#guess whos posting this from the train the almost missed having realised they forgot to pack their water bottle and snacks 🙃🤦

[nerdie-faerie]

Me, tryna get ready: *to the tune of fireflies* you would not believe your eyes, how fucking disorganised

[figgiforever]

FIGGI'S CHILDREN

Aku - part 2 (because I forgot about some important informations about him)

Aku is a very good sniper. Like his father.

His armor was red because in Mandalorian culture it's meaning is: Honoring a Parent. Guess which one in this case.

He was always very jealous of Kandosii (who was born almost a year after he was adopted) and wanted all of Fi's attention to himself. It was obviously impossible, because Fi loved all his kids equally and wanted to give his attention to all of them. Kandosii as a newborn needed it even more and Aku didn't like that. He never wanted to share his toys with her, they were often pushing each other and arguing a lot since they learned how to speak. He also didn't get along well with young clones because he was jealous that they look EXACTLY like Fi. Even Kandosii was very similar to him and was his biological kid. Aku had the best relation with Makke but still not very good. He envied her being fully accepted by both parents even though she was totally different then them.

Aku had crush on Werda (another of my OCs, second kid of Darman and Etain, because she certainly didn't die in so young age in Figgiverse), but she was never showing him any affection when they were young . As a kid she prefered to play with her toys alone. Few times she even hit Aku for trying to steal her toys when she didn't want to play with him. However after he disappeared and then was found in Rebel Alliance Werda came to him and gave him at first kiss on the lips and than not gentle at all Keldabe Kiss. For making her think he died. Since then they were dating.

I think that were all important details I was missing in previous post.

Now the story.

I didn't decide yet when Aku and Tiggi met again after him being trained by Darth Treas. Probably not long before battle of Endor. Tiggi wanted to rescue him and bring him back home but he had other plans. He attacked her with his lightsaber. She was struggling to defend herself because she didin't want to hurt him. Also the guilt from making another kid to turn to the darkside was crushing her inside. However Aku still couldn't defeat her. She had too much experience in lighsaber combat and was trained better and longer than him. He got so angry, in rage he started to yell at her that he just wants to finally kill her for what she did to him, how she rejected him, what he heard. When she realised what he heard and what her words did to him she realised that she was a terrible mother. And she asked if killing her will make him feel better. He said yes. So she turned off and put down her lightsaber. ,,Kill me then if I deserve it." He raised his lighsaber up while she kneeled in front of him, looking into his eyes. But he couldn't kill her. ,,Stop looking at me like that!" She closed her eyes as he asked. Single teardrop went down her cheek as his lightsaber went down on her.

But he couldn't kill her. He stopped the weapon right next to her head. He wanted to kill her but he couldn't. Darth Treas appeared in the room disappionted. She aimed at Aku but Tiggi blocked her attack. ,,You're not going to even TOUCH MY SON!" They were fighting and Aku was watching in disbelief. Eventually Darth Treas badly injured Tiggi, she fell to the ground and Aku ran to her. Sith Lady left them there. At that moment Makke entered the room, saw Aku next to injured Tiggi and thought that he hurt her. Now the two of them were fighting, Aku was just trying to defend himself in very clumsy way. Makke in rage made him a similar scar on a face as she have thanks to him. Tiggi pushed them apart with the Force. The last thing she wanted was her kids killing each other. Together they ran away to Rebel base/ship where they stationed with Fi. Tiggi explained to Aku the talk he eavesdropped and said she's really sorry, that she was a terrible mother for him and asked for a second chance. Their relation wasn't perfectly good since that point but both of them tried to make it better day by day. Eventually they succeeded. Slowly Aku also learned to be himself. To accept his otherness. He stopped changing his appearance to look like Fi and painted his armour light green. He let himself be himself.

Funny story for the end:

Eventually Aku and Werda got married. Once he announced to the entire family that he doesn't want to have kids. Werda started blushing and said that she's pregnant. He looked in shock at Tiggi ( she was known in Skirata clan for being able to detect pregnacy and predict some characteristics of the unborn baby ). She said ,,No, she's noYOU HIDED IT FROM ME IN THE FORCE!?"

Yes she did. She is Force sensitive too and didn't want Tiggi to spoil the surprise.

[beyoncesdragon]

title: catch up now? 

× pairing: Idol!Jungkook x Interviewer!Reader, old friends from highschool kinda stuff, abandoned but maybe rediscovered love on both sides. 

× summary: Three years are a long time. In three years, many things can and will change. But three years hadn’t been quite enough to change how two people feel about each other. 

× warnings: a little teeny bit angsty but it’s nothing, really. Mainly fluff, some flustered, overly eager Gguk and old memories coming up. 

× wordcount: 2k

× a/n: Not gonna lie, this might be one of my favourite pieces I've ever written. I really hope you enjoy this too! it’s somehow inspired by ‘Love Maze’ (BTS) and also ‘50 Proof’ (eaJ). Will probably not have a pt.2

main masterlist | bts masterlist

When he had read the name of the interview host - or hostess more like - Jungkook had already felt the familiar tingle in the pit of his stomach that he had thought had disappeared over the course of time. Yet, he wasn’t surprised that it was still there.

He had however not dared to hope that it could actually be you, there sure were other people called (Y/N) (Y/L/N), who has pursued their dream of becoming an interviewer, media person, whatnot. He didn’t even know if you had actually graduated uni and made it in the job, hence he hadn’t seen any of you in about four years of him debuting now. He had occasionally checked out your Instagram or Twitter, yet he shied away from following you on any social media platform. You weren’t really public about your work or personal life on both, you mainly retweeted stuff (he found out about your love for Bingsu and Makgeolli ice cream like that) and posted a few selfies or landscapes. He hoped that you had been able to pursue your dream of traveling around for a bit, in South Korea and outside of it. Though again, he didn’t know.

Jimin was seated right in front of him and Jungkook couldn’t help but nervously play with his hyungs honey blond dyed hair. Jimin chuckled surprised yet amused about his open display of nervousness and turned around slowly.

“Everything okay, Jungkook-ah? You seem more nervous than usually.” He remarked, making Namjoon look over to the maknae in wonder. “He does, right? I thought so too. Did something happen?” Jungkook only shook his head.

Not yet, he thought to himself.

The cameras around them started to blink all at once, the light has been set up correctly and the camera and sound team had settled down around them in the dark. Manager and publicists stood somewhere in the back, swallowed up by the dark. The only person that was missing still, was you. Or the person called (Y/N) (Y/L/N), Jungkook tried to tell himself.

Suddenly there was a soft laugh from somewhere off the scenes and his heart tripped over its own beat and finally, finally, you stepped into the light.

You looked pretty as ever, grown into your features entirely, like a lotus flower finally in full bloom. Jungkook had to swallow dry. The light coral red of your lip balm complimented your skin and the subtle almost invisible make up you wore, accentuated your already beautiful features even more. You hadn’t changed your hair much, but it was a bit longer and looked so soft in the bright light. His eyes almost subconsciously darted to your fingers, searching for evidence of a possible relationship. He was almost ashamed how quickly he ended up thinking about this, his own boldness making him even more flustered. (There was no formal looking ring on your ringfinger though, to his relief.)

There was a warm smile on your lips as you bowed deeply to them all, greeting them respectfully. The boys returned your greeting immediately and a bunch of annyeong haseyo-s sounded through the studio. Jungkook felt Namjoon look over at him again, a piercing gaze Jungkook knew he wouldn’t be able to withstand if he met it. So he just kept looking at everything but Namjoon...not that this was hard to do when you were right in front of him.

“Thank you so much for being here with us.” You said with a smile, looking at everyone with the same look of respect and polite distance. Like you were supposed to, at work, as a professional. Like you didn't know them personally. Everyone, including Jungkook.

He felt his heart drop to his stomach. Could it be that you...forgot about him? It couldn’t really be, right? How would you actually be able to, you really...in this moment your eyes crossed again and something flickered in your eyes, a facade crumbled for a few seconds only. It was an amused twinkle, like a cheeky wink and a minimal curl of your lips. 

Acknowledgement.

And Jungkook’s heart did multiple flips, breath caught in his throat and eyes widened.

You had started with the questions, keeping the conversation light and flowing. The vibe in the room was comfortable and built up on mutual respect - yet Jungkook felt as if he was sitting on red-hot needles. He wanted to talk to you, ask about how you had been, what you were doing (if you had a boyfriend) if you were happy, if you got a cat, how your mother’s little business was going (he’d anonymously purchased countless items, to support your family), if your favourite colour still was cyan blue and your still religiously bought Pajeon and Makgeolli on rainy days, if you ever spent a second of your day thinking of him (because he did).

Him, your somewhat ex-best friend from highschool, him, the one you spent hours talking to in the ungodly hours of the morning, him who you had lost your first kiss to (though lost wasn’t the right word: you gave it to him more like). Him who you had poked fun of when the first girl approached him in his Rookie days and he’d been flustered to no end.

Him, who had promised to you that he wouldn’t abandon your friendship and yet the two of you drifted apart anyways.

Not for the lack of trying on either side though. Jungkook’s schedule had just become even fuller, his nights shorter, training longer and fans more obsessive. And you had seen each other less often, greetings were shorter and late night talks turned into good night wishes over text quicker.

You on your part weren’t mad, a little disappointed maybe. Sad for sure, but not mad. After all, you had expected it to turn out like that. So had the rest of your little circle, Haneul, Hwang, Kyong and Myunghee. Whilst the five of you had supported Jungkook on his journey with all you’ve got, you all tried to overcome the obvious pain of him drifting off.

Some (mainly Hwan and Kyong) with working harder in school for example. You did that too, but sometimes you also partied a little harder, were awake at three AM a little more often, missed him a lot more. It hurt letting someone you love go.

Jungkook and you had always been a bit...closer. Why you didn’t know, how you couldn’t possibly explain. But you were and him rising into the heights and new dimensions of being an idol destroyed this almost completely. This strange world of fame, those walls of flashing cameras, the flow of expensive goods and seas of screaming people, that was his world. He was a star, figuratively and somewhat literally. He shone more radiant, higher, longer, prettier and too bright for an innocent, young love to coexist.

So you stayed behind, soon having lost his number due to him having to change it, his contact information soon had less to say than what you could find on the internet.

His new hair colour? Well, you could google it. Height? Current weight? Several fan sights knew the answer. Achievements? The internet again.

 It was strange, ridiculous to some extent. And it hurt. But you couldn’t blame him, so you never did.

⋄

When you had heard that you would be interviewing BTS last week you could help but feel scared. You hadn’t seen him face to face for three or so years, three years with no FaceTime, texting, three years of not seeing his bunny smile, smiled just for you.

And when you had seen him again, laid eyes on him for the first time in thirty-five months, you realised that nothing you ever felt for him had faded away. It was all the same again, your heart still jumped in your chest and your stomach still fluttered whenever he did as much as breathing. The only thing that had changed was his height and him having had the biggest glow up you had witnessed in your life, yours included – though this Jungkook would disagree vehemently. 

This Jungkook who got pulled out of his thoughts and memories almost violently, as you directed a first question at him only.

“I…” he started, gulping hardly, having forgotten the question already halfway.

“Sorry I can’t – how have you been?” you stopped shortly, stunned and a tad confused at first. You hadn’t expected him to be so bold. Or clumsy, for that matter. Yet you couldn’t help but giggle, and all the unsaid words and ignored truths between the two of you disappeared into smoke, taking all tension with them. Just like that.

“I’ve been fine, Gukie. Busy. Long-time no see, hm. How about you?” somewhere behind the cameras someone dropped a pen and there were multiple gasps being heard. The rest of the bangtan boys didn’t look any better; Jimin had his mouth open, Taehyung was looking back and forth between the two of you, Yoongi just froze, Jin and Hoseok had clasped their hands in front of their mouths and Namjoon just looked like someone poured a bucket of ice water over his head.

But Jungkook? Jungkook was smiling widely, his bunny smile, smiled just for you. 

“Busy too. Yes, very long time no see.” He replied sheepishly, a small laugh escaping his lips as he looked around the dead silent studio. “Why…how do you know each other?” Yoongi finally asked, eyes snapping back and forth between the two of you.

“Well I guess we have to tell them now. We know each other from back in Highschool. We were pretty close friends back then.” You explained softly, giving him a small smile. Jungkook nodded quickly. “My apologies. I didn’t wanted to completely ruin the interview but…I haven’t seen you in three or so years. Sorry.” You waved it off. “It’s okay, Jungkook. We will catch up later, alright?” Jungkook nodded, making the mistake of looking over to Namjoon, who looked like he finally understood everything. “Is that why you were so…never mind.” He ended in a mumble and Jungkook was glad he did.

⋄

The second the interview was officially finished and all the cameras shut off, Jungkook was on his feet and approaching you. He didn’t even care about formalities anymore as he just wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into a tight hug.

The first thing he noticed was that he couldn’t nestle his face in the crook of your neck as easy as he had been able to do in high-school. The second thing was that you had changed your perfume into something more flowery and fresh. The third thing he noticed was how much he liked having you in his arms again, especially because he could now rest his head on top of yours.

The first thing you noticed was how broad your Kookie had become. Broad and tall and firm everywhere. The second thing you noticed was how he smelled more expensive, faintly musky but still very much like Jungkook. A scent you could pick out from a thousand, unique and everything you loved. The third thing you noticed was how familiar and how looked after you felt in his arms, how protected from every harm. You had missed this feeling.

“Aigoo, Junkookie!” Jin yelled from behind, causing you to chuckle embarrassed and trying to break the hug. But Jungkook simply tightened his arms around you, having no intentions of letting you go any time soon.

“Just ignore them. They’ll leave, eventually.” His voice was muffled by the skin on your neck, since he had now buried his face there, taking deep breaths.

“And we?” you asked with a small laugh, not moving either. “We stay. We catch up. Got a lot of that to do.” Sounded good enough to you…just that you had expected them to make a bee-line for the exit after the cameras cut due to their busy schedule.

“Catch up now?” you asked after a few seconds of him still having his arms around you, unmoving. The young man shook his head.

“No…not right now.” He took a deep breath, hiding his face in the crook of your neck, mumbling against your skin and the fabric of your blouse. 

“In five minutes. Let me just hold you for a little while, you…you have no idea how much I missed you.” 

If he only knew.

— ✩ thank u for reading ✩ —

[olivarryprompts]

Fanfic Friday #10

Welcome to Fanfic Friday! Each Friday I will post a new fanfic here and on A03. Enjoy x

Read and save it on A03 here 

{peter stark and a no good very bad day}

Ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Steve Rogers & Peter Stark

Warnings: swearing, fluff otherwise :)

Wc: 3,984

Today, everything had gone wrong. He stayed up way past his bedtime the previous night and had gotten barely three hours of sleep by the time he arrived at school. He forgot his Spanish homework in the lab and that was the one grade he needed to pull from an A- to an A. He chugged a couple shots of espresso, and his usual store on the walk to school was closed. Meaning he had no redbull to sustain him through his classes.

Also, guess which class was straight bangout first, Spanish. So he hadn't done the homework and had no time to do it. Great. Fortunately, he made it through first period Spanish, only getting slightly scolded for not handing in the assignment. Then he had a break, and the kid desperately needed a pick me up coffee and muffin. He went to the closest cafe, one he’d come to love, only to find the whole football team there. Which would have been fine, if he wasn’t so goddamn awkward. He stood there for a solid five minutes before he asked the jock in his way to move so he could order.

Then, when the kid did get to ordering they ran out of fuckin chocolate muffins. What kinda cafe runs out of chocolate muffins at ten am? This one apparently. So coffee and blueberry muffin in hand, he headed back to the student lounge to get some work done.

The next portion of his day went as planned, a welcomed change of pace. Well Flash was a bitch, but what was new there. And his senses were through the roof. But other than that. That was all until the last period. To start, he got a text from his boyfriend, explaining that he’d no longer be arriving this Friday, but instead the following Saturday. Peter wanted to cry. He missed his boy. Leaving Harley on read, he tried to focus on chemistry, but he’d done the stuff they were going over about 100 times with Dr. Banner. He zoned out the entire class.

Finally, the bell rang and put him out of his misery. He quickly texted Ned asking if he was coming in the following day. He had been sick that day. He went to leave, but the class was stopped by the announcement of a test and more homework. For fuck sake.

He did get out, though. And he got straight in the car, barely pausing to say hello to Happy. Noticing the boy's unusual quiet, he didn’t press for more details about Peter’s day. Happy, though he’d never say it, enjoyed hearing about the kids day. He had come to really care for Peter, and his accomplishments made the older man happy. Ironic, he knew.

They had arrived at the tower in almost record time, and Peter was glad to have avoided extra time in the car. What he really craved was a couple hugs from his dads, a chat with his boyfriend, and to get through the stack of busy work that weighed him down.

Happy went round to the private entrance, wished the kid a good day, and headed off to some other errand. Peter exited, scanning his pass at security and being recognized and let through by Friday. So, he’d finally made it upstairs and there the sofa was, filled with a few avengers. Luckily his parents were among them. The two were sitting close to each other, as normal.

Peter simply put his head in his pops lap, and he laid his feet on his dad. Neither Steve nor Tony said anything, but they gave each other the look. Steve ran his hands through his son’s hair lovingly. “Pete?” Tony asked, “What happened kid?” “Nothin’” Peter replied, still buried in his Pop’s lap. “You sure about that?” Steve pressed. “Just a bad day,” Peter mumbled. “What happened паук?” Nat spoke up. She is very protective of Peter. “What didn’t happen?” he sighed dramatically. “Well you mope for as long as you like, Pete,” Tony joked. “Thanks dad,” he said, closing his eyes again in search of sleep. “Teenagers I tell you,” Clint said, rolling his eyes. “Fuck you Barton,” Peter mumbled before falling asleep properly. “He really is your child, Tones,” Clint laughed. “Hey Peter just said a bad language word,” Nat remarked. “God I hate all of you,” his Pops groaned. Then Peter fell into peaceful, safe sleep.

“Pete?” his Pops said, entering his room. He moved around, noticing he’d been moved from the sofa to his own room. He groaned. “Hello to you too.” “Yes, Hi, father, Captain America, Leader of the Avengers, Man of Strengt-” “Ok relax,” Cap rolled his eyes. Peter sat up, smirking. “Wanna tell me what actually happened today?” “J-just everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong.” “Did that start with you staying in the lab way past a normal sleeping time?” “Perhaps. How did you kn-” “You are aware that your dad designed that whole lab situation, right?” “Fair enough.” “Do we have to initiate Insomnia protocol again?” “God no, it was one night.” “Promise.” “Swear. Just an awful day. Spidey senses all acting up, being annoying, no chocolate muffins. Speaking of which, can I have the day off tomorrow? I have basically no classes.” (he wasn’t sure why, but all but one of his classes were cancelled.) Steve thought for a moment. He knew the kid had been through a lot always, and a day off never hurt anyone. Also, he was far too smart to be there anyway. “Yeah. Let me just double check with Dad, okay?” “Thanks.” “We’re eating dinner now so get cleaned up?” “Yep. Coming.”

The next day

Peter awoke at 10 with a smile on his face. He’d peacefully regained energy. He’d finished his school work the previous night, and he was happy to just relax for a day. He pulled on some SI sweatpants and a hoodie he’d stolen from Harley awhile back.

“Hey parentals,” he greeted, still holding his smile. “Morning,” his Pops said as he cooked breakfast. “Morning? Is it already?” I bet you can guess who that came from. “Tones,” Steve said, voice full of its normal concern. Peter just laughed, taking a stool at the bar. “What? I’m fine. I’m having fun.” “You promised you’d at least take a nap.” “Oops,” he smiled, heading back in the direction of the lab. “You’re a great role model to our son!” “You really are dad!” Peter added. “Love you both dearly.” Steve rolled his eyes and Peter chuckled. “Where’s the rest of the team?” Peter inquired. He’d come to realize that saying team was easier than naming all the residents of the tower. “Nat, Clint, Wanda, and Pietro are training. Thor and Loki went back to Asgard last night, and Bruce is in his lab.” “Oh, Loki didn’t tell me he was going back.” “Some emergency. Sorry kid.” “Yeah, i-it’s fine.” “He told me to assure you they’d be back soon.” “Good.” “Keaner getting here soon?” “Nah coming tomorrow now. Something about something, I don’t really know.” “Ok. Made grilled cheeses and tomato soups. It's almost done,” Steve offered. “Thanks,” Peter said. “What’s with Loki leaving that's got you so down?” “I just miss him a lot.” Steve knew that his Kid and loki had come to get on surprisingly well. They were as close as he and Nat. Not even Clint had managed to get that close.

Peter practically inhaled a couple of sandwiches. “I’m going to go work with Dad.” “Have fun!” “I will.” “Love you.” “Love you, too.” He sped down to the lab, where he could hear his Dad’s ACDC blasting as usual. “Heyo, what you working on?” “The suit nanotech. Wanna give your old man a hand?” “Always. Bring up the blueprints. What adjustments have you made so far? “Just the molecule distance and expansion weight. Trying to help stabilize the structure.” “What about the build construction stacking?” So they dove into work, Peter easily keeping up with the genius.

“Nicely done, getting too smart for me. What are you even doing in high school?” “Being bored and failing my humanities classes.” “You're not actually failing your classes are you? Grades are not everything bu-” “Relax father, I’m doing well in all my classes.” “I should probably know that. In fact I’ll actually show up to your next parent teacher conference.” “Please don’t,” Peter smiled. His father was generally very embarrassing. “Friday, make sure I’m at the kid’s next conference?” “Reminder set.” “Thanks, Fri.” “Anytime boss.” “God Fri please remind me to not show up for my next conference.” “Heyyyy,” Tony said, faking offence. “Dad, you can be very overbearing.” “I know, but-” “No.” “Fine, guess I’m not coming. Trying to be a good father and parenthood isn’t for me.” “I beg to differ,” Steve said, coming in to check on us, “realise you're no match for Peter’s intelligence yet?” “No fucking way. I’m a genius. Many PHDs. Kid hasn’t even finished high school, plus he has an A- in Spanish,” Tony laughed. “How did you-,” Peter rolled his eyes. “Friday just sent them to me.” “You’re awful.” “Hey watch it, MIT is still your dream school?” “I fucking hate you so much,” Peter really did loved this kind of banter with his father. “Maybe I do agree that parenthood isn’t for you, love.” “Capsical, you are a traitor. You’re supposed to always be on my side.” Steve kissed Tony’s cheek and ruffled Peter’s hair before saying, “Pepper needs you. Something about important business.” “Really important?” “She says if you don’t come she’ll lock you out of the company.” “That important then. Fri, tell Pepper that I’m coming.” “She has been notified, sir.” “Thank you. Bye then, Peter don’t fuck anything up.” “The same to you Mr. Stark.” Tony left the lab with a chuckle. “You two will be the death of me.” “Almost certainly.” “You staying in here?” “Nah, I have some projects in my lab waiting for me.” “You know your dad was joking about the grades right? Because grades really don’t mean anything, and they don’t define you. Nor does your intelligence. You are so much more than all that. And all these suits and mechanicy genius things-” “Pops. I’m fine. I know,” he smiled at his dad. “I just read in this parenting book that something smart or gifted kids can feel like th-” “Pops, you and dad are the best parents a kid could ask for. Stop worrying too much or you’ll turn grey like dad.” Captain America just smiled at his kid because he was the best. “Right. Good. Have fun.” “Will do.”

He messed with the design for the 100th millionth time but he couldn't get the vibrainim to synthesize with the web fluid. “Fri, get me another cup of coffee, please.” “For fuck sake, why isn’t this working,” he said to himself. He began to mess with the 3d hologram again. He typed in Mock 32 for the design and started trying again. “Pepper Potts is requesting access to the lab.” “Access granted,” he said to Fri. “Hey Pete, how’s it going?” “Badly, but it's fine. IS THAT COFFEE?” “White mocha latte, triple shot espresso,” She said, placing it down on the desk. “Ok..back up. What do you need?” “What, I can’t just bring my favorite stark a coffee?” “Aren’t you busy?” he asked skeptically. “Yes. Incredibly. So it is a peace offering. I allowed a tour access to this lab to look around, and see what a higher ups lab looks like in action. Fri will hide all of the classified things, and I thought you’d be at school. Tony just told me you weren’t so, here we are.” “He actually showed up to your meeting?” “Yes, and it wasn’t my meeting. He just needed to be there, and I didn't.” “I take your peace offering. It’s fine, I don’t care. So long as they don’t touch my shit.” “Good. Greet them, let them look around. Smile your cute smile. They’ll be up in five.” “FIVE MINUTES?” “Yep. Sorry, Hun, got to run. Thanks.” “You owe me one!”

As promised, the class showed up in five minutes. He was fine with the concept of a class showing up, he was not, however, good with his class showing up. “Is that Penis Parker?” He heard Flash. “Holy hell that is Park?” “IS THAT PETER?” “Did Peter break in?” “How is Peter here?” He couldn’t exactly kick them out. So, embracing his inner Tony Stark charm and Steve Rogers kindness, he opened the lab door, stepping into the corridor.

“EVERYONE PLEASE BACK UP AND BE QUIET!” The tour guild, Aliah, yelled. They were a kind person who Peter knew a bit. The classes quieted down.

“Hello, Aliah.” “Hi Peter,” they greeted, “Sorry, I hadn’t realized you’d be in today. I’ll just take them to our next stop.” “No, no it's fine. If it’s alright, I’ll give them a little tour sorta thing. I don’t mind, plus I kinda promised Pepper.” “That’d be really cool. Thanks.” “Yeah. Call ‘em over.” “Yeah. We’re just waiting on their teacher, he’s in the restroom.” “Course.”

