#can we all agree that the kids will be fighting in a dream dimension

[saku0115]

Hello how have you been, this week my dad send me a letter, he was with my godfather (knuckes)

He gift me my necklace when I was really tiny, I haven't see him since I was a little bite tiny baby

I miss my dad..

I want to travel the world just like him the only problem, mom wont let me.

She says; "You can travel the world when you move out of the house"

That will take ages, dad is not better; "you listen to your mother"

So moveing to more important topics

Meet my master, I meet her in the Astral plane.

She taught me everything I know now, when asked for her name she told me to call her Tika (but I called her Til).

Soo

Anyway, I have had some weird dreams where there are many children and a board, I was very confused and there were many people so I asked the people around me and one of them told me that ....;

WE ARE GOING TO FIGHT!

And I was very surprised, I fight with other people to win a Tournament, why did I do that (he also mentioned something that the gods chose who fight or not... or something like that). or something like that).

I went to gather information about who I would fight with and this quokka (autumm I think was her name) kindly informed me that;

I WOULD BE BATTLING AN ANDROIDMOBIAN!

IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE.

(but I don't know more about him I stopped listening to what I heard from him after listening to androidmobiano...)

Anyway I asked til for help to teach me how to fight I have a day to train.

With me Lucky,(I will need it).

@sonic-fankid-showdown

Obs characters:

@altairsarts ,@kristhesheep ,@wereh0gz , @susahnasomething ,@m3tr0n0m333 ,@colorfulplasma ,@head---ache ,@galacticghoste ,@artist-fan146 ,@w0lp3rtinger ,@silvers-starrway

Cipher the jackal altairsarts

Midnight the Android hedgehog(kristhesheep)

Sunny the Chao (wereh0gz)

Fletcher the fox(susahnasomething

Chroma prower(m3tr0n0m333

Twitch the child(colorfulplasma(

Emmie the hedgehog(head---ache)

Silhouette Rose(galacticghoste)

Autumn the quokka(artist-fan146)

Gigi the parakeet(W0lpt3rtinger)

Tulip the cyborg(silvers-starrway)

[taetr4ck]

Not a request but WHICH SKZ/NCT MEMBER WOULD YOU FIGHT GO!

a/n : i just opened my tumblr after a good whole week and this is what i first read FUCK IT WE BALL ! doing all of them because i feel a bit silly today

contents under the cut

STRAY KIDS

BANG CHAN - no. this is self explanatory tbh. i would straight up ask him to marry me

LEE KNOW - i would. but in return he would tell me how much my parents wrecked my whole being so i'll end up tearing up in the corner

CHANGBIN - one slap from this man and i'm already out of this world. he can literally slap me and the next second i'm already in the fifth dimension. no words needed. i would not fight him.

HYUNJIN - i would and then fall in love in the process

HAN - how could i fight this man ? RUTHLESS.

FELIX - i don't have the heart to tbh. i'll cry before i even land my first hit

SEUNGMIN - big yes tbh. i feel like he's the perfect person to pick a fight with. our competitive ass won't give up so easily unless one of us isn't breathing anymore LMFAO

JEONGIN - this man would stab me before i even know it

NCT 127

TAEIL - one glare from this man and i'm already shivering. 50/50.

JOHNNY - i should be punished for forgetting to put him here. what was i thinking !!!! anyway !! i feel like he would be the one to initiate the fight LMFAO he would straight up come to me and just do a ‘let’s do a square’ ‘aight bet’ kind of interaction tbh he would be the funniest person to pick a fight with. i would fight him. he’d be my sparring buddy afterwards

TAEYONG - bro he's about to do his military service leave him alone 😭🙏🏻 poor bubu i would not fight him

MARK - i would. then we will start throwing rap verses (special mention to jopping) like we didn't almost stabbed each other earlier

JAEHYUN - one punch and my skull is already cracked in half. nope

YUTA - i would just straight up kiss him tbh i would not last for five seconds looking at him

DOYOUNG - he would verbal abuse me tbh that's enough to wreck me

HAECHAN - one michael jackson merch for him and he's wrecked so easily. i would fight him.

JUNGWOO - boy this man would bring a baseball bat even though we agreed to have a fist fight. cheater. i would fight him

NCT DREAM

RENJUN - his glare is enough to kill me. 50/50.

JENO - man idc this is jeno we are talking about !!!! he can punch me in the face and i would not bulge !!!!

CHENLE - man he is the worst person to fight. one word from him and i’m already having a mental breakdown. he would unwrap every inch of my traumas from childhood to present. i won't risk it 🫡

JAEMIN - no because we will have our silly little tea party while talking about cute and pretty things

JISUNG - the idea itself makes us both want to cry

WAYV

KUN - he's too good to pick a fight with. my conscience could never

TEN - big yes. put those slutty muscles to work boy !

HENDERY - we would have a fight in valorant and i'd lose. can't risk my reputation for that smh (kidding)

XIAOJUN - this man would straight up launch at me like a fuckin dog. i would fight him (affectionately)

WINWIN - no. i would ask him to be his gf. no explanation needed

YANGYANG - we would have a pillow fight and the next second he's already holding a brick. i said let's have a pillow fight not give me a fucking concussion 😭🙏🏻

should i add my taglist here omg

⋆ taetr4ck, est may 2023. / requests open

[icedragonlizard]

Some of my headcanons for Kracko

Oh wow... I'm actually gonna talk about a less prominent character in the Kirby series this time! And here we got none other than Kirby's biggest hater, Kracko. The cycloptic cloud of sheer hatred himself.

Allow me to disclose some of my headcanons for this guy:

The entire reason why Kracko hates Kirby in the first place is because he was embarrassed to lose to him the very first time they fought all the way back in Kirby's Dream Land, and this hatred has only amplified as he constantly sought revenge and kept losing every single time they fought. He despises the fact that he got bested by a child, and it just gets worse when he continues to be bested. It makes him embarrassed, insecure, jealous, furious and distraught.

In this universe, a ton of adults have faced embarrassment one way or another by getting all their butts kicked by a mere toddler. But out of all these adults that got rekt by said kid, Kracko is by far the saltiest and most embarrassed by it. He's so ridiculously insecure over it that he can't help but hate Kirby's guts to the extreme. He refuses to ever reconcile with Kirby because of it. Others usually reconcile with Kirby, but not Kracko. He'll forever always despise Kirby.

He will never stop being super mad at Kirby.

Man, Kracko is quite the sore loser, isn't he? Biggest sore loser ever?

That being said, despite hating Kirby so much, he's not all bad. He's not pure evil or anything, although his hatred for Kirby has definitely made him become a worse person over time. He's kind of a bad person overall, but there also actually exists a softer side in this cloud.

While Kracko is a big hater, he's also... a caring father?!?!? He's the progenitor to a legion of cycloptic cloud creatures similar to him, and he loves them all. He helps them expand in numbers. He also protects them from threats, which is another reason why he's increasingly despised Kirby over time as that pink toddler has 'picked fights' with his subjects as he'd put it. So yeah... Kracko doesn't just have a lot of hate in his heart, he's actually got some real love in his heart too! He cares about his legion of cycloptic clouds a whole lot!

Kracko is capable of going through any dimension. He can be considered an inter-dimensional traveler, similar to Magolor. He's occasionally a nomad that likes traveling wherever he's capable of passing through, but his favorite place in the universe is Planet Popstar's high altitude country of Cloudy Park. He absolutely adores Cloudy Park! He couldn't ask for a better atmosphere anywhere else.

Which is why he considers Cloudy Park to be his home overall. And he happens to be both famous and infamous to the people of Cloudy Park. Partly famous because he's shockingly nice to the people there, but partly infamous because even the people there are fully aware that he hates Kirby... and, well, Kirby is of course beloved at large throughout Popstar, and thus there's a whole lot of people in Cloudy Park who resent Kracko for his hatred of Kirby, and think he's a jerk.

Adeleine is one of the people that lives in Cloudy Park. The relationship between Kracko and Adeleine is very complicated, to say the least. On one hand, she admittedly thinks that Kracko is very cool, which is why she even has a painted version of him that she'll sometimes make sentient in the first place. But because Adeleine is also friends with Kirby, this has caused problems between her and Kracko. The cycloptic cloud wants to constantly hunt down Kirby as nonstop revenge, and the young artist girl simply won't have any of that. She keeps telling Kracko to please leave Kirby alone.

Fortunately, believe it or not, he's ended up listening at times! He actually has enough care for Adeleine that he agrees to not constantly hunt down Kirby, but he can't promise that there won't be a fight if Kirby comes near him. Needless to say, Adeleine isn't satisfied with that answer... she and others wish that he'd stop messing with Kirby altogether. But he's simply far too unwell about wanting revenge on Kirby one way or another. That being said, Adeleine and the others of Cloudy Park have actually had some success at keeping Kracko in check from wanting to go after Kirby. He never shows any signs of truly wanting to stop, though, and thus it's clear he still needs to continue being slapped on the non-existent wrist.

Aside from Adeleine, however, Kracko wouldn't really get along with any other dream friend. The reason he and Adeleine are even remotely capable of getting along to begin with is because they both share the love of living in Cloudy Park, and that he was honored that she was willing to portray him in her paintings. Even then, there's still definite complications there, and Kracko would just be in mutual resentment with the rest of the dream friends, considering they're all more or less friends with Kirby at this point. Kracko is overall quite bad at getting along with people that support Kirby. Geez, this cloud!

Way back in older days, Kracko used to be friends with King Dedede, back when Dedede used to be a worse person than he is now. But this has long changed ever since Dedede decided to become a better person and became friends with Kirby. One could imagine Kracko being rather jealous of Dedede for being able to get over his embarrassment of being bested by a child and becoming friends, because the cycloptic cloud has still never been able to. Most likely, nowadays, he'd berate Dedede for 'betraying' him. Wow, Kracko's nuts!

There's a dream friend that Kracko has a particular amount of hatred for, and one could say that it may be his second most hated person after Kirby. It's Marx. This is because when Marx first learned about Kracko's hatred for Kirby, he thought it was hilarious. Marx decided to pull pranks on Kracko and taunt him over hating Kirby. Wouldn't be hard to predict that Kracko has come to hugely despise Marx and has went as far as to electrocute him in pure rage. What also makes this funnier is that like Kracko, Marx was also once very bitter and salty about getting rekt by Kirby. So technically, Marx COULD empathize with Kracko. He has the capability of doing so, but chooses not to and just pranks him instead. LOL.

Truthfully, there's a small part of Kracko that kind of just wants to access an ancient artifact to corrupt himself and make him stronger, hopefully strong enough to finally be able to beat Kirby. He hates the pink puffball that much. But he's also aware that he wouldn't really do himself much favors, and if anything, it'd just cause his demise if anything. He wishes that weren't the case, though. He really wishes he could finally best Kirby one day, but deep down is aware that he won't, as desperate as he is about wanting to. Unless I eventually write a Kirby AU on AO3 about Kracko combining with Dark Matter, and then becomes everyone's problem because his hatred for Kirby boiled over. Hahaha! Remember that as one of the poll options for my next fic? Marx and Magolor friendship fic won that poll, but I could still do that Kracko/DarkMatter AU fic in the far future!

Kirby knows that Kracko despises him. The feeling isn't mutual, though, as Kirby doesn't hate Kracko. Kirby just doesn't hate in general. If anything, he just sees Kracko as extremely stubborn, more stubborn than others for still not reconciling with him. He figures that one day, Kracko will maybe finally get over it become friends.

That won't happen though, LOL.

I think that's about all I got here for Kracko. I had some HCs for him! You're welcome if you enjoyed this. See you later for the next one.

[cavefilllingcorporation]

Meeting to Resolve Colony Stockpile Tie

On 9/3/2024, the investors received a decision of what they should do regarding the Dream Colony’s excess stock. Either to leave it alone, take only what the CFC would take every quarter, or take it all now. Unfortunately, after the weeklong vote, it came down to a tie between leaving everything alone or taking it all. The following is a board meeting to discuss the results, and have a vote of their own.

CEO: So, I see that today everybody except for [The Admiral] is here.

The Dimension Master: And… HIM.

CEO: Yes, but at this point, it doesn’t need to be stated directly. Anyways, as you are all aware, the Investors tied between leaving all of the resources alone or taking all of the built-up resource on the Dream Colony.

The Scientist: A shame. If we had more investors, the chances of this happening would have been much lower.

CEO: Yes, but that’s something we can’t fix now. What we can do is figure out where we go from here.

The Extrovert: We could always just host the vote again.

The General: Nope. Can’t do that. [The Admiral]’s really desperate for some supplies, and he can’t wait anymore. Besides, isn’t this pushing the issue past the quarter report?

The Grand Director: [The General] is right. We have to get this done sooner than later… Still, I didn’t think that you of all people would be standing in for [The Admiral].

The General: Nobody here is going to do it. Besides, that idiot needs somebody to take care of his affairs while he’s stuck in negotiations. It’s hard work doing your job [The Extrovert].

CEO: Alright, calm down you two! We’re not here to start fights!

The Supreme Supervisor: What if we just compromise?

The Scientist: And how would we do that? The options that the investors chose are exclusive to each other. Either we take everything, or none at all. How would we decide what to choose and not to choose.

CEO: [The Scientist] is right as well. So, I propose that we have this come down to a vote. With just us.

The Introvert: Alright, then I’m already putting my vote out. I’m not saying its abuse or anything, but to take away all of their stuff is… concerning at least.

The Extrovert: Are you kidding? With that kind of stuff, we can make a ton of money. Pay off all of the debts that we have incurred with the colony project!

The Introvert: We would pay those off eventually.

The Extrovert: But paying them off sooner is better for everyone.

The Grand Director: I also agree. The chance to receive a ton of real produce for our kitchens is a huge deal, you don’t understand. It would take a chunk off of our expenses, albeit temporarily.

The Supreme Supervisor: But what about the absence products? We’re going to have to process of that food, which is going to take a long time, and won’t be that great for our workers.

The Scientist: I have to concur. At the rate we are building up side project absence goods, we’re going to have a second Anti-Project Plan after the first. This just makes it worse.

The General: Ah, you’re paranoid. Its not like they’re going to have to process thousands of crates of oil, just thousands of other items… You know what, I’m not involved with this. I abstain!

The Dimension Master: I’m abstaining too. I have almost nothing to do with this.

The CEO: Well, my vote is for the resources being drained. While it’s not a fun fact to reflect on, we do have to recognize the danger of them being self-sufficient. I know it sounds harsh, but we have over a thousand colonists on those islands. Giving them their own stockpiles could make them feel like they could be independent, and we could lose a very good income source… and now I realize I believe we are tied.

The Dimension Master: Well, lets see. We have you, Extrovert, and Grand Director for team drain, the Introvert, Supreme Supervisor, and Scientist for team no, and the General and I are abstaining. Crud, we do have a tie.

Suddenly, a hologram flickers on, and the image of the Admiral comes to life.

CEO: Ah, [The Admiral], glad you could join us! I thought you said that you couldn’t make it.

