#he believes I’m wrong but doesn’t know enough about dune to argue his point so he just ends the conversation

[belle-of-a-time]

I’m so tired of having to tell my friends “this is clearly inspired by dune look!” Because I’m unable to be normal about dune and them responding “no obviously it’s inspired by Star Wars” BITCH WHAT DO YOU THINK ONE OF STAR WARS’ MAIN FUCKIMG INSPIRATION IS ARE YOU JOKING ME RIGHT NOW

“Woah Sand worm!”

“Actually it’s the fucking sarlac pit.”

I will EAT YOU ALIVE RAAAAH everything comes back to DUNE! All fucking roads lead to dune!

[tonystarktogo]

Could I pretty pretty please get some more on the time travel crack au? Maybe when it gets out that Steve, Bruce, andThor are technically from the future?

As much as I’d love to jump to that part, I think it’s funnier necessary to cover a few other tidbits first. For example:

Tony misses whatever discussion follows Thor’s -- hah, got it right in one, he hasn’t lost his touch completely yet -- arrival before the god carries his brother off towards a containment cell with the sort of cheer that causes Tony to carefully keep at least two people between himself and Thor, lest the asshole tries to hug him again.

Not that it can be that big a loss considering they all -- sans Loki -- end up back in the command center of the helicarrier, where Fury glares balefully at the most recent invader of his precious aircraft that clearly isn’t meant to stand in the way of gods.

A glare Thor aggressively doesn’t notice. Likely because he’s too busy partaking in the on-going discussion on what to do next.

And by ‘what to do next’ Tony doesn’t mean the expected we-were-invaded-by-a-mindcontrolled-alien-nutbag-and-there’s-probably-more-out-there-seems-like-the-kind-of-oh-shit-situation-we-should-plan-for. No. That would be reasonable and expected and Tony’s spent all of three hours in the company of the esteemed Captain America and already he can tell you that Rogers is none of that.

[Which, not cool, Capsicle. Dazzling and befuddling people with crazily brilliant ideas is his job.]

[continues under the cut]

So far, Tony’s been paying attention for ten minutes. In that time, Rogers and Thor have gotten into an argument over how to handle Loki -- which holy shit, that went from a calm, rational discussion to a battle to the death between two superhumans on a sugar high in zero point four seconds -- that Tony is so not gonna touch. [Nope. Let some other fool [i.e. Rogers] throw himself head-first into norse god family drama, Tony’s own feelings concerning his family are complicated enough.] That conversation devolved into a not-openly-fighting-while-totally-fighting stand-off between Rogers and Banner over a way too bitter comment from the latter [something about ‘you’d know all about choosing one brother over the other, wouldn’t you’ which what?], which in turn gets derailed by Banner needling Thor about the merits of beheading over stabbing.

Romanoff had the good sense to disappear -- probably to interrogate Loki while his apparently protective big brother is distracted, now that Tony thinks about it. 

Unfortunately that still leaves Tony stuck here, having to play the role of the mature adult because no one else fucking will. Tony hates being responsible. It’s like being back in high school and being left to do all the work on your own in group project.

[Tony failed that project. Got a straight up zero on purpose because spite is a wonderful motivator. Which, now that Tony thinks about it, doesn’t say anything promising about the current situation.]

Tony leans even further back in his seat, only balancing on the backlegs of the chair, to give Fury a very sharp, very judgemental look.

These are the people you’re betting Earth’s survival on, that look says.

Fury’s already pissed off expression darkens further, which brightens Tony mood substantially. That one of the suit’s sensors flashes green twice in quick succession less than a minute later really just makes for a delicious cherry on the top. Or more precisely a good excuse to ditch this trainwreck of a match-making attempt.

“Whoops,” Tony says, clearly audible but not too loud to draw real attention from the three [still arguing-while-pretending-not-to] stooges on the other end of the room. “Looks like I gotta take this call.”

He jiggles his fingers at Fury. The guy rolls his eyes -- probably jealous that he doesn’t have an excuse himself, that bitch face doesn’t fool Tony -- but no one tries to stop him.

“Alright, J, what do you have for me?”

*

Tony pretends not to notice the shuffling footsteps. Glances at the disturbingly normal clock on the wall that is so not up-to-date with the rest of the technology in the room, it must be an inside joke. Tony would love to meet the SHIELD agent behind it -- it can’t be easy, being the only person with a sense of humor in an entire agency.

30 minutes.

Well. That’s longer than Tony thought he’d get. JARVIS still hasn’t cracked the last layer on SHIELD’s really fucked up dirt -- and given what he’s already found, that says a lot -- but it’s only a matter of time now. Besides, Tony’s got a job to do.

“To- Stark.”

��Rogers.”

Tony doesn’t turn. Neither does he stop typing.

“What are you doing?”

Tony scoffs. He’s not in the mood to pander to inferior minds -- not when they’re so fucking frustrating, don’t make any sense and worst of all make him do all the work. 

“He’s tracking the Tesseract, using the scepter as a point of reference,” Banner says after taking one look at the screen over Tony’s shoulder.

Tony raises his eyebrows, impressed despite himself. Banner’s credentials clearly don’t do him justice -- and they were pretty damn good to begin with.

“Huh,” says Rogers.

Thanks for playing. Now buckle down and make yourself useful or fuck off, Tony wants to snipe but doesn’t get the chance to because the gods -- this god at least -- just aren’t on his side.

“Even without my brother’s help, a weapon of the tesseract’s might should not be underestimated,” Thor speaks up. “Should we not make haste and collect it?”

"Great idea.” Tony’s voice is dryer than the sand dune he crash-landed in back during his fun little trip to Afghanistan. “If only I’d thought of that instead of inventing fifteen new algorithms to try and get a read on SHIELD’s precious magic eight ball while you were busy defending your brother’s honor. Speaking of, I’m pretty sure Romanoff is a greater danger to his virtue than Captain Shockfreeze over there, so why are you still here?”

Okay, maybe poking the hornet nest that is godly family isn’t his smartest move [didn’t he just say he wasn’t gonna touch that?!] but damn if Tony isn’t curious. And also too annoyed to care about unimportant, subjective things like good manners and tact.

He sort of regrets his cavalier attitute a little when Thor sobers. At least there are no tears in sight. Tony is the last person on Earth who should be left unsupervised around crying people. It just never ends well.

“Ah.” Thor sighs heavily, stems his body against an unfortunate table that creaks dangerously. "I’m afraid I can’t afford to see my brother right now.”

It’s the way he says those words, the weight they carry more than anything that tells Tony he needs to drop this issue right now. Talk about one huge trigger button.

Must be inconvenient to have siblings. Tony totally can’t relate.

“Well, in that case, unless you have a magic trick with which you can pull the Tesseract’s position out of your sleeve, how about you sit as far away from these delicate instruments as possible and don’t touch anything while I work my magic, hm?”

Tony doesn’t let his gaze linger on the crushed edge of the table. Thor hasn’t even seemed to notice. He’s too busy lighting up at Tony’s snappish response. Which is surprising. Tony’s aware he’s a bit of an asshole right now. In his defence, he’s an asshole most of the time.

Rogers leaps across the room -- almost crashing into the previously mentioned delicate sensors as he does so -- to slap his palm over Thor’s mouth.

Tony stares. [How quickly can you develop a new habit again? Because this starts to feel like a new habit.]

“That sounds like a great plan!” Rogers beams at him, so wide and fake it must be physically painful for the epitome of all that is good and holy. At least Tony hopes it is. The supersoldier his father worshipped is still clinging to their resident god of thunder’s face.

It’s.

Tony resolutely turns his back on both of them because their madness doesn’t seem to come with a refund-ticket and if Tony doesn’t finish this program, no one will.

Not even Banner -- whom Tony had been kind of hoping for. Speaking of, the man’s been awfully quiet for a while now.

“You alright there, Brucie-Bear?” Tony turns around -- a little because it’s polite to face people when you talk with them and mostly to have an excuse not to watch the ongoing doomed wrestle-match between Blonde 1 and Blonde 2. His awesome nicknaming skill doesn’t get so much as a twitch.

To be fair, Banner is so busy staring straight ahead with the most epic rendition of the World’s Most Thoughtful Expression™ Tony has seen in a while that it doesn’t seem like the man heard him. At all.

Until he suddenly speaks up.

“I think we’ve forgotten something.” Behind Tony the impromptu wrestling comes to a sudden halt.