Mr. Harrington showed up, questioning Aliah about the next stop. Then, he saw Peter. “Mr. Parker!” he exclaimed angrily, “How dare you show up here without a permission slip and claiming to be sick. What is this? We will be speaking with the principal and your parents about this! I am so sorry Aliah. Peter shot Aliah the “I got this” look. “Hi Mr. Harrington, I was unwell this morning, but I felt better so I came into work. Yes, I do have an internship here,” he said, loud enough for the class to hear. “The next stop on your tour,” they said, “is to Peter’s lab. He’s been so kind to give us a run-down.” Peter simply point at the door which read “Lab #55: Peter Parker.” “Right, uh, um, sorry Mr. Parker, please let us continue.” Peter smiled through his nerves. “Right, hello there class! I will be giving you a tour of my lab. I do some pretty important work, so I’m going to ask Friday to activate the ‘Guest Protocol’ to hide the classified stuff. It’s also very dangerous, so please do not touch anything.” There were nods from the class. “Right, Fri complete guest protocol and allow tour of Aliah to enter.” “Yes miniboss.” He re-entered his lab. “So, most of the time I work here,” he said, pointing to the biggest holograph table, “I work on designs, changes, and any mockups that need to happen. I then make them a reality. I can also run simulations on any formulas to see if they would be successful.” “Fri, please pull up the WFV project I was just working on for Spiderman.” “Right away mini-boss.” “So as you can see I’m trying to get the vibranium intertwine itself with Spiderman’s web fluid. This would allow the webs to be almost 47 times stronger, and also would allow them to conduct electricity, which has many uses. Anyone have any questions?” Ava raised her hand and Peter nodded at her, “Hey, so how did you learn all this? Like, it seems really complicated and you're in my chem class, so.” “I’ve worked a lot with both Mr. Stark and Bruce Banner, who’ve taught me most of what I know throughout the years. I also took a few online courses to solidify some subject matters I didn’t quite understand,” Peter, satisfied with his answer, asked if anyone else had inquired. “How did you get an internship here?” “Mr. Stark found me on the internet and took a liking to my projects. He met me and decided I’d fit right in here,” Peter explained simply. It was a lie of course, but it functioned as their cover story. “Anyone else? No. Cool, so moving onto some other sections in the lab. Over in that corner are the testing rooms. I have some more equipment scattered around for certain projects or just overall help on making things. Feel free to look around for 5-7 minutes and ask any questions you may have.” Some kid, Peter wasn’t sure of their name, raised his hand. “Why do you have cars in here? Are they yours?” “Some of the cars are mine, courtesy of Mr. Stark, who claims no lab is complete without some collection of cars. I can’t even drive them, to your point, but I guess I will when I’m eighteen. Some of the cars are Mr. Harley Keener’s, who I occasionally share my lab with. He doesn't do Avengers related projects, but he does love to tinker here and there. ‘Specially on the cars. See that red one, yeah he bought it for 5k and fixed it up. It’s actually an electric car, he just likes the old timers look. Guess that’s on him and da-Mr. Stark.”

No one seemed to have any other question, so he allowed them to look around. MJ nor Ned seemed to be in this class. He guessed they were in another group that wasn’t coming up here, or they went to a different location.

The tour went smoothly, and Flash seemed too shocked to say anything. “Peter! Peter!” Bucky came in yelling. Peter ran over to him. “Please keep it down uncle Buck.” “Oh shit your class is here!” “Yes now please don’t embarrass me.” “Won’t do! Just wanted to ask where Loki went.” “Asgard official business,” I said with a frown. “Really? He didn’t say a thing!” “I know.” “That little shit.” Peter laughed alongside Bucky. “Did you need anything else?” “Yeah, my arm's a little fucked up. Need a hand.” “Happy to give it a look. Dad in a meeting?” “To all our shock, yes.” “Ha. Give me a sec to get my class outta here.” Bucky nodded. “Right everyone, thanks for visiting. Please head towards the exit. The lovely Aliah will take you to your next location. They are awesome!” A murmur of “thanks Peter” and “is that the winter soldier” spread through the room. “See ya round,” Aliah said to him personally, “And thanks for this.” “Anytime. Bye!” They smiled a warm smile before leading the class out.

“What’s not working so well?” Peter asked. “Just some tightness in the finger motion. “Alright, okay. Fri, get me an update of the schematics, please.” “Yes, sir.” They appeared on the holographic table Peter was working at. “Right, can I please get a current scan of Uncle Bucky’s arm?” “Yes. Shall I place them next to the schematics?” “Yep. And highlight all differences.” “Yes miniboss.” “You gotta stop with that Fri.” “Name unable to be changed under the authority of Tony Stank, Badass Boss, God of Mischief, and Fiance.” “Glad the whole team is against me living a good life,” Peter remarked with an eye roll. “You drama queen.” “Thanks,” Peter smiled. “You know what’s wrong yet?” Peter opened up the schematics, looking at the highlighted section of the 3d arm model. He didn’t speak for a moment. “So I reckon, you fucked up the wiring and section T4’s minigears. None of the important tech is messed up, it’ll be fine. Maybe a half an hour fix. Max.” “Good, good. Thanks kid,” Bucky said with an appreciative smile. He nodded, disconnecting the arm carefully. He placed it onto his table next to the holographic model. He gave a skeptical look. “Something bad?” “No, no, I was just thinking. Thinking, hmn.” “Care to share with the class?” Buck said with a sense of humor lingering in his voice. “Well, you’re not on mission all that often, and this is quite a bulky arm. Ever think about getting one that’s your skin colour, lighter weight, more, I don’t know, arm like. Less hydra murdery vibes. Help get rid of that, that time.” “I have…” “So can I make it?” Peter said excitedly. “You mean it?” “Of course Uncle Buck! No clue why dad hasn’t offered before!” “Guess he never thought of it. Maybe thought I liked the scary metal thing,” he suggested weakly. “Well that’s stupid,” Peter said casually. Bucky never understood how the kid could be so compassionate so easily. “Thanks. Really.” “No worries. I’ve been looking for a new project to throw myself into. It'll be fun. And as much as I hate to admit it, I need to work on my smaller scale mechanical work.” All Bucky could do was smile his beaming smile. “Bucky!” the voice of the Black Widow shouted. “Hey Nat,” Buck replied. “Wanna train?” she asked. “As much as I want to,” he said, pointing towards the area his arm would have been. “Oh, what happened this time?” “Nothing to major, some gears and wires,” Peter filled it, “Give me twenty minutes I’ll be done.” He’d already opened the arm and gotten to the section where the wires were screwed up. “DAN-E get me the soldering kit, please,” he asked the robot, “Oh and some new T6YU wires. Red and purple.” The robot gave a vaguely human nod. “Right, I'll be waiting. Test the adjustments out on me?” She suggested. “Alright,” Buck said. “Oh and I’m in charge of ordering food. What do you want?” “Burgers?” “You boring, bland little boy,” Nat scolded. “Thai?” Buck requested. They looked over to Peter, “Sure, yeah.” Nat headed out, greeting Tony with a “Hey Stank” on the stairs out of his lab. “Yours is so much smarter than mine, why is yours so much smarter than mine,” Tony fake (real) whined. “I’m the superior mechanic, father, deal with it.” DAN-E, almosting proving his point, dropped the materials on his desk, and he continued to work. “I’m donating DUM-E,” Tony glared at him, “What happened to the arm Buck?” “Stiff fingers isall.” “Oh, ok. Pete, need a hand?” “Nah, I’m good. Not much to do. Some wires got fucked up, just replacing them now. Going to look at the minigears in the palm too, just to make sure the oil regulation and gear’s aren't broken. I think one of the gears is, but it's one of them that's easy to replace,” Peter replied, not looking up from his work. “Right, sounds good. Your pops and I are going out for the night. Be back around 12 let’s say.” “Cool. Can I borrow some vibranium from your lab?” “Sure thing kiddo. Call us if you need anything. Fri, give Peter access to vault B3 in my lab.” “Thanks,” Peter smiled. “Anytime. Good luck with ya know.” “Shouldn’t he ask you what you're going to do with a substance that costs 10,000$ a gram?” “Something about trusting me.” “Parents trust their kids with going out later or or doing their homework not fucking multimillions of dollars.” “Uncle Bucky, my parents are Iron Man and Captain America. There was never a shot at normal.” “Fair enough.”

Peter finished up the adjustment on the arm by changing a gear. “Thanks a lot kid.” “Of course. I’m going to work on your new arm now.” “Alrighty, I’ll get out of your way.” “Oh could you ask Auntie Nat what time she’s ordering dinner for? So I know when to head up, just get Fri to tell me.” “Will do.” “Thanks.”

So Peter was left to making some blueprints and drinking many red bulls. The red bull mini-fridge was actually a gift from Shuri, and his fathers had many words with him about it. He managed to convince them that he should keep it, god knows how. Well, he used the whole Princess of Wakanda and making peace and Stark Industries relationship with Wakandan products and companies as well as international relations and blah blah. It worked, who cares.

After a few hours he was called up for dinner, and he sat there and enjoyed the absolute chaos of his family.

Save/comment on A03 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/33320938

[bumbershots]

A CERTAIN ROMANCE

CHAPTER TWO: MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

Author’s note: Hello! Thanks a lot to everyone for reading this, I’m over the moon with the messages you sent after posting the first chapter. Keep them coming, and enjoy! ~ Alex

Story Masterlist ** Word count 2.3K ** 

If she was prettier and a bit smarter. If she were special, like the Instagram models that Teen Vogue features in their cover nowadays. She would have the guts to take three steps towards him and ask if he is who she thinks he is.

Harry is standing once again across from her, and she doesn't even know that he is wearing his beloved woolly jumper that has a picture of the planet Saturn on it, just for her. The girl wonders if they've heard of Styles on that planet, too. Of course they have, she scolds herself looking away from him at last, not believing her luck. For the third time on a Thursday, at half past three, he's jumping in the train right after her. The first time could've been luck, second one was a lovely coincidence but a third time? It's a charm. That's what her grandma would say.

But she isn't brave enough to walk up to him, not because of who he is, but the pressure and build up around the entire situation. What if he's a dickhead? She frowns at the thought, knowing it can't be true, not when his eyes, the so-called windows of the soul, are that nice.

They're both in a corner of the train this time, conversations start to sputter around as people try to keep their own talk ticking along on autopilot. He seems to be busy, reading Keith Richards' autobiography, she wants to talk to him about it, it's been a while since she read it though she still remembers it clear as day. The next one is his stop, she sighs in defeat at her own cowardly nature and takes out her mobile only to look busy.

Harry wants to talk to her, this is the third Thursday in a row, he's afraid there won't be a fourth one. He's back from his last meeting with Jack and Fernando, everything is set to start the renovation. He won't be taking this route anymore, it's now or never. But it's harder than he thought, to approach her and that's it, he doesn't know what he's supposed to do once he stands before her.

The speaker announces his stop, but instead of leaning away from the wall and walking out of the train, he flips the page of his book, letting the doors close and stays on the carriage for the next station. He is so nervous, a bit scared of his bold choice to stay on the line without a well defined plan. He's never been this nervous about talking to someone, the butterflies on his tummy at the mere sight of her are restless. Maybe if he scoots closer, little by little, he can nudge her side and mouth her a polite "hello," a warm smile afterwards so she doesn't think it's a come on. Except it is.

Harry closes his book, deciding that it's stupid and honesty is the best way to anything. He will just greet her and ask if he can buy her a cup of coffee someday, easy, breezy like Jack says. His green eyes follow her out of the train, they just reach Colindale station, before he can process what is going on or even move, the doors close and the vehicle is moving back to the tunnel. Away from her and his last chance. His mouth is dry and it's like he stuffed it to the brim with cotton.

He got off on Burnt Oak and switched direction, he was so mad at himself, the deep frown on his face said it all. This was supposed to be his chick flick moment and he ruined it by not doing anything at all. He keeps his face glued to the door closest to him, waiting for her to come up and smile at him in that knowing way. Perhaps then he would stand tall, mention that cup of coffee after introductions are made and she will agree. But she doesn't come back on the next station, or the three following ones. Harry gets off the train with a cloud looming above him, the wind is blowing in that nasty way that announces a storm following suit. The singer hurries to his home, trying to beat it.

The rain comes out of nowhere in full force just as Harry walks through his front gate, dashing to the inside of his house. He decides to fix himself a light lunch to keep his mind from wondering if she made it to her destination before the rain caught up with her. A text message from Jack does the trick, he sent him the address for Freddie's birthday. Harry can't believe that's tonight.

"Hello stranger," Gemma's voice greets the musician after the second ring. "All right?"

"All right, just forgot about plans I had for the evening," he hated to cancel dinner with his sister, "come with me?" Harry's tone is hopeful, she can almost picture his adorable cherub face, eyes sparkling.

"Is it with your teenage friends?" He hums trying to come up with a lie, "Harry we can have our dinner tomorrow night instead, I don't mind." As much as she loves her brother, that doesn't extend to that certain group of acquaintances.

"They're not that bad!"

"Baby brother, have fun with the lads, I'll see you tomorrow, pick me up at eight o'clock." She states before ending the call. Harry huffs before finishing his veggie wrap and jumps in the shower.

Perhaps he should've told Gemma that his mood tonight wasn't the best, that although he wanted to go out and about, he didn't want to do it alone. But her reasons to avoid his less mature group of mates are valid so he grabs his parka and his phone and, a little stooped, heads for the flat where the party is held.

A few years ago, he set himself three tasks: prioritise friends, learn how to be an adult, achieve a proper balance between the big and the small. Harry genuinely loves the fittings of his outfits before tour, playing his music for thousands. But he realised, as well, that the coolest things are not always the cool things. Tonight he's hearing anecdotes of how his friends sold almost everything they owned, to be able to afford a trip to the World Cup in Russia the year before. He knows that England almost made it to the final, but to see the agony and pain reflected on Freddie's eyes as he tells the story is truly humbling and heartbreaking.

"They had to escort me out, an hour after the match ended." The birthday lad finishes with glossy eyes. "I've never felt so powerless in my life, the world just seemed so unfair from then on, you know?" Harry doesn't, but he nods and finishes his drink. "But enough about good old me, what about you?"

"Same old, touring for a while, back in British soil before I take off again." He doesn't like giving rehearsed answers to his friends, but they're surrounded by at least a dozen people carrying out their own conversations while straining to hear what Styles says.

"Thinking about the next album already?" His friend's amazement is genuine, "can't believe what you'll hit me with next!" Freddie was his rocker friend. The one with an expensive vinyl collection, the one to never miss a Rolling Stones show, the one that religiously attended Glastonbury every year. Remembering this, Harry relaxed and decided to share with him a topic that left him vulnerable.

"You can expect a lot of break up songs that's for sure," he tries to joke but Freddie's smile falters a bit.

"How long has it been?"

"It'll be a year next month." He can't believe it still feels so recent and not at the same time. "I'm getting used to it." Freddie sighs and nods in understanding.

"I'm sorry you have to go through a shit thing like that, you're one of the good ones H," the green eyed musician is blushing, waving his hand at his companion in an attempt to dismiss his words. "It's the truth I mean... look around us, Jack has been on and off with Alexis for years," the two men observe the couple they're discussing, nothing seems wrong with them but Freddie's words are true, Jack has a habit of calling it quits with the redhead once she brings up marriage. "Kiera and Mosas cheat on each other all the time, we're not even sure if they're still together at this point... last but not least you have Alf, Christophe, Ruben and myself, four emotionally unavailable men who can't commit because they can't get their shit together." Silence takes over the two friends, it's deafening even though the background music can be heard loud and clear.

"I made some shitty decisions too, that's what drove her away," Harry wants to continue, the tequila shots seemed to have loosened his tongue.

"No, no, no you listen to me," Freddie's hands hold his younger friend's face carefully. "I know you're not a dishonest scummy man, you're allowed to make mistakes in a relationship and learn from them... don't be like Alf," he lets Harry's face go and nods towards the tallest guy in the room, "he had a brief relationship with a Portuguese girl, charmed her socks off and when she planned to move here guess what he did?"

"What?" Harry knew the answer, but he wanted to give his friend the benefit of the doubt.

"He cuts her off! Ghosting is what they call it nowadays. Just like that... and you think he learned, except that he doesn't!" His friend is now sounding too frustrated. "I saw him do the same thing to Al, perhaps it was a bit different she already lived here but she wanted more and just—" he can't finish his thought and Harry feels for his friend. "We all do that, it's a trend."

"Must be something in the water." The curly one tries to joke and he earns a soft smile from the birthday guy, along with a heartwarming hug. "You can always ring me Freddie, to chat and if I'm home see each other." Harry knows this is something new in their friendship, but he feels it necessary, after so many years of knowing each other. He can tell that Freddie is trying to find his way into adulthood, something that Harry had to experience at a much younger age due to his career.

"Thanks mate, I would really like that." Harry is about to ask Freddie about his family's well-being when a figure entering the room caught his eye, she was wearing the burgundy coat like that first Thursday he was lucky enough to lay eyes on her, high-waisted trousers. The newsboy cap was missing though, but he was glad because it gave her curly hair the freedom it lacked before.

Of all the places where he thought they might meet again, his friend's birthday party was certainly not on the list. She was here, greeting Jack and the others, pulling her sleeve to show how uncomfortable she was at making small talk with Alexis and Keira. She has to crane her neck up a bit when talking to, well pretty much anyone in the room.

This is the miracle he's been waiting for, he thinks just as the song changes to The Beach Boys' and a small smirk threatens to expand on Harry's lips, he does want to ask her if she wants to dance like the sixties tune suggested.

"Harry it's nice to see you again!" Fernando stands in the way blocking the view between the musician and the tube girl. He cringes a bit at the nickname and makes a mental note to learn her name, the sooner the better.

"Fer, I have missed you since we last saw each other earlier today," the architect laughs and so does Freddie. "Would you like a beer?" Forever polite Harry asks.

"No, I'm driving tonight but I'll fetch one for my sister," he says stepping around the bar where Harry and Freddie have been leaning against for the past hour, "I'm starving though, do you mind if I order something Fred?"

"I have some pizza in the fridge man, help yourself." Fernando thanks him before nodding to the person standing behind Harry.

"This beer alright?" Harry turns around just in time to meet a pair of chocolate eyes staring at the guy behind the bar and nod in acceptance. "You already know Freddie and this is Harry," the curly guy is speechless, now up close she seems prettier than before and real. "Harry this is my sister Alma." She smiles in a sweet way that makes the pop star wonder if he's about to go into cardiac arrest.

"I saw you in the tube, Hampstead station guy!" Her voice was nothing like he had imagined, it was raspy and a hint of an accent he couldn't quite put his finger on was swimming through her words.

"That's me..." he admitted, the pink blush from his cheekbones migrating to his ears. Alma thought he looked adorable.

"Do you wanna dance?" She asked after a big gulp of her beer. All star by Smash Mouth just started playing, that was definitely not what Harry wanted to dance with her. Not that he had a secret plan to woo her with his moves, he wasn't the best dancer.

But he took her hand and let her lead the way to the unofficial dance floor, that on a regular day was the dining room. Oblivious to all the eyes focusing on them, Harry allowed himself to enjoy the unexpected turn of events, he had already wasted precious time not talking to this marvellous woman. Like Freddie said, he had to learn from his mistakes, instead of repeating them.

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Next chapter

[a-simple-imagine]

Welcome to Westworld

Synopsis: Y/N and Natasha visit Westworld where they meet a particular blonde.

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader,  elements of Dolores x fem!reader

Words: 4.2k+

A/N - This turned out a little longer than expected and totally self-indulgent. I guess it is a crossover.

"Can you believe we're  actually here?" Excitement oozed from every word that left your lips as you step off the train. It was nothing more than a train station but you couldn't help but admire it. It was almost too perfect, the pristine white and black of every surface; it was elegant. Even the people who occupied the platform were dressed in white.

"Not really," Natasha groaned, pushing you gently forward. "All I got from Tony for my birthday was a card."

"Yeah... well... I'm his favourite."

It was definitely meant as a brag after all this place cost thousands of dollars. A young woman calls out your name as she approaches. She was a traditional kind of pretty, piercing blue eyes with not a blonde hair out of place. Not a blemish on her ivory skin. "Welcome to Westworld."

Natasha was already being lead away by one of the men in white as you follow your guide.

"Given it's your first visit, I have a few questions for you."  She draws your attention back. The woman proceeds to inquire about your medical history; basic questions about previous conditions and your mental health. She takes you up the escalators, and at the top is a giant screen advertising the park. You couldn't wait to get inside.

"So how does this all work?" You wonder, "Is there like an orientation... or tutorial, maybe?"

The other woman smiles ever so softly, it was a gorgeous smile. "No orientation, half the fun is figuring out how it all works. You'll start in the town at the centre of the park; it's relatively safe. Then the further you go out the more intense the experience becomes. how far you go is up to you."

You nod along as she speaks; wondering if Natasha is going through the same line of questioning. "Makes sense."

The woman whose name you have yet to be told leads you into what you assume is a dressing room. Different selections of clothes lined the walls. With glass display cases in the centre. "This will be the first choice you make; everything in here is bespoke and exactly your size so please take your time."

You drift over to a display of dresses. They ranged from simple picnic dresses to eccentric ball gowns. Your fingers dance over the material of each dress before selecting a blue one. It had a high collar to frame the face paired with a flattering "V" cut. long leg-o-mutton sleeves and full skirt with pockets. It was adorned with a delicate red rose pattern. "Found something you like?"

You almost forgot she was here. You shake your head, placing the dress back. Your eyes fall to a display case of pistols that stood centre. "Are those real?" You ask as you walk over.

"Real enough," She responds; the guns were in perfect 3 x 3 lines.

"I thought you couldn't get hurt here," you comment as you look over the following case which held a few shotguns.

"Only the right amount." You look to her, brows furrowed a little before focusing on the suits. You didn't have anything against the dresses but they weren't practical for what you had in mind. A suit on the other hand; you'd look like a traditional cowboy.  You select a black jacket before turning to your little companion.

"Uh... should I get changed in another room or?"

"I can help you or I can step out of you like," you chucked a little until you realised she was serious. The blonde takes a few steps closer, you swallow hard at how close she is. She smells good; sweet. "Whatever, you want."

You're stunned for a moment. "I... can dress myself- thank you though, really."

she smiled tightly before wandering away. "I'll be outside if you need anything."

You opted for a long black jacket with matching slacks that were held up by suspenders. A striped white shirt and a little red scarf to complete the look. You had a gun holster strapped to your hip with a small silver pistol lodged in it. You'd gotten changed a couple of times before finally settling on this look and went to find your guide. "How do I look?"

"Time for the final touch," she leads you to a corridor with hats hug up on the wall. In different colours and sizes. You select a white hat to help break up the black a little; it was more tan than white. An Ivory hat. And thus concluded your introduction to the world, she left you to walk down a long corridor to a brown door. You twisted the nob and walked through to an ensemble of men and women. It was old fashioned, really looked the part. You find Natasha sat at the bar, nursing a whiskey.

"Damn, cowboy," you comment playfully, "Is this seat taken?"

Natasha turns to you, eyes drifting over your outfit as you take in hers. She wore dark brown trousers with a lighter brown vest no shirt underneath which showed off her arms. A brown hat on her head. "I'm surprised you didn't come out in one of those dresses, you're not gonna be too hot in that?"

"I almost did," You shrug a little, glancing around at the men in costumes. "I don't reckon so but I can always take off the jacket."

The bartender poured you a drink you never asked for which you took with a smile, heading over to get a look out the window. There was nothing but darknesses you twisted on your heel to glance back at her. "I wonder what it's like...

The once cramped compartment felt so much freer as light spilled into the cabin. You turn quickly to get the first glimpse of Westworld. The large mountains, canyons, the blue sky. It was all... surreal. This place must be absolutely huge.

Pulling up to the station; you're not even sure how you got on the train. Yes you walked through the door but how did a static door lead to a moving train? You get down off the train almost too scared to step into the unknown. Natasha trailed behind you as you walk into the small town of Sweetwater. It didn't seem all that big but it was busy. Too many things were hitting you at once you weren't sure what part to take in.

"Slow down, dude," you almost stumble into two girls as she calls out to you but you manage to dodge, with each step you feel your confidence grow.

"Come on Natasha," she's a fair few paces behind. "What should we do first- Hurry up,"

You wait for her to catch up before continuing. Glancing at each building as if trying to find something to break the immersive experience but everything seemed like it fit into this world perfectly. You couldn't even tell who were guests and who were the hosts, everything just worked. "What do you wanna do?"

"I don't know, it's your present." A large white building catches your eye. MARIPOSA was written in large black letters across the top of the building, above some decking. Saloon and hotel were written slightly smaller. "I think we should-"

Her voice drifts as you wander over to a poster that was pinned to a post, fluttering gently in the breeze. You flatten it out and a giant smile spreads over your lips as the words WANTED becoming clear as day

"You sure you can handle that?" The voice of reason has returned. Natasha was stood behind you.

"I'm a tough girl," you argue, "I could do it."

"Maybe start smaller, yeah? Stay in town get the lay of the land-"

You're not in the mood for Natasha's sensibility. Maybe you weren't ready to go hunting for outlaws but you could if you wanted to and surely you could find someone around here willing to help out. It's almost second nature to drown out her talking when you don't wanna listen as your attention becomes drawn somewhere else once again. You catch sight of a woman with a tan and black horse. Her light blue dress stood out against the otherwise drab colour scheme. She had beautiful golden hair that absorbed the sun. You don't know what it is but you can't help but watch her for a moment as she tries to shove a bag into the satchel on her horse; a can spilling out and onto the floor. Without a second thought, you're walking towards her, scooping up the can.