The Admiral: I thought so. I’m currently cooped up at the moment, but fortunately I’m able to get an encrypted transmission up and running. The people of this planet won’t even know a transmission is being sent.

The General: So, what’s keeping the great mastermind hiding like a coward, huh?

The Admiral: Sighs. I’m not going to reveal personal information while the investors are listening in. The meeting is recorded, right?

The CEO: Yes, and in fact, the board was having a vote to try and to resolve the tie over the matter of taking the colony stockpiles. Unfortunately, we have also run into a tie, so could you perhaps be our tiebreaker?

The Admiral: Very well then. My vote is to take it all.

The Scientist: But why?

The Admiral: I assume you are aware of the existence of our two new clients?

The Supreme Supervisor: Two? I was only made aware of the one. The Investors’ blog didn’t mention anything?

The Admiral: You seriously didn’t read my emails?

The Supreme Supervisor: You sent like dozens of them, all of them about small updates and whatnot. I didn’t think you were going to send something that big!

The Admiral: Whatever, I’m sure the social media team will get to the announcement eventually. The point is, we have two clients, possibly more on the way, and are stuck in the Anti-Project Plan. We have nothing to give them! Fortunately, we can partially satisfy them with food, and the colony also has metals that I can use. Simply put, we need those, now.

The CEO: Alright then. The vote is now passed. We’re taking everything. I was going to have the Investors vote on how much supplies get sent over to the new clients, but that was when we just had the one. We’ll keep the absence products and everything you won’t need, you can keep the rest to keep our new clients happy. Though it will be a while. Also, don’t expect this month’s thing either, at least don’t guarantee it. We’ll check if the Investors want to give them a break this year for this.

The Admiral: Fair enough. Considering this will be thousands of Crates I can keep in storage, I should be able to keep them fed for months…

Final results on Vote to take everything from Dream Colony stockpiles:

CEO: Yes

Dimension Master: Abstain

The General: Abstain

The Admiral: Yes

The Scientist: No

Introvert: No

Extrovert: Yes

Grand Director: Yes

Supreme Supervisor: No

{Not all ties will be resolved like this, but things came up, and I wanted to get this finished.}

[clairenatural]

i had a dream that sam and dean took cas to an art museum and showed him all these paintings of angels and it was like that scene in vincent and the doctor and cas said these paintings are beautiful because they depict the angels as human when a true angel could never be described as anything but monstrous and i woke up crying

anon i love this SO much. i love it so much i had to write it. this is 1.4k, destiel, human!cas

They’re making their way out of the city, monster killed and day saved, when Castiel sees a poster, pasted up on the side of the plywood wall of a construction site. It’s an angel—he doesn’t recognize the artist, but he’d guess late 19th century. Be Not Afraid: a History of Angels in Art, it proclaims, the logo of the city’s largest art gallery tucked into the corner.

Castiel stares at it. The angel on the poster stares back, wings spread and staff raised. Valiant. Something in his heart twitches, but it’s hard to place. He still has his blade, tucked safely into the trunk with the rest of their frequently used weapons, and he never had wings like that; even the shadows, the ones they showed to humans, were simply the closest representation to the real thing possible in this dimension (his back aches anyway, dimly, his human body reacting to the loss as if they were real severed appendages. He ignores it).

Dean notices, because of course he does. He stops, because of course he does, and flags Sam down before his long legs can carry him too far ahead. “Hey. You good?”

Castiel isn’t sure how long he’s been staring at the poster, but it’s long enough that Dean is obviously concerned. “Hm? Oh. Yes, I’m—I’m fine.”

Dean nods but doesn’t move. He considers the poster. “Art gallery, huh?” he asks, avoiding the obvious elephant. Castiel appreciates it. He nods back.

“I’ve never been to one,” he offers, as explanation. It seems odd—he can remember the painting of the Sistine Chapel, he remembers watching with fascination as humans began collecting the smaller paintings into collections and museums, but he’d never been inside one. It hadn’t seemed necessary. Humans collect art in large boxes to remember their history, but Castiel has seen it all.

Dean seems surprised by this. “Seriously?” Castiel nods, and there’s a pause, and he’s about to turn and keep heading towards the car, and Kansas, and home, when Dean claps him on the shoulder and turns to call over his own.

“Sammy! How do you feel about seeing some art?”

“You want to go to an art gallery?” Sam sounds incredulous, and is closer behind him than Cas expected. He hadn’t noticed him retreat the half-block he’d managed to gain on them.

“Yeah, why not? Come on. What happened to ‘a little culture wouldn’t hurt, Dean?’”

"What happened to ‘I’ve got plenty of culture, eat your damn burger?’”

“It’ll be fun, Sam,” Dean counters. Something in his tone has changed. Cas doesn’t think too hard about it.

There’s a long pause, and Cas knows there’s some sort of communication happening he can’t hear or see. “…Okay,” Sam concedes. “Okay, sure. Yeah. Let’s go.”

So they do.

Dean makes a comment about “haven’t been in one of these since I was a kid,” before they all fall into the hushed silence of the museum floor. It’s nice—nicer than Castiel had expected. Not in aesthetics; the building is sleek, and modern, and the art is obviously beautiful. But it’s nice to be there. It feels almost Holy—humans, funny creatures they are, with their habit of treating their own culture with the respect of something divine. Creating houses of worship out of museums and libraries and living rooms. 

He wanders through the various exhibits but doesn’t really pay attention until he ends up in the exhibit from the poster. He’d managed to lose the Winchesters halfway through the photography exhibit, when both the brothers had gotten distracted. Castiel had continued onward anyway, on a mission, and by the time he finds himself walking into the angel exhibit he’s on his own.

He comes to a stop in front of one of the largest paintings in the room. It’s not the same angel as the poster. It’s several, actually, looking over what appears to be Mary and a baby Jesus. The angels are beautiful—smooth, flawless skin. They have long hair that looks soft, even in paint. They’re wearing white robes, and their wings are white and dove-like. None of these angels have several heads, rotating bands of fire, or thousands of eyes. They’re beautiful, but they aren’t angels. The human who painted this didn’t know that, of course—none of them did. Humanity was faced with the concept of divinity and conceptualized it as a version of itself.

“The real things ain’t as cuddly, huh?”

Dean’s voice startles him, which he hates, both because he hates being startled and because he’s still adjusting to Dean being able to sneak up on him.

“I was just thinking,” he starts, pretending he’d known Dean was there the whole time, “you paint us like we’re human.” Not ‘us’ anymore, he reminds himself, but he brushes that thought off. Not now.

Beside him, Dean snorts. “Yeah, well. If you’d told any of those Renaissance guys that the real angels are dickhead balls of celestial intent, they’d’ve arrested you for heresy.”

Castiel shakes his head. “No.” he pauses. “Well, yes. But that’s—” he turns to face Dean for the first time. He notices Sam over Dean’s shoulder, focusing intently on a painting a few feet away and obviously pretending not to listen.

“My father—God—Chuck,” he cycles through, which will never not be weird, “created us first, but not in his image. We weren’t worthy of that. Only you were. Humans, his perfect creation, modeled after their creator. But then—” he turns back to the painting and gestures to it. “You created us in your image. You thought about divinity and you couldn’t conceive anything more Holy than yourselves.”

Dean shifts. He tries for a laugh, but it comes out short. “Well, damn, Cas. Way to make a guy feel self-centered.”

Castiel turns back to him. He blinks. He frowns. That’s not what he means. “Most of my siblings thought so,” he agrees. “But I always thought it was an honor. Look,” He turns again and reaches out for the painting, only remembering a few inches from its surface to not touch it.  “This one has a lyre. You always paint us playing music. But music, art….these are human things, Dean.” He lets his hand fall, but keeps his eyes forward.  “We’re soldiers. They don’t teach us to play the harp in Heaven, they train us to fight. But these angels are…soft. Kind. Angels you trust to protect. The kind of angels people pray to, build churches to.” He looks back at Dean, who is staring at him with a frown. He holds his gaze, steady, and takes a deep breath before finishing. “I wish I was—that any of us were—worthy of being depicted this way. I wish we were the angels you paint us as.”

There’s a long pause while Dean searches his face, obviously trying to decide on the right reaction. If they were at home, Cas thinks Dean might reach out and hug him. Instead, Dean reaches out to clap a hand on his shoulder—he lets it linger there, and Cas knows what it means, so that’s okay, too. “For what it’s worth,” he starts, and his voice is softer than the last time he spoke. “You’re the closest thing to those angels that I’ve ever seen.”

It’s a nice sentiment, but Cas smiles sadly as he turns back to the painting. “I’m not any kind of angel anymore,” he points out, and tries his hardest to keep his voice neutral.

Dean squeezes his shoulder and tilts his head, trying to recapture Castiel’s gaze. “Hey. Look at me.” Reluctantly, he looks back over. “Your wings weren’t what made you a good angel, alright?” he brings his other hand up to poke into Castiel’s chest. “That was all in here.”

He sounds like he’s quoting the Wizard of Oz, and Cas wants to make a joke about that, but he’s also never wanted to kiss Dean more. He doesn’t, because they’re in a museum, and they’re still working up to that, but he makes a note to do it later. Instead, he reaches up and pulls Dean’s hand away from his chest, links it in his own, and squeezes.

“Thank you,” he says, and it’s earnest, and it’s for everything.

Dean smiles. He understands. He squeezes back.

[adelior]

Name: Unconditionally

Author: R. Adelio

Genre: Romance, Minecraft, Comedy, Fluff

Main Lead: Technoblade, Dreamwastaken

Female Lead: Reader

Chapter: 1

Special Addition: Tchnomaid

Letters: 10,718

<- ->

"I'm bored" You mumbled into your palm as you kept your gaze on the papers that were set up in front of you. "It's your fault for trespassing their area, [Name]. You should know by now how strict Dream is with the boundaries of the countries." Wilbur interpreted, his brows furrowing by the second. "They could have killed you."

"I'm sorry, I was just curious" Hearing you apologize, he softened up and groaned. Wil patted your shoulder with a somewhat forced smile before leaving the room. "Make sure to finish brewing the potions by the end of the day. For now," He looked back, nodding his head. "I'll see you around, [Name]."

"You too, Wil" Sighing, you turned to look at the blonde-haired boy who stood awkwardly in the corner. "Well uh, that went well at least!" Slamming your first, you startled Tommy as he shrieked. "I got in trouble in YOUR PLACE-"

"Yeahhhh, about that, I'm sorry!" Tommy shook you by the shoulders, a grin spreading across his face. "I'll make it up to you okay? I'll set you up on a date with Wilbur if it makes you feel any better" Your cheeks darkened, giving the kid a pathetic slap as you covered the bottom half of your face.

"It's really nothing like that. I don't.. like him.." The last part of your sentence was muttered, and as usual, the boy who knew of your feelings let out a hollering laugh. "I knew it! Who would have fucking thought that you'd fall for Wil! Out of all people!"

"LOOK-" You turned to face him, your face getting hotter and hotter the more you thought about it. "I have my reasons okay! He's a good guy, and on top of that, he's an amazing friend"

"An amazing friend you say? He's also one hell of a fucking leader that's for sure. But enough about your crush let's go out and play with Tubbo!" Dismissing him with a single wave, you gave your best sympathetic smile. "Sorry Tommy, but I have to finish brewing these potions by the end of the day. I can't afford to be disciplined by Wil again"

"Hm, whatever, fine" The boy shrugged, leaving you alone. "THIS ISN'T THE END WOMAN! You will join me and Tubbo on our conquest sooner or later!" You chuckled, smiling at his childish behavior. "Yeah, yeah, now go on and have fun"

You can hear him shout out loud, laughing as he tackled what you perceive to be Tubbo. "I never wanna leave" The sentence that slipped out of your mouth caught you off guard. Despite being an outsider to their nation, they treated you with respect and saw you as a member of their group.

Sitting back down, you continued to flip through the pages of the book. Studying the recipes and applying the specific ingredients to each bottle. "Oh shit, I ran out of spider eyes" Cursing, you stood up to walk towards the door, looking out into the hallway. "Niki!" You shouted from your office, capturing the woman's attention. "Yes, [Name]?"

"Do you know if we have any spider eyes left in the chest room? Or have we completely run out of it" She pondered for a second, answering once she finished checking her inventory. "I don't think we have any more spider eyes. I'm also not carrying any with me sadly"

"Oh, that's alright. I can just outside and kill some spiders myself" Pushing yourself forward to one of your chests, you opened it and took some resources. A bow, 10 arrows, and full iron armor apart from your golden shoes. "[Name], you don't need to go out and kill some on your own. It's dangerous at night"

"Exactly, which is why I plan to go to the Piglin market to trade some gold for a few stacks of spider eyes" Niki shook her head in denial, refusing to let you pass by. "That's even more dangerous! We're humans, we can't go inside there unless we have the King's permission. And usually, we'd have knightly escorts to go around with us"

"True, but I can slip in and slip out without being noticed" You shrugged on your hood, a robe that covered your full body apart from your face. "I can hide with this, besides if they aren't able to tell that I'm human they'll never be able to report it to the king"

"Al..right.." The short-haired girl had a troubled expression on her face, but nevertheless, let you pass. "Good luck! Please come home safely" You turned to give her a single nod, a reassuring smile that was enough to calm her down. "I promise, so don't worry about me okay?"

And so you left, walking to the basement of your home where the Nether Portal stood tall. You gulped at the mere sight of it, how mysterious yet alluring. The purple particles only making it look majestic. "beautiful.." You muttered as you slowly entered, the change of temperature really hit you hard. It was hot, humid compared to how it felt in the overworld. "Goddamn how do piglins live like this"

"Shocking, right?" A male voice erupted from the silence, causing you to stiffen. "I'm assuming you're not used to traveling to the Nether." You slowly turned around, only to be met with a man with dirty blonde hair. "Pardon?" You tilted your head, staring at his smiling mask. "Nothing, would you like me to escort you and keep you safe?"

"And what makes you think I'd trust a stranger" You questioned, earning a chuckle from the man. "You're not as dumb as you look. But don't worry you're not my type, I won't do anything."

"WH-" His hand went over your mouth in a flash, he moves fast for a person with netherite armor, and on top of that a black robe. "Keep your voice down, first rule when entering the Nether World is to never bring unnecessary attention to yourself."

"Got it" Your voice was muffled from his large hand, he stepped back before leading the way, making sure that you were tailing right behind him. "The second rule, make sure to always be with somebody. Never travel alone or you'll die in an instant without somebody keeping you safe."

"Safe? Is the Nether really dangerous for you to say that?" Observing his reaction, you realized how sharp his jawline was. You can't peak through the mask but his mouth was fully exposed. "Yes, I take it you've never looked into this dimension?"

"Well, to be fair I've only heard of the Nether. This is my first time actually setting foot into the portal" The man's mouth pulled back into a dumbfounded snarl, almost as if he was silently judging you for your actions. "Weird." Was all he said before nudging you forward. "We're here, keep your guard up. What are you here for exactly?"

