#dead spiders live spiders I've seen it all

[the-indigo-symphony]

Not terrified of spiders not especially into them but a secret third thing: the kind of mixed apathy and acceptance of their general existence that can only come from continuously waking up to find spiders in your bed

[twoidiotwriters1]

Spider-Man says what? –(Peter Parker xReader)

Summary: At first I was "Guys, I think Parker is Spider-man" as a joke... but I don't think it's a joke anymore. Words: 2,354 A/N: Read this as an early 2000's romcom because that's the universe I chose for it -Danny

"All I'm saying is, I've never seen Peter Parker and Spider-man in the same room," you say, grinning stupidly as you do anything but work.

Betty looks up at you from her computer screen with a dead stare. "Why are you so obsessed with Parker?"

You sputter, blushing against your will. "I—What? I'm not obsessed!" You scoff. "You brought him up!"

"No, I said, 'I need the stupid pictures of yesterday's manifestation outside the MET and all JJ cares about is getting one of Spider-man flashing his butt.' I never said his name, you were the one who started to ramble about how Peter hasn't been here in a week despite how active Spider-man's been around the city."

"Whatever," you pout, stepping away from her cubicle grumpily. "Here I am trying to make your work day bearable and this is how you thank me."

"Y/N, I'm honestly tired of hearing you ramble about this guy, if you like him just tell him, you're a grown adult."

"I do not have a crush on—Parker!" Your voice falters and turns squeaky as you turn to your seat and see the young photographer walking past your cubicle.

He stops and smiles, noticing you only after you squeal his last name. "Hi, Y/N, how's it going? Hey, Betty, what's new?"

"Not much," she says, already going back to editing her column, "Y/N thinks you're Spider-man."

It's Peter's turn to let out a loud, nervous laugh. "What? That's crazy—Y/N, don't be crazy, I can't be Spider-man, I wear glasses."

You stare at him. "Contact lenses exist, Parker."

He giggles. "Contact lenses, you're so funny—anyway, is Jameson available?"

"You got Spidey-pics?"

"A few."

"Then he will be," You step forward, holding onto any excuse to avoid working. "I'll take you, I kind of need a bit of JJ's screaming to feel alive, currently."

"Thanks," Peter waves at your friend. "See you later, Betty." She waves briefly without looking up from the screen.

"Don't mind her," you brush her off, "she's pressed because an intern was supposed to take pictures of yesterday's protest and bring them here but it's been radio-silent."

Peter frowns with concern. "The one outside the MET?" You nod. "I think your photographer is in the hospital with a broken leg, Y/N."

"WHAT?" You halt right outside of JJ's office as he says that.

"Yeah, some guys showed up and tried to steal stuff while the protesters were outside, it got a bit out of control and took the photographer as a hostage—tossed him from a moving car while trying to escape and... well, Spider-man wasn't fast enough."

He looks sincerely sorry for the situation. That's one of the things you like best about Peter, he always seems to care deeply about everything, even when he's got nothing to do with it. That's not an easy way to be while living in New York.

"You two parrots better come in or get the hell away from my office, you're too loud!" JJ's scream brings you to the present. 

"I better go tell Betty we got a hospital visit to make—good luck with Jameson," you smile briefly before going away.

"Yeah, thanks," Peter says, his concerned gaze lingering on you as he wonders what could you possibly know about Spider-man.

When your boss said you were all invited to the charity event, you were picturing a sort of fancy dress, handsome men, elegant food type of situation. Not that you'd been hired to cover the event, and so it's comfortable clothing, a bossy hostess telling you not to get too close to the guests' tables, and whatever you can buy with ten dollars from the convenience store down the street.

It's even worse when the villain-of-the-week shows up and tries to steal whatever amount this rich crowd is giving away to charity, and as usual, the loaded crowd is the one that gets evacuated first. Spider-man shows up, and if that wasn't nerve-wracking enough, turns out you are the hostage of the week!

It's all a blur, honestly, you get tossed around, get lots of scratches—don't even count the bruises—and oh, your phone got smashed to bits! But of course, friendly neighbourhood spidey makes sure you survive the ordeal, so a win it's a win.

He carefully leaves you right outside the venue, you're unable to see any kind of facial gesture thanks to his mask, but the way his head tilts and he shifts his weight from one foot to another tells you he's checking if you're not dying.

"I'm alright," you say casually, "might quit my job after this, though."

The hero looks up at you and pauses. "That bad, eh?"

His voice rings a bell, but then again you're probably concussed, so you don't dwell on it. "You good, spidey?"

"Me? Yeah, I'm good, I'm good." The guy stumbles over his words as if he's not used to people asking that.

You hum. "Cool. Well, I better go to the ambulance to get my ribs checked—Oh, and Parker!" You say suddenly.

"Excuse me?" He chokes out.

"My friend, Peter Parker," you clarify, not thinking much of his reaction. Again, your head got hit many times tonight. "About this wee tall, brown eyes—hot in a dorky way? If you see him tonight tell him he deserves better than Jameson's piss-poor commissions. I'm sure the Times would give anything to have a close shot of your butt."

Spider-man stands very still before you. "Okay."

"Bye," you say, having a bit of trouble walking straight before reaching the ambulance.

Peter shows up at the office the very next day, holding a small bag of paper in his hands.

"Parker!" Betty greets him, in a better mood than she was weeks ago. "Got all the best angles of last night's disaster?"

"No, actually, but I heard you took a beating, Y/N," he hands you the paper bag. "Came to see how you were."

You blush, taking the bag bashfully. "Thanks. I'm fine, really, nothing too bad, at least I'm not dead." 

"God, don't even joke about that," he says gravelly. 

"Sorry, sorry. I'm alright, thank you for checking on me," you soften at his reply, then peek inside the bag to see a tasty-looking pastry. "Oh my god, I love you," you blurt out, pulling out the sweet and taking a big bite from it.

Betty notices the way Peter's cheeks redden slightly and grins knowingly, deciding to help out. "Weren't you just heading to your break, Y/N?"

"Hm?" You look up chewing. 

"Take Parker with you, if JJ sees him here empty-handed he'll throw a fit."

You and Peter lock eyes, unsure of what to say now that Betty has placed the offer.

"If you want—"

"I don't want to intrude—"

“—I'm cool with it—"

"—only if you're sure—"

"Okay." You both say at the same time.

You exit the building together, catching up like you haven't been able to in a long time. He tells you about his aunt, and you listen intently, laughing as he tells you about the new boyfriend she's got and how awkward it's getting now that he can no longer show up unannounced at his aunt's home unless he wants to risk catching them in the middle of a heated moment.

You share more about yourself as well, and as you wait in line at the coffee shop, you tell him about your long-term projects and how annoying your roommate is sometimes. Once you're both holding a coffee and seated at one of the tables outside, he gets a little bolder.

"I have a confession to make," he says carefully.

"Hm?" You take a sip of your coffee.

"I did manage to snap a few shots of last night's incident—but I'm not sure I want to sell them."

You frown. "Why not? Jameson pays you more for the pictures in action than he does of random pics of him around the city."

"Yeah, but you're in them," he shrugs, making a face, "I don't sell the pictures with civilians in them, feels wrong—it's a scary thing, to be in the middle of all that, I don't like taking advantage of people's suffering."

You look at him with adoration. "God, Peter, we're not worthy of you."

"Don't tease me," he blushes and shakes his head, laughing briefly. 

"I'm not," you continue with a soft smile. "I really admire you. I just... it's so weird, to meet a person that's so genuinely... kind."

He locks eyes with you, and on a whim, he leans forward on his chair and asks in a soft, tentative voice. "Would you go out with me?"

It's been two steady months of dating the one and only Peter Parker, and you think it's about time you take a risk—or give him a nice surprise, at least. And what's better surprise than an impromptu dinner at his apartment?

You use the spare key he gave you not so long ago and get in quietly even though you know he's not home, at this hour he's usually out, trying to get Spider-man candids for Jameson. You work diligently, using his tiny kitchen to the best of its capacity and coming out with a rather decent dish.

You're just finishing setting up the table when you hear a noise in the bathroom that makes you pause. Listening closely, you stay still while someone moves behind the door and curses under their breath, then tug the door open and walk out taking off... my god, taking off a Spider-man mask.

You stare wide-eyed as Peter distractedly pulls the fabric off his head and then holds it between his teeth while he takes off the gloves, he's only taken one off when he freezes too, and slowly, raises his gaze to where you're standing. You stay put, both of you caught off guard, with the same dumbfounded expression. The mask falls from his mouth onto the floor with a light thud.  

"Oh my god," you say at last, mouth slack and eyes unblinking. 

"Y/N," he starts as if talking to a cornered animal, raising his hands in a soothing gesture. "I can explain."

"I'm sure you can," you reply, remembering to breathe, "I just don't think I'm going to hear anything that comes out of your mouth while you're wearing that."

He glances down at his suit and then back up at you. "Because I look too good in it?" He hopefully asks.

