and timelines, this unlikely squad of heroes must embrace their second chance and rewrite the future, navigating a universe of infinite possibilities where every choice they make massively impacts the world as they know it.

—Summary of Spider-Man: Time to Go Home by Kythara on ao3

Is it just me or have the time travel fix-it fics been awesome lately, because I’m following like seven fantastic ones right now and t h r i v i n g.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a fic that was so simultaneously conscious of character’s strengths and weaknesses and toed the line of making people brilliant but not infallible so well.

Peter, Ned, and MJ, for example, while geniuses, are still portrayed as teenagers in possibly the most reasonable way they could have been. They each have unique strengths and weaknesses that balance out well and give them each something unique to bring to the table, which makes them feel more even ground than the way they’re generally portrayed as Peter’s sidekick and long suffering girlfriend.

Tony, also, is a complex character with his faults and hang-ups, but can buckle down and focus when he needs to, and even if he doesn’t like something, is able to put aside those hang-ups and do what’s right.

Pepper too, actually. This fic, like with MJ, Ned, and Peter, puts her and Tony on much more equal footing than I see most of the time (though I am, admittedly, in and out of this fandom) and has her making her own decisions for SI that don’t necessarily go through Tony first, which, while it theoretically happens, isn’t often shown (in my experience) and generally if it is, it generally doesn’t include her perspective. To the same effect, Happy and Rhodey aren’t treated as accessories, but their own people.

Things I loved in Particular:

Ned learning magic!

MJ’s focus on the environment and how she goes about laying the groundwork for large scale, multi-faceted discussion on the topic (bamf shit, honestly)

Jarvis Plotting

TrioWeb0rs<3

The entire Stark Expo section

Rhodey’s meeting with the higher ups

Wong<3

The resolution of the Hulk Situation

Nick Fury having three (3) people he can trust and absolutely hating that one of them is Tony Goddamn Stark

Sassy The Slightly Unhinged But Very Fabulous Magical Sash which took one look at Ned and was like “that one’s mine now”

The application of the web formula the author came up with is actually fucking genius i love it

Ross’s sentence<3

General Blackwell<3

Isabella<3

Peter’s exploration of various martial arts

Just generally the sheer amount of research that must be going into this fic

Go read it or lose the toes<3

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 47, 2023

Respiration organizes gamma synchrony in the prefronto-thalamic network. Basha, D., Chauvette, S., Sheroziya, M., & Timofeev, I. (2023). Scientific Reports, 13, 8529.

Measurement effects in decision‐making. Burns, D. M., & Hohnemann, C. (2023). Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 36(3), e2311.

Memory, perceptual, and motor costs affect the strength of categorical encoding during motor learning of object properties. Cesanek, E., Flanagan, J. R., & Wolpert, D. M. (2023). Scientific Reports, 13, 8619.

Maturation of auditory cortex neural responses during infancy and toddlerhood. Chen, Y., Green, H. L., Putt, M. E., Allison, O., Kuschner, E. S., Kim, M., … Edgar, J. C. (2023). NeuroImage, 275, 120163.

Understanding visual hallucinations: A new synthesis. Collerton, D., Barnes, J., Diederich, N. J., Dudley, R., ffytche, D., Friston, K., … Weil, R. S. (2023). Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 150, 105208.

A Texture Statistics Encoding Model Reveals Hierarchical Feature Selectivity across Human Visual Cortex. Henderson, M. M., Tarr, M. J., & Wehbe, L. (2023). Journal of Neuroscience, 43(22), 4144–4161.

The spatial extent of focused attention modulates attentional disengagement. Jefferies, L. N., Lawrence, R., & Conlon, E. (2023). Psychological Research, 87(5), 1520–1536.

Late integration of vision and proprioception during perturbed reaches. Keyser, J., Medendorp, W. P., Oostwoud Wijdenes, L., & Selen, L. P. J. (2023). Journal of Neurophysiology, 129(6), 1282–1292.

Self-organization of songbird neural sequences during social isolation. Mackevicius, E. L., Gu, S., Denisenko, N. I., & Fee, M. S. (2023). eLife, 12, e77262.

Characterizing the information transmission of inverse stochastic resonance and noise-induced activity amplification in neuronal systems. Martínez, N., Deza, R. R., & Montani, F. (2023). Physical Review E, 107(5), 054402.

Learning a Model of Shape Selectivity in V4 Cells Reveals Shape Encoding Mechanisms in the Brain. Mehrani, P., & Tsotsos, J. K. (2023). Journal of Neuroscience, 43(22), 4129–4143.

Increased cortical plasticity leads to memory interference and enhanced hippocampal-cortical interactions. Navarro Lobato, I., Aleman-Zapata, A., Samanta, A., Bogers, M., Narayanan, S., Rayan, A., … Genzel, L. (2023). eLife, 12, e84911.

Afferent convergence to a shared population of interneuron AMPA receptors. Pennock, R. L., Coddington, L. T., Yan, X., Overstreet-Wadiche, L., & Wadiche, J. I. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 3113.

Smoking status ameliorates cholinergic impairments in cortical inhibition in patients with schizophrenia. Pross, B., Muenz, S., Nitsche, M. A., Padberg, F., Strube, W., Papazova, I., … Hasan, A. (2023). Brain Research, 1812, 148380.

Walking bumblebees see faster. Rother, L., Müller, R., Kirschenmann, E., Foster, J. J., Kaya-Zeeb, S., Thamm, M., & Pfeiffer, K. (2023). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 290(1999).

Homeostatic synaptic plasticity rescues neural coding reliability. Rozenfeld, E., Ehmann, N., Manoim, J. E., Kittel, R. J., & Parnas, M. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 2993.

The development of intrinsic timescales: A comparison between the neonate and adult brain. Truzzi, A., & Cusack, R. (2023). NeuroImage, 275, 120155.

Teachers recruit mentalizing regions to represent learners’ beliefs. Vélez, N., Chen, A. M., Burke, T., Cushman, F. A., & Gershman, S. J. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(22), e2215015120.

Modulation of deep neural circuits with sonogenetics. Xian, Q., Qiu, Z., Murugappan, S., Kala, S., Wong, K. F., Li, D., … Sun, L. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(22), e2220575120.

Robust encoding of natural stimuli by neuronal response sequences in monkey visual cortex. Yiling, Y., Shapcott, K., Peter, A., Klon-Lipok, J., Xuhui, H., Lazar, A., & Singer, W. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 3021.