"I'm here to trade gold for a few stacks of spider eyes" He sighed, pulling your hood closer to your face. "You do realize you could have killed a few spiders in the overworld without having to come here."

"Uh, not really the best in combat you see" You admitted, darting your attention to the passing piglings who stood at least 5 feet taller than the man leading the way. Their species were large and brute compared to humans, they were cool but dangerous to interact with. "What the hell were you thinking when you decided to come here without somebody to guide you."

"I honestly have no clue" You stared at the man with a blank face, earning a disappointed grunt from him. "Well, turn around Princess because we just arrived at the Mob looting store. Stay out here, I'll get the eyes for you."

"Wait a second- I feel bad you're the one who led me here and protected me-" The man that accompanied you patted your head with one of the most genuine smiles you've ever seen. Despite him being awfully mysterious, he has shown nothing but kindness all throughout your journey. "Don't worry about it. Just stay here and don't run off anywhere. It's even more dangerous inside because piglins tend to fight over items."

Fidgeting with your hands, you finally agreed. The blonde took that as an agreement and stepped into the store. You were left to stay outside, leaning against the wall that was nearest to the door. A few seconds passed, and yet you were still outside waiting. You were beginning to think that the man who you walked with abandoned you.

"Ex..c.." A piglin with long pink hair muttered, his hand reaching for you. "Excu.." You stepped aside, worried that the mob was here to harm you. The more you stared at him the more you realized he was one of them, but one that looked more human. "Is there something you need?" You questioned the man, earning a nod. "What is it?"

"Do you.. Do-" Before he was able to finish his sentence, your eyes widened in realization. You swung your right hand to open your inventory, taking out a gold bar to hand over to him. 'I heard piglins liked gold, maybe he'll leave me alone if I gave him one' Was what you thought as you urged the hybrid to take it.

He looked at you back and forth, debating whether or not he should accept it. "Take it, it's alright I have plenty of where that came from" The man in front of you hesitantly took the gold into his hands, his eyes widening when he realized how shiny and well kept the item was.

"You..-"

"Hey." The man who accompanied you shouted once he exited the shop, pulling out his netherite sword. "Back off."

"Hey wait! He didn't do anything wrong, leave him be" You pushed the blonde male back slightly, apologizing to the other person with a forced smile. "Let's just head back before we get caught!" Turning around, you tangled your fingers with his and ran away, waving the piglin goodbye.

"What are you doing." He asked, narrowing his eyes from under the mask. "You said to keep attention away from us so I am-"

"I wasn't even that loud." You turned to glare at him. "It got a lot of people's attention" The man laughed, swooping you into his arms, and began to speed up his pace. "You're a good listener." He complimented, a smile fighting to break through his irritated expression.

It took time for the two of you to finally reach the same Nether portal from before. The blonde slowly lowered you onto your feet, handing the bag of spider eyes into your chest. "Here, it's heavy so make sure to hold it with both hands."

"Thank you.." You muttered, gladly taking the bag with a smile. "Say, um.. I never caught your name?" Before the man was able to walk away, he turned to look at you one last time before telling you his name. "Clay, the name's clay."

"Clay?"

"I'll see you around." With that, he pushed you into the portal. You fell onto your back once you were transported over to the overworld, lying there with staggering breaths. "I never got to tell him my name though" But once you sat up, the Nether Portal's liquid-like wall disappeared. The particles were being sucked into the middle, and the doorway to hell was disappearing.

"What the..-"

"[NAME!]" You hear your name being called out by what sounds to be Wilbur. Turning to look over your shoulder, you see the whole group running towards you with a worrying expression. "You're back!"

<- ->

ec: @quacobs (instagram)

[supercorpkid]

It’s crossover season – Part 4.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader, Iron Man x TeamMate!Reader, Captain America x TeamMate!Reader, Doctor Strange x TeamMate!Reader, Thor x TeamMate!Reader, Black Widow x TeamMate!Reader, Hulk x TeamMate!Reader.

Word count: 2715.

Please check out Part 3 if you haven’t, I think tumblr hid it for some people :( I promise it’s worth it.

You open one eye and look at Wanda sitting next to your bed.

“You should go help.” You say softly, but you cough violently right after.

“The battle is over. After you closed the portal, it got easier. All things considered.” Wanda stands up going to you. “Now go back to sleep, you need to rest. You almost died.”

“Please.” You dismiss her with your hand. “I almost die a lot.”

She chuckles at your response, but you agree with your head, because you are feeling tired anyway, and slowly you let yourself fall back to sleep.

When you wake up again, it doesn’t feel like much time has passed, but Wanda is nowhere to be found. You sit up on the bed, looking around. You get a glimpse of yourself in the window and your eyes widen. Wow, you look a lot worse than how you feel. You look like you’ve been in the middle of an explosion. Oh, wait. Did you really go to outer space? On the list of your life’s bad decisions, this is definitely number one, easy.

“Hey!” You hear, and turn to the door to see Wanda there. “You up. How are you feeling?”

“A lot better than how I’m looking.” You say, making her smile softly at you.

“Stark sent this for you.” She shows you a box of donuts and your mouth drops, almost comically. “He said if you didn’t like donuts, you were probably insane.”

“Well, donuts happen to be my favorite food, so-” You raise your arms, and she gives you the box. “Come on, let’s share.”

You open the box and find a little sticky note there, with a scribbled handwriting

Donuts are for geniuses who save the world - Mr. Playboy

You smile, ripping it off the box and shoving in your pocket. Wanda sits next to you, and you smile at her, before diving in for the food.

“So, is everyone ok?”

“Yeah, pretty beaten down and tired, but we won.” She shrugs, and you agree with your head. It feels good to hear this. We won. You’re a part of it, and she wants to make sure you know that. “Well, we couldn’t possibly have done it without you.”

“Oh please. Mister Thor could have gone to space, or I don’t know, anyone else?” You shuffle in bed uncomfortable. “It’s not like I can actually breathe in outer space.”

“Wait, what?” Wanda’s brows are pinched together at the sound of that. “And you went anyways?”

“Well, we needed to close the portal.”

“Thor could have gone. Do you realize you could have died?” She looks shocked by the revelation and you smile.

“Yeah, but it was either me or millions of people back on Earth.” You shrug, then push her with your shoulder. “Besides, I didn’t, right?”

“You’re a superhero alright.” Wanda says making your smile open wider. That sounds good. Really good. “You know the fight is over, right?” She asks and you agree with your head, mouth full of donuts. “Strange can send you home.”

“Oh.” You look at her, cleaning the corner of your mouth with the back of your hand. “Yeah. That’s great.”

“Wait.” Wanda leaves your room, but comes back a minute later with a polaroid camera. “So I don’t think I’ve imagined you.”

“Oh, you totally did.” You smile, looking at her, sitting in bed next to you. “I’m pretty sure we’re all in a very elaborated dream caused by an imp from the fifth dimension.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She says, and you shrug, throwing your arm around her shoulder and making a funny face.

“Take two.” You ask and she agrees, taking another one, where the both of you are smiling.

“I don’t mean to interrupt the fun.” Vision appears in your bedroom, coming from a wall, and you jump in bed from the scare.

“Vis! We talked about this. The door is right there!” Wanda points at it, and you laugh.

“Oh come on, if you could phase into a room, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t use a door.” You tell her and Vision agrees with his head.

“It’s not exactly phasing, I’m just manipulating my density so I can become intangible.” He corrects, and you and Wanda look at each other holding a laugh. “Well, I came to offer you my services.”

“How come?”

“You are looking, if you allow me to say-” He asks and you nod so he goes on. “Rather beat up. I was thinking I could use the solar energy on you, to help your recovery.”

“That would be really helpful, in fact.” You say with a smile, and he agrees, getting ready to shoot you with it.

It all happens too fast. One second Vision is shooting you with solar energy, next second a portal is opening up in the bedroom, and the very next Supergirl is throwing herself on him, yelling:

“GET AWAY FROM MY KID!”

It’s so fast, it takes you a few more seconds to acknowledge the whole scene going on before you.

“Vision, don’t engage.” You ask, standing up. And you look at Wanda. “Wanda, stop her!”

“Stop me?” Kara yells in shock and Wanda quickly separates your momma from Vision with her powers. She involves your momma with it, making it impossible for Kara to move.

“What are you doing?” You ask Kara, who just looks at you so in shock like she doesn’t know what to say.

“He-He was shooting you with a… With that thing on his head!” Kara justifies herself and looks at Wanda on the other side of the room. “And she’s doing whatever this is.”

“He was helping me!” You look at Wanda again, giving her a little nod. “She’s going to put you down if you promise not to engage again.”

“I-I’m-Ugh! Fine!” Kara reluctantly agrees and Wanda puts her down.

“Guys, these are my moms!” You point to Lena and Kara on the other side of the room, and run to them so you can hug them. Kara holds you tight, while staring at the heroes on the other side of the room. “Ok, momma.” You try to get out of her embrace. “Momma, can I hug mom now?”

“Oh. Ok.” Kara finally let’s go, and you move to Lena’s arms. But you see Kara is still in a defensive position, ready to get into a fight at any moment.

“Hey.” You hold her arm. “You can relax now. They’re my friends.”

“No, they’re not. They kidnapped you.” She says without taking her eyes from them.

“We didn’t, actually. She decided to stay for the battle.” Vision corrects her, and you see that Kara is not buying into it.

“What battle?” Lena asks, with furrowed brows.

“Long story! Anyways, you guys are here now.” You look at the device on Lena’s hand. “And that means we can leave.”

“Aren’t you going to say goodbye?” Wanda asks. “To everyone else?”

“Yeah. Let’s go outside.” You guide your moms out of the compound, and look inside with a smile on your face. You know this was your house for less than two days, but still felt pretty good to be here. You press the comm on your ear. “Smart mouth to Mister Playboy.”

“You better have left me some donuts, kid.” You listen coming from your comm, and you smile harder. Well, if donuts are for geniuses who saved the world, he certainly deserves some.

“Come outside.” You ask, and it doesn’t take long for him to show up at the front door. He walks towards you, well-aware of what these two women behind you mean.

“So, you’re leaving.” He says matter-of-factly, and you nod. “Finally.” You smile and roll your eyes. He comes closer and raises his hand at you. You shake it. “We had a good run.”

“We did.” You agree, because he is right. All the bantering, the jokes, him having your back, picking you up while you fell from the sky. It was a pretty good run.

“Ok. I don’t do sentimental.” He says, but still looks at Lena and Kara, nodding like he’s saying hello. “Just make sure she knows that she helped. What she did was very brave, and also somehow very stupid-” He raises his eyebrow at you. “But mostly very brave for someone her age. I’ll be sure to keep in touch whenever I need a little hand here.”

“Maybe with a grown up this time?” Kara says and he waves her off with his hand.

“Nah. I like the kid.” You can see a tiny smile in the corner of his mouth, but he fakes it. So, you hold back your smile too. “Did you guys bring your own portal, or should I call Strange to send you back home?”

Lena shows him their portal, and he agrees with his head.

“Guess you weren’t lying about L Corp.” He says, looking at the logo on the device, and you agree with you head. “Then, expect a bill coming soon.”

“Bye, Mister Playboy.” You wave goodbye and he shuffles pretending to be unbothered by you leaving.

“Bye, smart mouth.”

Lena turns on the device and you’re almost walking through the portal, when you see the rest of the team showing up.

“You forgot to say goodbye to some people.” Stark says and your smile grows wider, looking at everyone in front of you.

Kara looks shocked by the amount of people in the garden, looking sad about you leaving. Her hand goes to your shoulder, protectively and almost scared they’ll take you from her again.

“Hey, kindergarten.” Bucky is the first one to talk. “Thanks for the help out there.”

“Nice work there, kid.” Cap comes forward with his hand raised so you can shake it. You do so. “Thanks for the back-up.” He smiles softly, baby blue eyes turn to your moms, assuring. “Great kid! You should be proud.”

“Forgive me about the kidnapping part.” Strange comes forward and you smile down, while Kara throws a possessive arm around your shoulder, and Lena holds your arm, which makes you smile harder. “She was of great assistance. She fits right in.”

“Superkid, daughter of Kara and Lena, good fight out there. If you're ever in Asgard, come join me for a beer.” Is Thor who talks next.

“Thor, she is a kid.” Banner says, making you, and some other Avengers, laugh.

“Nonsense.” It’s Thor’s answer. “This girl can lift Mjölnir when none of you were worthy enough to do it. For a mighty warrior like her there shouldn’t exist Midgardian rules like such. She can have a beer if she wants to.”

You look up to Lena who discreetly shakes her head in denial to you. You shrug.

“It was nice meeting you, science pal.” Banner says and you smile at that. “Thank you for the lesson about the multiverse.”

“Thank you for the lesson about nuclear physics.”

“Sorry about the gunshot, kid. Nice fight.” Natasha says and you agree with your head. “Your Earth is lucky to have you.”

“Thanks for making fun of Bucky.” Sam fist bumps you and smiles, listening to Bucky mumble something like ‘I made fun of her’. “Oh yeah, and for the fight thing.”

“Here.” Wanda sneaks in something in your pocket and smiles at you. “It’s what you’re thinking.”

“I’ll see you around. Around the grey area, maybe.” You say, hugging her and she hugs you tight for a minute, before letting you go.

“And we’ll survive together.” She agrees with her head, and smiles at you.

“Is that everyone?” Kara asks, looking at you and you agree with your head when you don’t see Vision.

“Excuse me, Superkid. I would like to personally thank you for your help and care towards Wanda.” He appears before you, coming from out of nowhere.

“Vis.” Wanda says, blushing a little.

“I hope we fight together again. It’s always refreshing seeing someone genuinely good in the world.” He says and it’s your time to blush. “I won’t keep talking longer. Your moms must be eager to take you home, as we are to keep you here.”

“She’s going home.” Kara’s firm grip tights around your shoulder.

“Unless she wants to stay.” You hear Stark’s voice and you smile, knowing he is absolutely messing with your moms. “There’s always space in the compound, if she agrees not to break it. And as Strange said, she fits right in.”

“We thank you for your offer.” Lena answers, slowly pulling you and Kara back to the portal. “But we have to go now.”

“Of course. Of course.” Thor says, winking at you. “You obviously can’t stay here, but Asgard waits for you. You call, and I’ll send Bifrost for you.”

“Ok! Well, I don’t know what Bifrost is, but she is not traveling to another planet. Say goodbye now, baby.” Kara asks, squeezing your shoulder and slowly walking backwards.

“Bye ‘the Avengers’! Whenever you guys need a hand, Cape-guy knows where to find me and Thor can send Bifrost! I hope we meet again soon.” You smile, and Kara pulls you into the portal before anyone else says anything.

“Oooof, that was close!” Kara says, after Lena closes the portal behind you, and she looks around to make sure you three are alone. “I actually thought they would keep you right there.” She breathes in relief, when she realizes there’s no reason to worry anymore because you are home. She hugs you tight and Lena joins in the hug too. You three stay there for a few good minutes, until you make motion to move.

