#anyways fat bear supper was really nice :')

[pickled-flowers]

Every time I go to a party I'm reminded that it's not that I can't interact with people, it's just not a desire I have :(

[marvelsimp]

The New Kid: Friend or Foe

The New Kid Masterlist

Ch. 5

Genre: Fluff? Pairing: Peter & Lesbian!reader, Avengers & Reader, (eventual Wanda x Reader it’s a slow burn) Warnings: violence(training), blood, stabbed, strong language Description: Y/n is getting used to living in the tower and makes an unlikely friend Reader’s Powers: Healer, telepath, and empath. Word Count: 2278

“You can’t pull your punches, Y/n/n.  In a real fight, you’re gonna have to fight for your life.”

“You know my whole power set is pacifist.”

“That’s why I have to train you,” said the slightly annoyed red-haired woman. “Now get your head in the game and let’s go again.”

You scoffed; you were frustrated that you had to do this.  That you had to learn how to hurt people.  You took a moment to stretch and you both went back into your fighting stances to start again.

You went to punch her face, but she dodged, she then raised her leg and tried to kick but you caught her foot.  She quickly got her foot free before you could do anything with it.  This went on for a while, you both got some good punches and kicks.  You did land on your ass a few times, but you got up each time and went back to it.

“Time out”

Thank god.

Steve walked in. Oh god no. You knew what was coming, you were gonna have to fight Steve.  You very dramatically fell on the floor and spread out. “Come on, Nat. This is creeping up on child abuse,” you laugh.

You earned a chuckle out of both of them.  Steve stood above you and offered you his hand to which you accepted. Nat went onto showing you some simple moves to help you fight someone bigger than you after about an hour you finally got to go and get a shower and really start your day.

The last week and a half passed by quickly.  Peter stayed at the tower for the first few nights but went back home once school started.  But he would come after patrol and he still video called during homework, like usual.  

Most of your time was spent in one of the labs.  You have been helping Tony with one of his suits as a way for him to familiarize you with the machines and programs.  Bruce did less hands-on work he worked on calculations for his own projects and did some work for SHEILD.  You went down to the Med Lab a few times to give Dr. Cho some blood samples or some information about your powers.  She took a small sample of skin, fat, and muscle from your thigh, but it healed within a minute like nothing ever happened.  

You also spent some time in the gym, which you hated but the others made it a little more fun.  You were really only doing it to get ready for training with Nat.  When you first went in you had no clue what you were doing.  Sam, Bucky, and Steve were doing some training exercise when you entered but Sam quickly saw your very clueless face and walked over to help.

“Hey, kid.”

“Hi.”

“I’m assuming you have no clue what you’re doing?  You look as clueless as I would if I went up to the Tech Lab.”

“That obvious?”

He let out a chuckle.  Sam gave you some stretches to warm up and then showed you how to use some of the machines.  He gave you advice on how long to use each machine and told you that if you needed anything just yell.  The rest of your time in the gym you watched the three men do whatever they were doing.  Sam and Bucky’s bickering was very entertaining and so was Steve yelling at them to focus. You were there for around an hour every day until Nat started to train you.  You very quickly learned that you grew muscle faster than the average person and you weren’t sore for very long.  

When you weren’t in the lab or the gym you were probably in your room playing a game or you were talking to Wanda while she was making a meal. “So, are you the assigned cook?” you joked.  You’d only ever seen Wanda prepare meals since you got here.

Wanda just shook her head, “Not really.  I just enjoy it, so I usually am the one to cook.  But Bruce sometimes cooks and so do Steve and Bucky. When I first joined I helped Steve add a bit of flavor to his meals.  Thank god I didn’t live in the 40s.” She laughed a little, you love her laugh and smile, they seem to make the room a little brighter.

You weren’t a cook yourself so you didn’t help too much, but you would talk to her and get her something if she needed it but usually, she’d just use her powers.  

That’s really the only time that you see Wanda, most of her day is spent training.  She’s Strange’s apprentice.  You still haven’t met him, for someone who can make portals you’d think he’d pop in at some point.  You asked Wanda about seeing him, but she told you that you need to be invited or it needs to be something important.  She warned against pissing him off because it takes a while to get back on his good side.  But she told you she’d mention it to him.