[romerona]

Chapter 1: The green man's visit.

~In which the daughter of the Lord of Darkness who was born with the sole purpose of destroying the universe falls in love with Peter Parker~

~Masterlist~

———————

New York, 2012

A pair of Amethyst eyes followed the strange creatures leaving the portal from the light blue sky, the breeze making the curls of fiery red hair fall to her freckled face forcing the so six-year-old to move it away. 

"That one." Giggle the little girl, pointing with her little finger at one of the many Chitauri that were attacking the city. 

The Ancient One, a bold, skinny pale woman that wore bright yellow robes that reminded Carina of a bird she had seen soaring in the air from one of the windows of the Kamar-Taj, conjured war fans and threw them at the flying Chintauri causing the chariot to explode. 

Carina giggles and claps amusingly while the woman smiles with affection at the girl. That was what the two spent most of the morning doing, the Ancient One and Carina Agamotto were on the rooftop of the Sanctum Sanctorum of New York, a place Carina rarely visited. The older master protected the building and the little girl, happily sat on one of the chairs telling her which Alien to target. 

Carina has always been easy to entertain, not leaving the old grounds of the Kamar Taj often, she was constantly looking for any source of diversion and entertainment which normally came in the pages of worn-out books, learning a new language or watching the Ancient One teach the Arts, hence, why watching her destroy the Chitauri is a welcome form of entertainment. 

"Where do they come from?" Asked the little girl gazing at the dark portal with innate curiosity. 

"The Sanctuary."  Answer the woman.

"Sanctuary?" Carina tilted her head, she frowned remembering the planets she had learned with Wong— one of her few friends and one of the many masters back in the Kamar Taj. "That's not in the solar system..." 

"Not in ours, little star." Said the ancient one, gazing up at the aliens. "There's an —"

"Infinity of universes, yes I know." Said the girl, nodding her head proudly, recalling the lecture the master always gives her. 

"But, if they are here...." Carina looked at the ancient one in doubt. "Isn't our responsibility to protect the earth?" 

"We masters of the mystical arts protect the earth from mystical threats." The woman looked at her with a soft smile, "Loki is a threat for us but not ours to defeat." 

"Ah yes, like, Uhm..." As the girl struggled to say something a flash of green caught her eyes and the Ancient One's too.

Carina's eyes widened as the massive, green person, that reminded her of huge broccoli with legs or a leprechaun with hair, moved to the doors of the Sanctum. He was a little frightening for her but also intriguing. 

"I'd be careful going that way." Said the Ancient One, making her presence known. "We just had the floors waxed." 

The green man moved, he looked between the two. "I'm looking for Dr Strange."

Carina tilted her head in thought, Dr Strange is a name lost in her mind, she does think she'd heard that name before. 

"You're about five years too early. Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery, 20 blocks that way." Said the Sorcerer, pointing the direction where Dr Strange, whoever that be, currently is. "What do you want with him?" 

"That actually." The green man points at the strange necklace hanging from her neck. 

Carina frowns in question, she wonders what's important about that necklace, to her it's really ugly but if the big, green man had come to get it from the Sorcerer Supreme then it must be important. 

"Ah." Said the Supreme in realization, her eyes looking down at it for a second.  "I'm afraid not."

"I'm seriously sorry but... I wasn't asking."

The man cracks his knuckles and moves in. 

The Ancient One smiles calmly. "You don't want to do this."

"You're right, I don't." Said the green man moving forward. "But I need that stone, and I don't have a lot of time to debate it-"

He reaches for it but the Ancient One slams her palm into his chest and blasts the man right out of the green man's body. 

Amazing. 

A normal looking man hangs in the air, staring at his frozen body. He looks at his human hands, overwhelmed.

"Let's start over, shall we?" Said the Sorcerer moving to the other side of the rooftop forcing the spirit of the man to move with her. 

The little girl hops off her chair and walks to the green body, from where she was seated he looked huge, but up close, the green man looks gigantic. 

"You're like a big broccoli..." Carina pauses in thought. "I like broccoli, I heard people don't like it, I don't understand why, it's just a plant that you can eat, like small rūkha. Who wouldn't like to eat ब्रोकाउली?... I like vegetables, my favourite food is Thukpā, it's noodle soup, very delicious but most of the time we only eat it during Jāḍō, that's uh- winter in English, it can be served with meat but I like mine with only vegetables, I don't like meat because they kill the याक."

Carina pokes him, his skin was hard as a rock and leathery, she pokes his green cheek again before glancing at where the two adults had headed, with no eyes on her, Carina grunted as she struggles to hold his arm up, the entire arm was the same size as her if not taller, and twice heavier. 

"तिमी धेर�� भारी छौ"

She huffs before letting it smack to the ground once again wincing at the loud noise she glances at the adults. She smiled sheepishly when the Ancient One gave her a look, and with a movement of her hands, the big body of the green man levitated to Carina's former chair. 

The little girl follows the green big man and observes him, asking herself how there are pants that fit him. 

Are there people out there big as he is? 

"You'll look really good in purple, that's my favourite colour, probably because it's the colour of my eyes... I've noticed people don't have eyes like mine, black, blue, brown but never purple, that makes me special or at least that's what the Supreme says." Carina trails off, she observes the giant green man again. 

"You'll still look good and— Aha." 

She picks up a nearby floppy sun hat and with a jump she places it on his head, she also grabs a couple of leaves and places them around him. 

"You look like a pretty broccoli now." She muses with a smile before it turns into a pout, wishing she had something else to decorate the big man with. 

"Green friend. I don't have many friends." She sighs pursing her lips "I don't go out much either..." 

Suddenly, there was a line of golden light transversely across the roof. She stared at it in amazement, tiptoeing she held her hand up to move her finger over the line, undoubtedly the finger went through it but soon the golden line disappeared making her sigh. 

"That was awesome, wasn't it?" Carina looks back at the big green man, she analyzed him for a second, her head tilting and with a frown, she concluded he looks simple just with the hat. 

Carina thinks for a moment before gasping in realization, she moves away from the green man for a moment remembering there was a small greenhouse on the rooftop.

"They are not purple but I think you're still going to look cute." She grabbed a few roses before returning to where she had left the man only to find him gone. 

She frowned looking around only to find him back on his feet talking to the Ancient One. 