“No, no.” Kara says still pulling you in. “We’re still hugging. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Momma.” You look up to her face. “I’m not going anywhere.” You assure her and she lets you go slowly.

“I’m sorry little one, but you made a lot of friends.” She reaches for your cheek, stroking it gently. “And they seem to like you very much. And all of them were so impressed by you that they wanted you to stay.”

“I know!” You beam excitedly. “Even Mister Stark.”

“Yeah!” Kara agrees looking at Lena from the corner of her eyes, and she whispers to your mom. “Who’s Mister Stark?”

“Isn’t he the one that said you did something very brave, but also very stupid?” Lena asks and you open a forced smile at them. They raise their eyebrows at you.

“I may have gone to outer space and kicked off a bomb that would close the connection between the worlds, and I almost died while doing so.” You say with the same forced smile, while they realize what you just said.

“You may have or you did?” Lena raises an eyebrow at you.

“I may have did.” You shrug. “But I didn’t die!”

“You don’t say.” Lena pulls you in for a hug again, kissing your forehead. “Is there a way for you and your momma to save the world without putting yourselves in dying conditions?”

“No.” You and Kara say at the same time, earning a sigh from Lena.

“I’m sorry for making you guys worried. They needed help in this battle and I, well, I helped. And also, Mister Strange said he left a card?” You ask and they agree with their heads.

“It could’ve been more direct, though.” Lena says and she and Kara exchange a look. “But he did leave the directions, at least.”

“So, tell us everything. About everyone. I can’t wait to hear about your adventures.” Kara asks excitedly and you smile feeling the same way.

“Sure. But can it be over pizza?” You raise an eyebrow at them, and they agree with their heads.

You look down to what’s in your pocket, and you pick it up to look at the picture of you and Wanda making funny faces. Next to it a sticky note signed by Mister Playboy himself. You can’t help a wide smile that comes to your lips. Good. It wasn't a very elaborated induced dream from an imp of the fifth dimension. It was real. All of that. The fight, the jokes, the friends. Everything was real.

“Ready, kid?” Kara asks and you put both items back in your pocket.

“I am now.”

Notes:

Thanks @oncemoonie for the prompt, I loved mixing my two passions and I hope you guys liked it too!

[tomhollandnet]

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' stars reveal a surprising change to the franchise

Forget everything you think you know about Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The multiverse? Returning villains? Heroes from other dimensions? Whatever. There’s only one real problem Spider-Man is facing now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Going to college. As star Tom Holland puts it to Inverse, “a lot of growth” is in store for Peter Parker in the MCU.

Zendaya, whose character MJ has just started a relationship with Peter when No Way Home begins, echoes Tom Holland.

“In what way, or how, we can't fully say,” Zendaya tells Inverse. “But I will say that our characters are thrown into a situation that ultimately brings them closer together and changes their life.”

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, in theaters December 17, the unmasking of Spider-Man as high school senior Peter Parker (Tom Holland) causes plenty of problems for the young adult web-slinger. Chief among them: Peter, his girlfriend MJ, and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) are denied admission to any school they apply to because of the Spider-Man controversy.

Feeling guilty that he’s ruined his friends’ futures, Peter turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help to make people forget he’s Spider-Man. But when Strange’s spellcasting goes awry, the multiverse opens, and beings from other dimensions — the first being Doc Ock, played by Alfred Molina reprising his role from 2004’s Spider-Man 2 — are let loose in the MCU.

But what happens after the movie? Do Spider-Man and his friends attend their dream school, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)? That prestigious institution, by the way, happens to be the alma mater of Peter’s late mentor, Tony Stark, and where other young superheroes in the MCU are currently attending.

But Holland says Peter has his reasons for wanting to attend MIT. “I think Peter Parker probably wants to go to MIT [for himself],” Holland tells Inverse. “Because correct me if I'm wrong, it's where the smartest kids in the country go, right?” (Pretty much, Tom, yeah.)

“That's like the smartest school that you guys have to offer,” comments Holland. Being from the UK, Holland understands MIT as “our Oxford or Cambridge.”

Comically, Holland doesn’t think he could actually attend MIT. “I think Peter Parker and his two pals are wicked smart, which is why it’s incredible we’ve been able to play them so authentically,” Holland says. “Because we’re not wicked smart.”

Post-production work on Spider-Man: No Way Home is still ongoing, believe it or not. Holland adds that he was recently doing ADR (“automated dialogue replacement,” a fancy term for verbal dubbing of film dialogue from a booth) for a climactic fight scene with Doctor Strange.

“I had to do this whole math thing the other day in ADR for the Doctor Strange fight,” Holland cryptically teases. “It took me ages to figure it out. I think [Peter] just wants to go in there because that's the place where it could facilitate his intellect the best.”

Getting into MIT is one thing. But can Peter, MJ, and Ned stay friends? After all, there’s plenty of other new heroes, and new friends, at MIT. And college is when people change.

When asked if their characters will try to stick together, Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon all agree that they think their characters will remain friends. But for how long? That’s something even they’re not so sure about.

“I feel like we try hard to stick together for sure,” Batalon tells Inverse, “I think that like, if anything, Ned gets kind of clingy. Ned would absolutely be trying to look for MJ and Peter all the time.”

With the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are always new people — and new heroes — for Peter Parker to meet. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently confirmed that actor Charlie Cox, who starred in Marvel’s Daredevil for three seasons on Netflix, will soon return as Daredevil to the MCU. Could Matt Murdock become pals with Spidey in the MCU?

For his part, at least, Tom Holland has seen Daredevil.

“I loved Daredevil. I really, really enjoyed it,” Holland says. “I thought Charlie Cox was excellent. I thought Vincent D’Onofrio did a fantastic job as Wilson Fisk. It was really cool to see a darker side to a Marvel character. That fight scene in the hallway was spectacular. I know some of the stunt guys that built that sequence. I thought it was a great show.”

Holland admits he hasn’t seen all of Daredevil. “I don't think I saw the second season, but I definitely remember enjoying the first season,” he says.

But any larger Daredevil plans seem far into the MCU’s future. For the time being, Tom Holland optimistically believes Peter Parker will do all he can to stick with the friends he has now. “I think our characters have been through too much with each other to let our relationships elapse,” Holland says.

He says that now, but just wait until one of them takes up improv.

Spider-Man: No Way Home opens in theaters on December 17.

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E113 (Oct. 27, 2020)

Good evening and good night, lovely people of the world! We’re on the internet and ready to go. Tonight’s guests are Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel. This will be calm, controlled, and sane, I can feel it. Brian points out it’s been seven months since either of them were on Talks. Oof. (Sam asks if it’s been going the whole time without him. Bigger oof.) Travis keeps sneaking bites out of an acai bowl or something and tries to look sneaky about it, and I laugh every time because he’s just...so big. He’s such a big person.

(Brian is wearing a lobstrosity shirt. He and Travis talk about Dark Tower for a bit; then Sam tries to get into the conversation: “Is that the thing from It?” Brian: “Is what the thing from It?” Sam: “Is that lobster the clown from It? I’m not very literate. Is that a Langolier? Is that a Shawshank?”)

Announcements: none! Maybe they just forgot. We’ve been talking about Sam’s spooky skeleton decorations for like five minutes. Brian suggests taking them to Travis’s house. Travis: “That’s the fastest way to get to the smell of burning plastic.” Brian: “Speaking of your girlfriend...”

On Avantika: Fjord wouldn’t call it a relationship as much as a casual sexual interaction. Not official! Super not official!!

The first sea voyage wasn’t great for Fjord, but he tried to be thoughtful about preparing for this one before they left: praying, kneeling at the bow of the ship, etc. He’s a little disappointed the Wildmother didn’t even throw him a “yo, fam” heads up.

They weren’t sure how to resolve the conflict at first, since Avantika went for Fjord rather than the crystal. No one expected it to get exposed in that way. Travis thought the necklace was a pocket dimension and was alarmed to learn it wasn’t. Travis wants it destroyed along with the third gateway, so until they are he won’t rest easy.

Everyone enjoyed watching them all fail on the battlefield again. (Sam: “You used [Counterspell] so effectively!”) Travis thought he’d said Thunder Step, which would imply Avantika was running, rather than Thunder Wave. Sam says it’s fine since none of them have that spell and he wouldn’t know it anyway.

It’s very difficult for Veth to find reasons to stay with the M9. She loves the adventures and making a difference, but she also wants to come home and have weekends and have a husband and life. “She’s a career girl!” He’s very excited about the possibilities of Caleb’s transportation effectively creating an easy commute for her. He also, as a player, doesn’t want to be the person who’s always leaving the party. “My characters wanna roam!”

Travis was fully tilted that Avantika might have gotten away right before the break. He doesn’t think he could have focused on Vess DeRogna’s task knowing Avantika had gotten away; he was seriously working out how Fjord would leave the party to go make a last stand at the third gate if she’d escaped.

Sam looooves how Matt plays Yeza, but it honestly makes him feel a little worse at how encouraging he is for Veth to chase her dreams. “He’s always like - go shine! Go blossom!” He wants to have the conversation about Yeza feeling a little ignored. It’s fun to share the tales of adventures with Luc & Yeza. 

Travis says there’s no way it’s Molly--it’s all Lucien. They don’t know if it was a resurrection, if he’s undead, possessed, etc. Everyone--everyone--rags on Taliesin’s accent work. Brian surreptitiously claims Ashly was brought on to relieve him of the burden of the accent. Poor Ashly, ha!

Initially, Travis landed on the Oath of the Ancients, but it had more nature & pacifism in it than he felt fit Fjord very well. Many of them also had a focus on good & lawfulness, which also didn’t feel quite right; he also wasn’t that vengeful for some of the others. He & Matt got together and discussed options. Matt asked what Travis liked about Fjord; Fjord’s love for the ocean was a huge part of it, since Travis himself also loves the ocean & scuba diving, and so Matt created a custom oath for him. Travis does not plan to post its details, but he thinks Matt will at some point.

Cosplay of the Week! a lovely Scanlan by Air Bubbles Cosplay! Sam tells us the “canon” Scanlan cosplay was actually borrowed hodgepodge, and the boots were falling off all day.

It was really cool to see how Yeza & Luc have made a home in Nicodranas. Felderwin was okay, but kind of your basic D&D fishing village, and she likes the Nicodranas is much better. She’s confident & comfortable knowing her family is safe and sound.

Why is Fjord so interested in finding Sabian? To him, post-orphanage, his time with Vandren was the best of his life & the most love he’d ever received, because he mattered & had worth. It was taken by someone he’d known basically his whole life, so Fjord is not going to let that go. “That fuckin’ bill needs to be paid, my friend.”

Sam acknowledges that he should NOT have looked at his phone in re: the Vilya reveal, but it was pretty surprising! He can’t believe none of them recognized it! Travis points out the M9 had never met, heard of, or known anything about Vilya, so it’s not that surprising. Brian points out Matt has also done a really good job keeping the two campaigns separate, so any references were tasteful. Sam marvels that it was so well done: it was tasteful, had emotional and story impact... “That Matt. He’s getting better!”

Liam texted Sam back something like “oh SHIT.”

Knowing Veth had a chance to help someone else return to her child made Veth feel almost karmically forgiven for being away from her kid, but it also made Veth a little guilty--”this lady wants to desperately return home, shouldn’t I want to go home too?” Caleb’s teleportation spell couldn’t have come a better time.

Sam wants Caleb & Astrid to get back together (well, he says “hump each other”), and Dani’s eyebrows climb off her forehead. Veth/Nott really thinks Caleb needs to have a roll in ze hay, and feels like after meeting her that there is a kindness or vulnerability to her that could be worthwhile. Travis thinks she feels like someone tethered, that it feels like she has a bomb or something in her chest that’ll explode if she tries to leave. Sam thinks Eadwulf is super cool. None of these names are spelled like I think.

Travis found the dinner super frustrating, because he felt Caleb was trying to walk a diplomatic line and he just wanted to backhand Trent. 

Fjord is still coming to terms with his feelings for Jester, and the feelings are definitely real, but there’s a lot of timing that he’s considering and he also wants to figure out what the relationship is like outside of constant tension and battle. Fjord is also having trouble figuring out how to exercise the ability to display affection as well since he’s never received them, and is feeling out how to give and receive them. “It’s fine now, because he’s feeling it, but once you say it out loud, or once you come to a point where you make it known to the other side, then what happens? It might be ruined. It might be broken. Or it might not be!” The moment with the porcelain unicorn was too good not to try. Travis also sighs that he’s not a romance D&D guy, “but now I am! Fuckin’ Laura Bailey!” He’s definitely feeling it out and will see how it unfolds in the game.

If Jester hadn’t let go of the Traveler, Fjord would have either attacked the Traveler or the Moonweaver and tried to kick them both off.

Sam doesn’t think the Traveler’s realized yet what a dick he is. Brian thinks it may not happen in this campaign, but agrees the full weight of what he deserves hasn’t been felt yet. Travis: “Yeah, he came to the edge, but it didn’t cost him anything.” Brian: “Yeah, he’s a real edgelord.”

Fanart of the Week! a beautiful portrait of Molly in the snow by @claygryphon on twitter.

Veth acknowledges that they work for shady people with shady pasts, so Vess DeRogna isn’t her first rodeo, but this time it’s personal. It’s Jaws 2: Electric Boogaloo. Sam can’t commit to actual actions, since Vess is like level 20 or something, but “I will get some kinda revenge. Be it petty or significant, I will get revenge.”

How are they feeling about being in Eiselcross? They’ve only just landed, so not sure yet. The cold is intimidating. They’re excited to explore a new island that’s part of Wildemount, especially with the river of lava running through it. “It’s icy with lava? Sounds like a Dairy Queen.”

There’s still a ton of unknowns regarding the Tombtakers, Vess, the nature of their job, and who’s here on whose orders. They’re excited to see how it’s all going to play out. Travis laughs that he doesn’t take notes, he’s just here to fight things. It just washes over him when Matt starts talking about names and places. “It’ll reveal itself in time. [...] I don’t write those notes down. I don’t even know how to spell it off the bat.” I have never identified more with Travis. Sam actually does pay attention and take notes and was really impressed by Marisha’s dive.

Veth became interested in branding her own spellcraft as soon as she saw Caleb doing it. “That’s what the influencer agents are gonna be looking at. It would be nice to leave the world better than we found it, but also with some branded spells.”

What were Fjord’s thoughts on dropping so much money on the ring & the Ioun stone? It wasn’t about money for Fjord, it was about a cool thing to acquire. It’s why he saves money in his campaign. Caleb needs “as much of a flak jacket as he can get.” He also REJECTS the idea of buyer’s remorse on the ring and touts the effectiveness it’ll have on the lava river.

Travis talks about his old coins - a 340AD coin he bought at a ren faire and a 120BC coin that was a gift from a friend.