"Excuse me miss, I think you dropped this." Her delicate features come into view and you have to take a step back to appreciate. She was beautiful; overly so. Some would even say perfect. Her lips curled up into a gracious smile that brings joy to your face.

"Stop running off on me," Natasha scolds as she walks up behind, placing a hand on your shoulder. "Who's this?"

It takes you a moment to even comprehend that Natasha is talking. "Uhhh... I don't know."

"I'm Dolores," the otherwise annoying southern drawl is charming to the ear. "Thank you for the can,"

"You're Welcome," you tilt your cowboy hat a little, introducing yourself and Natasha. "So are you from around here, Dolores?"

"I am," she nods, smiling brightly. "I live just down the road but I don't think I've ever seen you two before. Suppose you're some of those newcomers, we get a lot of those."

You glance to Natasha who just shrugs. If she lived here that meant she was a host even though she definitely didn't seem like one. And you technically were newcomers just not in the way she's probably thinking. "That we are ma'am. I hate to be a bother but we were wondering if you might now what there is to do for fun around here?"

"It's no bother," she deliberates for a moment, putting the can away on her horse. "I guess it would depend on what you're looking for."

"I guess it would," you chuckle. Half the fun is figuring it out but you had no clue where to start. "Uh... what do you do for fun?"

She looks to you for a moment, paused in thought. "I go to my favourite spot by the river and paint."

"That sounds nice," not what you were expecting her to say but sure. You look to Natasha wondering what she wants to do.

"I think we should secure a place to sleep and eat first, maybe get a drink too."

"Alright," You sigh, logic beats fun here. Secure food and shelter was a very Natasha thing to say. "Would you mind taking us out tomorrow? We could go down to the river- I promise we won't get in the way?"

"I would be delighted." You can't help but feel a little delight at her words. "I'll meet you two back here tomorrow morning then."

"Perfect."

"Do you have horses?" The blonde asks, climbing up and onto hers.

"I'm afraid not we came on the train, know where we can get one?"

"I can bring some if you like?" She offered, her hand patting her horse a couple of times. "Or there is a stable on the edge of town, they should have a few if you got the money."

"We'll buy a few, thanks." May as well get some for the duration of your stay.

"I guess I'll see you two tomorrow then,"

"Bye Dolores," you wave as she rides off. Instantly turning to Natasha with the giddiness of a small child.

"I can't believe we came all the way here and you just wanna sit on the side of a river with some random girl."

"I wanted to go bounty hunting but you said no," you huff. "Besides, it's just one day. I'm pacing myself so where to next?"

"I need a drink but maybe we should get a couple horses first?"

"Okay... let's find the stables,"

It takes a while to find the stables. In the end Natasha had to ask a local who pointed you in the right direction. The stables were a big reddish-brown barn with a paddock to the left. One door was left open so you just wandered on in. It was considerably darker inside, dirty too. Despite the smell, there didn't actually seem to be a horse in sight.

"Howdy, folks. You looking to sell or buy?" An older gentleman startles you from the right. He had a white mustache but lacked hair on top of his head.

"Buy? How much is a horse?"

"Depends on the horse missy." You weren't sure how you felt about being called missy but you let it slide. "I've only got one left, ain't too many selling these days but he's a real beaut."

"Can we afford this?" Natasha asks quietly. The thing with theme parks was that despite the expensive entry fee, nothing seemed to come for free. You could steal a horse but that seemed risky so buying one was the next option.

"I don't know but Tony said to go nuts. I'm taking that as buy the horse."

In the very back stood just that; a horse. Black as the night with patches of white across his back, a crescent of white adorned the top of his head. "He's a big fella but gentle as can be," he reaches over to run his hand across the horse's nose. "I should be getting more in soon but this is the best I got for now. I'll even throw in everything you need to look after him, saddle and all."

"We'll take him," you declare quickly before Natasha can have a chance to say no.

"Great, let me just grab his papers."

You smile to Natasha. "Go pay the man,"

With a roll of her eyes, she wonders after the stable keeper. Staying with the horse, you walk closer; reaching out slowly. The animal was soft to the touch and made your smile brighten. "I think I'll call you moonshine."

Natasha returns a moment later with papers in hand. "He's ours."

"Great... do you know how to ride a horse?" You ask Natasha. The stable guy opens the door to let the horse trot out so he can attach the saddle. You watch him carefully to make sure you remember the process just in case.

"Do you?" You didn't so you shake your head. You'd never thought the skill would come in handy.

"Guess it's time to learn."

"You're all set," The man announces, slapping his hands together.

"Thank you," you take the horse's reigns and begin walking back towards the door. Thankfully the horse follows. "Where to next?"

"Food?" Natasha suggests. "Find a place to sleep.

"Let's hitch the horse and grab some food, I think I saw a restaurant back in town."

"Hitch the horse- listen to you cowboy."

After dinner, you retire to the Sweetwater inn. It was incredibly cheap but money was different back then so it makes sense. The next morning, Natasha is up at the crack of dawn, waking you up at around ten. You have breakfast before finding Dolores at the wayside.

"Morning, you two."

"Good morning, Dolores." You answer with a yawn.

"I see you got yourself a horse,"

"His name is Moonshine," you answer. "They only had one though."

"That's alright. One of you can ride with me."

"I'll ride with you," You weren't giving up the chance to get closer to her. Natasha's brows furrow at your eagerness. "I don't trust Natasha on a horse."

You climb up behind Dolores and it's a little daunting being up so high up. It's instinctive to put your arms around her to make yourself feel safer. Heat rushing to your cheeks as you realise you've just grabbed a woman you hardly know.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" you pull away.

"It's alright, have you ever ridden a horse before?" Dolores quarries.

Your head shakes. "No."

Reaching behind her, she searches for your hands. You take hold of hers and she places them around her. "We'll be okay just hold tight."

Dolores feels warm in your embrace and she smells like fresh linen. It's weird how... normal she felt. You kind of expected her to feel hard and cold but she felt like any other human being. It's like when you put your arms around Natasha who gets annoyed when you don't let go. "I'll go slow at first so you can get used to it."

You nod a little even though she can't see and with a flick of her wrist, the horse starts moving. Your grip tightens around her at the motion but you relax with a heavy sigh. It takes a second but you work up the courage to look at Natasha who seems at home aboard Moonshine; no surprise there.

"You doing okay back there?"

"Mhmm,"

The horse gets faster but it's not as bad this time; you've grown accustomed to the motion. You don't know how long you're up there for but you approach the river with a gentle curiosity. Natasha helps you down form the horse, which doesn't seem as big from the ground. Looking out over the river, it was a beautiful spot of lush green. Natasha walks up beside you as Dolores collects her things from her horse. "She felt real," you hum quietly, not bothering to look at her. "Like I don't know how to explain it... she doesn't feel like a machine."

"Doesn't mean she isn't one," Natasha pats you firmly on the back. "Remember that,"

You watch her walk to the river edge before glancing at Dolores who had set up her axel.

"Whose horses are those?" You ask out loud, pointing to a spot where three horses roamed. They seemed to be enjoying the grass.

"Oh they're wild," Dolores replies. "Do you want to get closer?"

With Dolores leading the way, you approach the three beasts. One was chestnut brown, the other tan and finally the third was a greyish white. The white horse trots closer to the two of you as Dolores offers out her hand.

"Here," she hands you a slice of apple. "Put your hand out real flat."

Doing as instructed, the horse seems cautious but eventually takes the free food leaving a little slobber in its wake.

"Hey Nat, we could have just gotten a couple of these instead of buying one."

"I don't know about you but I don't think we could tame a wild one."

"They're really quite gentle," The host interrupts, stroking the neck of the horse. You're utterly amused by the whole situation. This place was, in terms of technology, so advanced, and yet life was simple. It was the little moments that were so enticing- although you still wanted to go chase criminals at some point.

The day is spent with Dolores. It's joyful and peaceful although you're not sure how much fun Natasha is having. As the sun began to set and Dolores insisted she had to get home, you go your separate ways and head back to Sweetwater with Natasha.

Tonight was Natasha's turn to pick and so you ended up in the Saloon. It was surprisingly full and lively. A man sat at the piano, playing tune after tune. There was a poker game taking place between a group of men. And you were pretty sure there were working girls wondering about offering their... services.

"How do you think they make them so realistic?" You think out loud as you stand at the bar. "Like Dolores was one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. And there's just no way you could tell she wasn't another human being without knowing beforehand."

"Will you shut up about Dolores," Natasha groaned. "There are plenty of other..."

Her voice trails off and you find a stranger stood just behind you. She was a pretty brunette and sporting a deep blue ruffled and laced corset dress. It looked good on her. A soft hand danced ever so lightly over the skin of your cheek. "You're new," she hums, bringing her fingertips to her lips. "Not much of a rind on you."

You swallow hard under her gaze as she smiles. "I can give you a discount. It's normally five dollars but I can do it for four."

You glance towards Natasha, it had become a habit since entering the park. You wanted to gauge her reaction; figure out what she deemed okay. "Go ahead," The redhead brings a shot glass to her lips, knocking it back. "I don't care if you fuck a robot,"

"She's not-" you cut yourself off, "thank you for the offer ma'am but I'm gonna have to decline. Maybe another time."

"You don't have to be so negative all the time." You growl as you lean down against the bar, signaling for the bartender to refill your glass. "Maybe actually pretend to enjoy this place."

"How am I being negative?"

"The point of this place is to have fun and experience the old west. Live without limits," you try to keep your voice down but not so much it's drowned out by everything else going on in here. "You don't have to keep telling me everything isn't real- I know that. I know the hosts aren't people but they're basically the same so just stop it. Maybe I should have come alone."

You down a shot of whiskey which burns as it drifts down your throat before finding a seat at an empty table. "Look I'm sorry," Natasha takes up the seat opposite you. "I'll try to take this more seriously okay? I don't mean to ruin your experience."

"Would you really not be mad if I fucked that girl?"

"I mean... it's your money to waste. Why? Are you curious."

"Maybe just a little," you chuckle. It was a genuine curiosity if you were being honest. Surely they can't feel real in those moments. "I won't though."

Natasha is relatively happy as you get a couple drinks in her, so the night practically flies by. You even try your hand at a little poker which you're bad at but Natasha seems to be cleaning up.

Day 3 of your Westworld adventure and you're not quite sure what to do. Where to go? Or who to talk to? You stood staring at the wanted poster from the day you walked in. Natasha was in the general store picking up some supplies. Maybe today was the day to do something a little more... exciting. Then you spot her again; Dolores. She brings a smile to your lips as you watch her but it's quick to fade as three men approach her. You can't hear them but you also can't just assume they have bad intentions so you keep an eye on the interaction. Mainly on Dolores in the middle and when she tries to push past and they stop her, you spring into action.

"Fellas, how about you leave my friend here alone."

They all turn to you and you take a step back. Are they hosts or guests? You couldn't tell. "Or what?" A nasally voice assaults your ears. The owner was a short man with thick brown hair. "We can do whatever we want so fuck off."

"I said, leave her alone." You stand your ground, hand lingering on the gun you hadn't had the honour of using just yet. "Now."

The biggest of the lot was a burly man with a thick beard. He definitely seemed like he would win if this ended in a fistfight. He towers over you, grabbing you by the arm but before you can react, Natasha is between you. Pressing the man's arm up against his back. "You so much as look at my girlfriend again and I will break your arm, you understand? Now the lady asked you nicely to leave so I'd listen if I were you."

Natasha releases him and he fixes himself. A triumphant smirk appears on your lips. You may have wanted to test out your gun but maybe Natasha jumping in had been for the best. "Come on boys. It's not worth it."

"Thank you," Dolores looks relieved to see you and it fills you with an undeniable warmth. There was just something about her that you absolutely adored; and it wasn't just the pretty face.

"It was no big deal," You respond casually. "Some guys can be such assholes."

"Still, I'm grateful." You're proud of yourself even if Natasha did the heavy lifting. "I'd love to have you over for dinner tonight to say thank you. I'm sure my daddy would love to have you join us."

"We would love to," Natasha answers for you; you a little surprised actually. This was the first time Natasha seemed interested in Dolores, you kinda thought she hated her. "As long as it's no trouble."

"None at all." Dolores insisted, climbing onto her horse. "Just grab your horse and we can go now. I'll show you the rest of the ranch too."

You walk alongside Natasha to collect moonshine from outside the general store. "I can't believe you nearly got into a fight over a fucking robot."

[ttooccaa]

The impeccable timing of everything - Chapter 3

3/5

Guess who completely forgot they also post here... heh...

Rating: Teen

Ao3 link

Chapter 3: Slipping through my fingers 

Central City

November 24, 8:30 PST

Bart was sweating, he was currently on his morning run around the neighborhood. He knew he didn’t really need to be that slow, but it felt good just to run like a regular person around a world that wasn’t apocalyptic and filled with fear and dread. He felt his phone buzz, it momentarily silenced his music, he swiftly fished it out of his pocket. As soon as he saw that Ed had texted him he slowed down to a jog and then completely stopped. Bart leaned against a graffitied wall that said “SHAZAM!” in huge red and yellow letters. The handsome face of the hero was also there. He opened up his chat with Ed.

stressED: What is up, my dude? 😎

A child that was hurt™: getting my gains

Bart though for a moment and then quickly took a selfie. He looked at it for a second and swiftly deleted it, then he took another one, that went to the trash as well. After a couple more tries he sent the one he hated the least. He waited and felt his heart stop at Ed not answering immediately. He finally felt his phone ping and opened the message almost with superspeed.

stressED: what a stud 😏

A child that was hurt™: Thanks

stressED: I was talking about Shazam

Just as Bart felt his heart go up his throat until he received another text.

stressED: kidding!

Bart heard himself audibly sigh, but then caught himself. He obviously knew that Ed was joking from the beginning, but just when had such little things started to affect him so much. Perhaps around the time he started noticing Ed’s light dusting of freckles or that his smile was always a little crooked to the left or that his eyes shone almost like he had little specks of gold in them… he was so whipped. He returned his attention back to his phone.

A child that was hurt™: and u?

stressED: Just finished telling Kate’s parents where she’s at, also the correctional facility where Wayne stayed and his uncle as well. Also informed Kole’s foster home. I know that they basically sold her out, but it’s policy.

A child that was hurt™: Sounds like it went well

stressED: All of them, pieces of work. Kate’s parents basically told me to fuck off, Wayne’s uncle said that he won’t pay for the center, didn’t listen to me at all! The foster home and juvie denied either had ever stayed with them

A child that was hurt™: Geez, rough. Maybe we’ll find evidence today that will prove that they were involved, put ‘em in jail and all that good stuff

stressED: Hah, yeah I sure hope so

stressED: Moving on to lighter topics, I’m getting everything ready for Kate, Kole and Wayne

A child that was hurt™: It’s power testing and training day!

stressED: Hope the Center manages to survive this time as well. We are still grieving the loss of room C5

A child that was hurt™: RIP

stressED: forever in our hearts 😪

stressED: Good luck on the mission

A child that was hurt™: Thanks, I’ll make sure to bring you a souvenir 😉

stressED: Just make sure you get back safe

A child that was hurt™: Will do, amigo.

stressED: Kick some trafficker’s ass for me 😤😤😤

A child that was hurt™: Anytime, also good luck with the golden trio

stressED: Golden trio?

A child that was hurt™: 😉😉😉

stressED: Whatever… love talking to you, but gg

A child that was hurt™: bye⚡️

Bart briefly looked at Ed’s picture in his phone and grinned even wider – it was a close up of his face, Ed was mid teleportation, the gold around him shining and engulfing parts of his face. He had one eyebrow raised and was grinning mischievously. His honey brown eyes were looking at something to the right. It was a great picture that had happened by complete accident, though Bart was very grateful for it.

Jaime would often complain that Ed was the only one with a good picture in his phone, but come on. Jaime’s was hilarious, it was him laying on the ground in pain, because Traci had accidentally sent a small rock flying towards his nuts. She was leaning behind him, apologising so much that her mouth was a blur. Truly a classic.

Bart quickly realised that he’d been leaning against the wall and grinning at his phone for a good chunk of time, so he put it back in his pocket and continued his slow jog with renewed energy.

Taos

November 24, 9:45 MST

Ed felt like he was going to faint, well not really, but damn the feelings had hit him so hard he just felt overwhelmed. How could Bart just casually send him such a picture?! Ed had seen the other teen many times flushed and sweaty, but it was always during training or a mission, staring at him could get him hurt or cost him his life. The little glimpses didn’t compare to a picture. So yeah, maybe he’d forgotten how to breath for a second and maybe he’d also saved the picture, but could you really blame him? He was just a guy with a crush after all.

He took a big breath and checked that he was still alone in the room and nobody had seen his little panic attack. Ed was getting the room they used for meta-human power testing and training. There was a huge reinforced glass between where the metas will be, the people outside the glass will be there to keep track of the metas’ vitals and and so on and so fort. His father also wanted Ed outside because things could always go awry with metas who couldn’t control their powers. But Ed knew that due to his teleportation, it was better to be inside, Wendy wasn’t the only one who’d lost control over her powers. During those times Ed became especially useful.

He was putting in some commands into the computer, when he checked the time, 10:00 am, that means that Neut and the others will be arriving soon, also the STAR labs appointed scientists and doctors here to watch over their training and make sure everything goes on smooth. Well as smooth as it could be when dealing with emotionally unstable  teenagers with recently received powers.

He heard the automatic door open and turned to see the head doctor and his team coming into the room.

Ed went over to them “Hi, Dr. Wilcox.”

The man gave him one of tight smiles and shook his hand “Good, to see you again, Eduardo.”

Ed smiled in return, while his relationship with Dr. Wilcox wasn’t the best, due to still harbouring memories of being tested on by him, Ed knew that the doctor was a good guy and even better at his job.

The doctor sat down in front of one of the computers “I read the report you sent in about their powers, but is there more you could tell me?”

“Well we know that Kate can “melt” stuff and that Wayne similarly to Thirteen can influence the world around him. Kole still hasn’t shows us her powers, but we know it’s something similar to crystallisation.” Ed explained.

Just as he was about to text Neut to tell him to bring everybody in, the automatic doors opened and the other youth counselor came in, with Kate, Kole and Wayne in tow. Kole was holding onto Nathaniel’s arm and smiling brightly. She was almost hanging off of it.

All three of them looked times better then when they first came in, their original clothes had been washed and cleaned, so the teens had opted for a combination of both their clothes and those issued by the center.

Kate was wearing high waisted jeans with a loose Meta-human Youth Center T-shirt tucked in. Her longe blonde hair was falling around her shoulders.

Kole had a blue, cloth tied around her head like a headband, a purple skirt with stockings with holes in them and a blue zipped up hoodie. The blue really made her orange hair pop.

Since Wayne had come in in a plain T-shirt and pants (which he later explained were his uniform in juvie) he was wearing clothes from the center, simple grey sweats and a black T-shirt. He was definitely the most upset at not having any of his regular clothes with him, missing his leather jacket the most, though Ed had promised to help him, maybe arrange for him to go back to his uncle’s and get some stuff, but only after this whole thing had blown over.

Ed went over to them and grinned at Neut “What timing! I was just about to text you.”

The other counselor just smiled and shrugged “We’ve known each other for how long now?”

“Fair point.” The Argentinian mused, then turned towards the teens “Ready to unleash those powers?”

Kate smirked “Hell yeah!”

Wayne just rolled his eyes “Let’s get this over with.”

Ed smiled good-naturally and moved towards the doctors “Just so know, everything is recorded, that’s so it can be analysed later. This is Dr. David Wilcox, he is the head scientist, if you have any questions, turn towards him. When we are done, we will compile everything we know and write up reports on your powers, you’ll receive a copy, of course.”

The dark haired man nodded towards them, then turned around and continued adjusting things on the screen in front of him.

Ed mentioned for the other metas to follow him inside the space used for testing. They did albeit Wayne was a bit reluctant.

As they were entering Neut said “You’ll do great and if you don’t, it doesn’t matter, just don’t blow anything up!” He gave them a wide grin and a thumbs up.

Ed shook his head, but was smiling. He hoped the lame joke would ease a bit of their worries, when the door clicked closed behind them, he started talking “Okay, so we will start one at a time, each of you will show their power, don’t be nervous if you don’t have full control of it or anything like that, if you can’t do it at first, again, it’s okay, just concentrate.”

“I’ll start.” Kole volunteered.

She closed her bright green eyes and concentrated. Her right arm started to slowly harden and change in color, the surface became shiny and smooth, like a crystal. It had a pinkish hue to it. She opened her eyes “Alright!”

Ed nodded “Okay then, let’s see what you can do.”

Kole smirked, she raised her arm and aimed towards one of the targets not so far away, a couple of crystal shards flew, but didn’t come near the target, they were small and fragile and the moment they hit the ground they broke. She sighed, her expression sad.

Wayne made a noise of amusement and was swiftly hit in the arm by Kate’s elbow.

“Hey!”

She gave him an annoyed look, that appeared even more threatening because of their height difference, Kate being almost one head taller than him.

He closed his mouth then rolled his eyes and looked the other way.

Kole’s expression turned sour, anger and annoyance clear on her face. As her emotions became more erratic and panic overtook her, she quickly started losing control over her powers. The crystallization started to grow, it went over her neck reaching her face. That just added to her panic. The crystals became jagged and started tearing up her hoodie. Their light pink color turned dark. She was panicking and waving her arms around “Not the hoodie!”

Kate and Wayne looked like they were on the verge of panic themselves. Looking at each other and Kole frantically.

‘Well, that was just a matter of time.’ Ed took in a big breath, he knew that telling her to calm down wouldn’t do her any good, the one who should remain calm was Ed. He started talking “Kole, listen to me, focus on my voice.” She turned her wide eyes at him. “I want you to close your eyes and concentrate, breath with me.” He continued instructing her, while Kole slowly started to calm down. Slowly, but surely the crystals started to disappear, turning back into her regular skin.

Ed sighed, relived, while Kole herself looked emotionally drained.

“Thanks.”

Ed smiled “Of course.”

Kole slowly picked at the gashes in her hoodie left by the crystals, she looked sad.

The blonde came up behind her and put her hand on her shoulder “I think it looks cooler, very grungy!”

She looked over her shoulder at Wayne. He was quick to join in “Yeah, totally.” There was a twinge of regret in his eyes.

The Argentinian just sighed “Want to take a brake?”

The other three nodded.

Ed smiled and started walking towards the automatic doors, while the doors were opening he thought ‘I hope Bart’s doing better than me.’

Hollywood

November 24, 9:47 PDT

Bart had completely zoned out of the meeting. He knew he should be listening but at this point they were just saying the same things over and over again. He looked at Jaime, who looked bored, but was at least pretending to listen, while Virgil, well Virgil looked like he was somewhere else entirely, at least mentally.

Bart sighed and his mind continued to drift away, of course the first thing he thought of was Ed, it still slightly bothered him when Ed had just left him hanging for a bit during their morning chat, but he was sure he was overthinking… or at least hoping he was.

For now he decided to focus on more pleasant topics regarding Ed, like his cute accent and his amazing ass. Sometimes he would imagine what a date with him would be like, he’d never been on one and he wanted to see if it was like in the movies. Jaime and Cassie told him that it was like hanging out, except with a lot more physical contact, Bart didn’t mind the idea of that, not one bit.

But still doubts would creep in his thoughts, doubts like what if he was wrong about all of this? What if Ed had lost interested? What if he actually liked somebody else the entire time, but was just nice? What if the little flirting made him uncomfortable rather than flattered? ‘Feelings are too hard, man. They jump up and down and make your whole head a mess.’ He thought while twirling a pencil at superspeed between his fingers.

Finally the mission discussion was over. All of the teens got up, Virgil stretched and Bart heard the slight cracking of his joints. Technically the teens didn’t have anything else to do today, only classes but they were later this day. Bart promptly told everybody he’ll be heading home, but decided to forgo the Zeta tube and run instead, good thing he was in suit.

Just as he was entering Arizona, he heard his phone ping. He grabbed it and saw that it was a text from Ed. He was surprised, he didn’t except Ed to be able to text him today, because of the metas. He texted him back, still running home to Central. Apparently things had gone just as Ed had excepted, though he had hoped for better. They had a little recess going on right now and Ed asked Bart, if he wanted to come. That stopped the speedster dead in his tracks, he thought for a moment, then decided ‘Hell yeah, I can come.’ He texted the usual terrible pun, that all the Flashes used and headed towards Taos.  

Taos

November 24, 11:12 MST

Ed was feeling a little nervous, though he didn’t know why, he saw Bart all the time, this time will be like all the others, but still… his excitement over seeing him definitely beat out the uneasiness. He was still surprised how he had just asked him to come, he’d done it before he even realised. Bart had said yes, so he must be free right? Ed hoped he wasn’t being a bother. He was waiting for the speedster outside the main entrance, before his thoughts could spiral further Bart had appeared next to him, a trail of dust like in cartoons falling to the ground behind him.

“Hey there, amigo!” Bart winked.

Ed nodded in greeting “Sorry, hope you weren’t busy.”

Bart just grinned “Never busy enough to decline seeing you.”

This resonated pleasantly with Ed, he smiled slightly embarrassed, a blush evident on his face.

They walked over to one of the benches and sat down. There was a tree right over it, so it made a pleasant shadow over the sun. Bart looked at Ed, who was wearing a dark red sweatshirt with desaturated stripes going in the middle, they were colored like the rainbow. He had light wash, high waisted jeans on, which were cuffed. He was also sporting a pair of dark yellow vans.