Carina pouts, her shoulders slumping dejectedly as she takes a seat on the chair where the green man had previously been. She liked her new friend... he might have never actually said something back to her and she might have just met him a few minutes ago but she liked him nonetheless. 

She normally doesn't have too many people to interact with other than Wong and the Ancient One, and since she doesn't practice magic yet, she doesn't interact with the other children often.

Dropping her gaze to observe the roses that were laying in her hand, she noticed the bright red colour of the flower was disappearing, the petals falling, the green root was drying and soon the rose was withering to ashes. 

Carina felt a rush going through her veins, it was energizing, somewhat addicting and dark.

"Carina." The voice of the Supreme made her snap out of it. 

She gasps, and the ashes of the flowers dropped to the floor, she looked up at the Sorcerer before looking down at her hands. "I- I don't—"

"Carina." The Ancient One holds Carina's hands in hers, forcing the alarm, Amethyst's eyes to turn to her green ones. "The power you have is vast but dangerous, you need to learn to dominate it before it dominates you." 

"Are you teaching me magic?" 

"In a way," The Supreme nodded, letting go of her hands. "But all in due time, right now I want you to close your eyes and think of something that you like very much, littlest star." 

Carina did as told and the Supreme placed her free hand on the side of her neck, the careful eyes of the sorcerer looking at the faint, yet angry black veins on the back of her neck. 

Carina, not taking a care of the Supreme's actions, thought back to the past few days, in the past month and year. "I like when the sun goes down and when the stars show themselves."  

Moving her gaze from Carina's neck to her now open eyes, the sorcerer said "I want you to think of those bright colours, those peaceful moments before the moon comes out and those bright stars that shine in the sky when you feel like you're losing your control." 

"But how would I know I am losing control?" Carina asked frowning, looking down at her hands. 

"When you feel you can't stop, think of the sunsets and stars to stop yourself from falling into darkness."

Carina bit her lower lip with a frown. "But what if I lose control?" 

"I have faith you won't, little star." The ancient one told her, eyes looking at her in honesty. "Now, why don't you go for a lemonade, I'm sure Master Drumm will serve you some." 

"Yeah." With a cheeky smile, Carina nodded and dashed inside the sanctum, not noticing that she had not only turned the roses 

into ashes but the rest of the greenhouse.

⁺ 　　 ˚

. * 🌍 ✦ . 　⁺ 　 .⁺ 　　 ˚

. * 　　　 ✦ 🪐. 　⁺ 　 🌔.

. 　 　 ⁺ ⁺

It was nighttime when they went back to the Kamar- Taj and instead of going to their rooms, the Ancient One took Carina for a walk around the Sanctum. Carina was slightly confused for she knows the temple like the back of her hand but she followed the supreme anyways, they ended up in a room that overlooked the beautiful sight of the Himalayan mountains. Carina decided then and there that this room was her new favourite place. 

"Woah." She mumbles, sitting on a pillow on the floor, placing her head on her hand. "It's beautiful." 

"I agree." Said the Ancient One. "Nothing like a beautiful view to clear our minds." 

They spend the next few minutes in silence, admiring the view of the snowy mountain. 

"I want you to have this, little star."

Carina looked over and was met by the sight of a simple gold chain necklace with a green stone that was shaped like a star. 

"Really?" Asked Carina, staring between the green star and the Supreme. 

"A gift." She nodded, motioning for Carina to turn around to put it on and the little girl was more than happy in doing so. 

When the star hit Carina's neck it felt off, she suddenly felt a little tired and drained, but regardless she thought she was just exhausted from her day. "A gift? Why?" 

Caring runs a delicate hand over the green stone, as she turns back to face the Sorcerer. 

"Why not?" The ancient one smiled at her warmly. "Just promise me, you'll always wear it." 

Carina smiled, nodding happily. "I promise."

A/N: Hope you liked it.

*English is not my first language so please if there's something wrong please correct me just don't be dicks about it.

*I'll be using google Translate for some things along the story, once again if there is something wrong please correct me.

[sassenashsworld]