Sam marvels at the love and thought that Caleb put into the tower. Sam points out they forgot to go to the top two floors altogether. Travis: “Did the mansion get as much careful planning from Scanlan as the tower did from Caleb?” Sam: Absolutely not. But they were still thinking small in C1, figuring out how things went, and they didn’t have as much detail in their heads yet.

And that’s all the time we have for tonight! We end on everyone whispering way too close into their mics and tapping fingernails on mason jars. A fitting end to this crazy episode, I think.

Is it Thursday yet?

[pi-cat000]

Magnus Archives/BNHA (1)

Fandoms: Crossover between The Magnus Archives & My Hero Academia 

Characters: Jon and Martin (friendship)

Summary:  Jon and Martin are reincarnated  into the BNHA universe after failing to prevent the apocalypse. They compare their quirks to their respective Entities. 

Will probably post on ao3 at some point. 

(Part 2 here)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“They registered my quirk as Veracity you know.”

 “Veracity?”

 “Yes. Quite abstract. I suppose they thought they were being poetic…” Jon mutters, bitterness colouring his tone. He stares out at the playground, watching his age mates run about in a boundless display of youthful energy and innocent excitement.

 From his place on the bench beside him, Martin hums, halfway between sympathetic and thoughtful, “I think it’s a nice name. It softens the edges a bit.”

 “I should have expected it…to have a quirk like this… after we saw what your one did,” he curls his small child hand into a fist, “I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”

 Quirks. The strange and wondrous abilities gifted to people of their new reality. Jon had hoped, when he hadn’t presented with one at the usual age of four, that he would remain quirkless. He had suffered enough with having terrifying abilities in his previous life. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t get his wish.

 Martin reaches out, hesitates, then pats him lightly on the knee, “You’re taking it a lot better than me. At least you didn’t breakdown and spend the night in hospital.”

 “I suppose,” he frowns, glancing sideward, “Though our situations are hardly comparable.”

 Martin’s quirk put any person he touched with both hands into a fog-filed, alternate dimension/temporal pocket. Its similarity to The Lonely had been poorly received by both of them. Especially, considering Jon had been the one to suffer through its first accidental activation. While he had found himself lost and alone in a grey, fog filed, void, a hysterical Martin had been rushed to hospital. There the doctors had had to wait for him to calm down enough that a Quirk specialist could walk him through the process of reversing the effect.

 “You thought you had trapped me for good. Of course, you would take that poorly.”

 The quirk specialist had banally called it ‘Cloud Prison’ like it wasn’t the residue of a primordial fear god leaking into their new reality. Not even six years of a second life could dull the pain and terror that had been their final moments before the apocalypse. To suddenly have such a stark reminder shoved in their faces had shaken them both.

 “I would never have done that to you on purpose,” Martin murmurs, probably drawing the same connection as Jon, “It just happened so suddenly…”

 “Yes, well, I am now painfully aware of how volatile and uncontrollable a quirk can be.”

 Martin winces, “Does it activate every time you ask a question? You can’t control it at all?”

 “It seems to be automatic. If I ask anyone a question they must answer truthfully. There is also a lovely mental component,” He lets his resentment grow, “so I can feel their unease when they answer. I’ll know if the person is trying to fight or when they’re trying to leave out an important detail. It is very similar to…before.”

 He grits his teeth. There were no Entities in this word, aside for the residue that lived in their memories but sometimes that could be just as bad. The last thing his recovering mind needed was a reminder of how he had slowly lost his humanity.

 “I also feel them. The people I trap alone in the fog.” Martin adds and shivers, “It’s horrible.”

 “Yes. It is.”

 They both sit in silence as the light began to fade. 

 Their time at the park is almost done. Soon they would have to return to the foster home they both shared. Jon, being a mentally unstable adult trapped in the body of a child, had been too much for a young single mum who had never wanted children. He barely remembers her leaving him at a local shopping centre being hardly old enough to walk at the time. Martin’s parents had died in a villain attack, because, alongside fantastical powers, this reality was full of brightly coloured Heroes and Villains like they had woken up inside a comic book. Six years in and it still felt too surreal to be real.

 “Well, we don’t have to use our quirks. It’ll just never touch anyone with both hands, and I’ll ask all your questions for you so you won’t have to worry either.”

 Jon scoffs, “You can get away with wearing gloves. No need for anything dramatic.”

 “You know what I mean Jon.”

 “Reo,” he interrupts, “please remember to call me Reo. We already attact more attention than is probably good for us.”

 They weren’t Martin Blackwood and Jonathan Sims anymore. That life was behind them. Here, they were Jiro Shirakumo and Reo Tsukauchi and the sooner they acclimatised to using their new names the better. Maybe, one day, he would even start feeling like ‘Reo’ and ‘Jon’ would fade away like a bad dream.

 “You’re one to talk. We would attract less attention if you would loosen up a bit. I mean, I’m not perfect, but kids don’t talk so formally.”

 “I would rather not suffer through the indignity of dumbing myself down on top of everything, thank you very much.”

 “It’s not that bad. Why are you always so prickly?” Martin pokes him in the shoulder, grinning now, forcing Jon to shuffle away, “Normal kids smile every now and then you know.”

 “I think you enjoy being a ‘normal’ kid a bit too much.” Martin had settled into his second skin with more grace than Jon had. Not that he was trying very hard. 

 A laugh, “Well yeah, I mean, no responsibilities, no nightmare monsters, no conspiracies, no apocalypse. It’s nice.”

 “Oi Jiro!” 

A heavy-set kid, two years their senior, stomps up and glares at them, “you and the weirdo coming or what because I don’t want to miss dinner again,”

 “He has a name you know,” Martin reprimands, smile quickly turning into a stern frown, “Maybe you should try using it.”

 “Tch. Whatever. Mrs Suzuki said to be back by five and I’ll get in trouble if I leave you losers behind, so you better hurry up.” The boy storms away, back to his group of friends, who all look their way and laugh.

 “I don’t remember kids being so mean when I was young the first time around,” Martin complains, standing and brushing himself down, “You would think they’d have better things to do.”

 He shrugs. Child bullies were so far beneath him that he barely registers when they shout insults at him, shove him into walls or knock books out of his hand. Not like he didn’t deserve a little hardship after dooming his entire world. Besides, Martin took offence enough for the both of them, getting into plenty of arguments on Jon’s behalf. Of course, now they both had somewhat threatening quirks, their fellow housemates were a lot wearier when it came harassing him.

 “Come on.” He stands as well, “I for one do not want another lecture.”

 “Mrs Suzuki does like to drag them out,” Martin agrees as they trail along behind the older kids.

 Their neighbourhood is full of two-story apartment blocks and tightly packed houses which line the relatively quiet streets. It is only a short ten-minute walk from the park to the share-house and one he is intimately familiar with seeing as his carers force him to take it twice a week for ‘the exercise.’ At least the weather is pleasant here.

  In the fading light of the afternoon Martin’s wispy, cloud-like hair and blue pupilless eyes catch the glow so they are almost orange. Martin’s strange physical features had become more pronounced since his quirk’s activation. Apparently, it was genetic, something a quick glance at the few photos Martin had of his biological family confirmed. This world sported many people with odd features and he just hoped that his own plain appearance, straight black hair and dark eyes, would remain that way. All he wanted was fade into the background and live his second life as peacefully as possible.

...

(Part 2 here): Jon learns more about his truth-quirk and deals with other people learning about his truth-quirk.

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia Season 2 Reviews: The Second Temple and Barrel’s Warhammer “The First Drumbeats of War”

Welcome back all you happy people! We’re in the final stretch of the season now, only three more episodes after this. And with this episode the end trajectory of the season becomes clear and the anticipation to the finale mounts.. and the dread as boy oh boy is this one going to hurt. Join me under the cut for a recap and spoiilers as I break down my thoughts and prepare for war. 

The Second Temple:

Our heroes head to the great north for their next temple...

No no I just mean the arctic part of Amphibia. That’s sadly not a crossover we’re getting.. yet. One can dream.. or write weird fanfiction. Point is it’s time for an ice adventure. Also Hop Pop now has his own “Hop Pocket” in Joe’s sweater> Aww. Also Joe has a sweater now. Awwww. And he crashed upside down. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I keep thinking I love this bird as much as humanly possible and he keeps going and finding new ways to make me love him more. 

Our heroes soon run into a problem though: While Marcy’s coordinates got them there the temple isn’t in sight. Anne does find them some help though as she spots a familiar stand. It’s some lady they met back in the bizzare bazzar named valeriana?

Yeah clearly a lot of you have better memories than me, which isn’t hard my mind is a never ending sinkhole and while I remember a LOT of stuff, I often forget just as much. So a vendor lady who was hinted to be important but didn’t do much in the episode itself totally slipped my mind and I didn’t even notice she was apparently in the season 2b trailer. I have no memory for a character who turns out to be vitally important yet all the memory for Stoopy. 

Your doin Odd’s work Stoopy. But she is as she offers to take them to the temple, revealing herself as part of a hiden order dedicated to the calamity box and protecting it.

But like most hidden orders, Val seems to be a huge prick, and chastises and berates Anne constantly questioning her worthness and skil, and chastising her for giving up her coat to save her friends when a cardinal Val summons goes after their catapillar skin coats, and goes out of her way to rescue a family in the path of an avalanche. Val decides from all of this Anne is not worthy and she won’t guide them.. which causes Anne to rightfully call her out on her episode long streak of irritating condesencing bullshit. Val responds as you’d expect.. by warping Anne to another dimension and trying to steal the box from her leading to a fight. The fight is engaging with Anne giving it her best, though weirdly she didn’t take her sword along, while Val points out a lot of anne’s thefts over the years: from bessie to hop pop’s wallet.. to the box. Which Anne admits.. but also admits as shitty as it is it’s better to learn from bad things you did and do the right thing now, than to dwell on them and let htem drown you. 

Anne wins and val is dangling by a ledge and while she points out Anne can’t escape without her.. Anne figured out the staff. But Anne.. is a good persona nd as much as she’d like to let val die when her hand slips...she dosen’t. SHe’s her enemy sure but she’s still a person and her death does nothing and solves nothing. And that.. turned out to be the whole point. Val was simply testing Anne’s character: The whole journey was the temple and while the previous temple tested for intellegence.. this one tested for heart, anne’s greatest trait. Val powers the gem with her staff glad to have found something worthy.. but much like Luke or Aaang, Anne hears her friends in trouble and leaves with the gem only mostly charged. She returns.. to find everyone okay, Marcy showing the plantars stuff on her phone, and they set off... but the gem blinks a bit as they leave. 

Final Thoughts on the Second Temple: The second temple is a decent episode. It has some great worldbuilding, some good gags and really shows off anne’s character development, her empathy and her bravery while giving us an intresting side character and possible future Ally in Valeriana and increasing the mystery around the calamity box. If it’s REALLY as bad as it’s name implies... then why are these people protecting it? And why are the protections, the order the temples.. benevolent, based on personal character and making sure the right person passes. Did Andrias name it that.. and if so.. did he do it for his master? I have a lotta questions and i’m excited to get the answers. All in all a very decent ep.. but like last week the second one majorly upstages it. 

Barrel’s Warhammer

So we finally check back with Sasha and I was excited as her previous spotlight episode earlier in the season is still the best episode of the season. But this one brilliantly builds on that. 

The various leader of the toad towers are having a summit and well...

So i’m just going to call them the cryptkeeper, bad haircut and grime’s sister. Their all doubtful of whatever pitch Grime has while Grime and Co are preparing, and have bonded with Percy and Braddock more and the two having designed a cool one eyed logo for their army. 

The pitch is intrigues the toad with even Grime’s Sister he used to tease as a kid being impressed.. and reveals to our anti-heroes that his name is Grimothy. Grimothy. GRIMOTHY

But their not impressed with the idea of a disgraced captain and his “Hummus” leading them, even if Andrias has his own Humuss’... and this reveals to Sasha her best friends exes are doing just fine without her and working together. She takes it how you’d expect.. by taking it out on Bad Haircut’s guards and angrily asking waht it’llt ake. it’s then the cryptkeeper rises, turning out not to be dead with one request: Barrel’s Warrhammer. Sasha agrees to retreive it for them, but both Percy and Braddock are terrified.. as is GRIME of all people. 

We find out why as they take a lava boat to go fetch the thing: Barrel’s Warhammer is a legendary weapon, wielded by the Toad Hero Barrel, who used it to fight off a great monster and keep it from destroying a villiage dying in the process with his hammer apparently still guarded by said beast. Grime doubts it’s actually real and feels i’ts just a legend. But Percy and Braddock are more concerned with posisbly dying but Sasha reassures them that they’ll be fine and if it gets too dangerous, she’ll bail, using a Kawaii pose as a signal and making me feel very old. 

They find the Hammer but can’t lift it because “Only those who be worthy can”.. oh wait wrong hammer. No this one is just really heavy. They soon find the beast, a narwhaal worm, a massive armored horned worm. Phrasing. So naturally Braddock and Percy want to opt out... but Sasha chooses going after the worm over honoring her promise, and hooking the things horn to ride it to the tower. They just need to bring the hammer there.... even if it costs her friends their lives and saftey and involves betraying them. And this creates a marvelous parallel to the other episode in this pairing: Anne time and time again puts her family and girlfriend, random strangers and even an enemy’s life above her own. To Anne it’s helping other people what’s important damn what happens to her. If she’s cold, buired or something else fine. What matters is someone else is safe.  Sasha by contrast.. is willing to risk herself and other sif it means getting waht she wants. It’s her will to matters.. and it’s her lack of empathy that’s holding her back. Anne is strong because she has her new family, Marcy, and an army of loayal friends in Wartwood. Sasha may be strong in ablility.. but her weakness in heart costs her. She has grime.. btu that end sup being it as while they sucessfully arrive and get the troops they need.. Braddock and Percy can’t bear the cost or danger or the hurt of Sasha’s betryal and depart with Grime noting that getting what you want costs. But as we’ve seen with Anne and Marcy’s respective temples, it was doing the right thing NOT getting what they wanted, that made them better as people and got further. And as the look on Sasha’s face shows as her friends depart her, and she realizes she’s almost entirely alone.. she’s not sure world domination is really WHAT she wants. OR that it was worth the prices she keeps having to pay. 

Final Thoughts:

Barrel’s Warrhamer is another masterpiece following sasha. While not as strong as Toadcatcher it’s still damn good, showing Sasha’s further travels down a bad road, and her starting to doubt if this path is really worth it. The acting and animation are topnotch, as is the world building. It’s a truly stellar showing that just ratchets up tension for the fianle.. and for the inteivitble reunion between our three heroines and the clash between their three sides; the king Marcy serves without realizing his true malevoence, the Toads  Sasha and grime are leading to war.. and the frogs Anne once swore to protect that are about to be swept up in the tides of war.. and possibly take a stand against both sides. War is coming for our heroines and they are not ready for the hell that is to come.. and neither am I. Frog this is going to be painful isn’t it? 