You got into a rhythm of training, breakfast, tech lab, lunch, med lab, tech lab, supper, and Video games, the library, or more time in the tech lab.  It was rarely thrown off.  Every few days someone would go out for a mission or return from one.  Nat only missed two training sessions, so Bucky stood in.  You enjoyed training with Nat, but Bucky made sure to put some fun into it.   At first, he seemed so cold but after some warming up, he really was just a big Teddy Bear.  He can still be an ass though.

Your days stayed on this loop for another week until Thor returned with Loki.  No one fully trusted Loki so Stark ended up putting a tracker on him that Wanda enchanted so that Loki couldn’t remove or deactivate it… he was not impressed.  Well, he was, just not pleased.

“You must be Lady Y/n,” Loki smirked.

Thor whacked the back of Loki’s head. “Be good,” he whispered.

Loki just let out a mischievous laugh, “Don’t worry brother.”  Loki turned back to you, “So you’re the one who discovered me? I wouldn’t expect a mere mortal would be able to find me out... not even THE Scarlet Witch did.”

“You’re impressed?” you scoffed. “Or maybe a little jealous.” You knew that he’s the god of mischief and you aren’t gonna deal with any of his shit, you’ve got enough going on.

“No,” he defended, “Just interested.”

“I’m a telepath and empath,” you explained, “and a healer.”

“Oh! So, you cheated!”

“What do you mean cheat? Your thoughts were so loud you were giving me a headache!”

“I will get my revenge.”

He’s going to so annoying, isn’t he?

Loki was surprisingly quiet over the next week until you went to the tower’s library.  

The library itself is a whole floor, it has a copy of every book you could think of.  It even has a librarian who is almost constantly putting up new releases.  It’s a bookworm’s dream.  

You wanted to find a physics book or two and you weren’t against finding a new queer fantasy book.  You returned your books and asked Mx. Anderson where you could find what you were looking for and they quickly gave you directions and suggestions.

You found and picked out a few physics books and then made your way to the young adult section. The queer books have a rainbow sticker on the spine.  You picked out a few then headed to leave, you walked into the “classics” section and there was Loki on a couch reading with a pile of books next to him.

“Hey,” you smiled.

“Hello,” said the Asgardian who didn’t even look up from his book.

You bent down a little to sew the cover of the surprisingly thin book. “Oh, you’re reading Shakespeare!” He was reading Hamlet.  “My favorite is Romeo and Juliet. Have you read it yet?” He finally looked up from his book.  “No,” he seemed a little confused, “But I did read a few others of his work and I think that is in my stack.” He turned to find it. “It has such odd language compared to the rest of you.”

“They were written like four hundred years ago,” you explained, sitting next to him.

“Ah, language does change quite quickly.”

You nodded in agreement.

“What are you reading?” he said pointing at your stack of books.

“Oh, uh um. These big books are physics books, and these smaller ones are fantasy romance.”

“Hmm, you don’t seem to be one who reads romance.”

“Well, I’m really more into it for the fantasy elements but I do enjoy a good romance.”

He gave you a smirk,” Besides Romeo and Juliet and any of Shakespeare’s works. Do you have any recommendations for me?”

You went on to recommend some classics and some more recent books.  He listened to every word and asked a few questions.  You didn’t stay long; you were tired and just wanted to dive into one of your books.  You would usually be in the lab at this time, but it was nice to have a few hours to yourself before dinner.  

“Knock, knock,” said a voice at your door.

“Hm?” you looked up. “Peter!” you set down your book and ran to him for a hug.  It had been a while since Peter had come to the tower.  He hadn’t even been introduced to Loki, formally that is.  ‘How’s my favorite bug!”

Peter let out a laugh, “Good! You’re acting like we don’t talk every day.”

“Video calls and in-person are completely different things! Anyways what are you doing here?”

“It’s Thursday aka movie night.”

“Oh, yeah!”

You and Peter walked out of your room and went to the common space to eat dinner.

