#gritty kills tony stark
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starblightbindery · 4 months ago
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"Gritty Kills Tony Stark" by Copulation Matrix.
Bound in April 2023
❤️‍🔥A very short fic about restorative justice. ❤️‍🔥 Cased in orange faux fur with guillotine pendant decoration ❤️‍🔥 The signs held up by the people on the endpapers are the original tags on Ao3, and they are waving banners with the Flyers logo and Ao3 logo on them. ❤️‍🔥 Modified artwork of "La mort de Maximilien de Robespierre" by Giacamo Alprandi c.1799)
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tobiasdrake · 2 years ago
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The final fight between Obadiah and Tony is beautiful. It kinda sucks that they nerf Tony's suit in order to put him on an undeserved backfoot against Stane's more rudimentary armor. But, see, that's the thing.
At the end of the day, this isn't just about who can beat up who. A well-written fight is one that informs on the characters and themes. That tells a story through its action. And this is a very well-written fight.
We see Stane's cruelty and callousness through his disregard for civilian casualties on the highway. The moment where he tries to crush Tony with a car, only for Tony to catch the car and put it down safely? That's a statement on their respective values.
But moreover, the act of nerfing Tony creates a meaningful theme. Stane doesn't really care for the nitty-gritty of engineering and design. He's just a businessman. Sitting on a saleable stockpile of weapons designed by other people makes him feel powerful. Both his suit and the reactor powering it are stolen tech, but they're his now and that's all he cares about.
In this moment, Stane embodies Stark Industries itself as a defense contractor. Tony is fighting the shadow of weapons manufacturing. This wouldn't be a very meaningful confrontation if Tony could just shoot him with Tank Missiles and blow him up. Stane gets all the guns because the guns themselves are the true villains of this movie.
This leaves Tony on the back foot, as is typical of heroes when faced against their villains. But Tony has that one thing that Stane doesn't. The thing Stane covets. The thing Raza coveted. He has a brilliant mind, and that means more than any Tank Missile or Unibeam.
Stane has all the guns but lacks the knowledge or discipline that comes from understanding them. And Tony uses that to think his way around the problem of Stane's guns, outsmarting him at every turn with clever solutions. Tony's genius, not his weapons, ultimately triumph over the shadow of said weapons.
And. Like. It's literally the arc reactor that kills Stane. That is so poignant. The reactor he naysayed as a publicity stunt to appease hippies. That he refused to go along with developing, opting to keep making guns. That he resorted to stealing when none of his people could grasp the science of it.
The arc reactor, the ultimate embodiment of Stark ingenuity outside of weapons development, is ultimately what brings an end to Stane and by extension to Stark weapons development. It's perfect.
This is one of the best fights in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hands down.
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thisisarcanereverie · 1 year ago
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Cutting Ties (Dark! Moon Knight x Reader) Part 2
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A/N: This is Part 2 of a 3 Part fic. (Here is Part 1!) This is also a dark fic so please DNI Minors and others. (I got a little carried away with this idea Anon so thank you for the suggestion)
Now if you can interact or want to, please do! Like, reblog, reply!
DISCLAIMERS/WARNINGS: kidnapping, angst (like a ridiculous amount of it), light cursing, I've never been to London or England in general so I'm going based off of what I've seen, English is my first language I just suck at it. I do not own the picture above but i DO own the header below, it's something that I made. I might make a few others idk. Enjoy!
Summary: You're a former Widow on the run, only in London for a year you meet Steven Grant, a goofy gift shoppist. But is there more that meets the eye?
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For as long as you could remember you were not your own. Your name, your face, your mind, your body, even your own autonomy was not your own. It had always belonged to Dreykov and to his Red Room. Then, suddenly, the very color that controlled you, freed you. The red powder burned your eyes for a moment before suddenly it felt like you could breathe again. 
It was strange how one’s life can completely turn on its head in a matter of moments. 
One moment you were another Widow, easily expendable and replaced and the next you were…new. At least that’s what it felt like, you no longer existed at the whim of another. You weren’t a chess piece on the board, you were now a player. 
You remembered the day the Red Room fell as the best day of your life. 
There were so many things you could do, there were so many possibilities. 
You just weren’t prepared for the reality of it. 
That despite the mind control and the lack of autonomy, you still hurt people, at the end of the day it was your finger that pulled the trigger. You would wake in the middle of the night still haunted by those faces with a red mark between their eyes. It felt like you couldn’t escape from the Red Room you concocted in your mind, that no matter how hard you tried you will always be a Widow. So instead of fighting it, you gave in. 
You had offers, from SHIELD to Tony Stark himself. Which surprised you, but in the end you decided you didn’t want the spotlight on you and were a merc for a while. It was gritty, but it was work you knew well. You thought you could do it but the first time you were ordered to kill you couldn’t. They were innocent, they were just there at the wrong time. So you killed your boss instead, grabbed what you could, and left. You made enemies that day, one that would love to see your head gifted to them on a silver plate. 
You called Natasha after that, you weren’t sure what else to do. You didn’t know anyone else, you were completely alone. She gave you this guy's number, said that he would help you disappear and with whatever else you may need. You could feel her wink on the other end of the phone as you wrote down his information. 
Since then you’ve been running, changing addresses and identities every couple of years to stay ahead of people who may want you dead. Her friend would give you new identities and you would exchange with money that you earned at jobs you would work. For a while you were content with being alone, working everyday and coming back to your place to eat food you previously were never able to eat and watching tv. Then you met Steven Grant, Marc Spector, and Jake Lockley. Then suddenly you realized how gray your life had become, how long you had merely survived and what living actually meant—even if you were merely living a lie. All at once you were no longer alone, someone held you at night and kissed your blood-soaked hands. 
For the first time in your life…you felt clean. 
But that had all been a delusion. 
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
You woke up in pain, your head throbbed and your limbs felt weighted down, as though someone had thrown two weighted blankets on top of you. You willed your eyes to open and was greeted with an unfamiliar ceiling. You squinted your eyes as you looked toward the open window, watched as the powder blue curtains danced gently as the breeze blew in. You weren’t sure how long you’ve been asleep, last time you remember it was nighttime and….
Rain
Pinching
Jake.
You took a sharp breath in and shot up from the bed as your hand went to the side of your neck, Jake had drugged you–and from the look of things–abducted you as well. Why would he do this? Did he act alone or did Steven and Marc help him? All these questions swarmed your mind but one question stood out. 
Have you been blind?
You shakily made your way to the open window, sure enough it was morning, and sure enough you weren’t in London. As far as you could tell you could be miles away from the nearest village let alone London. How long had they been planning this? To already have a second place squared away, ready, were you the first to be here or the latest addition. 
“You’re up.” 
You swerved your head as you looked beside you, your skin crawled and blood turned into ice as you looked at him. Upright posture, hair a little less unkempt, and a twinge of a chicago accent dripped in his voice. 
Marc. 
You opened your mouth to speak only for a small, pathetic squeak to sound instead of words. Your hand reached for your throat and realized for the first time how absolutely parched you were. Like you hadn’t had any water in days. 
“Here,” he handed you a glass of water which you greedily accepted, you didn’t bother breathing as you chugged the glass he gave. After the soreness in your throat subsided a little and hummed to warm up vocal cords that had not been used in a while. You put the glass on the window sill  and looked  at him and at the tray he was previously holding. Turkey Bacon and Eggs, it was Marc's favorite breakfast, one he had made you dozens of times whenever he was sorry for something. 
You were silent as you looked at him further, he wore sweatpants and a t- shirt, both clearly slept in. The tan of his skin glowed in the morning light and it looked like he ran his fingers through his dark curls once or twice. There was something unsettling about him though, one that made the hair on the back of your neck stand, something that wasn’t there before. 
Those eyes. 
You flinch a little as he raises a hand, only for him to retract it. 
“Sorry,” he apologized, his voice uncharacteristically small. You debated on what to say, what was there to say? You had so many questions and yet you could not speak. You weren’t even sure if you were just dreaming, it almost seems like a dream. A house far away from everything and everyone, and your boys were right there with you bringing you breakfast in bed. You were partially worried that you would wake up and find yourself sleeping in a plane seat millions of miles away from them, but the other part of you worried that you would never wake up. 
“How long?” you finally spoke, voice still hoarse. A moment of silence fell before he answered. 
“I can’t tell you.” Marc says lowering his eyes, something he does when he has something to hide. 
“Did Steven or Jake tell you that,” You fidgeted with the sleeve of your shirt.
“Neither.” 
“You have to let me go,” You finally said, voice getting a little less hoarse the more you speak. “Please.” 
“Stop,” He said looking at you finally with a hard look in his eyes, “Stop saying you have to leave. You don’t need to leave.”  
“Yes I do,” you emphasized, you held his face in order to hold his gaze, “there are a lot of things you don’t know about me, things that I’ve lied about. That person you fell in love with isn’t me, I’ve done horrible things-” 
“I know-” 
“No you don’t.” 
“Yes,” he said, grabbing your wrist with an intense look in his eyes, “I do.” 
It was like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on you and stuck a fork in an outlet all at the same time. There was no way he could know, at least, not everything. 
“I know that you used to be a Black Widow,” he said, taking a step towards you, the grip on your wrist tightening, “you’ve killed, lied, and stole from many people including me.” his nose brushed with yours as you tried to steady your breathing. 
“How could you know all that?” You asked, whispered, your mind was pounding in time with your heart as he leaned closer to your ear. 
“I also know you used to be a mercenary,” you heard him whisper in your ear, his breath ghosting over the goosebumps that formed on your skin, “that’s how we met.” you stopped breathing as he leaned slightly away from you, far enough for you to look him in the eyes. Dark eyes that held the sun in them. 
Oh
Oh. 
The last job you went on you worked with a team, you never saw his face and he was never much of a talker. You just remember his eyes as he held a gun to you ready to shoot…only to lower the gun and let you get away. 
That had been Marc. 
Without a second thought you ripped your wrist from his grip and grabbed the glass laying on the nightstand throwing it at him. Your heart pounded as you made your way through the open door, sure to close and block it before he had time to reach it. You were sure by now you were on the verge of a heart attack with how loudly your heart was pounding. You could hear Marc on the other side banging the door with his fists. You had no plan, your heart was breaking all over again and your entire body has gone into a fight and flight zone. You made your way down the wooden stairs skipping every other step, unafraid of the small fall you have on the last step before you regained balance and ran straight through the front door. Even from outside you can still hear him banging and screaming, you tried to decide where the best place to run to when the banging stopped. It wasn’t in Marc's nature to give up so you look behind you, he wasn’t coming down the stairs either. What the hell? 
