#guess i'm doing another rewatch
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Oh no now I'm crying. š„ŗš
OSWLLDāS EOTY GIFTIES - Gift Six: Andor (2022) āŖ¢ LotR: The Two Towers (2002)
ā Ā for @hoe-biwan @ithappensoffstage @starryreys @anakinskvwalkcr & @displayheartcode
#lie down try not to cry cry a lot#like i started to cry as soon as i realized it was Sam's speech#after 20 years it's practically a pavlovian response at this point#the words over Kino#folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't#actually sobbing#welp#guess i'm doing another rewatch#andor#ranted at both my BILs today to watch it#lord of the rings#kino loy#cassian andor#marvaa andor#bix caleen#karis nemic#sam and frodo#star wars
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#not svt but#a sad day for me bcs i guess i'm now gna have one less channel whose content i enjoy watching#and it's not even about them losing interest in content creation#but instead they'll be moving everything to another platform where it's subscription base#including all their old content apparently?#do i have to start rewatching old buzzfeed unsolved videos again since there won't be anymore watcher content#also them saying $5.99/month or $59.99/year is ālow enough that anyone and everyone is able to afford itā is so out of touch#i can easily name a few pple who does not have the extra money for things like that#so many pple can barely afford to pay rent and bills and groceries in this world
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how many (distinctly different) asks can i put in before they get annoying?
One.
(ooc: just putting this in the body of the post to be sure you see it, but. This is very much just the Kim answer! I am still behind on asks because of Life Stuff and have a bunch left to get to sometime, but yall are always free to send me literally as many as you guys want. If I get repeats I'll bundle em or delete 'em- responses still just might be a while. And ty for the asks!)
#pine.txt#asks#suitmannotabot#rp#kim pine#sp comic#spvtwtg#spto#spvtw#not answering any other asks so I'm just straight postin this one! sorry if anyone got excited lol ik i usually try to do a couple at once#just wanted to remind people that I WILL answer stuff again one day... hopefully soon š I miss doing this stuff so much#(last two tags ooc just for clarification. didnt feel like doing the ooc: at the start)#still ooc edit here: i absolutely read this and the other one in bill's voice btw bc of the icon. i just finished rewatching GF recently lo#whoops! forgot another tag#... actually Legitimately forgot. what was my continuity tag i was using? not in standard continuity??#not in standard continuity#i guess I'll find out in a second here#what if I stop using that tag sometime soon and i just go back and tag all the old stuff like ''old lore'' or something
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i don't like season three when viewing it as a continuation of seasons one and two, but i do very much like season three when viewing it as the prequel to seasons four and five... hmmmmm.
#rewatching it bc i wanted to make another foreshadowing compilation post for myself regarding what will's actions will#likely be in season five re: vecna and lmao. so many things are just... it's like. it makes me laugh how In Your Face it is now#that we know all that we know. so many direct parallels both with dialogue and actions. mike/will/lucas/el foreshadowing their s4 roles.#the flaying of the holloways and the creels. the dormancy / activation shit. the building shit. the natural progression of their arcs.#the different ways that their characters approach problem solving and how we see tht reinforced by s4. it's so fascinating#genuinely i think idk it was just such a big culture shock i guess u could say from 1 and 2 that it was hard to digest on its own for me#but now that 4 is in the same vein it's like Oh. Okay. Yeah no. I get it now. That's cool. I'm forever bitter but I get it and respect it.#3 4 and 5 are a package deal considering they also said 4 was like part 1 of 5.#it also makes sense bc the point of 3 was that everyone was changing and building themselves in a new way and that#includes vecna so. just so fascinating how they link everything and how their vision is so consistent with certain plots and characters#like. the lucas max mike n will + el involvement is right there. the idea that they have to kill vecna and not just his puppets is right#there. that 2nd point starts in season two but three is where it really turns into an ''the end justifies the means'' situation#(especially for will which i think is something a lot of people overlook butā)#s3 is painful when considering their personal character arcs but fucking delicious when considering the overarching supernatural vecna plot#bc thts also when he starts his ''there is no stopping this'' shtick and actually enters the story#and he's fucking slimy lol. which i Love#anyway. omg first i defended mike in the rain fight and now i'm saying i kind of like season three who the FUCK am i!!!!!#crazy what feeling the need to defend a white boy's honor will do to you š³
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I absolutely adore your ruby gloom s/i and her entire gender shes so cute oh my god tell me about them PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE I know you already said it was inspiration but she reminds me SO much of the mummy girl from The scooby doo ghoul school and i LOVED THAT MOVIE SO MUCH AS A KID i just gotta know all about this s/i off design alone
She is like a PEAK little girl gender to me, it's what younger me would have wanted.
Now I don't know if you've actually SEEN Ruby Gloom but it is THE Baby Goth/Emo/Scene show. As in it is a show about and for Baby Goth, Emo, and Scene kids. There are hijinks and shenanigans and mild dark humor and usually no moral at the end of the episode.
She's a mummy, probably. The show is about like Monster Kids but what they are and where they come from never comes up. There is no plot, just kids being friends.
I imagine she can't talk with all the bandaging, and this show isn't the type to bust out actual sign language, so she just mimes and charades her way through conversations, like Doom Kitty. And like Doom, it has varying results. Skull Boy and Ruby can usually figure her out and Misery has a knack for charades and basically always knows what she's saying, but Iris can basically never figure it out, and Frank and Len and Poe all just Assume they know until someone else corrects them.
Sense she can't talk, and her bandages cushion her steps, she tends to accidentally sneak up on people and startle them, mostly Scardy Bat. There's an episode in my head where she keeps startling him, so he puts a bell on her so he can hear when she's coming.. and then she drops the bell somewhere and doesn't notice until it's completely unraveled her, and no one recognizes her unwrapped, so her and Scardy Bat have to backtrack the entire mansion together, avoiding getting seen by anyone else, to find where her bandage trail starts to rewrap her.
She's a lot stronger than most anyone else in the mansion, and can pick up and carry pretty much everyone with ease. Sense Skull Boy's commonly precariously up high and Iris is always seeking wild thrills, this strength is mostly used in catching those two specifically when they fall, though sometimes Poe ropes her into doing hard work for him.
I self ship with Skull Boy with her but they're probably not actually dating in current canon. He, She, and Ruby are in this Love Triangle situation where they all three have a crush on one another, and they're also all like 8-10 so navigating romantic feelings is really hard. So they're all still friends, and will probably stay that way till they're all a bit older.
#Emile's Arts#Ruby Gloom#Self insert#Proselfship#Proship Selfship#Thankyou for asking#Thankyou for asking I freaken LOVE Ruby Gloom#The season for it is fast approaching and my dad has spread an illness he got while traveling to my mother who then passed it to me#so I'm probably going to rewatch it very soon#I self ship with Skull Boy but romance is SO hard to imagine in Ruby Gloom they are Besties#Oh this S/I does use She/Her pronouns but she's not a girl I guess I should clarify that I dunno fkgjfdkg#There's also an episode in my head where she's really determined to learn to bake like Ruby#But everything keeps doing wrong like her bandages catch fire or she trips and throws flour everywhere#This is where Ruby gains her crush on her obviously but she just#She wants to bake SO badly but she's so bad at it#Just like me fr fr#Also she's a MASTER at hide and seek much like Mr. Buns#Ah babie self ships my beloved this is one of those really old ones I just kept up with because it's so comforting#Her Room in the mansion is I think Bug Themed she's obsessed with bugs and has a pet Scarab Beetle#Who probably goes missing as another episode conflict at some point
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Congratulations to Never Let Me Go for being the second drama to get the highest rating from me this year. Currently preparing my mind and body to be insufferable about it forever.
#haha! sike! I've actually already started-#(list of things I did BEFORE finishing NLMG tonight:#1. downloaded the episodes to cherish and protect in case the downfall of internet is tomorrow/other disasters#2. bought a replica of Nueng's necklace for the price of two croissants in the not-very-legal market#3. included a shot from the series in a special gifset#4. had heated mental arguments with the people making negative comments about it#5. .......... considered giving FUTS another chance out of gratitude to PP (not sure yet but just the fact that I gave it a THOUGHT-))#//#well now that being said#I'm kinda disappointed there are only 2 new dramas in the annual list that got the ''I will definitely rewatch this'' badge#last year there were 3 BLs alone. not even counting OTHER genres!!! and in 2023 I watched many MORE dramas!!! what is this!!!!!!#was I unlucky. was I going after the wrong stuff. I keep thinking about that.#but there were also a good number of dramas that got the ''I might rewatch this'' badge#and even the ones I didn't really enjoy were important to give me perspective/parameter#so... no time was wasted. and I was doing what I like to do? so I guess it's ok...
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Can love šššā¤ļø bloom š»š¼š¹š·š on the š¤š„ battlefield?? (Patreon)
#Shitpost#My art#Wander Over Yonder#Fist Fighter#Lol#As high-effort as I'm willing to put in to make it appear low-effort <3#Initially based on my silly little Fist Fighter OC(?) with a crush on Peepers - he's already started to morph a bit#Peepers might be a bit too high a station to pursue - shoot for the stars and all that!#But just by the sheer number of Fist Fighters and Watchdogs there's statistically gotta be one apiece that mesh well#And there's nothing that says he couldn't have a crush on Peepers to start! Kind of an ''Oh shit I guess some Watchdogs are kinda cute''#Until that slowly congeals into ''Wait no most of the Watchdogs are pretty cute actually.......uh oh'' lol#If he's gonna stick around he needs a name tho hmmm#Kinda tossing around Keith but I'd like to pull up some references to verbally-named Watchdogs first#That's another thing I've been thinking about - from my recollection/what I've seen in rewatching -#It seems like all the Watchdogs have either masculine or unisex names and are shown to be at least visually understood as male#And depending on how Word Of God you wanna go Craig McCracken has confirmed there are female Watchdogs on their home planet but like#There are feminine names /on/ Wander's list for the Giftening 2 but we only see them sneaking onto the Skullship!#Yes those are almost certainly staff-and-loved-ones Easter eggs >:P Do I care? Am I still going to integrate it into my HCs? Take a guess |D#And anyway that's Just the Watchdogs - unfortunately Awesome's force aren't really seen often enough to get names :(#Hell just finding a speaking line of theirs was a rare treat haha āŖ Up until then I almost thought they were mute!#Seems redundant because like - Bring Back WOY first of all of - but more Fist Fighters! They're too cute!
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Hullo! Trying to revive the tried and true tradition of asks!! Do you have a favorite episode or favorite few? (Bonus: please elaborate as much or as little about why you like it depending on your energy levels of courseā¤ļø)
Hope youāre having a lovely day!
hihihiii!!!! thank you so much for sending this, and i hope ur ALSO having a fantastic day <333 ohhhh my god it's been a while and im way overdue for a rewatch, but here's what i remember:
for plot reasons, "space seed" is definitely a favorite and my most rewatched!! i'm a sucker for analysis, and ricardo montalban, mexican king, and not only is it an INCREDIBLE setup for TWOK, but i could probably write an essay post on how good of a villain khan is as a foil to kirk. to summarize, it's fascinating seeing two characters (protag-antag) that are genuinely well-matched in terms of wit and motive.
for gay (spirk) reasons, "the city on the edge of forever" always makes me go insane. the aesthetic, the LINES that are dropped ("[as if you have been and always will be by his side]" or however it goes), and... just... the angsty and melancholic YEARNING that radiates from spock, watching him try to support kirk as a friend, but internally being torn apart because he'd rather martyr himself for kirk's happiness and good the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one than consider his own needs...
i also just wanna put out there that "for the world is hollow and i have touched the sky" as a title, poetically, has made me go apeshit bonkers even before i watched it. like. what the fuck.
#i know there are other eps i love for other reasons. like the empath. or there's another one i think that i love for spock's#characterization/growth. but tbh i just need to do a rewatch soon so i can Properly align them in my head#i think another part of it is bc i'm someone who fixates so much on soundtrack and plot etc. i Tend to rewatch the movies as opposed to eps#i guess amok time is up there too LMAO. that one's like. a given tho#i SO very much appreciate you doing your part in reviving traditional ask culture#i've just been absolutely bowled over by work ive been coming home and basically passing out lol#ask#opinionatedoctopus
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I don't know why the exorcist 2 pissed people off so badly that was your average italian horror film.