“Lady Y/n,” said a booming voice.

“Yes, Thor!”

“Would you and the Man of Spiders like to sit next to me and my brother?”

“Yes, we’d love that,” you laughed.

“So, you’re telling me that you’ve never had ice cream!” you practically yelled at Loki.

Everyone was surprised with how comfortable you and the trickster were with each other, especially Peter.  

“What’s with you and him?” Peter whispered.

“We bonded over books,” you whispered back. “Your girlfriend would like him.”

Peter smiled, he’s pleased that you’re getting along with everyone and most of all that you’re happy.  

The rest of the night was nice, it was just like the last two movie nights.  Dinner, talking, movie, and then Peter had to leave to finish his homework or go on patrol.  

The next week was just like you had gotten there but Loki had decided that it was a perfect time to really embrace his title.  He started to pull little pranks, nothing too bad or really anything that went beyond a little annoyance.  Or at least he didn’t until today.  

It was Saturday so you slept in because you thankfully did not have to go to training.  You were about to leave when you noticed a box on your desk.  It was about the size of a backpack.  So, you decided to open it and when you looked inside there was a black cat with emerald eyes.  Who got you a cat? You like cats and like…thanks?  But still, who would get you a cat out of nowhere? You picked up the cat and as soon as you did it started to transform, and you felt a sharp pain in your side.  The cat continued to transform into of course… Loki.  The raven hair man quickly sprinted out of your room to the common area.

You looked down and there was a fucking kitchen knife in your side.

“You bitch! I like this shirt!” you yelled while running out of your room.

When you entered the common room, Loki was nowhere to be seen.  But Nat, Bucky, and Steve were there.  “Where did he go?”

“Who?” Nat turned around and saw the knife in your side.  Her eyes widened, then she looked fucking pissed.  “What the fuck! Are you okay?”  The men's emotions followed the same track.

“Oh yeah,” you said nonchalantly.  You pulled the bloody knife out of your side.  Some blood soaked into your shirt’s fabric, but you weren’t worried.  But you do like this shirt… that bitch is gonna pay.

“Do you want me to kill him?” said the brunette man bluntly.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” You rushed into the elevator and told Friday to take you to Loki.

The elevator lowered to the Library. Of course.

“Sorry, Mx. Anderson!” you yelled while running by their desk. “There will be yelling and possibly blood shed!”  You already know where he is.  He’s in the classics.  

There he was sitting on the couch, nonchalantly reading the Iliad.

“You’re a fucking bitch you know?  I really like this shirt!” you waved the knife in your hand around.

“Oh please.  You’re a healer, you’ll be fine.”

You crossed your arms, “LOKI. My fucking shirt.”

He raised his arms in defense. “It just a blood and a slight rip.”

You walked up to Loki and took off your shirt, thankfully you were wearing an undershirt that you didn’t care about.  You handed the shirt to him.  “Fix it then.”

He accepted the shirt and scoffed. “Fine.” He waved his hand over the shirt and it was now good as new.

“See, that was easy.” You grabbed the shirt and started to walk away.  “And don’t stab me again! I think two assassins would very happily kill you!”

NEXT CHAPTER 

Ice Cream or Blood

[cerastes]

Ey, I want to ask how do you write so bombastic and confident like? I have absolutely no writing skills so I kinda want to emulate your writing style. Sorry if this question bothers you.

The question doesn’t bother me, and thank you very much! I appreciate the praise.

Now, first things first: My writing style is far from perfect. I make mistakes, and whenever I look at something I wrote, I think “damn it, I missed the perfect opportunity for this or that in this paragraph and it could’ve been GREAT and much better”. That doesn’t stop me from writing or enjoying writing. What am I trying to say with this? To write all “bombastic and confident like”, as you put it, it’s necessary to own up to your writing. 