Bart was in his Kid Flash costume, which was good, because he could use his superspeed that way.

Ed started talking first “How has your day been?”

“Eh, pretty boring, honestly. Just had a meeting about the mission, I’m so over debriefing… it takes forever.”

Ed ran a hand through his dark and unruly curls “Even when you phase out?”

“Even when I phase out.”

“Ugh.” Ed rolled his eyes

“And you?”

Ed shook his head from side to side “Nothing I wasn’t expecting. Though, none of them want a collar, which is great. Also I’ve convinced them to come to one of the meetings were we talk about everything that has happened.”

Bart smirked “So group therapy.”

Ed rolled his eyes, but was smiling “It’s not technically group therapy.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Yeah.”

There was a pleasant silence between them, just enjoying the slightly chilly breeze, that November brought, but still Bart pondered why Ed had decided to call him over. Was there a reason? Or was it just like that? Was something bothering Ed? Did he want to tell him something?

Finally he decided to just ask “So it’s something up or…?”

Ed’s eyes moved over to him “Oh, well I guess, I just wanted to see you? Were you busy?”

Ed had just wanted to see him! Bart’s heart leaped with joy “No-not at all! I just, you know, wanna make sure you’re doing alright?” He was slightly red, hoping he hadn’t offended Ed.

The Argentinian smiled and looked straight at Bart “Yeah, I’m fine, again, I just… missed you, I suppose…” His blush was definitely growing by the end of that sentence. His hand had slowly moved towards Bart’s.

The speedster noticed this and also moved his hand closer, then stated to talk “I missed you too.” He had moved his hand over Ed’s. He was blushing hard, but screw it.

Both of the were leaning slowly closer to each other. None of them knew what exactly they were planning to do when they met in the middle, but they were sure they were gonna figure it out- but then a loud banging noise was heard from somewhere inside the Center. Both of them jerked away and looked at the building.

Bart started to talk “Do you think we should-“ he was cut off by another such noise.

“Definitely.” Ed nodded. He turned his hand around and held Bart’s, then both of them teleported to where Ed assumed the noise had come from.  

He was right, it was the cafeteria. Inside of it, Wendy was up in a small tornado with sparks flying around Leslie and Andy half turned into mist. Half of one of the table was gone next to Kate, while Wayne was wobbling in the middle of it, until he finally fell down. Kole was just standing wide eyed in the middle of everything. There were pieces of food splattered on the ground.

Ed blinked once “What happened?”

“Oops, busted.” Leslie said and Wendy quickly got back on the ground.

Andy looked at him, then smirked and raised an eyebrow, indicating Bart and Ed’s still linked hands. Both teens blushed hard and let go of each other. Andy just rolled her eyes.

Ed sighed “I will repeat again, what happened and where is Neut?”

Wayne actually spoke from where he was getting up from the other side of the table “Some chick needed help.”

“Celia.” Kate was kind enough to clarify.

Ed put his hands on his hips “Okay, that’s one question answered, now the other one?”

He turned towards the three girls, who’d been here longer. Leslie was the first to speak up “I love it when you do that pose, it’s like I’m getting scolded by mom.” She chuckled.

“Leslie.” Ed dragged on her name, obviously tired.

“Okay, okay, I’ll talk, just don’t ground me.” She winked at end, grinning. “Well, we saw that the tree of them-“ She pointed towards Wayne, Kate and Kole “-weren’t training anymore and decided to say hi. Chatted for a bit, Kole asked us what our powers were.”

Ed cut her of “And you decided to show her…” He’d already heard that story a million times.

Leslie winked “Bingo!”

The Argentinian waited, but nothing, so he encouraged them “Okay and then?”

Wendy answered “Oh, you know, the usual, something went wrong. This time it was Kate getting scared and melting half the table, on which Wayne had gotten up after Leslie shocked him with a bit of electricity. Also he screwed up my tornado and one of the other tables went flying, hit the ceiling and fell down.” She pointed at what Ed assumed was a table, but now more resembled a beat up piece of metal. She was grinning all sweet like everything was a-okey.

Bart couldn’t help it and snorted at the sheer stupidity of the situation. Ed looked like he’d aged ten years, but also smiled.

“Okay then since you all seem so lively, we can get back to training.” He indicated for Kole, Kate and Wayne. “And you three-“ Ed turned towards the girls “clean up this mess and make a list of everything that needs replacing.”

All three of them groaned and he smirked “Come on, not the first time you’re doing this.”

“Exactly.” Andy’s dry tone replied.

Wayne, Kate and Kole headed for the testing room.

While Ed and Bart went into the hallway. Ed rubbed the back of his neck “Well, that happened.”

Bart chuckled “It sure did. Well since you have your hands full…”

“Yeah.”

Both of them were suddenly feeling embarrassed and self conscious, perhaps because of the handholding, perhaps because of the leaning in… Apparently, they both decided some things were better off left for later.

“Hey, thanks for coming, wish you could stay, but you know…” Ed indicted for the testing room with his head.

Bart nodded “Yeah…” The brunett sucked in a quick breath and continued talking “Wanna hang out some time?”

The Argentinian blinked “Like go out?”

The other teen nodded “Yeah, we haven’t, you know, had the time and… I like spending time with you.” He was feeling a bit awkward at the end.

Ed was a bit red as well “I’d... really like that.” Then he added quickly “I also like spending time with you!” He slightly bumped Bart’s shoulder with his fist at the end of the sentence.

“Text me, when you’re free, hermano! It’ll be totally crash!” Bart winked at the end.

“Likewise.” The teleporter smiled.

Bart gave him one last grin, before leaving in a streak of yellow, only leaving dust behind.

The short walk to the testing room was just the perfect amount of time Ed needed to have a small panic attack. ‘Go out?!’ He thought ‘Like a date?!’ He panicked for a bit more, which consisted of him coming up with various scenarios in which it was a date and it all went great and a couple overly exaggerated ones in which Bart was so disappointed he somehow left for the future.

Ed took one last breath and walked into the room, the other three metas were leaning against one of the desks on the outside of the enforced glass.

Wayne’s midwestern accent welcomed him soon after he entered the room “Took you long enough.”

“Chill out. He was just making plans with his boyfriend.” Kate said, grinning.

Ed was quick to retaliate “Boyfriend?! No, me and KF we are just uhh… friends… Okay, that right now isn’t important. C’mon.” He quickly changed the subject and headed towards the automatic doors of the training ground.

He turned around when he heard all three enter, Kate was still grinning, while Wayne was a bit red. Although for him blushing a bit was like getting burnt for most people, because of his pale complexion. Kole looked a bit nervous, but determined.

The Argentinian started talking “Okay, who’s next or do I have to choose?”

Kate stepped out of the uneven line “I can melt? Well it’s no exactly melt, disintegrate? Things. Is there something in here that needs to go?” She looked around.

Ed thought for a moment then went over to one of the chests, he came back with what looked like a bent out of shape batarang. “After they loose their shape this much, they are pretty useless for throwing, but they are still good for demonstrations.” He handed it over to Kate.

The blonde concentrated and her fingertips went through the metal. She twirled it around her pointer finger and turned towards Ed, her expression serious “I can control it pretty okey, but when I’m suddenly overtaken by a strong emotion, all that control just slips away.”

Ed nodded “Don’t worry, we can work that out. It’ll also be good to figure out what exactly you can and cannot “melt.” Though melt isn’t the right word, they just disappear as if dissolving to their molecular level.”

Kate tilted her head to the side “Well I haven’t tried it with anything organic or living and breathing.” She thought for a second, then turned towards her companion with a mohawk “I nominate Wayne to help out.”

“Hell no.” Came his immediate reply.

Ed chuckled “I’ll go get an apple or something for the organic test, though I’m not sure for the living and breathing one, maybe a plant?” He mused.

Kate laughed “I’m sure there are some weeds around the center.”

The peer counselor smirked, then turned towards Wayne.

The pale teen bit his lip and shrugged “I don’t know, man, I know I can screw around with people, but I’m not sure about inanimate objects.”

“Only one way to find out.” Said Kole as she took the abused batarang from Kate and placed it on the ground in front of Wayne. “The floor is yours.”

He rolled his eyes and looked at the batarang, he concentrated and narrowed his eyes, but nothing happened. Wayne groaned in frustration.

“Guess not.” Kate piped.

The pale teen turned towards her and rolled his eyes.

The Argentinian thought for a moment, the idea was stupid but it was worth a shot “What about me? We can try it out that way, if something goes wrong,

I can teleport and there’s also a medic nearby…” Ed thought for a second, he was more worried on putting the pressure of maybe hurting him on Wayne, rather than actually getting hurt.

“Well that’s a stupid ass idea.” Wayne said, crossing his arms.

“Kate has already been on the receiving end of it a few times.” Ed pointed out.

“That wasn’t on purpose!” Wayne said, before Kate gave him the side eye “Okay, most times it wasn’t purpose, also it was for a moment or two.” Wayne paused for a second “Am I really the only one worried here?” He turned towards the other three.

Kate shrugged “If he says he can do it, then he can do it.”

Kole joined her “I wanna see what happens!”

“Then it’s settled. You two go out.” Ed instructed and Wayne groaned behind him.

The Argentinian heard him mumble something along the lines of “I can’t believe I’m the one being responsible here…”

Ed turned towards Dr. Wilcox “Hey, doc, can you not tell my dad about what we’re about to do?”

The other man just sighed deeply.

Kate and Kole gave them thumbs ups from the other side of the glass.

The black haired teen turned towards Ed “Let’s get this show on the road.”

The peer counselor nodded. Wayne looked at him, suddenly a red ring appeared around his blue eyes and Ed felt lightheaded. He tried to step forward, but it was more of a weird wobble, his whole world felt like it had turned upside down. The feeling was similar to being hammered. His vision was getting slightly hazy, he tried to teleport on is left, but instead ended up slightly a step away from where he was originally standing. The longer this went on, the more nauseous and disoriented he felt. He wasn’t fighting it, it was an experiment after all. Ed decided enough was enough and made a timeout signal with his shaking hands. Suddenly all of the nausea was gone and Ed immediately sat on the ground.

He took a deep breath and looked at Wayne whose eyes were once again just blue “Well, that sucked.”

Wayne actually snorted “So what was it like it?”

“Like being really drunk.”

The other teen chuckled.

Then the voice of dr. Wilcox came through the speakers “I believe I can explain what happened a bit better, Wayne can create invisible waves that directly affect the primary motor cortex of the brain, that leads to motor skills like walking, understanding direction, keeping balance and so on being compromised.” He had shown a diagram of the human brain on one of the monitors.

Ed nodded “Makes sense, when I tried to teleport to the left, it didn’t work out.”

Suddenly Kate’s voice was heard from the speakers “Just call yourself Whisky man, Wayne!” She was leaning next to the doctor, who just looked done with their shenanigans.

Ed chuckled, but that only made his slight headache worse. Wayne rolled his eyes at her. He went over to Ed and held his hand out to him, Ed took it and got back on his feet.

Both Kate and Kole came back to the room actually looking pretty excited to continue learning about their powers and how to control them. Ed felt it was going to be a long and exhausting day.

Hollywood

November 24, 20:31 PDT

“What are you smiling for, ese?” Jaime suddenly appeared and leaned against Bart casually trying to look at his phone.

Bart put his phone in a pocket of his Kid Flash suit, made especially for the device and looked at his best friend “Just texting. Anyways, so Nightwing will be joining you?” He quickly changed the topic, he loved Jaime but lately he’s been a bit too invested in his “love life.”

Blue Beetle nodded “Though I am more surprised that Green Arrow will be with Alpha in Star City. I wasn’t expecting the League to be allowed to join in.”

Bart shrugged “Well we are trying to take down an intergalactic human trafficking ring. Also the laws regarding the League have been a bit more flexible after the Granny Goodness incident.” Bart looked over at their green skinned leader “Good call that he’s going to Star City, especially since the cops and media will be involved over there.” Bart struck a charming pose at the end as if wooing a reporter “He is a natural in front of the camera after all.”

Blue Beetle chuckled “Hope the cops don’t do anything stupid.”

“They will act only as back up.”

“That’s what they say, it’ll be fun explaining to the public afterwards that there were two more spots that we hit, without telling the forces over there.” Jaime mused already feeling a headache forming in the back of his head.

“Technically the League isn’t involved over there.” Bart winked, while fingerguning.

Jaime rolled his eyes good-naturally “Well, we all get a babysitter, Miss Martian is with you guys right?”

“Yup.”

Blue leaned against Bart “Okay, I’m tired of all of this official business talk. Any news with Edu?”

Bart shrugged, but a small smile found it’s way on his face “Honestly, no… but I think everything is going well, like it feels good, you know?”

Jaime smiled “But nothing official yet?”

Kid Flash scowled “Well… not yet. We talked about going on when we were free!” His demeanour was hopeful, but definitely unsure.

Jaime wiggled his eyebrows “So a date?”

“Not officially!” Bart had to clarify. ‘Sadly’ he added in his own thoughts.

Blue Beetle put his hand on Bart’s shoulder and smiled “Look whatever  happens, I’ll be here, Cassie as well.” He pointed at the blonde who was currently  holding with one arm a table with Garfield transformed into an elephant on top of it. She was smiling brightly while the others were cheering her on. Gregor looked especially impressed and flabbergasted.

Bart chuckled at the former prince’s expression “Tim’s one lucky guy, eh?”

Jaime grinned “For sure, hermano.”

Garfield transformed into a toucan and flew to the part of the room with the huge screens and the couch. He became human once again and called everybody over.

Their leader looked over at everybody “Okay, team you all know what to do right?”

Bart put his hand on his hip “Go there, kick some ass, save the day.” He was grinning.

“And look great while doing so.” Jaime was helpful enough to add. He high-fived Bart.

Beast Boy smiled “Yeah, something like that. Just don’t get cocky.” He knew that they were just messing around, but he still wanted to warn them, there was real danger to an overconfident superhero… maybe he was spending too much time with the Leaguers.

He believed in his team.

Taos

November 24, 9:45 MST

Ed was exhausted and that’s putting it lightly. Kole, Kate and Wayne had quickly gotten over their initial nervousness and had trained on controlling their powers a lot. Their newfound confidence also brought a lot of problems with it, such as recklessly using their powers without much thought, but he supposed that was better than being afraid of them.

They made a lot of progress, Ed was currently looking over the observations from today’s testing. Everybody had long since left, but he always liked analyzing the research and making his own conclusions, he supposed he did resemble his dad in that regard, maybe not all scientist genes had missed him. It also helped when somebody didn’t understand some of the overly fancy words scientist and doctors used to describe their powers, Ed could always explain. He had the recording from today open on his laptop’s screen and was making a few notes on how to further help the others with their powers. He paused the video when a fully crystallized Kole send a laser beam flying backwards. He wanted to focus, he really did, but just like they often did recently, his thoughts once again drifted away to the brunette speedster.

‘I wonder if everything’s going well on that mission.’ Ed had his eyes closed and his head perched on his hands. He couldn’t help but worry, finally he decided that since he wasn’t getting any work done he might as well head home, his dad had already called him not too long ago to do so as well. Apparently being a workaholic was another thing him and his dad had in common. Ed packed up his things and disappeared in a flash of golden light.

Detroit

November 25, 1:30 EDT

Kid Flash, Suberboy, Cyborg and Miss Martian had just dropped off near Inergang’s base of operation in Detroit. This time, thanks to the before mentioned white alien they had psychic communication, so the risk of being found out dropped, but it also meant Bart’s thoughts couldn’t always wander off to Ed… unless he wanted everybody else to hear them. Kid Flash was in his “dark mode”, so the costume was black and green, adding to their camouflage.

He along with everybody else received a text from the other teams, both had arrived on their sites without a hitch.

‘I’ll go have a quick look around.’ Miss Martian informed her team.

They all nodded. Bart took a better look at this facility, it was almost exactly like the other one, except larger, it didn’t seem abounded, there were delivery trucks and thugs moving around.

Miss Martian quickly informed as to what she was seeing and hearing inside ‘I see four metas. From what I heard the client is supposed to arrive soon. After that they are planning on shutting this place down.’

Just as she said that news came back from the other teams, their places were completely abandoned and all traces of something ever happening there were wiped. Cyborg was quick to respond that their place was still in use, though only for tonight.

‘Then we have to be fast.’ Superboy send through the mental connection.

‘Good thing that’s my specialty.’ Replied Bart and winked.

‘I see a computer, it appears that everything is being deleted.’ M’gan informed them. ‘We will wait for the buyer to appear, so that we can take them down as well, but we will start off by slowly decreasing the number of Intergang’s lackeys. I will go to the back and stop the power, that ought to buy us more time.’

‘Then I will quickly take out the guys outside.’ Bart continued.

The plan was affirmed by the team and was set into place a moment later. Kid Flash quickly beat up the gang members and hid their unconscious bodies.

Apparently inside the thugs were running around, pissed off and annoyed. One of them decided to go check the power out back and was quickly met with Miss Martian’s fist. The group had slowly moved around inside the building, everybody hiding in the darkness, good thing for night vision goggles. One of the gang’s members had turned on the emergency lights, but they produced little to no light.

Suddenly a portal either from a mother or a fatherbox appeared and a pink skinned alien in blue clothes came out of it. The portal closed. He was smiling like every bad guy ever. He looked around, looking unimpressed with the state of the facility, then he laid eyes on the teens bound in front of him. There were two boys with bright ginger hair that appeared no older than ten, a girl with a short bob, that looked to have blades coming out of her shoulders and a girl with curly black hair and eyes.

The alien spoke “Good, this time the goods are actually here, not like last time.”

The thugs only grunted. One of them spoke up “First the money, then you get them.”

The alien sighed and took out a small piece of plastic out of it’s pocket, it looked like a flash drive. He moved his arm to hand it over to the other man.

‘Now!’ M’gan’s voice rang through the mental connection.

Taking them down wasn’t hard, considering they were being shot at with alien guns. The salmon coloured alien had tried to open up another portal, but was quickly stopped by Cyborg and Superboy. When they were done all the bad guys were unconscious and bound. The actual power was turned on and the team connected Oracle to the computer so she could download everything that was left on it.

When they were done all the proper authorities were connected, apparently the alien was named Kanjar Ro and was the one who was supposed to buy Kate, Kole and Wayne. He was to be taken care of by Green lantern, he was the one who dealt with aliens. Soon after the police had also swarmed the place. After consulting, it was decided that the meta-teens were to be sent to the Meta-Human Youth Center for the time being, there were people there who had a so called nigh-shift, but Ed and his father were still called regardless of that.

Team Beta was more than happy to be heading back to Hollywood and the Watchtower, after Cyborg had opened up a portal for the four metas to go to the Center.

Hollywood

November 25, 3:44 PDT

When Beta arrived everybody else had already been there for a while now, Ed was also there Bart went over to him.

“Hey, amigo!” Bart leaned against Ed.

Ed yawned, but quickly smiled “Good on not getting hurt.”

“I’m just too damn fast.”

Ed snorted in retaliation.

Garfield quickly called everybody for a meeting, Alpha and Omega once again said they they found nothing, while Beta quickly summarised everything that had happened.

Barbara smiled from her screen “Good job on getting all the info, I’ll analyse it as soon as possible and get you all up to speed.”

Barbara was definitely looking worse for wear, with deep purple circles around her eyes and unkept hair that stuck out in every direction, then again who were they to judge, they were all peas in a pod in that regard.

Finally the briefing ended and everybody was glad to be able to finally get some sleep.

Bart turned towards Ed “Back to the center?”

Ed nodded “Yeah, have to make sure everything is fine with our four new residents.” He smiled.

“Want some help with that, amigo?” Bart was quick to offer.

Ed shook his head “No offence, man, but you look like death, go get some sleep…” Then he thought for a second “Want me to teleport you home?”

“Huh?”

Ed blushed “Well, you know, it’ll be faster than the zeta tube, considering the one closest to you is in STAR labs and I don’t want you to fall asleep while running and end up lost somewhere in Oklahoma.”

“Okay, that only happened like once!”

“More than enough.”

Virgil’s annoyed voice was heard shouting from the other side of the room “No fair! You never offer to teleport me anywhere!”

“You basically live next to a zeta tube!” Ed exclaimed and Virgil’s stuck his tongue out at him.

Bart laughed accepted Ed’s offer. He decided to change into civilian clothes in case somebody was lurking around Jay’s house. After he was done he went back to Ed, the Argentinian smiled and shyly offered his hand for Bart to hold, Bart took it enthusiastically and waved Virgil goodbye while they disappeared.

For what felt like a second later they were in front of Jay’s house.

Central City

November 25, 5:12 PST

“So crash.” Said Bart.

“Make sure to crash right on top of your bed and get some sleep.” Ed’s lame joke didn’t go unnoticed by Bart.

“That was a really bad one.” He commented.

Ed grinned “I’m only running on a few hours of sleep and a coffee, so don’t except a lot.”

“You always exceed my exceptions anyways.” Said Bart and as soon as the words registered in Ed’s sleep deprived brain he blushed.

Ed tried to cover it up “Stop it, it sounds like something my dad would say.”

“But it’s true!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Ed was rubbing the back of his neck, but then he perked up “Let’s hope this whole thing ends soon… so we can hang out, while not being completely drained.”

“True.”

Ed took his phone out and checked the time, he sighed “I have to get going.”

“Thought so.”

Ed put his hand on Bart’s shoulder “Bye.” He simply said.

“Yeah, see you soon.”

“Make sure you get enough sleep!” Ed said while disappearing.

Bart chuckled “Okay, mom, I got it.”

He headed towards his home, his mood massively improved, Ed just had that effect on him, he filled him with energy yet calmed him down. Just as he walked in he noticed Jay was awake and nursing a cup of tea.

“Good morning.” The older speedster offered, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Bart’s smile widened “Yeah, good indeed.”

[zerot0hero]

ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE & WAR - POST FLOATING LANTERN GALA SELF PARA (MAY 2020)

tw: heart break, betrayal, self pity, revenge(?), 

It was already dark when Hercules left the Gala, he descended down the stone steps with his hands in his pockets to the curving line of parked cabs waiting to pick up fares. He didn’t feel like talking to anyone, he could have turned back and found Oliver amid the crowd to confide in but that meant risking seeing Megara-- and she was the one person he really couldn’t bring himself to talk to right now. He stood at the bottom of the entrance, turning back around to face it, wondering if leaving had been the right choice? He could have stayed and danced with Pascal, had idle chit chat and a drink with Kit, made sure Oliver didn’t bring himself to any harm or actually had the chance to wish the Princess a Happy Birthday… but his heart was no longer in it. 

With a disappointing sigh he turned back around and began to make his way to the end of the property, unkownling missing the beautiful sight of lanterns rising in the sky behind him. Had he stayed it might have been a sign of hope, but now in the chilled air and soft breeze he continued to walk towards Downtown Elias. Every store was closed, every street he passed was almost empty apart from a few bars where people stood outside smoking, there were very little cars on the road so as he passed each streetlamp alone on the way to his apartment he tried to count them. Hercules would have done anything to distract himself of thinking about Megara, about how beautiful she looked in her purple dress, about how she blushed when he placed the corsage on her wrist, about how close she was to him when they slow danced and about how he wished that moment could have last forever. 

Much to his dismay the magical evening came to a disturbing end when Megara confessed the truth to Hercules, that she was working for his Uncle Hades, the guardian of the Underworld. As Megara spilled the painful truth everything began to make sense to him, being stolen from Mount Olympus as a baby and stripped of his God Title, Megara taking a keen interest in Herc and his life, Hades being extra quiet. He did not have to raise a finger when he was making Herc’s dear Megara do all the dirty work. Hercules was angry, furious even, more livid than he had ever been in his entire life. He felt anger, betrayal, hurt and disappointment all at once, however it was his own fault for disregarding his training and letting himself become distracted by a modern day Siren, luring him to his death by deranged Uncle. 

Philoctetes had tried to warn Hercules in the past about the effects of beautiful women on a man's brain but he had waved them off with little concern. Hercules had never had any luck with women until Megara and that was only because she literally did not have a choice but to flirt with him. As grateful as Hercules was for her warning about Hades trying to kill him he could not work out if that was part of the plan? Was he supposed to know this, or did Megara really risk her own soul for him? He wanted to believe there was goodness in her heart, that she was really only doing Hades bidding against her will… but then Herc had to remember Hades did not take her soul for nothing, Megara had willingly trusted him for a favor. And could a person who trusted someone like him, a monster who kidnaps and tries to assassinate innocent children, be a person worth trusting at all? His heart and head were being torn apart. 

As Hercules reached his apartment he beelined for the small kitchen decorated in white marble and black appliances. Opening the liquor cabinet he reached for a short glass and the bottle of Ouzo, a heavy and dangerous drink if you have too much, Greek liquor. He placed them both on the counter and began to pour a large measure into the glass, he unbuttoned the top of his shirt and dropped his jacket over a dining chair as he walked with his glass to the living room. Slumping onto the couch in the darkness Hercules could see the faint glow of the stars in the sky-- not stars, lanterns. Some of them must have been let off late, he wondered if Megara took part, his friends, what they had hoped for-- and realised his own wish would have been incredibly selfish. 

Hercules wanted Megara to love him. He wanted unconditional love, the promise of a future, vacations to cancun, spending too much money on chocolate on St. Valentine’s day. He wanted the lazy sunday lie-ins, brunch by the seafront, to carry all of her bags when she went shopping. He wanted bad movie dates, to get soaked in the rain with her and give her his jacket, to order an extra set of fries at dinner in case she changed her mind and tried to eat his. He wanted the movie trope romance, all the good and all the bad because Hercules wanted so badly to be loved by Megara the way he was beginning to fall in love with her. He shut his eyes and pictured her standing alone on the dance floor with tears in her eyes, now he felt like the monster for leaving her there. 