Then you heard a familiar grunt and footsteps above you. 
The open window. 
All at once it didn’t matter where you ran to as long as you ran. Your feet carried you swiftly into the tree lining of the woods surrounding the house. The adrenaline coursing through your veins hid the pain of the cuts and barbs that scratched you as you pushed them aside. Your goal was to run, or to find a pointy enough stick or a sharp enough stone to throw at him, but mainly run and hide. 
You weren’t sure how long you ran, all you knew was that your lungs were on fire and you couldn’t feel your limbs. You knew you couldn’t run much further, at least, not at full speed. So you went to the nearest, sturdy tree you could find and climbed, you grabbed one branch after another. The bark dug into sensitive parts of your hand but you didn’t care, you could see your arms shaking as they pulled you up to that final branch. It seemed strong enough to hold your weight and shielded enough to provide cover. 
One of the things the Red Room taught you was to assess weakness and who had the advantage. Marc had the advantage when it came to muscle mass, but you had experience–granted those were mainly espionage missions that required more brains than combat prowess. You always carried a gun on you,  but if he was smart (which you know he is) he took that away and was carrying it with him now.  
All this time, you thought he loved you and that you were protecting him. You never even suspected the truth, he seemed so familiar and you had that gut instinct that something was up but you ignored it. All this time everything had been a lie, he didn’t love you, he was finishing the job. How long did he have his eye on you before he made a move? 
Stop! You didn’t have time to mourn, you had to focus on surviving. 
You halted your greedy intakes of air as you heard rustling in the leaves. Careful not to make the slightest sound as you saw him run past, calling your name. You waited until you slowly couldn’t hear the crackling of the leaves before beginning your descent. Time was of the essence, at some point Marc will come back to retrace steps, so you had to make another break in a different direction he had gone. Maybe back to the house and hotwire the beat up jeep you saw in the driveway. Once there you would make it to the second nearest village because the nearest would be the first place he’ll look, use one of those grimy old payphones to call in your ID guy. 
Your feet had barely touched the ground before you felt the wind being knocked out of you as you tackled the ground. You were pinned before you could push Marc off of you, unable to do much but struggle in his grip. 
“Do it,” you growled while still fighting, “I’m not going to stop fighting but if you’re going to do it, do it now.” 
“Do what now?!” His eyes wide and intense, his grip becoming tighter on your wrists again. 
“Kill me!” You yell, “that’s what all this has been for, hasn’t it? I killed your boss and stole a lot of money and relics from the people who hired us. A lot of different people want me dead, a lot of powerful people who can make things happen want me dead for more than this. Once you kill me you’ll have your pick of the litter. Whatever you want.” You see his brows furrow as you feel his breath ghost over your lips. 
“Have you ever thought that maybe what I wanted was you?” He pecked your lips once before continuing, “that I intended to keep you for myself rather than sell you to the highest bidder.” 
“Why would you do that?” 
“Cause I love you,” Marc said, pinning your hands above your head with one hand while the other caressed your cheek, “I have since we met on those desolate dunes, that has never been a lie.” you can feel his heartbeat as he lays his weight down on top of you, like so many times before, as his words swirl around your head. Your first thought was that he was lying, how could he not be? Deep down, however, as you looked him in the eyes you were reminded that Marc was many things–but a good liar was not one of them. 
“You can love me,” you say, “and still betray me.” you hear him let out a frustrated groan as he drops his head to your shoulder. You can feel his grip tighten before he lets your wrist go, and his weight on you is gone leaving you strangely cold. For a moment you think he’s letting you go, a foolish thought, one full of hope. 
You were wrong. 
No sooner had you gotten off the ground yourself, your feet were dangling above the ground as you were swung over his shoulder like you weighed nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Had this been ANY different situation your knees would be weak for a different reason. 
Once again you fought, kicking and screaming. He wasn’t going to kill you, not yet, but you were honest when you said you weren’t going down without a fight. You didn’t even register entering the house until he sat you on the couch with an unceremonious plop, his hands gripping your shoulders and a frustrated look in his eye. 
“What is it going to take to get you to believe me?” He said, voice low edging on a growl. 
“Give me one good reason to believe that you wouldn’t give me up.” You said, eyes narrowing, “a reason that I would believe.'' There was a beat of silence, you see his brows furrowed together as his brain itches for an answer that you know he wouldn’t have. He has betrayed you and has all the reasons in the world to sacrifice you to the altar. 
Then the lights starting flickering, 
The hairs on your neck stood on end as you felt a shift in the air, the lights flickering and a hum of something else. Something you’ve never encountered before. Then you see the bandages wrapping themselves around Marc like snakes and his eyes were no longer the dark color you used to adore. They glowed now like moonlight reflecting off of water. 
Of course. 
You’ve seen the small articles in the paper passing by or clickbait news in the media about London’s vigilante who called themselves Moon Knight. You usually never paid much attention to it, you rarely were out past dark anyway why would you? Maybe you should’ve. 
“If I wanted anything that they have,” You hear him say as the mask unbound itself to reveal his face, “I would’ve just taken it, and they couldn’t have stopped me.” 
“You’re moon knight.” Of course the first person you fall in love with is not only a mercenary, but also a superpowered vigilante. Your life hasn’t been ordinary, why would your love life be?! You groaned in frustration as you leaned your head back against the couch, “well that explains why you always look exhausted and always came back home at weird hours.” 
“You knew about that?” He asked, you gave him a deadpan look, “...of course you did.” You look at him for a moment and replayed every moment in your head leading up to this, he had a point. With these powers he really could have walked into any place, taken what he wanted, and left. He wouldn’t have needed you, but why keep you?
“Ok,” you start, “so you don’t intend to sell me or kill me or whatever.”
“I’ve been telling yo-” 
“But why keep me?” You ask, “Why bring me here? Based on this house and location it is-”
“Everything you ever wanted.” Marc finished, his grip softening on your shoulders, “a small house with a sunroom, far away from everyone, a place to plant flowers and a lot more sun than what you got in the city…A home.” 
“This would’ve taken at least half a year to build,” you say, “and another few weeks to a month to draft up the plans. So that means that you have been planning on bringing me here since-” 
“Since fate decided to give us a second chance,” he said, “I couldn’t follow you before and lost you, trust me I tried to follow you but you were so damn good at running and hiding that I couldn’t find you. Then, one day, I see you on the bus. I was a fly on the wall, Steven was in charge, but I saw you. You have no idea how badly I wanted to talk to you, but seeing how you fled before, I knew I had to be patient. I told Steven everyday to talk to you, building him up until he eventually sat next to you.” You see him laugh a little, “I really shouldn’t have kept him up the night before, but it all turned out alright.” 
He was sick, you knew this from the beginning, you just never looked below the surface of it. He needed help, something you couldn’t give him here. 
“Baby,” You said softly, holding his hands as he knelt down in front of you, kissing the tops of his still bandaged covered hands, before leaning your forehead against his, you had to be calm. You had to convince him with honey and not vinegar. “Thank you so much for doing this, it must have been so much work.” You start, lowering your voice to barely a whisper, already sensing the tension leaving his body, “you must be so tired.” 
“I am.” 
“I’m just worried for you,” you said brushing your nose against his, “maybe we should see someone hmm? Like a specialist or a doctor, get you some melatonin or some medicine to help you sleep.” You feel him shake his head before you gently shush him, bringing a hand to cup his stubbly cheek, “just to help you sleep.” 
“I don’t need them.” He says definitely, “I have you.”
“And you’ll always have me.” You promise, “let’s just call and make the appointment, I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help.” 
“No,” he mumbles quietly at first, “no” a little louder, “I don’t-” 
“Do it for me?” You ask, fluttering your eyelashes and giving him a small smile, “please baby.” gently moving your hand to scratch the nape of his neck you knew he was putty. 
“Ok,” he agrees. 
“Ok,” you quietly repeat, trying to keep your tone even, “how about we call them right now and make an appointment?” 
“No.” 
“Ok,” you say, rubbing soothing circles on the back of his neck, “we don’t need to call them right now but in a short bit here, yeah?” 
“Yeah.” 
You breathe in, “yeah.”
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bookishbea · 1 year ago
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Dear Yuletide Letter 2023
Dear Yuletide Letter
FandomisOhana Yuletide 2023 Letter:
Fandoms I want: Fonts (Any), Internet and Social Media (Any), Puppet History (Any), Philadelphia Flyers RPF (Any), Humans are Space Orcs (Worldbuilding) Harley Quinn Cartoon (Harleen Quinzell, Pamela Isley),
I would prefer a more humorous fic over a serious fic
Likes: Humor, Crack, Epistolary, Multimedia, lgbt, social media, chatfics, fluff, team as family, hijinks, movie nights, images like memes and gifs, funny video links, interactive fiction, fourth wall breaks, pop culture references, high school au, college au, metafiction, found family, road trips, charecters participating in Yuletide and other fandom related things (characters writing fanics, making fanart, etc), drunken shenanigans (drunk singing and dancing), grump/sunshiney, charecter very protective of their partner
Dislikes/DNW: Angst, gore, ableism, homophobia, offensive words/names, death, self harm, mention of suicide, smut, mention of needles
I am equally passionate about all fandoms I requested despite some having more prompts than others
Fonts:
Whatever self indulgent stuff you want to write as long as it does not include my dnws
Maybe its written in the fonts style
Internet and Social Media:
Whatever self indulgent stuff you want to write as long as it does not include my dnws
Maybe its formatted like each website
Puppet History:
A puppet history style fic about either a real life event you enjoy or a fictional event. It can even be something you made up
Footnotes would be cool
If you do not want to write about a historical event you can maybe have a duel between the professor and Ryan
As this is a show about history you can ignore my gore, angst and death dnw if it is in relation to a historical event.
Humans are Space Orcs:
Stabby the Space roomba
somebody saying for science
humans creating weird shit
Journal about the humans
a how to guide about humans
Human dictionary and or enclyopedia
Opportunity (please don’t kill them)
A tony stark like character adopting and creating bots
Aliens learning about neurodivergent humans and some figuring out they might be like that and the humans helping them learn more about themselves
Humans doing stupid things just because they can
Harley Quinn Cartoon:
I would love an autistic Harley who just like infodumps about her special interest, she stims a lot, and loves stuffed animals. Ivy being a supportive and loving girlfriend
High School au where Harley is the adorable nerdy naive girl and ivy is her protective badass artistic girlfriend (i imagine Ivy with tatoos)
College au similar to above plus they are roomates
General slice of life
Maybe spideypool shows up
Philadelphia Flyers RPF:
Whatever Self Indulgent stuff you want to write as long as it does not include my DNW’s
I would love Gritty to be included
Maybe a fandom primer or ship primer
Why you love them
Fandom Specific DNW: Non canonical levels of fighting
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ao3feed-janefoster · 1 year ago
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Only Fools Rush In
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/8yQ6A4u
by Ash_Wilkes
Before Lennon Stark, the second greatest love of James Barnes, was born, her great aunt Hannah ruled his heart until the day she was killed by German soldiers. This is the true story of how three Stark women forever changed not only Bucky’s life but Steve’s as well.