"Because you're fucking Spider-man, Peter," you reply plainly. "Scratch that, I'm fucking Spider-man!"

He hushes you frantically, closing the distance between you by jumping over the couch in such a dextrous manner that it startles you. "Don't go around screaming that!"

"Oh my god, have you always been able to do that?" You ask in disbelief. "I saw you trip over the bed the other night!"

He brushes it aside with annoyance. "It's a whole thing, really, my senses are selective—I can explain!"

You steeple your fingers in front of your mouth. "My boyfriend is Spider-man..."

"You are in shock, and that's super valid," he continues, stepping closer while still holding an arm in front of him as if fearing you'll throw something at him. "Please don't be mad at me."

"You broke our photographer's leg!"

He frowns and drops his hand. "Hey, those guys dropped him from a moving car, that wasn't on me!"

"You owe me a new phone!" You continue.

He remembers the night at the charity event, where he did in fact accidentally drop a table on your phone. "Okay, yeah, that's on me."

The rest dawns on you all at once and you sit shakily. "Peter, you almost died last week..."

He winces, taking off his other glove and tossing it away where the mask fell. "I'm fine."

"Spider-man..." You press your hands against your cheeks in horror.

Peter circles the table and crouches next to your chair, placing a gentle hand on your knee. "Y/N, hey, look at me, I'm okay!"

You finally acknowledge him, looking at him. He's not wearing his glasses, you doubt he even truly needs them, but other than that, he's still Peter, your boyfriend. He flashes you a tentative smile, tight-lipped and nervous. You reach for him and press his head against your chest, your fingers tangling in his brown locks. 

"I don't know if I'm angry," you say at last, "I shouldn't be, you've been this for longer than we've known each other... but I'm not happy either, I mean... shit, you're always in danger!"

He wraps his arms around your middle and speaks against your shirt. "It's not that bad," he says, "sometimes I get free churros."

You snort. "That's so not comparable to the risks you're taking."

"You clearly haven't tasted those churros," he jokes.

You laugh and Peter looks up, his expression lighting up and relaxing, glad that you're not screaming at him or running out. He pulls the chair behind him to sit and takes your hands in his, looking into your eyes. 

"It's not easy," he admits in a serious tone, "but I have to do it, because not many people have the abilities I've got, and I've got the chance to make a difference, to do good... and I think the risks are worth it—especially when I'm able to save lives."

You squeeze his hands, sighing and looking down. "I can't pretend I like it... but I can learn to live with it—other people do, right? Pig's wives—"

"They're called cops, Y/N."

"Whatever," you brush off, fully intending to make him laugh, which he does. You continue with a gentle smile. "In any case... I'll have to respect it, won't I? Because you're Spider-man, and that's a big deal, you can't just turn your back on it."

He stares at you with the softest eyes you've ever seen. "I love you."

You blush, pulling his hands closer, making his entire body lean forward, and planting your lips on his, giving him a firm, confident kiss. "Love you too."

You lean your forehead on his, then a slow, shit-eating grin forms on his face. "So you think I'm hot, uh?"

"I think you're a dork," you say, remembering the way you'd described him to Spider-Man without knowing it was him. "And the fact that you wear spandex to fight bad guys carries my point home."

He smirks, nuzzling your face. "You think I'm hot in spandex, so who's the real weirdo?"

"I never said that."

"You don't have to," he mumbles, leaning in for another kiss and talking against your mouth. "I can tell."

As you planned, that night definitely ended up being full of surprises. 

And kissing.

Taglist.

@babypink224221 @syxtiramishuui @skittles-skittles @sarahskywalker-amidala @poetryislife0715 @heavenlymistake @number0hero @aconfusedslytherin @talksoprettyjjx @jesuswasnotawhiteman @23victoria @moonhoonie @raajali @espressopatronum454 @jkthinkstoomuch @tagakalat @tokkishouse @slytherinnqueen @kai-wifey @djsporks @stargirl-mayaa @justanotherkpopfanlol @whatasadlittlelife @silenthappyplace @yourbonesareinmybody @omgsuperstarg @tyb1 @hufflepuffzutara @lauramacch @thelastpyle @marii-ren @tomshollandz @scarlet-marie @letsfly-andbe-free @meetmyblondemuffins @avengersz-biotch @leyannrae @ieatpanicattacksforlunch @peter-holland106 @mayoforthewin @mikaelsonwhxrebae @slytherinambitious @na1ven3vy @amaberry20 @writingmia @Ight-roastcoffee @alloof @marvelouslyme96 @bands-tv-movies-is-me @ivanttier

[on-a-lucky-tide]

If you're looking for prompts, I've got a little idea, ,,,, I wanna see Nik fight someone for John. Maybe some asshole doesn't like what he sees when they're outside together, or an enemy, or whatever suits your fancy, but Nik unleashing the beast and maybe going too far but no one touches his love while he's around. Nik losing control of himself for a moment and then waking up, feeling very bad about it all. Angst with comfort, you know :3c (if you haven't written anything similar already, of course !! )

Nik believes Price is dead. He tears the world to pieces in his grief.

cw: extreme violence, torture, child endangerment, no MCD. Nikolai goes off the deepend. (Also for Anon who asked for the same.)

Laswell had delivered bad news many times in her career. It usually started the same way. 'Please sit down...' and then you moved onto the facts of the matter - the ones you could actually tell them - 'they died in the line of duty, they were killed by... they served with distinction' - and finally, you finished with 'I'm sorry for your loss, the United States government is at your disposal if...'

She knew what the relative, or relatives, looked like at each stage. The disbelief, the cracks of emotion spidering through their eyes as they tried to keep themselves together, and then the inevitable disintegration. Some people wailed, others sobbed softly into their hands, one person had roared in anguish and dropped to the floor. Grief looked slightly different on everyone, but she had seen every permutation.

There was usually another family member to pick them up, to offer comfort. It was hard. People got through. They healed, or they didn't. But that, as brutal as it was, was none of her concern. She had no loyalty to them and no history.

Nothing in her career had prepared her for telling Nikolai that Captain John Price had been killed in the line of duty.

John's task force stood with her as Nik walked into the room. She had placed damn tissues in the table. Tissues. Like Nikolai, of all people, would disintegrate into weeping and mucus. Perhaps it would have been easier if he had.

"Laswell," Nik greeted her in his usual manner, eyes crinkled in the corners, his hands spread. He looked at the three men standing around her in turn and instantly noted a fourth missing. The one he looked for first every time. The one that owned his heart and soul. His gaze lingered on Gaz, whose head tilted as if to begin an apology, and then finally Nik looked at Laswell. "Where is the captain?"

"Nik, take a seat." She gestured at the chair next to the table. Nik glanced at it, and then looked back at her. There was no point insisting. He was as stubborn as John was... had been.

The facts. "On 8th October, the 141 were involved in a raid on a base in search of a high value target. The mission went awry, and John was... killed covering the escape of his men." She swallowed, lowering her voice. For the first time since she had learned the news herself, she felt a stab of pain in her chest. "I'm sorry, Nik."

She believed she had seen grief in all its forms, but what she saw in Nikolai's eyes added a new dimension to her understanding. It was like all the light vanished in an instant; the jovial, lively man she had known for years since he turned informant for MI6 dissipated like smoke in the wind. It was a silent death; his face turned hard, his eyes darkened, and his huge body seemed to expand, casting a bigger shadow. The Nikolai she knew, and loved in her own way, disappeared before her very eyes.

"How?" he asked, his voice no more than whisper.

"He was shot," Sergeant MacTavish stepped forward. The scar down his face was still raw; a livid red in the artificial lights. "Savin' us. Watchin' our backs. Like he always did." Soap pulled something from his pocket and slid it across the table to Nik's hands. A boonie hat, Laswell noted. "Don't even 'ave his dog tags tae give ye, I..."

Nik looked at the folded beige cloth in silence, his eyes moving left to right as if he was reading something from it. When he picked it up, he touched the folded rim to his lips and then his forehead, before gazing down at it in his palms. "Who?"

"Nik?" Laswell asked, watching him carefully.

"Who is to blame? Give me the name."

"Nik, I can't--"

"A name, Kate!" His voice snapped like a whip through the room, with all the impact of a gunshot. She saw the fury in his eyes, the sharp edges, the fury, turning his usually warm brown hue into two bottomless pits.

"Makarov," Lieutenant Riley said. "Vladimir Makarov."

"Ultranationalists." It rolled out of Nik's mouth like he was spitting poison from his tongue. The corner of his eye twitched, his lips curling in a sneer. Laswell often forgot how dangerous, how volatile, Nikolai had been in those early days, when his wounds were raw and open, before John had helped him heal into the best version of himself. But she remembered now as she watched those proverbial wounds split open again, rending through psychological scars long since faded. Nik said nothing more, but tucked John's hat into the loops of his belt as he turned to leave.