“Oh Megara-- you are my weakness…” he sighed to himself, swirling the liquid around his glass. He was conflicted, on one side Hercules wanted nothing to do with her anymore. To rip off the bandaid and cut all ties… but on the other side he knew he could not let her be bound to Hades for the rest of her life. No matter what her part was in his Uncle’s plan being held by your will was an extortionate price to pay for asking a God for a favor. He couldn’t walk away from the situation knowing that harm could come to his dear, dear, Megara. If nothing else she deserved a clean slate, even if that meant their flirtationship would never evolve to anything more. Even if it meant she would run away to Tasmania and he would never see her again, helping her was the only option he had. 

Hercules downed the liquor with a quick flick of his wrist and hissed as the alcohol ran down his throat, leaving behind a burning sensation. He had no time to wallow in his own emotions and self-pity, if his Uncle was truly coming for him and if he wanted to save Megara from the fate he barely escaped as a child he needed to act fast. Prepare, train, find allies, create an impenetrable plan that would stop his Uncle once and for all-- and most importantly ensure Megara would be safe and sound. He stood up, grasping at the wall for balance and wobbled his way towards the desk at the end of his room, reaching for a pad of paper and a pen he began to write exactly how he was feeling before he forgot. 

When he was finished he folded up the letter and placed it in a small white envelope to deliver it the next morning. He kicked off his shoes and closed the blinds in his bedroom seeing the sky begin to change from a light purple to a bright orange in the distance indicating dawn-- how long had been up? He flopped onto the bed still in his shirt, socks and trousers and begged for sleep. Just a few hours left of normality before he would get up and start his new mission: Destroy Hades. 

Dear Megara, 

Aplogises for not contacting you sooner I wanted to text you but the temptation to call you was too great… and I didn’t think that would be wise for me to do at this time.

I wanted to apologise for ditching you at the gala. It was wrong of me to act so rash and leave you there. I was in shock. Finding out my uncle wants to harm me was a hard pillow to swallow but finding out you have working with him was what really stung. I understand the nature of your agreement and I apologise for how he chooses to make his demands – I promise not all gods are as cruel. 

What I really wanted to confess to you is perhaps why I reacted the way I did. You see Megara… I was falling for you hard, fast and stupid. I would have done anything you asked me to, which in hindsight is probably better that you know this now rather than earlier. This is why I felt so betrayed and why I was so hurt. I guess what I am trying to say is that I think I was in love with you – and I foolishly thought you might have been in love with me too. 

I will keep my word and try to save your soul from Hades, you deserve better than to be treated like a pawn in a game between Gods. Please understand why I cant see you anymore. 

I am sorry that it has to be this way. I hope that I can retrieve what is rightfully yours so you have the power to make your own choices once again. Hold onto that hope if you find it difficult. 

Thank you for the light you brought into my world . I will miss your smile. 

All my best, 

Hercules.

[tarry-a-lot]

French Musical Recommendations?/review (Part 3)

This is a mix between recommendations and shows I don’t like and shows I just know exist but don't know a lot about. Even if I’m not too much a fan of some of the show I would still check these shows out for the fun of it, maybe its not my cup of tea but it is for someone else. Again my French is lacking so if the lyrics aren’t great I wouldn’t really know unless I sat down and read them which I didn’t do.

Robin des Bois (2013): 

what to say about this show... I’ll start with the summary: Robin Hood and Marianne break up pre-show and have their own groups going on. Marianne also has a son with robin but robin has no idea about him. Sheriff of Nottingham starts attacking so Marianne asks robin for help. Also the sheriff figures out about robin’s son and so he imprisons the kid and surprise! there a romance between Nottingham’s daughter and Robin Hood’s son. 

Yep, haven’t seen the show, really don’t mind the plot sounds interesting enough. I’ve only listened to the soundtrack once and all I got to say is that it’s not great. The cast is lovely and look really sweet and friendly with each other, but all the songs really just sound like basic pop. To be clear without understanding the lyrics and just listening to it with not visuals, I found the soundtrack quite boring, so maybe I’m just missing something. My favourite songs are “Le flèche et la cible,” (the piano makes it sound like an anime opening or something, liked the drums too, and the vocals are nice) and “On est là” (it’s a really weird one, I couldn’t put my finger on it but after playing it for someone I got the decisive answer of it is very 80′s, the instrumentals really threw me off but hey it’s catchy). Also some songs had a bass line that also threw me off, just wasn’t expecting it. like the one in “la Providence,” maybe it’s just me. And one last thing about the songs, what the hell is ”Notting hill Nottingham” like that title is also the chorus and I’m just?? maybe if I understood the rest of the lyrics it would make sense? aside from the debatable chorus line, the drums are a blast in this song. Clips and music videos available on YouTube along with a behind the scenes two part video on the official musical’s channel.

Non-Music: well the costumes are ok, don’t love them but don’t hate them either, though friar tuck’s is debatable, from the bits I’ve seen most of the background is done with a screen which is fine, it’s more of a concert style show anyway, I’m a big fan of the ladder trees though, the dancing and acrobatics is probably the highlight of the show (again only saw bits but it looks good)

Dracula l'amour plus fort que la mort (2012): This is different from the Frank Wildhorn Dracula musical, Dracula: A chamber Musical and the Swedish Dracula musical. Unsurprisingly this musical is based on Stoker Dracula telling which I never read so I don’t know how much it follows that text. It was also inspired by the 1992 Coppola film (which again I have never watched). I won’t be too helpful about plot summary but it follows the general novel plot with Jonathan Harker engaged with Mina Murray goes off to Dracula’s castle for work. Things happen, the issue with Lucy occurs then Mina is targeted by Dracula and Harker with the Dr. Seward and Helsing go to kill Dracula to save Mina. There also seems to be a subplot where Mina was Dracula’s lover in a past life, which is shown through dance sequences throughout the show.Music wise it’s mainly rock pop which is up my alley. Personally, just based on music and not lyrics I like “Encore”, “Elles”, “ Le Ciel et l'Enfer” “ La Dernière danse” and maybe “L'Amour et son Contraire”.  The full show is available on YouTube.

Non-music: This show goes hard on edgy imagery. I personally quite liked the general over the top modernish gothic vibe. The dancers are great and quite liked some of the limited palette scene. The opening shadow puppet scene was cool. The only part I really had issue with is maybe the CGI 3d video scene. It was cool at times but the CGI is not great which is not their fault, but kind of distracted me. Also if you watch it there is this scene where Harker is laying in a large Pieta statue (minus the Jesus) and it’s just great. Like edgy church imagery with vampires? sign me up. There’s also this Vampire dream sequence in a bed because of course every vampire musical needs one (Tanz der Vampire if you know what I mean). Harker is in bed and vampire women come out from the bed (the bed itself is a hollow prop where dancers are hiding within and pop out from the holes hidden by the puffy bedding), the bed itself could have been more decorative with posts (like tanz) but still a really cool scene, Almost forgot, Mina and Dracula are played by dancers so they don’t really sing, especially Dracula he does not speak at all. Costumes are fun to look at, some are the best but I appreciated the general look of the show so I’m not that bothered. I strangely grew to like the spiney Dracula costumes, I think the fact he didn’t talk and just danced helped me like the costume more.

Overall, fun show so if pop rock is your vibe this show you should check it out.

Cindy Cendrillion (2002): This show is not good, but I had a blast laughing about it as I watched it so I recommend it. Let me clarify, my dislike is not due to the cast, in general I thought singing and dancing and all that were really good, what gets me is how dated it is now (it is really early 2000’s vibes and some of the plot is debatable). Show is available split into two acts on YouTube.

So the plot is pretty much a retelling of the Cinderella story in a modern early 2000′s setting. Cindy (Cinderella) is the daughter of an recently disappeared Irish pilot. and she lives with her step mother and sisters who are mean to her. She has a passion for dancing the jig, I’m assuming they are referencing Irish step to a certain degree. She goes out in night to dance but her step-mother threatens to kick her out if she doesn’t come home before midnight. A super star named Ricky (Prince Charming) has a Birthday ball and sees Cindy and falls in love. Also Ricky had a model Fiancée Judy who he breaks it off with to pursue Cindy. Spoilers now... Ricky writes a song where one can dance “the jig” to so they hold a competition to find a dancer for it, guess who wins? Cindy.. they fall in love... but Judy realises it’s all over for her and Ricky ands faxes him so mean message then commits suicide by overdosing on drugs. Cindy gets scared and leaves Ricky to Ireland. Ricky tracks her down and they fly away in a spaceship?! honestly this plot is just sure something.

Okay.... um if you read the spoiler section of the summary you’ll know how wild this show is. For those who haven’t warning there is an suicide by overdosing on drugs in the show. Music wise it’s alright, I watched the show but all the songs are quite forgettable because I was so distracted by the plot. Again the vocals are nice so perhaps I just need to listen to audio only, though I’m unsure about some of the lyrics. 

Non-Music: I have so much to rant about this show. First off it’s just weird that her Irish pilot dad keeps appearing in like spiritual form. Also Cindy is not spectacular at dancing, which is hilarious during the jig dancing competition you have actual dancer ensemble members doing cool moves and in general good dancing but at the end Cindy comes stepping around and twirling a bit, the same choreography she does every time she danced the jug in the show and then wins the competition. Honestly, they should of just done full Irish step dancing and had the actress trained in it or to be more practical had a double for Cindy that was obscured to trick the audience into thinking this double was Cindy. The actress was lovely and maybe she can dance but “the jig” choreography was so pathetic compared to the ensemble’s part, even the ensemble part was weird.. maybe I just don’t understand what “jig” dancing is. Also the ending was so random to me, maybe it’s because of my lacking French, I get there were references to space throughout the show but WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ENDING. Well stage wise it was interesting at parts. I like the large center column piece that had platforms on it that moved around the pillar. Cindy’s love song to Ricky with her in front of a large Ricky Magazine and two screens showing zoom ups on Ricky was weird. Finally, costumes, really dated and tacky but I think they were quite fun. The only complaint I really have is Ricky, he wears this half tank top half leather jacket look, and it���s really a single tiddy out look.

Starmania (1979): Let me start by saying I DON’T hate this show I just know little about it. I’ve watched bits a few years ago and only really recall one song. It’s one of THE French musicals, I mean I wouldn’t know for certain but you’ll see it’s quite popular and covered by newer musicals cast member (like Mozart L’Opera Rock). The photo is from a more recent production which is different from the original costumes. As a show it’s set in a futuristic society so there is some surreal techno outfits and set pieces, which are actually quite cool. It’s pretty much about a gang called the Black Stars who are trying to rebel against a billionaire turned politician Zéro Janvier. There is romance plots, the wiki has more info on that. In general, the singing is great and from the parts I’ve seen it looks interesting despite the show aesthetic being really not my thing. Full versions of the show are available on YouTube, the production done in English is also posted on YouTube. I would say if you are trying to get into French Musicals this is a good one to listen to as well as it’s kind of a classic but I hesitate as the visuals look a bit weird due to the futuristic element (kind of remind me if starlight Express when it comes to costume) but if this isn’t you cup of tea there are plenty of other shows as well.

Résiste (2015): It’s a French Jukebox Musical. It’s one of those one artist jukebox musicals, so all the songs were originally sung by France Gall and written by Michel Berger. It’s about five friends (I think they’re friends), two of whom are sisters. The sisters work with their dad at the family bar/night club. The plot revolves around something tragic happening and the five friends trying to deal and grow from it? (probably something to do with the night club)I haven't seen it so I have no idea what the tragic event is. I didn’t know any of the songs before this musical but it’s quite catchy and fun. Clips of the show and songs are available on YouTube.

[agentbarton12]

Old People Teenager Watchers

A/N: gonna be completely honest and tell you that i forgot i hadnt finished posting this. like, its been done and ive writen it but i completely fogot i had to post it. anyway, here you go!

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6

—

the invitation — 6

Teenagers, in Tony's opinion, are the strangest breed of people. He’s pretty sure when he hired one, he was not hiring their mood swings, rebellious tendencies and relationship problems as well, but, it seems “you can’t get one without the other” or something dumb like that.

Tony liked to believe that over the last three odd years, he had gotten better at handling teenagers, but apparently not.

Truly, he was too old for this. He needed to fill in his formal Teenage Babysitter Resignation forms and hand them in to the board of Old People Teenager Watchers (“Parents, Tones. They’re called parents.”).

When Steve told Tony what that idiot Peter was thinking of doing, Tony's knee-jerk reaction was to say no. But then he thought about it and sighed.

A heavy sigh.

Not because he was worried, or because he thought it was a bad idea, no, Tony was apprehensive because it would work. Like, it really would. And Tony knew that the only way it would, was if he helped.

And then he sighed again.

Despite this, Tony agreed to help because he thought he should. He thought Peter was on to something and he really needed a reason not to be mad at him anymore. Nearly everyone had gotten over Peter’s idiocy, if only because MJ did, and had moved past it. Tony tried to, but he couldn’t because Peter kept looking at MJ like the sun and the moon shone out of her eyes.

It was disgusting.

And endearing.

But mainly the first one.

The only problem with this staring was that Peter seemed unaware he was doing it. He had convinced himself that he liked Gwen and not MJ and now, refused to admit that he was being dumb.

Okay, okay, he used to refuse to admit that he was being dumb.

Because this was the whole reason of the plan. After an eye-opening conversation with literally ever woman in Peter’s life (Pepper, May, Nat, Wanda, Laura, Shuri, Hope, Jane, Darcy, Carol, Valkyrie, Okoye, Christine, hell, even those Guardians touched down on Earth for a while to give him advice), he spoke with Gwen who, surprisingly wasn’t upset at all. No, no, she was not. In fact, she came up with most of the logistics of the plan. Tony actually took a liking to her eventually. After he got past the fact that Peter claimed to like her, she turned out to be a really nice girl, and if MJ didn’t exist, he wouldn’t mind Peter dating her.

But, MJ did exist and now Tony had been tasked with the impossible feat of getting MJ to the tower. It was impossible because no one — not even Pepper on a bad day — could get her to do something she didn’t want to do. And since it was seven o’clock on a Thursday night, Tony knew she wouldn’t want to leave her bed.

Emmjaaay

Emmmjaaayyy, hurry up and get to the tower!

It’s an emergency!

Ned’s in trouble!! Come nowww!!!ii

Emmjaay

[video attached] he looks fine to me

TonyMan

Uhh...

Emmjaaay

also you text like a child

also also im curious as to why youd lie to get me out of bed on a thursday, so ill be there

tell the babysitter to pick me up

TonyMan

Auto-correct, MJ.

Please.

The video was a screen recording of a Snapchat Story Ned posted. It showed him, Sam and Thor sitting on pool chairs with sunglasses on, and the caption was literally, Living the trouble-free life.

Tony really needed to make sure he and Ned were on the same page before he did something.

He was surprised when MJ agreed to come over, but decided not to think too much about it and sent Happy to pick her up. He complied, grumpily, but complied nonetheless.

He told everyone of the success of his mission, but instead of being greeted with thankful hearts, everyone started running around trying to get everything in order, which just confused Tony because as far as he was concerned, the plan was just get MJ to the Tower so Peter could do whatever it was he was going to do. There was literally no reason for everyone to act like they were planning a wedding.

When MJ arrived, Peter took her up to the roof and everybody, like, everybody ran up to the common room and asked FRIDAY for the security footage on the roof with sound.

The Avengers and Avengers Children sat around and on the couch for a clear view of the holographic screen that was being projected up. They could see them standing on the roof. MJ, once again, was not wearing her own clothes and had put on a sweater she stole from Bruce and basketball shorts that could’ve either been Sam’s, Peter’s or Thor's. Her back was to Peter and Tony could feel how much he wanted to reach out and hug her.

“So, did you bring me out here to murder me or for the view?” MJ asked not turning back to look at Peter.

“Uh, yeah, it’s a killer view,” he responded, rubbing his neck sheepishly.

She turned to him slightly. “That was so achingly lame, my dad turned over groaning in his grave.”

He chuckled nervously. “Peter Parker: Dad Joke Extraordinaire,” he tipped an imaginary hat.

She held his gaze for a few seconds, before looking away. “Idiot.” Peter just smiled at her back and looked at for far longer than what was deemed ’friendly’.

“Oh, god,” Sam groaned.

“This is gonna take way longer if he keeps doing that,” Bucky muttered, rubbing his beard in frustration.

They stopped their mutterings when Peter spoke. “I am. An idiot. I am an idiot.” MJ gave him the slightest of gazes, before training her eyes on the skyline in front of her. “A huge one,” he went on, “for not telling you I love you too.”

The eyes of the Avengers widened and Thor choked on his Pop Tart. Tony remembered that they never really got an explanation for MJ's behavior all those weeks ago and this is the first time they’re hearing this.

“I'm sorry, but when did MJ tell him that she loves him? How did I miss this? Why did no one tell me this?” Wanda was rambling at this point and no one shushed her because she was voicing their thoughts. As if she had a revelation, she gasped and said, “Was it that night MJ — ?”

“ — Shh!” Natasha said, as MJ started speaking.

“Yeah, you did. Remember, when you then proceeded to ask Gwen out?” Peter gulped at the memory.

“Excuse me, what?” Steve asked the screen. The common room erupted in noise as everyone started yelling about how they needed to know things like these. Tony looked over at Gwen who was sitting on the floor and saw Ned put a reassuring arm on her shoulders.

Peter took a breath. “That’s what makes me an idiot. I should’ve told you before. Like, two-years-ago before. Because I’ve loved you for, like, ever, but me, being the idiot I am, didn’t realise it.

“I knew I liked you, but when Gwen came and I liked her, I thought that meant I liked her more, I guess. But, that night outside my room, I fell in love with you all over again, because you continued to put what you thought was what I wanted as your top priority. Even if it was hurting you.” Peter took a breath. The whole common room was on the edge of their seats and Tony was pretty sure that Bucky had gotten FRIDAY to Skype it to Wakanda where Shuri and her brother were no doubt watching.

“The past few weeks have sucked so much because I realised just how much I adored you. Like, sometimes it gets physically painful to breathe whenever I think about you and Tony has told me so many times how disgusting it is when I look at you like you’re the only person in the world. And I’m trying, MJ, but, honestly, I still haven’t figured out how sit across from you and not be madly in love you with everything you do.

“This is more an apology than anything else, because I hurt you and I was an idiot and you deserve better than that.”

“…I taught him that,” Sam said after a moment or two of utter silence in the common room.

“Shut. Up,” Clint said hitting him in the head.

“If that is true, Son of Wil, you did a mighty excellent job at teaching the Man of Spiders how to woo the ladies,” Thor said.

MJ looked at him for the first since his speech. “Now what?” Peter looked stunned. “I’m not about to jump into your arms because you said all that, because that’s some dumb, cliché romcom BS and I ain’t about that.”

“Yes, girl!” Shuri yelled from the other end of the call.

“And you hurt me. Like, a lot. Like, I was pretty sure that at some point, Scott was gonna kill you. But, I’m not going to stand here and say that I don’t love you either, because I’m not a liar. I do love you. But, I hate you too. So, this…thing, it’s moving at my pace, how I say it will, got that?”

Peter nodded mutely, a large grin slowly gracing his features. “You see all that cute poetry junk you just spewed a moment ago? Yeah, you should stop that. I might actually end up liking you.”

Peter grinned evilly. “Oh? So I probably shouldn’t tell you that you’re the last thing I think of before I close my eyes?”

“Smooth,” Clint said, nodding slightly. Thor silently gave Sam a fist bump.

MJ's eyes crinkled and her mouth twitched ever so slightly, an almost smile. “No,” she said, “you shouldn’t 'cause that’s just creepy.”

“I love you,” Peter said breathlessly.

“It’s like you want me to break up with you.”

Peter shrugged. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into him. “I love you,” he said again with her face inches away from his.

“Stop.”

He shook his head. “Nope. You know why? Because I do. I love you.” He looked her in the eye before turning away and yelling into the night, “I love Michelle Jones!”

She punched him in the arm. “Don’t make me regret hugging you.”

“But you’re not — ”

He was silenced by her crashing into him and he stood stunned for less than a second, before he wrapped his arms around her and he settled his head in the crook of her neck due to the height difference.

“YES!” the common room erupted into cheers as everyone, everyone stood up in excitement. Scott called Hope and told her everything. Clint, followed his lead and phoned Laura to update her on the newest development. Hugs were given and tears were shed.

They all decided to stick around just in case something…interesting happened and so they remained in the common room.

Tony thought he’d hang onto his position in the Old People Teenager Watchers Committee just a little longer.

“How long do you think they’re gonna stay in the common room watching us before they realise that we’re trolling them and aren’t planning on leaving until they do?” MJ asked Peter as they remained hugging on the roof.

“Dunno. They like snooping. Probably waiting for us to kiss or something.”

MJ stayed silent. Then, “We should have sex. Give them something to watch, y'know?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Wh-What?”

Tony jumped up and told FRIDAY to connect him to the roof speakers. “You two get off that roof right now, or so help me I will ban you from looking at each other. Get down. Now.”

The last thing he heard from the two was MJ's cackling as they got off the roof. And the cackling of his fellow teammates.

Never mind, Tony was resigning.

[airariaira]

Quatrième - 04/03/2020

Alright, strap yourselves in lads, because I left the writing of this about a week later than I usually do so this post will probably be a bit of a long one. First of all I’d like to say again that yes, I feel that my French is improving quite a lot with each day here - even if I’m not perfect, but confidence is growing and I’m definitely more confident in saying the things I say often.

Now, let’s go back to the 13th of February. My journal entry from that day seems a bit of a negative one, because I was writing about my conflicting feelings that sometimes pop up - whether I should allow my classmates to approach me first and thus seem like the quiet and awkward exchange student, or whether I should approach them first and feel like I’m pushing myself on them. It feels a little overwhelming sometimes to be surrounded by so many cool French people when my language skills often can’t keep up (and perhaps a bit the same with my social skills too 😂). Sometimes it feels like I’m wasting the opportunity right in front of me when I don’t have the confidence to strike up a conversation. As mentioned by Alex in his blog, I know I shouldn’t keep myself at a distance from my peers, but it’s so hard not to fall into the trap of doing that when 1. I’m leaving in only a month (oh my goodness, it’s so soon 😱), and 2. the past two weeks have been holidays and I haven’t seen any of them at all (reasoning for that is distance, being busy, and/or the fact that the week following the holidays - this week - is their BAC blanc exams, which is prelim exams for all you NZ ppl).

The 14th was a better day. Of course it being Valentine’s Day, the Cœur de Troyes is a major attraction on that day. I should have wandered by it to see it all dressed up. That morning I was late to school (great first time French school experience...) I was close to catching the bus, but just not close enough.. How frustrating it was to watch that bus leave without me right before my eyes. I caught the next bus, but it turns out that my bus card had run out that day. However, the bus had already left so I took that ride without a working bus card (oh heck, is that police sirens I hear?) So all in all, that was a day of many bus hardships. Because of all that, I walked home and it was actually really lovely to take the chance to admire the city again. Sometimes I find myself getting a bit comfortable and I have to remind myself that omg I really am  a c t u a l l y  in France right now! 

On Saturday the 15th I went to the market with Marie. The market here is so cool. Lots of bustling people buying all the things they need for the week, there’s live chickens, cheese of course, clothes, a whole lot of other random stuff... The market is a pretty big thing in French culture so I enjoy going and seeing it. That afternoon we drove to pick up Antoine from a friend’s house, who lives a few towns over. It was a really nice day, so the sun hit the rolling countryside really nicely that day. We also drove through some small towns I hadn’t seen yet, and they were very cute. I’ll never stop being impressed by all the beautiful old buildings in France. That evening I made a silly language mistake and mixed up the words for packing bags and doing the dishes, so now whenever I hear one I think of the other. 😅

Sunday 16th had us travelling down to Marseilles for out 5-day holiday. It was a 7 hour drive, but we took the whole day because we stopped off at Marie’s sister’s place for lunch. She and her partner live close to where Alex is placed, so I took this truly wonderful quality photo to demonstrate to him whereabouts I was:

For lunch we had raclette, the weather was very nice, and so was the company. Marie’s sister’s husband’s children were there too. Last minute, it was decided his daughter Ambre would come along on the holiday with us which was nice. So we switched to a bigger car and set off again. When we reached Marseilles it was almost pretty much dark, but I could still see the countryside - different but really nice. The city is an eclectic mix of old and new, and there’s even a Hollywood style sign (like in Wellington!) here’s another definitely really great quality photo...

Some of the highlights from our trip to Marseilles:

Visited the museum (called Mucem)

Place des Pistoles

The Cathedral

The Notre-Dame of Marseilles

Picnic on the beach

Visit to Cassis

It’s very easy to get around Marseilles, because there’s a card called “le ticket” which you can access not only the Metro with, but also the busses, which is very useful. The Metro system is also a lot more simple than the one in Paris, because it only has two lines. The city is also quite pretty because it’s this nice mixture of old buildings, street art, flowers and plants overflowing from balconies, sculptures, and sunshine of course. People’s accents in the south are also a bit different to in the places further north, so that was interesting for me to experience too. The first day (Monday) was a bit rainy, so we decided to visit Mucem, which was nice. The museum was incredible. The two exhibits I liked the most were one on voyages and travel, which had a mixture of different art pieces that I really adored. One of them was this light globe, which seemed cool... Until we noticed that the rug in the foreground had left out New Zealand! Typical 😂

The other exhibit I really liked was one on the life and work of the famous and very celebrated French author/poet named Giono. He was a part of the world wars, so a lot of his work is descried as being often very haunting. I hope to be able to read some of it sometime. I wish I could have stayed in the museum for longer and committed the exhibits to memory. After seeing the exhibits, we headed outside onto the roof, where there’s a pretty herb garden and a gorgeous view all around you of the city and the sea.