#š#listen. would I call this a horror film? no. It felt more like a religious sci-fi film which honestly I can't say I've ever seen before so#ruby tuesday to you guys I guess. and like I read the director's intentions for this movie and like.....I get it#the girl doomed by the narrative coming back to be the savior in the end is obviously one of my favorite tropes#so of course I'm gonna say I liked this because regan gets to be the hero even though most of it didn't really make a lot of sense lmfao#it's also not QUITE as odd as a lot of the reviews made it seem. it's a little out there but so are a LOT of horror movies from the 70's#and 80's this felt maybe slightly weirder than the standard#fucking hilarious though that richard burton was like well I'm divorcing elizabeth taylor so I took the role to pay for that#I will say though during the first hypnosis scene there was an effect I guess maybe similar to pepper's ghost that was REALLY cool#I was so focused watching regan that I didn't even noticed the possessed version of her beside her and it like genuinely startled me#was very long though. another reason why it reminded me of an italian horror it just felt like I was watching it forever#idk....I'd see it once if you enjoy kooky shit but I won't rewatch this like I do the original
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In the morning is my first day on a real job after uni and of course I'm staying up til 2 am digging into the burden that I am
#i feel like something rotting inside#like am I really that bad?? I guess i am)))#before uni i felt like a good person after all but a bit hard on myself and with some dark thoughts#but now it's so hard to be good I'm tired tired tired and don't remember how to act to seem good#i did it my whole young years but now im lost#i wanna pretend to be good and kind and able to listen and to support but im tired and i dont know how anymore#my head is heavy and foggy and im trying to decide what to do with my life next and i can't because im powerless#i have a dreamy idea about my future but i must choose a country and learn a new language and work hard but i feel like#another stress will kill me#or I'll do it myself in the end#i didn't sit in the shower for a while because our tub is too narrow to comfortably spread my hips and now i fell incomplete#how to decide what you want in life if you only want peace#uni really fucked me up like really im mentally shut down and unable to remember shit#i lost all my hobbies and only reread old books and rewatch old shows because my anxiety doesn't allow me to start anything new#i must sleep#but how can i if I'm so rotten
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Inevitable (Alex Summers x Reader)
Inevitable (Alex Summers x Reader) Reader Insert: she/her pronouns Word Count: 13,014 Warnings: violence, angst, fluff, death, injuries, mentions of unable to have children, sad ending, implied sexual actions Spoilers: I guess the plots of X-Men First Class, Days of Future Past, and Apocalypse but the films have been out for years so don't at me.
This is the story of Y/N L/N and Alex Summers - of Aura, the girl who could turn invisible and manipulate energy around her, and Havok, the boy who could generate and blast plasma from his body. A boy destined for destruction, and a girl who could prevent it.
Their story was always inevitable.
I'm going through an X-Men rewatch and I forgot how much of a chokehold some of these characters had me in, especially from the First Class era. As you can probably tell from my previous stories, I have an soft spot for the tragic ones, so here is my little story of Alex Summers who bloody deserved better.
1962 - C.I.A. Mutant Division
Y/N looked around at her surroundings as she followed Erik and Charles down corridor after corridor. She'd never met C.I.A agents before, let alone stepped inside one of their facilities. But Erik and Charles aren't C.I.A., she reminded herself as she took in the bland concrete walls and cold, harsh lighting above her. They were like her - mutants.
She hadn't believed them at first when they'd told her just a few hours ago inside the cafe she was closing up for the day. It had been a busy day and she hadn't had time for a drink of water let alone any reasonable break. She thought she was hallucinating when the two had entered the cafe, prattling on about how they knew who she was.
It was only when she demanded they prove it - that they were like her - and the taller one (Erik) had lifted every piece of dirty cutlery in the store and had them float into the foaming sink to be cleaned that she believed them.
That was almost seven hours ago, the drive from New York to Virginia giving the men more than enough time to bring her up to speed on what they were doing and why: they were gathering other mutants like her to stop another war from starting.
As she followed the two men through the facility, only now did she start to have doubts about their intentions. For all she knew, she was going to be experimented on and tortured, possibly killed.
'If we'd wanted you dead, we would've made sure of that back in New York,' Charles suddenly said without looking as he and Erick led the way.
'What? How did you-' Y/N started to ask, but cut herself off as she remembered what Charles' gift allowed him to do.
Y/N noticed her surroundings starting to change. Instead of a war bunker, the corridors started looking more home-like and the lights grew warmer. As they approached a big orange door, Y/N heard voices speaking and laughing in the room beyond. They sounded... happy.
Finally, Charles looked at her and spoke, but not with his mouth. I promise you, Y/N, he said into her mind, freaking her out a little bit, you don't have to be scared here. You don't have to hide who you are from the people beyond this door. Here, you can be free. Happy, even.
Y/N looked between Charles and the door for a moment, imagining whose faces belonged to which laugh, which voice. She imagined herself doing those same things, and that was what convinced her that she was in the right place.
'Are you ready to meet your new family?' Charles asked aloud this time, to which Y/N nodded and Erik opened the door.
Y/N was met with six people sitting around a coffee table chatting and laughing while having a few drinks. She took a moment to admire them all - a short girl with dark hair and visible tattoos all along her shoulders and arms; a red-head who seemed to be doing a lot of the talking in the group; a man with charcoal skin and broad shoulders in a tight grey vest-shirt; a boy with glasses who looked really shy next to a gorgeous blonde girl who could very well have been a super model; and a blond boy in a dark t-shirt and leather jacket who had the smoothest smile Y/N had ever seen.
They were the perfect picture - how could she possibly interrupt that? Y/N was about to leave when suddenly Charles called for everyone's attention and that smooth smile from the blond was now aimed at her. Her heart thudded in her chest, embarrassment at being caught flooding her cheeks and she just had the visceral response to hide, hide, hide.
'Everyone,' Charles started proudly as he motioned to Y/N, 'this is Y/N. She will be- Wait, where did she go?'
Y/N watched as everyone looked around the room even though she she hadn't moved. Both Charles and Erik looked at her, but they didn't seem to see her. That's when she looked down at her hands and found her entire body covered in a translucent light only she could see. And that could only mean one thing.
'Sorry, I'm right here.' Y/N concentrated hard on revealing herself and when she could no longer see the translucent light, she knew she could be seen again.
'Whoa,' the red-head said, his mouth gaping in shock.
'That... is wicked cool,' the broad-shouldered man exclaimed.
'As I was saying before,' Charles said, sounding sheepish at forgetting her ability, 'this is Y/N. She will be joining you all and her gift... Well, we will leave that to her to discuss that with you all. Erik?'
'Yes,' Erik replied, and then the two of them were gone, closing the door behind them and leaving Y/N standing all alone.
Y/N was usually a confident person - she had to be as a waitress - but having six pairs of eyes staring at her so intently had her wanting to hide again. The beautiful blonde stood up from her place on the white couch and sauntered over to her. Y/N found herself looking up at the woman, who seemed to have legs for days and the most beautiful smile as she approached.
'I'm Raven,' she said, holding a hand out in greeting. When Y/N shook her hand, she gestured to the couch. 'You've come at the best time. We were all just about to discuss our gifts with one another.'
Y/N was quickly dragged to the couch and plunged into an in-depth conversation with the six. After only a few minutes, Y/N felt as if she'd always been there, talking and laughing and joking around and becoming more confident. Although, she couldn't compete with the blond boy with the smooth smile from earlier, now known as Alex Summers.
In the short time she'd heard him speak, she'd deduced he was the cockiest man in every room ever. No wonder he was put into solitary confinement, she thought when he mentioned he was picked up by Charles and Erik at his army base. He's probably been the instigator of more than one fight.
'We should think of some code names,' Raven suggested enthusiastically. 'We're technically government agents now. We should have code names. I want to be called Mystique.'
'Damn, I wanted to be called Mystique,' Sean, the red-head, groaned in fake misery, causing everyone to laugh.
'Well, tough. I called it,' Raven said, then her voiced changed as she physically did, eliciting gasps from the group as she now sat as an exact replica of Sean. 'And I am way more mysterious than you.'
The group gave her a round of applause as she morphed back into the beautiful blonde, but now that she'd revealed her gift, Y/N wondered if what she showed everyone now was her true form or just another disguise.
One by one they went around the room, showing off their abilities and coming up with names for each other. The mood somewhat soured when Angel asked Hank who he wanted to be.
'How about Bigfoot?' Alex jested as he took another sip of his coke. His condescending laughter communicated that it wasn't a nice joke, and that didn't sit well with Y/N.
'Well you know what they say about guys with big feet,' Raven said, eyeing his own feet before she continued, 'and, um, yours are kind of small.'
Alex's smirk dropped instantaneously as the group laughed and oohed at Raven's burn. Except for Darwin, who rounded the group back to the topic at hand.
'Okay, okay, settle down now,' he said. 'What can you do, Alex. What is your gift?'
'How about being burnt by women?' Y/N murmured just loud enough for the group to hear, earning another round of laughs and a hard glare from Alex. Y/N held his gaze with a smirk in challenge, taking a sip of her own drink. He might've been top dog back in army bootcamp, but Y/N didn't like bullies, especially if they were meant to be teammates.
Alex eventually dropped his glare, his whole demeanour changing as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. 'Um, it's just... It's just that... I can't do... I can't do it in here.'
'Can you do it out there?' Darwin asked, and when Alex hesitated to answer, the rest of the group started goading and pleading him to show his abilities. Y/N even found herself intrigued. What could Alex do that he needed open space for?
The group cheered victoriously as Alex gave in to peer pressure, put his drink down and climbed through the broken glass courtesy of Sean moments before. As Alex set up outside, Y/N joined the others who leaned out the broken window to watch him.
'Get down when I tell you,' Alex said as he lined up in front of the bronze statue that's head still smoked - courtesy of Angel's fireball during her demonstration.
'Get back,' Alex said, and Y/N leaned back with the rest of the group, but they all apparently were too intrigued and so they all leaned out from behind the wall to watch him.
Alex went to make a move until he realised the group hadn't listened to him. 'Get back!' he warned again, but when no one moved, he faced the statue again. 'Whatever.'
Y/N found herself gaping at Alex as he seemingly powered up, red rings of plasma rotating around him until he slung them out into the open space but uncontrolled. The last one hit the statue, slicing it on a diagonal that had its head and part of its torso falling to the grass in flames.
The group erupted in rounds of applause as Alex walked back to them. He appeared more confident now as his teammates applauded. Y/N figured he wasn't used to that. Perhaps that was why he'd been in solitary confinement as much as he had been.
'Well, I'm glad you did that out here,' Darwin said, looking at the wreckage slightly worried. 'You've caused... a bit of chaos.'
'I can't control it, unfortunately,' Alex said, looking at the damage he'd caused. 'I'm hoping that might change one day.'
'Don't be ashamed of your gift, Alex,' Raven said, resting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. 'You're amazing.' She looked to the rest of the group. 'We all are.'
When Raven did that, Alex's attention fell onto Y/N again, a skeptical look on his face. 'So what about you? Do you do anything useful or do you just disappear when you get a little embarrassed?'
Y/N's cheeks heated with anger. Who the hell was he to judge her? He didn't even know her.
'At least I don't cause havoc with my gift,' she bit back, motioning to the flaming buildings and statue.
Where a normal person would look at the damage and wince with remorse, Alex had the audacity to look at his handiwork and laugh in amusement. 'Havoc. I like that. Maybe that should be my code name, except change the c to a k so it looks cooler written down.'
Y/N rolled her eyes while the others complimented how good a name it was. But she had to admit it was a fitting one, just a shame he turned her insult into a name for a hero.
Y/N released a sigh then held out a hand to the fires in the courtyard, concentrating on grasping the energy in the air. After a moment, small bubbles of white energy appeared and Y/N was vaguely aware that her new friends had gone quiet as she forced the bubbles to encapsulate the fires. With a flick of her fingers, the bubbles started shrinking, depriving the fires of oxygen and eventually extinguishing them.
When Y/N turned back to the group, she found them all gaping at her in wonder and shock.
'Well, that was cool,' Angel said, earning hums of agreement from the others.
'What exactly did you just do?' Hank asked.
'I don't really know what it is,' Y/n answered honestly. 'But, I think I can manipulate energy or something like that. I can create those force fields, and as you saw before...'
Y/N let the energy hide her, and she relished the shocked faces of her friends as they could no longer see her. Feeling cheeky, she ran at Alex then dropped and swiped his legs out from underneath him, sending him sprawling to the ground.
He landed with a resounding thud, his breath escaping him in a loud, 'Oof,' as he did. Only then did Y/N reveal herself, looking down at him with a smug smile.
'...I can turn invisible.'
The others clapped in appreciation of her demonstration while Alex looked up at her in annoyance. Y/N offered her hand to help him up and surprisingly he took it and together they pulled him to his feet.
'So what, you can control, like, the Force, or something?' he asked.
Y/N rolled her eyes. 'This isn't Star Wars, asshole. It's more like... I can feel the aura of the energy around me and I connect with it and then use it to my will.'
'That's it!' Angel exclaimed suddenly. 'That's your name!"
'What is?' Y/N asked, confused.
'Aura!'
'Aura.' Y/N tried it on her tongue. She had to admit, it had a nice ring to it.
'Aura, Havok, Banshee, Darwin, Angel...' Raven said each of their new code names as she looked at them, grabbing a drink for herself from the table. She looked to Hank. 'We'll find one for you soon, Hank,' she reassured, then pointed to herself. 'And Mystique.' She raised her drink high and everyone else did the same. 'Here's to our new life. Here's to being our true selves.'
'Here, here,' Sean said as they all clinked their drinks together in solidarity.
'So, what do you think?' Alex said just to Y/N as seperate conversations between the others started. Angel switched on some music and her and Raven jumped on the coffee table to start dancing.