"Nikolai, whatever you're planning on doing, we must ensure you--"

"There is no 'we', Laswell," Nik said. "There is not even a 'me' anymore."

She watched him leave, her words lodged in her throat. No one else tried to stop him either. They had lost their mentor, their captain, their friend. Nik had lost his heart. She cast a glance at Riley. "If it gets bad, if he goes too far, it'll be you that has to put him down."

Soap scoffed. "Why'd we do tha'? Hope he gives 'em hell."

"The only thing that kept Nikolai on our side was John Price," she said. "And once he's finished tearing through Ultranationalists and realises it hasn't healed his grief, or brought him peace, who do you think a man like Nikolai will come for next?"

They stood in silence.

***

"König, ich möchte dich einstellen."

"Ha! Nikolai? Was ist mit Chimera passiert?"

"Dafür brauche ich eine andere Strategie."

***

"Do your worst. I have nothing to tell you," the prisoner spat, a globule and saliva and blood landing on the floor near Nik's boot. Nik had already torn out three teeth with pliers, broken his ribs and two fingers. The man, one Ivan Yegerov, was tied to the chair with rope and barbed wire, which meant every convulsion tore into his skin, leaving deep welts of rended flesh leaking onto the floor.

He wasn't the first. Not even tonight.

Nikolai had shattered Yegerov's friend's skull with the wrench propped up against the wall nearby. The blood had spattered up his bare torso, matting his chest hair, stained the side of his face. Shirtless, with a buzzcut he hadn't worn since his time in the Russian Air Force, he looked every part the madman he had become. He had ignored Laswell's attempts to contact him, leaving bodies for her men to find, with notes pinned to their foreheads containing their sins. She had stopped trying after two years, but he knew she was still following his blood trail.

Yegerov and his ally had been at the base in Ukraine and, with KorTac's help, it had been a simple matter of extracting key links in the chain for a conversation. Nikolai was tracking them down, one by one, and once he was done there, he would make his way slowly to the top.

"This is not an interrogation," Nik said as he ran his fingers over the tools on the table. "This is revenge. The interrogation will start soon."

Nik selected a serrated hunting knife and turned it over his fingers as he walked towards his captive. Yegerov leaned back in the chair as Nik planted his hands over his broken wrists, seething and whimpering in pain. "Do you know the best way to extract information?" Nik asked. Yegerov said nothing, so Nik squeezed his wrists. "Answer."

"Ah, no! No! I do not."

"They truly do not make terrorists like they used to," Nik said quietly. "I will tell you." Nik ran the tip of the hunting knife down Yegerov's cheek as he spoke, not quite pressing hard enough for it to cut in yet. "You must find a bargaining chip. Every man has something in their life that they cannot live without, a line they will not cross. It is their reason to breathe, it governs their actions, it helps them... find their limit."

Nik stood up straight and reached into his back pocket, his fingers skimming over the folded boonie hat threaded through his belt loops. The picture he pulled out was crumpled and worn, spattered with sweat and blood. It had been pristine when he had snatched it from the overhead screen of his Black Hawk, the rage running in torrents of tears down his face as he had pressed it to his lips.

He had torn himself out of it, because he looked nothing like the man he had; his hair buzzed down to a military shave, his body leaner, his eyes dead. Only John remained, with his big grin and his glittering eyes. Nik pushed the picture close to Yegerov's face as he had done with every man he had killed so far. "He was my line. My reason to breathe. And you took him away."

Yegerov squinted, terrified eyes lifting away from the picture of a smiling John Price to Nik's. Before he could say anything, the nearby door burst open and König forced two hooded figures through in front of him, one so small he barely reached his hip. "Ah, bargaining chips," Nikolai stood, throwing the hunting knife to the table. "Shall we find your line, comrade?"

König shoved his hostages forward to stand before Yegerov and then tore their hoods off. Yegerov let out a strangled wail of horror as he drank in the tear-stained faces of his wife and daughter. "No, no!"

"This is how it works," Nikolai said. "You give me name of someone who will know the current whereabouts of Makarov, and I will allow you to choose who survives." It was unlikely Yegerov would know anything. Nik just wanted him to experience the feeling of powerlessness as his loved ones died before his eyes.

The same feeling Nik had felt when he had been considering turning his Black Hawk towards the White House; suicide by F-15. Numb emptiness, desperation, a bottomless, writhing grief that shredded his heart. He had decided then to leave a trail of bodies in his wake first, only then would he join John.

"No, please... please, no."

Nik picked up his M9 and checked the magazine. "I count down; five, four..." He pulled back the pistol slide and turned the weapon first to the woman, who cowered, clutching her child's head to her chest.

"Please, she is just a child!"

"...three, two.."

"Wait! Wait! He's alive!"

Nik's finger lifted from the trigger just as he was about to pull it, settling along the barrel. He looked first to König, and then to Yegerov. "Repeat."

"He's alive... John Price," Yegerov said, almost hyperventilating. "Stop pointing that gun at my wife! I will tell you! Tell you everything. Please."

Nik hesitated. For the first time since this crusade had begun, he hesitated. He returned the M9 to the table and trudged back to his captive, both hands slamming down onto his broken wrists. "If you are lying to me, I will make you watch as I peel every inch of skin from your wife's body while she is still alive."

Yegerov swallowed. "On her life, he is alive. Prisoner 627. He is at a gulag in Petrovpavlosk. Please. He is alive. You can check using my... my passkey in our system. Do not kill my family. Mercy."

Nikolai looked at König who inclined his head, disappearing from the room to follow the lead. The two hostages sank against the wall, whimpering and shivering, and Nik straightened slowly. His fingers ghosted over John's hat, and then found his picture again. Hope was a dangerous thing and Nik resisted the heat of it burning in his chest. "Mercy is for those with a heart," Nikolai said. "You tore mine out the day you took him from me. Pray that we find him."

***

"This belongs to you, sir."

***

Price watched the drills in the parade square outside and wondered whether the drill sergeant noticed the trooper lagging slightly out of step in the third row.

The medics had cleared him to leave. There was a pamphlet about PTSD shoved in the side pocket of his bag, and he had weekly meetings with the base psychologist until they were happy he wasn't going to snap at the wrong moment. He wasn't sure what the road forward looked like, or how to even take the first step, but there was one person who he knew he wanted to be there when he did.

The door behind him opened and Price turned. The man that stood in the doorway was leaner than he remembered, his black hair cut in a military-short back and sides he hadn't seen for nearly a decade. Nikolai looked knackered, no better than Price did, which was understandable given what Price had been told.

Nik walked in tentatively, as if he felt like he was intruding, and that cut Price down to the quick. If there was one fuckin' person he had wanted to see all this time, it was the weary Russian pilot currently stood before him. He surged forward, wrapping his arms around Nik's broad chest and burying his face in his shoulder. Nik squeezed him back, just as desperate.

They held each other in the quiet, confirming, checking they weren't dreaming, until finally Price pulled away to study Nik's face. "Yer hair looks shit," he croaked.

Nik smiled, just as lopsided as Price remembered. "And your beard is bad."

"Least I had an excuse," Price said, scratching at the scruffy stubble on his jaw.

Nik's eyes saddened. "As did I." He lifted a hand and cupped Price's face, bringing their foreheads together. "My life ended when I lost you."

"Ya didn't lose me. Ya found me, didn'tcha? Tore the world to pieces, Simon said."

"My hands got dirty, John," Nik rasped.

"Dirty so that my men could stay clean.'

Nik lifted his face away, studying Price's eyes, looking for condemnation, anger, disgust. He would find none of it, Price was certain. All he felt in that moment was gratitude, relief, exhaustion.

"Laswell has agreed to waive my arrest warrant," Nik said, clearing his throat. "Under the agreement that I am to retire when we have defeated Makarov."

"Sounds fair. I've always thought ye'd make a good stay at home husband."

Nik looked startled, and Price leaned in to kiss the stupid look right off his face. Bewilderment broke into relieved laughter, and then eventually tears. Price held Nikolai's face to his shoulder as the sobs shuddered through his body.

"S'olright, I'm home."

[remember-the-fanfics]

Imagine the first time Gen z Overlord meeting Angel Dust for the first time when Charlie and Vaggie brought Angel Dust to the hotel while GenZ reader was in the hotel preparing the welcome party preparations with Razzle and Dazzle, GenZ reader ignores Angel Dust's attitude and is kind and respectful to him by giving Ángel Dust cake that Genz reader for him?😃😃

"Razzle, Dazzle! This has to be perfect for Charlie and Vaggie will be back with the first guest!" Yelled (Y/n) decorating the not completely burned cake, the last two burnt cakes will be eaten by them or the tiny dragons.

"No- alittle to the left! No Razzle, that's down- finally thank you!" (Y/n) yelled watching the two put up a sign. "Okay, so I don't want to pressure whoever is coming so I think 'HELL-O (the o is silent)' is funny, it's a pun. I'm totally not feeling stressed about this." (Y/n) voiced to Razzle and Dazzle as the two came over to see the cake, words looking like it was blood and covered in rainbow sprinkles.