The following days, the weather was a heck of a lot better, with the sun out and about I almost forgot it was winter at some points! On Tuesday we visited a pretty old part of town, and walked along the Place Des Pistoles, which is an area of streets dedicated to street art. it was very pretty, and I guess you could say it felt ... right up my alley 😏

After that, we went to the Catheral which was nice - it was very very big inside, and the weather at that point was very very windy outside.

Following that, we continued with the church thing and went to visit the very high-up Notre-Dame of Marseille. Because it’s so high up we were able to take a bus thank goodness, and there was also a gorgeous view of the city below us. 

The inside was incredibly extravagant and shiny...

On Wednesday we went for a picnic lunch on the beach. We definitely earned it, as we had many bus mishaps on the way there! It was a very sunny day, but the wind was very strong on the beach. We also amassed a small army of seagulls, pigeons, sparrows, and other miscellaneous birds while we were eating. This is the view back from the shore:

There was also this dude here across the road from the beach:

Thursday was a wonderful day. It was also the half way point of my exchange, whaaaat!? We drove out to the pretty nearby village of Cassis. It was even warmer there - so warm I didn’t even need to wear a jacket! We went on a short walk first, and got some nice views of the cliff-faces, water, and boats below:

(Cassis has always been a boating/fishing area. I can see why, with how beautifuul the water and the weather is!)

^ Ambre, Lola and I

Halfway through the walk, we stopped on some warm rocks for a rest and some lunch. It was really nice in the sun.

Lola, myself, Lola, and Olivier.

Clearly I missed the peace sign memo AND the cup holding memo!

After that, we wandered around the town a litte bit. It is truly a beautiful place - I couldn’t really believe I was seeing it all with my very own eyes.

There were also a few groups of people very intensely playing games of Petanque. I think Dad and Lisa would have appeciated that. We then had icecream while looking over all the boats. It feels very odd writing about the nice weather there when currently as I am writing it is 6pm and suddenly very rainy! That evening, we had dinner at a friend of Marie’s. It was very nice, and their family was lovely and welcoming. I did gett a little overwhelmed at one point because there was a lot of rapid French being spoken by a lot of different people all at once and it was difficult for my tired self to keep up after a big day. However it was still enjoyable. Us younger ones got along pretty well. It’s a little weird, meeting all these nice people here while I’m exchange and realising that I may very well never see some of them again... On Friday the 21st we drove back home, stopping off to drop off Ambre and to have some lunch there too. 

That weekend was quiet. On Sunday Marie’s mother joined us for lunch. We then went to the house in Geraudot for a short while, then went for a walk along a different, bigger, lake nearby. I would love to see it in the summer, when all the restaurants and things were open, people camping just across the road, the golden sand in the sun... Here’s a picture from the ride home to demonstrate why the landscape here sometimes gives me (coming from Blenheim surrounded by hills) shellshock. Tell me, am I living in that Window’s screensaver we all know and love?

On Monday evening I went to watch my first sports game ever - a French football game (sorry Kiwi rugby diehards). The Troyes football team is called Estac. The game felt a little slow at times, but other times I found myself getting pretty into it! A good experience in general.

On Wednesday evening, three friends of Lola’s came for an early overnight celebration for Lola’s birthday. We played a game called “Ta Mere En Slip”, which is a little like “Heads Up”, but with a person and an action to guess. Here’s a photo from that:

Thursday 27 February - Paris no. 2

On Thursdays, usually Marie works in Paris, taking an early train there and an evening train back. We decided that it could be a cool idea for me to travel over with her and spend the day by myself. It was an... interesting day, to say the least.

We had an early start, took the train, and then recharged my Metro card once we got there. All good, mostly, except until the card didnt work, which was a little awkward and confusing 🙄 After getting through that, Marie and I parted ways; she on her way to a meeting at work, and I on a metro to the Louvre. I had some trouble with the many confusing lines once I got there, and another tourist even asked me if she was in the riht line, to which I replied that I was sorry I was also rather confused! I hope she found her way in the end, because we were both very much in the wrong line but for different reasons. I found the correct line for me, and then I was in the Louvre! I ended up spending upward of three hours here, there was so much to see. Beautiful paintings that are so nice to appreciate in person, Greek and Roman sculpture (my inner classics nerd was wilding, it was great to see these things that I’d studied up close), some gorgeous neoclassical and otherwise French sculpture, beautiful extravagant objects from past French royalty, even Eastern and Egyptian antiquities. There was just so much and of course it was impossible to see it all (though naturally I tried - my sore feet did not thank me later). That moment of awe you feel when you see something that you truly ove is near indescribable. Here’s some photos of some of my favourite things that I saw:

A bust of Alexander the Great

Some very  impressive, large paintings

The very very extravagant ceiling in one of the gallery rooms

A view of the pyramid, the little doll people, and the not-so-great weather outside from the beautiful objects area with all the past belongings of French monarchs

A nice piece from the French sculpture area

I got pretty lucky with my trip to the Louvre for a few reasons. One was that my ticket was for the morning at opening time, so I managed to get in before the worst of the crowds. Pretty awesome being able to wander around without being hindered too badly by lots of other people also trying to get as close as they possibly can to every piece. The other reason I got lucky was because the Louvre is now closed. It closed on Saturday the 29th of February, and remains closed now, it being unclear when it may open again. This was following an announcement of a nation-wide ban of gatherings of more than 5000 people in a confined space. The Louvre, of course, falls under this category.

Anyway, after that very long musemum trip, I was happily full with appreciation for art nd culture, however I was also very hungry and thirsty (no drink bottles allowed in the museum haha). So I went outside and got myself a bite to eat from a bakery stall outside, which I had overlooking the pretty garden outside (yes it was raining a bit and the bench was a little damp too, so yes I sacrificed my rain jacket to sit on). The interaction I had with the person at the bakery stall felt like the most natural interaction all in French I had had with a customer service person so far. I think that was the proudest I’d ever been of myself simply for ordering a sandwich! 😂 It was nice to just sit down with my food and admire my surroundings and people watch for a while. I could even see the Eiffel tower fro my spot, which was nice. I then wandered all the way through the garden, admiring the flowers and fountains and sculptures and the many many empty benches. I’d love to see how it looks in the sun - I bet those benches will be pretty well occupied in the springtime. After that I went on a mission for toilets and discovered the truly wonderful and fantastic thing that is Paris’ tendency for toilets that cost money to use. After that delightful exprience I headed to see the Obelisk. I may have been walking against the wind and rain, but the area was still pretty. 

I then walked all the way down the Champs- Élysées (my poor feet), until I reached the Arc de Triomphe. It was by then only the early afternoon and I realised I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. I had options, of course, but the travel to them on the metro or busses or otherwise seemed confusing and I had the added issue of not having any data or wifi to use google maps with. (Next time I am definitely getting some data - that would have solved a whole lot of problems 🙄). Long story short, one thing led to another and I ended up stressy ugly-crying with a burger I didn’t want in a McDonalds just so I could use the wifi to try and make sense of the metro system, while messaging Marie. Then to top it all off, my bathroom grievances continued because, naturally, the bathroom in that restaurant was another one that costed, and I had spent the last of my change on that burger. Dang. Anyways, I decided to go down to the metro to try and find my way to the Montmartre church. However, my metro card problems continued, my confusion of the metro system continued, and I ended up on the phone to Marie who said she would come meet me. I felt very bad that she left work for me, she said it was all okay, but naturally I still felt bad. She found me eventually, a littel tearstained and very embarrassed, and we headed on the metro to Montmartre together. She tried to explain the metro system to me a bit more, which was good and I feel like I’ve got a liiiittle bit of a better handle on it now.

On the steep walk up to Montmartre there were lots and lots of tourist shops, and then a lot a lot of stairs, with some street art on the walls which was pretty cool. The church was very pretty. We didn’t go inside, but the outside was very nice. All the surrounding fences were cooovered in lovers’ padlocks

The viewn was also very nice. Paries views (and I think French views in genral?) are always interesting. A mix of that classic Parisian architecture, you know the one -modern buildings, well-known monuments, building cranes, oooold old buildings and monuments, and sometimes the odd bit of big street art on the high-up walla. It’s never the same view you expect to see. 

After that nice wee trip we went to grab a coffee and stop off at the cafe’s toilets before we headed home. However, toilet grievance number 3 hit us suddenly because the toilets were out of order. After that we decided to head to the train station and leave a littel earlier than originally planned. I was so tired after a big day I couldn’t help but fall asleep on the train 😂 Once we were back home I recounted my metro meltdown and we all decided that perhaps public transport (missing train stops, being confused by the metro and bus syetems...) is simply not my strong point, lol. Anyways, despite the stressy moments of that day, all in all it was a good experience, and the good moments were really enjoyable. I’m not going to letit deter me, and I hope in the future I’ll have more chances to explore the city and improve my knowledge of how to get around.

Saturday the 29th was a good day. We had gratin dauphinois for lunch, which was cool because it reminded me of my Nanna because it was one of her specialties, and it reminded me of the one time I made it for a culture project for French class. That afternoon, Marie and I headed back to the museum with the section on bonneterie, because there’s a new exposition there at the moment. It’s on the brand of socks called Doré Doré, celebratng it’s 200 year anniversary (weird that a sock brand in France is older than the entire government in New Zealand), and the factories have been based in Troyes since the beginning. It was cute, and a littel funny with all the little socks and things. There were lots of these big sock wall decorations outside the exhibit:

Sunday was the last day of the holidays. In the morning Marie, Lola and I went to the bakery to pick up Lola’s birthday cake. Her birthday isn’t until the 7th, but on Sunday afternoon there was some family coming to celebrate. It’s funny when we go into any store, every time the cashier assumes I’m a separate customer, so I’m now well practiced at saying oh no thank you we are all together. For lunch, Marie’s mother, brother, his partner, and their young son Jack-Jack came around. There was nice conversation, nice food, and then a game of ‘Ta Mere En Slip’. They’re all very nice, and it feels easier now than every for me to speak French with groups of people. It’s still hard sometimes, but it’s much better! 

Yesterday was interesting. It was sort of the first day back at school. I got up early, Marie took Lola and I to school as usual... However I had neglected to check what the case was with the BAC blanc exams this week. Turns out that no, there is no classes at all, and it is in fact just tests all throughout the week. So that was an interesting time for me, turning up there and my classmates finding it funny I was there at all. So I just headed back home after spending a little while in the school library, and sike! I have, in some ways, another week of holidays... I’m thinking I might do some more exploring, go back to the museum, I could go to the movies and try watching something in French again, I could write some postcards or things home... Today I’ve just been writing this blog entry this morning, I’ve gone out to eat pizza for lunch with Marie, but the weather today is lovely (much better than the rain last night), so I might go do something. I am in absolute disbelief that I have less than 4 weeks left on exchange. Where did the time go? I swear I must comment on how fast the time is going by at least a few times a day at this point. But wow, it really is going fast.

Until next time!

[comfortmarvelimagines]

When You Can’t Find the Quiet

ya can all thank my autistic ass for projecting onto this? i needed to finish this and it’s now almost 1am so i’ll post part 2 tomorrow lmao i know it sucks but like. i don’t have friends who Get It ya know? i figure peter n co. would try super hard to help sooooo 

It was a Bad Brain day from the second you woke up.

It didn’t start off horribly, on the level that made physical touch sting and laughter split your skull in two. That didn’t stop the repetition of your mom’s alarm clock in the next room from feeling like it was chipping away at your bones at 5am, as she got up to go swim laps at the community pool. New York was never quiet, and going back to sleep wasn’t an option, even though it wasn’t your choice to be up at such an ungodly hour. All of a sudden you were hot. Too hot. Suffocating. Throw-off-the-covers-and-stick-your-head-under-the-kitchen-sink kinda hot. And as you stood with your hair dripping, pyjama shirt soaked hours before you even had to think about the hustle of teenagers fighting to get to homeroom, you realised that it was just One of Those Days.

The bathroom in your apartment had an east-facing window. Which may have been an irrelevant fact to most, but on days like today it meant you could crack it open to let the steam out and shower completely in peace. No hard lights, no grating whir of the fan. A brief reprieve of soft light and floating before the world pressed play again. The only other sound besides the stream hitting the tiles were those your mother made, in another room, grabbing files before she left for work. Most days, you wouldn’t be in the same room for more than ten minutes at a time, and that suited you just fine- for the majority of instances, you could act normal, hold eye contact and try to remember what you knew about small talk for long enough to think you were ‘fine’.  Words weren’t gonna happen today, though, and you stood pressed against the bathroom door, listening for the click of the front door signalling that you wouldn’t have to force out a stuttered attempt at speech. Finally, she left and you could finish getting ready. Not stopping to think, you swept the textbooks from last night’s homework into your bag, swung it on your back and ran out the door. You might miss your train, but you’d only be late for homeroom.

You didn’t miss the train, if only for the fact that it was three minutes late and you’d speed-walked the whole way there. The perk of being so focussed on your feet on the concrete was that nothing else existed. Unfortunately, once the adrenaline of making the doors before they closed wore off, everything came back. Hard. That specific kind of warmth that comes from people standing too close. That one flickering light that you couldn’t directly see, but after a few minutes made you want to punch that fucking thing out so it would stop. The awful hot shock of touch when the person next to you fell into your arm as the train slowed to a stop in the tunnel, shuddering down your spine and making you want to crawl out of your skin. The tinny bass of too-loud music through someone’s airpods, someone talking on the phone, everyone breathing and shifting and rustling and the train breaks whining and-

Headphones. Should have headphones. You pulled your backpack around to your front, ripping open the zipper and rifling through the loose papers and the water bottle you forgot to fill before you left. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing you forgot. Fucking great. You haphazardly shoved everything back in your bag and pulled a fidget cube from your pocket, remembering that you’d left it in your hoodie from yesterday. Hands on each side. Thumbs on the switch. Focus. Click left. Click middle. Click right. Click middle. One, two three, four. Over and over and over and over until it was your stop.

You walked through the school gates head down, hoodie up, thumb running over the spinny metal ball of the fidget cube in your pocket, determined to just make it through the day and get back home to the quiet. Unsurprisingly, you were completely unaware of Ned and Peter running up behind you, completely oblivious to how loud they were being. “Hey y/n, how was your weekend? Peter and I were just planning to go see the new Star Wars movie at the cinema next week, do ya wanna come?”

“Yeah y/n it’ll be fun! We can get popcorn and soda and Skittles.”

“If you wanna come, my mom’s booking the tickets this weekend so we can get good seats. It’s gonna be AWES-”

“Shut it, nerds.” MJ was slouched against the peeling paint of her locker, two down from Peter’s. “You’re hurting them”.

At some point, your hands had made their way up to your ears. It wasn’t really Ned and Peter’s fault, but their voices just added an extra layer to the soupy mess of sounds echoing through Midtown Tech. It also didn’t help that the shoving and pushing of kids running through the corridor was prickling your skin, the thickness of your jumper doing little to help at this point. You twitched as someone grabbed the fabric near your elbow, tugging. “I know you don’t want to be touched right now but if you go inside with Peter, it’ll be quieter,” MJ spoke as softly as she could without being completely drowned out by yelling teens. Your eyes flickered over to Peter, the only sign to MJ that you’d processed what she said. Peter, having shoved most of his stuff in his locker and grabbed whatever textbooks he needed, fumbled to try and untangle his earphones.

“Here, try these. I know it’s not your headphones, but it might help if you focus on music so you we can get to the quiet?” You quickly took them from him and jammed them in your ears, plastering your hands back over the top. In all honesty, they didn’t do much and you couldn’t really tell what song was playing, but you were desperate to get any sort of relief from the barrage of input. You were grateful when Peter didn’t try and pull you through the crowd, instead opting to try and create a path for you to follow, and made sure you were seated up the back in a corner well before the bell rang.

The bell.

The bell that was right over your head.

Well shit.

The only way you could describe how it felt, was that every atom in your body was on fire. Out. Out. Get out. You didn’t remember when you started scratching at your arms, only that you needed to stop to open the door. Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you began to question where the door was, where you were, but that thought was abandoned when you realised the room was dark. Quiet. Staggered to your knees, you found the corner and crouched there, waiting for your head to stop spinning.

***

Meanwhile, Peter was back in homeroom, stressed out of his mind. The teacher hadn’t come in until after y/n had ran, and Peter debated whether or not to stay for attendance or try and find you, in case something bad happened.  Eventually deciding on the latter, Peter bolted down the corridor, yelling for someone to tell the teacher to mark him and y/n as here. He had a vague idea of where you could be, but after checking under the back library tables, the unused changeroom out the back of the gym and the photocopying room, he was getting desperate. There were dozens of empty classrooms and homeroom was nearly over. If the sounds of chairs scraping and kids screaming wasn’t going to make things even worse for you on your already super-shitty day, then having a presumably unsympathetic teacher find you huddled at the back of their class, without a verbal excuse, was just plain cruel. He was almost about to head to the nurse and see if there was anyone they could call to come help find you, when he heard a high-pitched sound coming from an empty chem lab storeroom

***

The squeaking of the door as it swung open was enough to set your teeth on edge, and you bit even harder on the finger jammed into your mouth. “Hey, hey y/n, it’s okay, s’just me”

You kept rocking. The door squeaked again, the sliver of light disappearing. Then footsteps. “I know, I know this is rough, but I think I have something that can help.” Peter’s voice still hurt your ears, but not in the mind-numbingly harsh way of before. “Can you maybe stop rocking and take your hood down for a sec? I have something to put over your head, like a mask, it’s gonna make everything go away. I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry but trust me, this’ll work.”

You slowly moved your free hand up, pushing back the fabric and moving it back down to brace on the ground. Peter pulled something out the back pocket of his jeans, the room too dark to make it visually distinguishable, and quickly braced your cheek whilst tugging it over your face. Your breathing hitched; there was a sound, a woman talking, the mask-thing wasn’t down all the way and you could feel it resting on the top of your knuckle, the taste of blood in your mouth…

“Uh, shit, okay, Karen that’s okay I did that, uh, make it quiet? Make it dark? I know Mr Stark put a protocol for this why can’t I remember it, just hold on a sec y/n you’re fine you’ll be fine I got this,” Peter’s frantic rambling was interrupted by his pocket vibrating. Insistently. Knowing the light would hurt your eyes, he tried to shield the screen with his hand, answering the call.

“Want to explain why your mask is on someone else’s head.”

“Uh see you see-”

“At school. When you were just marked as absent. And May just called me, asking if I knew anything about it. Oh, and why those vitals are off-the-fucking CHARTS.”

“I can explain I promise it’s just my friend is- they’re not doin’ too great and I’m trying to help them out”

“Can that explain why you’re whispering”

“Yes, yes it can. You know how my senses are like, dialed to eleven. Like, all the time?” “Mmm”

“Well their’s is just like that. Normally. And sometimes school is too much for them but they can’t communicate properly, and I guess they just, like, run? They, uh, need to get out but they don’t know where to? And so the bell went earlier and they disappeared and I found them in the chem storeroom but it was before the teacher marked attendance so that’s why we’re marked absent-” “Don’t care about that now. Where are they?”

“We’re in the chem storeroom still. I thought maybe I could use my mask to make it quiet to try and help, since you installed those mods- thanks by the way- but Karen won’t stop flashing and talking and I forgot the protocol name and they won’t let me get the mask off and oh shit now their hand’s bleeding Mr Stark please help-” Tony cut him off again. At this point, all attempts at whispering between the two had been abandoned, and you wanted to get out.

“I remotel…”

Silence. Complete, blissful, beautiful, enveloping silence.

You didn’t feel your head hit the linoleum floor.

[artificialqueens]

Loving Sex (for Breakfast in Bed) (Branjie) - broojie

A.N: AFTER THE JUMP B/C SPOILERS

so…we’re all a lil sad (some more than others) about branjie but remember to support them and not to send them hate. I had this written up a couple of days ago but never posted bc I just didn’t have the time.

Also please let me know on spelling errors and grammar errors!

***

The first thing Brock felt as he woke up half asleep, was warmth - except it was the boiling type, the type to make you suffocate and need to kick the covers off in the middle of the night. He groaned, kicking his feet at the cover to move it away but as he did, an annoyed moan came from next to him.

“No, gimme the covers.” The voice has voiced out, voice gruff from sleeping.

Brock froze at the gruffness. It was scarily familiar and he hoped he wasn’t dreaming when he turned around. He felt a squeeze around his midsection and he realised that the big lump behind him under the covers (that got kicked back up and over the lump) was the reason he was sweating profusely.

“Jose?” Brock timidly called out. He hoped this moment wasn’t a dream and he hoped there wasn’t some stranger underneath the lump because then…that would be a nightmare.

The lump groaned again and removed it’s arm from Brock’s midsection and turned around, the back of the person now facing Brock.

“I got in like a couple of hours ago Brock, lemme sleep.” Soft snores then faintly told Brock that Jose was asleep.

He was ecstatic, sure, but he couldn’t jump on his boyfriend now. He looked over at the clock on the wall and had gotten up. All that dance training he had with waking up at stupid o'clock in the morning had now stuck with him in his daily routine. Wake up at 6am, think about life for a second before getting up and doing whatever needed to be done before hitting the sheets at 12am because work hated him not doing his job.

Brock sighed and stretched, grabbing his t-shirt and then fixing the duvet covers over Jose properly. He’d wake him up in 4 hours.

——–

Jose had dreamt of his love story fairy tale again. The type where it was all butterflies in stomachs and cliched cheesy lines over dinner. Where hands were held tightly, fingers interlocking. Kisses lying on the grass and looking at the stars and stupidly guessing constellations and planets. But then it all fades to soft white sheets, blinds drawn but the shadow of golden hour still sitting on him, skin moving against skin - not sexual but safe. The smell of coffee in the background and the warmth of a chest against his back as he nuzzles into the neck attached to the body behind him.

The butterflies are there, not the excited type but the in love type - the warm, safe and cared for type. Jose doesn’t want to wake up from this love story.

The dream starts to blur but he wants to hold on to it, he doesn’t want to leave.

“-ose.” An upset groan half answers.

“Jose.” The voice is softly waking him up, a hand rubbing his back in an up and down motion - it’s so safe.

Brock’s face is mere inches away from Jose’s and he smiles at the bright blue eyes softly saying “Good morning."

Jose sleepily gives a smile back, eyes still not wanting to open, just yet. Chapped lips meet his cheek with whispers of ,"I’ve made breakfast. Hurry and wake up before it gets cold.” Jose hums as an answer.

The warmth is gone and Jose now faces with a bitter coldness. The duvet covers are gone; they had fallen off the bed. And Brock is sitting in the kitchen, awaiting Jose. Jose reluctantly gets up, legs still stiff from the flight. He shoves his t-shirt back on before scrapping it and going to grab one of Brock’s. “He won’t mind.” Jose thought.

Opening the door, the smell of coffee and pancakes hit his nose and he sighed in relief as his stomach grumbled loudly. He hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday.

“Nice to finally see you babe.” Brock smiled across the table. Jose sheepishly smiled, “I should have woken you up but you know what I’m like. You looked peaceful."

A soft chuckle answered back, "Still. I almost got a fright when I felt someone’s arm across me. Could have been anyone."

Jose choked on the piece of the pancake he accidently inhaled as Brock spoke. "W-what?!” His face was red with tears in his eyes from the gagging. Brock had moved quickly when he started choking and rubbed his back as Jose managed to exhale it back out. “Babe, not that way. Don’t think that way. I meant it in a funny way, like a stupid drunk who forgot what apartment he lives in or something."

Jose flushed red in embarrassment and mumbled under his breath, "Bit hard when I have the spare key but okay.” Brock giggled at Jose.

Brock brought Jose in for a side hug before moving Jose to sit against his chest, arms wrapped around his stomach. “I missed you.” He whispered. Jose grabbed the hands at his stomach and interlocked his fingers with them before leaning back into Brock’s embrace. “Me too. So fucking much."

A small kiss to the back of Jose’s neck made him melt into Brock, soft sighs then being released as the kisses kept coming - getting bolder, wetter. Smacking sounds filling their little bubble with quiet moans. A nibble on that spot that makes Jose turn into a puddle of goo.

"Fuck."

Both Jose and Brock stood up, the taller pulling Jose towards the bedroom in almost a hurry but not quiet rushed. "I haven’t had my breakfast yet but I guess…I’ll just have you.” Jose rolled his eyes at the cliched line and matched the smirk Brock was holding on his face.

“Well hurry up and eat me then, Mary."

—–

Hushed whines fell from Jose’s lips as his legs were spread onto Brock’s shoulder’s as the latter kisses the inside of his thighs. The skittering of them ticklish but when Brock gets near his dick he whines for him to get closer, his hands on Brock’s head guiding him to give him some sort of pleasure. "Fuck, Brock. Please.” Jose could feel annoyance rise up in his stomach, the desperation of cumming large. Brock sniggers before taking Jose’s dick into his mouth. “Yes, fuck.” Jose grabs onto Brock’s head, slowly thrusting up into his mouth.

Taking the dick out of his mouth, Brock gave Jose a raised eyebrow, “If you want to cum, you’ll keep your ass on the bed.” He was unamused, knowing fine well Jose knew the rules. But Brock knew, he couldn’t blame him. There’s only so much pleasure you can receive when you’re faraway from each other - phone sex and sending nudes to each other can only do so much.