'About what?' Y/N asked.
'Are you going to be your true self here? With us?' he asked, and there was a little challenge in his question, as if he really wanted to add Or are you going to hide away?
Y/N had so far lived her life in constant fear. But Erik and Charles said they needed her, that the world needed her. Perhaps it was time to stop hiding.
Y/N flashed Alex a small smile, reflecting his challenge in her own eyes. 'I don't think you could handle the true me, Havok.'
Alex's grin widened devilishly. 'Try me, Aura.'
1962 - X Mansion, pre-Cuba
It had been weeks since the C.I.A Mutant Division facility had been attacked by Shaw, that Angel had chosen his side, that Darwin had sacrificed himself in the effort to save them all, Angel included.
Egos bruised and hope extinguished, Charles had brought those who remained back to his mansion to train for the upcoming battle with Shaw. Which is what Y/N was doing with Raven when Charles entered the gym requesting her presence in the war bunker.
'You want me to what?' both Alex and Y/N exclaimed together in the bunker, gaping at Charles because he'd clearly lost his mind.
'You heard me,' Charles said nonchalantly, walking to stand in the middle of the room. 'I want you two to spar while you, Y/N, protect me. Expand your range of concentration so you can control different energies at once, manipulate numerous fields doing different things simultaneously. Alex now has the tools he needs to control his power so he won't be as volatile as he once was.'
'Hey now,' Alex said, clearly offended.
Charles offered a mediocre apologetic smile before readdressing Y/N. 'You have to push the limits you have set for yourself in order to become stronger. I can sense your full potential hasn't even been scraped at yet. How about we try today.'
Y/N looked between Charles and Alex, who also looked at Charles like he was crazy. But there was an air of truth to his demands. Shaw was no novelty mutant, and neither were Angel and the other mutants following him. If Y/N didn't do this, she would be their next victim, and what kind of teammate would she be if she died too early?
Y/N eventually nodded her agreement. 'Okay, let's do this.'
'You sure about this?' Alex asked her.
'Aw, is big old Alex Summers worried about hurting me?' Y/N taunted, though she didn't really know why. His concern was sort of sweet.
It disgusted her.
Alex's concern scrunched up in annoyance on his stupidly beautiful face. 'No. I just... Oh, screw this. Fine let's spar, L/N.'
Y/N went to stand at one end of the bunker and Alex at the opposite end. Charles planted himself right in the middle of the two, looking too casual for Y/N's liking. Did he really have that much faith in them?
'Whenever you two are ready,' Charles called out, rocking on the back of his heels in anticipation.
'Okay,' Alex said hesitantly as he fired himself up. His new chest plate helped him to control his plasma so he surely would hit the professor if Y/N didn't do something.
Just as Alex fired, Y/N placed a force field over Charles and the plasma blast bounced off it and straight back at Alex. Alex had to duck quickly as his own blast came hurtling back at him, and Charles let out a small laugh as the blast made a small dent in the wall behind Alex.
'Well this is going to be fun,' Charles said, and the fight truly begun.
Alex would sling shot after shot at Y/N and the professor, but Y/N deflected every shot and held the force field around the professor soundly. At one point, Y/N managed to to turn in visible while Alex was distracted and landed a few blows.
But Alex managed to knock her back, the blow forcing her to reveal herself. She had no time to worry about being exposed however, as Alex powered up for what seem to be one giant blast. Y/N managed to bring up a force field around her as the blast connected, but instead of bouncing up off it, the plasma seemed to sink into the force field.
Y/n looked around in confusion, feeling the energy flowing stronger through the force field and increasing with every second. She was vaguely aware of someone calling her name - it sounded like Charles - but the energy was becoming too much to hold up now.
Y/N let out a cry as she released the force field, and the shockwave it sent through the bunker sent both her and Alex flying to opposite ends of the bunker.
Y/N smacked into the solid brick hard, sending an intense throbbing through her head as she hit the ground. Her vision blurred and she felt drained of power like never before. Two blurry figures were in front of her, their mouthes moving but not saying a word. She thought they were saying her name.
After a few more seconds, her hearing came back to her as well as her vision, showing Alex and Charles kneeling beside her with worry on their faces.
'Y/N, can you hear me?' Charles asked, scanning over her body for any injuries.
'Are you okay? Can you hear us? Say something,' Alex said, eyes searching her face for any sign that she understood anything they were saying.
Y/N hummed in reassurance and his worry dissipated into relief. Alex quickly helped her into a sitting position as she gathered herself. 'Well,' she breathed out, giving Alex an amused smile, 'that was... fun.'
This elicited a laugh out of both men as they helped her to her feet. Y/N was very aware of Alex's hand holding her steady on the small of her back as they both listened to Charles.
'My! You two create quite the show,' he exclaimed with an enthusiasm that kind of scared Y/N. 'Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant work, you two. You have both grown in leaps and bounds these past few weeks. I daresay you will both be quite powerful when you fully master your gifts. Now, take the afternoon off, possibly head to Hank in the lab for some patching up and look overs. I will see you both first thing tomorrow.'
'He sounds like a professor talking to students,' Alex muttered after Charles had left.
Y/N shrugged. 'Well, we kind of are students, so I guess that would make him our professor.'
The two shared a small laugh and both their eyes slipped to his arm, which was attached to the hand that still pressed gently against her back. Alex quickly dropped his hand and Y/N took a decent step away from him. Well now it's awkward.
'G-Good fight,' Alex finally said after seconds of silence, unable to meet her eyes. He did the thing where he rubbed his neck and Y/N's stomach did a little flip at how cute the gesture was.
Quit that, she told herself, then realised she hadn't responded to him. 'Y-yeah. You too. Sorry... for sending you into the wall.'
'It's okay. I've been hit harder,' he said, and his cocky smirk was back. Something about his statement rubbed Y/N up the wrong way, like he was undermining her ability. That was a pretty decent fight they just had.
Y/N just huffed and stormed out of the bunker. 'Whatever,' she muttered as she left him behind.
'Hey,' Alex called out as he ran to catch up with her. 'What's wrong? You want me to apologise too? Okay, I'm sorry for sending you into the wall, too. There? Happy?'
'You know,' she started, stomping up the stairs that would take her to the first floor of the mansion, 'you can be such a jerk, Alex.'
'What are you talking about?' he asked, and he had the audacity to sound genuinely clueless.
At the top of the stairs Y/N finally stopped to let Alex catch up. She didn't care that he was taller than her, she looked up at him with annoyance in her eyes. 'You can never admit that someone could be better than you, let alone that they could be your equal.'
His face screwed up in confusion. 'What? That's not what I meant. Where did you get that impression from?'
'You think yourself superior to us all, and for what? We all have gifts, Alex. We are all special and useful and powerful. Yet you make fun of Hank, you belittle me. What is your problem?!'
Alex stepped towards Y/N, closing what little space there had been between until she felt his breath brushing her heated cheeks. 'You know, I was just about to pay you a compliment but forget it.'
'I wouldn't want a compliment from you, Alex. They're more like insults than anything,' Y/N said then stormed off.
'Princess!' Alex called out after her in a last ditch effort to have the last word.
'Jerk!' she answered over her shoulder.
'Coward!'
'Asshole!'
Y/N finally entered the lab and Hank was already looking at her crossed arms.
'You know, you two really need to take your fights outside,' he simply said, already reaching for his equipment to check her health.
Y/N raised a brow in a silent question, to which Hank responded, 'The walls and floors to this place aren't as thick as they appear.'
Downstairs where Y/N had left Alex smouldering, a certain telepath entered Alex's mind. Well that's an interesting flirting tactic.
'Oh, piss off,' Alex hissed aloud as he walked in the opposite direction towards his assigned bedroom. Y/N was the most aggravating person in existence. Flirting with her was the last thing on Alex's mind.
I don't know, I think you two would make a rather nice couple, Charles interjected again.
'I said piss off!'
1962 - Cuba Beach
Y/N was locked in a fight with Riptide when she saw Alex and Sean crash onto the beach, Angel having shot them down. As she went to attack, Alex shoved Sean out of range as he unleashed his uncontrolled plasma rings, his chest plate missing.
He caught her wings, slicing them in half and sending her flying to the ground, but as Alex helped Sean to his feet, Y/N spied Angel get to her feet, rage in her eyes and fire burning in her mouth.
Alex's back was turned. He would never see it coming.
Y/N, rejuvenated by the threat, turned back to Riptide and conjured up a large energy wave and sent it hurtling at Riptide. He tried bringing up a wall of wind to counteract it, but the wave was stronger and sent him into the side of the uprooted submarine. He fell to the sand with a hard thud and didn't move.
Y/N immediately ran for Alex and Sean, hands raised and conjuring up a force field around her friends just as Angel spat fireball after fireball at the two of them. The fireballs bounced right off the force field, angering Angel even more as she turned her attention to Y/N.
Before she could attack, Y/N trapped Angel in another force field, raised her off the beach, and sent her out over the ocean where she finally let the force field drop. It hurt her to hear her old friend's scream as she fell into the deep water, but Angel had done this to herself.
Y/N turned back to the boys. 'Are you two okay?' she asked, looking over them for any injuries. All she could find was Alex's bare chest and a hole in Sean's wing suit.
'We had it covered,' Alex said, his tone annoyed.
Y/N scoffed. She couldn't believe it. He was still being a self-righteous jerk in the middle of a battle?
'I just saved your life, asshole,' she said, stepping towards him in anger. 'Maybe you should be thanking me instead of complaining like a little boy.'
'Get down,' he said, his eyes on something over her shoulder, but she didn't care. He wasn't listening, but she would make him.
'Don't you tell me what to do you self-righteous jerk-'
'I said get down!'
Before she knew what was happening, Alex was pushing her behind him as he sent plasma rings at Riptide, who Y/N obviously hadn't knocked out entirely and was lining up to attack her from behind.
Riptide saved himself from being sliced like the statue back at the C.I.A. with a small tornado, but the impact from the plasma rings sent him flying over the submarine and out of sight.
'And I just saved yours,' Alex said as her tuned back to a shocked Y/N. He was panting heavily, obviously not used to exerting so much energy in such a short time frame. 'Now we're even.'
The way his words were haggard from his lack of breath made his voice raspy and Y/N hated how much the sound tingled up her spine pleasantly.
Y/N opened her mouth to retort at him - tell him how stupid and reckless and irresponsible and idiotic he was - but she couldn't find anything to say, and so snapped her gaping gob shut in indignation. The two just stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, eyes locked as so many unspoken emotions passed between each other.
Until Sean walked in between the two of them, shaking his head in disbelief. 'Damn, get a room, you two,' he said, his tone both disgusted and amused as he started walking back to Charles and Moira still on the crashed jet.
'We're not-' Y/N started.
'It's nothing like-' Alex interjected at the same time, but Sean was already out of earshot.
Y/N and Alex looked back at each other, both their cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
Alex was the one to finally break the silence. 'We should...' he trailed off as he gestured after Sean.
'Right,' Y/N immediately answered, grateful for the change in subject. They still had a fight to win, otherwise the whole world would fall into another war.
Y/N and Alex followed Sean swiftly, happy to leave the awkward interaction behind them. But even after the fight, Y/N didn't know about Alex, but maybe there was a little truth to what Sean's words implied. It wasn't that Alex was unattractive. He was just... infuriating.
But he had saved her life, put his body on the line protect her. That meant he cared for her in some capacity... right?
1967 - X Mansion
'You're what?!' Y/N exclaimed, standing up from her seat in the middle of Charles' office.
'I'm sorry, Y/N, but I have no choice,' Charles said, his voice sad and exhausted.
Y/N should've seen this coming. She'd seen the signs. How Charles had let his hair grow out, how the shadow of a beard grazed his jawline. How he lounged in his wheelchair instead of sitting with his usual perfect posture. And the hope and colour of his eyes had faded to loss and hopelessness.
'Yes, you do,' Y/N argued, slamming her hands on his desk. 'You can choose to keep fighting. You can choose to keep helping and teaching. You can choose hope, Charles.'
'There is no hope left, Y/N,' Charles replied, dejected as he looked anywhere but Y/N's eyes. 'Erik was right. The world is not meant for mutants. The world does not want mutants.'
Y/N walked around the desk to kneel before his wheelchair. 'You can't truly believe that, Charles,' she said trying to catch his gaze. 'After all you have done, after everything we've been through, you cannot believe that. Look at what you've achieved!'
She gestured to the room, but she meant the school as a whole, whose corridors buzzed with students who possessed unique powers. Admittedly the numbers had dwindled significantly because of the Vietnam War, with most of the teachers and the older students being drafted. Y/N had managed to not be drafted so far, and had dedicated every second she had to teaching. She was now in her late 20s and had learned all she could as a student. It was her turn to teach the next generation what it means to be a mutant.
But regardless of numbers, there were still children who needed help. They couldn't close. They just couldn't.
'Please, Charles,' she said, placing a gentle hand on his cheek to guide his eyes to meet hers. He looked in so much pain - a pain Y/N couldn't see but she could certainly try to understand. 'There is still hope. There is still good in the world. We just have to find it again.'