The pair looked at (Y/n) blankly.

"I used all the white with the actual frosting and being in hell most colors are red, black, and death."

"-and this is the entrance and Oh wow." (Y/n) heard Charlie say, they brought the cake towards the group. "You really decorated well, (Y/n)."

(Y/n) sees Charlie leading a fluffy yet skinny spider man sinner from the doorway with Vaggie trailing behind.

"Thank you, it was mostly Razz and Dazz since I was baking a cake for the guest." (Y/n) said putting the cake on a conveniently placed table, dusting off their hands. "Who are you?"

"You live under a rock? I'm Angel Dust, everyone on the streets knows me or wishes to." He said and (Y/n) blanking starred up at him.

"W-well (Y/n) here doesn't usally watch what you usally star in Angel." Said Charlie.

"Oh! He's an Actor then? I don't often watch TV, I'm usually working or helping Charlie." Said (Y/n) before Angel Dust started to laugh.

"I've never meet anyone who hasn't already seen all of me if you get what I mean." He finished and looked at the cake. "Hah. Funny if it didn't look like a rainbow was trying find me but thanks. Just know I'm only here for the free grub and room."

"Well I hope you atleast give a chance one or twice." Said (Y/n) before a sound from the kitchen was heard. "Shit, they're trying to eat the burnt cakes." They yelled rushing towards.

"How many did you burn? Razzle, Dazzle. Don't eat to much!" Said Charlie speeding after them.

"You never said you had child labor." Said Angel Dust taking a bite of his cake.

"(Y/n) was technically an adult when they dead also they are an Overlord."

"That explains why they've never watch porn with me in it-. Wait. How the hell does that child have that much power?! That's like giving a toddler a knife."

"I questioned it everyday."

-

"Isn't Angel Dust a drug?" Asked (Y/n), sharing the last burnt cake with Vaggie and Charlie because Angel Dust kept his.

"It another word for PCP." Said Vaggie, slightly cringing on how the cake was somehow raw and brunt at the same time.

"Like a pipe for plumbing?"

"That's PCV, kid. How do you not know these things?" Asked Angel.

"I died before I could I guess, my parents would probably kill me if they ever saw me with any drugs." Said (Y/n) shrugged. "So what kind of actor are you? I feel like i heard your name before since you mentioned it earlier."

"I'm porn star."

"...Well that explains alot of why people would be weird when I asked who they were talking about. I hope you enjoy your stay."

[artbyblastweave]

🔥 Sidekicks?

Sidekicks are interesting because they were genuinely a very common type of character for a while- almost every cape in the golden age had one- but they've kind of been a dead horse trope ever since Spider-Man demonstrated that you could straight up mainline a teenage hero without making them the ward or pageboy of a thirty-something masculine power fantasy. Almost every example of the type at DC or Marvel has been allowed to age out of the role, and every contemporary sidekick character I've seen in Indie stuff is a riff on Robin specifically- the sole surviving example where they've done the legwork to justify the continued existence of that costumed identity within the fiction. I've got mixed feelings on that, because the titanic presence of Batman and Robin in the cultural imagination means that that'll basically always be a relevant target to take a swipe at, but at the same time, we get it. It would fuck you up trying to live up to the expectations of the senior superhero in the partnership. Half of all officially published plots involving Robin is about how it's fucking him up (whoever he currently is) to try and live up to the expectations of the senior superhero in the partnership. Yes there's a weird age gap, yes it's child endangerment, we get it. This is covered ground.

The controversial element is that years on, I'm still kind of fascinated by what The Dark Knight Returns has to say on this topic; despite that comic's many flaws, I'm willing to extend a handicap to a lot of its deconstructive ideas simply because they hadn't been done totally to death yet at the time of the comic's publication. I inherited an older edition of the book from an uncle, and in that edition Miller discusses in the introduction that an impetus for the comic was his realization that Batman, the thirtysomething paternal figure, never gets old or weak the way real fathers do, never receives the scrutiny a fifty-something receives from their grown children regarding how they were raised. And this line of thinking is so so visible in the book proper- At the start, Bruce is emanating intense "divorced dad who knows perfectly well why his adult children aren't calling him" vibes. The fact that Dick is clearly alive but wants nothing to do with him, just hanging over the book as this unseen presence, is really interesting (until Strikes Again came along and fucked that right to death.) Jason's involvement in this lifestyle got him killed (years before they killed him for real!) and that was a bucket of cold water that snapped Batman out of the fantasy for about ten years- but ten years on Bruce has Jason on a pedestal in his inner monologue because the dead can't question the project or distance themselves from it the way that Dick has. There's something very deliberately uncomfortable, too, about the progression of Batman's relationship with Carrie Kelley; sure, she's living out every kid's fantasy of riding out on adventures with Batman- giving children in the readership the ability to project themselves that role is the entire reason Robin exists, metatextually- but we also see in real time how near death experiences are cutting through the fantasy to fuck her up, and how there's an uncomfortable co-dependency kind of thing that's quickly forming between her and Bruce. The comic doesn't pass a clear-cut judgement on this dynamic; personally I find it difficult to cleanly separate what's deliberate commentary from Miller's habitual Weirdness About Women- but I'm compelled by it regardless.

[barghest-land]

someone asked me not a long time ago, why i get upset if anyone kills a spider in my presence. here's my not very little answer. idk. thoughts,,

i like little things. tiny creatures that crawl around here and there. i think spiders are cute, and when i look at one, my brain goes to my childhood, where i was spending time watching cross orbweavers weave their webs every late evening. watching them do that was an escape for me. every summer i had a few spiders in our garden that i would name and check on them every night. what did they caught? did they eat? how is their web? did they molt? how are they doing? lifting rocks was always about finding something under them. going outside in the night with a flashlight was a whole adventure of "who will i see today in the grass" and realizing that after the sunset life is completely different. i was always afraid of the dark, and big pitch black sky with the stars kinda scared me as a child. so when i was overwhelmed by the space and the feeling of how small and meaningless and lost on a rock in an endless cosmos i am, i was looking under my feet with a flashlight to find something even smaller, closer, familiar and calming. seing tiny creatures was always about learning to understand, to be curious, and to be gentle. to understand that even if you don't mean to, you can hurt someone by accident, and they can get scared and bite back, so better be gentle to begin with. it was about learning to be kind. it was also learning about life and death since they live much shorter life. to appreciate a moment that can't last forever. seeing people around them was sometimes a lesson about hate, that was quite confusing to me. i didn't understand why would people just go to something small and smash it. later on in life, when i was bullied in school i didn't try to see a reason. lesson learned, i thought. people tend to hate when you somehow, in their mind, don't belong somewhere. but growing up loving small things was such a nice experience. i've seen a lot. i've learned a lot. i've held so many beautiful creatures in my hands. so yes, i get upset if people kill spiders, insects, crustaceans, worms etc when i'm around. i don't see it being necessary. and yes, there aren't many very poisonous things where i live. still, anywhere you are there are a few options if there's a spider on a wall. so yes, again, i love little things crawling around. during winter, with no little crawlies outside, the world is awfully dead and quiet to me. all little random house spiders are welcome to make their web somewhere in the corner of my room. if a spider is reading this - you are always welcome, i love u

[fallenfrommars6277]

I didn't see anyone address to this properly, so I'm going to try to put into words something that I've been thinking since my rewatch of Dead Boy Detectives.

I've seen some people saying that Edwin's punishment in hell doesn't make any sense because he doesn't belong there and honestly I don't entirely agree. I mean, Edwin's designated afterlife isn't hell of course, but I think his punishment has a meaning.

We can see that hell is shaped quite like Dante's hell and we can only suppose that it works like it as well, so the souls receive a punishment that is an analogy or a contraposition to their guilt, that means that the punishment is somehow similar to their guilt and what they did in their life or the complete opposite.

Therefore, we see the lustful people indulging in their pleasure, the greedy people eating and vomiting, the slothful not being able to move, Maxine tearing her letters and of course Simon. He keeps tearing the pages of a book with the initials of himself and Edwin, his secretly and impermissibly loved one, causing himself little paper cuts that seem no big deal, but they are endless: an infinite number of little hurts, that put together of course aren't so little anymore. But what's the meaning behind his punishment? Well, I think it's an analogy to the feelings he must have felt when he was alive, I mean, he was gay in a male boarding school and he was in love with Edwin, he must have suffered a constant little pain reminding him of his "guilt".

And Edwin's line "if you punish yourself everywhere becomes hell" kinda pairs with it: it's not like he's in hell because of his sense of guilt, of course he's there because he participated in the ritual that killed Edwin, but we see that his designated afterlife isn't hell, he's stuck there because he thinks he's guilty, not of having killed Edwin or at least not only, he feels guilty for his feelings for him.