Thank you to Halla Rempt, Aaron J. Seigo, Adam Celarek, Adam Pigg, Adriaan de Groot, Adrian Page, Adrian Schroeter, Albert Astals Cid, Alberto Villa, Alexander Neundorf, Alexander Potashev, Alexis Ménard, Alfredo Beaumont Sainz, Allen Winter, Alvin Wong, Ana Beatriz Guerrero López, Andras Mantia, Andreas Hartmetz, Andreas Lundin, André Marcelo Alvarenga, Andrew Coles, Andre Woebbeking, Andrius da Costa Ribas, Andy Fawcett, Anne-Marie Mahfouf, Ariya Hidayat, Arjen Hiemstra, Bart Coppens, Ben Cooksley, Benjamin K. Stuhl, Benjamin Meyer, Benjamin Reed, Benoît Jacob, Ben Schleimer, Bernhard Rosenkraenzer, Bo Thorsen, Brad Hards, Bram Schoenmakers, Burkhard Lück, Carlo Segato, Carsten Hartenfels, C. Boemann, Christer Stenbrenden, Christian Ehrlicher, Christian Mueller, Christoph Feck, Chusslove Illich, Clarence Dang, Cyrille Berger, Daniel M. Duley, Daniel Molkentin, Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen, Dan Meltzer, Danny Allen, David Faure, David Gowers, Demetry Romanowski, Dirk Mueller, Dirk Schönberger, Dmitry Kazakov, Edward Apap, Elvis Stansvik, Emanuele Tamponi, Emmet O'Neill, Enrique Matías Sánchez, Eoin O'Neill, Fabian Kosmale, Frank Osterfeld, Frederik Schwarzer, Fredrik Edemar, Fredy Yanardi, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau, Gábor Lehel, Gary Cramblitt, Geoffry Song, Gioele Barabucci, Giovanni Venturi, Gopalakrishna Bhat A, Hanna Scott, Harald Sitter, Hasso Tepper, Helge Deller, Helio Castro, Hideki Saito, Hoàng Đức Hiếu, Hugo Pereira Da Costa, Inge Wallin, Ingo Klöcker, İsmail Dönmez, Ivan Yossi, Jaime, Jaime Torres, Jaison Lee, Jakob Petsovits, Jakub Stachowski, Jan Hambrecht, Jarosław Staniek, Jens Herden, Jessica Hall, Johannes Simon, John Layt, Jonathan Riddell, Jonathan Singer, José Luis Vergara, Juan Luis Boya García, Juan Palacios, Jure Repinc, Kai-Uwe Behrmann, Karl Ove Hufthammer, Kevin Krammer, Kevin Ottens, Kurt Pfeifle, Laurent Montel, Lauri Watts, L. E. Segovia, Leo Savernik, Lukáš Tinkl, Lukáš Tvrdý, Maciej Mrozowski, Malcolm Hunter, Manuel Riecke, manu tortosa, Marc Pegon, Marijn Kruisselbrink, Martin Ellis, Martin Gräßlin, Matthew Woehlke, Matthias Klumpp, Matthias Kretz, Matus Talcik, Maximiliano Curia, Melchior Franz, Michael David Howell, Michael Drueing, Michael Thaler, Michel Hermier, Mohit Goyal, Mojtaba Shahi Senobari, Montel Laurent, Moritz Molch, Nabil Maghfur Usman, Nick Shaforostoff, Nicolas Goutte, Olivier Goffart, Patrick Julien, Patrick Spendrin, Pavel Belskiy, Pavel Heimlich, Peter Simonsson, Pierre Ducroquet, Pierre Stirnweiss, Pino Toscano, Rafael Fernández López, Raphael Langerhorst, Rex Dieter, Rob Buis, Roopesh Chander, Sahil Nagpal, Salil Kapur, Samuel Buttigieg, Sander Koning, Sascha Suelzer, Scott Petrovic, Scott Wheeler, Sebastian Sauer, Shivaraman Aiyer, Siddharth Sharma, Silvio Heinrich, Somsubhra Bairi, Spencer Brown, Srikanth Tiyyagura, Stefan Nikolaus, Stephan Binner, Stephan Kulow, Stuart Dickson, Sune Vuorela, Sven Langkamp, Thiago Macieira, Thomas Capricelli, Thomas Friedrichsmeier, Thomas Klausner, Thomas Nagy, Thomas Zander, Thorsten Staerk, Thorsten Zachmann, Tim Beaulen, Timothée Giet, Tobias Koenig, Tom Burdick, Torio Mlshi, Torsten Rahn, Unai Garro, Urs Wolfer, Vadim Zhukov, Vera Lukman, Victor Lafon, Victor Wåhlström, Volker Krause, Waldo Bastian, Werner Trobin, Wilco Greven, Will Entriken, William Steidtmann, Wolthera van Hovell, Yann Bodson, Yue Liu and Yuri Chornoivan.

Really

[kilmerhq]

mw fcs? ty!

oh,  of  course  !  let  me  separate  these  by  age  group  to  make  it  a  bit  easier  for  you  :

20s  —  khadijha  red  thunder,  ayo  edebiri,  havana  rose  liu,  samantha  logan,  margaret  qualley,  jonathan  daviss,  thomas  weatherall,  carlacia  grant,  madison  bailey,  madelyn  cline,  rachel  sennott,  derya  ar  pinak,  kedar  williams  stirling,  dominic  sessa,  evan  mock,  apo  nattawin,  froy  gutierrez,  maris  racal,  alisha  boe,  mikey  madison,  davika  hoorne,  callum  turner,  drew  starkey,  jane  de  leon,  archie  renaux,  cody  christian,  nicholas  galitzine,  courtney  eaton,  jessica  alexander,  martin  bobb  semple,  harris  dickinson, miya horcher, rachel zegler

30s  —  taylor  zakhar  perez,  damson  idris,  mamta  mohandas,  peter  gadiot,  kiowa  gordon,  lupita  nyong'o,  daniel  kaluuya,  da'vine  joy  randolph,  emma  d'arcy,  dev  patel,  tanaya  beatty,  sobhita  dhulipala,  adria  arjona,  glen  powell,  melissa  barrera,  aaron  taylor  johnson,  mike  faist,  taylor  russell,  martin  sensmeier,  janelle  monae,  oliver  jackson-cohen,  justin  h  min,  laura  harrier

40+  —  simone  kessel,  rachel  weisz,  oscar  isaac,  pedro  pascal,  idris  elba,  sandra  oh,  benjamin  bratt,  salma  hayek,  hugh  jackman,  diego  luna,  jesse  williams,  riz  ahmed,  angela  bassett,  michelle  yeoh,  gong  yoo,  arjun  rampal,  shu  qi,  ali  wong,  greta  lee

hopefully that's enough ! if you need more, feel free to always ask ! sunglasses emoji.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 7.30

Beer Birthdays

Hamar Alfred Bass (1842)

Leopold Nathan (1864)

Tom Peters (1953)

Peter Cogan (1962)

Dr. Bill Sysak (1962)

Dean Biersch

Jim Jacobs (1963)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Kate Bush; English pop singer (1958)

Buddy Guy; blues guitarist, singer (1936)

Richard Linklater; film director (1960)

Jean Reno; Moroccan-French actor (1948)

Thorstein Veblen; economist (1857)

Famous Birthdays

Paul Anka; pop singer, songwriter (1941)

Duck Baker; guitarist (1949)

Simon Baker; Australian actor, director (1969)

Henry W. Bloch; H&R Block founder (1922)

Ron Block; singer-songwriter and banjo player (1964)

Peter Bogdanovich; film director (1939)

Marc Bolan; rock singer (1947)

Emily Bronte: English writer (1818)

Alton Brown; chef, television host (1962)

Delta Burke; actor (1956)

Smedley Butler; U.S. Marines major general (1881)

Princess Clémentine of Belgium (1872)

Frances de la Tour; English actress (1944)

Dean Edwards; comedian (1970)

Laurence Fishburne; actor (1961)

Henry Ford; car manufacturer (1863)

Kerry Fox; New Zealand actress (1966)

Vivica A. Fox; actor (1964)

Craig Gannon; English guitarist and songwriter (1966)

Tom Green; Canadian comedian and actor (1971)

Jeffrey Hammond; English bass player (1946)

Anita Hill; law professor, victim (1956)

Sid Krofft; Canadian-American puppeteer (1929)

Lisa Kudrow; actor (1963)

Soraida Martinez; painter (1956)

Christine McGuire; pop singer (1929)

Patrick Modiano; French novelist (1945)

Henry Moore; artist, sculptor (1898)

Sean Moore; Welsh drummer and songwriter (1968)

Chris Mullin; basketball player (1963)