Charles didn't say anything at first, and Y/N took that as a sign that maybe she'd gotten through to him. Since beginning her teaching career, Charles had become like an older brother to her. He hadn't given up on her when she didn't believe in herself all those years ago, she wasn't going to give up on him now.
But Charles gently took her hand away from his face and turned his chair so he faced away from her. 'Hope is a human error. I've already made up my mind, Y/N. I suggest you forget about all of this and go live what life you have left. God knows society won't allow you a full one.'
Y/N remained crouching, too shocked to argue, too horrified to be angry. As Charles turned his back on her - busied himself with his bookshelf - Y/N left the room in a daze, still unsure what had just happened. That's how she felt for the rest of the day as she taught and supervised, students constantly asking her if she was okay as she usually wasn't as silent as she was.
Y/N easily deflected the questions, but she couldn't ignore the breaking of her heart every time she spoke with a student, saw them master an ability, ask a question. How would she break the news to them? A more accurate question would be how could she? They looked up to her, to Charles, to all of them. Some of them had no homes to go back to, no families that accepted them or no families at all.
By the time the last bell rang, Y/N was on the brink of breaking down.
It was now late at night, the children well and truly asleep. But Y/N remained awake, walking the mansion, dreading breaking the news tomorrow during the assembly. God knew Charles was in no condition to break the news himself even though he was the headmaster. And Hank hated public speaking despite being a teacher. No, she had to do it, but she'd be breaking hundreds of hearts in the process.
As she reached the front foyer, looking around and remembering her first few days there, remembering the first few days of the school opening and it being full of enthusiastic and excited children, tears welled up in her eyes.
They'd just started to slip when the front doors clanged open. Y/N immediately went into defensive mode, her hands lighting up as her mutation activated
Alex threw his hands up in faux surrender. 'Whoa! Easy Y/N, it's just me!'
Y/N breathed a long sigh of relief as she let her hands drop. 'Jesus, Alex. You mind knocking next time? What are you even doing here? It's two in the morning.'
Alex was also a teacher at the school, but he sometimes slept off campus as his family home was just a few suburbs away. He usually didn't slip back in until just before class though so this encounter was a little surprising.
'I needed to see the professor,' he said, then his face scrunched with worry as he looked over Y/N. 'Were you just crying?'
Y/N quickly turned her back to him to wipe away the tears that had escaped. 'I'm fine. It's nothing.'
'No it's not,' Alex said, and he took quick steps until he stood beside Y/N. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and managed to turn her to face him. He looked down at her with such concern Y/N felt more tears welling up.
He was a dick. From the day they'd met he'd solidified that for himself. But the past five years had seen him mature, grow, change in ways Y/N had no idea he was capable of. She saw how gentle he was with the children, how fiercely protective he'd become of them.
And while they still clashed and fought like cats and dogs, they'd found comfort in each other more than once. They would always laugh on the terrace late at night as they had a nightcap, downloading their days to one another; Y/N would occasionally bring Alex food when she knew he hadn't made it to lunch because he was so busy with work; and Y/N would wake up sometimes from nightmares to Alex comforting her.
Out of all the original X-Men group, those two had become the closest. With Charles busy running the school, Hank busy with his lab, Raven, Erik, and Angel off recruiting for their Brotherhood, and Sean deciding to go see the world, Alex and Y/N only had each other.
'What's wrong?' Alex asked so gently. 'What happened?'
Y/N couldn't get a word out, her heartbreak finally bubbling to the surface as tears and sibs wracked her body.
'Hey, hey, hey,' Alex said as he pulled her tight to his chest, arms wrapping securely around her, hands rubbing up and down her back soothingly. Y/N clung to him for dear life, the only part of her body she could control as she continued crying. 'It's all right. I've got you.'
They stayed like that for a few minutes before Y/N had no more tears to cry. When she finally pulled away, there was a dark patch of tears staining his white t-shirt that he wore under a plaid overskirt. 'Sorry about that.'
'Don't be. Ever,' he said, and Y/N had never seen him so serious before. 'Now, what's wrong?'
'Charles is closing down the school,' she said, voice dejected.
'What?' Alex looked up the stairs then back to Y/N, confusion and anger morphing his features. 'I'm gonna go talk to him.'
He made to run up the stairs and no doubt give Charles a piece of his mind, but Y/N quickly grasped his wrist and halted him. 'You can't,' Y/N said. 'He's already made his mind up.'
'Like hell he has,' Alex seethed, making to leave again but Y/N pulled him back.
'Alex,' she pleaded with him, 'believe me if I could change his mind I would be up there right now doing so. But... he has no hope anymore. The war has dwindled us thin. He doesn't see the good in the world anymore. That's not something we can give back to him. He has to find that again on his own.'
Alex looked ready to argue, jaw clenching as he looked between the stairs and Y/N. But Y/N slipped her hand into his and squeezed it gently and his features softened. He rubbed the back of his neck - as he always did - as he let out a defeated sigh. 'So I guess there isn't any point in informing him that I've been drafted for the war?'
Y/N's eyes bulged and her heart rate spiked with fear. 'You what?' she asked, but she'd heard him correctly.
His jaw clenched as if he didn't want to elaborate. 'Got the call this morning. I'm just surprised it's taken this long for them to find me again.'
That's right. Y/N sometimes forgot he had been in the army just before they met. 'When do you leave?' she asked.
'Two days from now,' he said regrettably.
Y/N never considered herself an emotional person, but tears welled up in her eyes again. 'It's just not fair,' she said, breathless as she tried to keep the tears back. 'You deserve to be free. You deserve to be happy, Alex.'
'Hey, hey,' he cooed, using both hands to cradle her head and neck, forcing her eyes to meet his. 'I'll come back. I promise. And who says I haven't been free and happy?'
He swallowed thickly as his eyes scanned over Y/N's face, hesitating on her lips before looking back at her eyes. Y/N felt then something change. In the air, between them, possibly both - she couldn't quite tell. But the way he was looking at her, how he held her so preciously, had her heart racing.
'The past five years here have been the most free and happy I've ever been,' Alex admitted. 'Training and teaching with Charles and Hank... and you. You have given me a home away from home, a new family. You've protected me when no one else would; you've laughed and cried and fought with me, for me...'
He leaned in closer now, as if there was a gravitational force pulling them together. 'I will come back, Y/N. To you.'
Alex Summers was a dick, but he was also a kind and loyal man. A man silently laying out his heart before her despite their previous disagreements.
'Promise?' she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
'Promise,' he said, and with that confirmation Y/N stood up on her toes to lock her lips with Alex's.
His hands cradled her face still as he held her to him, their lips melding harmoniously as they kissed. This had been building in Y/N since day one when he'd flashed her that smooth smile that sent her stomach into somersaults. Every fight (verbal or physical), every conversation, every drink they shared, every looked that passed between them, it had all been leading to this.
They finally pulled apart but pressed their foreheads together as they caught their breaths.
'I've been wanting to do that for a long time now,' Alex admitted, his words breathless.
'How long?' Y/N asked, curious.
'Since day one,' he answered, then let out a small chuckle. 'I didn't know it at the time, and when I finally did I never wanted to admit it. I think Charles and everyone else knew before I did.'
'It was the same for me,' Y/N assured him, and Alex smiled brightly before he pulled her in for another kiss.
The rest of the night was spent catching up on lost time. Y/N was thanking Charles that all teachers' rooms were at the other end of the mansion to the students' rooms. Y/N and Alex managed an hour of sleep before the rays of dawn warmed them awake.
'We probably shouldn't have done that,' Y/N said, tracing a finger along Alex's toned stomach.
'We were pretty quiet, I thought,' Alex said, stopping threading his fingers through Y/N's hair to press a kiss to the top of her head. 'Though, you did get a bit loud when I-'
'Shut up, asshole,' she said, giving him a slight shove that sent the both of them into a quiet giggling fit. Once they'd both calmed down, Y/N returned to tracing Alex's abs. 'I mean, we shouldn't have done that because you're leaving in two days.'
'Yeah, we certainly have great timing, huh?' Alex tried joking but when Y/N didn't laugh, he sat up in bed bringing her with him. 'Hey, I told you I will come back. Nothing's going to stop that.'
'You can't assure me that,' Y/N countered.
'What was that whole thing about having hope?' Alex questioned, and when Y/N couldn't find an answer. 'I believe in us, Y/N. I have hope. You taught me that. I will come back. I promise.'
Y/N still had her doubts but she allowed herself to play into the fantasy that it would all end up okay, and she leaned in for another mind-melting kiss.
'Okay, Alex,' she conceded. 'But just know you're still an asshole.'
'And you're still a princess. But you're my princess.'
As the two got ready for the day, Alex asked, 'So what are you going to do? When the school closes down.'
Y/N had been thinking about it since Charles told her and hadn't been sure if it was the right thing to do, but she had to try. 'I heard that Raven has broken off from Erik and is going about their cause on her own. I'm going to go find her and bring her home.'
'That's going to be dangerous,' Alex said, his tone worried.
'And going to war isn't?" she countered. 'Raven is like my sister. I've got to help her. There is good in her, she's just angry at the world. You're right. I have to keep hoping, even if everyone else has lost it. Because we are worth it.'
She walked up to Alex to cradle his face as he had done so many times the night just gone. 'We are worth it,' she whispered.
Alex placed a hand of his own over hers, pressing it closer to his face which had only gotten more handsome over the years. 'You're amazing, you know that right?'
Y/N just smiled before bringing him in for another kiss. When they broke apart she took a moment to contemplate his face then laughed.
'What is it?' he asked, an amused smile on his lips.
'We're just two idiots, aren't we?' she said, her tone bordering on sad. 'All that time wasted on arguing. All seems stupid now in the face of danger and death.'
'I disagree,' Alex said as he took her hand and headed for the bedroom door. 'I wouldn't change that time for the world. I am who I am because of that time, and you were always so cute when you were mad.'
'Hey!'
1973 - X Mansion
Y/N breathed a sigh of contentment as she stood out the front of the mansion, all tidied up and ready to reopen.
'I forgot what it used to look like without the overgrown weeds and dusty windows,' Charles admitted as he looked over the entrance too.
'Now whose fault would that be?' Hank asked with a smug smirk on his lips, but it quickly dropped with Charles' side eye.
Y/N smiled at the familiar banter. It had been a long six years full of struggle and pain and loss since Charles officially closed the school. But a man called Logan from the future had convinced Charles of something Y/N had been unable to, and while Y/N hadn't be able to bring Raven home, she'd been able to help their future and bring Charles back to life.
It had taken a few weeks to clean the mansion up with just the three of them. They had no one else to ask. Logan was missing, Raven too. Erik had gone into hiding, and Sean and Angel and most other mutants had been subjected to and killed by Trask's cruel Sentinel trials. None of them had a chance to say goodbye, and that very thought haunted Y/N even now.
And Alex... Last time Y/N checked, Raven had freed him and other mutants in the army who'd been locked up from the rest of the soldiers for some reason. No doubt for experiments. Y/N had been on base that day, but she'd gone to another bunker with other mutants. Her and Raven had stayed behind after that; Y/N never got even a glimpse of him, but Raven said he was okay and that he missed her.
'That doesn't matter now,' Y/N said. 'What matters is we're doing what we were meant to be doing all along. Speaking of which...' Y/N turned to the two men kind of sheepishly. '...I actually can't start teaching again just yet. I have to go.'
'What?' Hank asked. 'Why? We need you here.'
'I know, and I have every intention of coming back,' Y/N hastily reassured. 'I just... I need to go find someone.'
'Who?' Hank asked, but Charles was looking at her knowingly.
'It's Alex, isn't it,' he asked, but it wasn't really a question. Besides, he'd probably read her mind.
Y/N nodded. 'He used to call me from base every two weeks, send letters once a month. But then the calls stopped coming about a year ago, and so did the letters. I didn't even know if he was alive until Raven and I went to his air base. But I didn't see him, and now I need to find him to see if he did make it home after all.'
Charles looked at her and he smiled, the action caught somewhere between pride and sadness. 'You really love him, don't you?' he asked softly.
Y/N found the same smile stretching across her lips as she nodded. 'Very much so.'
Charles chuckled softly as he looked away, then somewhere over her shoulder. 'Very well then, off you go. But... something tells you'll find him closer to home than you think.'
Confused, Y/N turned to follow where he was looking over her shoulder and saw a black Cadillac pulling into the driveway. It wasn't until the driver pulled up in front of the building and stepped out that Y/N realised what Charles meant.
Alex Summers stood facing her from the driver's door, smiling smoothly at her as he pulled off his aviators. 'Hey, princess,' he said, his tone somewhere between his usual swagger and pure relief.
Y/N flew down the front steps and over to him. He held his arms out expecting a hug, but all Y/N saw was red as she lined up to slap him square across his face. The sound was crisp and cut through the air, silencing even the birds.
Alex was stunned as he turned back to her confused. 'What the heck was that for?'
'How long have you been home' Y/N asked, ignoring him.