Moving to Edwin, I think that it's the same thing. He goes to hell only because he's the victim of a sacrifice but he's also stuck there in his endless and cyclic torture: he is chased by a giant spider made of dolls, that no matter how hard he tries to outrun (or maybe precisely because he tries so hard to run away) catches him and tears him apart and basically eats him "alive".

Finally getting to the point, I don't know if I'm delirious but I see an analogy between this punishment and Edwin's life. I mean, I don't think that he's finding out now that he likes boys, I think that now he's being able to acknowledge it to himself and to others, but if we think of the scene at school when Simon goes to him and he runs away (he then points it out clearly saying that he used to run every time he tried to get closer), I think that it's actually clear that he's feeling something. Of course, they're feelings that he's not allowed to feel (or worse, they're feelings no one talks about at his time, it's like they shouldn't even exist), but you can't stop a feeling, you can act in denial, tell yourself and others that it's nothing, but you still feel that feeling, whether you want it or not. And that feeling pressed down to your core tries every way to burst out and if it can't find a way, it simply tears you apart and eats you from the inside.

So, just like when he was alive he kept running from his feelings, that eventually would have broken him into pieces (because if he kept living he probably would have had a life torn apart between who he really was and how he had to appear), in his death he is condemned to run away from the spider made of dolls (why the dolls? I don't know, maybe they refer to his "feminine side", the boys that sacrifice him call him Mary Ann after all, but I'm not sure) that tears him apart and eats him whole.

Again, maybe I'm just obsessing real hard, but either way I don't think that Edwin's punishment is just meaningless.

[ttkinnie]

Tokyo Revengers characters as animals 💖 (for no reason)

Kazutora: let's start with the most obvious one, our resident tiger. Which is funny considering he gives 0 tiger vibes. Or maybe rescued declawed tiger from an abusive circus. Wait a sec... Hanma and Kisaki have a circus theme going on... why did I never notice this? This starts well. Saddest tiger pic I could find

Baji: A black gray wolf of course. 'nuff said

Chifuyu: A cat. Kitty kitty meow meow. Not crazy enough to be orange, but he's gotta have green eyes and a kind face. This tuxedo:

Koko: Talking about cats, here he is. Most obvious choice I've ever made. Black cat of course, very fancy, will knock shit off the counter and eats only the most expensive wet food

Inupi: second most obvious one because you've gotta pick the race of the dog too. I say he's the only serious golden retriever you've ever seen.

Takemichi: A mouse. He is squeaky and scared, looks like he eats cheese. Very cute. Big eyes.

Hinata: A doe, beautiful and kind but will ram into you if you touch her loved ones

Naoto: a buck because I am unoriginal. he does give off buck vibes tho

Hanma: I know the official art makes him a caracal but I love being contradictory so maned wolf it is. Plus look at its long legs and creepy demeanor, it's him

Kisaki: Listen, I am not the most partial person when it comes to him. He's my little meow meow, I wanna put either cat or bunny ears on him and squish his cheeks. But! Let's be honest, that boy is a snake. The deadliest snake in the world, the saw scaled viper, not the most venomous but highly aggressive. He eats mouse Takemichi for breakfast. Also look at its scales, they remind me of his adult hair.

Mikey: A honey badger, small and cute but will bite your balls off and kill your family for fun.

Draken: A lion, beautiful mane and a symbol of strength. Lives among a tribe of lionesses (lucky him)

Mitsuya: I do not like spiders. At all. But an animal literally producing silk is the only choice for Mitsuya. However I am not masochistic so i won't put a spider image, just the web

Taiju: Great white shark. Very smooth skin. Anyone who tells you they have sandpaper skin is lying.

Hakkai: A seal, same eyes, same innocence, favorite prey of the great white shark

Yuzuha: An orca, beautiful but deadly. Only predator of the great white shark. Also eats seals but let's not comment on that. I support women's wrongs.

Pah-chin: it's too cliché to put warthog here, so i won't. He's a cane toad, one of the stupidest animal on Earth, one of their most common cause of death is eating shit they shouldn't because they stuff their mouth without thinking. They also hump anything, including dead animals from another species, and lay their eggs anywhere, which leads to a high mortality rate among their offspring. Why did I give so many facts? I don't know. Look at it.

Peh-yan: A tarsier. it's the eyes.

Sanzu: Arctic hare, crazy eyes and a gift for divination if you can understand his language

Senju: a cutie baby. Bunny x2, will kick you.

Takeomi: a rat. I am not a hater, rats can be cute, but this guy definitely gives off rat vibes

Wakasa: So very pretty. White leopard of course.

Benkei: A bull. I always thought his tattoos were a bull, but I was wrong I just looked it up. Still a bull.

Shinichiro: This one was though, but I'd say a koala. I'm partial about it, but I feel like he would give his children poop to eat, and their reproductive habits are also not a good look on them.

Emma: Japanese dwarf flying squirrel because I play favorites and that's the cutest little furball ever. it looks like it's wearing eyeliner

Izana: Another small but deadly thing, the Australian box jellyfish, found notably along the coast of Malaysia (I feel so clever right now)

Kakucho: Fiercely loyal dog, he's a Rottweiler. Don't tell me Izana and him don't have some kind of puppy play going on.

Ran: Secretary bird. Canonically hates Kisaki which explains why he stomps snakes to death. Wears killer eyeshadow and looks like they hate your fashion style

Rindou: Did you know a group of male Pacific tree frogs is called a chorus? me neither, which is why Rindou is a Pacific tree frog. Peace of music, yeah

Mucho: Polar bear, cold and aggressive. Plus arctic hare and polar bear, there's a theme

[archive-professional-jaywalker]

Vermin

a short essay about being bug hearted, and killing bugs.

I think one of the most cruel thing to love might be invertebrates. Insects. Arachnid. Worms. Pest. With any other animal, it is seen as unreasonable to want to eradicate. Some insects do manage to earn human's favors, bees (but only the useful ones), moths and butterflies (but only the cute ones), and if you're facing a true bug lover, beetles and dragonflies and perhaps even spiders and centipedes and scorpions. But not all, and it's still simply reasonable, to hate even seeing them.

I've loved bugs since I was a kid. I think it felt wrong not to, because people didn't like them, and people didn't like me. I don't think I've ever understood what in how they move felt less alive for people than a puppy. Still now I love bugs. I love mosquitos and I love botflies and I love hornets and tiny annoying ants that crawl through the windows and cockroaches and the wasp that stung me on the thumb when I accidentally grabbed a stick she was resting on when I was 9.

You cannot possibly live a human life without killing countless things. It's impossible. The most vegan, most peaceful human, refusing to walk on grass to not harm the grasshopper that didn't jump fast enough, will not be able to live a life without killing an insect even accidentally. It's something I have thought about a lot overall. I'm not vegan. I've thought about it. It would make sense, I don't see a lot of difference between my own flesh and the flesh I eat. But somehow it feels even more insulting, to be something that kills, and to pretend I don't. I eat insects, too. I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly how I feel about it all.

Maybe it makes me an hypocrite, to be so perturbed about the way people treat insects when I still eat meat. But it's, I think, in the end, the fracture between someone seeing a dead cow, and a dead fly. Most people wouldn't have the courage to kill a cow. They would feel guilt. In fact, a lot of people already hide the fact that meat is flesh and is, strictly speaking, part of a cadaver. People who refuse to eat a fish with the head. Pork, not pig. Beef, not cow. I hate that too. But insects ? People kill a fly without even thinking about it. It's annoying, then it's dead. A dead fly doesn't elicit guilt.

People expect me to be the same. Even knowing I love insects, it's seen as amusing that I acknowledge them as more than a mindless automaton, and, if I can, if it costs me nothing, avoid killing them. I have killed countless insects. I've had to, purposefully, many many many times. But it is, in fact, killing. I just want to be allowed to recognize that.

I work in a lab, on ants. We dissected more than a hundred, ovaries, poison gland, brains, understanding how they work, how differentiation happens and how they communicate it. Reconstructing brains to evaluate changes in different structures, measuring how many proto-egg each individual has post-dissection and correlation to dominance, reading articles and articles about theory.

These specific ants like shallow humid grooves for their nest. Today we tested a large foraging arena, brightly lit for the cameras, dry, wide, open, empty. Ants panic after being picked up even with the least harmful tools we have. When in an unfamiliar space, we've had them in the past run until they died of exhaustion, unable to find the entry of the nest to hide. Two of them were placed in the foraging arena to test the cameras, test if we could read the tags they have on their back. Again and again, they like to follow the walls, possibly because it feels less exposed. And again and again, they stop, groom each other, and calm down if they meet, huddled into each other.

I can't claim to know what's going on in ants brain, whether they feel things similarly to us. But it's hard not to project.

Ant tagged 16, and ant tagged 12, close, unmoving.

[thesummerstorms]

The other thing that I think I would want in an Annabeth Wayne AU that I don't think I've seen so far is Bruce being absolutely pissed at Athena.

It was bad enough with Talia and Damian, but Athena is a literal god of wisdom who should know better AND he doesn't even have the "culpability" of having slept with her.