Words: 1944, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Series: Part 1 of Daughters of Stark, Only Fools Rush In
Fandoms: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Characters: Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter, James "Bucky" Barnes, Howard Stark, Strike Team (Captain America movies), Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Thor, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, Peter Parker, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Sharon Carter (Marvel)
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s), Bucky Barnes/ Original Female Character (s), Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/ Original Female Character, natasha romanov/ original female character, Tony Stark/ Pepper Potts, Jane Foster/Thor
Additional Tags: this is a saga, Avengers Movies - Freeform, all the drama and angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, They are all just trying their best, more tags will be added once i get through the nitty gritty of it all
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/8yQ6A4u
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posthocergopropterhockey · 5 years ago
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I have to confess, I did dislike gritty for quite a long time.
was the reason my opinion changed that I got sent a story of gritty killing tony stark?
yes. yes it was. there are no good billionaires.
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disneybucks · 3 months ago
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<See, I'd say "nice" was stretching it, but there's something about Captain fucking America, isn't there? He's warm pancakes and a sunny day. He's reading comics in your PJs on a Sunday afternoon. He's missionary sex with a lot of deep kissing and Trey Songz' Slow Motion in the background. He's safe, and he's real, and he's leading a team that Tony Stark's god damn chauffeur thinks I don't have any right to be part of.
If Cap thinks I look nice, then who am I to argue?>
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"Man," Wade breathes, "that's even cooler than I thought it'd sound."
In his defence, he does mean it. Cap standing amidst a bunch of fallen bad guys, holding his shield and looking flawless with his deliciously sweaty hair, is about as cool as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ever going to get. It takes a lot of charisma to look badass without killing a single goon. It takes even more to keep Wade from making fun of it.
"You know," he starts, walking over (and stepping over the body of an unconscious guy along the way-- don't worry about it), "I always did wonder what the Avengers in this timeline did about baddies. I mean, clearly you've cleaned up on aisle HYDRA over here..." He looks around, hands clasped together, and whistles again. Capable men are always so pretty.
"...but now what? You wait for the cops? The feds?" A beat. "For Netflix to make a dark, gritty show about them? Wait, are we with Disney+ now?"
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@disneybucks asked: Caaaaaap! Captain Roooooogers!
Hi. Huge fan. Ignore the mask and the faint stench of blood. Can I get an "Avengers Assemble" up in here?
Unprompted ask | Always Accepting
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He steps on the edge of his shield and it flips into the air. He grabs it out of the air and puts it on his back. He turned around quickly, almost tripping over his feet when he heard the other's voice. "Uh, hi." He says a bit confused. He smells the blood and wrinkles his nose. He looks the other up and down, wondering who he is and where he came from.
He pulls his cowl down and shakes out his blond hair before he tilts his head a bit, now wondering if this guy was not only a fan but one of those people who liked to dress up like other heroes. He thinks Peter called them Cosplayers. Steve shakes the thought away and smiles slightly and with a shrug he says, "Avengers Assemble!" Just to humor the other who seems like a nice guy.
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overtrolled · 3 years ago
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2021 HS fanfiction recs
I read a lot of Homestuck fanfiction this year, including fic I rediscovered, fic which are old favorites, and fic I read for the first time. I thought, since my previous fanfiction recommendation post got some interest, that I would provide a list of some standouts, excluding the ones mentioned in that post. Since There are so many I’ve read, I am limiting this to works that are both single and complete.
Fics which I have reread this year
California Dreaming (M) [JumpingJackFlash] Complete. Human AU set in Los Angeles. A romance between the stuffy roboticist Equius and unsuccessful actor Eridan Ampora.
the cure for anything is salt water (E) [Ghylle] Complete. A DirkJake fic, wherein Dirk is a Selkie, and Jake is the man who finds his skin.
The Fisher-Prince (M) [roachpatrol, urbanAnchorite] Complete, part of a larger series. A grimy/gritty fantasy AU which asks who Eridan Ampora is when seadwellers are at the bottom of the totem pole instead of the top?
Morning and Evening, Day and Night (T) [digimaniac33] Complete. A fic based on "Fisherman of the Inland Sea" by Ursula K. LeGuin. John and Jade are from a culture which has a four way marriage called a sedoretu, wherein each member is part of a pair, and each member is married to both members of the other pair. Dave and Rose join them in a sedoretu.
One of Our Submarines (T) [VastDerp] Complete as it's getting. Non SBURB AU. Sollux is helmsed, and discovers a community of other helmsmen messaging each other, coping with the horror of their situation. One of the big fanfics, you can see its influence in most fanon around helmsmen.
out on the new frontier (T) [orphan account] Complete. No SBURB shared universe AU. A post-SA hurt comfort thing where Dave helps out Cronus, a marginalized alien doing survival sex work on Earth
Second Best (T) [NoBrandHero] Complete. Postgame Earth. The Dave that survives the game isn't the main timeline Dave, it's Davesprite--but no one else knows just yet.
Tony Stark is not Willie Wonka... (M) [RainofLittleFishes] Complete as it's getting. A crossover with the MCU. Some of the Homestuck cast are transported to New York around the time of The Avengers. Having read exactly no MCU fanfics, I can't say for sure, but the fic has a very upbeat vibe that I associate with fandom tumblr posts from like 2013ish. I don't know, the lightheartedness was fascinating and somewhat endearing.
Within, Without (M) [reinkist] Complete. Meteorfic. A story of Dave and Karkat's developing relationship in the retcon timeline.
Young Dumb Things (T) [RainofLittleFishes] Complete. Non SBURB AU. Pitch pornstar Nepeta and robot technician Equius go pale for each other, and Karkat tries to set the two shy lovebirds together.
Fics which I have read for the first time this year:
401 (k) (M) [oncewewerezombies] Complete. No SBURB AU. A centuries-old Equius, grieving Nepeta's death, bonds with The Helmsman and plans a lovers' suicide with the one person the Condesce intends to keep alive. As you can imagine, it's a pretty heavy.
Astronomy in Reverse (T) [PunkZucchini, sicklekind] Complete. No SBURB shared universe AU. Dave and Karkat meet as penpals as teens. Now, Karkat is granted asylum on Earth, and now that he and Dave can meet in person, their mutual attraction develops into something more, while Dave weathers Bro's abuse until he, too, can flee his dangerous home.
chamomile, rose water, and other unlikely intoxicants (E) [callmearcturus] Complete. Fantasy AU. Dirk is the Year King, who is killed in sacrifice to bring the spring, but does not die. Jake is the Alchemist’s grandson, who sees the person beneath the bloody crown. But how can you love a sacrificial lamb?
Down by the Water (T) [spockandawe] Complete. A long, sad look at the life of the Handmaid, who keeps finding personal connections in the ancestors and keeps having to betray them to create the correct version of the timeline.
Faint (G) [TheMockingCrows] Complete. Rose Lalonde plays SBURB while coping with the chronic illnesses P.O.T.S. and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
The Four Kings, the God Thief, and the Black Diamond Pirates (E) [oxfordRoulette] Complete. Pirate AU longfic. The Beta kids are pirate gods, Dirk is the first mate on Vriska's pirate ship, and Jake is the mysterious cursed hottie from a faraway land whose appearance may hold the key to rescuing the vanished Jade and restoring her godly powers. (Note: this features illustrations and some interesting formatting best experienced on desktop)
Hold the Line (T) [dashery] Complete. Alpha universe Jade meets Alpha Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde. The first chapter makes you love them and the second makes you mourn.
Lee Shore (M) [JumpingJackFlash] Complete. Postgame Earth Dave/Eridan - This pairing looks like crack but I was rooting for them by the end. Very lovely and very gay.
my body feels young but my mind is very old (T) [oncewewerezombies] Complete. A short meteorfic featuring a pale interactions between Gamzee and Rose, who bond over crappy childhoods and substance abuse problems.
The Neon Bible (M) [tactfulGnostalgic] Complete. Shared universe AU. The Condesce occupies Earth, and hires Roxy Lalonde to be her Heiress Jane’s bodyguard. But soon, Roxy gets caught up in a rebel group and must juggle her loyalties between Jane and the freedom of humanity.
O+n the Care and Feeding o+f Wigglers (T) [CurlicueCal] Complete. How does a woman from a species with no nurturing instinct end up raising a giant ticklike larva? This fic has an answer.
drive it home with one headlight (E) [BlackHolesandUnicorns] (Edit: formerly this was mislabeled Virtual Reality by Rikudera. Whoops.) Complete. Dirk and Jake had a summer romance as teenagers, but their breakup had a massive effect on their following lives. Meeting again in a virtual reality world as old men, the pair finally confront each other and themselves.
What a Disaster (T) [Laurasauras] Complete. Human AU. A short humorous story where Karkat meets hot mess Vriska during court ordered community service and comes down with 'I can fix her' disease.
the wonder that's keeping the stars apart (M) [Laurasauras] Complete. An HSE/HS^2 fic centering on a revived John on the Theseus, interspersed with meditative bits of self reflection and a sadomasochistic back and forth between John and Dirk.
Some of these are extremely popular, others fairly obscure. One of these has a 100k+ word count, another is <2k. Some of these focus on romance, others on the various other aspects of the human experience. Some of these get dark and heavy, others stay light and some even get a bit schmaltzig. Enjoy!
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I know why Tony stans say he wasn’t trying to kill Bucky, I’ve seen YouTube comments of the big fight. They say Tony could’ve “easily” shot Bucky with his suit, like he did to men in IM 1. But they never say that when he fought Thanos. Tony could’ve killed him, they’re all capable (Vision slicing him in half) But the plot needed a struggle, so they underpowered the Avengers. Civil War script wasn’t gonna kill Bucky, and they wanted a big fight like in the comics. Tony’s suit was also breaking down. Personally, I think it’s in character that Tony wanted to kill Bucky in a gritty way. He had no problem choking him, destroying his arm, and kicking him in the head when he was already down. If Tony “didn’t care” that Bucky’s innocent, he would absolutely want to kill him with his bare hands, watch the light leave his eyes, and see Steve’s reaction
I mean, we have this from the filmmakers themselves:
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That's probably something the stans don't understand. Stark could have killed Bucky in many ways but he wanted to get close to him, this was personal and he wanted him to suffer at his hands - and wanted Steve to watch.