Christopher Nolan; English-American film director (1970)

Salvador Novo; Mexican poet and playwright (1904)

Ken Olin; actor (1954)

Pollyanna Pickering; English environmentalist and painter (1942)

Jaime Pressly; actor (1977)

Samuel Rogers; English writer (1763)

David Sanborn; saxophonist (1945)

Rat Scabies, English drummer (1955)

Arnold Schwarzenegger; Austrian-born body builder, actor (1947)

Hope Solo; soccer player (1981)

Frank Stallone; singer-songwriter and actor 91950)

Stan Stennett; Welsh actor and trumpet player (1925)

Casey Stengel; baseball manager (1891)

Hilary Swank; actor (1974)

Otis Taylor; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1948)

Alexander Trocchi; Scottish author and poet (1925)

Giorgio Vasari; Italian painter (1511)

Dick "Mr. Whipple" Wilson; actor (1916)

Victor Wong; actor (1927)

[myrna-nora]

2023: Books

January 1. The Wall (1938) Mary Roberts Rinehart + 2. Fallen Into the Pit (1951) Ellis Peters ** 3. Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman (2022) Lucy Worsley 4. Death on the Cherwell (1935) Mavis Doriel Hay # 5. A Death in Tokyo (麒麟の翼) (2011) Keigo Higashino 6. The Twyford Code (2022) Janice Hallett 7. Checkmate to Murder (1944) E.C.R. Lorac #

February 8. The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) Anthony Berkeley + # 9. Death and the Joyful Woman (1961) Ellis Peters ** 10. Bodies from the Library, 2 (2019) Tony Medawar (Editor) 11. Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (2023) Elle Cosimano ^ 12. Flight of a Witch (1964) Ellis Peters ** 13. Murder in the Basement (1932) Anthony Berkeley # March 14. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1958) Paul Gallico 15. A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs (1965) Ellis Peters ** 16. These Names Make Clues (1937) E.C.R. Lorac # 17. House of Many Ways (2008) Diana Wynne Jones ^ 18. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (2023) Jesse Q. Sutanto 19. The Decagon House Murders (十角館の殺人) (1987) Yukito Ayatsuji + 20. Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World (2020) Mark Aldridge + 21. Death of Jezebel (1948) Christianna Brand # 22. The Spite House (2023) Johnny Compton 23. The Cask (1920) Freeman Wills Crofts April 24. The Piper on the Mountain (1966) Ellis Peters ** 25. Crossed Skis (1952) Carol Carnac # 26. The Wintringham Mystery (1927) Anthony Berkeley 27. Wrong Place Wrong Time (2022) Gillian McAllister 28. Smallbone Deceased (1950) Michael Gilbert # 29. Heads You Lose (1941) Christianna Brand May 30. Black is the Colour of my True Love's Heart (1967) Ellis Peters ** 31. Murder of a Lady (1931) Anthony Wynne # 32. The Lake District Murder (1935) John Bude # 33. The Mill House Murders (水車館の殺人) (1988) Yukito Ayatsuji 34. Green for Danger (1944) Christianna Brand * # 35. The Case of the Howling Dog (1934) Erle Stanley Gardner June 36. Identity (2023) Nora Roberts 37. A Will To Kill (2019) R.V. Raman 38. The Grass-Widow's Tale (1968) Ellis Peters ** 39. The Enigma of Garlic (2022) Alexander McCall Smith ^ 40. Miss Pym Disposes (1946) Josephine Tey 41. The Seat of the Scornful (1941) John Dickson Carr # 42. Fell Murder (1944) E.C.R. Lorac # 43. The House of Green Turf (1969) Ellis Peters ** July 44. The Westing Game (1978) Ellen Raskin * 45. The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944) Edmund Crispin 46. Mourning Raga (1969) Ellis Peters ** 47. Grave Intentions (A Dire Isle) (2022) R.V. Raman 48. Weekend at Thrackley (1934) Alan Melville # 49. The Singing Sands (1952) Josephine Tey ^ 50. The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books (2017) Martin Edwards + 51. The Only One Left (2023) Riley Sager 52. Death of an Airman (1934) Christopher St. John Sprigg # 53. The Knocker on Death's Door (1970) Ellis Peters ** August 54. A Disappearance in Fiji (2023) Nilima Rao 55. The Mistress of Bhatia House (2023) Sujata Massey ^ 56. Tour de Force (1955) Christianna Brand ^ 57. The Colour of Murder (1957) Julian Symons # 58. Post After Post-Mortem (1936) E.C.R. Lorac # 59. Death to the Landlords (1972) Ellis Peters ** 60. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (1997) Patricia H. Rushford * 61. The Plague and I (1948) Betty MacDonald ^ September 62. City of Gold and Shadows (1973) Ellis Peters ** 63. Red Sky in Mourning (1997) Patricia H. Rushford 64. Twice Round the Clock (1935) Billie Houston # 65. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (2023) Benjamin Stevenson 66. Please Don't Push Up the Daisies (2023) Diane Vallere ^ 67. Laughing Gas (1936) P.G. Wodehouse 68. The Black Spectacles (1939) John Dickson Carr # 69. The Last Devil to Die (2023) Richard Osman ^ 70. Rainbow's End (1978) Ellis Peters ** October 71. Thirteen Guests (1936) J. Jefferson Farjeon # 72. Ghosts From the Library (2022) Tony Medawar (Editor) 73. Black Rainbow (1982) Barbara Michaels ^ 74. The Stranger Diaries (2018) Elly Griffiths 75. Where Are the Children? (1975) Mary Higgins Clark + 76. It Walks by Night (1930) John Dickson Carr # 77. Jane-Emily (1969) Patricia Clapp 78. The Woman in Black (1983) Susan Hill 79. Midnight Bayou (2001) Nora Roberts November 80. The Progress of a Crime (1960) Julian Symons # 81. Just Another Missing Person (2023) Gillian McAllister 82. The Running Grave (2023) Robert Galbraith ^ 83. Murder by Matchlight (1945) E.C.R. Lorac # December 84. The Santa Klaus Murder (1936) Mavis Doriel Hay # 85. The Christmas Guest (2023) Peter Swanson 86. The Busy Body (2024) Kemper Donovan + 87. Murder After Christmas (1944) Rupert Latimer # 88. The Twelve Days of Murder (2023) Andreina Cordani 89. Trojan Gold (1987) Elizabeth Peters + read what I already own challenge ^ finished or caught-up in series * re-reads ** re-read series challenge (Felse Investigations) # British Library Crime Classics