She one hundred percent saw Batman, tactician of the Justice League, was drawn in by her aspect of the Goddess of Strategy, and proceeded to create a child without his consent, a daughter who she didn't even raise before the child became a weapon.

And like whatever else, however fucked up Damian was by his own training to become a child-weapon, at least Talia loved Damian.

Whereas Athena loves Annabeth in the way a Goddess loves, not the way a Person loves, and I don't think Bruce, whose entire identity is so fixated on his relationship with his own parents, would recognize that as love at all.

And, like, Talia put Damian through a lot of shit. I think Bruce would be angry there too. But when push came to shove, she at least at some point brought him to Bruce because she thought it was in her son's best interests.

Athena actively lead Annabeth away from Bruce and into the streets at the age of seven, which Bruce would never see as in her best interest, whatever Athena's godly perspective is, however badly he reacted after Jason's death, even though he couldn't see (and dismissed the idea of) the spiders and the monsters. She was seven. In the streets of Gotham.

Athena let Annabeth fight a major role in two wars back to back without being there to train her or protect her or love her or even advise her. Athena advocated for the cold blooded murder of the other children who had actually tried to keep his daughter safe. Athena sent Annabeth against Arachne when Athena's children have universally died on that quest for a thousand years.

Athena let Bruce think he had gotten Annabeth killed because of his own inability to handle his grief. Let him think his daughter was dead or worse for years. Would have let him keep thinking that if the Fates didn't have other plans.

And just, in true fashion for all of my ideas on a PJO x DC crossover, everyone really comes out more traumatized than before. This includes Bruce.

Because now he wasn't just used unknowingly for a child just once, but twice. And in both cases he's going to have to live forever with the guilt of not having been able to protect his kids from what their other parent wanted to make of them

(On top of all the ways he has directly failed them and made any complexes worse, of course )

[shadowknightapologist]

my dead shadowknight post brought up some concerns that i wanna respond to :3

WARNINGS FOR: brief mentions of misogyny, drugging, human trafficking, horror, body horror, torture, murder, and sexual assault.

anyway if you're new to my blog i write about a lot of dark shit? shadowknights are cannibals in my rewrite. gene is a fucking freak and torments dante for like a week by leaving headless things on his doorstep. shadowknights get parasites. the nether is a living organism so the entire realm is like,, meat and flesh and bone and blood. i'm not sure if i've said this, but shadowknight bodies usually fall apart so they can be remade stronger, like molting for a spider.

i love minecraft diaries, but in my head it's dark all on its own? like there are quite a few rape implications (gene and the lord's daughter, and i think i've seen some convos about michi being implied to have assaulted laurance asp? not sure but yeah), drugging + human trafficking, misogyny, torture, murder, even killing your OWN kid (irene and her daughter), etc.

i know full-well that what i write about is dark, but that's why i always put warnings at the top of my post so people can avoid it. if people feel like my warnings are inaccurate, or that i should start putting them in the tags, please let me know! because i'm more than willing to do that so people can be safe and selective about the material they're consuming.

anyway sorry this is rambly!! again i'm not mad :) i'm going to put a warning on my introduction post, but from here on out: if dark themes like murder, cannibalism, body horror, etc. disturb you, this isn't the blog for you!

thank you :3

[iztarshi]

I think Phantom Tales of the Night has the most varied monsters I've seen in a manga. Not physically, but in the way they think, so that even the monsters themselves can struggle to understand one another.

Spoilers ahead, because figuring out how these monsters think and what they're doing and even which people are monsters is a lot of the manga's mystery.

You've got Butterfly, very young by monster standards and with his youth extended by his recurrent amnesia, who is born from a collection of lost human souls although he's not human himself. Even the older monsters trying to parent him don't really know what he is or what he should be so their attempts to guide him into "growing up" can hinder him as much as help.

Bone Monk is blunt and practical. He only wants to gather the bones of the dead and make them into pottery, which might seem morbid but seems genuinely to be born of compassion. As Owner puts it he gathers up the broken and discarded.

Spider used to be human and although he thinks differently after hundreds of years he's still human at base.

The Foxes are malicious and careless, gambling for humans in order to steal their skins and lives only to discard them when they get bored. But we also meet a Tanuki who takes the skin of a dead human out of compassion in order to raise her daughter instead of leaving the child an orphan, so Beasts are not always like that.

Sasaki, as a being who can regenerate from a single bone again and again into a half-skeletal man, is probably a true-born monster and was never human at all. But he thinks exactly like a human, and a compassionate and level-headed human at that, which leads to him trying to spend lifetimes among humans. He understands humans the way they'd understand each other, but always feels he's hiding a terrible secret.

Owner, as a formless creature of darkness, is revealed to have probably had good intentions in the end but his approach to problem solving is so alien that that "probably" remains. He only gave himself a face and identity so Sasaki (after one offer to be friends with him made as a tiny bone) would be able to find him again and it remains his nature to be ambiguous. The blurred line between monstrous curiosity, wanting to learn how humans act in circumstances he sets up including cruel ones, and strange ways of helping, which often include letting humans blame him if it would be easier than blaming other humans or themselves, always lingers.

[kanansdume]

So I read Mace Windu: Glass Abyss recently and I'd give it a solid 8.5-9/10. It'd be a 10/10 if the author and I agreed on more things, but there's enough places where we clearly differ in our interpretations that I had to put it a little lower.

But it's a really good read, and the author very clearly ADORES Mace Windu and made sure that this narrative allows him to be not just well-rounded and fleshed out, but really absurdly COOL and even desirable, too, which is awesome! The last time someone clearly wanted to let Mace be THIS level of cool was probably the 03 Clone Wars show and the Prequel Trilogy itself.

The worldbuilding for the new planet introduced in this book is also really exceptional. It's a planet whose star basically glasses it every 1000 years and so the animals have evolved to be able to manage that somehow and all of the regular people living on the planet move down underground into this massive geode cave several layers deep with the primary villain living in a giant floating castle suspended by the silk of the native sapient Force sensitive spider worms. There's an entire community living among these giant bioluminescent mushrooms described much like forest elf communities are often described, except it's giant bioluminescent mushrooms instead of trees. It's insane and it's ridiculous and I don't even care because it's just SO visceral and SO cool to hear about.

The inner politics of the worldbuilding are really good, too, with the floating castle having been stolen from the wealthy people who'd lived on the surface before the planet got glassed recently and who now live a life of poverty below ground, and the various different groups of people and beings who call the planet home, both native and settler and how those groups have learned to live together or not. A lot of the political worldbuilding also felt very intentionally paralleled to the upcoming galactic civil war that's going to break out within the next 10 years that will define the end of Mace's life, and it felt really clear but also really organically woven into the story being told without being super heavy-handed and on the nose.

I ADORED the relationship we get to see between Mace and Qui-Gon. It's set post-TPM, so Qui-Gon is obviously recently dead, but the entire plot is set off by Qui-Gon having recorded a message for Mace before he died that asks him to take on this mission in his place if he doesn't make it, so Qui-Gon is a major presence throughout the narrative even if he isn't actually there in person. Mace genuinely cannot stop thinking about Qui-Gon for the first 50-60% of the novel, every few pages he thinks of something Qui-Gon had mentioned about the planet or something about Qui-Gon that he remembers or a personality trait of Qui-Gon's that Mace chooses to embody for the moment. His entire perception of the world and its problems ends up based on dejarik, a game he explicitly associates with Qui-Gon because they used to play it a lot and Qui-Gon was really good at it and always beat him. It's so so clear in this story that Mace LOVED Qui-Gon, a LOT, and is really deeply saddened by his death and is working through his grief for Qui-Gon through this mission, and it's that grief for Qui-Gon that sort-of pulls up some of the other feelings he hasn't fully dealt with yet. It's just such a different take on this relationship than I think I've seen almost anywhere else.

The narrative itself isn't bad. I'm not a HUGE political thriller person, and it did feel a little overstuffed for me sometimes, but as I mentioned earlier, it does feel a lot like it's paralleling the Clone War and I appreciated the metaphor of it and what it was saying about the galaxy and the Republic and the Jedi and all the choices that get made down the line. The villain was intriguing as a concept, but again I think I appreciated him more as a metaphor than as a character in and of himself.

And finally, there is... the romance. I have conflicting feelings about this romance. On the one hand, Mace Windu gets to be an incredibly desirable character within the narrative for possibly the first time ever, he gets to fall in love with and be intimate with a beautiful alien princess who thinks he's incredible, and I do love that for him on a meta level. This is a really new thing for this character and I don't want to ignore how important it is for him to have something like this, especially with how often this kind of narrative gets given to the other characters like Obi-Wan and Anakin. Mace is so often left out of these big epic romances and very rarely considered someone THIS desirable or even someone who would feel this kind of desire for someone else, so in that sense it feels really unique and really important.