Brock sat back against the headboard of the bed, patting his lap indicating Jose to sit on it. A breathy sigh escaped his mouth as both his and Jose’s dicks rubbed against each other. Brock grabbed a hold of them both, rubbing each other together. He stopped for a second to grab the lube from the bedside table, squirting a lot onto both his and Jose’s cocks.

“Brock, please hurry up and fuck me. We’ve waited long enough for this shit."

Brock brought his slicked up fingers around to Jose’s ass, a finger running along his taint with slight pressure against his hole. His other hand was wrapped around Jose’s cock, rubbing ever so slowly and teasing the slit with his fingernail. Jose had his face hidden in Brock’s neck, breathy sighs and long, droned out moans loud in the taller’s ear. It was hot, so fucking hot and he wanted to hear it more, louder. Brock slid his finger inside Jose, curling it upwards. A hitch in Jose’s breath was heard before a deep whine spilled from between his lips.

"R-right fucking there.” Jose slowly rocked back onto the finger, one of his hands against Brock’s indicating to add another. Another digit slid inside, curled up towards Jose’s stomach with the first one and he whined louder, needier. Jose grinded down on the fingers, pleasure building quickly in his stomach.

“Fuck you’re so hot babe.” Brock groaned in his lover’s ear. The way Jose was grinding down onto his fingers, the way he whined he wanted more, the way he told him to fuck him already could have made Brock burst in a second. Brock slid his fingers out, pushing Jose down onto his back.

Grabbing the tube of lube again, Brock coated his dick in the lubricant. “Jesus fuck, how much are you going to be using?” Jose’s face had disbelief all over it, eyebrows furrowed in his signature “what the fuck” look. Brock nervously laughed it off.

“I mean it was an accident. I got too excited.” Jose smirked at that. “But it’s also been a month boo, so more lube equals a less painful ass fucking.” Brock smiled, pearly whites and all at that last word and Jose guffawed his usual gruff laugh.

“Hurry up then.”

Brock slipped inside Jose slowly, legs kept to each side of him. As soon as Jose was comfortable, the rest of the morning was history.

—–

"Babe…what time is it?“

"Around 2pm now.”

“Well fuck."

"Glad you loved it."

Jose turned his head to the side, an unamused frown on his face. "Not funny but I can’t disagree.” Jose grabbed Brock’s hand and linked his finger’s with his.

“So, you enjoy you’re breakfast I take it?” A cheeky grin sat on the smaller’s face, as Brock smiled softly. “Yeah it was the best buffet I had.”

“Buffet?”

Brock stifled a laugh, “Yep. An all you can eat one."

Jose hit him the face with a pillow.

[axelsagewrites]

Isabelle*Lightwood’s

Ship(s): Isabelle X female!reader

Request:  Via Wattpad

Warnings:

 Masterlist HERE

Wattpad HERE

It's pride month so this month's posts are going to be LGBT themed

Her hair gleamed like a goddess and her smile was like sunlight that flowers craved to the human eye. When she laughed it felt like you’d went weightless on a roller coaster drop ride, loving the fear it brought like the idea of loving her. No matter what she said, snarky or sweet, it was the stuff to inspire poets. She was my perfect, the thing that would finally make me feel whole.

The half of the best friend necklace that hung around her neck broke me though. The one around mine solidified it. 

I'd known Isabelle since childhood, often talking about being parabatai. Every time I discouraged it, saying we could decide when we were older, and we didn’t need a rune to best friends. It was bad enough she was straight, and I’d fancied her for years but the idea of it being actually illegal was too much.

The shadowhunter community was very accepting, choosing to hide all their ‘problems’ in a plastic tub and bury beneath their flower beds. Apparently not being straight was one of these problems. How dare you like someone of the same gender! Even though it wasn’t your fault and oh yeah screw you.

I wasn’t necessarily in the closet though; I just never spoke about it. plus, in the New York Institute, there weren’t many boys my age, so it wasn’t surprising I didn’t like any of them. The only person I had told was Alec because, well that boys lets straight than a circle.

Alec and I were closet buddies and despite both of us being heavily friend zoned we could at least whine to one and other. Isabelle figured out Alec was gay, which wasn’t too difficult since boys can’t hide their, um feelings? Too well. She hadn’t figured me out because apparently kissing girls in the club is something drunk girls just kinda did? 

Although it wasn’t what I wanted I was sort of content. Isabelle had boyfriends and hookups but so would Jace, so Alec and I were able to rant about this whenever they were out. Then Clary came. 

I don’t dislike the girl, but she is inconvenient for many reasons. It’s made Alec all grumpy since Jace is in love and Alec can literally feel it because of their bond. Isabelle also likes to go on about that Simon kid and he’s always around because clary’s always around. It’s a hellish cycle.

However, the biggest issue is Clary and Isabelle’s friendship. For the past 5 years, Isabelle and I were the only girls our age who lived in this institute for more than a month. This meant Isabelle only knew what it would be like to be friends with a girl who was in love with her. 

We didn’t do the normal things girls would; talk a lot about boys, change in front of each other, check each other out before leaving to make sure we looked okay. I was in love with the girl, there was no way I was checking out her butt to make sure she hadn’t sat in something. Hell no. but this was never an issue because she had no comparison.

We’d talk about fighting techniques, books, famous shadowhunters, and how annoying Alec and Jace were and how we’d get them back. For fun, we’d throw darts, do trick shots, spar, or made up silly games. 

Clary came and was letting Isabelle do her hair, makeup, outfit, and would talk hot boys and relationships with each other. Clary wasn’t that girly, but it still messed it all up. Know we were talking about first crushes and kisses and I had no answer. 

Coming out felt like less of an option. I barely knew Clary, so I didn’t want to tell her and now Isabelle was wanting to have the ‘girl sleepovers’ mundane kids had in the movies Clary showed her. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

Alec wasn’t having much fun either. Clary and Jace were a thing and Clary was beginning to catch on. Typically, Alec would train with Jace, but Clary kept pulling him in every other direction so when Alec came up to me and asked to spar I wasn’t surprised. Isabelle kept wanting to have Clary at all our training sessions so we could teach her and how could I argue with that?

As I held the punching bag Alec hit it with all the pit up anger he had, the chain holding it up clanging loudly with each hit. “A new girl shows up and you drop everything?” he ranted while punching. “Do you wanna know what he said when I complained he missed training today?” he stopped, panting. We switched positions and I nodded. “Get a girlfriend,” Alec held the bag for me.

I screwed my face up and not because of the stale smell of sweat off this training room. “That’s just idiotic,” I said as I hit the bag.

“Yeah well that’s the straights for you,” Alec rolled his eyes, “Crush aside, friend don’t ditch friends,”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered as my punches sped up.

Alec sighed “Isabelle?”

“Isabelle,” I confirmed, putting my back into the punches, “Her and Clary are always together. Doing girly things. It's bad enough but I don’t want to talk boys with them. It was fine before,” with every word the punches got faster.

“Slow down,” Alec said, and I did. He held the bag still, the metal chains finally quieting, “You’re gonna put a hole in it.”

“I know,” I sighed, taking the gloves off and throwing them down. “But I’m getting sick of this.

Everyone keeps asking if I’m seeing a guy or when will Mr right come along. My parents are actually concerned,”

“Ditto,” Alec groaned, “It’s so annoying. Its always brought up as if I’m just a piece of meat!” he said.

My eyebrow quirked up as I saw the irony “Alec, welcome to being a female.” Alec rolled his eyes and I punched his shoulder “I am not kidding. Whenever we go out guys are leering at me and Izzy on missions. We are used as bait Alec. Bait” it was true. Apparently dressing nice, as they called it, attracted demons but they forgot about all the sleazes.

“Sorry,” Alec said, dropping down onto a bench. I copied and took the water he handed me.

“I’ve got an idea…”

“So…you two are dating now?” Isabelle asked arms crossed staring at us with the look of ‘don’t you lie to me’.

Jace by Isabelle’s side seemed doubtful too, “Like dating dating?”

Alec and I looked at each other. “Yup,” Alec said before quickly wrapping his arm around my waist, pulling me into his side. “Right babe?”

The words felt like spitting glass, “Of course…babe,” okay I officially wanted to die.

Isabelle and Jace shared a look but Jace shrugged, “Well at least you finally took my advice. Sorry (Y/N) but I need to steal Alec, we’ve got a mission,” 

Alec almost jumped at the chance to go on a mission with him. Then it was just me and Izzy. “You’ve never mentioned liking him before,” Isabelle said, clearly not buying it.

I scoff, trying not to stutter, “He’s your brother. That’s just weird Izzy,”

“In fact,” she continued “You’ve never talked about guys. Ever. Whenever Clary brings it up-“

“Clary’s a brat, Izzy,” I cut her off. Isabelle’s mouth gaped for a moment before closing.

“Seriously she shows up and thinks she knows everything. She gets everything on a silver plate, and everyone babies her,”

“She’s new!” Isabelle has an incredulous look on her face “She’s trying to navigate a new world. Give her a break!” I couldn’t hold back an eye roll. “What has she actually done to you?”

“What has she done to you?” I snap. “Before we’d talk about normal things but knows it’s all boy this and boy that. And she’s far to comfortable around here. You don’t ask people to check you out before you go out. It’s weird,” I cross my arms. “Plus, she always brings that Simon kid around.

Isabelle’s face is distorted into one I’ve never seen aimed at me; anger. “Really? Maybe I like talking about boys and I like knowing I look alright before I go out. Oh, and I’ll have you know I like Simon. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever spoken to,”

“I’m nice!” I almost yell, “You don’t talk to me anymore and I’m just as nice as Simon is. Oh, and I’m your best friend not that you seem to care,”

“Well you don’t seem so nice right now,” Isabelle says, crossing her arms, “In fact, you just seem jealous. I’m allowed to have other friends. If it bothered you that much you should’ve talked to me,”

“You’re always with Clary,” Mumbled, feeling defeated already.

“Woah you really are jealous. Is that why you’re with Alec now?” she asked. “You and I both know he’s gay. If I’m honest I was starting to think so were you,” 

There was no good way this conversation could go. The floor seemed to sway from under my feet and the lights seemed brighter than before. My heartbeat was loud like the chains from the punching bag. Clang clang clang.

If it wasn’t for the air whipping my face I wouldn’t have realised I was running, and it wasn’t till I stopped I felt the wetness on my cheeks. I opened the door to my room and quickly slammed it, ruining it to be locked. 

All I could do was pace till my feet were sore and I feared holes would burn in the carpet. I sank onto the floor, leaning against my bed. normally when I ran away from my feelings it wasn’t physically, 

When Isabelle knocked I didn’t get up. Her angelic voice couldn’t move me this time and was drowned out by fear. My parents, Isabelle, my higher-ups, they could all find out. Shadowhunters were still very backwards. 

We’d had the pleasure of meeting a warlock when Clary first came called Magnus who was obviously gay or bi or something and openly proud. With no shadowhunters to teach me, it had been him I’d gone to about it. he was surprised, to say the least, that I'd gone to him though apparently, his gaydar had been right.

Id texts him in a panic for his advice. Isabelle’s pounding on my door had stopped when I got the text back; tell her, the closet isn’t comfortable forever.

I read the text over and over again. I didn’t have to tell Isabelle I liked her, though she’d

probably guessed that. She must know now. she had to know, and I should be telling her.

My bones felt stiff as I stood but I persevered. I sighed, running my hands over my face. I looked up from my hands and my eyes fell on a photo frame on my bedside; Isabelle and I on my last birthday. She insisted on making my cake though even I couldn’t fake eat it. this could make or break that.

I opened the door without hesitation, figuring I'd at least have a breather before I saw her. But there she was, sat on the floor across from my door. When my door opens she sprang up, “(Y/N),” I couldn’t hold it back. I looked down and couldn’t help a couple tears, “Talk to me,” Isabelle put her hands on my shoulders and shivers went down my spine.

For once I didn’t want to see Isabelle’s face, but I looked up, “I-I.” I had to take a deep breath “I love you,”

Isabelle smiled a little “I love you too. You know I do,” without giving me a chance she hugged me.

“Not in the same way,” I mumbled but I knew she heard. 

She pulled back and looked me in the eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t love you. I’m in love with you,” it was out there. There were no take backs.

Isabelle glanced down and I just felt my heart clench, “I-I-I know I’m not gay,” she started off, stuttering slightly, “but I have been with girls,” for this first time Isabelle blushed, “I just never really clicked with any but then again I never clicked with a guy either. But if I'd ever clicked with anyone, it’d be you,”

“You like me?” my words were slow and unsure.

“I think so?” hers were more like a question. “I’ve never really understood the romance part but when I’m with you, I feel safe. And I’d be lying if I said you weren’t hot,”

Okay, this time I blushed. A lot, “So…do you wanna try?”

She nodded “I do. Guess your switching lightwoods,” Isabelle joked, laughing at her own joke like usual.

I grinned a little, “Well you are much prettier than Alec.”

Isabelle grinned, “So maybe we should try well,” she motioned to my lips.

I nodded and we moved closer, bumping noses and tilting the wrong way. We laughed awkwardly but soon our lips met. it was slow, hesitant, and we were barely touching. Years of pent up feelings led me to stepping closer, making it harder, passionate. Soon it was fast and hard, and her hands were in my hair. 

Somehow I forgot to breathe, so we pulled apart as breathless as I get when Isabelle walks in the room. “So,” I said.

“So,” Isabelle copied. She looked up and down the corridor before saying, “Maybe we should try you know that again but,” she pointed past me, into my room, “in there?”

A grin overtook my face which soon etched onto Isabelle as well. My arms wrapped around her, leading her back into my room. The door shut tightly behind us and everything felt right.

[bushybeardedbear]

Season 8 of Saltron: Laughable Disappointment

What follows is a stream of consciousness as I watched the series.

The TLDR? I am glad it's finally over and will always miss what it should have been.

It's another long one. But, I think it's the last one on this topic...

Maybe I can finally get back to writing fics. Who knows...?

I use the word mess a lot.

So, episode one. Months have passed as usual. And somehow the population of Earth, all crammed into a single base on the planet have somehow been able to produce an animated series. Earth is devastated, but there's still the ability to make cartoons. Somehow. It's as though the writers needed to tick off a “reference to the old series” and have only just been able to cram it in. Global devastation, billions dead. But hey. Cartoons. Yet another example of Voltron not knowing what the hell it's own tone is. Are we a happy silly space adventure, or are we supposed to be a bleak look at the horrors of war? Are we selling kids books and toys or are we forcing our characters to deal with global devastation and the loss of their lovers? Let's be both and excel as neither.

And for a show that isn't about shipping? Gosh they've already dedicated a lot of time to it, haven't they? Allura, Lance and Lotor, all major focuses of the plot. Oh and it's nice to see Romelle doing what Romelle does. Info dumping about the colony. “Before the Galra can reorganize.” Well, sorry Keith but it's been Five Years. Remember that time skip? If at least one group of Galra hasn't reorganized in five years, that would be absurd. If only there was some hint that the Galra HAD reorganized. Like a giant robot. Using the same magitech as the druids and Honerva. I know that as the viewer we're privy to more information, but sometimes they make the characters painfully stupid as to what's going on in their own reality.

Oh boy. An entire episode devoted to finding Allura a date outfit. For Lance. The boy with a lifespan of 80-100 years max. Whilst she could live to be 800+. We going to cover that? I mean, we had time to emphasize Pidge's age. We going to touch Allura's age? No? Ok, fine. We'll ignore it shall we? Do the writers assume people are too stupid to remember the show's own lore...? And look. More references to the old show. Remember the old show? Nostalgia points. Hey Pidge, having some fun being yourself? Well, make sure you give up something you love to make the popular girl happy. Arguably again but, doesn't seem like anything previously established or hinted matters. Nice. And I guess we know the names of Lance's family. Along with a nice bit of tell don't show. Lance is all talk and bravado. It's good of you to tell us that. Can't expect people to figure it out organically through storytelling.

And the only way they could figure out Honerva was behind a robeast...was via a cheesy death scene. Well, at least they didn't make the cast even more bloated and unwieldy. As for all the issues I've mentioned with Allurance before? Doubled down on here. Allura's not the strong capable leader we were shown, she was weak and in need of man to complete her. What a great 180 from powerful character to prize for toxic masculinity. And if you don't like the idea that pursuing a woman aggressively and jealously, even swooping in after a break up is toxic...? I don't know what to tell you. If you think this relationship happened organically and wasn't rushed? I don't know what to tell you. I don't think we were watching the same show.

However. I know me foreshadowing. Allura gives life. Allura and Lance photo. The flowers at her bedside last season that symbolize death. Let's see if they pull another “oh look, their relationship failed.” Because on screen romance is the kiss of death in this series. Also, the fact that so far nothing has even been hinted at Pidge's obvious crush on Lance... Yeah, can't say I'm surprised. I think maybe the writers forgot their own lore...

Oh, and off they go to space. What a great first episode. I'm so pumped to see the train wreck continue...

Is it just me... Or have they now made Honerva nothing more than defined by the men in her life...? So far her entire episode has been about how she serves no purpose without Lotor. Months she spent without purpose. This despite having knowledge of both Oriande and The Altean Colony via her mind link with Kuron... But suddenly, this fiercely intelligent multi-millenia old right hand of the empire...falls into a depression because her son is missing...? The most driven character in the whole series is just wandering aimlessly without the son that, let us not forget... She forgot even was her child for the majority of the show... I appreciate that they're attempting yet again to give the bad guys a little more humanity, but...There's a difference between a nuanced and rounded character and simply writing them to act differently at the drop of a hat. So, I get that they're pushing for her regretting that she had no connection with Lotor, that the act of coming back from the dead robbed her of motherhood...but in so doing, they're yet again doubling down on the fact that Lotor was always a victim of his upbringing. Or lack thereof. It feels almost like these sequences were written at a point before they realised they were going to make Lotor into Space Hitler. This screams redemption arc for a lost little boy being set up. Not the genesis of a heartless monster. Even their own backstory doesn't seem to gel with the show...

Well, I guess they answer the question of how the hell did a single nanny exist across multiple millennia. Dayak is a title, it seems. Not a name. That was a useful retcon I suppose. Maybe they should have thought more about their own continuity  And yes, it seems everything Honerva is now doing she's doing for the sake of Lotor. Not out of her own capacity or desire. And Lotor, somehow bathing in pure life energy, is dead. And now, we have further proof that Lotor's story about being an essentially good person who had to watch a planet of his friends and allies burn. Again, this whole thing screams redemption arc. Where and how, after this entire process of being exiled due to his pragmatism, in being in reverence of Altea...did he suddenly turn Space Vampire feeding upon the very people he revered...? This episode gave the opportunity to make the Altean colony and Lotor using them as a vampire make sense. Instead it just raises more questions. It makes it seem even more likely that at one point Honerva was the one harvesting to make druids. That at one point Lotor was supposed to be redeemed. Then changes were forced. Or maybe a half baked redemption is still coming? Willing suspension of disbelief is utterly gone. The story is plainly a patchwork of mistakes piled upon mistakes.

A beautifully animated, beautifully scored and beautifully voice acted incoherent mess.

Still got time for that transformation sequence in the middle of an inconsequential battle that doesn't further the main plot and further doubles down on the problems caused by the five year gap. Do we really have time to rebuild the Voltron coalition and bring stability in seven episodes...? And what part of this actually benefits from the five year gap? “The Galra Empire is at war with itself” this scenario could have played out perfectly well during a civil war cause by Lotor's 'death' and Sendak creating a splinter faction. The five year gap was in no way necessary, as I mentioned in previous posts. And...do we really have time for an episode that's one long reference to Alien...? Even now at the half way point of the episode, it seems clear they're either going to find something that mildly advances the plot or else is utterly pointless. Do we have the time to waste on this when there are so many other plot threads that need tying up? Pidge and Lance's lion moments for one. Lance needs to use his sword. Ever again. Probably to save Allura, just to really hammer home that she's weak and incapable without him now. Whatever's going on with Keith is another. Maybe Axca will just info-dump an explanation. Or not. Are we just going to get a bunch of things unsolved? A bunch of things forgotten? Are they going to make this a to be continued in a new season...?

Well, there we go. The secret weapon made with distilled Altean quintessence. Now we know where it went. So it devours quintessence, slaughters Galra but just...pushes aside Paladins of Voltron...? Ok, so it's probably engineered to hunt Galra. Which makes sense, right? A Galra super weapon. That only hunts Galra. Ok, so now comes the info-dump retcon. Whereas previously it was created by the Galra base they were infiltrating using the Distilled quintessence... It was now found in the Quantum Abyss... And trained and engineered by Lotor to hunt Galra...? Sure. Whatever. It makes no sense and feels shoehorned into the plot. But sure. Rather than being pragmatically working toward an empire that didn't rely on using other races for Quintessence, Lotor was actually secretly making monsters to kill only Galra for the sake of genocide...? Nonsense.

“How do you know so much about it?” Good question Lance. And guess what? It's not actually answered in the show. Go back and watch the episode where Keith and Krolia found this thing. Any hint of it being a weapon Lotor created...? Any hint of it being anything except built or engineered on that base? I think you'll find not because they just forced this into the plot now. Who knows what purpose the creature was supposed to originally serve, if any, but this is obviously nonsense. And Lance is quite rightly asking, “How does Keith know so much about it...?” And it's because the writers needed to info-dump another retcon.

And just a small aside... Lance not knowing the difference between an Altean Hour and an Altean Minute literally contradicts what was established about his grasp of the time system seasons ago. He wasn't born yester-quintant. But now he's too dumb to remember time units. Because who gives a damn about continuity or character progression when you can just have characters regress...?

And why are they acting surprised that Honerva can build more than one robeast...? I'm so tired of seeing them all written as complete idiots. If Honerva has access to Altean Alchemy, and they know she does and access to the infrastructure and resources to build one robeast then it stands to reason she can build more than one... That doesn't even need a genius like Pidge to figure out. That's just common sense. That they've all now written to be bereft of.

And split up? Ok, so with so few episodes to go that likely means splitting focus from the Paladins and the Atlas on an episode by episode basis, most likely. Plus the obligatory “comedy” episode to waste yet more time that could be spent telling the actual story. Then everything needs at least an episode to wrap up...? Guess we're not getting the endings and tied up threads we were expecting. Or if we do it will be brushed aside. Like Keith's explanation of how he knew so much about the Not-A-Xenomorph.

Still, on the bright side? Only a few more episodes to go...

Oh wow. If the ongoing saga of the girl that used to be Allura who will live for millennia and the boy who will live for decades that used to be a character developing wasn't cringeworthy enough, now we have the characters just arbitrarily deciding to go to the one place in the entire Voltron coalition that the Robeast arrived at. Such a lazy plot contrivance. Lance is right. Why couldn't there have been some means of tracking a quintessence signature or some kind of magical anomaly intrinsic to the Robeasts that Honerva is creating? A magical element would have given Allura something to do other than pout. What they needed was something to give them a CLUE as to where they next need to go. Seconds, literally seconds after Pidge has pointed out the vastness of the universe and how unlikely it would be to find the robeast with not a single clue... They just arbitrarily decide to go to the planet it landed on!? What the actual hell, writers? Can I have a crate or two of whatever you were high on when you wrote this, please?

Transformation sequence. Because we need that eating up the run time don't we...? Yeah, it's a nitpick, so what?

Oh boy. Another planet massacred. Another group of allies lost. Cheap emotional tugging at the last hurdle when it's largely irrelevant. Not that I suppose it really matters. After a few months they'll be back on their feet and making cartoons again, just like Earth. After all, they probably all escapedor mostly did. It seems absurd that they couldn't have. They're one of the most technologically advanced species in the universe. Escape pods wouldn't be beyond them. Makes a damn sight more sense than last season where we're supposed to believe the entire multi billion population of Earth fit into those prisons. Billions are dead on Earth, remember? So, 'dead' Olkarion yet another example of the Paladins being given almost no hope of a happy ending short of a deus ex machina that will somehow undo all the damage. Or it just gets ignored. Because who cares about Billions dead on Earth? Or across the rest of the coalition...? Which raises another point... Why did nothing happen to Olkarion during the five year gap...? Did they even try to contact Olkarion when they emerged from the quintessence field...? Because it sure didn't look like it was devastated in their absence. It looked, until the robeast, pristine.

Continuity? What's that? At this point it wouldn't even shock me if they had Pidge wake up and say “wow, what a wild dream...” As the last second of the series.

How can Hunk still not be good under pressure, after he's shown multiple times...to be good under pressure...? To have developed as a character...? You know what, never mind... So wait, this whole episode was just to establish... That Honerva has access to a Teludav...? Is that really information that couldn't have already been inferred? An energy detected on the Robeast for example? Or just, I dunno, putting two and two together? What thematically was gained by Pidge's vision quest that couldn't have been delivered by some survivors? I know they're going for a noble sacrifice on a planetary scale, but... When the noble sacrifice is to deliver information that realistically could have been gathered in countless other ways... It just feels, like a lot of the plot now, forced.

Well, escape pods. Who could have guessed that? And the episode ends with them gaining a tracker. Something that was probably necessary at least on some level to make the episode make sense. Would it have been so hard to say that between Pidge and Allura they made a magi-tech tracker that just about detects the Robeasts and then the Olkari data makes it work perfectly? Nah. Let's just have them find the aftermath of a robeast attack randomly a split second after saying how absurd that would be...

Unique Energy Signatures Interesting. An energy signature that's unique.

And the robeasts have them. Huh.

You know what's really easy to spot in a set of data...?