[honoshauntisgnosis]

About Eloise Alexandra Strange:

uhhh so, she's the daughter of stephen and a woman named andrea, conceived right before he left for college. they had split custody, with him having a lot less due to med school, until andrea passed away and boom, stephen was forced to take care of her full time. at least by then, he'd graduated and was doctorin'. they didn't get along so well and whoops she ran away at 15. was in a dark place, angsty things happened, until kaecilius came across her.

she'd shown some magical prowess and kaecilius took her to kamar-taj to train. he became her pseudo father figure (from one asshole to another ig), but he taught her really well. she specializes in alchemy and learned shaolin kung fu at the hong kong sanctum, uses a magical guandao, etc. anyway, she was wizardin' long before stephen met the ancient one, and they don't see each other again until the events of the first movie. then she has to chose between her real dad and her adopted dad and man, it's a mess.

she went as far as the darkhold ritual with kaeciliues, but since she clearly didn't believe, she didn't get corrupted or w/e. he sends her away as an act of mercy, but promises her that next time he'll kill her. then boom, she crawls back to wong, finally reunites with stephen. there's a lot to talk about, but y'know, something more important is happening at the moment. she tells them everything she can about his plan.

fastforwarding to the end of the first film, she laments the loss of kaecilius. she often has nightmares about him becoming a mindless one and suffering.

notes:

has a thigh tattoo consisting of two entwined snakes, one black and one white (similar to this but less adorable)

for her seventeenth birthday, kaecilius gifted her a 'mechanical'/magical bird that she uses as a sort of ESA for her ptsd

kaecilius also told her he was proud of her on that birthday

her dreams of the mindless ones are semi-realistic; she had a spiritual connection to him before he'd been absorbed into the ranks. she's convinced that she can feel his suffering in her dreams.

this (and another secret thing) leads her to start studying a deity from another dimension, "the leviathan"

the words in all the texts are pretty, spouting hymns about it can grant eternal peace, take away a person's biggest flaws, heal their minds, etc

she often portals to another world to meditate or trains with her guandao. a dark world with dark red sand, tall canyons, and a sky that shows a star in continual supernova. sometimes she'll face the supernova while she meditates because she swears it lifts her spirits

by no way home, she's so entwined with leviathan magic, that she's able to remember peter (and, well, she had notes)

by no way home, she's training apprentices both in alchemy and shaolin kung fu

can temporarily take away stephen's hand pain with leviathan magic, though all it really does is transfer the pain to her.

she often uses "potions" to help her out; for sleeping, for staying awake, for adrenaline, for healing, etc.

she'd, at a point, become reliant on a potion to keep herself from sleeping due to the nightmares

hooked up with a cute girl at the full moon party, but doesn't remember it

goes to karaoke all the time with wong

by MoM, she and stephen's relationship is better. she adores america and considers her a younger sister.

by now, she'd become disillusioned with the leviathan, though continues to speak to it and 'worship' it, as she discovers there are five other candidates for its emergence. she goes off on her own to take them out, one by one, by whatever means necessary.

she's with during the shenanigans, and barely escapes the scarlet witch taking her to make stephen suffer as she had

during the greatest memory bit, she experiences kaecilius giving her the bird again

during the multiverse hop after losing the book of vishanti, she's thrown in sinister's universe with stephen and christine. she uses a potion and leviathan magic to heal sinister, though he doesn't awake while they're still there.

she'd been missing pages from the leviathan's tome in her universe, so pretty much just snuck away to retrieve the complete collection while her dad was possessing his variant's dead body. she doesn't physically take the pages, but records them.

this leads her to realize that the leviathan isn't just bad-- it's a dark eldritch god intent on devouring everything

after MoM, she keeps her head low, continuing to teach her classes, and mentor america

all the while, she's taking out the remaining leviathan vessels, until it's only her left

knowing that she royally fucked up, she decides to not tell wong or stephen. a really, really stupid decision honestly.

as the final vessel, she travels to (place i haven't made up yet), to find a gateway to the leviathan's universe. the pages she'd found in sinister's dimension revealed the only way to defeat it is with self-sacrifice........ or is it dun dun duuun

she'd left a note for stephen, only saying she'd fucked up and had to deal with it, this is goodbye, love you, etc., etc.

he's able to trace her whereabouts because she's a dumbass and had googled shit/also uses magic to find her idk

they argue while she tells him exactly what's going on, why she has to do it, how sorry she is, etc., while they make their way to the altar.

by now, the leviathan is in her thoughts clearly, encouraging her, telling her to leave stephen behind and she'll be in paradise soon enough.

the altar leads to an interdimensional crack in the wall or something, a pulsating black mass with large, ugly veins interwoven into the rock. she binds stephen with the Bonds of Krottak, while he implores her to rethink her actions

she enters the leviathan's dimension and has to walk the Passage of Introspection, which showcases all of her most important memories, good and bad, to show her how she'd been shaped

insert angsty memories here

she gets through that to find the leviathan: a man dressed in a simple suit with black slack, a billowing mass of black mist where his head should be

she's just about to get close to him, to shove a potion that will kill him into him, before he overtakes her. while they struggle, stephen emerges; she'd cast the Bonds incorrectly, knowing he could break free. she'd also given him a potion earlier, and instructed him to use it on her if the leviathan possesses her

which, well, happens. it overtakes her body and she's sent to 'paradise', a world where she is without the burdens that plague her. no more concern for kaecilius, her secret has been erased, her self-harm scars are gone, and she's happy. she's light.

meanwhile, stephen is fighting the leviathan, who is using her body, and only just manages to stab it with the potion bottle, that had broken. enough of it gets into her system for her body to expel the entity.

in her mind's eye, she's speaking to the two snakes that consist of her tattoo, feeling that something is very wrong, though she can't place it. suddenly, both snakes slither up to her neck and bite her on opposite sides. she recoils in pain, and wakes up in the present again.

yay, more fighting, but this time it's stephen and eloise vs the leviathan. stephen manages to bind it so she can run up, shove the other vial into it's mist-like face, and breaks the glass in her hands.

the entity screams, pulling her up to her elbow into the black mass, but she's able to free herself. it hurt. like a lot.

the leviathan shrivels away and she collapses, dark lines running up her arm, highlighting where her scars are.