'Um, like, a month? I don't really know-'
'And you didn't call me? Let me know you were okay?'
'I was kind of busy consoling my family since I've been gone for like six years,' he argued, rubbing his cheek. 'And you seemed to be busy too. You know, saving the world and all.'
Y/N couldn't argue with that, but she still wanted to be mad at him. He had her all worried for nothing. 'You still could've called me.'
'I'm here now, aren't I?' He reached a hand out to clasp hers and she allowed him to puller her closer with it. 'Trust me, there wasn't a day that I didn't think of you, wishing I was back here with you. I'm sorry if I made you worry.'
His genuine tone softened her anger until it was nothing but relief and joy at seeing him. She pressed her forehead against his own and smiled. 'Like you said: you're here now, right?'
With that, the two connected in a long awaited kiss that reflected all their longing and love for one another. They were so enthralled with one another that they didn't hear a word of Charles' and Hank's conversation happening just a few steps away.
'Wow,' Hank said, trying not look at his long-time friends making out in front of him. 'Alex and Y/N. Not going to lie, did not see that coming.'
'Oh, I did,' Charles said smugly, though his eyes reflected the happiness he had for his close friends. 'From the moment they met, I knew they were inevitable. You didn't need to be a psychic to see that coming.'
1978 - Alex and Y/N's house
Y/N sighed as she unlocked the front door to her and Alex's house. They'd moved in together about a year ago, hating constantly going between the school and Alex's old apartment. He hadn't returned as a teacher to the school after the army as she had, and so found a place of his own. But one night they'd both realised they didn't want to keep figuring out whose place they would spend the night at. They wanted a place for themselves, and the rest was history.
Y/N kicked off her sneakers, grateful for the relief she felt as she walked into the lounge room where her feet sunk into the carpet. Alex seemed to have had an early mark from his office with the U.S. Military, as he was in the kitchen cooking. His soldier days were thankfully over, but he'd been promoted to a desk job which didn't really suit him but it paid well and he could actually try and make a difference from there. For both humans and mutants enlisted into the army.
'Hey, princess,' he said, stirring up some sauce that had Y/N almost drooling for.
'Hey, baby,' she said tiredly as she came up behind him and cuddled him, breathing out a content sigh as she attempted to meld into his back.
'Wow,' he said with a chuckle, 'no asshole today? You've definitely had a bad day.'
'Don't push it,' Y/N warned, but it was an empty threat as she didn't move a muscle. Alex was always so warm, and now that it was winter she craved his presence even more. 'You didn't have to make dinner.'
'I know,' he said nonchalantly, continuing to stir the delicious smelling sauce. 'But I figured if you weren't home by five, you'd had a hard day.'
'Aw,' Y/N cooed, squeezing his torso slightly tighter. 'Alex Summers, you can be so thoughtful, you know that?'
'Besides,' he said, finally putting the sauce bowl down and turning in Y/N's arms to face her, a cheeky smile on his lips, 'you take forever to cook and I want to eat at some point tonight.'
Y/N's smile dropped. 'I take it back. You are a jerk.'
'That's nothing new,' he said as he pulled her in for a loving kiss. Y/N really enjoyed their more fervent kisses - the ones that left her breathless and hungry for more because she just couldn't get enough of him. But this - the gentleness, the care, the love transferred between their lips - calmed and grounded her. Reminded her she was at the best place in the world: home.
'Why don't you go have a shower, relax, and I'll have dinner ready by the time you come out?' Alex asked after they ended their kiss, rubbing his hands up and down her arms in comfort.
Y/N shook her head. 'While that does sound like a wonderful time, I'd rather help you cook the rest of dinner.'
'You sure? It's nothing special or hard. I can handle it-'
'Alex,' she interrupted, heading for the drawer with all their aprons, 'I have spent all day at a desk or in a classroom looking at paperwork and marking grades. I want to help. I want to spend time with you. It's treat enough that you're home before the sun sets.'
She tied her apron up, rolled up the sleeves of her dress shirt and reached into the pantry 'Now, let's get this pasta cooking.'
The rest of the night was relaxed, with Alex and Y/N chatting about anything and everything while they cooked. They continued chatting during dinner, and Y/N laughed at Alex spilling red pasta sauce all over his cream shirt. Before they knew it, bed time had fallen upon them.
Y/N was just brushing her teeth as she was explaining how her day was going to go tomorrow. 'Now remember, I'm going on an excursion with the kids tomorrow to the national history museum so I won't be home until six, I think.'
When Alex didn't answer, Y/N asked, 'Alex? Did you hear me?' He didn't answer again, and so Y/N spit out the toothpaste and hurried back into their bedroom.
'Alex? Why aren't you-'
Y/N's heart almost stopped as she was met with Alex Summers on one knee, holding a delicate but beautiful ring up to Y/N.
'Believe me when I say I had a different plan in mind for this,' he said, eyes hopeful and the twitches of a fearful smile pulling at his lips. 'I had it all planned out and was going to do it when we go on our trip next month. But those places don't mean anything to us: here does. In our home.'
To Y/N's surprise, Alex's eyes welled up with tears as he continued his speech. 'Tonight was perfect, and I realised... that I want to have a night like tonight every night. You are too good for me, Y/N. I can be a jerk and an asshole and self-centred and rash - but you take it all in stride and put me in my place and I thank you for that.
'I love you, Y/N. And I want to love you - fight with and for you, explore with you, live with you - for the rest of my life. So, Y/N L/N... will you marry me?'
Alex never cried, so seeing him get emotional opened the floodgates in Y/N's own tear ducts. Y/N clasped her mouth as both sobs and joyous laughter escaped her, leaving her a blubbering mess.
Y/N wiped away her tears and flashed Alex the most loving smile she could manage. 'What do you think? Of course I will marry you, Alex Summers.'
Alex breathed a sigh of relief and his tears of joy finally fell as he stood up and embraced Y/N. Y/N couldn't hold him any tighter it seemed, couldn't pull him close enough even when there was no space left to close between them. But finally they parted and Alex slipped the delicate ring onto Y/N's finger. It shimmered in the low lamp light coming from their bedside and Y/N couldn't imagine anything more fitting.
'It's beautiful, Alex,' Y/N said, still sniffling.
'Anything for my princess,' he muttered into her hair as he held her close.
Y/N laughed into his chest before craning her neck back to look up at him. 'You're locked in now, asshole. No take-backsies.'
Alex laughed. 'Don't you know?' he asked, leaning down to capture her lips in another loving kiss. '...I was always in it for the long run,' he said after breaking away, warm breath fanning across Y/N's cool skin.
1983 - X Mansion
Y/N was just leaving her classroom when four students came flying by.
'Hey!' Y/N called out, and the four students stopped.
'Sorry, Mrs. Summers,' Jubilee said, a bashful expression on her face.
Y/N eyed who else was with Jubilee. Jean Grey, and the two new students: Kurt Wagner and her brother-in-law Scott Summers.
Y/N placed her free hand on her hips as she looked at them skeptically. 'And where are the four of you off to in such a hurry at this time of day?' she asked, noting how it was the middle of the day.
'Uh...' Jean started, looking unsure.
'We were just off to the library,' Scott interjected, his voice confident and full of bravado. 'To study.'
Y/N narrowed her eyes on Scott. Scott was not the studious kind, and usually she could read Scott like a book. But since his mutation kicked in and he'd had to wear the ruby quartz glasses, it was hard to tell what he was truly thinking.
'That's right!' Kurt added over-enthusiastically, and the others nodded in agreement.
Based on their adamant responses, Y/N knew something was up. But she released a sigh and waved them off. 'Okay, but don't study too hard then.'
'Yes, Mrs. Summers,' Jean and Jubilee said together, then grabbed Kurt and headed around the corner and out of sight.
Scott was just about to do the same when Y/N called out to him. 'Hey, Scott.' He stopped and turned, his lips pulled down in a frown, possibly worried that he'd been caught out. But she just smiled and said, 'It's nice to see you've made some friends already.'
Relief and genuine appreciation split his lips into a smile. 'Yeah. Me too,' he said, then he took off after the others, their laughter bouncing off the walls of the old mansion.
It genuinely made Y/N happy to see Scott making friends. He was usually the reserved type, making small rebellions but certainly not as loud as his older brother. He used to be the kid that got picked on at school, so to see him actively engaging with other kids was promising.
It was the changing period between classes and so all the students were milling about the halls as Y/N made her way down the steps to the front foyer. She had a free period so she was in no hurry.
What she didn't expect to see, once the children had cleared, was Hank and Raven of all people standing together in the foyer.
'Raven?' Y/N said in disbelief, a baffled smile adorning her lips.
Raven and Hank seemed to have been engaged in a serious discussion, but she returned Y/N's smile and opened her arms for an embrace. 'Hey, Y/N.'
Y/N accepted the offer and embraced her long-time friend tightly. 'Oh, it is so good to see you, Raven. It has been too long.'
'Yeah, since seventy-three I believe.' The two women pulled apart but held hands. Raven ran her fingers over Y/N's hands and her fqace changed to shock and happy surprise. 'Oh my God, you got married?!' she exclaimed, bringing Y/N's left hand up to inspect the delicate diamond.
'Yeah. Alex and I just celebrated five years,' Y/N said, her words taking on a sad tone.
'Five years...' Raven dropped Y/N's hand, a sad expression on her face. It was then Y/N recognised that Raven was in the skin she'd worn for years to fit in with society, not her natural blue. There was slight betrayal and hurt on Raven's face too.
'We tried finding you, Raven,' Y/N said, grasping tight to her friend's hands. 'I wanted you there. Truly. You just... Well, since D.C. I imagine you've been busy.'
Raven's betrayal morphed into shame. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I would've loved to have been there. For you.'
Y/N knew she meant it, and so she flashed Raven a smile and said, 'It doesn't matter now, though. You're here now, and it is so good to see you. Speaking of which, why are you here?'
'I came to speak with Charles about Erik,' Raven admitted, the two women finally releasing each other's hands. 'I think he's in some trouble.'
'I was just telling her Charles and Alex were out,' Hank added.
'Well, they should be back in the next hour, I think,' Y/N said. 'Why don't we wait in Charles' office until then.'
As they all waited, Y/N and Raven decided to catch up. They discussed everything from the school to Raven's personal missions as a vigilante for mutants to Y/N and Alex's marriage.
'I must admit, I always knew you two would end up together,' Raven commented, a knowing and cheeky smile on her face.
'No you didn't,' Y/N argued. 'Did you even know Alex and I back then? We fought like cats and dogs!'
'Still do, depending on the day,' Hank muttered as he drank his tea.
Y/N flashed him a hard glare before turning back to Raven.
'Oh come on, it was practically inevitable you two would end up together,' Raven countered, laughter dancing on her words. 'But I'm happy to hear you two are happy. You're some of my oldest friends and you deserve happiness.'
'Thank you, Raven,' Y/N said softly.
'So, how many do you have?'
Y/N raised an eyebrow in confusion. 'How many what?'
'Kids. I can only assume you've got an army waiting for you at home...' Raven quietened as she noticed Y/N's demeanour change. Her smile dropped and she sunk back into the couch more. 'Did I say something wrong?'
Y/N shook her head and tried smiling for her friend, but tears welled in her eyes. 'No, you didn't. It's just... Alex and I found out we can't have children about a month ago.'
'Oh, Y/N.' Raven didn't know what to say or do. She just reached a hand out was a grateful that Y/N took it for support.
'We've been trying since we got married,' Y/N explained, wiping the tears away before they even fell. 'When nothing was happening, we decided to go see a specialist. But I guess even being a mutant doesn't make us immune to human genetic failure.'
She gestured to the closed doors that led from Charles' office to the school beyond 'Besides,' Y/N continued fondly, 'I have hundreds of kids already to deal with,. Children of my own would just complicate that probably.'
Raven just hummed in agreement, but said nothing more. No doubt she could sense or even see Y/N only meant half of what she said. Y/N truly loved each and every kid at the school, but it broke her heart to know she'd never have a daughter or son that had her eyes or Alex's smile, her wit or Alex's bravery.
Before they could dwell on the sad matter any further, the doors to the office opened and in came Charles, Alex, and someone Y/N thought she'd never see ever again.
'Moira?' Raven said as the three entered the room, standing to her feet in shock.
'Raven?' Charles asked.
'I'm sorry, have we met before?" Moira asked, cluelessly smiling at Raven, then Y/N and Hank.
Soon enough, Raven and Charles needed to converse privately and so Y/N, Alex, Hank, and Moira stood in the foyer awaiting their decision. Hank took one for the team and took Moira for a bit of a tour around the school while Y/N and Alex stayed in the foyer to talk.
'Never thought I'd see you step inside these halls during school hours again,' Y/N said cheekily.
'My brother and Charles are the exceptions,' he said, and when Y/N pouted he added quickly, 'and of course my beautiful wife.'
'Hmmm, sure asshole,' she said, before allowing him to kiss her briefly.
'You know you can be so mean sometimes,' he said as he pulled away.
'That's why you love me though, right?' she asked.