Probably something negligible like how to focus on a mission, the sarcastic voice in the back of Tony’s mind drawls. Though it should be noted that Tony’s consciousness only comes in sarcastic or not at all. Sorry, everyone, all the other flavors are out.

Banner’s frown deepens. “Something- Something important.”

Right on cue an explosion rocks the aircraft.

*

There’s a bit more tension in this part than the previous ones. On Tony’s side it’s because he’s smart enough to pick up on Something Is Seriously Wrong, both consciously and subconsciously and also because he feels the pressure what with everyone else apparently not taking this whole thing very seriously.

[Excluding Natasha who, believe me, takes Clint’s fate very serious indeed.]

On our time travellers’ side, they experience the frustration of being unable to talk openly, surrounded by people they don’t trust, trying to play along to the script of a movie they watched like 12 years ago and never revisited. Needless to say they’re failing horrenduously.

[sasskarian]

Fanfic Masterpost ... sort of

In honor of Fanfic Appreciation, I put together a list of my fics for anyone who’d like to look 

Under the cut, because length

Dragon Age:

After the Glitter Fades (Glitterverse):  Hawke x Fenris, modern AU. (Long fic, WIP) Hawke and Fenris are movie stars in a torrid love affair. Fenris has a mysterious past. Also Cassandra is investigating a murder mystery? Varric, as ever, is a delight. (*this is borrowed from @nug-juggler‘s excellent and shorter summary!)

Memorable quote:   Fenris observed candidly was something sacred. For a moment, Hawke fiercely wished she were an artist. The scene in front of her was too… every word she could think of— beautiful, elegant, breathtaking— was trite, a pale description of perfection. 

In the Heart of the Woods: Lavellan x Fairbanks rarepair. (WIP) Inquisitor Lavellan’s heart is broken by a certain Commander, Fairbanks has an appreciation for her, and a love story blooms like elfroot in the Emerald Graves.

Memorable quote:   This kiss, she thinks, two mouths moving in perfect unison, is a spell of its own. Not quite love, not yet, but close enough she can pretend it is. Hope wells up, a solid thrum beating in counterpoint to her heart, and for one perfect moment, the world just bows down and… stands still. All that exists, all that ever has existed or ever will exist is wrapped up right here, right now, in Fairbanks’ lips on hers. Motes of dust turn golden in the sunbeams splashing through the roof, and a touch— his thumb, her cheek— says a million more words than words ever could.

Yesterdays: Surana x Zevran, mild Surana x Alistair pining. Post Origins, complete. A Warden’s sacrifice means something only as long as someone remembers it. A king looks back, balancing regrets with happiness.

Memorable quote:   With a half-sob, he realizes he’s forgotten the sound of her voice. Oh, he remembers how it made him feel, all those years ago, all the glorious, shining moments where happiness dwells still. But what she truly sounded like, what sounds she made as she buried herself in books, the snap of her magic, the low buzz of her and Zevran whispering in their tent, all of that is gone. He knows it happened, but the memory is lit dimly in his mind, a torch burned too low to be flame but not low enough for embers yet.

If You Ever Did Believe (for my sake):  Lavellan x Cullen. (On temporary hiatus) A wary Commander. A lost Dalish mage. Two hearts beating alone and exhausted on a battlefield, their only rest coming from each other.

Memorable quote:   “Does your Maker hate us so much?” Isera asked bitterly, and for a moment, Cullen felt as though years had rippled, bringing his past self— still clanking through the halls of Kinloch Hold in Templar plate— and his current together. He’d asked Ser Greagoir the same question once, after a Harrowing went wrong and the body of a former apprentice lay at their feet. So much potential wasted, so much fear in the mages’ eyes after that. For once, Greagoir had shown a hint of emotion, clapping Cullen’s shoulder briefly before walking away, but hadn’t answered.

Voiceverse:  Lavellan x Solas/Dread Wolf. (WIP) Building off of the great works of @khirsahle and @athreehundredthirtythree. All mages are born with a soulmate--a voice they hear in the darkness of the Fade all their lives. The lucky ones find their soulmates and forge a bond strong enough to threaten the very foundations of the Chantry. At least, that's what they claim. So what happens when a Dalish mage hears the voice of their most reviled and feared god shaping her dreams? 

Memorable quote:   Accompanying the thundering voice, great fissures ruptured around her hiding spot, green light streaking upward as they gathered into a roiling cloud. A wave of raw sound— howls, cries, pleas— rolled over her, forcing her to her knees. Iveani clapped her hands over her ears, losing her own scream among the agony thundering through the Fade. All caution, all her hard-won lessons about walking the Fade, vanished into the back of her mind under the need to simply ride out the explosion and survive.

Mass Effect:

Home is Where You Are: Ryder x Jaal (WIP). Ryder didn’t cross two galaxies and 600 years in search of love. But damn if she didn’t find it anyway.

Memorable quote:   “I should take a shower,” he mumbled, as the same time as Sara said, “Would you like to stay?” Both of them broke off, staring at the other, and she laughed nervously. That feeling was back, the one from the tech lab, fragility and strength and affection turned fierce and bright tumbling over and over one other.

A Song of Sea and Stars: Garrus x Shepard x Thane (WIP). Our favorite turian badboy sees right through the mask the galaxy’s most famous Commander projects. Neither of them expected to fall in love on a host of impossible missions. And both are taken by surprise by a pious Drell who steals both their hearts.

Memorable quote:   (He opens his eyes, shocked how it feels to look into her face, intimate and hungry. He hazily notices that up close, her eyes are thulium-gray. There's a hot, tight knot in his chest and she's pressed so close, he thinks he could count each faint freckle on her face.) (They look like tiny stars.) (…there are twenty-eight on her right cheek. Thirty on her left. And fourteen, right across the bridge of her nose.) (Those are his favorite. They remind him of his own markings.)

the sound of shattering glass: Generic Shepard, post-Tuchanka, pre-Citadel II. The Shroud explodes, taking a beloved friend with it. Shepard only has herself to blame.

Memorable quote:   “Damn Reapers,” he said, striving for nonchalance. “Always throwing us around.” “Banged us up pretty good,” she agreed, and he knew she wasn’t talking about their bumps and bruises. “So what do we do about them?” “Get back on our feet. Keep fighting.” Garrus hummed as she shifted closer, pressed her forehead against his neck. “Maybe find a way to use some really big canons I spend half my time adjusting.”

Star Wars:

He Might Like That: Mandalorian x Cara Dune pining. So they argue. So they took down Gideon, and have a magic green frog baby older than both of them. That doesn’t make them a thing. Does it?

Memorable quote:   He tunes back into the not-so-friendly argument in time to hear Greef splutter. “You trash talked while holding hands! If that’s not flirting, I’m a kowakian monkey lizard.” “It was arm wrestling, not holding hands,” Din points out mildly. 

Star by Star:  Post TRoS. Ben x Rey pining, Finn x Rey x Poe. Can three hopeless idiots in love fill a wound as deep as the death of a dyad? Maybe not, but they’re out to try anyway.

Memorable quote:   “You know,” Poe whispers, a glint of mischief in his eyes, “if we ever did tell him we loved him, he’d probably sleep right through it.” Rey touches her fingers to his lips, tracing the shape of his questioning smile. It’s an invitation to play, that smile. A careful offer of love, of comfort. And though she’s not sure if he can really understand when even she doesn’t, she’s finally ready to try a little. 

Counting The Days (Since Exegol): Finn x Rey x Poe, Ben x Rey. Its been 42 days since Palpatine’s death. 42 long days since she felt the surge of light in Ben Solo. And in her dreams, something whispers on the edge of the Force. But she’s shut it down too tightly to hear it. 

Memorable quote:   True to form, Poe can’t resist the urge to kiss away Finn’s troubles whenever possible, and Rey looks away to give them a moment. Some love stories work out, yes, and she loves Finn and Poe more than almost anything else. But that doesn’t stop the way bitterness floods her mouth as the memory of Ben surfaces, and it isn’t until Poe gently squeezes her knee (and she throttles back the near-instinctive urge to break his fingers from a lifetime of fending off handsy scavengers on Jakku) that she comes back to the moment. His brow furrows and she reaches for him, smoothing out the lines of his frown with her thumb. “I’m okay,” she says, answering his unspoken question. It’s mostly a lie, but she has to say it. Most days, she’s okay enough.