If you liked this review follow me for more, shoot me an ask or comment with your own thoughts, send me a dm if you want to comission a review and join my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet so I can keep making these reviews. Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure. 

[filmmakerdreamst]

Xena: Warrior Princess Review

During Pride Month 2020, I finally got around to watch ‘Xena’. A show that had been in my to-watch list for years, but never got around to start. And when I finally did, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not what I expected and it was everything I think my 11 year old self would have loved.

The one thing that surprised me about the show, was the lack of packaging. Even though it was a fantasy, it also played with different kinds of genres too. I’ve talked about this before in my other review - ‘Xena’ was made at a time when TV had very few rules/rarely had a set audience, since there were parts of the show that were clearly for kids and there were other parts that were clearly for adults (therefore had much more flexibility). I admired how they weren’t afraid to break barriers and touch on deep themes such as religion, morality, redemption, spirituality, motherhood, forgiveness etc - even more than shows of today are able. I also loved how they played into the idea of ‘murder’ and how much it can damage a person - not just the person who commits the act, but the many people affected afterwards. I wasn’t expecting it to be that extreme. It made me think that this must of been the inspiration for ‘Game of Thrones’. 

I see a lot of comments here and there, saying how ‘cheesy and terrible’ it was but to just accept it because its part of the fun. And while like any show it does suffer from the occasional spell of bad writing (the whole of season 5) but it was also shown to be very aware of that fact and never took itself too seriously - unlike some shows I could mention. 

And regarding the ‘cheese’ factor (what 90s show wasn’t) It definitely can be, but I would call it ‘camp’ and ‘experimental’ more than anything else. (Don’t diss the poor use of CGI - I’m personally sympathetic to what was avaliable to them at the time) The style of humour reminded me of Taika Waititi’s filmmaking. If you’ve watched any of his films such as ‘Hunt for The Wilderpeople’ or ‘Jojo Rabbit’, then you know what I’m talking about. I liked how little they cared about being accurate or logical, which added to the ‘bonkers’ element in the show - which you can see in all of Taika Waititi’s films.

In all seriousness, a show centered around two women in their late twenties, who are realistic sizes (not trying to play teenagers). One of whom is a reformed mass murderer, who has lived a life experience, trying to do good in the world for the first time, picking the other one up who has no life experience prior (after they bugged them until they said ‘ok fine’) in their path to redemption. Just two women who become friends travelling the world together, fighting crime, having a laff, learning from one another without any toxicity - when suddenly when the stakes are raised - they realise ‘oh I'm actually falling in love with this person’ I have watched a lot of badly written shows in my childhood enough to know that, that’s not ‘cheesy’. I’ve never seen a story like that in my entire life. I’m not at all surprised that Russel T Davis was inspired by it while writing the Doctor and Rose’s relationship in ‘Doctor Who’ since he’s gay himself.

What’s more amazing about their love story is how they’re both develop as separate people as well. There was this video essay explaining ‘Why you should watch Angel’ the spin off series to Buffy; how ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer ‘was all about growing up and ‘Angel’ was all about being an adult. With Xena: Warrior Princess, you have both of those stories at the same time. 

Xena’s character was such a multifaceted experience to watch. And I can’t imagine anyone else who could play her as well as Lucy Lawless. What planet did they get that actress from? She's flawless! The amount of skill she has to put herself into a very physical role is astonishing. I personally had a love/hate relationship with her character all series long. Not in the way that I hated her, just that I couldn’t trust if she was all good or bad, which I know was intentional on the writers part. I haven’t seen a character quite like her before. She felt very much like a fallen angel; almost like the villain of her own story. Some of my favourite episodes come from fleshing out her character and dark past (‘Locked up and Tied Down’ is one of them) which reminds the audience that's she's not the stereotypical hero everyone expects. I loved her transformation from being this incredibly stoic warrior to being content and happy with who she is in season six, all because of a woman she fell in love with along the way. 

I’ve always thought of Gabrielle as the real hero and narrator of ‘Xena’. She’s the prime example of ‘a normal person becoming extrodinary’. Gabrielle’s coming of age story starting out as an innocent girl from a poor village dreaming of adventure, and ending as this vicious warrior who realises the ‘adventure’ wasn’t how she made it out to be is honestly the best character arc that I’ve ever seen. I loved how travelling with Xena made her realise her passion for writing (which was never going to happen in her home town, given the ‘sexist’ and ‘heteronormative’ ideas) and that she became a amazon princess like Xena. In regards to her sexuality, which is more up for debate than Xena’s (which I think we can all agree is bisexual) I personally interpret her as gay, just in terms of how she was written. Theres this moment in season 4 where she's being held up her hair, and Xena “symbolically” cuts it off ‘freeing her’. And she never really gets with a man afterwards, unless she’s being ‘possessed. It reminded me of a moment in one of Hayao Miyasaki’s films ‘Laputa, Castle in the Sky’ where the bad guy Moska shoots Sheeta’s ‘princess hair off’ which symbolises her transition from child to adult.

The cinematography was breathtaking. There was some great utilisation of New Zealand as the scenery. So was the soundtrack. You could tell it was made by experienced filmmakers. One of my favourite things about the show was the domestic elements - moments in the show where time seemed to stop - which made the world around the characters seem very real and magical. Even though it was a show that featured a lot of action/adventure, there was also this gentleness to it as well. For example, you could feel the wetness of the rain, the warmth of the sun and the clashing of the waves. This technique is used in Hayao Miayasaki’s work a lot .

The technique is referred to as ‘MA’ 空虚 meaning emptiness in Japanese. ‘Miyasaki describes this as the time between a clap’

“If you just have non stop action, with no breathing space at all, its just busyness. But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension” - Hayao Miyasaki

The episode ‘A Day in the Life’ in season two is a really good example of this technique being used.

To my understanding, they used a lot of the local actors in New Zealand, which according to Lucy Lawless, consisted of ‘African immigrants and other different ethnicites’. It was so refreshing to see such a diverse show (despite some slip ups) especially in the 90s. I appreciated the idea that if the actors or extras couldn’t do an ‘american accent’ people could just talk in their natural speech which was also very refreshing. 

The LGBT representation was surprisingly amazing. I never expected so many queer characters in one show - especially under the censors. There was this one episode where they had a trans woman - played by an actual trans actress - win a beauty contest. It made me cry. Not to mention the actress was an aids activist. It was actually Lucy Lawless’ idea to kiss her which was incredibly controversial at that time considering how everyone thought you could catch aids just by kissing. I can definitey see how it validated people back in the 90s.

When people told me that Xena: Warrior Princess was one of the greatest love stories, I thought they were exaggerating a little. But no, watching the show in context, I found out that it really is. Despite its obvious restrictions, It made me realise (regarding token gay couples today) how often television writers rely on physicality and drama to convey a ‘love story’ and how much of it is actually pandering the audience. One of the reasons why Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship felt so genuine is because it was built on mutual respect/compassion and they were also best friends. I felt like I was witnessing something very real and private. It didn’t need kissing scenes or drama to make it interesting. 

It really helped that most of the writers were queer also. There’s this opening scene in season 4, panning over to Gabrielle giving Xena a massage (metaphor for sex - because they weren’t able to show that on screen) which I consider to be one of the most iconic scenes in media - considering how I wanted to sick up my supper when I watched the 10 minute ‘empty’ explicit sex scene in ‘Blue in the Warmest Colour’. The difference when something is written by a queer women vs a straight man.

Because the creators weren’t allowed to write their love story in the normal way, due to the studio forbidding them to, they found creative ways to showcase that love on screen - which made for a very magical/sensual experience. And I can safely say, if anyone has doubts about watching ‘Xena’, whenever I expected to be queer baited at a few points in the show, I was proved wrong time and time again. It’s the most romantical show I’ve ever seen in my life!

[perriwinklesblog]

I really want Sally to be a character on this and not just a fish. I have made many posts about reasons she should be in it. Here’s another;

I’d want her to be a God. For my headcanon of Sally, her, Dream, and Philza are Gods. Technoblade is a demigod. 

This is a extremely long post because I got really carried away. 

LONG STORY SHORT. 

Sally and Dream used to be friends, he banished her which is why she abandoned her family. She then returns because she’s received letters about what's been happening, having heard enough about Dream’s tyranny and what he’s done to her family. 

Keep reading if you wanna see the long version. 

Sally and Dream go way back, they’ve known each other in other worlds, other generations. They’ve fought and started wars together but then things started to change when she came across Wilbur and found another God, not living above the humans/and various other species but among them. 

She fell in love with Wilbur and started to grow distant from the Godly games that her and Dream often played on the ‘mortals.’

Philza, the Angel of Death, the God who walks amongst the humans, knows the pain, the sorrow but the love and laughter. He shows her the worth of humanity.

Sally and Dream fight. To Dream they are above the mortals, they are the makers and destroyers of the world underneath them. They’re things to play with. He see’s the world as his dollhouse and the people in it, his toys. 

They come to an uneasy agreement, with Dream parting and going another way and Sally staying with Wilbur, never to contact each other again. 

Years pass and eventually Wilbur and co. settle in a new land, a new place and Sally sets eyes on a familiar face. The Green Eyed God’s smile falters as he looks at her and their family. Neither say anything as they make their way to the house Wilbur had constructed for them. 

The avoid each other. Sally acts a bit on edge but many think it’s just due to being nervous for the baby’s arrival. She always has an eye on Dream. He’s different from the last time she saw him. She can’t help but think he’s learnt what she has as she spars with mortals, laughing with them, building with them. The smile seems genuine but there’s a glint in his eyes, there’s a darkness the falls across them when his friends turn around. 

She has her baby and she’s ecstatic, happy and busy. She doesn’t have time to keep an eye on the God as she fusses over the new child. Soon the house is even fuller as Wilbur, Philza and Technoblade return home with a new child. And then months later, they all come home with a box that has another child in it. She frowns at Philza who smiles happily as the three young children run around them. 

Then one day she’s out hunting by herself because sometimes she wants the thrill of the chase, sometimes she misses it. This is when the God finally approaches her. 

Since Wilbur appearance on what he considers his territory, Dream had grown weary of the man. He wasn’t like the others in his doll house, he questioned things, changed things and changed others minds. Then the children came and soon he found that with more and more people around, it was becoming hard to control it all. The main source of his problem was Wilbur. So he approaches Sally. 

They dance around the subject at first, but eventually end up in a heated argument. Sally realises that he hasn’t changed, just the game. He still believed he was above them, above the mortals. Dream sees her as weak. And in one way she was. Unlike Dream she didn’t flex her powers as much anymore, shifting only really to entertain the kids. Rarely using the cheats to life she was created with. This meant that when their argument grew into a fight, Dream dominated. 

Dream: I want you and your family gone.

Sally: This is our home. I will not force them to leave because of you.

Dream: Then I’ll kill them.

And he’s so nonchalant about it. So dismissive about something so important, so precious. 

Sally: Don’t you dare lay a hand on them. 

Dream: They don’t work here, and if you won’t move on then I’ll just... get rid of them. 

Sally: You can’t just do that-

Dream: Except I can. We can. We used to do it all the time. 

Sally: We were wrong. 

Dream: No. We were right. There was a lot more control when we held the reins. When we made the decisions. 

Sally: Fuck you. I will make sure you-

Dream: Are you forgetting who has the upper hand here? You aren’t even a fraction of what you used to be. So pathetic, weak. And don’t even think your family could do any better against me. I’d crush them like a bug. 

And he’s right. Sally could see the flames in his eyes. Where her and her family stood right now, even with two gods and a demigod, they didn’t stand a chance against someone who had spent years honing his craft. 

Sally: Please. Please don’t hurt them.

Dream: I can’t hear you. 

Sally: Please, Dream. Let them stay, let them live. Don’t hurt them. I will do anything to let them stay here. They’re so happy. 

Dream: Leave.

Sally: Dream pl-

Dream: They can stay if you leave. If you love your precious humans and family so much, leave. I will make a deal with you. I will leave them alone as much as I possibly can, if you leave. 

Sally: Leave... them? 

Dream: Now. Just don’t go home and leave them. 

Sally: Now?

Dream: I could kill them? 

Sally: Fine. Fine. I won’t return here if you leave them alone. 

Dream: Deal.

They shake hands and Sally finds herself forced from the land, screaming through the air, through time, through dimensions. Eventually she lands in some water. On the beach, theres some people staring gobsmacked at the person who just fell from the sky. This is a new world and rudimentary. She makes her way onto the beach and cries as people crowd her. 

Years pass. Wilbur slowly stopped hoping for Sally to return, never understanding why she went out one day and never returned. Stopped, mentioning her to the children. Eventually they stopped asking. They all moved on. 

Then one day, Dream is surveying the crater where L’Manburg used to be, smiling. Next to him is George and Sapnap. They’re talking about something when he’s suddenly forced out the world. George and Sapnap are confused and go looking for him. At the very same time, someone pops into existence next to a prison, on a beach. Sally looks up, eyes wide before looking for someone to talk to. She’s different, holds herself different. She comes across Sam. There Sam agree’s to take her to L’Manburg confused why this stranger would want to see that. When they get there she breaks a little, a tear rolling down her face but her face soon hardens when she hears who did it. She turns to Sam and asks him to take her to them. He doesn’t know where they live so she settles for the next person she can think of: 

Ranboo. 

Ranboo came from her world. They’d found a way for him to travel from Sally’s world into Dreams and a way for him to send her notes and letters on the things that are happening. But then the letters stopped. Sally knew of Ranboo’s memory issues so assumed he lost the book and therefore, forgot he needed to send letters back. The last letters she received were of Tommy’s exile and she knew then that Dream had broken his end of the agreement which meant she could break hers. He hadn’t left her family alone. But she wanted to give herself time before Dream confronted her so she managed to pull him out of his world and replace herself, if only for a few hours. 

Eventually she finds Ranboo, and seeing Sally triggers his memory and they catch up. She demands to see Philza and Technoblade. Once she’s there, Philza and her argue about some things but Technoblade is a little bit warmer to her. You see whenever they had to participate in wars, Sally and Technoblade did have a lovely time together. Sally had an appreciation for humans, doesn’t mean she still didn’t love a bit of chaos, Dream just took it too far. 

Eventually Sally during the confrontation is forcefully teleported to Dream who has managed to make his way back onto his world. He’s furious. They both argue. People gather because who is this new person and why is Dream yelling at them with such fury. Ghostbur/Alivebur (whatever he ends up being) see’s Sally and is immediately like wtf which triggers Fundy to be like MUM!?!? 

Dream’s all like nope, I’m going to send you away again and Sally’s like not this time bitch.

Sally: You broke the agreement. 

Dream: I think you’ll find, you did. 

Sally: Don’t try and turn this on me. You didn’t leave them alone. You’ve tortured my family enough!

Dream: What are you, a weak god like yourself, going to do about it? 

Sally: How many lives do you have Dream? 

Dream: What?

Sally: How many lives?

Dream: Three. 

Sally: Wrong. 

Shoots him with an arrow, killing him. 

Sally: You have two. 