stephen escapes with her and she's in a coma for a couple of weeks. when she wakes up, the lines are still there, but nothing hurts or feels different.

they have the uncomfortable talk where he says how angry and disappointed he is in her. "this is the second time you've ran away. i'm asshole, i know, but it's breaking my heart. if you run away again, don't come back."

she's also on 'suspension' for a while, per sorcerer supreme wong, and is banned from alchemy and the libraries for a time.

she agrees to this, but falls into a deep depression. the nightmares are worse now-- she'd seen things when the leviathan had been pulling her in, and the dreams about kaecilius suffering as a mindless one amp up as well.

stays in her room a lot, or goes to her secret world to be alone

the mechanical bird is still her bff

wraps up her arm in a bandage so she doesn't have to see the corruption

slowly rebuilds her relationship with wong, convinces him to go out to karaoke with her. drags stephen with too

wow she needs more friends

things are not great, but they are okay

[peterpijls1965]

Bijnamen in Buggenum

In mijn geboortedorp was het goed gebruik om elkaar een bijnaam te geven. Niet iedereen droeg er een, velen wel. Van sommige mensen kende ik alleen de hen toegekende bijnaam.

Ik wist dat De Sus bij ons thuis wel eens een kip kwam slachten of met een geweer de kattenpopulatie kwam uitdunnen, maar hoe zijn echte voornaam luidde heette heb ik nooit geweten. Zijn zoon H., klasgenoot op de lagere school en pijlsnelle linkshalf in mijn voetbalteam, noemde ik simpelweg H. van de Sus.

Ik weet zeker dat hij noch zijn vader aanstoot namen aan hun bijnaam. Wat hun familienaam was ontschoot me ergens in de afgelopen decennia, en de etymologische herkomst van de zeker waarderend bedoelde bijnaam was voor mij in nevelen gehuld. Het kwam niet bij me op ernaar te informeren.

De Buggenumse bijnamencultuur kon een verbastering van een familienaam inhouden, maar hoefde een ondertoon van goedbedoelde spot niet uit te sluiten. Het kwam wel voor dat de bijnaam van een plaatselijke bakker, Sjmier bijvoorbeeld, ook betrekking had op de bakker zelf, hoewel zijn vrouw door eenieder gewoon Suze werd genoemd. Van deze bakkersvrouw kreeg ik ook vaak een handje gist te snoepen als ik geen brood kwam bestellen.

Even verderop in mijn straat woonde een goedaardige zonderling die ik kende als Jootje. Hij liep vaak met de handen op de rug door het dorp te profeteren, gehuld in een grijs werkjasje, met een opmerkelijk schrandere oogopslag.

Mijn buurman Jootje was een trouw bezoeker van de repetities van de fanfare in zaal Jantje Theelen. Jootje had namelijk de waan dat hij directeur van de fanfare was, en niemand sprak hem tegen. Na afloop van de repetitie kreeg hij een glas limonade, en tijdens dorpsprocessies mocht hij altijd vooraan meelopen, te midden van het bestuur van de fanfare, en gevolgd door de muzikanten zelf.

Een leeftijdgenoot uit Buggenum wees mij jaren geleden via een sociaal medium op mijn eigen bijnaam, waarvan ik het bestaan nooit kende. Hij onthulde dat ik Peter van Pierre vanne Pieel werd genoemd. Dat betekende dat ik een zoon van mijn vader Pierre Pijls was, gevolgd door een plaatselijke uitspraak van mijn familienaam. Ik nam er kennis van, wel en niet verbaasd.

Als kind hoorde ik bijnamen voorbijkomen als Charlie Condoom, Loek vanne Bekker en de Kwakkert, al betrof dit een Roermonds stadsfiguur van wie ik in het plaatselijke cafe National een indrukwekkend goede tekening had zien hangen, mogelijk van Dolf Wong, een breed lachende man afbeeldend die inderdaad een treffende gelijkenis vertoonde met een pad.

Op de foto: Giezze-Wiel uit het kerkdorp Nunhem, pal grenzend aan Buggenum. Giezze-Wiel was kerkmeester. Als hij tijdens de zondagse mis met het collectemandje rondging, en de kerkganger doneerde naar zijn smaak te weinig, dan hield hij de kenneljjk schraperige gelovige het mandje nogmaals voor, tot Giezze-Wiel het genoeg vond.

Foto: Rondom het Leudal.

[escapemyshadow]

Tony: I will always be a 9. 

Peter: Mr Stark, what are you saying? You will always be a ten -

Tony [Bend down on one knee, with a ring in between his index finger and thumb]: Stephen, you are the only 1 that I am lacking of. Will you marry me and make me a 10? 

Peter: Ooh my gawd, Mr Stark, you are prosper-

Wong: Stop ruining the moment, Peter. And Stephen, stop crying.  

[batfamtv]

something more

peter parker is sure that doctor strange (not the sorcerer, the wife) is more than what she appears.

stephen strange x f!reader; maybe andrew!peter parker x reader

tags: OC-CENTRIC, heavily implied that reader is mary-sue OP, nwh spoilers, maybe funny idk

a/n: do you ever just have an overwhelming sense to insert yourself into every media you consume; I have risen from the dead --

"Someone's at the door," Stephen groans as you hand him a cup of coffee. You two finally had the chance to have a quiet (and somewhat warm) morning together, despite the polar vortex from Siberia that has been coming through the Sanctum. You smile into your cup before nodding your head towards the door, "Well, let's go see Peter Parker."

"Or maybe we can just ignore him," Stephen replies, "Wong will cater to him."

"Wong's leaving though."

"Wong, the 'Sorcerer Supreme'," Stephen remarks, almost bitterly.

You grin at him teasingly, "Is he really?"

"Due to some technicality, yes." Your husband huffs. You ignore him and walk out the door to meet young Peter Parker down the foyer, whom you still hadn't had the chance to meet. Behind you, Stephen calls out your name, followed by reluctant footsteps.

“It’s too cold Y/N, put some coat on!”

Some students at the Sanctum have volunteered (been forced) to clean up the snow.

“...A blizzard blasted through.” Wong turns to you almost reflexively, a hand on your elbow to keep you from slipping. You smile gratefully at him before turning to Peter. You open your mouth to welcome him, but was interrupted by–

“Because someone forgot to cast a monthly maintenance spell to keep the seals tight,” behind you, Stephen floats down the stairway, mug still in hand. You and Wong exchange knowing glances before Wong rolls his eyes.