'Hmmm, sure princess,' he mirrored her earlier comment, earning a light slap to his shoulder as they devolved into laughter.
'So, how's Scott doing?' Alex asked, genuinely concerned for his little brother.
'Don't worry,' Y/N reassured him. 'He's fitting in just fine. Although he said he was going to study just before...'
'Oh, he's definitely doing something he shouldn't be then,' Alex said.
After a moment of silence, Y/N said, 'I was talking to Raven just before... about us not being able to have children.'
The topic always made Alex more protective, and so he placed his hands on her arms and started gently rubbing them up and down slowly. 'You okay?'
'Yeah I'm fine, but it did get me thinking... why don't we look at adopting?'
Alex looked halfway between shocked and happy when she said it. 'Are you sure?'
Y/N nodded. 'Why not? There are so many kids in this world that have no homes, no families. We could be that for them.'
Alex smiled brighter than he ever had as he embraced her so hard he lifted her off her feet with joy. 'I love you,' he said as he finally put her down, then looked at her as if she was the light of his life. 'We're gonna have a family.'
Y/N nodded then pulled him into a short kiss, just as Hank and Moira finally came back to the foyer and Charles' office doors opened. 'Y/N and Hank, you are dismissed from classes for the rest of the afternoon,' he said. 'We have to find Erik.'
~~~
It all happened so fast.
Someone hijacked Cerebro and controlled Charles momentarily, taking over the world for just a split second. Raven, Hank, and Y/N were finally able to wrench Charles free of the power and then Charles commanded Alex to destroy Cerebro.
The incident left the whole group, except for Moira, panting and drained as they exited the flaming room. Charles was unconscious in his chair, giving no signs that he was okay.
Y/N sensed a change in the area's energy force, and looked down the hallway to where a portal was opening. 'Uh, guys...'
The rest of the group followed her gaze to where five figures stepped out of the portal, one notably being an old friend.
'Erik,' Raven said softly, realisation dawning on her face too late. He was not here to be friendly.
Before anyone could react, Erik reached out to Charles' chair and brought him in to their portal which was firing up again.
'Charles!' Raven called out.
The winged figure protected Charles as the others stepped in front of him as barriers. Not that any of Y/N's group chased after them - wait, one person did.
'Alex, no!' Y/N said as her husband ran past her. When he didn't listen, she chased after him.
'Alex!' Hank called out behind them.
'Hey, asshole!' Alex called out to the blue man standing out the front of Erik's group.
The portal reopened around Erik, Charles and the other figures, the blue man stepping out in front to say, 'All will be revealed my child.' His voice was haunting, echoing all around them in a way that emanated power. He was not a standard level mutant.
But Alex still ran, and Y/n sensed he was charging up to fight.
'Alex, don't!' Y/N was almost there, could reach him in another few steps.
'Wait!' Hank called out, but Alex was lining up, red plasma already bursting from his chest. 'Stop!'
Y/N finally realised Hank's fear. While she was trying to stop Alex from chasing after mutant much stronger than all in the room, Hank was more concerned as to what was just beyond the doors Erik and Charles stood before.
Y/N's fingers just grazed Alex's shoulder when he let out a powerful plasma blast. But Erik and Charles disappeared into the portal before the blast could reach them, instead allowing it to burn through the metal doors that lead into the jet hangar.
Y/N pulled Alex behind her as the explosion happened. She threw up her hands and conjured a force field that surrounded the entire hangar just as the fire was about to reach her face. The strain was immediate as well as the heat, and Y/N almost crumbled as the explosion bounced and rolled around in the bubble.
'Y/N!' Raven called out, and Y/N felt hands on her arm and shoulder as Alex came into view.
'Baby?' he asked, eyes apologetic and frightened.
'I'm okay,' Y/N managed out, breathing deeply as the strain increased. 'Get everyone out. Now.'
'We can't just leave you here,' Hank argued.
'We won't,' Alex answered. 'I'll stay with her. Let me know when everyone is out.' When Raven and Hank didn't move, Alex said, 'Go!'
Once they'd gone, Y/N said, albeit with a strain, 'You should go, too.'
'I'm not leaving you,' he said, the weight of his hand on her back ever present. 'Hank and Raven can get the kids out themselves.'
'I'm not just talking about the kids.' Y/N managed to tear her gaze from the swirling explosion just beyond her force field to look Alex in the eyes. 'Go find Scott. Make sure he's okay.'
'I trust Hank and Raven,' Alex said.
Y/N's hands shook and so she turned her attention back to the force field. 'Alex, I don't know how much longer I can hold this. And I'd rather you not be here in case-'
'Don't say that.' Alex moved more into her vision so she didn't have to break her concentration. 'I put you in this mess, I will see you through it. You're the toughest person I know, Y/N. If anyone can hold this, it's you.'
Y/N saw on his face he truly meant it, but her hands shook harder now and the fire was pushing against the field more. Y/N swallowed a groan because as much as she didn't agree with Alex, she had to try.
Every second counted.
But every second was torture.
In reality, it was only five minutes before Hank notified Alex that the school had been cleared. But Y/N's vision was starting to spot black and her entire body now shook. Sweat rolled down her face and exhausted tears threatened to spill over.
Alex's phone buzzed and he answered the incoming call. 'The kids are all out,' Hank said, his crackling due to the horrible service of the lower levels. 'We're coming back for you.'
'Don't!' Y/N strangled out, groaning as the strain increased. She was aware of Alex's gaze on her so she turned slightly to look him in the eyes and saw something that she didn't want to see.
Hank kept talking. 'What? No, we're coming back down-'
'It's okay, Hank,' Alex said calmly, his eyes never leaving Y/N. 'Just... keep them safe.'
'Alex, wait what-'
Alex ended the call and Y/N could've screamed with frustration. 'No,' she whispered. 'You're not staying with me.'
'You never planned on getting out of this alive,' Alex stated. 'Did you?'
'I've made my peace,' Y/N explained. 'You need to be here for Scott.'
'You are my wife, Y/N!'
'And he is your brother!' Tears finally spilled as her powers began to wain. 'He is young and scared and he needs his brother so please Alex, go!'
Pain and indecision whirled in Alex's eyes as he looked from her to the doors that would save his life. Y/N couldn't hold on much longer, but she'd make sure he would get out. Tears spilled down his gorgeous face. Even after all this time he still looked as he had when him and Y/N first met, apart from the hair of course.
Resolve and love and apology was on his face as he finally looked back to Y/N, and he said, 'Scott will understand.'
He was really doing this. He was really going to die with her.
'I can't protect us once I let this field down,' she strangled to say, tears and pain and regret threatening to overwhelm her. 'I have nothing left, Alex.'
'You've done enough,' he said gently, then manouvered himself to stand between her arms so he was face to face with her. He cradled her face in his hands then pulled his lips to hers for one final kiss. 'I'm sorry,' he whispered, tears streaming down his face.
'I'm not,' Y/N replied, and despite their situation she smiled as brightly as she could. 'We had a pretty good run, didn't we?'
That finally brought a smile to his face. 'We sure did, princess.' He looked into her eyes, his gaze unwavering and the way he held her was heavenly. 'I love you.'
'I love you,' Y/N answered, then her energy emptied completely and she fell into Alex's arms.
They held each other as fire engulfed them and the mansion exploded, unable to be torn from each other even at Death's door.
1983 - X Mansion, post Apocalypse Battle
Scott Summers stood before two headstones with X's on them that had been put up in the school's courtyard. Both had his last name.
Alex Summers
Havok
1941-1983
Husband, Brother, Friend, Hero
Y/N Summers (neƩ L/N)
Aura
1942-1983
Wife, Teacher, Friend, Hero
Scott took his glasses off to wipe his tears. He hadn't been able to fully process his loss thanks to Apocalypse, but now that the school was rebuilt and he was back at school, he was more than aware of Alex and Y/N's absence.
He felt a hand slip into his, and he put his glasses back on to find Jean smiling sadly at him. 'I'm so sorry, Scott,' she said, and he didn't need to be a mind reader to know she truly meant it. 'I never met your brother, but Aura - Y/N, spoke often of him and their heroics at our age. He sounded amazing.'
'He was,' Scott said, looking back to his brother's and sister-in-law's graves. 'He was my hero.'
'They both were heroes.'
The two teens turned to find Hank, Raven, and Charles - now bald from the battle - strolling and wheeling into the courtyard respectively. Charles didn't speak again until the three of them reached the teenagers. 'Even as children, I knew they would be heroes. And in a society where mutants weren't trusted, even feared... They saw the best in the world. Always.'
'They gave everything they could to this school,' Hank added, eyes watering behind his glasses as he looked over his friends' graves. 'They were some of the best people I know, even now.' Hank allowed a tear to fall but he laughed. 'Even if your brother was a bit of a dick, sometimes.'
'Only sometimes?' Scott said, and the group laughed and the weight of grief on Scott's shoulders lifted slightly.
When it grew silent once more, Jean said, 'But is this to be our fate? Where we fight for a world that doesn't want us? Is a premature death only inevitable?'
'Death is always inevitable, Jean,' Raven said gently, and walked up to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 'But if Alex and Y/N proved anything to us all is that it doesn't matter what time we have on this earth; it's what we make of it. While we can, we will fight for a better future. For all of us.'
Jean nodded then turned back to the graves along with everyone else. Resentment and pain and loss roiled within Scott as he looked down at where his brother and sister-in-law rested. 'I wished he hadn't died,' he admitted, because that's all he truly wanted.
'Me too, Scott,' Charles said, wheeling up beside him. 'He loved you very much, though. Always spoke about you - about how you were to do great things with your life. I truly believe that, you know.'
'At least he died doing what he loved,' Scott said as he gestured to the rebuilt school. 'Protecting mutant kind.'
The group was silent for another few minutes, just reflecting on their times with the two people in the ground. Then Hank ushered the two teens back to class, and after sometime Raven left to go teach also.
Charles remained for a while longer, unable to leave his friends that he'd buried, that he'd gotten killed. Some small part of him wished he'd never sought them out to join the X-Men. They could've lived quieter lives, safer lives. But we wouldn't have been happy, Charles could practically hear Y/N say with that hopeful smile of hers, and Charles smiled at the thought.
And besides, if he hadn't recruited the two, Alex and Y/N wouldn't have met. And wouldn't that have been a true disservice to his students to never have witnessed such hope and love.
Or maybe they would have. After all, like he'd said, they'd been inevitable from the start.
And maybe Jean was right; possibly, a mutant's life was to inevitably end prematurely. But Raven was also right.
Charles touched Alex's headstone, then Y/N's, tears pouring down his face. 'Thank you, friends,' he whispered tearfully. 'Rest well. You've earned it.'
As the years went on, and the school took on more students and the gardens grew higher and wilder, Charles sought to personally keep his friends' graves clean and tidy. He told each student the tales of his fallen friends, the ones he was unable to bury as well. He made sure that the First Class of X-Men were not forgotten, and that their dream of a better future lived on in the next generation.
Sometimes, as he grew older, Charles saw a little bit of Alex and Y/N when he saw Scott and Jean. It broke his heart to know that Alex would never see his little brother become an excellent hero such as Alex, or that Alex and Y/N wouldn't grow old alongside him and Hank and Raven.
But their spirit lived on anyway, and maybe that was the inevitability of it all in the end.
#romance#friends to lovers#angst#slowburn#rivals to lovers#xmen first class imagines#xmen x reader#xmen imagines#x men#alex summers#alex summers x reader#alex summers imagines#lucas till#charles xavier#erik lehnsherr#professor x#magneto#raven darkholme#mystique#banshee#sean cassidy#hank mccoy#beast#xmen first class#xmen days of future past#xmen apocalypse#logan howlett#wolverine#angel salvadore#Darwin
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Miguel x reader but reader is just absolutely in love with Miguel but Miguel has eyes for sam and reader tries to be supportive be can't so they distance themself away from Miguelš
- ā ļø
dude I swear we're gonna brawl and I'm gonna make the guy ur talking too watch as I win. I'm so srs rn I'm gonna tell meemaw (I lit don't even know them all that well but idc) ; anyways thanks I guess š /sarc ; but I went a little off the rails w this one cause why not
MIGUEL DIAZ ; casual
summary ; you have eyes for miguel while he slowly distances himself to be with sam, and you accept your fate
warnings ; language, physical fighting / a punch thrown
disclaimers ; miguel is a whole fucking villain, kinda off to canon timeline cause I'm rewatching atm and it's hard to keep 5 seasons straight in the brain, fun hawk tory and demetri content cause they'd be so cool together
track ; casual, chappell roan
word count ; 1.4k
masterlist
You thought that maybe after all these months being with Miguel meant that you were together. Apparently not.
After two weeks of dating, his mom invited you over for dinner.
You gave him everything.
You did everything for him, you owed him everything, you could only thank him for being alive now.
After all the passionate making out, the special dates, the first time experiences, after everything, he said that. He said that there were no attachments. Every time you kissed, you gained anger issues, knowing his lips were probably on another's at some point between the last and now.
He made out with you after pressing you against the wall while his family sat at the dinner table down the hall.