And then as chaos erupts she drags her family and any allies away into the wilderness. 

From there they regroup and gather resources, she secretly hires Sam as a builder for them and pays him for secrets to the prison. They all work through issues, though some they struggle to iron out but agree to work together for a common cause. 

And then etc. This post is obscenely long. I’ll end the idea there. You get the gist. 

Sally would be a great addition. 

[jaydicksummerexchange]

[ ❤ Works posted so far! ❤ ]

TODAY IS THE DAY! 

We have reached 118 Exchange works for 2020! Thank you, thank you to all our fabulous artists and writers who tapped that creative well and let JayDick rain down upon us. And thank you to everyone who has clicked on the link and left kudos and comments for our participants. They worked, so, so hard y’all! 

We’ll reveal all of our participants tomorrow, September 5, so get your score cards ready and see how many of your guesses were right!

Here are today’s releases!

A Kiss and a Kingdom by anonymous for TheWayneManner [Fic, Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fae, Fae & Fairies, Fae!Dick, Shade!Jason, Alternate Universe - Magic, Prince!Dick, Assassination Attempt(s), Diplomacy

Summary: The Fae Kingdom must work together to help their human brethren when a border conflict arises. Fae Prince Dick Grayson chooses Knight Jason Todd to be a human representative for the negotiations because something about Jason draws him in. Little does he know, he and Jason are spinning a spiderweb around themselves filled with romance, intrigue, and enemies.

The Blud is no Haven by anonymous for Fancy_Dragonqueen [ART, Mature, No Warnings Apply, JayDick] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mob, Mafia Dick Grayson, Mob Boss Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson is Not Nightwing, Jason Todd is Not Red Hood, Hooker Jason Todd, Fanart

Summary:  Dick Grayson is a policeman. Dick Grayson is a community hero. Dick Grayson has never, in fact, been on the right side of the law.

or

That one Mafia AU where Dick is Bludhaven's biggest mob boss and Jason is his right-hand (in more ways than one).

Gotham City Pride by anonymous for epistemology [ART, General Audiences, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: Digital Art, Fanart, Pride Parades, Asexual Character, Pansexual Character, Is this an AU? Who knows., JayDick Summer Exchange

Summary: ♫ Just two boys, hugging during pride month 'cause they're both gay. ♫

My Thoughts on You by anonymous for Morimaitar [FIC, Teen, No Warnings, JayDick] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Secret Crush, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, First Dates, First Kiss, Dick Grayson Has Issues, Alternate Universe - College/University

Summary: Left alone for the holidays, grumpy and a bit sad, all Dick Grayson wanted was to get a hot drink from his favourite coffee shop near campus. But little did he know that his life would take a much-needed turn when Jason Todd, his longtime crush, starts working as a barista there.

lit the fuse and missed the candle (i love you and despise you) by anonymous for Airdanteine [Fic, Explicit, Creator Chose Not to Use Warnings, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dick Grayson is Catlad | Stray, Break Up, Post-Break Up, Love/Hate, Love to hate to love, Hate SexAvoiding Sex Scenes with Violence and Intimacy Issues Is My Kink, Angst with a Happy Ending, Misunderstandings, Past Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson, Past Dick Grayson/Rose Wilson, Past Dick Grayson/Harley Quinn, Jealous Jason Todd, Slut Shaming

Summary: “You are nothing,” Stray hisses, slashing Jason’s face with his unoccupied hand.

Jason lets him, smiling as the blood drips down his cheek.

“Oh baby,” he says, all low timbre and heat, “I’m everything to you.”

Spyral Teens by anonymous for ZeroMonster [ART, Gen, No Warnings, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: young spies, Brothers, Big Brother Dick, Little Wing - Freeform, Little Brother Jason, Spyral (DCU), AU, Dick Grayson is Agent 37, Batfamily (DCU), Jason in the 1st Dick's outfit for Spyral, sidekick's sidekick

Summary:  They are spies. Little spies. Meet Grayson-Lad and Kid Todd!

We Might Fall by anonymous for empires [FIC, Mature, No Warnings, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: Batman Beyond - Freeform, Angst, Difficult Decisions, Retirement, Confessions, Non-Explicit Sex, Post-Break Up, Moving On, Developing Relationship, Getting to Know Each Other, Getting Together, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Dick Grayson Gets a Hug, how to tag

Summary: Dick and Jason are together but they're not. They love each other but they won't ever admit it. There's too much history. Too much pain. Ideals that could never match. Choices that could only end with them hating one another. But as Jason makes a life-changing decision, Dick is forced to look back on his own life, the events that led him to become who he is today. He is forced to finally look at Jason in a whole new light.

Once Upon a Time.... by anonymous for naol [ART, Teen, No Warnings,  JayDick] 

Additional Tags: Digital Art, Little Red Riding Hood AU, Kemonomimi

Summary: "What pretty eyes you have.”, This was a fic prompt but a Red Riding Hood AU was too cute not to draw as a treat <3

will i change for good? by Anonymous for 3isme and TheWayneManner [Mature, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Fae, Curses, Curse Breaking, Beastmen - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, mysterious magical stranger dick grayson, jason todd is not a changeling, Dick Grayson is a Talon

Summary: 

PROMPT 3 for 3isme - Jason runs from the villagers that have hated him his whole life. They think he's a changeling. A child of the fae swapped with a human baby during infancy. He's not. Despite all the odd things that make him different from the others, he knows he's not. But They don't, and they will kill him if

PROMPT 1 for TheWayneManner - A Dark!Au of some sort. Horror and/or gothic elements. Heavy angst. Eerie vibes. NO Rape NO Underage.

Ideas: DarkFae!Dick, Mobster AU, Demon/Angel AU, Siren!Dick AU, Gothic/Horror AU, Dystopian AU, Vampire AU, Prostitute AU, Prison AU, Asylum AU... Really anything that has a dark twist to it, the boys struggling with their inner demons. BONUS: It would be awesome if the fic contained an element of forbidden love with it. Boys against the world kind of vibe.

Ambiguous or sad ending is welcome.

Favored to Win by anonymous for Fancy_Dragonqueen [Explicit, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Knifeplay, Porn With Plot, Alternate Universe - Mob, Bottom Jason Todd, Top Dick Grayson, Begging

Summary: When Jason agreed to throw fights or the mob, he was not expecting this. Jason had definitely Not had 'ass in the air, face on the floor' on tonight's bingo card. But he's not exactly complaining either...

All Washed Out by anonymous for stribirdf (timidGoddes)[FIC, Mature, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Battle for the Cowl, Batkids Age Reversal, Angst and Feels, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Difficult Decisions, Confessions, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Omega Dick Grayson, Alpha Jason Todd, True Mates,

Summary: Batman is dead. He is dead and everything is about to change. Still grieving for his father, Jason Todd, his son and first sidekick, has no choice but to take up the mantle his alpha left behind, continuing the legacy so that the streets of Gotham are always safe. Estranged from the family, Dick Grayson, the son who died, the son who came back all wrong, has decisions to make, ones that could change everything forever. A fire has been struck, one that is bound to spread and no one can

False Alarm by anonymous for Nottak [Teen, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Married LifeSome Humorno capes AU

Summary: One day in the life of Jason Todd, former crime boss, current house husband.

Hush Hush (Don’t Give It Away) by anonymous for solomonara [Mature, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Fluff and Humor, Writer's Block, Author Jason Todd, Secret Identity, Secret Crush, Awkwardness, Walking In On Someone, Realization, Love Confessions

Summary: ‘He was a skater boi. He said 'I'll write a fic for your later boi.'

In which, Dick Grayson really loves reading romantic stories written by a best-selling author who just turns out to be Jason Todd. Awkwardness ensues.

There are a hundred reasons why I'll run (but for you I'll stay) by anonymous for Hedgebelle (Ahaanzel) [Explicit, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Ancient Greek Religion & Lore Fusion, Light Angst, First Meetings, Love at First Sight, First Kiss, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Time, Blow Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Happy Ending

Summary: Jason, the god of the underworld, cannot stand the Olympians who constantly keep making bets about his love life. His only desire is to stay away from everyone and mind his own business. That is, until, one day, Dick walks into his life.

a keeper of secrets for me by Anonymous for anoncitomikolino [Explicit, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, intersex omega, Alpha Jason Todd, Omega Dick Grayson, in this universe….

Summary: You can have all your dreams if you really believe in something that's true

The Bees - Listening Man

[dontasktheradiodemon]

Scheming (with Sandwiches) (5/3/2021)

Alastor talks to Valera @autokrates about her visit from Ruler Of Hell King Alastor @akillingspreeinwhite—and more importantly, what to do about him if he decides he wants to start conquering other Hells.

Alastor's plan: an alliance between as many potentially threatened dimensions as possible.

Alastor

Lunch time! Hello Valera guess who it is, it's Alastor. "I hope you don't mind, I thought it might be nice to have lunch together today! Sandwich?" The sandwich is an innocent gift of friendship with no ulterior motives! And also it's a bribe.

Valera

Lunch time! A great time, usually. A chance to gossip with coworkers AND eat. And look who's here, it's Alastor, with a very innocent sandwich! "Mind? Not at all, by all means my dear, it's a pleasure."

She does TRY to take a bite from the sandwich, but before she can even sink her teeth into it her whole face twists and she has to put it aside to flop her head down and groan. Don't mind her clutching her stomach, this is normal. "Eelizzy is *rioting* back home, oh my *gods*. Feels like I swallowed a radio full of hornets."

Alastor

"Oh, don't you hate that? When you're trying to pick up a station on the radio and there's so much interference all you hear is *buzzing*?" He's proud of himself for that joke. He shouldn't be. "Try this, see if it calms her down any." He sends over a song. <https://youtu.be/2t4iBbfwBLw>

Valera

She'd glare at him for that joke, but she's too busy making her poor floppy at-home body cooperate long enough to open a link. "Louisiana Lullaby? Well by name alone it promises results. She loved New Orleans."

A minute passes, and she slowly sits upright. The sandwich is cautiously picked up, and she nibbles at the crust as she raises both eyebrows at Alastor. She can guess what he really wants to know. "Incredible, even from a distance you're better at wrangling a kid than your more... *royal* alternate." That's an opening if she's ever given one, here you go Alastor.

Alastor

His smile widens. The exact topic he wanted to talk about! "I take it his visit was rather... stomach-turning?"

Valera

She glances around, making sure they're far enough away from any coworkers, then leans in with gossiping intent. "Putting it *mildly*. He's very tall, he's very self assured, and he's got the worst vibes I've ever felt roll off of a man. Like dunking my face in used cooking oil. And get this. The second he stepped into my house, Eelizzy started thrashing like a harpooned whale. She's never reacted so violently to *anything*."

Alastor

A slow nod. "That's never a good sign. I trust the judgment of the as yet unborn, they tend to be less prejudiced. And I take it you don't think it was a mere reaction to his power level?"

Valera

Her head cocks to the right, nose scrunching in thought. "He gave me one of Lucifer's flight feathers, so I assume she felt some of that power too. But I put the thing away and she still spent the entire visit either flailing or spitting static at him every time he got too close."

The hand not holding the sandwich brushes her barbels back, rubbing her forehead. "I suppose it's possible that his energy was simply so foreign she reacted strongly, but I live with *Leal*. She's been around for everything from eldritch magic to his full demonic form and barely even stirred. When she met Alexa? Happily buzzing at him barely a minute in. You saw how well she took to you, too. She's met dragons, gods, demons, sinners, and not a single one had her that pissed. Even Seapup was growling at him and Seapup loves *everyone*."

Alastor

"If she doesn't even react to *gods* like that, I'm going to assume it's the quality rather than the quantity." He sighs. "Well, *that's* telling, isn't it! I'm not sure *what* it's telling us yet—but I don't think I'm going to like the answer, do you?"

Valera

She snorts. "No. No I do *not*. He got to my planet unaided, Alastor. Got into my house without me giving any sort of direction. He knew the planet's name before I ever told him. And I want to chalk that up to just him reading my blog, but... I know he's followed me and Leal around without either of us being able to sense him."

Alastor

Alastor nods. "He mentioned that to me too, your 'being followed' adventure. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the king's done it more than once. Or, considering how strong he has to be to have seized the throne, he might have additional methods of sussing out information. All of which are probably bad news."

Valera

This poor sandwich is never going to get eaten at this rate, there she goes putting it down again. "No kidding. He's been the pinnacle of manners and social grace for now, but.." A shrug, and she offers Alastor a wan smile. "I don't trust that to last. He's an outlier to the already unpredictable Alastor model."

Alastor

"No, I don't trust it either." His voice lowers—not his usual trick of changing his tone of voice to pretend he's being quieter, but an actual lowering of volume. "Here's the thing. I don't trust a single one of my alternates that's joined in the overlord rat race—much less has made king. A propensity toward boredom like mine should *never* be married to earnest political ambitions. When he gets bored, he's going to do what he's always done: conquer. And if there's no more room for him to move *upward,* he'll start moving *outward.* And wouldn't you know it, he's *just* found the multiverse."

Valera

"Exactly." She exhales almost too forcefully for it to be a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. What a headache this was turning out to be. "I *really* don't want to test my mettle against even a normal Alastor alt, the idea of *that* man being able to show up in my house on a whim and start trying to play at the All American Dream of Conquering the Alien Menace is... Not good." An absent minded rubbing of her stomach, self soothing and comforting an egg that was universes away. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am, on some level, absolutely terrified."

Alastor

"You're not alone," Alastor admits. "Not to downplay your very realistic 'heroic human conquering the savage alien world' fears, but if human history has proven anything, it's that we tend to try conquering our neighbors first and only travel farther after we either succeed or decide it's more trouble than it's worth. And neighbors don't get much closer than a parallel copy of the same place."

Valera

"Oh dear." Grimacing, she lifts a hand like she's about to offer comfort, letting it hover for a moment before slowly putting it back down. No, don't do for the shoulder pat just yet. "I don't like that one bit, Alastor. But for what it's worth, if it came down to it, I'd try to help you."

Alastor

"That is *exactly* what I wanted to discuss." Alastor's eyes glow brighter. "Now, any version of me that's conquered Hell is going to be stronger than any version of me that hasn't, that's practically a given. He could beat any *one* of us hands down. I haven't seen *you* at full power, but frankly that's a boxing match I wouldn't want to bet money on for either side. But—*but*—if enough of us have agreed we'll fight him if he stepped out of line... The more of us agree to fight in defense of each other's dimensions, the better a chance we'll collectively stand. Leclerq and I have already agreed to offer each other mutual support. With three of us, we might have the start of a proper defense."

Valera

She folds her hands, listening as Alastor lays out his plan. Strength in numbers, it was an effective strategy. She could think of a few others who would gladly throw their hats in the ring in the name of keeping the line as well, Alastor or otherwise. "Alright. I'll add myself to that list, and pray we never need it."

Alastor

He laughs wryly. "And I'll be praying for backup in case we *do* need it. Apparently upstairs doesn't care about who's calling the shots in Hell, if they didn't intervene before my alternate could take the crown; but maybe they'll start to care if multiple Hells start uniting in one empire."