Movie-wise they needed a long fight, otherwise it could have ended in 2 minutes. But story-wise it makes sense too that Stark would want to make it last.
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peterrparrkerr · 3 years ago
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Hanahaki disease - read on ao3
Tagging: @lokitonypeter @just-things-things @thegreenmetblue @someonepostedart @andacheesyoneliner @bluestarker @lilcoffeecup @useless-fanfictions-for-mcu
*-*
Peter's known for a long time that he was in love with Tony. Since he was seven, and Ironman saved his life. Since he came home to Tony Stark on his couch, talking with his aunt.
Since the trip to Germany, and everything else leading up to now. The more time he spent with the older man, the more in love with him he became.
Peter never really thought he'd be the one to get sick. He thought he'd been immune. He's had crushes before, been in unrequited love before, and he never got sick.
But with Tony, it came on so suddenly. One day he was fine, and then the next, blue petals were in his sink after a coughing fit.
He'd been so shocked he'd stumbled back and almost hit his head on the bathroom door.
That was six months ago, and its not gotten better. He's been lucky enough to hide it from everyone.
With May's long hours at the hospital and his school's wacky scheduling, and the Avengers keeping Peter on the outskirts, its easy to hide the blue flowers.
He's read stories about people with the disease getting better on their own, or even learning to live with it for the rest of their lives.
He's also read about it killing people.
But he can't tell Tony how he feels. He just can't. Tony thinks of Peter as a kid. Plus, while the age difference doesn't bother Peter at all, it might bother Tony.
The man was old enough to be his dad anyway. So Peter decided to hide the flower petals. For as long as he could.
"Hey, Pete, you getting the popcorn or what?" Clint calls from the living room. Peter coughs again, hunched over the trashcan beside the kitchen island.
"Yeah!" He shouts, coughing again. He reaches into his mouth, picking the petals off his tongue before straightening. He glances down at the trash, covered in wet, wilty petals and feels his stomach roll.
He quickly grabs a bunch of paper towel, throwing them into the trash to cover them, then pushing it all down as far as it'd go.
After a second, he grabs the two bowls of popcorn and makes his way back into the living room.
"Sorry, I had to melt the butter," he excused, handing one bowl off to Clint -who would be sharing with Nat, Bruce and Steve.
Peter handed the other bowl off to Sam, who was in reach of Tony, Thor, Bucky and Peter.
"What are we watching again?" Peter asked, clearing his throat. It was always worse when Peter was around Tony.
"Halloween," Sam said, smirking over at Peter.
"Its August," Peter exclaims.
"Yeah, and we were going to watch A Walk To Remember but Tony doesn't do chick flicks, and the grandparents haven't seen it yet."
"Hey, Tony hasnt seen it either," Steve yelped, waving a hand at Tony, sitting at the corner of the couch, beside Sam.
Peter tried not to think about how close they'd be if Sam and him just switched places.
"That's because Halloween is a terrible series."
"It not!" Peter can't help interjecting. "Its right up there with Nightmare on Elm Street and  Friday the 13th."
"How do you even know what those movies are?" Clint asks, laughing on the other couch.
"I watch old movies," Peter shrugged, feeling the familiar sense of self-consciousness creep into his chest, tickling at his lungs.
"Old!" Tony barked. "Kid, the 80s aren't old."
Peter forces himself to laugh and shrug and make a joke about hanging out with people twice his age, and the conversation moves on.
But it just reminds Peter that Tony would never see him as an equal because of his age. There was no way he'd ever accept that Peter loved him. Or would love him back.
The movie plays, and Peter chews handfuls of popcorn to keep from coughing up a lung.
Bucky and Steve are on the edge of their seats, fully invested in the corny horror film when Tony starts coughing.
Everyone glances over in concern, but the man just waves his hand, mouth pressed into his elbow.
"Pop-corn-" he chokes out between coughs.
"You're supposed to chew it," Nat laughs. Peter tries not to outwardly show how worried he is when Tony's face grows red, the coughing so bad he has to get up and make his way to his bedroom down the hallway.
Everyone returns to watching the movie, but Peter can't help but wonder if Tony's okay, especially when he doesn't come back right away.
"Uh, I gotta take a leak," Peter lies, climbing to his feet.
"Thanks for sharing, little man," Sam huffed. Peter doesn't say anything else,just makes his way down the hallway.
Tony's bedroom is all the way at the end. The only people who live in the penthouse with him are Steve and Bucky, and Wanda and Vision -though they're out on a date for the night.
He passes the bathroom door, and his frown deepens when he hears Tony hacking in his bedroom.
He keeps light on his toes, reaching the bedroom door that's not all the way closed, and pushes it open just a little.
"Ton-" the sight before him cuts him off, and he ducks back a little, worried maybe the older man might've seen him.
He feels his chest tighten at the sight. Tony, leaned over with a bedside trash can between his knees, coughing up little pink flowers.
Peter's eyes widen when the man spits a glob of blood into the basket before continuing to cough.
Tears burn at Peter's eyes and he quickly backs up, rushing down the hallway and past the living room.
"Hey, where you going? Where's the fire?"
"I-I gotta go home aunt May- uh, I gotta go she wants me home," Peter shouts, snatching up his keys and phone on the way out.
He's in the elevator, and he can't stop the sobs from tightening his throat.
Tony's sick. Tony's in love with someone who doesn't love him back. Tony's in love with someone and its not Peter.
Be chokes on tears and petals all the way to the main floor, shoves the petals into his pocket and runs from the building.
He knew his love was unrequited. He knew there was no chance, but to see Tony so in love with someone else -it was like digging a knife into his heart and twisting.
He makes it to his bedroom and buries his face into his pillow, muffling his crying so May won't hear when she gets home. Hopefully she'll think hes still at the tower and won't check on him until the morning.
He cries himself to sleep, eyes gritty and heavy.
*-*
"Hey, kid, how's patrolling going?"
Peter jolts at the sudden sound of Tony's voice in his ear, momentarily forgetting he has a connection to the tower now. New upgrades.
"Uh, good," Peter huffed, swinging from building to building. "Stopped a mugging, and helped a couple people with the parking meters."
Tony chuckles over the coms. "You gotta stop showing people the coin on tape trick."
Peter can't help but smile through his mask. He clears his throat when he feels the familiar tickle at the back of his throat.
"Fuck capitalism, Mr. Stark," he says.
"You do know capitolism is kind of my job?"
"Its not," Peter countered. "I mean, it relied heavily on it in the beginning -what with the weapons and war profiteering- but you've come a long way! Sustainable energy and you're even recycling!"
Tony chuckles again, and Peter has a moment to regret his words -Tomy probably thinks he's just a dumb kid- before a coughing fit hits him out of nowhere.
It's so bad, Peter loses his momentum and drops onto a rough of a small cafe. Hes on his hands and knees, crawling from the edge of the roof as he coughs and hacks.
"Pete, you okay? What's wrong?" Comes Tony's worried voice.
Peter feels the petals coating his mouth with nowhere to go and frantically tugs on his mask. He's choking, suffocating.
He rips the mask off and heaves a mess of petals and blood onto the gravel roof.
Its never been this bad. Panic grips his chest when he coughs and wretches more than he can get a breath in. He's suffocating.
Tears burn his eyes as he struck less desperately to take a breath. Just one breath.
His head begins to spin, chest heaving and he drops from his knees to his hips, legs curled off to the side as he holds himself up with shaky arms.
There's so much blood and petals, Peter doesn't know where its all coming from.
He's too busy dying to notice the suit of armor that drops onto the  roof, or that Tony's suddenly rushing towards him.
"Jesus, kid!" He breathed.
Peter lets out a sob, blood and petals continuing to fall from his mouth. His stomach hurts from the heaving, his chest from lack of oxygen.
Tony grabs him by the arms, pulling him forward until he's away from the pile of bile, blood and blue wilting flowers, nearly cradling him in his arms.
"Its alright, you're okay, you're gonna be okay," Tony repeated, rocking Peter while he continued to cough and sob.
He shakes his head, even as exhaustion and lack of air flow has his eyelids drooping, body settling further into Tony's hold.
When he wakes up again, he's in a hospital bed. Theres an iv in the back of his hand, and a tube running down his throat from his nose.
He swallows around it and has to fight back panic at the strange feeling.
There's a heart monitor on his index finger, and a few on his chest -which is bare.
Peter moves shaky hands to the blanket and pulls it up just enough to see. Someone had taken his suit off, leaving him in his red boxers.
He blushes at that. Who had taken his suit off? Damn, he hoped it wasn't Clint or Sam.
He drops the blanket just as the door opens. He looks up to see Tony step inside and he wants the bed to swallow him whole.
"Hey, kid," he greeted, shutting the door behind him and making his way towards Peter's bed. "You had us all pretty worried."
Peter drops his eyes to the itchy white hospital sheet, picking at a loose thread and not saying anything. What was there to say?
Tony sighs as he settles down into the chair beside the bed.
"Your aunt May is in the middle of a shift, but she'll be stopping by when she's got a break to check up on you."
"Okay," Peter barely manages to murmur.
"The doctors had to pump your lungs," Tony continued. "But its not a cure, Pete. They'll come back."
Tears burn at his eyes and he quickly brushes them away, sniffling as he does so.
"I know," he said. "Its alright, I'm okay."
"Peter," Tony sighs, grabbing Peter's hand. He looks up then, seeing the concern in the older man's eyes. "You're not okay, you're really sick."
"People live with it all the time," Peter brushed off.
"Who is it?"
"What?" Peter asked, heart monitor matching his fast pulse.
"Who is it? How long have you been like this?"
and it must be because Peter is tired -exhausted and drained and so sick of being sick- because fresh tears bloom and he pulls his hand from Tony's.
"Long time," is all he can say as he presses his palms into his eyes, rubbing at the tears.
"Who," Tony presses.
Fuck it, Peter thinks. He's already dying, he's already humiliated. Why not just confess?
"You," he says, pulling his hands from his face. "I've-I've been in love with you for- for years."
He can't handle the shocked look that filters through Tony's features, so he looks down at the iv in his hand, lower lip trembling.
"And I know you don't think of me that way," he continues. "I know, so its okay, I'm fine, I'll get over it or, or get the surgery or something-"
"Peter," Tony interrupts, moving from the chair to the side of the bed. He grabs both sides of Peter's jaw, forcing him to look up at Tony. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because," he says on a wet breath. "Because you've always thought of me as a kid. You- I'm still just a kid to you, and thats okay, Mr. Stark, I'm-"
Tony's eyebrows furrow as Peter has to stop talking. He's getting to the point where he's babbling, not understandable.