A Language Made for Lovers: SWTOR (NSFW). Torian Cadera x Bounty Hunter, gender neutral. Reflections on love and marriage under the glow of hyperspace.

Memorable quote:   He murmurs in your ear, words that should sound harsh in that still-new tongue scalding your mouth, molding you from aruetii to mandalorian. But the love in his voice softens them, steeps them in warmth and adoration. Still the language of a hunter, of those brave souls willing to be reforged, but with a gentle side, a language reserved for lovers. Words like cyare and riduur, words that mean I love you and forever and home.

Malicious Compliance: SWTOR (NSFW). Malavai Quinn x Sith Warrior, gender neutral. Far away, in an apartment no one knows about, a Sith Lord plays dire games of control... and trust.

Memorable quote:   It takes a man with the courage of an entire fleet of Mandalorians to love a Sith, and oh, how he loves you. Like you hung the moons and the stars and all the spaces between. Like you are his other half, like loving you is his sole purpose in life, does Malavai Quinn love you. Your old masters spoke nothing of this, of this enraging hunger gnawing at your bones and curling into the hollows of your rib cage. ... Is it really even love if you don’t want to devour him just a little?

Misc:

Tumblr Prompts: Grab bag of every fandom and series listed above. Prompts filled originally here on tumblr.

Visual Files: Collections of art and commissions from talented friends and artists here on tumblr.

Every Beautiful Thing: Crimson Peak. Thomas x Edith, Edith x Alan. Edith learned, in the dark halls of Allerdale, not to take ghosts lightly. But still she waits, every year, for a chance to see Thomas again. Until the night their son tells her he can see him too.

Memorable quote:   Snow heralds nothing but pain in Edith’s world: first her mother’s funeral, smothered in fat white flakes wet on her lashes like tears, then her father’s. Smaller ones, then, rain slowly freezing and scattering on the ground; the ones that night at Allerdale were the smallest yet, more ice pellet than snow. Jagged, hateful things scraping at her with a cold that burned through skin and encased bone.…God, how she has come to hate the snow.

Where I Can’t Follow: Co-authored by @suspendnodisbelief. show!Witcher, mild Geralt x Jaskier. (Temporary hiatus) Drawing from a variety of inspiration, including greek mythos. Geralt takes a blow meant for Jaskier, finally granted the death by battle he expects Witchers to end by. And Jaskier is not having it, at all. It’s his turn to save Geralt, even if he has to walk the entire bloody underworld to do it.

Memorable quote: “Geralt, get up. Come on, open your eyes. You’re going to upset Roach if you keep this up, and she’ll bite me. You know you aren’t allowed to be dead, because Yennefer didn’t give you permission, and neither did the Princess, and I’m pretty sure they both outrank you.”  

[tonystarkstan]

HI HOPE I LOVE YOU and I have a little thingy/question/headcanon that you can explore if you want: After the Snap, Peter hates sand/dirt/anything that slightly resembles ash so when his decathlon team takes a trip to the beach in the summer, Peter won't walk on the sand without his shoes on and will only sit on a towel

HI I LOVE YOU TOO!

man, I love it when people send me angsty prompts. here we go. I made it irondad because that’s the only thing I know how to write, woo.

-

“Can you believe Mr. Harrington is letting us do this?” Ned asks Peter excitedly as they get onto the fancy charter bus.

“Yes,” MJ says from behind them. “What was he supposed to say when Tony Stark told him, ‘Hey, I want to take the Decathlon team on a trip, because they deserve a break’ - no?”

“She’s got a point,” Tony says, smirking from where he’s already sitting in the front seat.

He looks different from the very put-together version of himself the world usually sees. He’s dressed casually in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, along with his trademark sunglasses, and Peter grins at him.

“Pepper says no to you all the time,” he points out as he and Ned take the pair of seats across from Tony. “Especially that time you told her you wanted to hire someone solely to make donuts for you.”

Tony gives him an incredulous look. “First of all, I told you that in confidence. Second of all, why do you call her by her first name but I’m still ‘Mr. Stark’?”

Peter grins mischievously. “Because she’s cooler.”

Tony shrugs. “I guess I can’t argue with that.”

Beside him, Ned is watching their interaction with wide eyes. Peter sits back in his seat and looks on as the rest of the team shuffles onto the bus, immediately talking in hushed voices as they catch sight of Tony.

For his part, Tony just smiles warmly and greets them all individually, and Peter laughs under his breath when Flash comes aboard. All the warmth leaves Tony’s face as he eyes Flash coldly, and the teen stumbles nervously, shooting Peter a quick look before making a beeline for the back.

Peter glances at Ned to see if he caught the exchange, but he’s still frozen in awe. Peter rolls his eyes and elbows him.

“Really, man? We’ve been over this. That right there?” he points to Tony, who’s eyes are sparkling with mirth behind his glasses. “That’s just a normal human. I mean, yeah, he’s a genius and a billionaire, and he saved the whole world from a mad Titan, but Pepper has to remind him to eat. And he always loses the TV remote.”

“Even better. We stan a relatable icon,” Ned says, and MJ huffs from her seat behind them.

“You’re insufferable.”

“I try my best. Anyway, what do you guys want to do? I brought snacks, cards, and a couple different movies - all Star Wars, of course,” Ned tells him.

“You’re so predictable. I have a better idea,” she tells them, standing up to address the rest of the bus. “Yo! I made a Kahoot on movies through the decades. Winner gets a free pass to skip a meeting without facing my eternal anger and resentment.”

“She’s talking to you, Parker!” Cindy calls, and Peter laughs good-naturedly. He’s notorious for skipping out on practice.

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter grumbles, taking out his phone. “Hope you guys are ready to lose.”

In the back, Mr. Harrington looks like he wants to say something, but as everyone starts bickering and challenging each other, he decides to just sit back and let it happen.

The game lasts the full hour it takes to get to the beach. Ned beats Peter by one question, and Peter is one hundred percent sure he will never live it down.

Tony raises an eyebrow. “A hacker and a movie buff, huh?”

Ned nearly chokes at being directly addressed. “Mr. Iron Man Tony Stark, I am so sorry about hacking into - “ he lowers his voice to a whisper, “ - the suit, but, well - Peter made me do it!”

Peter groans. “I hate you. I really do. I’m going to literally throw you under the bus,” he threatens as the bus backs into a parking space.

“That wouldn’t be very neighborly or friendly,” Ned says pointedly, and Tony snorts.

“You’re fine, kid. If anything, I was impressed,” Tony tells him, and Ned wheezes.

Mr. Harrington makes his way to the front as everyone talks excitedly.

“You know the drill. Don’t disappear, don’t drown, don’t get kidnapped, stay in pairs, don’t buy sketchy things from sketchy strangers, and just don’t do anything that will cause me or Mr. Stark a lot of paperwork,” he tells the group.

“Amen to that,” Tony mutters, and everyone laughs, already halfway out of their seats.

“Wait!” Mr. Harrington continues. “You guys need to be changed into dry clothes and back on the bus by 6:30. Snacks are in the cooler, and we’re getting dinner on the way back. Got it?”

“Yes, Mr. Harrington,” the students chant in unison. Appeased, he steps aside and lets the students file off the bus.

Peter, Ned, and MJ quickly gather their things and make their way to the boardwalk in their sandals and swimwear. MJ points out a little ghost crab scurrying across one of the dunes as they walk.

When they step onto the sand, Peter halts, blood freezing in his veins.

Little grains of sand have already gotten into his sandals, the gritty sensation horrifyingly familiar. It takes his breath away. Beside him, Ned pauses.

“What’s wrong?” his friend asks, missing the ashen look on Peter’s face.

Peter clears his throat, trying to quell the increasing panic. “I, uh - n-nothing. I just forgot something on the bus. You guys go on ahead. I’ll be right back.”

“You sure?” Ned asks, and Peter nods, swallowing down his nerves. MJ narrows her eyes at him, but he shakes his head subtly, and she nods, steering Ned to the water, where everyone else is already toeing at the waves.

As soon as they’re away, Peter steps back onto the boardwalk and kicks his shoes off, trying to get the sand away from him as he runs on bare feet back to the bus. He passes Mr. Harrington.

“Forgot something,” Peter mutters shortly, not even bothering to stop. He just needs to get away. He hates himself for not anticipating this.

The doors thankfully, are still open, and the bus driver is standing a few feet away as he talks on the phone. Peter runs onto the bus and runs smack into Tony.