But on the other hand, this is where I feel like the overstuffed complaint makes itself most known. The romance itself SORT-OF fits into the story and the themes of the book, but it also very much feels like an afterthought and doesn't have quite enough time given to it to make it feel super believable as a really meaningful relationship between these two characters. There's so much time having to be spent on the worldbuilding and the political thriller plotline with all of the different groups of people involved in it that the romance feels a little like it just comes out of nowhere and like it's only there because the author wanted Mace to get together with a beautiful alien princess for the sake of having him get together with a beautiful alien princess rather than because it made sense for either character or the narrative itself. There's even a scene at the end where Qui-Gon reveals that he had a vision of Mace and this woman getting together and that's why he sent Mace there in the first place, and it just feels really forced.

There IS a running subplot for Mace about learning to let go of people and concepts he has about who he is/was in order to embrace who he CAN be, and the romance fits into that running theme, but it's also done through Qui-Gon and Mace's memories of his parents and the people from his home planet, so adding in a romance on top of that just seems like it's a little overdone and unnecessary. Personally, I think I'd have stuck with two of out of the three and gotten rid of one of the relationships he has to get rid of. I suppose there could be some idea of each relationship representing a different aspect of him (his family/people representing who he was before he was a Jedi or he could've been if he never became a Jedi, Qui-Gon represents the person he has been as a Jedi, and his love interest represents both the Jedi he will become and a path he could've taken if his life had been different). But those themes I think disappear a little into the more prevalent political narrative that has to take up so much room and Mace's personal development maybe doesn't connect as well to the themes of the political thriller plot as I'd like, which makes it feel somewhat unbalanced.

And finally, just as a personal thing, I'm a little tired of romance being used to explore a Jedi's relationship to being a Jedi. I recognize that it's new for MACE, and that's important, but I still feel like I'm tired of it as a trope for Jedi characters, and it didn't help that the romance felt underserved and unnecessary.

I also had some conflicting feelings about the way the Jedi were represented in the novel. Generally, it was done pretty positively. Mace obviously continues to choose to be a Jedi at the end of it and he seems pretty content with that choice. There's some sweet worldbuilding done about Jedi culture that I enjoyed as Mace flies over the Temple and remembers his life there. But there was also a few things that felt a little... off for me. Despite Mace's clear friendship with Qui-Gon and the depth of his feelings for him, as well as several moments with Yoda, Mace seems oddly disconnected from the Jedi with lines where he claims he has no friends among the Jedi because the Jedi don't HAVE friends for some reason. There's a bit where Mace claims that the Jedi don't learn a lot of unarmed combat because it's just "a stopgap until you get your lightsaber back" which seems a little odd for a group spending most of their time as mediators and diplomats since they're not currently at war. Mace sees some children on the planet and has a line where he seems to imply that Jedi children don't play because the Jedi are too focused on purpose and duty for that, which feels really odd. And Mace tells Yoda that they were "wrong to dismiss Qui-Gon's concerns about the Sith" which is just factually incorrect given that they almost immediately launch an investigation into the person Qui-Gon had fought in order to determine whether he WAS a Sith or not.

There's also moments that feel like clear metaphors for the position the Jedi get put in during the Clone War. Mace's female love interest feels like the two villains have to die in order for there to be peace, but her people don't believe in using violence and so it pains her to have to come to this conclusion and she wonders if it makes her a bad person. There's a scene later in the book where the civilians are starting to really feel the impact of the villains fighting each other and wonder why Mace hasn't stopped it and someone points out that they've been allowing their own suffering to go on for DECADES and now they're blaming Mace for not being able to solve it within a few days. So while the Jedi culture seems to be represented in a way that feels a little distant, a little cold, the Jedi themselves are represented pretty sympathetically, especially in terms of their actions and choices during the Clone War, so I do appreciate that.

Lastly, while I'm not a huge Vaapad fan and I feel like it misunderstands how the Force works in canon in some ways, it was used to really emphasize how Mace DOES struggle with his own fear and anger and uncertainty over things even later in his life and how balance is a lifelong journey of looking back at the things that built you and that continue to impact you. There are definite comparisons being made between Anakin and Mace here, both in the scenes where they actually interact and through the narrative Mace goes on alone afterward. Mace sees the potential for good as well as the very real potential for struggle, and then has to recognize his own struggles that he's been ignoring and move past them in order to reach his true potential. Mace struggles with the realization that he's actually pretty good at being a "bad guy" in this, that it would be SO EASY to let that consume him, and he has to work pretty hard to acknowledge that and keep himself from going down a road he can't justify. He IS good at killing, he could be an exceptional bad guy if he chose to be, but what keeps him from becoming the monster he swore he destroy is his willingness to acknowledge his own emotions, his fears and doubts, and overcome them.

Overall, there's SO MUCH to enjoy about the book. If you're interested in a story that is focused on making Mace Windu the coolest person alive with some really compelling worldbuilding that parallels the events of the Prequel Trilogy and Mace and the Jedi's part in it, this is the book for you.

[vendetta-if]

With recent superhero movies like The Flash and Across the Spider-verse dealing with things like time travel and alternate univierses. I'm curious about what would happen if similar happened and the MC wound up encountering Viktor from the Dead Man Walking AU?

Oooh that's angsty 😰 It would be filled with a tearful and heartfelt reunion. For those who haven't read it, I have made the Dead Man Walking AU side story public a while back and you can read it here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). Also, I've compiled a list of all the publicly available side stories here 😀

Viktor from the Dead Man Walking AU is really a husk of the man he once was. He has become someone who's very bitter and cynical, and he won't stop at anything to make those who took his child away from him pay in the worst way possible. The only reason he's still alive is out of pure spite; there's no way he's going to die as long as the killer is still alive.

So, yeah MC would be in for a bit of a surprise to see just how different their dad is from the one they know and remember. But Viktor would be even more surprised to see his kid all grown up now. He would definitely break down and cry while hugging MC tightly, not wanting to let go.

MC would tell him everything that has been going on in their life and for the first time in years, Viktor genuinely smiles--even though it's a wistful one. At least, he feels something other than the numbing pain, hatred, and anger. Rather than telling MC what he has been up to all these years, he would rather ask more about MC and what they like and stuff, whether they still love the same ice-cream flavour, and he would carve all those little details all his heart.

Funnily enough, meeting Viktor would end up being a good thing overall for MC and Luka and Grandpa from the current Vendetta universe. Hypocritically, Viktor would make the three of them promise to stop their foolish endeavour to avenge him, saying he never wanted or expected it from them. He would tell them to live their lives to the fullest and he would also make sure Luka knows that he's not at fault at all.

Basically, he would tie up all emotional loose ends that his alternate self had tragically left, and yes, even with Grandpa as well. As much as they had beef, they still care for each other. I think that will help MC, Luka, and Grandpa heal once Viktor returns to his own universe.

But for Viktor, once he returns to his own universe, that encounter just makes him sadder, angrier, and more spiteful. How could one not when he has seen what he could've had, what could've been? While MC and Luka can continue with their lives, for Viktor, MC was his future and everything... There is no moving on for him, only more burning desire to avenge his kid. And once he somehow manages that... Honestly, he has not expected to go that far.

[musedisorder]

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫?

A collection of my favorite lyrics from The Great Impersonator. Feel free to change as needed! Some of my favorites were too specific for roleplay so I did not add them. Namely from I Believe in Magic and Life of The Spider which are two of my favorite songs.

❛ Do you think they'd laugh at how I died? ❜

❛ I think I'm special 'cause I cut myself wide open as if it's honorable to bleed. ❜

❛ But I'm not lucky and I know I wasn’t chosen. ❜

❛ The world keeps spinnin' without me. ❜

❛ I wake up tired, think I'm better off dead. ❜

❛ I'm nervous what you'll think of me now. ❜

❛ I'm hoping that someone comes around and helps me figure it out. ❜

❛ I'm all grown up but somehow lately I'm acting like a fucking baby. ❜

❛ I'm really not as happy as I seem. ❜

❛ I'm still a little kid that can't make friends. ❜

❛ I wanna be invited, but I won't attend. ❜

❛ I wanna be cool, I don't wanna be pretty. ❜

❛ Nothing's as it seems. ❜

❛ I don't like the lie I'm living. ❜

❛ I'm way too nice and too forgiving. ❜

❛ It's all done now, who am I kidding? ❜

❛ I'm doing way worse than I'm admitting. ❜

❛ I'm really not that happy being me. ❜

❛ I'm trying to be positive. But oh, it's really hard. ❜

❛ I'm a loner, I'm a loser. ❜

❛ I'm on a real short leash, but I like it tight. ❜

❛ You know a mercy kill is what I seek. ❜

❛ I didn't ask to live, but dying's up to me. ❜

❛ Well, they say all dogs go to Heaven. Well, what about a bitch What about an evil girl left lying in a ditch? ❜