"I don't think of you as a kid," Tony says.
"Yes, you do," Peter huffed, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. "You do, and thats okay, I promise, I've live this long with it, I'm okay."
"Has it always been that bad?"
Peter shakes his head.
"What made it worse?"
Peter's showing his hand already, he might as well expose the card up his sleeve too.
"I saw you," he murmured. "During the movie. You're sick too. I didn't mean to, I was just- checking to make sure you were okay but-"
"Peter, sweetheart," Tony interrupted, and Peter looked up at him, realizing suddenly the man's eyes are watering a little.
"I'm sick because of you."
Peter feels like someone punched the air from his lungs, and he blinks up at Tony, eyebrows drawing close as he tries to process what Tony's said.
"What?" He asks feebly. A small smile pulls at the corner of Tony's mouth and he leans forward, kissing Peter softly on the mouth.
It's a simple kiss, but it sucks the air from Peter's lungs.
"We're really bad at communicating, kid," Tony chuckled wetly, their noses brushing. Peter can't help but sniffle a laugh as well, his hands moving to grip the front of Tony's shirt.
"M'not a kid," he mumbles, pressing his forehead against Tony's. The older's hands are still cradling his face, thumbs brushing against his wet cheeks.
"No, you're not," Tony agreed.
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doitwritenow · 4 years ago
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Supreme Super family gets sucked up into WandaVision(let's imagine Tony's alive in this or is from the multiverse). Ironstrange think they're married with a high school kid. Tony is a science teacher, strange is town doctor, and peter is a regular kid. No memories of they're real life. Rhody, Pepper, and Aunt May and Morgan could be added to this too if you wanted.
OHHO! Sorry it took me so long to reply to this; I had to finish the show, for one thing, and then my brain started going all sorts of places with the prompt... and well. I have on heck of a ramble coming, so buckle up! 
(Also, spoilers through the series, so watch out!) 
— — —
It starts with a question on Vision’s job application.
That’s all. So simple, so innocuous, so innocent. Vision is casually recording information that he doesn’t yet realize he can’t remember, and he arrives at a line that asks his family history. It’s nothing complex, left on the application only because Wanda’s subconscious had glossed over the question. So does Vision’s, as a result. But he wants this job. They want to fit in, and so they answer the question truthfully.
Vision writes ‘Stark’, unaware. ‘Tony Stark.’
And pop. Just like that. 
On the edge of Westview, there suddenly is and has always been a small, well-kept mechanic’s shop. It’s run by an aging man with a bright mind and a brighter smile. He’s lived here since he came back from the war, but no one knows for how long. And he has no memory—no memory at all—of what came before. 
Of the round scar in the center of his chest. 
He doesn’t need to know. No one needs to know; he’s just a side character, after all. Just the answer to a line on a job application.
Just so that something, anything, about Vision’s life here isn’t a lie. 
-
Yeah, so Tony gets manifested within the Hex—but because he’s one of Wanda’s creations and not someone being mind-controlled, he is able to exist with agency within Westview. He has no reason, however, to believe anything is amiss; he’s been resurrected only to play a character, and his memories and surface-level motivations only extend to the limits of that character.
But Wanda has other regret. Wanda has other anger and understanding and forgiveness and gratefulness, and she knew Tony Stark, once. 
She knew his worst nightmare—and it’s easy to craft a soul from that, really.
(But it’s fine, of course it’s fine. Tony has no reason to pull down the walls of that hidden spirit. He’s content in his role, just like Vision. So it’s fine. 
… Right?) 
-
Agatha stands at the base of a towering barrier with her hands on her hips. One side of her mouth is quirked up into a considering, scheming smile, and her magic probes out around her curiously. This is the source of the power she’d felt; she’s sure of it. The spell work… the instinctual, unconscious spell work is so intense she can almost taste it.
How is it possible? What’s the secret? 
Agatha must know. And besides; this is the most interesting thing that’s happened to her since the seventeenth century. 
She’s about to reach out, about to cross into the heart of the magic, when she hears it. A footstep. Quiet and dark and making no attempt at stealth. 
Agatha grips her magic. “Who’s there?” she demands. 
Someone steps out of the trees. A human, Agatha thinks, though you can never be sure nowadays. He wears a hood of green and his hands are dark where they hang at his sides. 
“Witch,” the figure declares.
Agatha raises an eyebrow. “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” says Karl Mordo. “I rather think you can.”
-
Okay, cut to New York. Stephen Strange is exhausted, wrung dry trying to keep the edges of the universe from deteriorating now that the stabilization factors of the Infinity Stones have been destroyed. One task runs into the next, one morning into the night. One future into all the others. 
But Stephen likes the work; it keeps his mind in one place. He’s always alert these days. Always listening. 
So when someone calls out to him from New Jersey, he can hear.
It’s Mordo luring him in, of course, but he doesn’t know that yet. After Dormammu, and certainly after all those futures, Stephen has too much experience for Mordo to hope to get the better of. The old Master is still dedicated to his ‘too many sorcerers’ shebangerang, though, so he’s employed help. Maybe he can kill two birds with one stone. Two world-threateningly powerful magic users with one stone. 
Stephen follows the call, because of course he does. It sounds like a call for help; what else is he supposed to do? The kelpie situation in the Thames can wait. Wong waves him off, tells him to be careful without much hope of Stephen listening, and takes over the Sanctum for the few hours Stephen intends to be gone.
(It’s not for a few hours.)
-
But there’s someone else we should mention before we see what Westview has planned for Stephen. See, a certain spider-kid has just had his identity outed, and his only allies once called themselves Nick Fury and Maria Hill.
Nick Fury and Maria Hill, Peter discovers, are not Nick Fury and Maria Hill.
“You’re aliens?” Peter demands, his hands warding the space in front of him. 
Of course they’re aliens, part of him sighs. Of course. Why wouldn’t one more thing just go crazy in his life? Why let him remember what ‘normal’ even felt like? Why the hell not? 
“Er, yes,” says not-Fury. “My name is Talos. But we do still want to help you.”
Helping Peter doesn’t go according to plan. See, the Skrull try to approach SWORD for Monica Rambaeu’s help regarding the kid who saved their lives, but Monica has disappeared. 
Talos only turns around for two seconds. Really, it’s only a moment. But when he turns back, Peter Parker has disappeared, too.
-
“Woah.” 
Stephen stops, a hand coming up to shield his third eye as he squints into the absolute maelstrom of power swirling in a hexagonal wall in front of him. It doesn’t feel like the Order’s magic—not like something of the Mystic Arts. It’s something far more human and gritty. Stephen’s perception can’t extend through it. He frowns.
He takes a step forward, the Cloak swirling around his ankles, and begins to stitch his mental walls into place. His wards are strong, even unconsciously.
That’s probably what saves him, in all honesty. 
Two strong, human hands plant themselves in the small of Stephen’s back and shove him into the barrier. Stephen opens his mouth to yell, raises his hands to cast a spell— but blue and red are surrounding him now. Devouring him, now. They lick at his mind, slamming against unbreakable walls.
But they are unbreakable too. 
Stephen disappears. 
-
(Mordo used a portal to get behind him and knock him into the Hex, btw.) 
It’s those hasty mental walls that keep Stephen from being completely consumed into the Westview spells. He is not fully mind-controlled, nor is he left half-animated and frozen like most people near Ellis Avenue. But there is one main rule of Wanda Maximoff’s Westview, and that, Stephen can’t escape completely. 
‘No one remembers outside.’
Stephen doesn’t. In fact, he doesn’t remember anything at all. 
-
Tony Stark finds the man lying on the side of the road. He’s just finished dropping his kid Peter off at the Westview high school (it hasn’t occurred to him that it’s weird how he never sees the boy’s classmates. Or that Peter never seems to have stories from school. Or that the kid is always waiting in the exact same place that Tony dropped him off at whenever Tony comes to pick him up. Tony has no reason to think too hard; he’s just a side character—right?). 
“Uh, hi?” Tony pauses, the car puffing it’s irritation when he stops it too quickly. He cranks down the window and leans out. 
The man blinks, slowly, at the sky. He sits up hesitantly, like he hasn’t noticed Tony, and rubs his hand across his face. He pulls it away after a moment and frowns at it. Tony wonders why he looks so confused—it’s not like there’s anything wrong with the man’s hand. No scars or anything. 
“Hi, sir,” Tony says again. “Are you alright?”
The man jumps. He looks over at Tony—and there’s something weird about his eyes. Something… really weird. (Color, says a voice in the back of his mind that he hasn’t heard for a very, very long time. That’s color.)
“Who are you?” Tony asks. He parks the car completely now. 
The man looks down at his hands again. “I’m—” he begins. He’s frowning again.
“Come on now,” Tony encourages. “How hard can it be?”
The man tugs at the scarf around his neck—and it must be windier than Tony thought, because the edges of it are swaying as if of their own accord— and swallows. 
“I don’t know,” he says.
-
So of course Tony brings Stephen back with him. He prods at the man until Stephen manages to blurt out ‘Doctor Stephen Strange’ for no reason either of them can remember. But it makes Stephen relax, a little, to have it on his tongue. 
Tony catches Stephen staring at him after that. A lot. When he asks him why, Stephen has no clear answer; just a vague “you remind me of someone.” For Stephen’s part, all he knows is that seeing Tony gives him an indistinct sense of relief. Like he’d been missing someone deeply, and has now found it again. 
Still. He can’t quite put his finger on it. Just like he can’t quite put his finger on why his hands don’t hurt when he tries to write…
-
Vision visits Tony, sometimes, whenever he remembers, or whenever someone in the town mentions the old mechanic. He brings Wanda. They have fun, but Vision always goes home feeling slightly baffled. And Tony always feels like something hurts, deep in the center of his chest. 
Vision likes his adopted younger brother. (And Peter gets along just fine with the twins, too, when they come along, so Wanda doesn’t change anything about it). But when the man with the bright eyes stares at him with just a bit too much calculation on his face, Vision starts to be reminded of… things. Of suspicions. Of Geraldine and how she had no home and no history. And he doesn’t quite look Wanda in the eye that dinner. 
“What do you do?” Wanda asks, her voice a little hard, a little suspicious. Vision tries not to wince. Whatever it is she’s not telling him, this man at his father’s dinner table reminds her of it. 
Tony flips his fork, balancing it like one might a wrench. “Stephen’s a doctor,” he says.  
Wanda’s face flickers. “That’s funny,” she says blankly. “Because no one in this town ever needs one.” 