“Careful, dear,” you say to Stephen as he lands right next to you, but it was a bit too late, his feet skid on the floor (despite his boots), and Wong snickers.

Wong turns to Peter now, who looks a bit confused, you surmise this is mostly because of your presence in the Sanctum, “That’s right, he did,” Wong answers sardonically, his hands on his hips, “Because he forgot I now have higher duties. Right, Doctor Strange?”

“Quite right, Sorcerer Supreme,” you answer, making Stephen turn to you both in offense.

“‘Higher duties’? ‘Sorcerer Supreme’?”

“The Sorcerer Supreme has higher duties, yes.”

Finally, Peter asks, confusion lacing his voice, “Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme…and Doctor Strange.”

“No, he got it on a technicality because I blipped for five years,” Stephen rolls his eyes, “And I am Doctor Strange, but so is she.”

You wave before turning to walk up the staircase again, “Nice to meet you, Peter. I’m sure we’ll talk later, I have a class on Zoom.”

Stephen and Peter watch as you penguin-walk up and out of their sight before Peter turns, “So is she…?”

“Y/N, Doctor Strange, Y/N Strange. My wife.”

Peter blinks in surprise. It isn’t what he expected. “You’re married…and…to another wizard?”

“Yes, and no, she’s not a wizard but I would rather she stay here where it’s safe. She’s a professor, hence a doctor, hence a Zoom class. Any more questions?”

The look on Peter’s face suggests a resounding “YES!” but before he could open his mouth Stephen turns, “So Peter, to what do I owe the pleasure?

–

“Hey Peter, MJ, and Ned,” you grin as you see them talking to the people from another universe. “Where’s Stephen?”

The guilty look shared by the three of them says it all, “I’m really sorry Mrs. Doctor Strange Ma’am but–”

“He’s not dead, is he?”

“Umm…” Peter gulps nervously, “N-no, I don’t think so…”

“Alright then, I’ll just ask Wong to come get him later, then. Be careful you kids!”

As you nonchalantly walk away, Ned asks, “Dude, who is she?”

“The most powerful person in this Sanctum right now,” Peter whispers, clearly still nervous about having fought Stephen, “Doctor Strange’s wife.”

-

The quintet, composed of three Spider-Men and Ned and MJ have no idea how you managed to find them, but somehow here you are with a change of clothes for everyone, some food, and surprisingly, bottles of toluene and methanol, and Midtown water bottles (although the last one you may or may not have nicked from the Midtown bookstore on your way to the lab). When they ask you, you shrug and/or completely ignore the question altogether.

“Mrs–Doctor Strange, what are you doing here?” Peter (1) asks, both surprised and touched when you throw your arms around him. You don’t say anything, but the feeling of your hand running up and down his back is soothing, reminding him so much of May. You turn to Peter 2 and Peter 3, smiling at them. They give you awkward smiles, Peter 3 raises his hand in a small “Hi”.

“How did she know where to find us?” MJ asks Ned beside her.

Ned shrugs, still eyeing Y/N, “Sorcery.”

“But she’s not magical.”

“Neither was I until an hour ago!”

-

You watch the three Peters get to work on their cures, popping here and there to offer them food and other things they need. You hop next to Peter 3, who smiles at you gently, before continuing on what he’s doing. You and Peter 2 notice him observing Peter 1 and MJ, but you keep silent, watching, instead the other 2 Peters working.

“You have someone?” Peter 2 asks.

Peter 3 smiles sardonically, shaking his head, “No,” looking like the very thought of having someone is impossible, “Ah, I got no time for Peter Parker stuff, you know? Do you?”

Peter 2 shrugs, “That’s a little complicated.”

“Maybe it’s not in the cards for guys like us.”

“I wouldn’t give up,” Peter 2 says, “It took a while but we made it work.”

You nudge Peter 3, a curious thought in your mind, “You haven’t met someone named Y/N in your universe, have you?”

Peter 3 looks surprised, but you can tell that the name is something he is familiar with. “I do, she just moved next door from my apartment…” He looks at you curiously, “Why?”

Smiling to yourself, you shake your head, “Oh nothing. Is she nice?”

“Yeah,” he answers, face alight with a smile, “She brings me food sometime–all the time. I'm pretty sure she knows I'm Spider-Man.”

You smile wider, nodding to yourself.

–

Stephen appears through the portal, looking really pissed. “Where is he?”

MJ and Ned look at him nervously, but he turns and looks at you, “Y/N, what are you doing here?”

You shrug, “Helping them until your return,” He conjures a portal for you and you give him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before jumping into the portal (which doesn’t send you to the Sanctum, only far enough where you can still see them but also far enough that you’re safe), “Don’t die, Stephen!”

–

You grimace as you look at the very fabrics of the universe unzipping before your eyes. Without the power of the Stones, or others with more power, you know Stephen won’t be able to close the stitches. Everyone who knows who Peter Parker is will come into this world. You dial the number on the phone, and seconds later, a voice answers, “Y/N?”

“Hi, sweetie! Stephen needs your help, could you come right now?”

“Umm, Y/N is everything okay? Are you alright? I’ll come get you right no–”

“No, it’s okay! I think he’s casting a new spell, but I know for sure that there will be consequences to what he’s done. Are you in America? I just want you near just in case!”

“Yeah, I am. Do you want to meet tomorrow for some coffee?”

“Of course! Pick me up outside the Sanctum. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Take care, Y/N!”

“You too, Wanda!”

–

You watch as the boy who is now invisible and unknown to the world exit the shop. He is all alone now and based on the fact that he’s walking away from the store, eyes glistening with unshed tears, you know that he didn’t tell his friends the truth.

Sighing, you look up, I promised myself I wasn’t going to interfere. But here you are.

You made sure to bump into him and nice a boy as he is, stumble and start apologizing profusely. “I’m very sorry Ma’am, so sorry, I didn’t mea–”

He looks at you, surprise is evident on his face, which now looks so sad and tired. But you can give him one thing. You can give him hope.

“It’s okay,” you smile at him, and he takes a few moments before smiling back at you shakily, “It’s nice to see you again, Peter.”

You can almost see the gears turning in his head before his eyebrows shoot up in surprise at this, but you turn around and continue walking, a smile on your face.

The gates of the Multiverse have opened. Maybe it's time you leave.