Shit, Peter curses to himself. I thought he was already off.

“Peter?” Tony asks, hands coming up to Peter’s shoulders, steadying him. The kid is panting now, breaths coming in short little gasps.

All he can think of is how, not that long ago, he was in pieces, no bigger than grains of sand. Dust. Ash. He hates all of it, hates how it makes him feel, how it makes him remember.

“Peter - Pete, hey hey,” Tony soothes, gently lowering him onto a seat. “Breathe, buddy. Just breathe, everything’s okay.”

Peter nods, trying to steady himself as he twists his hand into Tony’s sleeve, grounding himself. Tony scans the kid, trying to figure out what could have set him off. That’s when he notices the bare feet, red and raw from the heat of the pavement.

Already forming an idea of what happened, Tony quietly talks Peter through the panic attack, gently easing him back into the here and now.

Eventually, Peter slumps forward, head coming to rest on Tony’s shoulder, and Tony brings a hand up to rest in the soft curls.

“You’re safe, kid, I promise,” Tony murmurs. “Want to tell me what happened?” he asks.

Peter shakes his head, but his mouth opens to speak anyway. “It was the sand,” he says hoarsely, and Tony nods to himself, cursing himself for thinking of this ahead of time. “It just - I know it’s stupid, but it makes me think of - of - “

Tony’s grip tightens around him. “It is not stupid, Peter. What you went through was traumatic. It’s not just going to go away.”

“Everyone else got dusted too, but they don’t - they don’t flinch at everything that so much as resembles it,” Peter counters, pulling away from him.

“Everyone else didn’t feel it like you did,” Tony says firmly. “And even if they did, it doesn’t matter. Everyone reacts to trauma differently.”

“I guess,” Peter mutters, looking down at his feet with a sigh.

“Do you want to go home?” Tony asks. “I can have Happy come pick us up.”

Peter shakes his head. “No, no. I, uh. Don’t want to ruin this for anyone.” Tony opens his mouth to protest, but Peter cuts him off. “I have a pair of tennis shoes for the ride back. I’m just going to change into those and maybe sit on a towel. I should be fine.”

“You sure?” Tony checks as Peter sifts through his bag and pulls out his old tennis shoes.

“Yeah,” Peter says, quickly pulling them on and standing up. They walk quietly across the boardwalk, Tony keeping an eye out for any signs of distress as they get closer to the sand.

Peter takes a deep breath and tenses as he steps onto the sand but relaxes when it doesn’t evoke the same sickening feeling as before.

Tony smiles proudly and briefly pulls him close before pointing to where MJ and Ned are sitting on their respective towels, just far enough out of reach from the waves.

“Looks like your friends are waiting for you,” he comments, and Peter grins, jogging over with his towel.

“Hey! You guys didn’t want to get in?” Peter asks, carefully spreading his towel out on the ground next to them.

“Too cold,” MJ answers shortly, even as everyone else splashes in the waves. There’s a knowing look in her eyes as she watches Tony lay out his towel next to them.

Peter nods, trying to convey his gratitude.

“Plus, it’s much more fun to watch Flash try to swim. He’s surprisingly awful at it,” Ned chimes in.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll get caught in a rip current,” MJ jokes, and Peter gives her a chastising nudge while both Ned and Tony laugh.

“That’s not very nice,” Peter scolds, but MJ shrugs as if to say, Your point?

The four of them spend hours like that, just sitting and talking and exchanging jokes. By the time they’re back on the bus, both MJ and Ned have been offered paid internships, which Ned accepts through a happy squeal, and MJ politely says she needs some time to think about it.

All in all, it was a good trip.

[prairiechzhead]

PrairieChzHead Rewatches Poldark S3 Legally This Time-US Ep8/UK Ep 9.

However you number it, this is the season finale. These were the answers I submitted to @poldarkpodcast for their review of the season finale. 

What did I think of this episode?

It wasn’t as bad as I feared. Season 3 has been a disappointment for me and I’m not afraid to say so.

With some distance from the original viewing, I’m less disappointed in S3 the second time around, but Season 3 is nowhere near as great as Season 1 was. My main three complaints about S3 are how Demelza has been characterized, too much story and not enough time to tell it, and another thing I noticed is how much expository dialogue has seeped into the show. In my opinion, they could cut down on the expository dialogue by having only one novel per season. 

Favorite Scene:

The Bible scene with Elizabeth and George. That was one of my favorite scenes from the book and both Heida and Jack knocked it out of the park. I was moved to tears, literally, by their performances.

In hindsight, I think I was moved to tears then not just because these performances were so good, but also because this scene was pretty true to the novel and both actors captured the emotions their characters were experiencing perfectly. There is probably some residual emotion from being disappointed with how other aspects of the adaptation were handled spilling over into this. I was relieved and happy that this was true to the novels. 

This is still my favorite scene in the episode. 

Least Favorite Scene:

Obviously Hugh and Demelza and their roll in the grass. I’ve been very vocal in how I seriously dislike how the Hugh/Demelza story has been set up and framed on this show. I don’t care what the defenders think, this was set up as a revenge fling for Ross’s thing with Elizabeth in S2, period. It took Prudie spilling the beans about the church visit with Elizabeth and then Demelza confronting Ross about how “sick she was” of the stolen glances, etc. without even giving him a chance to explain himself. What stolen glances? With the exception of the church meeting, every time he saw Elizabeth, YOU WERE THERE and you were all side-eyeing each other! Then she goes off with Hugh, at Prudie’s urging, and then the deed is done.

Have I changed my opinion on this scene? 

Not one iota. 

But, there is another scene that practically ties with Very Bad Thing 2: Electric Boogaloo. That would be the Obligatory Season Finale Riot Scene: Occupy Warleggan’s Grain Hoard. 

There was a riot at the end of Season 2 that wasn’t in the novels, Occupy Trenwith.  Ross shows up to quell a riot by the miners over Tom Harry’s shooting at Demelza. Ross was about to rejoin the Army (which wasn’t in the books), but changed his mind and made it back from Plymouth in time to get Demelza back and stop the riot. 

Season 3 ends with another riot, which was the melding of several book scenes into one.  I have a few nitpicks, though.  

First off, what was Sam, the religious character who is basically non-violent, doing at a riot? Was he doing this to try and impress Emma??  

This is a man who objected to everyone singing at Christmas and celebrating with a nice dinner and all that because it was frivolous. 

This is a man who objected to his brother’s budding romance with Morwenna because it was not “godly love”, but rather “carnal love”. 

This is a man who passive-aggressively protested Rev. Odgers kicking him and the other Methodists out of Sawle Church by standing outside and singing hymns. Loudly. 

This is a man who objected to using Ross’s former barn turned meeting house as a place to store legally purchased grain because “the Lord wouldn’t like it.” 

So the Lord doesn’t like borrowing His House (which was a barn not too long ago) to store grain meant to feed the hungry, but he’s okay with looting and stealing and violence?? 

Or Paul Daniel? He is Ross’s employee, and Ross has been a good employer to him. Hell, Ross even aided and abetted in his brother Mark Daniel’s escape, because Paul asked for his help. WTF is he doing there? The next shift at Wheal Grace is gonna be

But that’s not the fly in This Scene Brand Ointment. No, that fly, and mind you, it’s not just your average house fly here. We’re talking one of those nasty-ass horse flies that bite you. 

The fly in the ointment is that the riot pauses so Ross can have his epiphany moment. 

Don’t even get me started on this epiphany. It’s not that Ross has one, but it’s when he has it and that this epiphany seems to come out of nowhere. People have a-ha moments, but not when emotions are running high. A-ha moments usually happen after some time has passed and the person who needs that kick in the butt is calmer and being introspective. 

This epiphany, Road to Damascus moment, a-ha moment, or whatever term you like to use to describe it is handled much better in the novel. The problem with how this was portrayed in the show is that we do not get the build-up to this like in the novel. We get Demelza being bitchy about him not taking Bassett’s offer two episodes ago (which is totally opposite from the novel). We get Falmouth offering him the opportunity to be an MP, which Ross turns down. But what we’re lacking is all the stuff in between. 

S4/Novel Spoiler Alert: 

Ross does become an MP. However, that won’t happen until S4 and he agrees to run because Falmouth wants his nephew, Hugh Armitage to take that seat in Parliament, but Hugh can’t because he’s going blind and he’s dying. 