If you confess to the person you like, do you tell them your bad aspects? Do you go “Please date me, I am unreliable, uninteresting, and plain, but I hope you’ll say yes”? That’s precisely how you don’t get dates. You present your good points, and you show how you fully believe in those good points. Writing is the same. Don’t be coy or shy, don’t be like “oh man this is not good aaaa please be kind guys”, no, you write something, you go with that to the ends of hell. You present it as something entertaining. It all starts with you: You need to believe every second of your narrative or it doesn’t work. I mean, if the author doesn’t believe it is interesting, why the hell would I bother reading it? The whole time you are writing, you KNOW and BELIEVE it is something good, and that you are doing your readers as big a favor as they are doing to you by reading it by letting them read it. You hit post, and then you say “you are welcome”.

That’s the single most important thing you need to know, regardless of whatever style of writing you decide to take or emulate. Artists need confidence, especially writers, or you straight up start with a hole in your foot and a smoking gun.

Now, about my particular style:

I preface this by saying that I’ve never taken a single creative writing class in my life, and my style is 100% self taught, with its major inspirations found in Robert Fisher and Ambrose Bierce. You can try to emulate it, but in the end, it should only be for the sake of developing one that will work for you.

I lean more towards skit-like dialogue and plot-focused dialogue more than actual realistic conversations in my narratives, BUT I urge people to master realistic small talk and realistic conversations, because that helps you so much behind the scenes. It lets you understand your characters in ways you had not considered before, and it allows you to write much richer reactions and behavior in your story proper. I also like to focus on the space occupied by the characters and how they move. No one stands still while talking or doing most things, so play with the environment surrounding the character, how their spacial context affects their actions, how they idly fiddle with their cuffs while they talk, etc. You’ll inevitably be like “hmmm how do I make this scene seem in character…”, and when I find myself in that situation, I imagine or write a small, brief conversation about a random topic I take from a randomizer in Google between the characters. Taking about anything unveils a lot about people and characters alike. Does Character A click their tongue when they are irritated? Does Character B tend to repeat one verb/noun a lot in their discourse? Does Character C have a limited language? All that kinda stuff.

Behind closed doors, do a SHITLOAD of purple prose. Utilize your vocabulary. Rip apart your own veins writing posh garbage. It’s a great way to expand your vocabulary and to realize what is ok to write, and what isn’t. Just like overly garnished plates of food, overly verbose literature is bad. Complexity =/= Good. 

So what does equal good? Entertainment, I believe. Whenever you are writing something comedic by nature, you are going for a punchline. You already know the punchline you are going for, and that usually does make us complacent. We end up railroading the whole thing towards this ONE thing, and that’s a pitfall. Have multiple happenings, throw multiple, smaller jokes, 

Now, from that idea, the same goes for anything outside of comedy, too: You want more than one thing going on at all times, and you ideally want a supporting cast to help you with that. Where most amateur literature fails, I believe, is that a lot of authors try to make their whole cast “main characters”, and that’s not a good way to go about it. Instead, I believe you have to make a designated main cast, and a designated support cast. From there, you write, and whenever it comes naturally, you give more narrative depth to someone from the support cast, less to someone in the main cast, and all around end up doing what feels natural. That way, you don’t spread yourself thin writing equally for 23 characters, and instead focus on the ones you love writing the most, or that your audience wants to see more of, or the ones that it just feels right for you, personally or plot-wise, to promote more or demote within the narrative.

The golden rule of writing, to me, is that your reader never thinks “I don’t care about what happens to these people”. Your reader MUST care about the happenings, and remain interested, at all times. Don’t cheapen your own narrative. Don’t make it predictable. Or make it predictable, and then betray those expectations, then make it predictable again, and this time, deliver it just as is, but throw in a twist, TRAIN your reader to not trust you. The less the reader trusts you, the wider the range of stuff you can try. Expectation is to be betrayed at all points, interest HAS to be active throughout the whole thing. This also implies resting points, where the narrative slows down a bit, but keep it fire, tense, at all times.

I believe in Show, Don’t Tell. Your readers are not idiots. Show things, and the readers will catch them. Catching foreshadowing that is written in between lines only to see it confirmed later is the greatest feeling in the world. Give your readers the greatest feeling in the world. I love it when I read authors that fool me, so I try to fool my readers.