Valera

She snorts despite herself, shaking her head. "I hope so! Wouldn't that be something, heaven and hell uniting forces against one common enemy! I just hope we never have to see it."

Alastor

"So do I." He takes a deep breath. "So! Anything else of interest to report from his little visit? You mentioned *you* didn't like his... 'vibes'?"

Valera

"Oh! Yeah. Holy shit." A WELCOME subject change. "He's freaky. And I don't like that I know even one of his kinks. I want to know zero of them." She shrugs and picks her sandwich back up. At last, something she can eat while discussing. "As far as his visit though. He gave me one of Lucifer's flight feathers. Which I _immediately_ handed off to mon cerf."

Alastor

"He certainly has poor taste in kinks." He says this like his ace ass is some sort of elitist kink connoisseur. Like a wine snob judging a broke-ass college kid for drinking box wine. "But is that the *only* sense you meant he's freaky in, or...? Granted, handing an acquaintance a souvenir harvested from the body of one's vanquished nemesis is a hell of an opening statement all by itself, but."

Valera

"I wish." Look at that face scrunch. It won't keep her from taking a bite out of her sandwich, but still. "No, I mean his very presence was like trying to breathe oil. He's.." She frowns, brow furrowing as she tries to think of a less melodramatic way to put it. "He's nice, but in the way people are nice to a pet."

Alastor

A huff. "I got a little bit of that impression from talking to him. Granted, Radio Demons are a naturally condescending lot, but even at that..." He searches for the right words. "He strikes me as the kind of person incapable of seeing anyone as his equal. Even his own alternates."

Valera

She nods. "Yes, I think you're right. We're entertainment more than we are people. Perhaps _especially_ his alternates, come to think of it.." Judging by the way he'd treated his alts on dash..

Alastor

"Could be worse—could be outright loathing—but I'm wary around any alternate who can't even see *himself* as a kindred spirit. I'm hoping I can take advantage of it, though. I've got an open invitation to visit his dimension sometime to provide entertainment—a few Hamilton songs from me in exchange for a tour. I plan on scouting the place out then."

Valera

"Oh yeah! You do, don't you! You should try and see what happened to the other overlords in his Hell. Assuming he didn't kill them as soon as they manifested, I've wondered whats become of them."

Alastor

"So have I. I have to think overlords still exist—what does it matter to a king if the peasants claim ownership of a block or two?—but whether any of them are the same overlords *we* know..." He grimaces. "He said he took power in the fifties, didn't he? If we're assuming a worst case scenario where he executed all the overlords who currently existed, that includes Sir Pentious and Rosie. Maybe Rosie was minor enough to be spared, if anyone was spared at all; but someone else with ambitions for the throne..."

Valera

She scowls, shoving the rest of the sandwich in her mouth to keep from saying anything before she can think it over. He was right, and the thought was.. Deeply uncomfortable. A hard swallow, and she starts brushing the crumbs off her chest. "We're set to have lunch together tomorrow, *out* of my house." She doesn't sound especially *happy* about the arrangement, but oh well. "If I learn anything new, I'll let you know. Between the two of us, we should hopefully be able to get a feel for what situation we're dealing with. Odds are his Pentious was exterminated."

A blink, and she squints. "Actually, he said something to Theodore today. His Hell has had some *significant* technological advancements since he took the throne, he was very proud of that fact. All radio based, obviously, but he doesn't strike me as an inventor."

Alastor

"*Our* Hell's had significant technological advancements since the fifties, too," Alastor pointed out. "He could be collecting newly-dead inventors and pressing them to turn their expertise toward radio-based applications. Or, hell—it could simply be that having V#x out of the way means the technological developments in Hell naturally drifted a different way."

He gives Valera a tired, wan smile. "I'd *like* to imagine that Sir Pentious is happily toiling away as the royal inventor, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I don't think the majority would be happy with that."

Valera

"Mm, I'm being too optimistic. And he would hate it, so maybe it's for the better that he's probably been exterminated." She sighs. "I don't know if we manage to find trouble, Alastor, or trouble manages to find us. Either way, what a pain. Any other questions before we drag ourselves back to the dreadful chore of watching Hamilton get shot on stage over and over?"

Alastor

"Just one." He nods toward the stage. "Do you think it's been long enough since the last time I got in trouble that I can start singing 'he's never gon' be president now' when the bullet connects?"

Valera

Now that is a very serious question that must be considered.... Hrm... "Yes, but barely. I think the director would throw his clipboard at you, but not much beyond that. He's on his sixth coffee of the day, so the odds of dodging are in your favor."

Alastor

"Maybe he'll forgive me out of pity if I let it connect." He stands, picks up his own sandwich—yeah, he's had a sandwich this whole time—and devours it in five huge bites. "Shall we?"

Valera

For some reason, she's tempted to clap at that display. But no time for more banter, it's back to work. "We shall."

Alastor

Back to work. Time to watch Hamilton get shot again.

Valera

~~Boooooo give us a twist ending next time, add some leopards eating people's faces~~

Alastor

~~Hamilton is the leopard and he tries to eat Alastor's face for singing in the middle of his dramatic death~~

[femmeharringrove]

Another summer, another fight. It scared them to find demogorgons roaming the forests of Hawkins again, the immediate concern being that another gate was open somewhere, but instead of a gate they found a nest; they'd been breeding in this dimension. There are unknowns here, of course. How long were they nesting? How many escaped the fight? How many escaped Hawkins before they even knew the nest was there?

But unknowns can wait. The battle is over, things are okay for now. Steve's destination isn't the Byers' home, not this time, but he's got a car full of chatty teenagers to drop off so he drives on autopilot. The kids won't make anything of his silence until much later, they hardly notice it now. But Steve can't talk, can hardly focus on anything but the eternal trip to the familiar home filled with warmth and relief and family, his family. The kids clamber out and Dustin hesitates, asks Steve if he's coming in.

He's not, he can't, but he smiles his most reassuring grin, runs a fond hand over the teen's curls, and promises to be inside in a minute. Dustin smiles back and nods before scampering inside. Steve watches with a sad sort of relief; his kids are safe, his loved ones are alive. Most of them are, anyway. They survive this time, and so he calls it a success.

Steve looks down at his bloodied jacket and groans softly. He's not making it this time, and he's okay with it.

The Beemer moves out of the driveway silently and he finds the strength to reach the quarry before the car turns off. He should go home, but his mother won't appreciate if he drips blood on her carpets. The quarry is his safe space, these trees know his secrets well. This is where he used to come with Billy long ago, when those ocean eyes and bright smile were still around. This is where their friendship blossomed over beer cans and rolled joints, where Billy trusted him with the truth about Neil and where Steve trusted him with his whole heart. They made love here, hidden away in their cars, they danced to old cassettes and talked about running away to California and making a life for themselves. This is where Steve came after Starcourt, face bruised and ribs broken and heart shattered. He grieved here, healed here, learned to move on here. It's almost fitting that he choose to die here, too. Bittersweet, he thinks.

He turns the car off and thinks about Dustin, about his kids. They'll be finishing high school soon. Dustin's already got an acceptance letter from some big tech school out in California, and Will's gotten a hefty scholarship to a New York arts school. Max is going to law school, she told him not very long ago, and he knows she's going to make one hell of a lawyer. Lucas and Mike are going to North Carolina, and El isn't quite ready to leave the nest yet, but when she does, when Hop lets her go, Steve knows she'll do something amazing. He wishes desperately he could be there to see it, but he's fading fast; the flow of blood from the gruesome series of bites along his torso is slow, but it's adding up. He hopes they don't grieve too hard, that they don't miss him too badly. Especially Dustin.

Dustin, his favorite child. His best friend. Claudia's told him several times even she saw him as an extension of their family, the older brother and mentor her Dusty always needed. The kid's loud, obnoxious at times, but Steve loves him fiercely and he hopes, really hopes that the kid knows that. He's got a letter in his desk for Henderson, for each of his kids, for everyone in his life, wrote them in an emotional haze after Starcourt nearly four years ago when he almost died in a Russian base. There's even a letter for Billy, a farewell to the love of his life. Steve hopes the kids get those letters so that they can at least have that closure, that form of goodbye. That's what those letters are, really. Three nights after the mall he wrote them just in case he died without the chance to say goodbye. Those letters hold everything he's ever wanted to say but never felt able to.

When they're found, Steve wonders what his parents will think. He wonders if his mother will cry, if his father will feel remorse for his absence. It hurts that he's dying without the chance to heal their broken relationship, and in his dark car he finds himself aching for his mother's hug, his father's hand stroking his hair. He wants to tell them that he loves them, in spite of everything. He wants to say sorry, he's sorry he wasn't the child they wanted him to be. But most of all, he just wants their company.

He knows Joyce will cry, thinks Hopper might too. Nancy and Robin are going to cry, there's no doubt in his mind. Steve hopes they don't feel guilt over this, that they don't blame themselves. Because it's not their fault, no matter what they may tell themselves. Robin's going to take this hard, he's abandoning his partner in crime. He hopes she finds another, that she gets to run off to Nashville and get her music gig going. He hopes she finds a girl who loves her goofy ways as much as he does. He hopes Nancy chases her dreams, that she catches them, that she and Jonathan live a happy life together. He hopes everyone lives a happy life after this. He hopes they move on.

"It's gonna take a while, Pretty Boy." Steve opens his eyes (when did he close them?) and slowly rolls his head to the side, stares at Billy in the passenger seat. Billy looks youthful and happy, his skin tanned and freckled and free of the Mind Flayer's scars. He's holding Steve's goodbye letter. Steve blinks once, twice, smiles faintly.

"I've missed you, dumbass," he grumbles, and Billy laughs easily. The sound is floaty and musical.

"Ditto, Stevie." He smiles fondly, and for a second Steve feels like they're teenagers again, sharing their affection in the safe confines of the quarry. Steve can forget the grave reality of the situation. He smiles back, reaches out to poke Billy's warm cheek, and slid his gaze lazily back out towards the lake.

"Is it scary?"

"Not really." Billy shakes his head. "Not when you know what's coming." Steve nods in acknowledgement.

"Can I do anything to stop it?" he asks. The blonde shakes his head again, his smile soft and sad.

"Nah. Sorry, Babydoll, but your time's running out." Steve takes a shuddering breath, nods again. Billy's hand seeks his out, squeezes gently. "Hey, look at me." He waits until Steve obliges, unfocused eyes settling on him. "You did good, Steve. You did real good."

"I don't want to leave them," he whispers, and he's starting to tear up now, the gravity of the situation setting in. "Who's gonna look after them, Bill? I can't - I can't just leave them." Billy leans in as Steve's voice wobbles, his calloused hand wiping the brunette's tears away while he hushes him softly.

"They're going to be okay," he soothes. "Trust me. You've done everything you can, you've done your job. You've been the best damn babysitter this world's ever seen." Billy's arms wrap around him comfortingly. "You've taken such good care of them, now it's time for you to rest." Steve sniffles as he leans into his boyfriend's arms, closing his eyes again.

"You think so?" he manages to ask.

"I know so." A hand runs gently over Steve's wild hair. "I worried about that too, was real worried about you and Max. But look at you." Billy shifts, tilts Steve's head and gets the dying man to look at him again. "You went off to police school or whatever they call it, you became a cop." And Steve had, he'd been a cop for two years. It was the right choice in his mind, even if his parents weren't keen on the idea. Hopper was proud of him, though, and everyone else supported him the whole way through. Judging from the look in Billy's eyes, the blonde is proud of him too. "You've helped those little shitbirds through high school, you've given Buckley a real friend, you've been there for Wheeler and her boy toy which is really impressive, sweetheart, because they drive me nuts." Steve snorts softly, a faint smile on his face, and Billy chuckles before pressing on. "You brought a little sunshine to everyone's life, Steve, and that's amazing. You've left your mark on them all forever. Those kids? They're never going to forget you. None of them will. And it won't be easy for them, losing you, but you moved on after me, didn't you? They're going to keep going. But I promise, they won't forget Steve Harrington." Billy's voice is so confident and soft, Steve can't help but believe him. He worries for his little family still, but he believes the other man. They're going to be okay, somehow. He doesn't have to worry anymore.

So instead, he presses closer to Billy, ignores the dull pain in his body, and smiles.

"Now what?" he asks. Billy hums low in his throat as he cards thick fingers through Steve's hair.

"Now, we move to California," he chuckles. "Right by the beach, baby. We'll watch the sum set over the ocean every night, adopt a couple of dogs or some shit. It'll be good." Steve hums softly.

"Sounds good," he agrees. He's silent for a little while after that. Steve's body feels numb, but that doesn't startle him. "Hey, Bill?"

"Yes, Bambi?"

"I thought you were supposed to feel cold when you die." Steve blinks hazy and slow, a soft smile on his face. "But I just feel really warm." Billy squeezes him gently.

"Warm is good, Pretty Boy," he murmurs. "It's over, Steve, close your eyes. You can rest now." The brunette nods, almost closes his eyes, but stops.

"You'll stay?" he asks.

"I'll stay," Billy promises. "Sleep, Sunshine. I'll be here when you wake up." Satisfied by that answer and too tired to keep his heavy eyelids open, Steve closes his eyes, smiles softly, and falls asleep.

It's Hopper who finds him just past dawn, after spending much of the night searching for the young cop. He has to sit down, can't move for a few minutes after the discovery. Dustin screams when they get to the hospital, crumples on the floor and begs Hopper to bring his best friend back. Max outright faints at the news and spends the day clinging to El, who can't stop crying longer than five minutes. Robin begs them to tell her it's a joke and rages for a few minutes before dissolving into tears herself. Steve's parents get the call in their Tokyo hotel room just before going out for the night; his mother trembles so hard she can't even try to stand. If his father feels anything at the news, he's good at hiding it. They come home to arrange the funeral and are faced with several teenagers waiting for them, Dustin yells at them until Hopper steps in. His mother looks at his lifeless face and whispers an apology he can't hear.

Steve Harrington is laid to rest next to his old high school rival, and an old nail-studded bat is left at the headstone. Nancy gives a tear-jerking eulogy at his funeral, and Dustin barely gets through a smaller speech about his big brother. Max writes a speech, but ultimately is only able to tell the small crowd that Steve was the brightest ray of sun in her darkest time. His parents allegedly were "too emotional" to speak about their son, and no one questions it. Joyce speaks, though, about this heartbreakingly sweet boy she came to love as her own, and Hopper says he would have been proud to have the kid as his son.

His letters are found and are handed out that night, and Max leaves his letter for Billy by the other's headstone unread. They all cry through the words scrawled out in that familiar handwriting, his assurances of love and pride for them all, and promises that they would get through this. Sitting at the quarry that same night, sharing laughter and tears and memories of the man, they decide that maybe, even if they can't see it now, Steve's right. They'll try and get through this. It's hard navigating a storm when the sun's been lost, but they're going to try.