This is what happens in the books. I have no idea how they’re going to handle this in Season 4 and since I am not omniscient, I can’t see what’s in the script. 

I’m not going to speculate on how they’re going to handle this, either. I don’t do speculation. I just know how it unfolded in the novel. 

Favorite Character:

Ross.

I’m going to stick with this one. Yes, it’s purely out of sympathy for Ross, because while he was out trying to stop a mob and risking his life, his wife was out in the dunes, banging Lord Byron, ‘cause she was mad at Ross for the church meeting and never gave him a chance to explain. Ross could have somehow discovered how to bend time and space to his will, invent time travel, take Demelza back to the day at the church and have her witness what was going on, and she’d still not give him a chance to explain. It’s like he cannot win with her. She expects him to read her mind and then gets pissed off when he can’t. 

Everyone is familiar with Ross’s horrible communication skills. But Demelza is just as guilty of being a horrible communicator. What makes this worse is that in the novels, they’re working on it and it’s better. Granted, it’s not what you would ideally have in a relationship, but they’re improving, and that’s the important point. 

In the show, it seems to be going in the opposite direction. 

I will not apologize for picking my favorite character of the episode solely on sympathy, either. 

I was not on Tumblr during Season 2, so I never had the opportunity to discuss S2 in any length. But I will freely admit that my sympathies lie with Ross in S3, and during the initial broadcast and the reactions from people on social media, I dug in my heels defending him during S3 because of the people who had not read the novels, took what they saw on TV at face value, and then constantly bashed Ross. 

For what it’s worth, I’m seeing it again with US viewers, but on a smaller scale than last summer. 

S2 was a different story. My sympathies were with Demelza in S2. If she’d gone through with her plan to take Jeremy and go, I would have been all: 

My original answer to this question for the podcast was largely a reaction to the Ross Must Pay/No I Haven’t Read The Novels But I’m Right Anyway So Get Over It/If You Criticize Demelza You’re A Misogynist because I’m Projecting My Own Misandry Onto You/You Hate Eleanor crowd. 

Also, the sadness on Ross’s face in that final scene nearly had me

I would also like to point out, for the people in the back, that if Ross had no care for his wife, he would not have reached out to comfort her at the end of the episode. 

Also, after reading one particular person on Facebook today, arguing that Demelza was neglected and Ross was so horrible, it occurred to me that some of this lies at the feet of whoever decided to edit out some of their affectionate moments from earlier in the season, like the end of Episodes 3 & 4, for example. 

Least Favorite Character

Modern Show!Demelza. I’ve decided to create my own headcanon where season 3 Demelza was not the Real Demelza but an imposter placed in Cornwall by aliens, who kidnapped the real Demelza and made her watch in horror as her Imposter did things that were out of character for her and hurt Ross.

Yeah. I’m going to stick with that because this is how I plan on staying sane.

Maybe in the S4 premiere, we’ll get an Invasion of the Body Snatchers type reaction from Pod Demelza, she will be destroyed, the Real Demelza will return  and then the world will be put to rights again. 

Originally, I wasn’t going to list Hugh Armitage as least favorite character because it would be too easy, but since it takes two to tango, he’s on my shit list. I don’t care if he’s going blind. You do not pursue a married woman, especially the wife of the man who saved your life. 

And a side-eye from the people who complain that those of us who read the books need to “get over it” or be quiet because there’s nothing wrong with giving an 18th century character 21st century attitudes, but keeping everything around her in the 18th century. 

Cheer:

Apparently when they met in the church last episode, Ross apparently kissed some backbone into Elizabeth. I have to say that I loved her this week. She stood up to George. She called him out on his petty jealousy. She even threatened to leave (which I don’t believe happened in the novels). I’m not entirely sure what her motivation was to do this, but if keeping the life she is accustomed to means that she stands up for someone like Drake Carne when she doesn’t have to, then I’m not going to quibble.

Elizabeth’s motivation is survival and she is using a manipulation tactic called guilt-baiting towards George. This scene is the reason why TPTB ramped up George’s obsession with Ross. It had to be in order to make him seem meaner and pettier for Elizabeth’s manipulation to work. 

Throw Things at the Screen:

Prudie encouraging Demelza to take a turn with Hugh. Um, Prudie, what would happen if Demelza got pregnant from this? Have you ever thought of that? Not to mention betraying the man who employs you? Do you honestly think that if Ross found out that you played a part and encouraged Demelza to cheat, you’d still have a job? The only saving grace of this is that she seemed to show remorse and guilt over her behavior.

The way that the writers framed Ross’s conflict over how he should help Cornwall: by playing their game or sticking to his ideals. I wasn’t aware this was a big issue for him in the show until Ep. 9 and his Road to Damascus moment. Ross did struggle with this in the novels, but the writers didn’t do a very good job of showing that on the show.

I don’t like what Demelza did with Hugh, but the people in the fandom who are slut-shaming her make me want to throw things at the screen. It rates up there with all the Ross Bashing that’s been going on this season. BOTH characters regret a bad choice they each made that deeply hurt the other. I have this thing about kicking people when they are down or rubbing someone’s nose into what they did when they are sorry or show regret or remorse for their actions. This is why I kept defending Ross and if I see people doing the same thing to Demelza in season 4, I will defend her, too. What makes you so much better or morally superior that you can keep bashing characters for their horrible decisions after the characters have worked to resolve it? Remember, when you find yourself falling off that high horse, tuck and roll, honey. Tuck and roll.

The “riot” scene bothers me more now than it initially did. Was it actually necessary to even have a riot? Please don’t let Season 4 have a riot in the finale. What would they even riot over? I can’t think of anything they would riot over.

In various Facebook groups last summer, there were a chorus of people who called Demelza a slut for sleeping with Hugh. Slut shaming is not cool, people. Women are allowed to have sex and be sexual beings. You don’t have to like the context in which she has sex. You don’t have to like that she was unfaithful. I don’t like that she was unfaithful. But I’m not gonna call her a slut, either. 

Performance of the Week:

Jack and Heida for the Bible scene. Please give them BAFTA’s or Emmys for this.

I still believe this. What do you think Meryl Streep?

Was this episode a satisfactory end to S3?

I think I’m just relieved this season is over. I have a year to rewatch the whole thing and hopefully, I can become detached enough to rewatch it with a more objective eye.

Which is the entire point of me writing this and posting it when it aired in the US. 

I am less disappointed on the second viewing, possibly because I knew what was coming and probably because S3 has aired pretty much everywhere else, so the audience of first time watchers is smaller. I have picked up on some things that I missed the first time. I also decided to do the re-read/binge audiobook listening while the season was airing, which has also helped me to see things I missed the first time around. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Four Swans storylines, re-reading the novel only magnifies the things I didn’t like about the TV adaptation this season. 

Other Observations

I still think they should have only stuck to one book this season. They could have gotten 9 episodes worth of material from Black Moon alone.

The show does better when it sticks closer to the source material.

The final scene was nice. I hope that the those in the “Demelza gets her groove back/Ross must pay” crowd see the pain on both of their faces. Love and marriage aren’t as simple as you wish it to be. They’ve both done hurtful things to the other that they regret. A man is allowed to feel hurt if someone has hurt him. (This is a double standard that makes my blood boil-the one where men aren’t entitled to have feelings and there were quite a few people who were vocal in perpetuating this idea that his hurt or the notion that his wife’s actions will hurt him is not valid. After all, “Ross must pay.” and acknowledging that he is entitled to feel hurt if someone hurts him makes him human. It’s a lot harder to demonize a character if his humanity is staring you in the face.) As much as that crowd wishes it to be so, Demelza didn’t get her groove back. Not when she’s hurting and showing regret for her actions. Since the show runners tried to frame her story as revenge, this scene does show that revenge is not the satisfying conclusion people think it is. It has the power to irrevocably destroy everything that you hold dear. Revenge begets more revenge.

Four Swans should have been its own season. There are storylines in the novel that deserve to have the proper time they need to meld and develop. Cramming in 1-3/4 novels into 9 episodes does a disservice to the audience and the source material. Black Moon should have been Season 3. Four Swans should be Season 4. 

After having some time away and distance, much of my original reaction to the Hugh/Demelza story was not just to the show, but to some of the fans of the show, particularly the ones who were all about Demelza getting revenge because Ross had to pay. Especially people who are so upset that Demelza forgave Ross at the end of last season, they take it out on Ross because they can’t bring themselves to place the blame where it belongs: on the person who granted the forgiveness. In psychology, this is a defense mechanism known as displacement. 