-
For a while, Tony Stark didn’t see anything amiss here. He was created, was consistent, was emptily and vaguely pleased. But Tony Stark is Tony Stark, whatever character he’s been told to play. Tony Stark wants to help people. 
And this man, this strange doctor with the eyes that would sometimes go blank for long minutes and the tears that would stain sharp cheeks for a reason he claimed not to remember, needs help.
So Tony Stark begins to scratch at Wanda’s walls. 
-
 “What do you mean he’s here?”
“I mean your little plan didn’t work,” Agatha says. She stands on the edge of Westview, speaking through a mirror of magic to the man outside. She’s liking this sorcerer less and less the more she works with him—but he has been rather helpful so far, so she continues to put up with him. 
“Does he remember?”
“No,” Agatha says. “The dad that Wanda made up for Vision has taken him in. It’s kind of adorable, actually.”
“Hm.” Mordo’s mouth twists. “You’ll finish the job?”
Agatha shrugs nonchalantly. “Sure. When I get around to it.”
“You don’t want to wait. Deal with Strange now, before he remembers how to be a threat.”
Agatha laughs. It’s brittle, fully conveying her hostility. “Ha, my good sorcerer, listen. Unless you want to come in here and do the job yourself, you’ll let me handle this my way.”
Agatha’s way involves getting to the bottom of things, of course. And that’s rather convenient… because Vision has begun to try to do the same thing. 
— — — —
Okay that’s all I have for now? The other bits are still solidifying in my mind, and it’s basically all Horrible Angst. I hope this scratches a little of the itch of your ask, though! Feel free, anyone, to add onto this if you’d like! I really enjoyed the show, and I think it has some really awesome AU potential. 
Thanks for the ask!!!
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16th-cornelia-street · 3 years ago
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For those that want to start Legends of Tomorrow but are overwhelmed by the lore a brief summary of the characters so you don’t have to watch Arrow or Flash
Legends of Tomorrow (summary of characters to get you caught up)
 I recommend you start with season two as season one especially they try too hard to fit into the dark and gritty style of the other Arrowverse shows like arrow and Flash, and don’t really become their fun selves until around season three. But for now I’ll just give a summary of the first season characters who have ties to the greater Arrowverse.
 The Legends of Tomorrow is a show about B (maybe C) list super heroes who have been recruited to a time traveling team to stop a supervillain from destroying the future. 
 You have Sarah Lance “AKA white canary” younger sister of Lorel Lance, she left on a boat trip with her sister’s boyfriend Oliver Queen. During a storm she was lost at sea and thought dead. This wasn’t the case as she eventually found herself rescued by “The League of Assassins” where she trained for five years. Before returning home to Star City where Oliver Queen had also returned adopting the persona of Vigilante Green Arrow (think batman with a bow and arrow). While helping Oliver fight crime she was killed and a year later brought back to life using the Lazarus Pit, her soul being restored by John Constantine.
 Leonard Snart and Mick Rory are two thieves who mostly steal things, but occasionally helped the hero of their city, the Flash (superfast guy dressed in red). Snart uses a gun that freezes things, Rory uses a gun that shoots fire. (Snart also has a sister that has a gun that turns things to gold, not important to Legends, but she was pretty cool character.) [Spoilers ahead for season one ahead: at the end of season one Snart sacrifices himself in order to save his team and destroy the Time Masters (think more evil Time Lords)]
 Ray Palmer “aka the Atom” (think Iron man if Tony stark was a himbo and instead of a super suit created the technology for antman) Palmer at some point takes over Oliver Queen’s company. Before this his fiancé was killed and wanting to never be helpless again he created his super suit and tried to help fight crime. Being a little too bumbly this proved more a problem to Arrow and his teammates than helpful.
 Firestorm is a super hero made up of two people (think When our powers combine) before the legends fire storm was made up of Martin Stein, a scientist who accidentally fused himself with a man named Ronnie Raymond so that the two inhabited one body for a time. After Ronnie died, Martin’s health started to deteriorate as the Firestorm genes in him required him to have someone to link with. Team Flash tracked down a compatible partner in a mechanic named Jefferson Jackson. Now combined Martin acts as the brains and Jefferson as the body as they produce flames from their body (think human torch.)
 Hawkman and Hawkgirl are the main story focus in the first season. They have a connection that started back in ancient Egypt where a run in with a sorcerer, Vandal Savage, gave them the ability to be reincarnated. Each incarnation Vandal hunts down and kills in order to gain stronger.
 Rip Hunter is a man from the distant futures who gathers this team together in order to stop Vandal Savage, who in his future has brought great destruction on the world. With him Rip brings a time ship with an AI named Gideon. The ship allows them to travel through time as they try to find ways to stop Vandal Savage before the future Rip witnessed comes to pass.
EDIT: for those with an aversion to “Holes” be careful of season 4 where the main villain sometimes appears in his demon form with a face that resembles a bee hive.
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kaiparker-avengerssmut · 4 years ago
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Their Doll 2
Backing Up 
B.Barnes x Reader, S.Rogers x Stark!Reader
series synopsis: y/n Stark, all records of her non existent, and yet Hydra still find her. When she is kidnapped by a certain super-soldier and no one believes her, she finds herself searching for unexpected familiarity in her not-so-distant past.
Series Warnings: smut, violence, torture, swearing
Chapter summery: just some backstory really
warnings: none
A/n: The timeline in this has been altered, as there I things I wanted to include but I also wanted this fic to follow the storyline/timeline of Winter Soldier and Civil war.So for purposes of this fanfic, Peter Parker was discovered by Tony at a much younger age - when he was bitten - and has been an intern with him since, almost like a protégée.(For the purposes of this story Peter was bitten much younger too - more like when he was 9 or ten rather than 14/15)
Masterlist | Series Masterlist
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THEY nodded along to the music, head bopping side to side, up and down, along with the beat. Back in Black by AC/DC blared through the workshop, bouncing off the walls and rattling about the various parts left lying around - ready to be used at some point.
Y/n's head was bowed, eyes trained to her hands as she mindlessly picked at her nails, flicking a bit of dirt away and sparing a bored glance over to where her dad and Peter sat, laughs echoing from them in a sickening, unaware torment. Or maybe they were aware, and simple didn't care that y/n sat on her own with nothing to do, no one to talk to yet nowhere else to go every minute of every day.
The laughter haunted her, kept her awake at night. Y/n's soul was crushed over and over with every realisation that her own dad preferred his stupid protege - a boy just younger than her that happened to be bitten by  a radioactive spider - to his own daughter, her.
It made her hate the boy, it really did. Y/n was constantly left out, never included in 'family' meals, never taught anything in the workshop and certainly never given any gifts unless it was Christmas or her birthday, but even then Peter's gifts would greatly outweigh her own in price, size and value.
It was infuriating, to say the least. At the age of 11, most girls are close with their fathers - spending quality time with them, going shopping or ice skating or going to the cinema. And if their dad was busy they'd have a mother who would coddle them and love them enough for both of them.
But that was the other thing that made y/n's life so much harder, and, her neglect acne so much more heartbreaking.
She was adopted.
Tony paid to have her, and yet he spent more time with some boy he'd know for barely a year. Y/n wasn't stupid though, she knew exactly why this was. Peter had superpowers, something to develop and be proud of, and she was plain old boring normal.
There was nothing special about her, to put it simply. She wasn't inhumanly strong, she couldn't shoot lasers out her eyes and nor could she climb walls and swing from building-to-building. And on top on this, she was neither insanely pretty like most of the girls she saw around her dad's house nor was she extremely intelligent like her father. It was crushing, really, to be so average in a house of the remarkable.
So when HYDRA took her, the whole bloody world was shocked.
And yet no one came looking for her. Since she had been taken, she had heard of zero attempts at rescuing her. You could say that this was the reason she barely put up a fight anymore, simply obeyed.
Her old life still played through the girl's mind, of course. How much her life had changed - and was it really much worse now?
No. That was unfair. Being neglected was no match for what HYDRA put her through. They had taken her from her own home when Tony and Peter were working on something, chained her wrists up in shackles and gagged her with a mostly old cloth found on the floor of their quinjet. Then they were off, taking her to some remote HYDRA base in a country she didn't recognise with people she didn't know.
The painful part was the testing, though. That was the tough part. It took them months to figure out what they were doing, and when the last doctor finally stepped in, they got it.
She was an attempt at another supersoldier, to put it simply.
But it wasn't simple, not at all. No, they had altered her in ways she realised not even they expected, being unfamiliar with the technology and all. So now here she was, yet another ruthless killing machine - programmed so dangerously even her voice could kill.
Literally.
The closet thing she could be described as is a siren. With her voice, she could bring down armies, but the second she lost that, she was simply the girl forgotten by Tony Stark. Her voice enchanted, at least that's what they told her. In reality, it was explosive.
Again, literally.
The pitches in her voice created some sort of deadly wave, so when it reached the ears of her victims it exploded their brain. Sometimes.
Other times, she could control it - a certain pitch had a certain outcome. So most of the time, her power became mind control, so the sound would infiltrated the minds of others and she could make them do as she pleased.
That's how she found herself where she currently was, eyes wide as they took in the best of a man that was staring back at her, mouth incarcerated by the band of metal that stretched over it and around the back of her head, the technology designed specially to keep her fro  using her powers on the HYDRA agents and scientists.
The was a big man, with bulging muscles and shaggy dark brown hair. His eyes were blue - a strange blue that seemed to change daily. A gritty stubble lined his jaw and framed his surprisingly pink lips. He was always clad in leather - apart from his right arm, with wasn't flesh. It was metal, with a red star adorning the side. She also knew his screams to be heart wrenching.
When not in use, her and the Winter soldier were kept in bulletproof glass cells. He was strapped down by vibranium restraints to a metal chair whilst y/n was kept mute by her vibranium band. The two had often sought comfort in the sight of each other - something familiar about seeing the same person every time they returned seemed to calm both of the assassins.
Whenever y/n was in her cell and the soldier was not there, she felt lonely and vulnerable. With his cerulean eyes watching over her she often felt safe, protected. After a full year being HYDRA's personal slave y/n still feared them - the idea that she was enhanced and they still pulled her strings a sickeningly terrifying thought. Especially for a 15 year old with barely a grip on the world.
She yearned to learn more about the Winter Soldier. Why he never seemed to age. Why he could completely change with the uttering of a few simple words. Why he had a metal arm. There were so many things she didn't know, and yet his mere presence was enough to calm the girl and bring her back down to earth, no matter how scared she was.
But one day, everything changed.
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Is It Really THAT Bad?
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How many fucking times must I talk about this movie?