❛ Tell the three people who asked that I am in a better place. ❜

❛ 'Cause I'm not old, but I am tired. ❜

❛ I'm not strong, I'm very weak. ❜

❛ I have seen enough! I've seen it all! ❜

❛ I don't wanna hurt so get it over with quick. ❜

❛ Please, God, I wanna be loved. ❜

❛ I don't wanna be somebody that they wanna get rid of. ❜

❛ Every time you lean in closer, both my knees can't help but shake.❜

❛ I think you're a danger to my health, or so it seems. ❜

❛ Is it love or a panic attack? ❜

❛ Is a heavy heart too much to hold? ❜

❛ Because you make me fucking nervous and I don't know what it all means. ❜

❛ My spirit has been broken. ❜

❛ My optimism's getting sore. ❜

❛ I don't know if I can see you anymore. ❜

❛ I don't like to complain, but I'm saying sorry. ❜

❛ When I met you, I thought I was damaged goods. ❜

❛ If you knew it was the end of the world, would you like to stay a while? ❜

❛ Would you leave when it gets hard? ❜

❛ When I met you, I said I would never die. ❜

❛ The joke was always mine 'cause I'm racing against time. ❜

❛ Nothing good is free, but oh, it should be. ❜

❛ I still believe in Heaven, if they'll never let me in. ❜

❛ I think I might start tryin' because I haven't been. ❜

❛ Could all just be an answer to thosе prayers that came delayed? ❜

❛ Please, God, I don't wanna be sick. ❜

❛ I don't wanna be somebody that you're tryna get rid of. ❜

❛ There ain't a reason on this earth I'd go back to my hometown. ❜

❛ You know, I never felt like anyone, I was a paradoxal lie. ❜

❛ I didn't think that I was special, but I was too afraid to die. ❜

❛ I was trying to love you through an open wound 'cause everything I put inside there just fell right through. ❜

❛ If you only knew how bad it hurt me too. ❜

❛ You can rest your head down and not feel any shame. ❜

❛ I never loved you in vain. ❜

❛ You never listen and I'm terrible too. ❜

❛ If you stopped, I would've kissed you. ❜

❛ I almost thought I heard you call my name. ❜

❛ They say that God makes no mistakes, but I might disagree. ❜

❛ You all know something that I don't. ❜

Well, I was born all by myself It's not unlikely that I'll die that way as well. ❜

❛ I always knew I was a martyr. ❜

❛ I was built from special pieces that I learned how to unscrew. ❜

❛ I can always reassemble to fit perfectly for you. ❜

❛ So where do I go in the process when I'm just an apparatus? ❜

❛ I'm reduced to just a body here in someone else's bed. ❜

❛ When you're done, you can discard me like the others always do. ❜

❛ Your human starter kit came incomplete. ❜

❛ Fool me twice, the shame is on me. ❜

❛ Am I a victim in your game? ❜

❛ Can I take the blame for everything you hate? ❜

❛ The punishment and crime are not the same. ❜

❛ Somebody will love me for the way that I'm designed. ❜

❛ You smothered out the glow I grew for you, but it was mine too. ❜

❛ Have you ever been broken and thrown down? ❜

❛ Have you ever given the world to somebody as a gift and had it returned? ❜

❛ Did you know the father's DNA stays inside the mother for seven years? ❜

❛ Have you ever woken from a dream just to realize that you're still asleep? ❜

❛ Do you ever wish you were still asleep? ❜

❛ Do you ever wish you wouldn't wake up? ❜

I'm only small, I'm only weak.

❛ God, how could I even think of daring to exist? Looking just like this, I'm hideous.

❛ I worked real hard on the last one but the last one got me here. ❜

❛ I'm minding my own business but my presence makes you curse. ❜

❛ I should be getting better but I'm only getting worse. ❜

❛ And, God, how dare I even think of choosing here to die? 'Cause then, I'm just a problem that you have to take outside. ❜

❛ I know you hate the sight of me, I haunt you when you're fast asleep. ❜

❛ If only I had eight more lives. ❜

❛ You don't like it when I cry. ❜

❛ You would break me if you tried. And you will because I dared to be alive. ❜

❛ I'll never be like him. ❜

❛ You know my father isn't dead, but it don't feel like he's still here. ❜

❛ And my eyes tell me that he's harmless despite what my heart has to say. ❜

❛ So maybe just forget. Maybe move on, don't regret. ❜

❛ Or maybe this is just another trick that hasn't happened yet. ❜

❛ I thought that it was my fault and now sometimes I still do. ❜

❛ I can't bear to fake a smile when you walk into the room. ❜

❛ Everybody, get in line to meet the girl who flew too high. ❜

❛ Did it all to be included, my self-loathing so deep-rooted. ❜

❛ When I die, I won't have time to spend my money. ❜

❛ But I hope that you still love me. ❜

❛ A problem child, I was rough. But what do you do with a difficult grownup? ❜

❛ I thought I changed so much, nobody would notice it, and no one did. ❜

❛ I told everybody I was fine for a whole damn year. ❜

❛ Please, God, or whoever you are. ❜

❛ These days I get less calls 'cause no one wants to hear my voice. ❜

❛ I miss the days when I was gettin' texts that I could just avoid. ❜

❛ I don't ever wanna leave him, but I don't think it's my choice. ❜

❛ I don't think my pleas are heard because I'm screaming in the void. ❜

❛ Please, God, oh, you've gotta be sick. ❜

❛ Why do you make it hurt, and why's it over so quick? ❜

❛ Please, God, I'm finally loved. I finally found somebody I don't wanna get rid of. ❜

❛ You took a little while to respond to my prayer. ❜

❛ Please, God, no, this doesn't seem fair. ❜

❛ I'm tryin' not to show it, but I'm terribly scared. ❜

❛ They don't know I'm lonely. ❜

❛ They don't know I'm kind. ❜

❛ Does a story die with its narrator? ❜

❛ This is a cry for help, callin' for assistance. ❜

❛ What happened to the girl I knew? ❜

❛ I think I've been awake for days but it's so much fun. ❜

❛ I took another dose but I don't think it's micro. ❜

❛ Can't you see that I'm an imposter? ❜

❛ Where's the fun in doing well? ❜

❛ The good girls never kiss and tell. ❜

❛ I don't belong here, how 'bout you? ❜

❛ I still get punished for good deeds. ❜

[theyluvlyss]

𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 !

today, I figured I'd make a list of all of my DRs/places I'm shifting to :). I do actually have quite a bit, and while most of them aren't really all that fleshed out (I'll indicate which ones I have the most info on with a key), I figured it'd still be nice to share.

plus, who knows, maybe you'll find that we have a common DR that we can bond over🤷🏽‍♀️. you guys can even ask me whatever questions you want on any of the DRs you see listed below, and I'll be happy to answer them (it gives me an excuse to run my mouth💀). Also, I listed them in alphabetical order!

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

𝐤𝐞𝐲 :

♡ - fully scripted out/main DR

° - tons of lose ideas/thoughts

* - some lose ideas/thoughts

if there's no symbol, that means I have literally nothing on it to tell lmao (but I do welcome suggestions of any kind pertaining to literally anything, idc, I just want shifters to engage plz😭🙏🏽).

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 :

- avatar (the blue ppl lol)

- blue beetle

- avatar: the last airbender

- °darby and the dead

- *descendants

- °fairy tail

- *henry danger

- *insatiable

- *jessie

- *kick-ass

- marvel cinematic universe (mcu)

- °nope

- once upon a time

- *rise of the guardians

- ♡shazam!

- *shazam! (but it's a fairy shapeshifter(?) princess based one that has nothing to do with the plot of either of the previous movies, I'm just super in love with Billy lol)

- *spider-verse

- °speed racer

- *stranger things

- °super sons

- teen titans

- °the black phone (the grabber doesn't exist, nobody dies, but Max is the loveable local ‼️RECOVERING‼️ crackhead)

- *the imperfects

- *the walking dead game (except there's a cure for the zombies so that's cool)

──────────────

𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥/"𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐮𝐩" 𝐃𝐑𝐬 :

- *(teen/20s) actress

- (2000s) actress

- boarding/prep school

- *coven/witchcraft-popstars

- girl group/pop stars

- indie band

- *"last" person on earth

- metal band/rockstar

- *nepotism baby

- *rapper

- *reality tv show

- *runaway (with possible alien and/or power-having elements? idkidk-)

- *travel/vlogger

───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────

𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐩...

those are all my desired realities that I wanna shift to lmao😭. I know, it's quite a bit, but you've gotta understand, I was/am the type of person who - has not only constantly wanting a way out/knew there had to be more than, yk...THIS (if that makes sense) - but has always, always, always wanted to be apart of so many of the cool dynamics and whatnot I've seen in all of my fave medias. like, I'd give anything to live any one of these lives at least once, so ofc I have a lot😭✨️.

but anyways, yeah, like I said, feel free to just engage however you want, I truly just felt like showing them off and will definitely be expanding more on each one later in separate posts :)!

𝐜𝐲𝐚/ᐠ•˕•マ~!