But no, it was just casual.
You knew he just told his friends that it was just casual.
You loved being dumb about it for a while, at least while you thought it was real. After graduation, you'd have an apartment, and he'd show you off to his friends at the pier.
You noticed his unfocused gaze upon you. You noticed how he looked more interested in Sam LaRusso, again, for that matter.
You were just a rebound, apparently.
But apparently, it was just casual when he made out with you in the locker room just before the All Valley tournament. Yeah, it was just casual when you were on the phone trying to convince him not to run away to go find his dad, yet he went anyways.
You made out with him when you went to dinner, his mom and Johnny at the table.
Yet once he knew that you knew that he was into Sam again, he wondered why you were bitter. He bragged to his friends about how much he loved your lips, how much he wanted you and how amazing you were.
You hated how you allowed it to drag on, how you let it break you as much as it possibly could before you just gave the fuck up.
You hated yourself.
You hated yourself for allowing it to happen. You hated yourself for letting him think it was just casual. You hated yourself for not fucking killing him once you caught him in the act.
But no, you had to be the chill person who would just shrug it off.
At least some of your mutual friends were on your side after you texted them about it. Demetri, Tory, and Hawk the most, slightly surprisingly on Hawk's part.
The trio immediately rushed to your house, knowing you needed someone to lean on. For fuck's sake, you just saw your supposed boyfriend making out with his ex in a rollerrink.
The (kind of unlikely) trio, during a grace period between Eagle Fang slash Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, had to team up just this once for their favorite, non-Miguel friend. They were all shocked and disgusted by Miguel's actions, though kind of expecting it.
He was infamous for his love triangles, apparently.
Tory holds you in her arms, allowing your vulnerability to show through while Demetri talks, hoping his rambles would ease your pain. Hawk is downstairs, making you some mac and cheese since you hadn't eaten dinner.
"Fuck him," Tory smiles, cutting of Demetri's nonsense ramble. "You're better than him, in many ways, actually. But, he lost you, that's his problem. You're free, Y/n. It wasn't just casual, I don't know why he's lying to himself, but he and Sam can go suck it. He clearly doesn't deserve you. You're way out of his league anyway"
You look up at her, a smile painting your face before you hug her. "Thanks, Tory"
Demetri awkwardly sits on the foot of your bed, unknowing of what to say or do. Tory gives him a look, considering you'd need feedback from both male and female friends of yours slash Miguel's. Her current state of mind was just showing you that there were apparently sides and they were on yours.
Demetri nods, quickly getting the message. "Yeah, he doesn't deserve you. You should like, get him back or something. Or at least yell at him, or something. I mean, getting back with your ex while trying to tell your current partner it's just casual? He fumbled"
You giggle, wiping your tears away. "Thanks, dude."
A light knock is heard at the door before it's opened, revealing Hawk with a tray carrying four bowls of mac and cheese, forks stuck in each of them. In his pockets are water bottles, two shoved in each one. The purple haired boy lightly sets the food down on your dresser, handing a bowl to each of you, then tossing you a bottle of water.
You all eat in silence, you trying to gather your thoughts while the others attempt to even wrap their minds around what you were going through after what Miguel did. In the background, on Demetri's phone, The Umbrella Academy plays, his phone perched against a few pillows on the bed where you were all huddled together.
Hawk and Tory share a look before turning back to the screen, enjoying the calm quiet that basked over them.
"what do you mean, why am i bitter???"
"youre being weird about this, we were never anything. you were basically a rebound. get over it omfg"
The three look up from your phone then at you, astonished looks painting their expressions. Their eyebrows are furrowed, their eyes widened.
"What the fuck?" Tory asks, "You weren't lying about that, were you?"
You shake your head. "Literally, what does he want from me? Of course I'm mad, he basically lead me on and won't explain why he was making out with his ex, then bragging to his friends about "oh we're casual"
Demetri bites his lower lip, trying not to laugh, considering it was a nervous tic of his. He shares an eyebrow jump with Hawk before listening in again. Hawk quickly grabs your phone from your hands unexpectedly.
"Dude-"
"What're you doing?"
"Calling him"
"What?!"
"Why?"
"I'm not talking to him-"
The dial tone makes your skin crawl as you hear it.
"Just let it out," Hawk shrugs, handing you the phone.
"Feel like I'd rather do this in real life, Moskowitz."
You feel an absolute weight fall from your shoulders as it moves to the voicemail, seeing as Miguel declined the call himself. You sigh out of relief, quickly shutting your phone off.
You glare at Hawk.
"Would you rather do it face to face? I can tell him to meet me somewhere and we'll jump him or something" He shrugs.
"Violence isn't gonna help anything," Tory declines. "We'll get him to go somewhere quiet yet busy. That way, you can expose him or something. Mental violence is better than physical"
"Says the champion of the All Valley girl's team"
"I'm tempted to paralyze him again."
The three friends share half fearful looks, knowing you didn't joke lightly in times like this. They lay their eyes upon Sam and Miguel again, holding hands as they walk through the hallway.
You bite your tongue, trying to hold back yelling profanities as they walk past you. You lean against the red lockers where Demetri fishes out a few textbooks from his. Tory stands by you while Hawk leans against them as well, arms crossed.
"What if we tell people there's a fight, you expose him, since you got receipts, and you beat him up?" Hawk suggests, throwing his idea out there.
You shrug. "I think he could beat my ass. That'd be embarrassing"
He shrugs in return. "Eh. He hasn't been practicing recently. He's probably a little rusty. Like, he hasn't been showing up to class for days"
Tory and Demetri nod to confirm Hawk's statement. You shrug again.
"M'kay"
"You wanna get suspended over this?" Demetri asks, closing his locker.
"First offense," you reply with an informative tone.
"Oh, I'm crazy because I thought you gave a shit about me? Please, inform me what casual is to you"
"Something not serious."
"But that's why we went out on dates, and why I did everything you asked of me?"
"You didn't have too"
"So?"
"So what?"
"So you're a bitch"
You quickly pull your clenched fist back, then push forward to hit Miguel straight in the face. He quickly gasps, along with the bystanders, holding a hand to his now bleeding nose.
"What the hell?"
Tory and Hawk goofily grin while Demetri lightly smiles, proud of you for sticking to your word.
"Too-da-loo, mister casual." You spin on your heel, walking back to your three friends.
They wrap you into side hugs, pulling you away from the shocked boy who'd essentially played you. Bystanders laugh at him and gawk at you, snapping pictures, sending videos across the school.
A happy little smile remains on your face as you're sent home for the rest of the week.
#lowkeyrobin#gn reader#gender neutral reader#they/them reader#cobra kai x reader#cobra kai#miguel diaz x reader#miguel diaz x you#xolo maridueƱa#xolo mariduena x reader#ā£ļø anon
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Will is Going to Die by Sacrificing Himself
...and come back to life. To me, it seems pretty obvious, but I'll explain why.
Will has been characterized as someone who puts others before himself since season one, even if it means costing him his life. The entire series starts off with Will casting fireball instead of protection during their Dungeons & Dragons game, putting his character in danger for the sake of the rest of the party.
This self-sacrificial nature is echoed in season two, but two a much more extreme end, when Will instructs everyone to close the gate to stop the Mind Flayer, despite knowing that doing so will kill him.
While we don't see this same self-sacrifice from Will in seasons three and four, we do see two related characters make their own sacrifices, possibly hinting at Will's future fate.
First we have the other character named William, Billy, sacrifice himself at the end of season three in order to stop the meat flayer.
Then in season four, we have Eddie sacrifice himself while the same song that played for Will after he came back to life in season one plays in the backgroundā "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" by Moby.
There are also little ways that we are told/shown of Will's selfless nature, such as giving a girl his tonka truck because she was sad, or giving Mike his painting under El's name. While this trait could be seen as admirable, I think it will ultimately be his undoing.
But why would Will need to sacrifice himself?
Well, we know that despite all of this time, Will still holds a connection to Vecna, and likely to the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down himself. Putting a stop to all of these things is going to be intrinsic to Will's arc next season.
I don't know how many people know about Noah's letterboxd, but he has been rewatching the Harry Potter movies.
Perhaps for personal enjoyment, or perhaps to study for his character?
The comparisons between Will/Vecna and Harry/Voldemort have been made before, and the Duffers are derivative of other sources if anything.
I think that this could be likened to a horcrux situation. At the end of season four, we saw Vecna be totally flambƩd by the older teens, and yet, he's still kicking, and Will is the one to tell us this.
If the brain dies the body dies, but also, could the brain latch on to another body in order to keep it alive? Similar to how Harry had to die so that Voldemort could be defeated, I believe Will might have to die (at least temporarily) in order to take down Vecna/MF/UD.
We know that the show is bringing back "Should I Stay or Should I Go," which is going to prompt an important question that Will needs to find the answer to, should he stay or should he go? While this could also relate to his romantic endeavors for the season, I think that the song could be alluding to Will's choice to sacrifice himself in order to save everyone else.
What I think will probably happen is this: At some point in the season, Will is going to learn what has to happen, and he is going to go off to sacrifice himself without telling anyone so no one can stop him. (I'm guessing that Will can't just off himself, there's probably a specific way that it needs to be done).
Something I realized while making this post is that Mike is always the one who figures out what needs to be done, or brings up Will's sacrifice to others. My guess is that Mike is going to find out what Will is up to, and try to stop him. Emphasis on try, because I think this death is inevitable. However, bringing the show back full circle to season one (and because ST can never keep a main character dead), he will come back to life.
#edit: was too excited to post and didn't realize that i left out two important screenshots š but theyre there now#also see: will is jesus#while making this i kept thinking of that one tiktok of someone doing harry potter impressions from the first movie#āš¤ he's going to sacrifice himself š¤ā#will byers#st5 speculation#stranger things#byler#<- target audience
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āāĖ.ā my boyfriend ranks... āāĖ.ā
(cw: f!reader, cursing, TikTok trend, sex related joke)
It had been a lazy Sunday spent rotting away in fratboy!Jaehyun's bed while he and the brothers had a chapter meeting downstairs. Technically, you weren't even supposed to be in the house, but you were tens of feet away and realistically, who were you going to tell about all the stuff you might happen to hear a whole floor away? Absolutely no one. They only ever talked about boring shit anyway. No one would be interested.
All that paired with the fact that you had had a splitting headache shortly after you arrived and you were knocked out cold when the meeting started. None of the guys had the heart to wake you up to ask you to leave. Plus, you were a member of the frat, even if it was a sort of honorable title.
You scrolled through your for you page, stopping to watch as a couple tried out a filter. The guy ranked different types of physical touch he'd be ok with guys doing with his girlfriend. You laughed at the boyfriend's reactions quietly, deciding that you wanted to try it with Jaehyun.
Just a few minutes later, you heard steps as the brothers returned to their rooms. Jaehyun's door creaked open slowly as he crept in, probably thinking you were still asleep.
"Hey, baby," you greeted in a hoarse voice.
He flinched in surprise before he turned to you with a soft smile, "hey sweetheart, feeling better?"
You nodded, "tons better. It doesn't feel like someone is whacking the back of my head with a sledgehammer anymore. Come cuddle me?"
You didn't have to tell Jaehyun twice, he was kicking off his sneakers and getting rid of his jeans as fast as he could. He was at your side and pulling you to rest against his chest as fast as he could. He was breathless as he flicked on the lamp on his bedside table before pressing a kiss to your forehead.
"I want to do something with you," you started, grabbing your phone from your side.
"You have to change your password before we make a sex tape. I don't want Haechan accidentally watching you like that or to watch us go at it intentionally," Jaehyun casually interrupts.
You swat at his chest, "I don't want to make a sex tape you pervert. I want to do another tiktok with you."
"This is going to be bad isn't it?"
"It depends on the filter," you giggle as you tap away at the screen. You click the filter and choose the appropriate length of time while Jaehyun ruffles his hair to perfection.
You start the video, holding it at an appropriate distance away, "so you have to rank different forms of affection you'd be ok with another guy doing to me."
"Like a family member or a random guy?" Jaehyun asks while the filter cycles through different options.
"However you decide to think about it-- ok, so the first one is a bath."
"Fuck no, number 10. Immediately," Jaehyun mumbles. "Next is hair... mmm number 3 I guess. You and Yuta do each other's hair all the time, so I'm already used to it."
You smile at him as the filter then lands on tickling, immediate 9 since you hate to be tickled. A comforting hug? A 5 as long as it's a quick one. A piggy back ride? 6 since you ask Johnny for those when you start drinking a little too much. Getting your cheeks squeezed? No, too cutesy-- number 8. A pat on the cheek? Too weird, number 7.
As he starts running out of open ranking spots, he starts to get more frustrated. "A massage? No, I don't want anyone massaging you! 4! Riding on someone's shoulders, no-- but ugh! I guess it has to be 2."
You both watch as the final form of affection comes to a stop on Jaehyun's forehead, you immediately burst out into laughter. Jaehyun laughs with you and the phone shakes.
"Oh this would have been number one anyway," Jaehyun manages to get out, "Mark would love this shit."