Lastly, write things in a way that keeps the public engaged. Don’t just write “straight lines”, spice them up with engaging writing, say common things in uncommon ways that are just out there enough that they raise an eyebrow, but still topical and comprehensive enough that your reader says “haha, yeah!” and keeps reading. As for characters per se, I find giving each character their own speech quirks is both fun to write and to read. For example, from something I write currently:

Whenever I am going to write a scene with new characters, I make a small list of characteristics I want to convey with each character, how I envision them, and how my readers hopefully receive them.

Cultist: Inexperienced language, more or less machine guns words, she has an entertainer’s tongue and a curious demeanor, loves to add spectacle to even the simplest things, and intentionally annoys others or pushes their buttons for reactions. Not clueless, she knows exactly what she’s doing.

Mjyn: Prefers short lines, goes to the point, she plays the Cultist’s straight man. Focused on the task at hand, and doesn’t care for tomfoolery, but will allow herself to go along with it for just long enough before her patience grows thin.

Cultist: “Hmhmhm! You should know that, right here, in front of your very eyes, a professional flavorologist stands tall!”Lantern Salesman: “…? A what?”Cultist: “A flavorol–”Mjyn: “Chef.”Cultist: “Chef! Don’t be fooled by her chrome finish and the cannon arm, this girl right here knows how to cook a whole friggin’ feast! Were it not for her, I’d be an exciting corpse over yonder by that tundra, but she was making supper out of walrus fat! Walrus fat! Who the hell can make a full course meal with walrus fat you may ask? THIS. GIRL. She’s also known as the Fingers Of The Blue Sky, giver of the most delightful massages! Mmm, what would I do without my precious Mjyn!”Salesman: “That’s… Nice, I guess? Good for you? But why are you telling me all of this?”Mjyn: “We need the illegally obtained police sirens you currently hold in your left hand. So, my friend here was doing a sales pitch in order to negotiate with you”Salesman: “Ah, this? Well, I am not parting with it for a meal or a massage from an android. So, if you’ll excuse me…”Cultist: “Wait, wait, one second, geez, man, you on a hurry? Got the dame to please? The kids to feed? Haha, that’s a jape, I know, I know, you are unmarried. I can tell just by looking at your face. Anyways, here’s what I was trying to show you: Aside from having the skills that would make her a mainstay at any depraved home, my nice friend here has…”Cultist: *Lightly knocks Mjyn on the back of the head*Mjyn: *opens her right “eye” to reveal a gun barrel*Cultist: “This a hold up, bi–”Mjyn: “Oi.”Cultist: “…Sir! A no-obscenities hold up! Drop the fiddlesticking siren!”Salesman: “W-woah! Hey, now!”Mjyn:Cultist:Mjyn:Cultist: “…Bitch!”*Mjyn stomps on the Cultist’s foot*Cultist: “Fuck! O-oh, whoo–”*STOMP*Cultist: “Fudge! Ok, sorry! Habit!”Mjyn: “I really ought to have a word with whoever let your tongue be this loose. In any case, sir, this is indeed a hold up, now please pony up that siren or you’ll have to bear with the terrible, terrible sin of making a tired girl spend a very expensive eye round on someone whose funeral will probably be cheaper than said round. We are in quite a pickle without it, see?”Cultist: “…Gosh, M, you can’t just threaten people like that. Where’s the flair? You truly are an amateur, aren’t you? Foolish girl, yet so lucky, for I am willing to put up with you, eh? Sorry, sir, let us start from the beginning, we’ll do this right this time, ok~? Ahem… Hmhmhm! Right before you, yes, it’s her, the one you’ve been hearing about in isolated whispers! The famous flavorologiOUCH STOP STOP OK SORRY STOP HITTING ME SIR THE SIREN PLEASE SHE’S PISSED OFF”

I guess, to close this, is that I do think you gotta go over what you write and do a second writing, because you are bound to end up with weak segments in whatever it is you write. Transitional or exposition segments, mostly. Go over them and spice them up or summarize them even further. The less time you spend world building by telling the reader and the more time you spend doing that showing the world instead, the better. No one likes an info dump. Info dumps go on supplementary material.