S O M E T H I N G    U N I Q U E

See, if you take the text so far as an example of background cosmic radiation and all the other stuff one might detect around Earth, the above two words would be a unique energy signature. Something not usually found in nature. Something outside the norm. Make's one wonder why there was no way to track these unique energy signatures before now. Say, with the Atlas or the established satellite networks around Earth. Makes one wonder why over months this data wasn't analysed. Of course, I'm assuming that anyone even turned on a scanner. Or remembered they had hands. Why would anyone think to scan space when a new an unknown enemy showed up. From Space. Don't be silly. That would require the application of logic.

And, I really don't care for the continued loss of time fixating on the MFEs and their wacky lunchtime with Axca... Or indeed all Axca's angst. Considering how much we still have to happen for The Paladins I'm not really feeling the need to develop a last second former general to be a half formed love interest for Keith. Basically following the same plot of learning to be more human and less angst ridden that Keith did. Well, this episode sure feels like filler. Random trap, with a bunch of old enemies. I mean, at least they remembered Alteans can change skin tone, I guess...? Just about the only thing that impressed me about this episode so far.

Well, that fight scene happened. Wait...left you...? The last we saw the two of them had blown up. And half of Zethrid's face is burned. Indicating surviving the explosion. Her entire crusade of gathering mercenaries, hunting Keith, the name of the episode being The Grudge... It all adds up to dead partner. But now Axca's saying... Ezor left Zethrid...? What the hell kind of absurdity is that...? She'll never take me back...? That has to be the biggest dumbest cop out... What could have been a really emotionally compelling look at a “bad guy” having more nuanced motivations... Made Zethrid look like she was having a tantrum.

And still, nothing of the wider plot advances. More filler.

Gosh, this mostly static series of shots of Allura telling us what's happening at Oriande sure is engaging. Thank goodness this isn't in a visual medium or we might have been shown this rather than told... And another big rousing speech about end the war. That will result in the war not ending, if any of the previous times were anything to go by. Except this is the last season, so... This time doing the same thing has to work.

Well, I'm surprised we didn't get two transformation sequences in a row. I would have thought that would be the best use of their time. Also, whilst I see the thematic necessity of Allura in charge, I'm not sure how the plot really justified it. And is it just me, or did Ezor always seem a bit...pasted in place and static...? Not even sure the voice was the same, maybe it's just me... Still no Lance and Pidge Lion connection. Just an aside really. Not sure if we'll ever see it at this stage.

And again, maybe this is just me... But surely we can only feel like every reality is under threat is a big deal once in the same show, right? One also has to wonder that given access to the same alchemical ability and greater knowledge, that Honerva could have retrieved the Sincline with... Another similar mech...? Seems like an unnecessarily massive ritual just to bring probably not Lotor back. Or was bringing him back just part of it and the majority was to collapse the white hole...? She's just controlling him...? Because why not. All this guilt and need to save her son, this massive magical ritual was just... To get a puppet Lotor and to kill the White Lion...? And damage reality in the process? Or is this just the classic trope of screw you all I'm destroying everything?

I mean, I know that these episodes want to keep you guessing, but... Maybe just a touch of explaining what all the bright beams of light and particle effects are would be good...? And preferably not sat at a conference table telling us but through the story showing us. At least the plot has advanced. I guess it's now time for the comedy episode to destroy the flow...? 

Well, seems like another filler episode. I really wanted an entire episode dedicated to a secondary character when there's already plenty of Paladin's stories left to tell. And the interview format is still more excuses for tell don't show as people talk at the screen to deliver information without it seeming artificial. The absurd necessities to make the found footage format work always bugs me. There's no difference here. I'm just not feeling Cloverfield but Voltron. I can't deny that it's been animated well, but, I'm tired of filler. And this season so far has been the vast majority filler.

If you want to do dramatic framing and filming, keeping one character in shot and then another, then swapping back... Then clearly your camera has a dramatically appropriate setting that works in micro gravity. If you're going to do found footage, don't also drop the ball and include impossible camera movements.

Honestly, Coran retelling the whole series would have been more entertaining than what it has been so far. But for what it's worth, the world building, finding out Colleen Holt is a biologist / geneticist of some considerable skill? Yeah. Interesting. But...how late in the game are we to be finding all this out...? Doesn't world building usually happen throughout, dotted about organically? This all just feels like... Here's some stuff we never got to mention before now. All delivered in a really artificial seeming way...

Adjusting for long range parameters...?

You're in orbit. Your ship can communicate over light years with no signal delay. Orbit is not long range for The Atlas. Just say you're adjusting for interference...

Also, they are finding new and creative ways to have meetings around a big table. The most riveting part of this show. Watch in wonder as three static characters hover over an action scene interspersed with static. Wonder if next time we'll get to see someone make coffee for the meeting. Puzzle over the filler to plot ratio. Thank characters talking directly to the screen telling us the status of questioning prisoners of war that could have been delivered in countless other ways. Wouldn't that conversation with the Altean have been more interesting if delivered in the interrogation room rather than through two cameras...?

Still not going to touch the lifespan gap? Ok.

And holy crap use Hunk more. That desert part? Brilliant. An actual stand out moment that shows his compassion and his intellect. Not just being a big worrying goof who eats. Finally, something I can genuinely praise in this whole mess. They haven't ignored Hunk. That was a wonderful moment, breaking barriers with cookies. And so far, in terms of writing, 100% the best part of the whole series. One diamond in all the rough... Or maybe something of more value than a diamond. Like a good writer on the Voltron team...

“Winning prizes is my speciality.” Uhuh. Once someone has been rendered a prize I guess.

And now it's time for yet another filler episode interspersed with a little plot. Sorry, by plot I mean an info dump. This time from “Lotor” or a vision of him at least. Lecturing us about the void creatures. It's about time they got brought up again. But thanks writers for yet again delivering that information and story in the least engaging possible way.

It's nice seeing the characters have a little fun. I won't deny it. I personally don't buy how eager Pidge is to help Lance out on his shiny thing for Allura quest... But, at this stage I think I should just cast aside anything that might have previously been established about the characters and just assume stuff will happen at the writer's whims. If I'm lucky, it will be entertaining. Maybe the inconsistency comes from writing? Or animators not being given clear direction by writers? Or executive meddling. Maybe I also think it's cheating to use a robot arm that has no resistance in an arm wrestling contest. Shiro's body provides no leverage. It's all down to the hand unit, but nobody brings that up in the show. Even though they should.

Also not digging the using both the men in her life to tempt Allura. It kinda draws even more attention to how flighty they made her. How sudden and how jarring her reciprocating Lance's feelings was when they first seeded it at the Omega Shield. One big gesture to win his prize. It's all so skin crawling. So diminishing for both her and for Lance. Honerva, through the void creature, can presumably see this in her mind. Why else would she shift between the two men? It's almost as though the show itself is acknowledging they made Allura indecisive, flighty, weak to temptation and easily manipulated. And then she puts her hand to the glass. Then takes what is effectively a demon into her, that she knows allows Honerva to kill a host at will. I mean, at least they included her Mother, rather than Alfor. That's something I suppose, to indicate that her entire character isn't solely defined by the men in her life now. Though, it's small comfort. I mean, I get that she's being manipulated. I get that she's being tempted. But she's not Allura any longer. Allura was the incredibly strong willed last daughter of a dead world. A genocide survivor who came out fighting. The princess who gave up her last vestiges of her royal office for her friend to have an arm. The woman who killed the last remnants of her own Father's uploaded mind. Allura is strong willed. Stronger willed than any of us could dream of being. Or at least she was. Much as they now try to devalue her in the show... She united two thirds of the Universe under the Voltron coalition. Now what is she...? A damsel in distress who's going to need to be saved from her own weakness and a prize to the nice boy. And I'd put money on Lance using his Altean Broadsword to save her, just to hammer that home.

Of all the awful choices the writers have made, destroying Allura is probably the worst. You'd think I'd say Plance, but you'd be wrong. As I've always said, I'd rather not have it be canon at all than have it be badly written crap. So even if somehow Plance is super late end game, it will be just a shoddily written piece of crap on top of a giant shitty cake. So I wanted to take my victories where I could. I wanted to hope that maybe Allura could be Allura again at the last hurdle. Nope. Destroyed.

And credit where it's due? That overly bombastic anime-as-fuck arm wrestle, complete with foe with a heart of gold trope played for laughs? Yeah. That was fun. It's not like they can't do moments. I will admit that. They have some among the writing staff who make wonderful moments. It's just a shame those moments are mired in so much dross...

That touch of self awareness about the robot arm from Iverson I appreciated. Again. Moments. The entire concept of using a void creature combined with Voltron's joining of minds seems like the worst idea ever. It puts them all in jeopardy. Lance is being the only sensible one there. Which is rare to say. It also doesn't feel like he's doing it purely out of his feelings for her. Just common sense. Also, I feel like the Astral Lions moment would have carried a little more oomph if... Lance and Pidge had had their Lion Bond moment. I'm going to keep coming back to that. Because it feels very present in it's absence. It feels as if it has been either removed or else forgotten.

The battle with their alternate selves was fascinating. One of the few fight scenes that acutally wasn't boring this season. Though, Allura inevitably giving in to and using the darkness... What did I say before...? They've made her so weak. It took her lion intervening to stay her hand. And was it just me or was Lance using his broadsword...? With no fanfare...? No dramatically appropriate moment for it to materialise in a meaningful way...? It's just... There...? They establish he can summon it only under intense need, then never use it and now suddenly it's just... There...? Wow. I was giving them far too much credit when I assumed it was foreshadowing some dramatically appropriate moment. Sorry to anyone out there I said as much to. They just forgot about it.

This may be bad of me, but there's something distinctly Freudian about Lance wielding Allura's Father's Broad Sword... That just me?

So... They're continuing together on life's journey now...? And we're still not going to even touch on relative human to Altean life spans...? Really...? Ok...

And this is just another aside...

Their minds are all connected. So, Pidge doesn't need to explain anything except for the sake of the audience. That's fine and dandy. I'm used to Voltron relying on prodigious amounts of exposition. But why is Alfor surprised at the knowledge of Allura being possessed...? Angry? Sure. Concerned? Sure. Trying to convince her it's a bad idea? Sure. But...surprised...? How...? The plot would have you believe they're all profoundly connected on a far deeper level than ever before... And yet, somehow he's surprised at this knowledge...? Whatever. Plot right? Who cares. It's not like a team of writers have been paid a large sum for this to be a coherent story...

Should I just rename myself Bitter Bitching Bear?

Probably... I guess palaces in the mind would make a Voltron and Persona 5 crossover possible. Not that I would want to lessen Persona 5 in that way. Just an idle observation. And again, despite the mind connection, Allura is revealing things to Alfor that surprise him. I know it'd make conversations pointless and thus the whole show would be a hard watch... But still, why even pretend there is a mind connection if they don't even pay it lip service?

If I was taking a shot every time there was an unnecessary transformation sequence... In fairness I'd probably just be a little merry. But still, for a show that's being so rushed, they seem to have all the time in the world for transformation sequences and filler episodes. And really lousy looking CGI corridors. That was jarring. Also, Lance and Alfor being one and the same in the cockpit. Freudian symbolism intensifies.

Now, I'm just going to spitball for a moment. Allura is filled with an evil tennis ball from the void. She needs the evil ball to find Honerva. Yet we've seen she can remove the entities from Alteans. Admittedly, a dead one but, what's to say it's not possible on a living Altean? It's not like anyone tried.

Take the entity. Sever their connection. Ask the Alteans where Honerva is. Literally no need to put her sanity at risk. No need to have her willingly being possessed by a spooky space demon. Would it be as visually impressive? No. But it was an alternative that wasn't even discussed. Or considered.  And it makes a great deal more sense. It also allows Allura to remain at least partially her incredibly strong willed self and not give in to the easy dark path. Yes, at this stage she's resisting. But let's be real. She's going to fall to the darkness. At least for a time. You don't foreshadow this hard about how bad the spooky space demon is unless you're going somewhere with it. Mind you, I've been wrong before about the writers doing something they're obviously building toward...

And now Lotor has gone from compelling conflicted character, to vampire space Hitler to a pile of gloop in a chair. Just one screw you after the next... Guess there's no redemption arc for him that doesn't involve a spatula...

Also, it suddenly strikes me that there's a whole lot of lazy asset reuse thanks to this episode's memory stuff going on. I'm also pretty sure I saw Lance's crazy gunning face against Alfor used elsewhere. Have the animators also given up? Well, with what they've been given to write, I wouldn't blame them. And...why is Zarkon's colour palette off...? His skin is literally the wrong colour... Come on guys, this isn't even funny... Why would Honerva remember her own Husband as the wrong colour...? Why would, what I assume is Zarkon's soul, be the wrong colour...?

Honerva's plan... So... Let me get this straight...

Honerva has Zarkon's soul in her mind. Possibly Lotor's somewhere as well, but that's just a guess.

She's made cloned bodies before. You see where I'm going with this?

Why destroy every single other reality, just to find the right one when she could just... Replace their souls in cloned bodies...? Or at the very least bring Zarkon back to aid her...? If Allura could do it it would be child's play to Honerva. Her motivation makes sense, but her method is utterly stupid. It makes her look stupid when she can't even use the tools at her own disposal.

What even is this daft speech and argument from Keith...?

Voltron is gone? Voltron is within us...?

Bollocks to your pseudo-deep emotional prattle. Just be sensible for once. The lions were never there to begin with. They were astral constructs. The lions aren't literally there so they aren't literally gone. You don't need a rousing speech about reaching for the lion inside you, because it's all in your heads as much as it's in hers... So stupid.

Also, pretty sure the entire blazing sword sequence was reused...

And something bad happened to Allura because she used the bad thing that was bad. Did we mention it was bad enough?

Well, here it is. The Big Robot they have to beat this season. Complete with seraphic imagery and form. That sure as hell hasn't been done to death, has it? And it's the board room of exposition again. Woohoo. And yet more Lance angst. And another Lance and Keith bonding moment. We get it, they're friends now. Ok, apparently removing the entity didn't kill the Altean...? So she could literally have just used their help...? Or even traced Honerva using one of the other's entity. And again, nothing was even suggested to do that.

I'm honestly not sure what would have been worse right now. The fact that Allura has been rendered bed bound and unable to do anything or if she'd been made a damsel in distress to be literally saved. Then again, I suppose there's still time for that. And in a sense, she is still in distress. Waiting to be saved by the plot. Oh, here it is. Lance going to awaken her with his love. Hooray. The damsel in distress is saved by the Nice Guy.

And the whole first part of the episode was literally just padding and wasting time. Are we any closer to finding out why Keith can do what he does...? Will we ever find out? Nah, I'll scratch that off along with Lance and Pidge ever getting their lion moments that everyone else got last season. But thank goodness we had time for all the pointless filler.

Ok... So, to be clear... At no point before going into the Astral Plane, did Allura think to remove the entities from the Alteans they have onboard...? I mean, yeah, sure, Allura getting controlled is one thing, she's just a plot device to be used these days and lacks any agency of her own any longer. But to have the irrelevant side characters not have their spooky space ghost taken out... When they know it directly connects them to Honerva... Even if they couldn't predict Honerva could control them, leaving them bonded with the entities was a stupid risk... Everyone is written like an idiot.

And, I'm not even sure how you can classify these void creatures as entities. They don't seem to have any will or agency of their own. They just seem to serve as brain bluetooth for Honerva and nothing else. Feels like they were supposed to be more than they ended up being. You can pretty much sum up the whole series as such. It was supposed to be so much more than it ended up being.

Now, I'm sure someone will point out that the Balmera we know is near Earth, so it shouldn't be here. Which is why they found a random new Balmera and new Balmerans. But, wouldn't it be more satisfying to have Shay and her formerly enslaved people being part of this final battle...? Wouldn't it be more compelling than watching New Balmera and the New Balmerans to see Shay and her long downtrodden people fighting back...? To just introduce a new Balmera with no previous stakes in the conflict is...mind boggling...

Mother and Son combined huh...? Freudian Symbology 3 – The Freudianing

Two episodes and then it's all over. Thankfully over.

And still time for another transformation sequence. We get it. Lions go click. I never thought I'd get bored watching a giant robot form... And at this stage, repetition seems to be a good topic. They're battling to save all realities. Again. There's a big space wobbly hole. Again. Only Coran with the power of breaking stuff can stop it. Again. I mean, I get this is based on a formulaic Japanese super robot show from the 80's, but it's current year argument... Can we maybe have something new in the season arc formula that isn't beat the big bad robot...? Right up until season 6 this show had so much potential and we've watched it all get squandered.

So...suddenly Balmera... That can travel at speeds at least as quick as Teludav...? Ok, sure. Whatever. And calling the other Balmera here...? Wow, wouldn't that have been more compelling if Shay, on her own Balmera previously wounded by Honerva, called out to the others? Wouldn't that have made this suddenly Balmera moment make more sense...? Nah. Screw sense. New Balmera and the New Balmerans happened. Then a whole bunch happened... It's like, they're missing all these obvious ways to tie things together using all they have in place... How can one writer never mind a whole damn team of writers miss something so elementary so repeatedly...?

At this stage, I genuinely think they stopped caring.

Deus Ex Balmera made Voltron and The Atlas fuse into a derpy generic looking Gundam.

You've got the rights to Voltron one of the most iconic combiner robots in history. Why the hell would you, for the final battle, turn it into yet another generic looking super robot in high heels!? Why!? Even that daft looking toy covered in blue bits was better than this...

Again, I can't understand how seeing two robots form a bigger robot is somehow boring... But they managed it... Makes me worry that the Voltron writers are apparently going on to do Spider Verse films... Somehow they might make multiple reality spider people boring...

And a big silly looking sword as well. Why not just cover it in belt buckles while you're at it?

And given this Alt-Reality Lotor and Alt-Reality Allura, they had the perfect chance to have them both be adorable little munchkins together. Couldn't even do that... And can we just stop with this? We get it, even if she wins she loses cause it's not really her world and not really her Zarkon and her plan was always doomed to fail... Yes, we get it. Hubris. Can we please just hurry up and end the series before I start listing all of the many plot threads you've overlooked...?

Ok, now the over-designed purple mess can fight the over-designed mess with a vaguely Voltron head. Then some shoddy deus ex machina will happen, probably.

Yup. Voltron just turns into a giant set of wings before ending up in the nexus of all realities. And Allura makes it all better with her magic. And predictably Allura makes the ultimate sacrifice because of course she does. Who didn't see this coming? And did she just magically make Lance Altean...? Man, I preferred Allura when she wasn't just a walking plot device. Though, now I think back, was she ever anything else...? How bad it's gotten makes me re-evaluate what it was... And finally we get everything tied up with a few sentences under some still images with the exception of Shiro's kiss, which was fine, but hardly the soul surging uplifting thing it wanted to be.

And that's that.

Previously, I was angry, I will admit that. And it was shameful. Now though...? I'm obviously bitter and sarcastic about it, but mostly a combination of relief and disappointment. Glad it's over. Disappointed at what it ultimately devolved into. Ironic as this may be, coming from a writer of shitty Voltron fanfiction... From season six onwards, this show has felt like shitty Voltron fanfiction. In essence, that's what it was. There are so many of you here on tumblr. who could have done a better job. A much better job. Maybe some of you will in future.

At least now, I can move on from the mess that the canon became. I won't waste my time hoping they'll make it better or wondering if they'll resolve every plot thread. Because I know they don't. I know they forget whole swathes of things they set up. And I'm sure people will point out more. I won't be writing fics trying to make them fit into the canon. If anything, I'll want to rewrite everything that went wrong from season six onwards. I will probably at least finish off some Plance pieces that I think The Garden needs now more than ever. Set in some of the alternate realities that didn't turn into this...utter mess... See you later, Space Cowboys. Sorry about the space dysentery.

Also, as one comment points out? That's not a gundam in my gif. But just a robot that looks silly dancing. pretty sure it's from a gundam series...but I only really know wing and beargguys. ...Here's a jolly thought. Altean Lance? He will live for centuries. Allura's last "gift" condemns him to spend nearly 1000 years watching his friends, his family over several generations, probably his entire lineage die and rot. All the while mourning her and never moving on. Fuck. This. Season.

[sieben9]

“the miller’s daughter” impressions

First order of business: remember how to breathe.

Nope.

Nope again.

Nope, still not working

...OK, where did I put that defibrillator.

Thoughts under the cut.

So. Cora did not have a glass heart as a replacement. Missed opportunity, but who am I to judge.

...god, this episode killed me. Multiple times. There's just so much going on.

First, Cora's backstory.

Oh, look, it's Paige! Hey, Paige!

So that was her problem with Eva? Some spilled flour and a crown? ...OK, that latter one I can at least get behind, but still. I hate to say this after everything that happened, but Snow's comment about "do you think the person she was survived [ripping out her own heart]?"... well, I have to say, that person probably wasn't that great to begin with. Oh, she was ambitious, brilliant, and daring, but...

 "I want to make them bow. I want their kneecaps…to crack and freeze on the stones. I want their necks to break from bending."

...yeah, there may have been the odd character flaw or eight in there. Also, that was a fantastic delivery.

So, I recently re-read the original fairy tale of Rumpelstilzchen, and yes, I cackled with glee when I realised what was happening in the flashback. Also, is it ever explained where she got that dress? Because currently, I'm imagining her doing the "she's about my size"-thing with some unlucky lady who's now lying in the gardens in her underwear.

So. That's how Cora met Rumplestiltskin, then.

God, but these two were just so bad for one another, but mesmerising in their awfulness, too. Because as terrible as they were for each other, they were also quite clearly in love.  Or at least something close enough.

Also hot. I'm not going to pretend that I didn't notice

And I was right on the "catastrophic breakup" front. I mean, I had absolutely no idea how catastrophic, but still. I got that one. And you just know it's been haunting him for all these years. "Did you ever love me?" could very well have been the last thing he asked on his deathbed. Also, Rumple, I could have told you that one for free. ...then again, he's got well-documented problems in that area, so I probably shouldn't snark. Too much.

And then...

::long sigh:: Rumple, under the circumstances, I can't really blame you, but also what the fuck.

So. That answers my question about Snow, I guess. Gotta say. I wasn't expecting Cora to die quite this early in the season. I mean, I expected her to, and was not-all-that-quietly looking forward to it (because while I loved to hate her, there was definitely a good amount of "hate" in there), but.... well, there are still six episodes left, so why did this feel like the first half (or maybe third) of the season finale?

And poor Regina. No, she should never have trusted Cora. She should never have worked with her. She knew that nothing good would come of it, and she still did it, but at the same time... "You would have been enough" and her smile just before she collapsed! Just... gaaah. A depressing number of potentially good things in Regina's life only ever seem to come to  "could have been", "almost", and "maybe." It's a damn tragedy.

And that is the face of someone who just took a running jump off the redemption-wagon. ...can't really blame her, either

Congratulations, Snow, you did to Regina what Cora did to you. Feeling heroic, yet? To be fair, though, the narrative absolutely frames it as a terrible thing, and she knows it almost the second she gives Regina that heart. Seeing her that cold and calculating as she was in the vault, though...? Damn, she'd have made a terrifying villain, is all I'm going to say.

OK. The phone call. Dear god, that phone call.

aka "this is why I have to write this post from beyond the grave"

This just wasn’t fair. I forgot how to breathe. I mean, where do I even start? I mean, the text itself was... wow. Yeah. As Rumple said himself, he's full of love. And Belle very clearly knew that. She doesn't even know herself at the moment, but I don't think she has any doubts that this man loves her. More, he told her exactly who the woman he loves is, and through that, she knows herself at least a little (I'd even say "a lot") better. Just... give me a second, I'm having emotions again.

And then there's the contrast to the love story in the flashback. I know it's never stated outright, but to me it was clear that Cora and Rumple brought out the very worst in one another. They fed each other's darkness, and they both revelled in it. Compare that to "you make me want to go back to the best version of myself", and just... this adds so many shades and layers to their relationship and their love, it's amazing.

And then, of course, we had Neal's reaction.

I have this creeping suspicion that Neal might have honestly thought that his father was entirely incapable of love since taking on the curse. After all, he left him. Something his "real" father would never have done. Maybe he didn't believe it fully, but it's just the kind of thing you'd tell yourself to get over the pain of being abandoned like that. And now his father is dying, and he has to confront the fact that... well, he probably really does still love him. And his tiny little "I'm still angry" just pulled the whole scene together. Because of course he is! Of course he's still furious, he's allowed to be! Doesn't mean he loves his father any less, though.

::sigh:: Please, just let them be happy...

While we're on the family drama... all my love for this little moment all the way back at the beginning of the episode:

"You're hoping I'll bleed to death now, aren't you?"​ "You're Henry's grandfather"

Just... just that little exchange says so much about Emma as a person. No, she doesn't like him. No, she doesn't really trust him. But, if I may paraphrase Firefly for a moment "You're family. Why are we still talking about this?"

There's also a little philosophical aside I've been pondering while (or rather mostly after) watching the episode and that is how this whole conversation on "love is weakness" vs "love is strength" played out in the end. After all, we saw where Cora got the phrase, and then we saw her die by her daughter's hand (though not intent), because Regina loved her and wanted to be loved in return.

I think that when all is said and done, love was Cora's weakness -- because she made it into one. Her desperate attempts to rid herself of the emotion turned it into a blind spot. Compare that to Emma, who's always shown to be at her best when acting out of love for her family (and friends, when she didn't know what they were), and who's only ever been strengthened by that love. Hell, it's what let her do some pretty impressive magic this very episode -- it took two fully trained sorceresses to get through that first barrier, and Cora almost failed completely at the second one.

So... yeah, no neat little phrase to summarise all of that, but I thought this worth writing down.