These are not perfect characters. They’re human beings with flaws. And just like other human beings, it’s okay to be angry with them. If you could have been a fly on the wall in my house when I was watching S2, you could have made a drinking game out of how many times I rolled my eyes whenever Ross stuck his foot in it because he still didn’t get that a literal good fortune wasn’t what would fix his marriage after he cheated. 

I was supremely disappointed in how the Hugh/Demelza story was handled on the show. I was afraid that it would be portrayed or perceived as Demelza getting even. Even though Debbie Horsfield says it’s not about revenge, a lot of people in the audience perceive that story as revenge, especially if they have never read the novels. This perception exists despite the fact that when Demelza comes back at the end of the episode, she looks absolutely miserable. This was no act of feminist empowerment. Empowered people don’t come home looking like they know they just made a mistake that is so big, it could tear everything apart. 

I think now, with some distance and perspective (and the benefit of majoring in psychology), people are projecting their own revenge fantasies and desires onto these characters, and so much so, that they’re ignoring anything in the show that contradicts what they see through their own myopic lens. Demelza is them. Ross represents a man who wronged them in real life or all men in general. This is no longer about a story about these particular characters. They are merely avatars for someone’s real life and uncomfortable thoughts they can’t or won’t deal with. 

I’ve been cheated on. Unlike women of the 18th Century, I was not forced to stay in a marriage with a man I no longer trusted. I could leave, and when I could walk away with a clear conscious and no doubts, that’s what I did. Being betrayed like that hurts beyond what words can describe. Therefore, I naturally side with the person who was cheated on because I empathize with them. As much as people try to convince me that Demelza was justified in cheating, I won’t buy it. 

Funny thing about that, though. Nobody that I can recall ever tried to convince me last year that Ross was justified in committing the Very Bad Thing 1. Not one person. 

But somehow, it’s okay for Demelza to do it? 

Nuh-uh. Not buying that. Not buying that her infidelity is an act of feminist empowerment, either. Feminism is about equality. When feminism becomes about putting down men, then it ceases to be feminism and it becomes misandry. 

I recently listened to Four Swans and my opinion on how misguided and wrong this idea that Demelza’s infidelity is this feminist ideal and that Hugh Armitage is this romantic ideal is even more firm for a few reasons. 

First, Winston Graham even writes in the novel that Hugh Armitage is a predator. It was in the early part of the novel when Demelza first meets Hugh Armitage. Here is the passage (parts bolded by me for emphasis).

Demelza hesitated, and then went with him. Their interchange so far had been pleasant, formal, and light. A pleasant post-prandial stroll in a country garden in the company of a pleasant polite young man. Compared to the predatory conquerors she had kept at bay in the past, such as Hugh Bodrugan, Hector McNeil and John Treneglos, this was completely without risk, danger or any other hazard. But it didn’t feel like it - which was the trouble. This young man’s hawk profile, deeply sensitive dark eyes and gentle urgent voice moved her, strangely. And some danger perhaps existed not so much in the strength of the attack as in, the sudden weakness of the defence.

Four Swans, p. 69, ebook. 

Armitage is a predator, but he’s not like the ones she’s familiar with and this allows her to let her guard down. He’s nice. He hides his entitlement very, very well. But what the TV program doesn’t show the audience is how manipulative Hugh Armitage really is. On TV, he’s just this head-in-the-clouds aristocrat who won’t take no for an answer. In the novels, he wears her down through subtle manipulation. 

There is another feminist trope I dislike in television and film. It is the one that says that a feminist, modern woman is too savvy to fall for a manipulator. We have this here in the TV adaptation. We don’t see Hugh’s manipulation of Demelza because it would not fit the re-characterization for TV to have Demelza fall for someone else’s machinations. And due to time/budget constraints, Hugh’s manipulations would have to be painfully, bashing-you-over-the-head-with-a-cast-iron-frying pan obvious, which means that Hugh Armitage becomes another boorish cad like Bodrugan. 

Then this would raise more questions with an audience. If Demelza can fight off the attentions of Hugh Bodrugan, why isn’t she fighting off the boorish behavior of the other guy? Is it because he’s handsome? Is it because she’s attracted to him? She was curious about MacNeill and maybe a teeny bit attracted to him, but when he became an entitled jackass at that ball, Demelza had no problem holding him off. So again, why isn’t she fighting off the advances from this other guy? 

So I see where this had to be changed for the show and I understand a bit better the thought process into changing this for TV. 

That being said, this is still a dangerous notion to promote. Anyone can fall for a manipulator. The manipulator knows which buttons to push and plays on that in order to get what he or she wants. 

Second, there is an aspect of this storyline that everyone misses. Winston Graham was also writing about male entitlement and “toxic masculinity” and that this entitlement can come wrapped up in a pretty package. The Armitage situation shows us that those men who believe they are entitled to the attentions of women aren’t just ugly, buffoons, or ugly buffoons, like Hugh Bodrugan, for example. The topic of Demelza’s attracting the attentions of other men comes up in the previous novels. It comes up in the book Demelza when she is at her first ball and Ross is ignoring her for most of the evening. It comes up in the other novels, too, with Captain MacNeil, John Treneglos, and others. She doesn’t understand why men are drawn to her. Here’s a passage from the novels. 

She sometimes wondered what there was about herself that made men so forthcoming. In those early days when she had gone to various receptions and balls she had always had them two or three deep asking for the next dance - and often for more besides. - Sir Hugh Bodrugan still lumbered over to Nampara hopefully a couple of times a year, presumably expecting that sooner or later persistence would have its reward. Two years ago at that dinner party at Trelissick there had been that Frenchman who had larded his entire dinner conversation with improper suggestions. It didn’t seem right. 

If she had known herself to be supremely beautiful or striking - as beautiful, for instance, as Elizabeth Warleggan, or as striking as Caroline Enys - it might have been more acceptable. Instead of that she was just friendly, and they took it the wrong way. Or else they sensed something particularly female about her that set them off. Or else because of her lack of breeding they thought she would be easy game. Or else it happened to everybody. She must ask Ross how often he squeezed women’s legs under the dinner table.

-Four Swans, p. 63-64, ebook. 

I get how she would be taken with a handsome young man who is giving her attention and, also importantly, doesn’t know about her impoverished past. And I do get how she would be delighted by the fact that this seemingly nice young man isn’t trying to assume that her former lower class status means that she’s “easy”, either. 

This makes her easy prey, but it also allows her to let her guard down because the predator in this case is making her feel “safe”. He pushes her, but he does so in small increments. 

This aspect is not even present in the TV adaptation. In light of recent events involving victims of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment by powerful men coming forward, I wish it were, because I think society needs to understand that a person who harasses or assaults someone sexually isn’t always obvious about it. Nor are they the ugly buffoon. A predator can be the cute guy, too. 

Ross and Demelza will stay together. They will get past this. This is what keeps me going. This is what I have to use to remind myself that this, too, shall pass. Granted, more stuff has to happen before they get to that part. Hugh Armitage will be permanently out of the picture. That is what I remind myself when the Ross haters and the Aidan bashers get on my nerves. In the end, Romelza survives and thrives. There are two more children and a baronetcy in their future. 

Welp, this is it for Season 3. I’m not going to speculate on Season 4. I know what I wish to see from the novels in S4, but after S3 and knowing there are only 8 episodes, I’m going to not try and get my hopes up. 

[kffandom]

so @theglowqueen and i literally went on for hours the other day continuing this post where i talked about gabe w/pokemon, so i’m going to try to do a graceful summary for each topic we covered and she can call me out if i forgot anything

the first text had to be in its entirety because it’s #perfect and what started everything but I’m just going to summarize the rest and quote sparingly. kara’s quotes, after the first one, are in italics and mine are in bold~ 

text that started it all, from kara: 

“Yo you know your headcanon about Gabe’s Mimikyu? Like what if when everything goes to shit, he loses her. Like Ms. Beak knows to get out of dodge until things settle, but Sweetie wouldn’t let go. So then later on as Reaper, he senses a shadowy thing that originally [he was] wary of, but then he’s just like, “Sweetie?” and it is and she’s so excited that her boy recognized her even though she won’t let him see her. She knows the rumors that people die when they see a true Mimikkyu form, and she’s not taking that chance. 