I feel like this movie doesn’t need an introduction. Everyone knows this film. Its reputation precedes it. It didn’t bomb and it’s not generally considered one of the worst films ever made (at least on the level of films like Robot Monster or The Cat in the Hat), but this movie is easily one of the most divisive films ever made. This film has generated enough arguments that, if we harnessed the energy of all the flame wars it has caused, we could probably power the entire world until the heat death of the universe.
With the impending release of Zach Snyder’s bloated redo of Justice League, I’ve decided to go back and ask myself of this film here… is it really that bad?
THE GOOD
Here comes the most uncontroversial opinion: the action scenes in this movie rock (or at least two of them do). The standouts are the titular showdown, which almost makes sitting through the rest of the movie worth it, and the epic warehouse fight Batman gets into, which is like something straight out of the Arkham games. It’s so good. And aside from that, a lot of the cinematography in the film is good. The film knows how to look good, though unfortunately it does end up being a lot of style with little substance.
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On the subject of Batman, I think Ben Affleck is a great and inspired choice. I certainly think he’s worthy of standing alongside Batmans like Clooney and Keaton, easily embodying both the Dark Knight and Billionaire Playboy aspects fairly well, though the writing does not always handle him quite as well as it should (we’ll get to that soon enough). Henry Cavill, while still a rather dour Superman, is as good as ever as Superman, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was a great choice here, especially since she didn’t have control so that she could insert anti-Arab racism, like some DCEU movies.
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Perhaps one of the movies most impressive feats is how, in an uncharacteristic moment of brevity, it manages to condense the backstory of Batman into the prologue, getting it out of the way and not making us sit through yet another Batman origin film. This is literally the only thing the movie has over the MCU; where that franchise just has the character Spider-Man inexplicably in existence without even a hint of his origins, they just get Batman’s tragic backstory out of the way so we can see him beating the crap out of people. If more superhero movies want to take this route and just condense the backstory into an opening montage like this, I’d be down for it.
THE BAD
I really could just say “most of the movie” but that’s such a cop out. Let’s actually look at the problems. Let’s work our way up through the things from least problematic to most, shall we?
The best place to start is what Zach Snyder did to Jimmy Olsen.
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Jimmy Olsen is made into a CIA spook who is brutally killed early on, and yes, that was Jimmy Olsen. Snyder put him in to shock audiences with his senseless murder, and also because he felt the character had no place in his series. Does making Watchmen just turn people into joyless husks who like to horribly bastardize iconic characters? Jimmy Olsen is ultimately a small microcosm of the film, but he is the sum total of everything wring with the early DCEU. He is bleak, soulless, and shows a critical lack of understanding about the comics and why people enjoy them.
Now let’s move on to the more exciting problem to discuss: the villains. I don’t even think it’s worth wasting much time discussing what’s wrong with KGBeast. While it is kind of interesting they’d think to use the guy at all, the fact he never dons the costume and dies by the end of the film is unfathomably lame for a character named KGBeast.
Now, onto the main antagonist, and the most infamous part of the movie: Lex Luthor.
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Lex Luthor is horribly, horribly miscast. Jesse Eisenberg is a great actor for sure, and he’s effective in movies like Now You See Me, The Social Network, and the Zombieland films. But here he is being asked to play one of the most diabolical cunning geniuses in comic book history, and rather than play him as such, he plays him like a cartoonish twit. This Lex is utterly unrecognizable as Superman’s greatest foe. Does anyone think Lex Luthor would send a jar of piss to someone as a joke before he blows them up? That’s more something the Joker would do on an off day. Lex is not cunning, not intimidating, and not diabolical in the slightest, and yet there are moments where Eisenberg’s acting chops shine through and Lex, for a moment, is almost engaging. Luthor really suffers the way Doctor Doom tends to in film adaptations: the filmmaker clearly doesn’t get why people like the villain, and decide to do some weird, unique take that will only cause to alienate fans.
But perhaps the worst of them all is Doomsday. Doomsday has exactly one claim to fame, and that’s killing Superman, so as soon as he shows up if you have even a passing awareness of the character you know how the movie is going to end, which robs the film of tension for its last battle. The fact he also appears with little buildup and doesn’t have any characterization doesn’t help; Doomsday is just the Big Gray CGI Blob that superhero movies try and pass off as a final boss for the heroes to fight. This has worked precisely once, in Iron Man. The Incredible Hulk and Venom did not make it work, and this film is nowhere close to being in the same ballpark as Venom.
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By and far the biggest problem, though, is the movie’s incredible length and its very existence in the franchise at this point in time. This is an epic superhero crossover in which two of the biggest comic book characters of all time fight and then team up… And it is the second movie in a franchise. While they do a good job of establishing Batman rather quickly, Wonder Woman comes out of nowhere. And then at the end, Superman ‘dies.’ We have had one single movie prior to this to make a connection to the guy, and yet here he is getting a temporary comic book death with no buildup whatsoever that we know is going to be reversed sooner than later because the movie telegraphs this to us.
Imagine if, instead of building up the character over the course of a decade and putting him in all sorts of different stories, the MCU went right from Iron Man to Endgame. You go from a simpler, character-driven piece to a massive crossover where a hero dies right away, and it doesn’t give anyone time to care. Tony Stark had multiple films worth of characterization under his belt before they threw him in a crossover, let alone killed him, but Snyder expects you to give a damn about a Superman who just started his career in the previous movie of a franchise.
And the ass-numbing length of the movie is no justification. Even before the director’s cut came out this film was a slog, and the director’s cut really does nothing to earn its existence. All it does is add more runtime to an already tedious and bloated film, leading to the same exact ending and fixing none of the overarching narrative problems of the thing. The problem with any director’s cut is that ultimately the movie is still going to be Dawn of Justice, it’s still going to lead to extremely rushed character decisions, and it’s still going to be a mess. You’d have to redo half of the film to make this into a worthwhile and coherent narrative that’s actually worthy of being an entry in a superhero franchise.
And to top it all off, the movie spends far too much time foreshadowing for its own good. People criticized The Mummy for shoehorning in way too many shared universe elements right off the bat, and if that movie was bad for it, so is this one. The cameos from all the members of the Justice League, while striking, could be excised from the plot with little to no impact, and the Knightmare sequence is just excessive and weird.
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Is It Really THAT Bad?
The answer to this question has never been harder.
On the one hand, this film does have some merit. There is some good casting choices, good cinematography, good action… But then, on the other hand, the film is overly long, pretentious, has poor writing and dialogue, mishandles everyone aside from Superman, and is just incredibly unpleasant.
This film is in many ways the exact problem Christopher Nolan created with his Dark Knight trilogy. Nolan, by grounding the fanciful characters of comic books into a realistic setting, created a climate in which someone could suck any sort of joy or meaning out of comics. The success of his films meant that people would see dark, gritty realism as preferable to joyous, colorful escapism, and the negative effects of his films, however good you find them, are still felt today even as filmmakers are finally shaking off the grit. Dawn of Justice is the zenith of Nolan’s style of superhero film. There is nothing fun, joyful, or engaging to be found here; it is simply the characters you know and love forced into dark, miserable scenarios that ends in death and misery. Where’s the fun? Where’s the color? Where’s the wonder, the excitement, where is any of it? This film paints a bleak and miserable and hopeless picture of a world of superheroes. It really makes me think of this rather famous comic panel:
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I absolutely hate this movie, but not because I think it’s bad. I hate it because it has enough good ideas where it should be the best thing ever, but it really isn’t. It’s a miserable slog of a film that does nothing to justify or earn its massive runtime whatsoever. It really does belong somewhere between 5 and 6 on IMDB, because I can almost see why people like it, but it just isn’t even remotely close to being how good its fan say it is. This is not a good superhero movie, and this is not how we should want superhero movies to be. There is a market for serious superhero fare of course, and there’s no reason that these films can’t engage with mature themes or anything, don’t get me wrong. But this is absolutely not the way to do it.
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I can't stop thinking about how much good stuff was cut to make time for the nonsense that Whedon added tbh. Having seen the film as it was always intended to be, I can't imagine cutting the Silas and Victor stuff. The quiet but worthwhile character moments. Like??? To make time for that random family he added? How someone looked at both cuts and said, 'we'll take the one without the heart and team building and explanations, thanks' is beyond me. Unreal.
Listen, you put a mediocre person with base writing skills whose ego needs to be brought in with a semi-trailer in charge... and fuck your characters, stories, emotions, and key plot points.
When the writer did some mediocre cookie-cutter nonsense from the early 90s and just keep changing the names of the characters for each new shoe, and refuses to listen to criticism... you can’t expect them to handle characters with backstories and lives that don’t conform to their past work.
Like, it’s easier to slip in an OC from the writer than give the buff male heroes some emotions... etc.
Look at the avengers? All that hype about a gay character and it’s a guy in some random scene with a support group who makes a throwaway line about his husband. And all that hype about girl power, in one goddamn scene that (as we saw from the whining babies out there) could easily be cropped out so Real DudesTM could watch it without having to see ‘all that femin__i shit’.
Look what snyder did to batman and the justice league. Everything is dark, gritty, sexist, and really weird. What the FUCK was up with batman screaming MARTHA?! and trying to kill superman in B vs S, he’s the greatest detective in the world and thinks that only ONE PERSON in HISTORY can have a mother called martha? what? that didnt make SENSE
also, in the comics, batman is absolutely not the grim bullshit they load on him.
same way cyborg isn’t some quip slinging robodude.  the comics were amazing when it came to showing the stresses, the little flaws and trials each character worked through, and often maintained that growth in the series for a long time. there was conflict with his dad over what he had done to vic, but like... he came to terms with it, and ALSO often helped out at a school for children with disabilities over it.
the real Flash in the comics would have been mortified to fall on wonder woman’s chest, and could have twitched himself out of the way with the speed force, but noooooooooo... it’s funny
the amazons went from functional armour, to metal bikinis because it was ‘more appealing’ 
lmao
Pretty much all of the films are just an AU at this point lmao.
On the other hand, comics switch artists and writers all the time, but there are a few base principles that they have to keep consistent, even if they make Tony Stark a sentient blob... he’s still a billionaire sentient blob who slides into a rocket powered tin can to fight crime lmao
I dunno, not ideal
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diaryofabeautyfiend · 4 years ago
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Small Time Witch (16)
You had your phone on silent the entire time you were shopping. Once you realized you checked your notifications. You had a text and missed call from Steve a voicemail from your therapist and a text from Tony. You called Steve back. His message seemed to be the most urgent.
“Hey. What’s up?”
“Where are you?” He sounded upset.
“In the city shopping. Why? What’s going on?”
“Did you see your doctor today?” Snitch.