"Freak!" You screech as you end the video.
You both calm down, catching your breath as you rewatch the video, your free hand wiping away the tears at the corners of your eyes from laughing so hard.
Jaehyun nuzzles the top of your head with another groan, "don't make me do one of these again, please."
"As if you can tell me no," you snort out a laugh, "you know I will. And you'll say yes, because you love me."
"You can't keep using that against me."
"You act like I torture you. Oh noooo! My girlfriend makes me do funny videos with her, boohoo. I can walk out of this room and find at least three people, probably more, to do them instead of you."
His hold tightens around you as you hit post, "you're not doing these videos with anyone else."
"Jealous baby," you tease, placing a kiss to his t-shirt covered chest.
"You're annoying."
"Yeah, yeah, you love me."
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visual of Jaehyun's rankings below the cut
#kpop imagines#kpop au#kpop scenarios#kpop reactions#nct#nct imagines#nct fluff#nct timestamps#nct x reader#fratboy!jaehyun#frat!jaehyun#frat!nct#jaehyun blurb#jaehyun drabbles#jaehyun imagines#jaehyun x reader#jaehyun fluff#jaehyun scenarios
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Thin Red Line (bucktommy, 6x11 missing scene)
Me: I'm rewatching "In Another Life" and had a thought. What if Buck met Tommy during his coma dream?
@dadvans: RC Iām going to kill you
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Between leaving Christopher to wander the hospital hallways like a ghost in search of Eddie for all eternity and doing absolutely nothing to stop Bobby from popping pills like theyāre Flintstones vitamins, Buckās going to single-handedly bankroll every renovation project Dr. Copeland has over the next ten years.Ā
He wonders what sheāll say when he tells her about this during their next session. Sheāll probably just sit back thoughtfully and muse, "You say you were trapped in a world where your biological family loved you but your chosen family had no idea who you were. Tell me more about that, Evan."
It's a moot point unless he manages to get out of here, so he swings the axe up, throws a sneer in his evil doppelgƤnger's direction, and is about to bring it down as hard as he can when his right arm is suddenly jerked behind him like someoneās trying to pull it out of the socket.Ā
Startled, he whirls around, but thereās no one there. Even Bizarro Buck is gone.Ā
An odd pressure tugs at his fingers. For a second, he thinks thereās something wrapped around them. He looks down but he canāt see anything. He can feel it, though. He tests the tensile strength of it by bouncing his hand back and forth, and whatever it is pulls taut when his hand gets close to his body.Ā
It reminds him of playing tug-o-war on the playground as a kid, except instead of deliberately allowing himself to be yanked off balance so his parents could later fuss over the bloody state of his knees, he begins gathering the palpable nothing in his palm and, with a last look at the tableau of the real him lying in the hospital bed waiting to die, follows it out of the room and back down the hall.Ā
He comes to a stop in front of a door that looks like all the others. He mustāve missed this one, although he canāt feel dumb about it, because thereās no way in hell he wouldāve guessed this was the exit.Ā
"Take me home," Buck murmurs, opens the door, and walks outā
āonto an outdoor patio.Ā
He drops his head back with a groan. "Oh, come on."
With the wicker chairs and mind-numbingly navy umbrellas, it looks like every cafeās outdoor seating situation in the state of California, right down to the almost oppressive number of ferns in beige planters shoved in between the tables. The only difference is that the place is completely empty.Ā
Correction: almost empty.Ā
Through the crush of the basic bitch jungle, he sees a solitary man seated at one of the tables, idly sliding a to-go cup from side to side with his big hands. As he draws a little closer, heās able to clock the guyās deep blue flight suit and what looks like the LAFD insignia on his arm.
Everyone whoās made an appearance in this weird-ass dream has been someone he knows. Even Daniel, who died before Buck ever met him, still made something stir with some kind of primordial recognition in Buckās marrow the second he woke up and clapped eyes on him. He'd taken in the gray hair at high temples, the same nose Buck sees every time he looks in a mirror, the confident smile, and had just known who he was.
Buck has no idea who this guy is. Heās pretty sure heād remember someone who looked like he bench presses actual benches in the morning and rushes off to be photographed for Menās Health by lunch.Ā
As Buck comes up to the edge of the table, the man looks up at him, and the light of the sun catches his eyes. For a second, Buckās back on the pier, gazing out into a cloudless sky stretched over the sea, but thereās no inhale of the earth, no oncoming wave. Just deep, Pacific blue. A slow smile spreads across the guyās face, which takes him from unfairly handsome to utterly striking.Ā
"Hey."
A shiver starts from the very bottom tip of Buckās spine and travels upwards like ripples on the surface of a lake, spreading out into all of his limbs until he can feel the eddies lapping at even the smallest arteries. For no cogent reason he can think of, his resting heart rate picks up until heās flirting with full-on tachycardia. Maybe heās about to code in the real world.
"H-Hey," Buck stutters, feeling caught out. "Iāsorry, IāmāIām a little turned around here."
The man gives him a look thatās both amused and commiserating, then picks up the drink cup heād been playing table hockey with and holds it out. There's something thin and red tied around his ring finger, but Buck can't concentrate on it for some reason. It fades completely out of view every time he tries. "Want a sip? Itās the worst coffee youāll ever taste."
It's said around what is clearly a laugh, but Buck doesn't feel like it's at his expense, plus it's so infectious that he canāt help but crack a grin. The muscles in his back, which feel like they've been locked for days, are finally starting to relax.
āIf itās so gross, whyād you get it?ā Buck asks, genuinely curious.
The guy shrugs. "I didn't."
Nodding as if that makes any kind of sense, Buck looks around to see if the ferns are hiding anyone else, but it really does seem like there's no one else here. He turns back to the man, who's watching him with that deep, placid gaze.Ā
It's so strange. He'd been so desperate to find a way out of here, psyching himself up for a battle he was prepared to fight to the death in, but all he wants to do right now is grab the chair across from this stranger and justā¦ let the clock run out.
He reaches for the back of the chair closest to him, but it jerks away with a screech.Ā
The guy unhooks his foot from the chair leg and, staring straight into Buck's eyes, shakes his head gently.Ā
Buck swallows around a suddenly dry throat. Under his feet, the patio stones tremble. "D-Do I know you?"
When the man smiles this time, the corners of his eyes crinkle, digging lines that run down his cheeks. Buck thinks of the picture Jee-Yun gave him last week of a beaming sun. She'd drawn deep yellow lines coming off it. Sun rays.Ā
"No," the man says, his voice as warm as a crayon drawing made with unconditional love. "Not yet."
He lifts his hand and this time Buck can see the little red string tied around his finger, and the long tail of the other end of it draped over the table top, which Buck follows the trail of, heart pounding, until it comes to a stop. He looks down to find the other end is tangled around the fingers of his own right hand.Ā
When he looks up, shaking and exhilarated, there's a door in the middle of the patio that swings open in obvious invitation.Ā
The man is no longer at the table, but there are suddenly lips at his ear. "See you soon, Evan."
Before he can close his eyes and sink into the hot wash of breath over his cheek, a large hand slides up to the middle of his back and shovesā
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Buck knows he's being an absolute creep and Eddie won't stop giving him weird looks about it, but he can't help it. The pilot who's about to steal a helicopter for them has been nothing but friendly and confident, and he's currently wiring Buck up to his headset with brisk, competent hands, and all Buck can do is stare at him like he's got tonight's winning lottery numbers.Ā
Tom Kinardā"Tommy, please. Tom is my father, who I hate."ālooks up from where he's bent a little at the knees, trying to get the microphone adapter to hook into Buck's belt, and shoots Buck an awkward grin.Ā
"Is there a spider in my hair or something?"
He hadn't realized how much tension he was putting into the air until Tommy cuts through it with that. Buck ducks his head and laughs, feeling like a dumbass. "Sorry, man. It's justādo I know you from somewhere? You look so familiar."
"Maybe I just have one of those faces," Tommy says, all good humor.
For Men's Health, maybe, Buck almost replies, then has to clench his teeth so it doesn't slip out by accident. What a weird thought to have. With his luck, Tommy would've taken it the wrong way and then abandoned the mission altogether. But even thinking it feels like a lie. Buck's known the guy for all of five minutes but he's oddly sure Tommy wouldn't leave them in the lurch because Buck feels the need to share every dumb thought that crosses his mind.Ā
"All right." Tommy stands up straight and steps back, but not before he gives Buck a friendly pat on the arm. "You're good to go."
Feeling oddly bereft, Buck says nothing as Tommy steps around him to where Chimney's been not so patiently waiting for his turn.Ā
"Sorry about him," Chim says, jerking a head in Buck's direction. "He was struck by lightning last year and hasn't been the same since. I mean, he was always annoying, but now he's just weird."
Buck deserves an Oscar for the fake outrage in his voice when he shoots back, "The view must be great from your glass house, Mr. I'm Dressing My Kid Up As A Ceiling Fan For Halloween," because the rest of him feels like it's in a tailspin. Every atom in his body is positively screaming for some reason. It's probably because they're all going to die. That makes the most sense.
When Tommy laughs, the corners of his eyes crinkle.Ā
Sun rays, Buck thinks nonsensically, and tangles the headset wire around the fingers of his right hand.Ā
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Now on AO3!
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in-universe alien stage mechanisms and the use of colors in round 7 (a luka & till rant ft. mizi & hyuna)
it's generally agreed that alien stage can be interpreted as a metaphor for the kpop industry, and as someone who did tons of studying (because of my 3d fav) on how performances work in c-ent, i noticed some things on my nth rewatch of blink gone
meta-wise, the colors in the mv are green (to represent till) and purple (to represent luka). this combo works really well for the song, but is there an in-universe explanation to the lighting? yep:
take a look at the scoreboard. even in-universe, green represents till and purple represents luka. taking the idol theme more literally, we can also assume that these are their official colors. i went back to the TOP 3 video and well well well guess what appears during luka's part
the lightsticks, the projected neon signs, the same kind of mask (?), the stadium lights. we can reasonably assume that this purple is luka's official fan color and represents support for him.
and guess what color almost all of the crowd is repping during round 7 through lightsticks and masks?
that's right, overwhelmingly purple. don't forget that the winners of each round of alien stage are decided by live in-house voting, and audience members will always be biased towards who they're a fan of. remember that luka is insanely popular and already won a season, so his fanbase would be larger, more developed, and more devoted.
till was, for a lack of better words, cooked. he was doomed to lose from the start, because how can a few of his fans outvote the majority?
i've seen some people theorize that the result was rigged, and i completely disagree: you cannot fake support on this large of a scale. "oh, but the color of the lightsticks are controlled by the organizers" then explain the masks, a clear fandom symbol
also, from my experience in survival shows, vote counts in the final round are usually hidden until the results are announced, which explains the wobbliness of the scoreboard bars like they're inflatable tube men in front of a car or mattress dealership.
an alternative explanation to the lightsticks is that it represents the current vote, but i'm not inclined to believe this theory because, again, the masks. like real-life idol performances, i think that this is just a show of support from the audience.
back to the meta: mizi's appearance in the crowd is a reinvigoration of determination in till, and in terms of color, she is a break of bright green among the sea of purple. she not only stands out because she's someone he loves, she is visually a breath of fresh air for him.
do you think, in those last moments, he was not only happy to see her alive in front of him but to also see her wearing his color?
in this part where they're reaching out to each other, the pink-purple light that seems to be shining from mizi is representative of how she's a beacon of hope for till. in-universe, however, till is just moving towards the audience, the close proximity of the lightsticks illuminating his face with color.
mizi and till are surrounded by this vibrant purple, a symbol for luka. even with mizi's more pink-ish radiance, they are literally in his territory, at the mercy of the system that he has been through and learned to play along with.
the same can't be said about luka when he sees hyuna again:
the warmth of his fan color disappears, replaced by a colder indigo. the audience, his fans, the aliens that he knows how to use to keep himself alive mean nothing to him right now. it's this cold feeling of shock that makes him so unsure of how to react.
in this moment, he is no longer luka the performer, luka the idol, luka the twice winner of alien stageāhe's just luka. he's vulnerable to emotion, an unfamiliar thing, and he's so painfully human.
luka: (sees hyuna) holy shit it's you... mizi: till is literally dying behind you luka: this ain't about him
another detail: these shots were never shown in the mv so i'm assuming they're taken by in-universe cameras (see the red flashes in the audience), especially because of the angle (downwards pointing perspective)
#alnst analysis#alien stage#they're jumping my poor boy till#i'm crying he's just a baby he doesn't know about live audience voting /s#if this flops i'm pulling an ivan#please ignore the bilibili watermarks it was easier to screenshot on there#it's so funny that my morally gray favs are always the most popular in canon#alnst#the aliens are just like me fr#luka stans stay winning#techa talks#blink gone#alnst till#alnst luka#alnst round 7#alien stage till#alien stage luka#i love this blonde bastard#alnst r7#alnst mizi#alien stage mizi#mizitill#<- kind of#alnst hyuna#alien stage hyuna#hyunaluka#hyuluka#alien stage round 7
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