So he tears up his cloak. Sewed it into a costume like the Pikachu one she used to haev. Except now it’s black. And instead of doing a pikachu face he uses some white favri to sew the likeness of his own mask instead. 

He gives it to her, and he has his Sweetie back. He feels bad that he doesn’t have anything [to] let her hold, but she’s okay with it. 

Rumors begin about the tiny ‘Reaper’ that signals the arrival of a very real one. 

I kind of want her to pick up one of his guns as her carry item, but at the same time all I can think of is ‘This is my Mimikkyu OC Mimigun. She’s a Mimikkyu, but with a gun.” 

Sweetie, post-swiss HQ: 

--Afterward, gabe is uber, uber protective of Sweetie and I argued that he’d flip on even widowmaker if they talked shit on his raggedy lil girl, and kara went on to say that “The reason people die after seeing the Raggedy Reaper is because they laugh at her and Reaper is just like Y’all dune fucked up my guys”, like they don’t take him seriously at first with this itty-bitty Raggedy Reaper following it around--until someone hears him call her Sweetie, and they say, “I thought ‘Raggedy Reaper’ was bad” and he doesn’t get much farther than that before they all start taking the mercenary seriously. 

--Sweetie wants a gun so she can fit gabe’s new #aesthetic even more, but gabe’s like “no that’s okay” until she is sad she’s ruining his #aesthetic, so he goes to his gun supplier and is like “Hey, you know mimikkyu? Could you make one of my guns, but so she can’t hurt herself? I keep telling her no, but you know how they are.” Cue confused but willing supplier. 

--heard on the field: “That pokemon has a gun!” “Relax, she’s not gonna hurt anyone with it.” noticeably absent: explanation that the gun is incapable of firing.... ever 

Ms. Beak, post-swiss HQ: 

--Ms. Beak is more of a reconnaissance agent than a fighter, because she’s a really common pokemon and therefore blends in real easily. we argued that she’d be trained to retreat whenever a situation went FUBAR, so that’s why she wasn’t in the explosion at all 

--She was a giant, mournful pest in the aftermath until Gabe found her and she “disappeared” while overwatch fell apart. 

--sadly, she’s also the reason they figure out gabe’s identity so quickly. cloaked man + custom Mimikkyu? not easy to identify. a giant pidgeot, combat-ish-trained and with familiar markings? much, much easier. Ana, in their first confrontation where Ms. Beak is there, is like, “waaaaait a minute” 

--”Throws the whole mission on its head because she’s pulled out snacks for the enemy’s Pidgeot. 

*deep voice from a distance* 

‘Ms. Beak, no!’ 

‘I know it’s you Gabriel!’ 

‘shit’”  

Post-discovering Gabe’s identity: 

--in the past, gabe’s pokemon have always loved ana. she has the best snacks! ( “Ana has best pokebeans?? how turn down Gabe. How.”) and she’s so nice! good pets, good compliments--she even compliments Sweetie on her new outfit that gabe made for her, so that’s like. mucho bonus points. gabe’s a little annoyed that they go running to her right away, a little wary, but ana wouldn’t use them against him-- “she may have done some sketch stuff in her day, but she finds it wrong to use a pokemon’s trust like that” 

--Jesse, too, was the weird kid that gabe liked, so they’re cool with him too. “Sweetie goes running up to him because she’s like, “Gotta show Jesse my gun. He likes guns” and Gabe is like yeah go for it. It’s a terrifying 5 minutes for Jesse before he recognizes Sweetie”. he shows her his own gun in response and she’s v v excited, and gabe’s relieved because that’s still his boy, underneath the gruffness and exhaustion 

^^after that, jesse sort of ‘debriefs’ with ana like, “What was that?? is gabe back what’s going on” and she basically goes, “you’ve never seen that pidgeot or mimikyu in your life. understood?” so it’s like their lil secret 

--Sweetie does /not/ like 76. at all. rumor has it that he thinks mimikkyu’s aren’t impressive and they’re just knock off pikachus and she doesn’t forget that sort of nonsense. would gouge out his eyes given the chance, and since those are normally covered, she tends to go for the throat when they have missions against him 

Ana + reaper + his pokemon: 

--She won’t use his pokemon against him, but she thinks that they’re a tool to use to get gabe back. part of her wants gabe, her best friend back, and that’s a good portion of her motivation. but the other, agent-side of her recognizes that overwatch would do more than survive if they could get commander reyes back. 

--so that’s part of the reason she keeps extra poke-snacks in her kit, from then on, and she’s the one who starts using Ms. Beak to get messages to gabe--sends over his favorite type of tea, one time, and it’s a sentimental move that does move gabe

--”’If we’re good to Miss Beak, he’ll remember that when talon does something awful’ --Ana”  her hoping that they can sway gabe back to their side, but understanding it’s contingent on circumstances rather than any type of emotional moves. but stacking the emotional deck in their favor? not a bad idea, in her opinion

--it’s a very calculated approach

--these interactions are easier for ana, almost, because she has that calculating side, though it hurts when sweetie comes bounding across the field with a flask of her favorite kind of rum and she’s reminded of them as stupid kids--Ana, gabe, and jack, who thought they were the world. 

-- (”She doesn’t miss commander reyes, she truly misses gabe,”) 

Jesse + reaper + reaper’s pokemon: 

--jesse sends sweetie over with a note and gabe’s blackwatch beanie after ana starts sending messages. it’s hard for gabe, because it makes him want to start caring about them again and he knows that can only end badly. at the same time, it makes his pokemon happy to see the two, soe he doesn’t want to stop them from visiting 

--gabe sends ms. beak over to jesse’s in return and has her trash his liquor cabinet while depositing a (Really nasty, actually) note that basically says, “stop drinking you’ll get sloppy and lazy here’s a help hotline get help u fuckin loser” . and while it’s p nasty jesse’s like, “he still cares!!” 

--which is really rough for jesse, because like. one minute they’re talking through his pokemon, and the next gabe’s completely ignoring him on the battlefield. not even looking his way, brushing him off, dismissing him.

--every response gabe gives him gives him hope, but every time he’s ignored crushes him all over again. 

--(Gabe doesn’t want to fight him, is the problem. doesn’t want to hurt the man he loved as a son, and he definitely doesn’t want overwatch to know they’re in contact. in old overwatch, it’d be a death sentence to talk to the enemy without attempting to bring them in. he has no reason to believe that new overwatch is any different, is the thing. they’ll hurt him, he thinks, a little manically, and so he ignores jesse) 

--(He thinks that new overwatch might even be worse, because they have so many enemies and won’t stand for any leaks. it’d be a firing squad. he has no idea that they don’t have any “warhawks” outside of ana and jack, that it’s a small organization that can’t afford to lose anyone, really--he just knows what old overwatch was like. so he deliberately acts obtuse and ignores and ignores, despite the hurt he can almost feel radiating off of jesse) 

--jesse is not having a #GoodTime, basically 

jesse + dealing w/hurt from reaper’s ignoring of him + bastion: 

--”It gets bad enough that even though he and Ana decided to act like nothing was happening, Jesse wanted so bad to talk to someone about it. He knows that Ana obviously would be the best choice since she’s already in on it, but she’s so detached. He knows that they were good friends, but he also isn’t stupid enough to not see what she’s really doing. 

He wants to tell Genji. They were all Blackwatch together, but Genji has moved on with his life. He’s found peace, and Jesse doesn’t want to fuck that up. He wants to tell Angela. He knows how close she and Gabe were. It was like she and Jesse were siblings for fuck sake. But she’s also Jack’s girl. Gabe was not her only support. And judging by the way Sweetie reacts to Jack, he’s not sure how she’d react to Angie.

Somehow, he ends up with Bastion. Bastion, who for some reason has Miss Beak sitting on her head.” 