“No. Look I know what you are going to say. I think I really have a handle on everything, Steve. I don’t want to see Dr. Calloway anymore.”
“Good. No, baby, that’s good. Don’t take anymore of those pills. Come back to the compound as soon as possible. We need to talk.”
“Steve you are scaring me.”
“Everything is fine, doll. Come on home.” You drove as fast as the law allowed. Steve met you outside of the gate. He stopped you before you could pull in and jumped in the passenger seat. Wanda and Sam got in the back and Bucky followed on the bike. “Just drive.” He pulled the radio out of your dash and told you to kill the navigation.
“We need to get somewhere out of SHIELD and Tony’s reach.” You bit your lip knowing exactly where to go. You started driving towards the freeway to head north.
“I have a place but you have to promise not to lose your shit when we get there. Promise me, Steve.” You tapped your fingers on the wheel and chewed your lip raw.
“I promise. Want to tell me what I’m walking in to?”
“Uh. My house. Not the one that was burned down. The new one.”
“When did you buy a house?” You were silent and started to tear up a little.
“Heimdall! I know you can hear me. Tell Thor to meet us at our house.” You wouldn’t look at Steve. You could feel his anger building. “You promised, Steve.”
“Baby, when you said ‘our house’ what did you mean?” He was gripping the arm rest so tight he almost snapped it off. He knew the answer to the question. He just wanted to hear you say it. You didn’t answer. You were concentrating on keeping the mood from escalating in the car. You were scared and it would be really easy to lose control at this moment. “Y/N I need you to answer me.”
“Loki built a house on the land that my family owns. He may or may not be living there. I don’t know because I haven’t talked to him in almost a year.” You put your hand on his arm and he pulled away.
“Nope. You don’t get to tell me how to feel right now, Y/N. I thought when you took that bracelet off he was out of your life. Out of our lives. That was a big deal for me.”
“It was a big deal for me too. I only found out about the house a couple of months ago. It’s a gift.”
“That’s a pretty big fucking gift. I can’t fucking believe you right now.” The rest of the ride was silent. Sam and Wanda looked out the window. The only sound you heard was the growl of Steve’s bike behind you.
The road went from paved to gravel to forest floor. You traveled far off the main drive. You arrived at the glen that was hidden in the shadows of a the mountains save for the beam of sunshine that shone down like a spotlight. There was a patch of grass that was singed where Thor likely landed.
You were trying so hard to hide your emotions but it was so beautiful. You took a deep breath getting a nose full of the mimosa that was now in full bloom. Wanda held your hand. “It’s stunning. I can’t believe he did all of this.”
The five of you walked into the gate. Loki was waiting in the doorway. “This is not exactly how I envisioned you seeing the place.”
“Thought she’d be alone?” Steve said blowing past him.
“Nice to see you too, Captain Rogers.”
“Don’t. Please” you begged. “Steve, honey. Can we have a seat and talk about why we’re here?” You gathered in the kitchen so Steve could explain. He confessed to knowing about the medication but not exactly what it was. He said he knew that Dr. Calloway worked for Fury and that the operation in Alaska was a rescue mission. He still hadn’t figured out the rest.
“I promise you I had no idea what that medication was not until I spoke to Agatha and Professor Xavier. Tony does and that’s why we’re here.”
“Steve, you should have come to me. The good news is I know what Aconite is. It’s been used for centuries as a poison and, in some varieties to help with anxiety. It slows the heart rate. Luckily I know an antidote. Plus I minored in chemistry and I’ve been working with Stephen Strange a literal medical doctor who helped me compound a quick dissolving tablet to neutralize the Aconite.”
“I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you. I should have talked to you. I would never willingly hurt you. Do you understand that?” He hugged you tight and kissed you. You nodded your head and hugged him back but you were still hurt.
Loki beamed with pride. You were always one step ahead of these idiots. What a clever little witch. It irritated him to his core that you met Steve with understanding and compassion rather than blind rage when he lied to you. You were clouded by your feelings for him.
“So what’s the plan, Cap? Do we go on this mission?” Sam asked. While they discussed a plan and you excused yourself to explore. Every detail was as you imagined right down to the door knobs and drawer pulls. Loki left a clone of himself in the kitchen so he could join you.
“What do you think? Did I get it right?” he whispered. You slipped your hand in his and squeezed.
“It’s perfect. Thank you, Loki. I love it so much here. I’m sorry I’m seeing it this way.” He didn’t let go of your hand right away.
“I’m just glad you’re here. I do admit I thought it would be just the two of us. But, there’s plenty of room. I’d better get back.” He pressed his lips hard to the back of your hand. You heard Steve calling from the kitchen.
“We’re going to stay the night here and go back to the compound in the morning. Until we figure all of this out you stay and we’ll come back to get you. I trust you’re safe here.” Steve explained. You went back to the bedroom to try to get some rest. Loki took the couch. He grabbed some blankets from the linen closet and winked at you as he went down the hall.
“Baby, I’m gonna check on everyone to make sure they’re set for the night. Why don’t you go take a bath? I’ll be back in a sec.” Steve checked on Bucky and Sam who were sharing a room. The bed was large enough for the two of them to fit comfortably. Wanda was already in bed so was Thor. Loki was sitting up on the couch reading.
“Can I talk to you?” Steve asked. Loki looked around to see who else was in the room. He gestured towards the big chair across from him. Steve sat down and stared around the room trying to collect his thoughts. Everywhere he looked he saw you. Everything was soft and inviting. There was a spice to the air warm and aromatic. He wanted to curl up in this place. Get lost in here. This wasn’t his place though. Loki built it with the intention of living out your days here. There were flashes of him too. No. There was no place here for Steve.
“Can I trust you with her?” His voice was low and gritty like it was worked over with sandpaper.
“You know she’s safe with me.”
“You know that’s not what I’m asking. Can I trust you to keep your hands off of her?”
“I won’t touch her. You have my word.”
“Your word. That’s cute. You see here I was thinking you were gone. Out of our lives. It took her six months to take that damned bracelet off which means it took her six months to get over you. And here you are back in our lives again. What possessed you to build this house?” he put his hand up to stop him, “No. Don’t tell me. I already know. It’s the same reason I went out to Westchester today. The same reason I’m ready to go ape shit on Tony fucking Stark and all of SHIELD. Because you are in love with her just like I’m in love with her. The difference is she chose me. She chose to have me in her life. You just keep showing up.” Steve buried his face in his hands. He wasn’t sure if he was coming or going.
Loki was deep in thought dissecting what Steve said but also trying to figure out Tony’s play. “I’m trying to understand what binding her will do. It won’t change the fact that she’s a conduit. It will only leave her defenseless. Unless that’s what they are trying to do.” Loki’s eyes were wide thinking of the possibility that you would be able to absorb all of the powers of the people Hydra kidnapped. You’d be a nuclear bomb indeed. That’s only if you were powerless to stop it. As it were, you cast a spell on yourself that had a fail safe built in. If you kept training with Strange and Wong, you would be able to stop the lot of them. “Captain. That’s it. They are using her to steal powers. What is in Alaska?”
“Fuck. That’s it. Fuck! Alaska is a giant Hydra base housing mutants. I’m leaving Wanda with you. I’ll call Stephen Strange in the morning. Don’t tell her anything. She’ll want to confront Tony. I won’t let her. I can’t let Tony know she hasn’t been taking her meds.” Loki nodded in agreement.
Steve stood up to go to bed. He was bone tired. All he wanted was to crawl into your bed and wrap his body around yours like a cocoon.
“Steve,” Loki called after him. Steve stopped in the doorway his shoulders slumped down in defeat. “I’ll keep her safe for you. When all of this is over, the place yours. Just promise me you’ll let her be herself out here. She hides a lot from you because she’s afraid she’ll scare you if you really saw her. You really love her? Get to know the real Y/N.” Steve responded with a weak smile.
The master bedroom was painted a deep green and had warm wood trim. A large vanity was situated in the corner with perfume bottles a comb and a brush neatly arranged on top. A massive four poster bed was dead center. The posts were ornate and winding like a tree the legs like roots. The Yggdrasil tree. A big round window sat high on the wall letting the moonlight stream in. He could smell the oils you used in the tub. Warm spice notes and deep florals. That’s what your skin would smell like. He wanted to burn it into his nose.
Off in the corner there was a small winding staircase that lead to a loft. He climbed it to find a reading nook with a small table for snacks. He smiled thinking about how much you would love it up there.
On the other side of the room was a wardrobe. Inside there were dresses that you’d no doubt wear barefoot and blouses and trousers for you to wear to work. Off to the side were three little drawers. The top was for bras the middle for panties and the bottom larger drawer for sweats leggings socks and T-shirts. The bottom was neatly lined with heels strappy sandals and a pair of boots that made his cock twitch. He imagined you wearing them with the leather dress that would barely cover your thighs.
In the chest of drawers there were sweaters jeans that looked worn in and a whole drawer for tac gear in case you went on missions with them. This fucker thought of everything.
He wanted to go out there and punch him in his smug little face but stopped when he heard you sloshing around in the water. He cracked the door open so he wouldn’t startle you. “Sweetheart? Can I come in?”
“Hey. Yeah. There is plenty of room for you.” Steve stripped and eased in to the too hot water. You grabbed the big sponge hanging over the faucet and got it sudsy enough to wash him. He let you though he felt like it was somehow wrong. Like he shouldn’t be this intimate with you in another man’s home.
The bathroom was just as glamorous as the bedroom. A small gas fireplace sat perfectly positioned to warm the whole bathroom. A chandelier hung from the ceiling. The shower was also large enough for two people. There were so many spouts it looked like a car wash. There were candles placed on every and any flat surface. The place was fit for a queen. Loki’s queen.
Funnily enough you didn’t seem to care. You rinsed off the soap and kissed your way up to his neck. You used a small pitcher set on a step stool to wet his hair. When you massaged his scalp you kissed him deeply. “Close your eyes and hold your breath” you said in that low tone that made him crazy.
He shook off like a dog making you giggle. His favorite sound. He lifted you enough to sink you down onto him. He will never get enough of how you felt. The water lapped around your body as you moved. You both came quick and hard collapsing your body down around him. “I love you, Steve” you whispered as you caught your breath.
“I love you, Y/N. So much.”
You got out of the tub feeling like your limbs were made of jelly. You dried off braided your hair and slicked your skin with more oil. The one you chose was warm and slightly citrusy. Vetiver. It made your heartbeat quicken knowing that Loki remembered your mother’s fragrance. The two of you crawled into bed and slept like you’ve been sleeping in this room for ages. You weren’t sure if it was being back on your land or something else but you felt like you were finally home.
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