--jesse takes miss beak’s presence as a sign and info-dumps the fuck onto bastion, and bastion doesn’t really mind--she likes when they treat her like an equal/person, so while her communication methods are limited, she’s a good listener and she can be sympathetic and give him a pointy but nice hug when he gets upset. so jesse talks about gabe, about how it’s unfair because he’s always been gabe’s man, always been his right hand. and if gabe had gotten to him before the recall--well, he doesn’t know. bastion doesn’t fault him for admitting that

--bastion attempts to get across that jesse has much more support now with new-overwatch, that angela and genji love him, the younger agents think he’s great and look up to him, and winston in particular is so relieved that jesse is on their side with how skilled he is. unfortunately, her vocabulary isn’t the best with english even when she tries to type a message for him 

--Ms. Beak croons and grooms his hair through it, and when jesse starts to feel better and thanks both of the ladies kindly for being ears for awhile, she leaves and pecks the shit out of gabe when she gets back. she’s pissed for daaaaaaaays, will leave him deliberately on the field to go groom jesse, and gabe gets the hint 

--but. well. he doesn’t really change anything because what can he do? 

jesse + reaper + snail mail snapchat:  

--after this, gabe sends a letter to jesse asking about bastion and whether Ms Beak is safe with her or not. he gets a picture back of bastion covered in all kinds of bird pokemon. he also gets another one of jesse flipping him off, “but he doesn’t take it too harshly”  

--it takes like 3 back and forths before gabe sends a selfie (Ms. Beak covers most of him, but it’s more skin than anyone’s seen since he ‘returned’) and jesse has an “oh” moment. because he didn’t just go off after swiss hq. He was actually really fucked up. he's a little forgiving of his initial hurt b/c part of him was assuming gabe was hiding and pretending to be dead like Ana was, for weird ambiguous justice-moral reasons Jesse still doesn't really get, but gabe didn’t. the pic soothes the old hurt of "gabe?? You're still alive??" “Because something that [rough] would need recovery and if deadpool has taught us anything, it's hard to face loved ones after being remade” 

-- “Like seeing how Gabe was actually /fucked up/ really helps. Gabe didn't choose to leave him. His mom died, the gang left him, Genji left, and with the return of Reaper, he had been convinced that Gabe had left him too. But he gets it. He remembers having such a hard time facing everyone after he lost his arm. Gabe lost most everything. So it doesn't hurt as bad.” 

-- “Exactly yes that. Gabe didn't leave willingly, so he's more in the category that his mom is in I'd imagine. So he's able to think of him fondly and still love him without that justified betrayed-feeling that he's still working out w/genji and the other overwatch members that just. Left when everything went downhill” 

happier note: snail mail snapchat onto real snapchat! : 

-- “Jesse sends him a picture of Angela and Genji. Gabe sends him back a picture every time he makes Sweetie a new outfit. Jesse manages to send him a picture of Widowmaker who had fallen asleep in her hiding spot, propped up against her rifle. Gabe sends back a picture of Miss Beak dive bombing Jack. Jesse sends him a picture of him flipping off his fucked up liquor cabinet. Gabe sends him back a picture of himself flipping him off” 

--after ms. beak gets ticked and exhausted at being used like a post owl from harry potter, “Sweetie comes skipping over with the next message to Jesse's surprise and it's just a phone number. He saves it in his phone as Dad. They never message each other, but their Snapstreak is 50 days long. (Lena goes through his phone once and now thinks Jesse has a weird daddy thing going on but is too nervous to actually put it in his phone like that. So she changes it for him)”  

jesse + his pokemon: 

--jesse has 3 pokemon: a cubone named Kit, a growlithe named Cassidy, and an ampharos named Fluffy Spark. 

--jesse found kit shortly before he joined the deadlock gang ( Kit’s backstory, up to this point, was basically >> Kit: *falls into a trainer's carry-on luggage* *sneaks off the plane* *wanders into a car because she smelled food* *ate a pizza man's delivery and was chased out* *ended up on a train, like a nice one with a food cart and was assumed to be one of the passenger's ones* *somehow ends up near jesse* ) on the side of the road trying to eat a rock. she’s his bb. she’s also an alolan one, which he doesn’t know, so when she evolves boy howdy is that a hot adventure i’ll go over below 

--he gets cassidy when he joins the gang, and everyone wants him to evolve her right away (big, intimidating arcanine? much more useful for their needs than a smol pupper) but he keeps “losing” the fire stone they got him. he knows that cassidy isn’t ready and she doesn’t want to evolve yet, so he gets into some trouble and gets a reputation for being forgetful/for misplacing shit, but it’s all good. even at blackwatch, she doesn’t want to evolve, and gabe’s like “k whatever but i have extra fire stones if you need them” because he’s collected a lot over the years but never had to use any since none of his pokemon need them 

--Fluffy Spark was originally just Fluffy, and cassidy basically herded him into jesse’s arms right after they went to blackwatch and they’ve had him ever since.  (Gabe’s like “the fuck kid” and jesse’s like, “cassidy won’t let me put him back!” then when fluffy evolved, jesse was sorta like “Well, you’re not fluffy anymore, so. spark!” but fluffy won’t respond, so he tries to be sneaky and call him fluffy spark and transition to just spark, but. didn’t happen. 

cassidy + fluffy spark : 

--basically your typical teasing-sibling relationship. will destroy each other but only they are allowed to do so, anyone else will be destroyed MORE 

-- “People talk to Jesse like "Your Growlithe and Ampharos don't seem to like each other at all. Are you sure you should keep them together like that." Jesse looks over to see Fluffy Spark bopping Cassidy on the head and she nips at the ball on his tail. "Nah, they love each other!"”  

--cassidy doesn’t want to evolve yet (”Cassidy is best pupper?? 1 out of 1 pupper agree. Best pupper is me. Don't listen to Fluffy Spark. He is full of lies.” ) and fluffy spark’s like “okay cool but you won’t be bigger than me until you do. so.” and thwacks her in the head and nibbles because he can and cassidy gets all riled up 

-- “They're actually siblings. Cassidy steals Fluffy Spark's favorite pokebeans all the time and Fluffy Spark takes the treasured spot on Jesse's bed at night just so Cassidy can't “ 

--Ms Beak is the only one who really stops them when they get riled up together and are at each other’s throats. she likes to pretend she’s an old woman and make gabe carry her around, but jesse’s pokemon are to her what jesse is to gabe. 

-- Sweetie is a little intimidated by Fluffy Spark, just because he has Much Personality and Sweetie is shy, but overall they get along and Sweetie can roughhouse a little rougher with Fluffy Spark than she can with anyone else. And Cassidy likes to give Sweetie piggy back rides because she's one of the only Pokémon on base smaller than her

Kit: 

--so jesse has no idea that kit’s an alolan cubone. looks like a cubone, acts like a cubone, is a cubone! so when she starts to evolve, he’s like “oh cool” and then very quickly is like “WHY IS SHE ON FIRE” 

--we didn’t have a concrete timeline for when she would evolve, but if it was during blackwatch-era it’d go like this: jesse bursting into gabe’s office/room/whatever with a weird-looking marowak yelling, “IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN”  while kit’s just cuddling into his chest and basically being like “you’re so weird, human, it nap time because evolving is hard work.” (if it was post-recall, it’d be the same but it’d be a snapchat video instead of in-person, and gabe would respond a few hours later with a picture of a map of alola, acting like he knew right off the bat [he didn’t, he had to look it up and do some digging b/c no one really goes to alola or knows much about it]) 

--gabe’s hella confused how jesse got an alolan cubone (”did you get her on the black market or something?” “no? i found her on the side of the road?? trying to eat a rock??” "why was she trying to eat a rock" "I don't know! She was a baby! I think. Regardless, she was hungry. Oh no. Do you think she'll want to eat fire things now? What do you eat now baby??" Kit, true to form, just nibbles on Jesse's pants pocket where she knows he keeps snacks, but he's a little too freaked out to get the obvious message. "She's eating my pants Gabe!" "Is there something in your pocket?" "Some Pokebeans but I don't know what that has to do with- oh.")  

--in conclusion: Kit: happily nomming on pokebeans Jesse: still freaking out, would like to know what happened to his ground type Pokémon Gabe: long suffering, a tired dad

--Miss Beak thinks Kit's kinda weird and sometimes has to peck her hand so she doesn't eat things that aren't to be eaten, but at least she doesn't cause much trouble and lets Miss Beak sleep when she wants to. 

--Sweetie and Kit are closer, because Sweetie never really acts like the age she is, like she's not that much younger than Miss Beak but she's more in the maturity range of Kit. They like to hold hands (or in Kit's case, hold one of Sweetie's tendrils that act as hands) and they chatter to each other, are much more "talkative" than the other Pokémon.

so yeah! the end. may do more with this some day because this is a lot of world-building to not continue imho, but we’ll see. huge thanks to the best roommate ever for spending nearly 10 hours hashing this out and being as enthusiastic as i am about a kinda out-there crossover <3 <3 <3 kara, u r my fave and i miss u already and you are the #best for starting this rollercoaster i took a week to actually write up and get on here